Property inspection checklist with photos and sign-off

Use three linked SharePoint lists: Units (one row per unit), Inspections (one row per walk-through, marked move-in, move-out or routine) and Room checks (one row per room, with a Good, Fair or Poor rating, notes and photos). A manager signs off when every room is done. A paper form or one big spreadsheet cannot tie photos to a room and a date. Linked lists can.

Why one form per unit stops working

A single sheet per unit works for a few units. Then it breaks:

Photos sit in a phone camera roll, with no link to a room or a date.
Move-in and move-out sheets are filed apart, so comparing them takes time.
Nobody can tell which inspections are finished and which still wait for a manager.
Ratings are written in different words ("ok", "fine", "good"), so you cannot count them.
To see every "poor" room across all units, someone reads every sheet.

This guide is about a tracking list. It does not replace your lease, your checklist or local rules. For anything about deposits, notices or what you must do after an inspection, follow your lease and local rules, and ask your attorney. The list only records what you decide to record.

How this differs from other trackers

For repair requests that come in from tenants, see "A property maintenance request tracker in SharePoint". For a walk-through of a work area with pass and fail results, see "A safety inspection checklist in SharePoint". This guide is about rooms inside units, a condition rating, an inspection type and a manager sign-off.

Before you start

Decide these now. They are easy now and hard after 200 rows.

The room list. One way to start is the same short list for every unit, such as Kitchen, Living room, Bedroom, Bathroom and Entry. Add rooms only when a unit really has them.
Who walks units and who signs off. The person who walks should not be the only person who can sign.
What counts as Good, Fair and Poor. Write one sentence for each and share it. A rating means little if everyone reads it differently.
Where photos go. Pick one method (Step 4) so everyone does the same thing.

A room and condition list to copy

Rooms, one Room checks row each: Kitchen, Living room, Bedroom, Bathroom, Entry. Condition values: 1 Good, 2 Fair, 3 Poor. A sample meaning for Good: "no marks, works as intended".

Step 1. Create the Units list

You can create lists in SharePoint or in the Lists app in Microsoft 365. Exact names may differ on your screen.

Open your team site, or the Lists app.
Choose the option to create a new list, and start from blank.
Name it "Units".

Here, the Title column holds the unit name, such as "12B Maple Court". Add these columns:

Building (type: Choice). Choices, one per line: 1 Maple Court, 2 Oak Row, 3 Other. Use your own. Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: put a number in front of each choice.
Unit manager (type: Person or Group). Microsoft says you can limit the selection to one option.

Add one row for each unit. Microsoft's column types page describes each type used in this guide.

Step 2. Create the Inspections list

Create a second blank list named "Inspections". Use the Title column for one short line with the date, such as "12B Maple Court, move-out 2026-10-21". The date keeps two move-outs at one unit apart in the Room checks drop-down. Add these columns:

Unit (type: Lookup). Pick the Units list as the source and the Title column as the one to show. Microsoft says lookup columns should be created and used within the same site, and that a lookup can use only some source column types. Title is a single line of text, so it works. See "SharePoint lookup column shows blank or too few fields" if the column looks empty.
Inspection type (type: Choice). Choices: 1 Move-in, 2 Move-out, 3 Routine.
Inspection date (type: Date and time, date only).
Inspector (type: Person or Group). One person.
Inspection status (type: Choice). Choices: 1 In progress, 2 Ready for review, 3 Signed off. Set the default to 1 In progress.
Signed off by (type: Person or Group). One person.
Sign-off date (type: Date and time, date only).
Summary notes (type: Multiple lines of text). Microsoft says it can store up to 63,999 characters.

Microsoft's column types page says "you can specify that the column is required and that people cannot add an item without entering the information." Require Unit, Inspection type, Inspection date, Inspector and Inspection status. Leave Signed off by and Sign-off date optional, since they stay empty until a manager signs.

Microsoft says that if you do not enforce relationship behavior on a lookup, deleting a source item removes the matching item in the other list. One way to start is to choose Restrict delete on the Unit column, so a unit with inspections cannot be deleted by mistake. Microsoft says you need Manage Lists permission to set this.

Step 3. Create the Room checks list

Create a third blank list named "Room checks". Title holds the room, such as "Kitchen". Add these columns:

Inspection (type: Lookup). Source: the Inspections list. Column to show: Title. Use Restrict delete here too, if you have permission.
Condition (type: Choice). Choices: 1 Good, 2 Fair, 3 Poor. Do not set a default, so the person must pick one. Mark the column required.
Needs repair (type: Yes/No). Microsoft says Yes/No shows as a single checkbox.
Notes (type: Multiple lines of text).
Photo (type: Image), if you choose that method in Step 4.

Each room is its own row, so one inspection has five or six Room checks rows. This is why the list is separate: you can filter every Poor room across all units without opening any sheet.

Step 4. Decide how photos work

You have two options. Pick one per list.

Option A: an Image column. Microsoft says the Image column is used "to add a single image file from your device to an item in a list or a library." That means one photo per column. Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: if you want more, add a second Image column, such as "Photo 2".

Option B: attachments. In the item form, select Add attachments, find the file and select Open. Microsoft says you can hold the Ctrl key to pick more than one file. Microsoft also says that if you do not see the Add attachments command, your list does not support attachments, and that you cannot attach a file in Edit in grid view, so open the single item form. For where attachments live, see "Where SharePoint list attachments are stored, and when to use a library".

For a phone, see Step 6. Check with your admin if photo size or file type matters to you.

One way to start: put photos on the Room checks row, not on the inspection. Then each photo sits next to the room it shows.

Step 5. Add one sample inspection

Add one test row to each list and remove it when you are done.

Inspections:

Title: 12B Maple Court, move-out 2026-10-21
Unit: 12B Maple Court
Inspection type: 2 Move-out
Inspection date: 2026-10-21
Inspection status: 1 In progress

Room checks:

Title: Kitchen
Inspection: 12B Maple Court, move-out 2026-10-21
Condition: 3 Poor
Needs repair: Yes
Notes: Cabinet door loose

Add a photo to the Kitchen row with the method you chose. Then open the row in a phone browser and check that it works.

Step 6. Walk a unit on a phone

Microsoft retired the Lists apps for Android and iOS in mid-November 2025 and recommends the mobile web version. On a phone, open https://office.com/launch/Lists in the browser, open your list, and add rows there. Walk the unit this way:

Add a row in Inspections, with the status 1 In progress.
In Room checks, add one row per room. Pick the Inspection, set Condition, add notes, add photos.
When every room has a row, change the inspection status to 2 Ready for review.

Keep the form short. If a row is slow to fill in on a phone, remove a column. For a long form, see "Customize SharePoint list form sections".

Step 7. The manager sign-off

Sign-off here is a record in two columns plus a status. It is not a lock. Our advice, not a Microsoft rule:

The manager opens the inspection and reads the Room checks for it.
The manager sets Signed off by to themselves, Sign-off date to the day, and Inspection status to 3 Signed off.
If a room needs a redo, the manager sets the status back to 1 In progress and writes why in Summary notes.

A person with edit rights can still change a signed row. If you need a stronger record of who changed what, see "See who changed a row: SharePoint version history". If you want an approval flow with email and a reply, see "Approvals lost in email: how to stop chasing sign-offs".

Step 8. Build the views

Microsoft says views let you sort, filter and group list data. These views use only "is equal to" filters, so you can build them from the column header or the view editor.

In Inspections:

"Waiting for sign-off": Inspection status is equal to 2 Ready for review. Sort by Inspection date, ascending.
"Move-outs": Inspection type is equal to 2 Move-out. Group by Unit.
"Move-ins": Inspection type is equal to 1 Move-in. Group by Unit.

In Room checks:

"Poor rooms": Condition is equal to 3 Poor. Group by Inspection.
"Needs repair": Needs repair is equal to Yes.

To compare a unit's move-in with its move-out, make one more Inspections view named "By unit" with no filter, grouped by Unit. Both inspections then sit under the same unit. Match Room checks rows by room name.

Save each view as public, so the manager and the inspectors open the same screen. A personal view is visible to its maker only. For turning rows red, see "Turn overdue rows red in a SharePoint list".

Step 9. Decide who can edit

Views are not security. A saved view trims the screen only; a person with list access can switch to another view and read every inspection. If tenant details or photos are sensitive, use permissions, and ask your admin. For a person-based view, see "Let each person see only their own items in a SharePoint list", which also explains its limits.

What to avoid

Free text for condition or type. Use Choice columns so you can filter and count. Keep the number prefixes.
Photos on the inspection instead of the room. They lose their context.
Skipping the written meaning of Good, Fair and Poor.
A default Condition. People will leave it and the data will lie.
Treating the sign-off columns as a lock.
Relying on views to hide rows.
Using the list as legal advice. For deposits, notices and your duties, follow your lease and local rules, and ask your attorney.
Building all units at once. Start with one building.

Honest limits

A list does not inspect anything. It records that a walk happened, what was found and who signed. It cannot tell you if a photo was taken at the right place. Sign-off depends on people doing it. A very large list may need extra care with filters and view limits; see "SharePoint list over 5,000 items: what breaks and the fix". Start with one building and three units, fix what is awkward, then add the rest.

When to get help

You can build all of this yourself in Microsoft 365. If you would rather have it built and tested for your team, I do that. A tracker like this is a fixed price: $5,000 for one, built in 2 weeks. See "What a SharePoint tracker costs to build". Bring one example of the problem to a free call.

Tell me what's still manual

I am Al Davies. I run 250 High Street LLC and build SharePoint trackers and Power Automate flows for operations teams. I work remotely. The first call is free, and I will not try to sell you anything.

See trackers I built: Tools I built

FAQ

Is there a printable or Word property inspection checklist template?

This guide builds a SharePoint list, not a Word file. The columns in Steps 1 to 3 hold the same facts a printed checklist holds: unit, inspection type, date, room, condition, notes and photo.

What goes in a property inspection report?

Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: the unit, the inspection type, the date, the inspector, a condition rating and notes for each room, photos, and who signed off. Those are the columns in this build, so a report is a view of the rows.

Which rooms belong on a home inspection checklist?

Start with the short list in "Before you start": Kitchen, Living room, Bedroom, Bathroom and Entry. Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: add a room such as Laundry or Garage only for units that have one.

Can I add photos from a phone?

Yes, through the phone's browser, since Microsoft retired the Lists apps in mid-November 2025. Microsoft's add-items page says you can "upload an image, or attach a file". Walk one room with a real photo before the first full inspection.

Does the sign-off lock the inspection?

No. It is a record: who signed, when, and a status. Anyone with edit rights can still change the row. Use permissions and ask your admin if you need more control.