Wu and Kin’s 47-point inspection is a 60-to-90-minute walk one named inspector, Trang, makes through every home before it lists. It runs across seven categories: safety and structural (8 checks), locks and security (6), plumbing and water (7), electrical and connectivity (6), furniture and fittings (8), environment (5), and a final neighborhood walk (7). Six of the seven produce pass or fail results plus two hard measurements, the internet speed and the 9pm noise level in decibels. The seventh is an hour spent outside, on the street. A failure on safety or on the neighborhood walk means the home is not listed at all.
Most rental listings are written from a phone by someone who has never stood in the room. This is the opposite of that. Here is what each of the forty-seven checks is looking for.
Safety and structural, 8 checks
The first category is the one that can end an inspection. A fire extinguisher present and in date. Smoke detectors in every room, tested. A clear exit path. No exposed wiring. Balcony railings that hold weight when leaned on. If a home fails here, it is not fixed and reinspected. It is refused. There is no version of a listing that is worth a balcony that gives way.
Locks and security, 6 checks
Deadbolts that throw on both sides. Every key tested in every lock, not assumed. Window and balcony locks that engage. Building access that actually works, the fob, the gate, the doorman’s hours. Bedroom doors that latch. The question this category answers is simple: when you are inside and it is late, does the home close.
Plumbing and water, 7 checks
Hot water timed at every tap, because “has hot water” and “has hot water in under a minute” are different homes to live in. Drains that run. A toilet that refills. No sign of past water damage behind the honesty of fresh paint. The washing machine put through a full cold cycle, start to finish, not just switched on.
Electrical and connectivity, 6 checks
Every outlet tested with a real charger and a real lamp, not a meter reading. Every light switched on. The WiFi walked room to room, because a router in the living room does not mean signal in the back bedroom. And the internet speed recorded, as a number, on the card. If you work from home, that number is not a detail. It is the whole decision.
Furniture and fittings, 8 checks
The mattress rated for stains and for sag, because you will spend a third of six months on it. Linens counted. The sofa checked. The kitchen confirmed to actually cook, pans, heat, a working hob, not a kitchen-shaped corner. Towels counted. This is the category that separates a furnished home from a photographed one.
Environment, 5 checks
Noise measured at 9pm with a decibel meter, written on the card as a reading. Daylight timed: when the light reaches the room, and when it leaves. Ventilation confirmed. A check for mould and for pests in every room. These are the things a daytime viewing hides and the third week reveals.
The neighborhood walk, 7 checks
The last hour is spent outside. The nearest store. Where the late food is. The transit. The park. Whether it feels safe to walk alone at night. And one thing that surprised the inspector about the street, which goes on the card in her own words. Like safety, this category can end a listing: if the walk fails, the home does not go up, however good the apartment is, because you do not live inside the four walls, you live on the street they open onto.
What “45 of 47 passed” means
A card that reads “47 of 47 passed” means every check came back clean, or was fixed by the owner and reinspected before the home listed.
A card that reads “45 of 47 passed” means two checks failed and the owner chose not to fix them. Those two are named, by number, on the listing itself. The home is still offered, and you decide with the failures in front of you. The promise was never that every home is flawless. The promise is that you will not discover the flaw after you have wired the deposit.
Why a name is on the card
The checklist is not the moat. Anyone can publish a list of forty-seven things. The moat is that a real, named person does all forty-seven, every time, and signs the card with the date she stood in the room. If that ever becomes someone other than Trang, that person will be named too. Nothing here is verified by a team, or by an icon. It is verified by somebody who walked in with a clipboard and wrote down what was actually there.
If you want to see the checklist rendered on a real home, read how we work, or browse the homes that are open.