The evolving sphere of commercial real estate needs a thorough inspection of the property, which can either ease the process or create a major hurdle. Acquiring a new commercial property is not like purchasing an item; it is a strategic investment that requires careful consideration and extensive examination.
That is where commercial building inspection software helps anybody on the challenging route of property evaluation.
In this post, we’ll go over the main components of selecting the correct commercial building inspection software and how an inspection software like Xenia can save your life.
This isn't about selecting a program, but about gaining the most precise and in-depth evaluation of a property's conditions, worth, and necessary upgrades.
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What is Commercial Building Inspection?
Over 57% of the people who live in a rented or owned house are unsure whether their building structure is physically sound. In general, building inspections are essential not just when selling or renting out a property, but also as a homeowner or resident who has a responsibility to take care that the building is safe and secure.
A commercial property inspection is a thorough and strategic assessment of a business property's overall condition and worth. These inspections are typically requested by portfolio managers who are in charge of a large number of assets to make an informed purchase choice. A commercial property inspection can also be utilized to increase the value of an existing real estate asset.
The main purpose of commercial building inspection for a portfolio manager is to answer how much will it cost to purchase and renovate the building and what the return on investment (ROI) will be.
The only way to answer these questions is to be deeply acquainted with the 5 essential property aspects:
- Roofing
- Structural Reliability
- electrical
- plumbing
- HVAC.
These factors decide a property's capacity to operate for as long and as effectively as possible. Determining the average expectancy of each element and utility will provide managers with a better insight into the future costs that come with a property beyond the initial purchase of the property. These costs might include needed repairs, utilities, and other factors that must be addressed for the property to be profitable.
Having said that, the digital transformation of commercial building inspection can assist in streamlining report production and eliminating different restrictions associated with the old pen-and-paper procedures using robust tools.
What is Commercial Building Inspection Software?
Commercial building inspection software enables commercial property owners and managers in the real estate industry to streamline, identify, and mitigate any issues within a commercial property or assets by allowing them to identify, document, and correct defects, damages, and potential hazards of an asset that could jeopardize the asset's safety or ongoing quality operations.
The software is built to meet the demands of all stakeholders. It is primarily intended for real estate professionals such as contractors, facility managers, individual commercial building owners, commercial inspectors, and commercial technicians. These stakeholders use inspection software features to help them accomplish their jobs better.
Why Commercial Building Inspection Software is Important?
Building and maintaining commercial and residential facilities that prioritize the safety and well-being of the inhabitants (whether consumers or employees) is a top goal for regulatory bodies globally. And, to achieve this degree of quality, these regulatory agencies have imposed stringent standards on property owners. Noncompliance with these requirements can result in severe penalties ranging from substantial fines to the temporary closure of the defaulter's firm.
An 11% rise in the Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) business expected until 2025 illustrates the need for HVAC systems in various infrastructures and buildings. Building inspection software is required to guarantee that HVAC systems function effectively, are safe, and do not consume excessive amounts of energy.
Building inspection software helps managers reach the degree of perfection required by regulatory authorities. They can discover any risks or problems and suggest strategies to repair them before they become dangerous by evaluating structures.
This software is also beneficial for performing preventative maintenance on equipment since it can identify problems before they pose a safety issue or equipment failure. This is a proactive method of keeping people safe and the company's risk low. An organization can avoid large expenditures associated with equipment failure or safety issues by investing in Commercial Building inspection software.
8 Must-Have Commercial Inspection Software Features
- Reporting Capabilities
All modules of software should be able to create comprehensive or summary reports that are customizable and can be shared with many recipients with a few clicks. The ability to attach images and export reports to several file types improves the depth and usability of any report, which is also highly beneficial for insurance purposes or online comparison.
- Use-Friendly Interface
Another element of an ideal construction inspection software is a user-friendly interface, which makes the inspection procedure even easier to carry out. Intuitive design, drag-and-drop capability, and customizable dashboards all contribute to less training time, fewer mistakes, and more overall productivity.
- Mobile-Accesibility
A Unified commercial inspection Solution includes mobile accessibility, which enhances software by allowing for on-the-go inspections, real-time upgrades, and seamless collaboration. A mobile-friendly program allows property managers, inspectors, and other rental property professionals to view and modify reservations, as well as conduct on-the-go inspections. This results in a high emergency response level and flexibility among property managers and inspectors.
- Customizable Checklists
It is essential to tailor inspection criteria for different property kinds, which is where customized checklists come in. Customizable checklists increase the accuracy and relevance of your inspections by including industry-specific norms and regulations.
- Cloud Storage and Data Security
secure cloud storage ensures that your data is always safe and that only the owners have access to it. To protect against data breaches, enhanced security is ensured in commercial building inspection software. These safeguards include encrypted data and multi-factor authentication, which improve the security of your property information.
- Integrations
An integrated solution is more advanced because it streamlines the process. A standalone software, on the other hand, can be affordable but lack technological advancements. Which type is best for you is determined by your needs and the resources you have. If you pick a standalone software, you can export the data to synchronize it.
- Real-Time Updates
Real-time updates and notifications will keep you up to date on what's coming up for inspections and when a report is completed, allowing you to take immediate action and preventing minor issues from becoming major issues.
- Automated Scheduling and Reminders
The automatic scheduling and reminder capacity will help you organize your inspections to avoid mistakes. This will lessen the workload generally associated with inspection management and increase communication with your renters or property owners. This displays your professionalism and contributes to the development of your connection and trust with your client.
How to Choose the Right Construction Inspection Software?
Here are some suggestions to help you select the best tool for your requirements.
- Determine What You Need
Consider what you would like in an ideal tool while compiling these suggestions.
- Will you be the only one that uses the tool, or will there be others?
- Do you want the tool to generate property inspection reports in real time?
- Do you want the tool to save you time and provide you with template libraries to use?
- Would you like the tool to support digital signatures?
- How critical is it that the technology allows for easy document sharing?
- Evaluate Features and Functions
Although most commercial building inspection software solutions give equivalent benefits, each software alternative has its own distinct set of features and capabilities; don't assume they have them all. Examine each tool's advantages, such as report emailing, safe cloud storage, digital signature, photo exporting, report editing, and time stamping. This will allow you to make an informed choice based on the unique benefits that each tool provides.
- Ask for a Free Trial
It is always a good idea to try out a tool before purchasing it. Before committing to any program, request a free trial. Experimenting with various tools will help you to determine which ones work best for you. During the trial time, assess the software's compliance with your workflow and standards. Use the free trial time to fully evaluate the tool and all of its features.
- Take a Test Drive
Now that you've chosen a program and signed up for a free trial, test it out as you would an automobile. Utilize the software during actual property inspections in the same manner you would if you owned it by incorporating it into your everyday office and field settings.
This will provide you with a hands-on experience with how the construction inspection software works regularly. After the trial time, you should have a clear knowledge of whether the program is genuinely suitable for you and your property management requirements.
How to Successfully Implement Commercial Building Inspection Software?
The implementation of a commercial building inspection process is essential to ensure the preservation of a property's value, the safety of inhabitants, and the ability to make an informed decision. If you want to ensure efficient execution of a commercial building inspection, go through these chain of steps
- Know What You Want
As mentioned earlier You must first identify the aim of your inspection program with your organization. What do you expect to achieve with an inspection? Identify realistic objectives first to ensure you stay on track with the implementation.
- Establish Sops
After deciding on the best program, set SOPs. The goal of this step is to create standard operating procedures (SOPs) for conducting inspections. SOPs offer the structure for uniformity in all inspections and provide guidelines on all parts of the inspection.
- Provide Training to Building Inspector
Give the inspectors appropriate training. This should include instruction on the commercial building inspection procedure as well as the software. The training should cover checklists, software usage, and any industry norms and standards.
- Customize Checklists for Property Types
Tailor inspection checklists to the unique requirements of each commercial property type. A business office building, a warehouse facility, and a retail center, for example, all have separate inspection checklists. They all do vary in size, and work in different sectors. You must comprehend and incorporate all of the various requirements of the unique property. This ensures that the inspections adhere to the inspection standards for that particular property type.
- Implement a Consistent Schedule
You must set a schedule of frequent inspections in your commercial building inspection software based on the general requirements of the business property you are purchasing. Early identification is key in this case, which is why regularity is essential, as is avoiding a large repair, such as a roof inspection app to eliminate any catastrophic situation.
- Use Mobile App
For real-time, on-site inspections, use mobile devices. Because mobile technology is readily available, inspectors may collect data in real-time, submit photos, and interact with team members promptly. This improves efficiency and significantly shortens the time between inspection and action.
- Establish Corrective Actions
Once the inspection is done, you must devise an effective follow-up mechanism using your commercial building inspection software. This will entail building a systematic strategy for dealing with all of the follow-up activities resulting from the inspection results. These follow-up tasks must be prioritized, the appropriate person or individuals assigned, and a completion date forecasted.
- Documentation and Reporting
Keep a thorough catalog of inspection documents, including photographs and other pertinent data such as inspection reports.
In every case, it is essential to save documents for future reference and compliance purposes. This approach should be followed by all food and non-food inspection services. Your Construction inspection software will create a historical perspective of the physical structure or condition of the property throughout time.
- Set FeedBack for Continous Improvement
Seek feedback not just from inspectors but also from other stakeholders to constantly improve the inspection process. Review the efficacy of adopted methods and software regularly, making changes as required.
Wrapping it Up
A well-executed process for inspecting commercial buildings for safety, longevity, and overall suitability for your needs is more than just a regulatory requirement; it's also a wise investment in your company's success.
Putting in place a commercial building inspection software requires a mix of variables, including careful design, cutting-edge technology, and a strong commitment to continually improve.
Unify Team Operations, Maintenance and Safety Compliance with Xenia
Xenia unifies daily operations, maintenance management and quality assurance to help ensure teams and facilities are effective and efficient.
Our customers love Xenia's robust use cases including:
Operational Execution
✔️ Checklists & SOPs
Create checklists, SOPs, Inspections and Data Logs to power accountability, training and staff clarity on every task.
💪 Team Task Management
Assign work digitally to defeat pencil whipping and disorganized teams. Complete tasks, chat with teams on any device, track time, collect photos, and ensure high quality work.
📆 Recurring Tasks
Create recurring schedules for daily opening and closings, performance review meetings, inspections, cleanings and more.
📲 Chats & Announcements
Centralize team communications with in task chats, one-on-one chats, team messages and company wide announcements
📊 Team Performance Reporting
Use Xenia's analytics dashboards to view staff work reports. Filter by asset, location, category or due date and export the report in PDF or Excel
Maintenance Management
🛠️ Work Orders
Create work orders with associated team, asset, location, priority, category and due date. View live progress reports on each work order, chat with teams, and review resulting template submission, images and notes to improve operations.
🧰 Preventive Maintenance
Create a preventive maintenance calendar to ensure asset uptime is not compromised. Attach images, templates, videos and notes to every task and assign to a team or individual for completion.
📲 QR Codes
Generate and attach QR codes to equipment and facility locations to enable fast and accurate inspections and data logs.
⚙️ Work Order Requests
Receive, approve and assign work order requests from tenants, regular customers and vendors. Enable requesters to submit, track, and communicate with your team, without access to operations templates or unrelated work orders.
📁 Equipment Work History
View work history for every asset and sub asset in Xenia. Review performance data and enable corrective actions to improve your operation.
Safety Compliance & Quality Assurance
👍 Concrete Brand Standards
Put your brand standards in a clear and operational checklist to be attached to work assignments.
🔎 Smart Inspection Workflows
Xenia's operations template builder has built in conditional logic into each step. This allows you to trigger actions based on a form response such as creating a corrective action on a failed inspection step, sending a notification to management for out of range meter readings, and much more.
✨ Corrective Actions
Operationalize inspections with fast work order assignment arising from a failed inspection step. All corrective data is stored in the checklist submission for auditing and accountability.
📋 Analytics and Reports
View live dashboard summaries of tasks, employee performance, template submissions and more. Filter, organize and export compliance reports to PDF and Excel formats to simplify compliance management.
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