How to Walk Through a Flip in 30 Minutes: a 12-Zone Inspection Checklist

What to look for when flipping a house: walk it in a fixed order of 12 zones, from the exterior and the roof to the mechanicals, the kitchen and baths, the surfaces and openings, and whatever stands outside the main structure. In each zone take four or five photos and a few notes. That house flip walkthrough checklist takes about 30 minutes for a 1,600 sq ft house and gives you the raw material for a line-by-line estimate.

Why a fixed order beats a careful wander

Every flipper has walked a house, come home and realised the furnace plate was never photographed. A fixed order prevents it. The order below is the one Flip Investor OS uses on the phone, and it goes from the expensive and invisible (structure and systems) to the cheap and visible (paint), because the expensive items decide whether the deal exists at all.

Three habits make the walk useful later:

• Photos before notes. A note says "old furnace"; a photo of the data plate says 1998.
• One wide shot, then details. A wide shot of each room for context, then close-ups of the problem.
• Do not price anything on site. Pricing on the sidewalk anchors you to guesses. Price at the desk with your own rates and the photos in front of you.

Bring a flashlight, an outlet tester, a tape measure and a way to take photos that stay in order.

The 12-zone house flip walkthrough checklist

1. Exterior / Site / Drainage

• Siding and paint: material, peeling, rot at the bottom edge.
• Grading: does the ground slope away from the house? Standing water or stains at the base.
• Gutters and downspouts present, attached, discharging away from the foundation.
• Driveway, walkways, fence, retaining walls: cracked, heaved, leaning.
• Trees or branches touching the roof or siding.

2. Roof

• Shingles missing, curling or patched; how many layers at the edge.
• Sagging ridge or decking seen from the street.
• Flashing at the chimney, vents and wall junctions.
• Gutters and fascia, moss, debris.
• Age, if a permit or the seller states it. Otherwise write "age unknown".

3. Foundation / Structure

• Cracks: horizontal or stair-step cracks are serious; hairline vertical cracks less so. Photograph with something for scale.
• Bowing or leaning walls in the basement or crawlspace.
• Moisture, white efflorescence, musty smell.
• Sloping floors; doors and windows that stick.
• Crawlspace access, vapor barrier, wood in contact with soil.

4. HVAC

• Furnace and AC age from the data plate (close-up, readable).
• Rust, corrosion, the condensate line, the filter.
• Ductwork condition and whether returns exist in the rooms.
• Does the system run? Note the thermostat.
• Fuel type and venting.

5. Electrical

• Panel brand and amperage from the label; Federal Pacific and Zinsco are known red flags.
• Breakers or fuses; open slots; double taps visible with the cover off (only if it is safe and you are allowed).
• Aluminum branch wiring or knob-and-tube where it can be seen.
• GFCI outlets near water; grounded outlets (the tester).
• Exposed splices, extension cords used as wiring.

6. Plumbing / Water Heater

• Water heater age, type, rust, the TPR valve and its discharge pipe.
• Pipe material where visible: galvanized, polybutylene, copper, PEX.
• Leaks or stains under every sink.
• Water pressure and drain speed at one faucet and one tub.
• Sewer line age if known; location of the main shutoff.

7. Kitchen

• Cabinet boxes versus doors: are the boxes sound enough to keep?
• Countertops and backsplash.
• Appliances present, their age, do they work.
• Sink, faucet, leaks underneath.
• Flooring and ventilation.

8. Bathrooms

• Tile, grout and caulk; tub or shower surround.
• Vanity, faucet, and whether the toilet is secure to the floor.
• Soft floor around the toilet or tub: step on it.
• Exhaust fan present and working.
• Mold or water damage on the ceiling and at the base of the walls.

9. Floors / Walls / Ceilings

• Flooring type and condition, room by room.
• Drywall cracks, patches, ceiling stains (stains mean water; find the source).
• Paint, trim, interior doors.
• Popcorn ceilings or wood paneling.
• Smell of smoke, pets or mold.

10. Windows / Doors

• Window type: single or double pane; fogged glass means a failed seal.
• Do they open, close and lock?
• Rot at sills and frames.
• Exterior doors, locks, weather stripping.
• Garage door and opener.

11. Pool / Other Structures

• Pool surface, equipment, fencing.
• Decks, patios, sheds, detached garage.
• Retaining walls.
• Additions: do they look permitted?
• Outdoor electrical and gas.

12. Other

• Permits and HOA: ask, and note what you were told.
• Cleanout and dumpster needs: how full is the house?
• Termite tubes or wood damage.
• Pre-1978: lead paint; asbestos-era materials in flooring, siding, ceilings.
• Radon zone; well or septic.

Twelve zones, two or three minutes each. If a zone is not there (no pool, no garage) mark it as not applicable. If you could not get in (a locked crawlspace, a tenant's room) mark it as no access, which is a different thing from fine.

What a photo cannot tell you

A thorough fix and flip inspection checklist still leaves blanks, and the honest move is to name them. The usual list:

• The sewer line. Cast iron, clay and Orangeburg pipe fail from the inside. Only a camera inspection shows it, and a failed line can cost more than the kitchen.
• The inside of the electrical panel. Brand and amperage are on the label; burnt bus bars, double taps and aluminum feeders are behind the cover.
• Hidden water damage. A fresh coat of paint hides stains for a few months. Soft floors, musty smell and new drywall in only one place are the clues; moisture behind a tub surround is found by opening it.
• Permits. Whether the finished basement or the second bath was permitted is a records question, not a visual one. Unpermitted work can mean redoing it, or a sale that stalls.
• The roof deck and the attic. Shingles from the street do not show rot in the decking or a wet attic.
• What a tenant is standing in front of.

For each of these, your estimate gets a line with a quantity and no price, or a contingency sized for the risk, and your offer gets an inspection contingency. First house flip mistakes has a longer list of what turned into money for people who skipped this step.

How the walk works on a phone in Flip Investor OS

The walk-through in Flip Investor OS is built for one hand and no signal. You open the property, tap Inspection, and the 12 zones appear in the order above, each with a status: not started, in progress, done, not applicable or no access.

Walk with the camera keeps the phone's camera open inside the app. The zone chips sit just above the shutter, so you pick the zone, shoot, and move on; a "Done · next" button marks the zone finished and opens the next one still to do. Each zone also shows a short "What to look for" list, the same points as the checklist above, and a "Dictate a note" button that uses the phone's own speech recognition, so a note can be spoken while your other hand holds the flashlight.

Every photo and note is saved on the phone first, marked "Waiting to sync", and uploaded when there is a connection again. A basement with no signal does not lose anything, and a page reload does not either. Photos are compressed on the device and location data is stripped before upload.

If you want to try it on your next walk, open a free account: the walk-through and the estimate by zone are part of the trial, and the eight calculators are free without a card.

What Field AI does — and does not do

After the walk, each photographed zone can be read by Field AI. It looks at up to eight photos of the zone, together with the "What to look for" list, and returns three separate sections:

• Visible: what the photos actually show (a 1998 data plate, a stair-step crack, fogged glass).
• Possible: what the visible signs suggest but do not prove (a ceiling stain may be an old roof leak or a current one).
• Cannot verify from photos: the list from the section above, specific to this zone, so the blanks are named instead of forgotten.

It also flags safety items to deal with before any work, such as exposed wiring or an open panel, and marks a suggestion as "Check first" when the cause has to be found before a cosmetic fix makes sense.

What Field AI does not do is the part that matters for your money. It never prices anything. It never fills in a quantity: a quantity is measured on site or typed by you. And nothing it suggests enters the estimate until you tap to confirm it, edit it or reject it. A confirmed suggestion becomes an estimate line with a category, a unit and, where the work is in your rate list, your own unit price; a free-text suggestion becomes an unpriced line. The AI describes, the code adds up, and you decide.

From the walk to the estimate

The walk ends with 12 zones of photos and notes. The estimate starts from them: lines by zone, each with a quantity, a unit and a price from your own rates or from the starter rates (labelled "Starter estimate — not market data"). A line without a price shows as Unpriced, and the totals read Incomplete until every line is priced. That Incomplete badge is the walk-through doing its job: it says what you still do not know.

From there the numbers go to the deal: the estimate plus contingency against the ARV, the holding months, the financing, the selling costs. How much it costs to flip a house lays out every one of those lines on the example house, and how to read a contractor bid shows how a bid is compared with the estimate line by line once the contractors have walked the same 12 zones.