It's 10:23am on a Tuesday. You're at a mid-tenancy inspection for the three-bedroom house on Elmwood Drive. You walk through with your clipboard, paper checklist, and camera. Kitchen looks good. Living room needs a carpet clean. Bathroom has a dripping tap. You scribble notes, take 17 photos, get the tenant to sign the paper form.
Back at the office two hours later, you spend 45 minutes typing up your handwritten notes, matching photo filenames to rooms, scanning the signed form, and attaching everything to the property record.
Three hours total. For one inspection.
And that's assuming nothing goes wrong—no lost photos, no illegible handwriting, no misplaced signature forms.
This is how most small letting agencies still conduct property inspections. Not because they want to, but because the alternatives (complicated inspection apps, clunky software, systems that don't work on phones) are worse than paper.
This week, we built property inspections the way letting agents actually work. Complete inspections on your phone. No paper. No clipboards. No data re-entry back at the office. This article explains why property inspections matter, how LetAdmin's mobile inspection system works, and what it means for agencies trying to reduce admin time.
The Problem: Property Inspections Generate Mountains of Admin Work
Property inspections are legally required and unavoidable. Mid-tenancy inspections every 6-12 months. Inventory checks at move-in and move-out. Compliance visits verifying safety regulations. Maintenance assessments before repair work.
For a 150-property agency, that's 150-300 inspections per year. At 3 hours per inspection including documentation time, that's 450-900 hours annually. One full-time member of staff just doing inspection admin.
Problem 1: Paper Inspections Mean Double Work
Most agencies use paper checklists during inspections, then manually enter everything into their system later:
- Write notes by hand during the inspection (30-45 minutes on-site)
- Type up handwritten notes back at office (20-30 minutes data entry)
- Match photos to rooms from camera/phone (10-15 minutes organizing files)
- Scan signed forms and attach to property record (5-10 minutes)
Total time: 65-100 minutes per inspection. Only 30-45 minutes is actual inspection work. The rest is admin overhead.
Problem 2: Photos Are Scattered Across Devices
Agents take inspection photos on personal phones, company cameras, or tablets. Back at office:
- Photos live in different places (phone camera roll, camera SD card, email)
- Filenames are meaningless (
IMG_4273.jpg- which room was this?) - Transferring photos requires USB cables, email, or cloud uploads
- Matching photos to the correct inspection requires manual organization
Result: 15-20 minutes per inspection just organizing and uploading photos. Some agencies give up and just save photos in a folder somewhere, making them impossible to find later.
Problem 3: Paper Signatures Require Scanning and Storage
Getting tenant or landlord signatures during inspections creates its own admin burden:
- Carry paper forms to every inspection
- Get signatures with pens that always seem to run out at crucial moments
- Scan signed forms back at office (or worse, file them in cabinets)
- Attach scanned PDFs to digital property records
Result: Physical paper floating around the office, scanning backlogs, signatures that can't be found 6 months later when you need to prove what a tenant acknowledged.
How LetAdmin Solves This: Complete Inspections On Your Phone
We built a property inspection system designed for how letting agents actually work—walking through properties with a phone in your hand, documenting what you see, done.
Here's what happens:
Step 1: Start Inspection On-Site (30 Seconds)
Open LetAdmin on your phone. Tap "Inspections" → "New Inspection". Select the property you're inspecting. Choose inspection type (Routine, Inventory, Move-In, Move-Out, Compliance, Maintenance).
That's it. You're ready to start.
Step 2: Document Room-By-Room (30-40 Minutes)
Walk through the property. For each room:
- Tap "Add Room" - name it (Living Room, Kitchen, Bedroom 1, etc.)
- Type observations - "Carpet has red wine stain near window. Walls good condition. Curtains need replacing."
- Take photos - tap camera button, photos attach automatically to the room
- Move to next room - repeat
Everything saves as you go. No submit button. No "are you sure you want to leave this page?" warnings. Just type and move on.
Step 3: Capture Signature (1 Minute)
At the end of the inspection:
- Tap "Capture Signature"
- Hand phone to tenant/landlord
- They sign with their finger
- Signature saves automatically
Done. Inspection complete.
Step 4: Sync to Office System (Automatic)
When you get back to the office (or when you finish the inspection if you have signal), everything uploads automatically:
- Room-by-room observations
- All photos organized by room
- Digital signature
- Inspection date, time, type, property
Zero data re-entry. Zero scanning. Zero organizing files.
What Information Gets Captured
LetAdmin inspections capture everything you need for compliance and landlord communication:
Basic Details:
- Property address
- Inspection date and time
- Inspector name
- Inspection type (routine, inventory, move-in, move-out, compliance, maintenance)
Room-By-Room Observations:
- Room name (Living Room, Kitchen, Bedroom 1, Bathroom, etc.)
- Detailed condition notes for each room
- Photos attached to specific rooms
- Unlimited rooms (works for studio flats or 8-bedroom HMOs)
General Observations:
- Overall property condition
- Landlord action items
- Tenant responsibilities
- Maintenance required
Digital Signature:
- Who signed (tenant, landlord, or agent)
- When they signed
- Signature image for reports
All organized, searchable, and ready to generate inspection reports for landlords.
Real-World Example: 3 Hours → 45 Minutes
Before LetAdmin (typical agency workflow):
- On-site: Walk through property with clipboard and camera (40 minutes)
- Travel back to office (15 minutes)
- Data entry: Type up handwritten notes into system (25 minutes)
- Photo management: Transfer photos from camera, rename files, match to rooms, upload (20 minutes)
- Signature handling: Scan signed form, attach to property record (8 minutes)
- Report generation: Create PDF report for landlord (30 minutes)
Total time: 138 minutes (2 hours 18 minutes)
With LetAdmin:
- On-site: Complete inspection on phone (45 minutes)
- Automatic sync: Everything uploads automatically (0 minutes manual work)
- Report generation: Auto-generated from inspection data (2 minutes to review and send)
Total time: 47 minutes
Time saved: 91 minutes per inspection
For a 150-property agency conducting 200 inspections per year, that's 303 hours saved annually—7.5 work weeks of admin time eliminated.
How It Works: Mobile-First Design
The inspection system works on phones and tablets, not desktop browsers pretending to be mobile-friendly:
Large Touch Targets
Buttons and input fields are sized for fingers, not mouse cursors. No squinting at tiny checkboxes or struggling to tap the right button.
Auto-Save Everything
Every field auto-saves as you type. No "submit" button to remember. No lost work if you accidentally close the app or get a phone call mid-inspection.
Camera Integration
Tap "Add Photo" and your phone camera opens. Take a picture, it attaches automatically to the current room. No file management, no selecting from gallery later.
Works in Portrait and Landscape
Rotate your phone, the interface adapts. Some agents prefer portrait for one-handed use, others prefer landscape for typing. Both work perfectly.
Offline Support
Poor signal at the property? No problem. Everything saves to your phone first, syncs to the server when connectivity returns. (More on this in tomorrow's article about offline-first architecture.)
Why This Matters for Small Agencies
If you're managing 50-200 properties as an owner-operator or small team, property inspections are a huge time sink.
At 2-3 hours per inspection including admin, you're spending weeks per year just on documentation. Time you could spend viewing properties, meeting landlords, or actually growing your business.
Mobile inspections eliminate the admin:
- No data re-entry: Everything captured once, on-site
- No photo management: Photos attach automatically to rooms
- No scanning: Digital signatures save directly to inspection records
- No report generation: Auto-generated PDFs from inspection data
Result: 90+ minutes saved per inspection. For a 150-property agency, that's 300+ hours per year—enough to take on 30 additional properties without hiring more staff.
What We're Building Next
The inspection foundation enables powerful features coming soon:
Inspection templates: Pre-filled room lists for different property types (2-bed flat, 3-bed house, HMO, etc.)
Photo annotations: Mark specific issues directly on photos with arrows and text
Comparison views: See changes between consecutive inspections side-by-side
Automated landlord reports: Send professional inspection reports automatically when inspection completes
Maintenance integration: Create maintenance jobs directly from inspection issues
Scheduling: Calendar showing upcoming inspections, reminders for overdue inspections
The goal: Turn property inspections from a 3-hour admin burden into a 45-minute on-site task.
We'd Love to Hear from You
How do you currently handle property inspections? Paper checklists? Another system? Spreadsheets?
How many inspections do you conduct per year? And how much time do you spend on inspection admin?
What would make inspections easier for your agency? We're building this based on real agency needs.
Get in touch: paul@letadmin.com
LetAdmin is in active development, built by letting agents for letting agents. This property inspection system is being used at Phillip James (370+ properties) and refined based on real-world usage. If you're interested in seeing how it works or want to join the priority list, we'd love to hear from you.