Starthome
A mobile rental inspection workflow that keeps captured photos, suggested observations and signed records separate.
Download PDFA record of the apartment
Starthome helps property owners and managers in Québec document a rental’s condition. You walk through the apartment, take photographs and record what you see. When it is time to inspect it again, the earlier visit gives you a reference.
I started working on Starthome in February 2026. The founder came with the logo and an initial design already in place. My work spans product design and engineering: shaping the mobile inspection, building the application around it, and connecting the photographs, observations and signatures to the final report.
This case study covers product and engineering work. I do not yet have verified inspection-volume, adoption or time-saving figures to report. The evidence here is how the workflow handles incomplete, reviewed and signed information.
Starting with Québec
The local rental context matters. Article 1890 of Québec’s Civil Code recognizes descriptions and photographs as ways to record a property’s condition. It also distinguishes ordinary wear from changes a tenant may need to answer for. That makes the detail of the record important: what was there at the beginning, what is visible now, and what someone actually checked.
I built the flow around entry and exit inspections, with the earlier inspection available as a reference. The French interface uses the language of the visit: logement, pièces, état des lieux. A photograph belongs to a room and an observation, so it can be understood later without the person who took it having to explain it.
The record changes state
The important boundary is between something captured, something suggested and something a person has confirmed. Each transition has a different requirement.
| State | What must happen next |
|---|---|
| Photo captured | Keep the room and local file reference. A dropped connection must not imply upload succeeded. |
| Analysis pending | Continue the visit or add a manual observation while processing waits. |
| Suggestion available | Show the photographs and editable wording. The inspector can change or discard it. |
| Observation confirmed | Include only reviewed information in the inspection review. |
| Inspection reviewed | Record tenant participation and collect the applicable signatures. |
| Signed record | A later change requires another signature; a sent invitation is not a signature. |
I used those distinctions across the mobile UI, API and report. The difficult part is keeping them consistent when analysis finishes later, the tenant is absent, or someone changes an observation after review.
Keeping the visit moving
The home screen brings the unfinished visit back into view: the address, rooms checked and observations still needing attention. Inside a room, adding photographs is the primary action. Analysis can run while the person continues the visit, and entering an observation manually stays within reach.
I also worked through the less convenient moments: a camera permission that has not been granted, a room that needs another photograph, a connection that drops. The offline flow separates photos saved on the device from work waiting for a connection. It gives someone a way to continue taking notes without implying that a report is already ready.
Look, then confirm
Photo assistance is useful when it gives someone less to write and something specific to check. A proposed observation opens beside the entry and exit photographs. The person can enlarge them, change the condition, edit the wording or discard the suggestion.
I kept confirmation explicit. Marks on a floor may be ordinary wear; a photograph alone does not settle responsibility. The app asks the person on site to make the observation their own before it enters the reviewed record. If the evidence is insufficient, taking another photograph or writing a note remains part of the same flow.
Finishing the handoff
The tenant will not always be standing beside the property manager. I designed separate paths for signing on the device, receiving an email invitation, being absent and declining to sign. Each leaves a clear status in the record.
Those distinctions continue through the report. An invitation sent is different from a signature received. Generating the PDF is different from sharing it. The interface keeps those states visible, with the report available to open before sending a copy through the phone’s share sheet.
Connecting the product
I build the mobile app with Expo, alongside a web admin for organizations, teams and inspection oversight. Cloudflare Workers runs the API, with D1 for records and R2 for photographs and documents. The report brings the room observations, photos and signatures together.
This is the kind of product work I enjoy: following a real task through the interface and the system behind it. If you are building something similar or hiring a software engineer, I’d be happy to talk.
The next validation should measure completed inspections, successful recovery after a connection drop, report generation, and how often people edit or reject suggestions. Those measures would tell me whether the state model helps someone finish a real visit.