I discovered something the other day that I wanted to share. I have the iPhone 12. In my utilities folder there is an app called Measure. You point your phone at something, say the end of a wall. A dot with a circle around it pops up. Place that dot where you want to start your measurement, hit the plus button and then just walk to the other end of the wall, hit plus again, and it will measure that distance. Sometimes I can see the measurement displayed on the screen before I finish, sometimes I can't. Not sure how that works. But when you hit the plus sign the second time the measurement goes into a list.

You access that list by pressing on the upper left side of the screen on the three dot/lines. The beauty of this is that you can measure the entire exterior of a home by doing this. Every time you take a measurement it goes into that list, in order.

I've used this now on two inspections. First I take all my measurements. Start at one corner of the house, hit plus to start, walk down the length of the wall, hit plus to finish. I continue this with every wall that I need measured. As I am doing this, I do not have to write anything down. It's all being stored on this list, in order. After I've arrived back at my starting point. I make another "trip" around the exterior and draw a sketch of the exterior of the home. I then make a third trip around the house to take my pictures.

At this point I can go inside, or back to my truck if I don't want the homeowner/realtor bothering me, and I can put the wall measurements from my list on my drawing. When you access this list you will see, at the bottom of the screen, a button that says copy. I suggest hitting that button. It will copy the entire list. I made a folder in my notes app called appraisal measurements. I paste the list into this folder. That way you won't lose your list before you have a chance to put the measurements on your sketch.

I finished measuring a house yesterday and when I came inside the Realtor, who had been watching me, asked "are you measuring with your phone?" So I showed her how to do this. She was so glad to learn this. She said she has been looking for an measuring app and this was already on her phone. At this point I had not recorded my measurements and when I went into my list, they were gone. Had to do it again. So save your list.

I checked the accuracy with a tape measure and its very accurate. Another nice feature is that you don't have to be right next to the wall to take the measurement. So you don't have to squeeze behind that bush, that's full of morning dew, and get your shirt soaked. Let me know what you think. Try it out. I think it's a game changer for me, especially with the new ANSI standards.

Sometimes I just need to measure small things on the go — like screws, bolts, or packaging — and I don’t always carry a physical ruler. I tried a couple of apps like this phone ruler in mm that claim to turn your screen into a ruler, but some felt clunky or not very accurate.

Has anyone found a reliable phone ruler in mm that actually works well and is easy to calibrate? Ideally something lightweight, no weird permissions, and simple to use.