Property inventories are written documents that record the condition and contents of a property. They are often written for rental properties as proof of the condition of the property at the time a new tenant moves in. The tenant is supposed to take care of the property while it is there, and the property’s inventory value reaches the end of the lease when the landlord and tenant consult the document to see if there have been any changes to the property. .

There are property inventory service companies that write property inventories professionally. However, anyone can write a property inventory. So if you’re a homeowner looking to save money and do your own inventory, the only things you need are not much more than a pen, paper, and a digital camera. I assume you already have a computer and printer to print the document so it looks clean and professional.

1. Registration of information
Go to the property with pencil and paper and record the relevant information for each part of the property. This should be done systematically to fully record the information for a room or part of the property before moving on to the next room. For every room you walk into, have a process in place where you methodically look at every aspect of the room. You can do this literally from top to bottom, such as first examining the ceiling, then the walls, then the contents, and finally the floor so that no aspect of the room is left unrecorded.

For each part of the room, record relevant details, for example, if you are examining the ceiling, record things like its color and any special features, such as any special decorative plaster work. Similarly, if you are examining the floor, the important things to record are what type of floor it is, for example, is it carpeted, varnished hardwood floor, or tile, etc. The key to remember is to be as descriptive as possible to fully describe and identify the item you are recording. You must also include any marks, blemishes, or defects so that the inventory is fair and accurate.

A similar process is also carried out for the contents of the room, such as furniture. For example, if there is a sofa in the room, write down what type of sofa it is, whether it is made of leather or fabric, how many people it can sit on, and whether it is new, in good condition, or in poor condition. . For electrical items such as washing machines, additional details such as model and serial numbers should also be noted.

Try to be as descriptive and complete as possible in your record to produce an informative and detailed property inventory survey. At the end of the recording process, you should have a description and condition of each item or aspect of the room.

2. Take digital photos
As you move through each room, take digital photos of things of note. This can be valuable items or electrical items. Take photos that you think are important and need to be recorded. An overview photo of the room that shows the entire room is also helpful. You don’t need to restrict the number of photos you take, and in fact, photos convey much more information than words when it comes to property inventories. Therefore, take as many photos as you think are necessary. In order for the property inventory to be fair and accurate, you should also take pictures of any blemishes, for example, if there is a crack in a window, a photo should be taken.

3. Transcribe the information to a computer and print the document to sign
Once you have the raw data, enter the text and images on your computer. You should design the document so that it looks professional, clear, and easy to understand. One way to layout the document is to have three separate columns, one column for the item, another column for the description, and a third column for the condition. The document can also be organized room by room so that each room has a separate section in the document. Photos of each room can be embedded at the bottom of that room’s section.

Basic details such as the address of the property, the names of the tenant and the owner should also be on the document. Blank spaces will be left in the document for reading the gas, electricity, and water meters and the number of keys to be delivered so that it can be added by hand when the tenant moves out. The document is now ready to be printed and verified by the tenant on move-in day. The latest details, such as meter readings and the number of keys issued, will be recorded in the inventory that day. The property inventory document can finally be signed and dated by the tenant.