How AI Tech Protects Real Estate Investors with Luis Vega

Luis Vega (00:00)
I have one customer that had just finished a huge renovation. So it was an old home that they renovated top to bottom, roof deck. I mean, they really did a beautiful job. It was very, very nice. And so they were coming just on the tail end of their renovation. And we had already done our initial pre-wire and setup. So we were coming to put in the technology. So we come, do our stuff, get everything set up, and one of the components, which I was so happy that this investor actually opted in to going with the water management technology solution that we have. So we actually put water sensors near the PEX manifold, right, where all the plumbing lines come in, and it also happened to be a washer and dryer ⁓ closet, right. So we put water sensors there. We set all the technology up. Literally within three days, I got a call from my customer saying, hey,

I just got a notification from the water sensor in the laundry room that there’s a leak. Is that real? I said, well, it’s up and running. So I would say so. So he actually sent a plumber over to check and indeed the Pex manifold was leaking. And this property wasn’t even, I mean, it was literally getting ready to come to market. And it was a short-term rental actually, multi-family.

And he’s just finishing. mean, imagine doing all the paint, the drywall, the floors, you you get everything dialed in and then you have a water leak that could have potentially made major damage. So that was a huge aha moment for him, but it was a really great opportunity for me to really understand the impact that we’re having with real estate investors by applying technology strategically into their buildings so that they can get the most and the best return on investment. So.

That was a big one. I have many stories like that, but yeah, that’s just the one that came to mind. mean, catching it early, man, what a lifesaver that was.

Erika (03:16)
Everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pro Show. I’m your host Erika and today I’m thrilled to be joined by Luis Vega, who’s shaken things up in the real estate space with cutting edge technology. He found it super home and you’re going to love what he has to say. Luis, it’s so awesome to have you on the show today.

Luis Vega (03:34)
Thank you so much, Erika. Thank you for having me.

Erika (03:36)
Yeah, so let’s dive right in, Luis. For folks who may not know your world, give us the rundown. How did you get started in real estate?

Luis Vega (03:45)
Yeah, so I got started in real estate. You know, my wife and I, ⁓ we had recently gotten married and, you know, we’re deciding like, what are we going to do? Are we going to build wealth? Are we going to like, how are we going to do this? Right. So, it was, it was kind of a natural thing that kind of started, started learning real estate, investing a little bit on my own. And I said, you know, let’s try it. Let’s try to go all in. So we bought some courses and joined some groups and that really kind of got us, got us started into the real estate world. And so we started learning fix and flip and buy and hold strategies. And then we started.

looking into others and we realized like, hey, this is definitely something that we can do and we work well together doing it, so why not, why not jump in? So yeah, that was back in, I guess 2017 is when we started getting into the real estate world.

Erika (04:27)
Cool, and then what was that journey with starting your tech company Superhome?

Luis Vega (04:31)
Yeah, so, you know, it was kind of a natural evolution for me. So I was able to, you know, I’ve been in technology for 20 years. So it’s, you know, the technology world is not new to me, but the real estate world was. And, you know, over the years, I’ve always applied my tech background to any kind of like small business that I’ve tried to do. And so it was kind of a natural progression for me to start applying technology to real estate. And so that’s kind of where Super Home was born, where we take, you know, technology and

basically create better efficiencies in real estate, whether that be single family, multi-family, or even commercial. We have a lot of different customers from retail stores to big, large apartment buildings. So we’re able to take technology to create better efficiency, better security, and provide a better tenant experience or a new homeowner experience, depending on what type of real estate you’re doing. So yeah, it’s been a really, really fun time just helping people understand what’s possible in the technology world.

That’s how Super Home came to be.

Erika (06:15)
Yeah, that’s really awesome. And with what you are offering to the market, are you zeroing in on a specific type of technology or what kind of problems are you solving for people?

Luis Vega (06:25)
Yeah, absolutely. So right now we’re really dialed in on AI powered video surveillance, the hot word AI, you know, giving people more tools to secure their properties and have awareness on their properties. And also we’re focused heavily on access management. So if you want to access control access to the doors, main doors, know, department doors, anything like that, we’re helping to streamline that process as well.

And then also, which another one we’re really excited about is actually water management. And so a lot of people don’t even realize that you can control the water in different buildings using specific pieces of technology, something that you can use on your phone. So if you have a pipe burst or if you have heavy usage from a leaky toilet or something like that, we can use technology to monitor those things and give you alerts and obviously get that information out to a property manager or handyman or whoever it might be to rectify it.

Yeah, water, video, and access control are the big ones right now we’re focused in, specifically in the multifamily space. We’re doing a lot of cool things. So that’s what we’re excited to keep doing.

Erika (07:27)
Yeah, that’s really cool. Do you have an example of a client who saw a big impact from using one of those services?

Luis Vega (07:33)
yeah, for sure. we had, I have one customer, I have many stories, but

have one customer that had just finished a huge renovation. So it was an old home that they renovated top to bottom, roof deck. I mean, they really did a beautiful job. It was very, very nice. And so they were coming just on the tail end of their renovation. And we had already done our initial pre-wire and setup. So we were coming to put in the technology.

So we come, do our stuff, get everything set up, and one of the components, which I was so happy that this investor actually opted in to going with the water management technology solution that we have. So we actually put water sensors near the PEX manifold, right, where all the plumbing lines come in, and it also happened to be a washer and dryer ⁓ closet, right. So we put water sensors there. We set all the technology up. Literally within three days, I got a call from my customer saying, hey,

I just got a notification from the water sensor in the laundry room that there’s a leak. Is that real? I said, well, it’s up and running. So I would say so. So he actually sent a plumber over to check and indeed the Pex manifold was leaking. And this property wasn’t even, I mean, it was literally getting ready to come to market. And it was a short-term rental actually, multi-family.

And he’s just finishing. mean, imagine doing all the paint, the drywall, the floors, you you get everything dialed in and then you have a water leak that could have potentially made major damage. So that was a huge aha moment for him, but it was a really great opportunity for me to really understand the impact that we’re having with real estate investors by applying technology strategically into their buildings so that they can get the most and the best return on investment. So.

That was a big one. I have many stories like that, but yeah, that’s just the one that came to mind. mean, catching it early, man, what a lifesaver that was.

Erika (09:57)
Yeah, wow. Yeah, you probably saved them a lot of money too.

Luis Vega (10:01)
a lot of money, yeah. And a lot of time, which causes more money, right? Because it’s the expense of having to do everything over and, you know, fix things and you have to buy more material and it’s just, yeah, it’s a mess. So when you’re that close to being finished, the last thing you want is something like that happening and causing, you know, a big wrench in your timeline, so.

Erika (10:18)
Yeah, absolutely. With the tech that you offer, how do you see it transforming the way that investors and property owners operate in the market?

Luis Vega (10:28)
It’s a great question. I love that question. That’s great. I think one of the biggest things is helping to maximize their overall ROI by A, doing what we just said is preventing things from happening. But also I think by elevating the tenant experience or the new homeowner experience, when they come in, they see your property as something that’s different, that you’re able to provide an experience for them that is unlike the properties in your area.

And let’s face it, like as a real estate investor, you we’re always trying to differentiate ourselves from each other and say, hey, I have the better design over here, or I have, you know, these amenities and I have this and I have that. So we’re always comparing and contrasting what the market is doing because we want to maximize our rents and, you know, maximize our profits. So the whole thing of, you know, trying to differentiate yourself, the technology is a double-sided coin and it only works in your favor.

So that’s the one thing I think that we’re super excited to help investors understand is that not only are you protecting your properties, but you’re also able to elevate the tenant experience and command higher rents. And there’s hard data around this that tenants are willing to pay more for a property that’s equipped with security and with amenities that they can use from their phone. Let’s face it, everybody that we have today, renting and buying homes like this millennial market, the Gen Z market, they’re rushing.

and they want to buy things that align with what they do on a day-to-day basis. They want to use all day, they’re for their phone, right? So let’s give them some tools and let’s give them some amenities and some features that they can really be excited about. And on the flip side, you as the property owner are able to make more money. So that’s what it’s all about for us.

Erika (12:05)
Yeah, yeah, I love that. And I know you have also had, you know, firsthand experience when it comes to rentals. So you understand this stuff too, Luis.

Luis Vega (12:15)
Exactly. Yeah, you know having rentals having done flips and having run through security issues in the past and you know people steal stuff all the time and You know one of the things I think it just you know This specifically hasn’t happened to me, but it’s happened to countless of my customers Are the lock boxes so we don’t even think twice we say we’re gonna provide access to our property We’re gonna take a lock box and we’re gonna put it right up right on the outside of the building Right on the door or right on the front gate

and we just have this little piece of plastic just sitting right there with the keys to the building, right there. And nobody even thinks twice about it. Well, people break those all the time. So, you if you think by having a lock box that you’re really securing your property, you got to think again, because they’re easily broken. People are breaking them all the time and you’re providing the keys to your home or your project that you’re building for someone right at the front. So let’s make it.

a little bit harder for people to get access to your property and break in and take, you know, $8,000 worth of electrical materials or, you know, $10,000 worth of plumbing or whatever it might be. those are the things like, those are just some of the things that I help investors kind of understand. It’s like, there’s a lot of vulnerabilities that you just take for granted because you do it so often. And then it’s just that one time where you have, you know, somebody come in and take all your appliances, you know, then, then it starts to sting. Let’s, let’s

you know, be preventative there. Let’s try to put some things in place to prevent stuff like that happening.

Erika (13:39)
Absolutely. you know, keep continuing the conversation about your experience investing. I’m sure you’ve had a moment where things got real. Maybe a project didn’t go as planned or you had to totally pivot on a flip. Can you share one of those moments from your journey?

Luis Vega (13:56)
Oh yeah, so we had a flip that we were doing and, you know, contractors always like a pain point. I feel like for a lot of people, it’s like a big, you know, of contention. It’s like finding good quality people that are reliable, say they’re going to do what they say they’re going to do. And yeah, we had an issue where, you know, I went through multiple contractors, you know, trying to get a project started. I landed on someone I thought was going to be, you know, beneficial to us to help finish the project.

and ended up just being the complete opposite, taking our portion of the deposit and spending it, not being able to hire people and then coming back and just barely doing any work at all and just wasting money and wasting our time. So yeah, we had a big loss on that. That’s why you have to buy right and investors know that you have to have.

enough room in your deal and you have to buy right in order to account for some of these things, because it’s going to happen. It just depends on what is it? What is it going to be this time? Is it going to be theft? Is it going to be a bad contractor? Is it going to be something else? City delays or whatever it might be. So yeah, we had a big issue with that. That property had like flooding due to some excavation we were doing in the area. And we had a bunch of problems with that.

Yeah, I feel your pain, believe me. You know, somebody who’s implementing solutions to kind of help prevent this, I’ve already experienced that on the other side. You know, even though, you know, we’re not a huge like investment team, right? So we’re not buying like thousands of units. But friends of mine have said, man, the stuff that you’ve gone through, you’ve already lived, you know, many more years than some other, you know, investors that have been doing it longer, just an amount of things that we’ve had to overcome, right? In some of our projects. So believe me, I totally understand what everybody goes through and

in investing and it’s not for the weak. So you have to be, you have to kind of be built for this stuff. And yeah, so it’s been an interesting time.

Erika (16:26)
Yeah, yeah. you know, having that community too, while you’re, you know, going through that stuff is really important. Luis, whether it’s investing or with what you’re building with Super Home, have there been any networks that have really helped grow your business?

Luis Vega (16:41)
absolutely.

Yeah. So I’m a big proponent of, of, you know, working through, ⁓ investor groups and communities and, know, being a part of programs like this that really help investors, from all different ways. And, yeah, that’s been a big component to our growth. Like am I networking and going through, you know, different projects, in different areas? I wouldn’t been able to do that without proper networking and, know,

making contacts with people in the industry. So yeah, I go to a lot of conferences, we go to events, we go to small, you know, local real estate groups and we build connections and that’s been a big thing. And then out of that comes, you know, after we do great work, we get referrals. And so now we start expanding our network that way and that’s been awesome to have.

Erika (17:22)
Yeah, absolutely. For our listeners who are looking to level up, whether they’re property owners or investors, or I meant to say property managers, but ⁓ what’s one piece of advice that you would give them about integrating technology into real estate?

Luis Vega (17:37)
Yeah, I think that ⁓ one of the biggest things is understanding that there’s an incredible return on investment from a security standpoint. So security has been like a really big issue, especially for projects under construction. The security element is very, very, very important. And I think that that would be my first piece of advice is don’t have a lockbox outside of the property, use a keypad.

you know, door lock, ideally one that’s connected so you can actually see who’s coming and going from your phone at any given time. No Wi-Fi required, by the way, so we have solutions where, you might not have, obviously you’re not gonna have Wi-Fi at your construction site. So, you we can implement solutions that allow you to have access to that door, even remotely see who’s coming and going, issue independent codes for the, you know, the electrician, for the plumber, for the real estate agent, interior designer, you have a list of codes that you can change at any given time.

I’m gonna get no Wi-Fi needed. you know, go into that direction, approaching your project like, hey, how do I protect my investment as much as possible? And that would be my first piece of advice. Use cameras, like we deploy cameras, no Wi-Fi needed, no power needed on site, which is great for construction sites. so, better making that investment upfront in the security and protecting your project would be the biggest piece of advice. I could go on and on about advice on how to…

make your project more efficient using tech, but yeah, the security part is a big one because you’re losing materials and all kinds of stuff. It just sets our projects back so far. So let’s not do that and let’s put some time into figuring out the right way to do it upfront.

Erika (19:12)
Yeah, absolutely. And you know, there’s so much new technology out there, which is really exciting for anyone who’s hesitant to adopt that new tech, what kind of advice would you give? You know, let’s say they want to start small. They don’t know where to begin.

Luis Vega (19:27)
Yeah, I think that is something I’m very passionate about. And I would say, you know, partner with somebody like myself who, you know, has done both the investing side and understands the technical side. And I’ve been doing this over 20 years being in tech. And so I’ve already done all the research, right? I’ve done all the hard work with finding out what’s good and what’s not good. And, you know, partnering with somebody like myself so I can better educate you on what’s possible is your first step.

I don’t charge to have a discussion about what’s possible. I’m here to enlighten you and make you aware of what you can do to better protect your property, create better efficiency, and provide a better experience for your end customer. yeah, take some time. Partner with somebody like myself who can give you advice and helps you in the right direction. even if whatever we have might not be a good fit for you at this time, maybe in the future.

you might have a project where it is a good fit and at least you’re armed with the information, because we can’t take that away. Once you receive the information and you have it you’re educated, I can’t take that away from you. And so now you’re armed with the tools that you need to have a better and more successful project. So yeah, I would just say seek counsel, good quality counsel from somebody like myself who has already done the research and already been through this stuff.

Erika (20:39)
I love it. love it. And Luis, when it comes to Super Home, what do you see next on the horizon? Is there new technology that you’re working on? Maybe it’s working in a different market.

Luis Vega (20:51)
Absolutely, yeah. So I said this earlier, but we have a little bit of AI stuff going on. that’s kind of being a huge part of everything that we’re doing, which is such a big help because it does a lot of the analysis and the false alarm kind of filtering that ⁓ really helps to save time. So we’re really excited about that. We’re also working in the commercial space as well. So if you have a large business that’s on a large

piece of commercial real estate. We have AI powered virtual security guards that we’re deploying as well. And so that’s a really, really big one that we’re really excited about being able to have your cameras, your existing camera system as the guard and watching the building 24 hours a day or 12 hours. Maybe you want to do it overnight. And then if you have a threat, somebody trespassing, it will automatically alert the central station and call police for you. So that happens with you having to do nothing. You can stay asleep and

you know, make sure that, you know, ensure that your property is properly protected. So, yeah, we’re really excited about doing that. We love the water detection, auto remote shutoff, metering, you know, that type of like water leak detection, access control, intercom systems, door locks, and of course the video, video surveillance is a big one. So yeah, those are the top three technologies that we’re focused on and bringing more of that to the market and helping protect some property for us.

Erika (22:09)
Yeah, that’s really exciting. Do you anticipate any hurdles along with that and do you have a plan for that?

Luis Vega (22:15)
Yeah, well, mean, not everybody is kind of tech savvy, right? So I think that can be sometimes a point of like apprehension is I’m not tech, I’m not a techie. I don’t have time to deal with, you know, this kind of stuff. Let me take that off your plate, right? So I’ve already kind of mapped out processes and, you know, things to help make it as easy as possible. And so, yeah, we do a really phenomenal job at partnering with our customers, doing onboarding.

⁓ And then kind of preparing them with you know documentation videos support documents all that kind of stuff We offer support as part of just our natural service So, you know, we have a line on our phone system. You just hit you know option three and takes you right to tech support So yeah, we try to eliminate some of those barriers by putting better processes and having solutions in place and resources I have connections with

all kinds of distributors and tech support people from all around the country to help implement these solutions. So you’re not alone and I’m happy to kind of clear any of those tech worries and move those aside for you.

Erika (23:19)
I love it. That is an excellent service, Well, before we wrap up, if someone wants to reach out to you, learn more about Super Home, you know, maybe they have some properties that, you know, need your services. What’s the best way for them to get in touch?

Luis Vega (23:23)
Sure, for sure.

Absolutely. Yeah, you guys can please follow me and subscribe to YouTube you can find a super home on there and You can find us on Instagram @ your super home. You can give us a call phone numbers (2 1 5 )4 6 9 -13 8 7. You can always give us a call and chat with me And then yeah, you can check us out on my website at your super home dot com we have super home communities dot com was for the multifamily side for those of you guys listening your specific multifamily super home communities is ⁓ a new

release that we have and of course if you have any questions about that commercial security reach out to me we have a side brand shadow watch that is really awesome for that. We have a bunch of ways to reach me I’m very visible and very accessible so give me a call or reach out to me through email or DM I’m happy to help.

Erika (24:22)
Awesome, awesome. I love the way that your technology is making life easier for property managers and investors. saving time and money. It’s really awesome.

Luis Vega (24:33)
Thank you, Eric, I appreciate that.

Erika (24:34)
Yeah, yeah, we loved having you on the show, Luis. It was great.

Luis Vega (24:37)
Awesome. Likewise, Erika, thank you so much for your time and the opportunity to talk about these solutions. It’s been an absolute pleasure.

Erika (24:43)
And for our listeners, if you got value from this episode, make sure that you’re subscribed to the Real Estate Pro Show. We’ve got more conversations coming up with innovators like Luis who are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in real estate. We’ll see you on the next episode. Bye.