Best Home Inventory Apps on the Market
Most people rarely think about their house burning down or being destroyed by a natural disaster like a flood or tornado, but the truth is there is no guarantee that it will never happen to you. Disaster can strike at any time and if you are unprepared filing an insurance claim to cover the damage can be a major challenge.
During the five-year period of 2015-2019, US fire departments responded to an estimated average of 346,800 home structure fires per year. These fires caused an annual average of 2,620 civilian deaths; 11,070 civilian fire injuries; and $7.3 billion in direct property damage.
Over one-quarter (26%) of reported fires in 2015-2019 occurred in homes. In addition, three-quarters (75%) of civilian fire deaths and almost three-quarters (72%) of all reported injuries were caused by home fires.
While rebuilding your house can be an expensive endeavor, replacing the contents can be even more complicated. Keeping a complete home inventory is one of the best ways to expedite the claims process and ensure that you are fairly compensated for all your belongings.
Putting together, and maintaining a home inventory can be time consuming, but luckily technology has stepped in to help. There are a number of smartphone apps that can make documenting all of your belongings as easy as snapping a photo and typing in a description.
What to look for in a home inventory app
Here are a few things to look for when choosing a home inventory app:
- Easy to use: A home inventory app should be easy to use with a very intuitive interface that allows you to enter your information quickly and easily. As you will have to enter tons of information, the quicker and easier you can get your possessions in the app the better.
- Helpful features: We looked for features that make the process quick and easy such as adding multiple photos for each item and being able to scan a barcode on the item to gather details.
- Backup: It’s important to be able to back up and share your inventory. You will want to keep it offsite, so it doesn’t burn with your home so the ability to keep your inventory in the cloud is an important feature. You will also want to be able to email your inventory in case you have to make a claim.
Best home inventory apps
Here is a quick rundown of some of the best home inventory apps:
This app is available for both IOS and Android phones. It not only allows you to keep track of your home inventory but other home management items as well such as warranties and medical records.
This app offers three categories to store your documents in: items, services and family. You can use the item category to catalog your possessions. Itemtopia’s quick add feature allows you to enter multiple items at the same time. You can categorize your items with labels such as electronics or furniture as well as add a photo. If it applies you can also upload a receipt for the item and even the warranty.
Your inventory can be exported and shared via a CSV or PDF which can be emailed or texted.
This app works on both IOS and Android phones. This app was originally designed for home insurance adjusters, but it has gained traction with homeowners as it is very easy to use and allows you to quickly add items to your inventory. The Encircle app lets you make a recording of all your items and then fill in the details on specific items such as any valuables.
This app lets you take numerous photos one after the other one without having to hit save, enter details or go back to the main menu so you can knock out the photos of a specific room quickly and easily. You can simply go into a room and take photos and then enter details on more expensive items that you want to document in more detail.
Encircle allows you to share your inventory via text or email and if you go to the web version of the app you can access a spreadsheet view of your inventory.
If you are looking for just an inventory app that works great and is simple and easy to use this is probably one of the best available.
Nest Egg is one of the better paid apps. It currently cost $6.99 and is available for the iPhone. Nest Egg allows you to catalog your inventory by room or category. You can also add a photo as proof of your contents condition. A handy bar code scanner will populate the correct fields when you scan an item that has a bar code, in some cases it even sticks in a photo. This app is very well reviewed.
You can store your inventory in the cloud as well as share it vis text or email.
This app was designed by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and is available for both iOS and Android. While the app can be a bit confusing to navigate it has a great barcode scanner feature that allows you to scan serial numbers for the product details.
You can edit and add room suggestions and when entering items you can list the price, purchase date as well as assign it a category. The scanner allows you to scan barcodes to enter data into the app which can speed up the process. This app allows you to enter multiple photos or videos for each item. You can export your data as a CSV or a PDF file.
This app was originally designed for businesses, but the home version is excellent as well. However, there is fee with this one if you store a large number of items in the app. You can store 200 items for free but after that it will cost $5 a month for unlimited storage.
Sortly allows you to store photos as well as information about your various products such as purchase date, serial number, value, and warranty.
You can sync your inventory across multiple devices and export your inventory so you can easily send it to your agent or insurer.
All of these apps are only as helpful as the information you put into them. Cataloging your home will take some time, breaking it up over several days or even weeks can make the process less tedious. While the process may take a while it can literally be a lifesaver if you have the misfortune to experience a catastrophic event