Home Appraisals Change Nov. 2. iPhone App Turns Home Improvement Receipts Into One Clean Document

Thornby saves a photo of each receipt and prints every project, date, and cost in the order the new appraisal form asks. The record stays on your phone.

ORANGE, CA, UNITED STATES, October 19, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Starting Nov. 2, every appraisal on a loan sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, which is most conventional loans, moves to a new appraisal form, the biggest change to the form since 2005, and it asks for a lot more. Each kitchen and bathroom gets its own line: whether it was updated, and when. The roof gets an age, and newer systems get noted.

The owner is the one who gets asked: when was the kitchen done? Most people say “a few years back” and go looking for a receipt they are not going to find.

Thornby, now on the App Store, is a simple app to track your home projects, so you never have to remember when you replaced the roof. You take a picture of the receipt and add a note about what the job was, and it is saved. Work from years ago can be added from memory, even if all you remember is the year. When the appraiser is coming, the app prints the whole list in the order the new form asks, with the receipts attached at the end, and it marks which jobs have a receipt or a permit to show.

The reading happens on the phone. The app pulls the company, the date, and the amount off the picture, and the permit number if there is one. The receipts are saved on the phone and are never sent to us or anyone else.

“I’ve stood in a lot of kitchens while a seller tried to remember what year the roof went on,” said Daniel Gray, who founded Thornby and sells homes in Orange County with First Team Real Estate. “They did the work and they paid for it. But an appraiser can only give credit for your improvements if there is something to show. So I wanted something simple. Take a picture of the receipt, add a note, and it’s there the day someone asks for it.”

The record has a second job that has nothing to do with selling. After a fire or a flood, the insurance adjuster asks what was in the house, and most people are guessing at the brand of a furnace that no longer exists. Thornby keeps each appliance by room, with the brand, the model, the serial number, and a photo, and prints the list for the adjuster. It also keeps the contractor’s name and the warranty dates, and reminds you when a filter is due or the home warranty is about to run out. When the home is sold, the app produces the report your tax advisor will ask for, with the dates, costs, and receipts of every improvement.

What is in that record is your address, what you paid for your home, and pictures of what you own. So Thornby has no account and no password, and there is no company server with a copy. The record lives on the owner’s phone and backs up to their iCloud Drive. Nobody else holds it. The one thing Thornby itself sends is the street address, and only if the owner taps a button to fill in the home’s size and year built from public records.

“Think about what’s in there. Your address, what you paid for your home, pictures of everything you own,” Gray said. “I don’t like apps or companies holding or using my data. We built this app so all the data stays with the user: their phone, their cloud.”

One home is free, with no limit on what goes in, and everything can be viewed in the app for free. Unlocking report sharing and printing is a one-time cost of $39.99. More than one home, including unlimited investment properties, is $69.99 a year or $179.99 one-time for Pro forever, with all Reports included. Backup, restore, and the spreadsheet export are never paid features.

Thornby is on the App Store now for iPhone and iPad running iOS 17 or later. An Android version comes this fall. Details, and a plain-language guide to the new appraisal form, are at https://thornby.app.

About Thornby
Thornby is made by NicRya, Inc., a California company. https://thornby.app

Media contact
Daniel Gray, support@thornby.app

Daniel E Gray
NicRya, Inc.
support@thornby.app

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