A little care.
A well-kept home.

Help

Homestead helps you keep maintenance records for private wells, septic systems, propane tanks, and water-treatment equipment. No account is required.

Get started

Add a system, enter its last service date, and review the editable maintenance task and interval. The optional sample property contains fictional records for exploring the app.

Water laboratory reports

Enter results manually, paste report text, or use supported on-device image scanning. Review every value, symbol, unit, and laboratory flag against the original before saving. Unfamiliar layouts may require manual entry. Homestead does not determine whether water is safe to drink.

Reminders

Enable local reminders in Settings and allow notifications in your device settings. Your device controls delivery. Notification previews can contain system names and maintenance tasks.

Backups and changing devices

Settings → Export backup creates a portable backup including attachments. Choose an encrypted backup and keep its passphrase safe. Restore replaces current records only after validation. Back up before changing phones, uninstalling, or clearing app/site data. PDFs are summaries, not restorable backups.

Vault passphrases

Protect local vault in Settings enables optional encryption. Lock manually or fully restart the app to require unlocking. Backgrounding alone does not lock it. Homestead cannot reset or recover a lost passphrase. A backup uses the passphrase selected when it was exported, which can differ from your local vault passphrase.

Delete local data

Settings → Delete all local records removes the property records, documents, and checklist from this app’s vault and disables reminders. Existing vault passphrase protection remains. Copies you exported, shared, or saved with another service must be deleted separately. There is no Homestead account to delete.

Contact support

Email homestead@directionofbusiness.com. Include the app version, device/OS version, and a description of the problem. Avoid sending passphrases, private reports, or sensitive property documents.

Privacy policy

Homestead is published by Jeremiah Tillman. This policy covers the Homestead mobile app distributed for the United States and Canada. Privacy contact: homestead-privacy@directionofbusiness.com.

Your property records stay on your device

Homestead stores property names and ZIP/postal codes, system details, maintenance history, service-provider notes and costs, laboratory results, source text, attachments, and buyer-checklist notes locally. No Homestead account, cloud synchronization, remote partner connection, advertising, or cross-app tracking is enabled in this version. Homestead does not sell your property records.

Permissions and scanning

Camera access is optional and is requested for taking report photos. File selection lets you choose a report or attachment. Notification permission is optional for local reminders. Denying these permissions leaves manual entry and other core recordkeeping available. You can change permission choices in device settings.

On iOS, image text recognition uses Apple Vision on the device. On Android, optional image recognition uses Google ML Kit with a bundled model. Images and recognized report text are processed on the device, but ML Kit can send diagnostic and usage metadata to Google. Its disclosure and optional scanning choice appear before use. See Google’s ML Kit disclosure. This is separate from your stored property records.

Sharing is your choice

When you export a backup, PDF, or original attachment, you choose its destination. That copy is handled by the selected app or service under its policies. Official-resource links open in your browser without property records in the link. Homestead does not receive those destination copies.

Protection and retention

Local vault encryption is optional. Until enabled, saved records are not encrypted by Homestead. Encrypted vaults and backups use passphrases that Homestead does not retain or escrow. Unencrypted exports, shared files, notification previews, app-switcher snapshots, and copies made before encryption need separate protection. Records remain until you remove them or clear app data. Temporary import/scanning/sharing copies are removed after use where controlled by the app.

The mobile app excludes its private data directories from automatic iOS device backups and disables automatic Android app backup. This does not erase historical device backups, browser storage remnants, or copies held by other services. Use explicit export to keep a restorable backup.

This website

This prepared page contains no advertising, analytics scripts, third-party fonts, or embedded forms. Your browser and the hosting provider may process technical request information, such as an IP address, to deliver and secure the page. This is separate from the app’s device-only property records.

Support correspondence

If you email us, your email address and the information you choose to include are processed by our email service so we can respond. Do not send private reports or passphrases. Request access, correction, or deletion of support correspondence through the privacy contact. Device-only records can be reviewed, exported, corrected, and deleted in the app; we cannot retrieve them remotely.

Children and policy changes

Homestead is a property-maintenance tool, not a service directed to children. We do not knowingly request children’s personal information. Contact us about a privacy concern. If practices change, this page will be updated with a revised effective date.

Terms of use

By using Homestead, you agree to use it lawfully and keep copies of records important to you. You are responsible for the accuracy of your entries, attachments, and any information you choose to share.

Homestead is an organizational tool. It is not a substitute for a qualified inspector, laboratory, service professional, public-health authority, or legal adviser. Maintenance intervals and buyer-checklist prompts are starting points. Local rules, conditions, equipment instructions, and transaction terms may differ. No checklist mark, laboratory transcription, or exported packet certifies water safety, system condition, or legal compliance.

OCR can misread reports, and device notifications can be delayed or disabled. Verify extracted results and maintain your own critical service dates. Protect your device, passphrases, and exported files. Lost passphrases and lost local data cannot be reset or recovered by Homestead.

There are no purchases, subscriptions, contractor booking, or paid partner services enabled in this version. Links to external resources are supplied for convenience; their operators control their content and availability.

To the extent permitted by applicable law, the app is provided as available without a guarantee of uninterrupted or error-free operation. Nothing in these terms excludes rights or remedies that cannot lawfully be excluded. Applicable platform licence terms also apply, including the Apple standard end-user licence agreement where applicable.