Track Every Property Detail With AI: Maintenance, Warranties, Repairs and Tenant Damage

Dianne Wheeler (00:00)
I became a homeowner and I actually have owned many homes in the past, but I always had a partner that helped me out with it. And this time I really became a homeowner by myself. And there was a point in time that I said, my gosh, I don’t know what I don’t know. And I started to almost panic a little bit and say, should I become a homeowner?

Right. If I don’t know what I don’t know, am I ready for this journey? I was confident in the ability I had to help with owning a home or to be able to you know, clean a home or paint a home or decorate it or whatnot.

Michelle Kesil (02:09)
Hey everybody. Welcome to the *Real Estate Pros Podcast*. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil. Today I’m joined by somebody I’m looking forward to chatting with Dianne Wheeler of HomeHubAi. She founded HomeHubAi, which is the ecosystem of record for homes. So really excited for you to be here, Dianne.

Dianne Wheeler (02:31)
Thank you. It’s a pleasure. It’s a pleasure.

Michelle Kesil (02:34)
Great, so let’s dive in. First off, for those new to your work, can you share what your main focus is?

Dianne Wheeler (02:41)
Yeah, absolutely. So when I think about being a homeowner and I think of how many pieces of information you have to know on any given day, it’s very fractured and it’s sometimes overwhelming. And so I was really personally seeking a very holistic solution to make it easier. And when you think about the transaction, there are a lot of really talented, amazing people who

Are realtors to help you find the right house and negotiate the best price. And there’s mortgage people to help you finance and you know, title company and all those different folks. But there aren’t a lot of people in the space of home ownership. Once you get your keys, you unlock that door the first time you walk on in and you sometimes feel a little ghosted. And so when you really start thinking about the ecosystem of record for home, it’s a pretty big space that we are fulfilling.

And so what we’re talking about is the ability to pull in all of the facets, the details of your home from the interior envelope to the exterior, all of the fixtures, paint colors, plus looking at any warranties, looking at any potential insurance policies, looking at maintenance, you know, how many of us really know that we have to purge our water tank on an annual basis to keep.

Appliance working per you know, working the way it’s supposed to. And so HomeHubAi being the ecosystem of record is not just a place that we’re kind of okay, photograph your home. It’s really working with the homeowner to create an entire experience to help them with that journey and make it easier. So that’s what we’re that’s what we’re doing. That’s what we’re pulling together.

Michelle Kesil (04:35)
Awesome. And most of the listeners to the show are investors or getting into investing. How would you say that this supports this group of people?

Dianne Wheeler (05:34)
Yeah, that’s a great question. And when I start thinking about a homeowner, a homeowner doesn’t necessarily only have to have one house. So when we think about investors, often there is an entire portfolio. And something I’ve learned from property managers is, you know, they are taking care of the transaction. So they’re looking at making sure that the investors have, you know, tenants, that the rents are collected, that everything is the way it’s supposed to be.

But one thing that we’ve learned is oftentimes not really tracked is the the handyman schedule of going out and whatever tickets are created in order to you know complete a work order. And so we said, gee, even if I own multiple houses, what can help me to handle the preventative maintenance as well as keep track of

Any type of, you know, warranties or any type of maintenance or any type of work order that’s being done. And so one way that our HomeHubAi app plugs in so well, imagine the life cycle of a tenant. You have them, you essentially do a walk of the property, make sure that what they’re moving into doesn’t have any type of you know issues with it to start with.

And if you can photograph it and everything is time and date stamped, when they go to move out, it’s really easy to have that data driven story to say, is there a reason that they shouldn’t get their deposit back? Right. Is there a tangible physical reason that they shouldn’t get it back? So that’s one facet of having a property manager or having an investor be able to really use our app that I think aligns with that ecosystem of a tenant.

And then let’s think about the other facets we can pop into. tenants sometimes are really working up to being homeowners. So now think about the space where FHA mortgages are allowing homeowners to prove that they are worthy of a loan, you know, an FHA mortgage based on alternative avenues rather than just a credit report. So if they track

And our app allows them to do this, that they have made their rent payments on time, they’ve made their utility payments on time. And again, our app does all of this stuff. they have, you know, really done the due diligence as far as keeping a home and and and being a good tenant. Now they can actually justify becoming potentially a homeowner down the down the road. when we think about the investor who wants to buy properties, you know, who wants to buy a lemon?

And so if you can look at a potential property and say, you know what, what is the the record of detail, right? How is this maintained? what age is the roof? What you know, what are the specs on the inside of the home? and HomeHubAi does allow property reports in order for you to take an inside gander as far as what is the property that you’re investing in. So I think that HomeHubAi, if it’s a single homeowner or if it’s a homeowner that is

Has maybe a couple of properties or even the large investor, this really helps them to track the details of their portfolio in a very, very granular way to help them really keep on top of what needs to happen in order to continue making it very valuable.

Michelle Kesil (09:11)
Yeah, that’s great. And how does the platform work? Is it like a subscription that people keep up with?

Dianne Wheeler (09:21)
Yes. And so this is one thing that we actually started with a desktop version. Then we went into a mobile app. And then we are now pulling a the mobile app back around so that we do have folks being able to use it not just on the phone, but then also on the desktop. So we continue to emerge and evolve with our technology. When it comes to homeowners, a single person can have a subscription, six dollars and ninety-nine cents a month. What a value, right?

And when you happen to have someone who is a business vendor, a business vendor in our world is somebody who potentially is a roofer or provides a service for a a home. And those folks are ones that we want to pull into our ecosystem as a vetted vendor. Okay. And so if I’m looking for a roofer in the address of my house that I just bought in Tuscaloosa, I will be able to pull up.

Who’s the vetted vendors and be able to see right from you know, right from the portal, this is who I can use. Those folks are listing for $99 a month. And the neat thing is it’s a a really a reversal of some of the other types of lead generation software out there. So homeowners have the the information of the person in their hands rather than you know a lead given to a roofer or someone like that.

And yeah, so we right now have the ability for partners, realtors or insurance companies to offer coupon codes to their book of business. And they can also get a yearly subscription if they’d like to.

Michelle Kesil (11:40)
Yeah, amazing. And is this like by city and area, or…? Is that how it gets organized?

Dianne Wheeler (11:48)
Yeah, it’s by zip code. And you know, fun fact, I’m here in Florida and we have over 70 zip codes in Tampa. And Charlotte County, I think only has like 20 or something like that. So we really wanted to make it so that people would put their property address in and their property address pulls in an MLS light record, and that is really what

Prompts data inside that property dashboard. And so it helps with the recommendations, it helps with some of the maintenance recommendations based on the climate. We all know it’s different to take care of a house with a huge moisture ecosystem around it than it is one that’s dry. And so we really did our due diligence in saying what is the best driver of some of this information. It really just came down to the zip code.

Michelle Kesil (12:45)
And what is the biggest problem that you have solved with this app?

Dianne Wheeler (12:54)
That is a great question. And you know, I’m gonna go back to a real quick personal story.

I became a homeowner and I actually have owned many homes in the past, but I always had a partner that helped me out with it. And this time I really became a homeowner by myself. And there was a point in time that I said, my gosh, I don’t know what I don’t know. And I started to almost panic a little bit and say, should I become a homeowner?

Right. If I don’t know what I don’t know, am I ready for this journey? I was confident in the ability I had to help with owning a home or to be able to you know, clean a home or paint a home or decorate it or whatnot.

But when it came to actually taking care of every detail of the home, I panicked just a little bit. Well, when you think about that, how many other people are just like me and avoid buying something that is often the

Anchor for building generational wealth. So our solution in making homeownership easier for people helps them to have that concrete foundation where they can really build and they can truly really be able to

Finance whatever future they want to have, if you will. This is, I think, a big anchor behind it. And that comfort level is something that is different for each person. And that’s where our ecosystem makes it so that folks can use every part of the ecosystem or just the parts that they really need. And when we think about tying vendors in with a homeowner, we wanted to celebrate our DIYers as well as the people who just again have services for every part of their home. So

We’ve really been able to pull the, you know, the the vast majority of all those experiences together in one place, which goes back to if the home maintains its story and these records are transferable from one owner to the next, which they are, now the home, if you will, can be a lot more transparent to whoever is the owner at that point in time to really be able to take care of it. So it really solves some issues that are out there that are you know.

I think possibly higher level issues. and stuff that I, I just, you know, I really felt it was time. It was needed with a lot of the things that are happening right now in the environment. So

Michelle Kesil (16:02)
Yeah, absolutely. And what are the different types of providers that you are looking to partner with?

Dianne Wheeler (16:10)
Yeah, so we love property managers because property managers can make sure that all of their tenants have HomeHubAi and access to really be able to document and detail their journey of living in that property. We also love to proper to partner with any type of home service provider. So whether it’s a roofer, a plumber, HVAC, electricians, builders.

We think that those partnerships are absolutely huge because they can provide a starting point. Usually people will begin our app because they have new information on their home. And that new information is the foundation of them saying, cool, yeah, I’ll add in my new paint color. and by the way, I can add in my window sizes and I can add in, you know, a lot of other information that I did. So we love our service providers. We love our realtors and our insurance companies.

Our insurance companies and our brokers are folks that they’re so passionate about their clients, especially if the client has an insurable event and they’ve been telling the client, make sure you have an itemization of all of your property. You don’t want to have to think about this when you have damage or when you have a loss. Make sure you do it ahead of time. Well, this tool allows people to put their items and

After they upload their dec page, if they put the items values in, they can actually see whether or not they’re truly insured to the right level or not. And so we like all of our partners that again love their homeowners, love the property, in order to make it just again easier for clients to be able to manage and maintain and and own a home. So

Michelle Kesil (18:04)
Yeah, amazing. And are you focused on like what are you most focused on scaling to next with this?

Dianne Wheeler (18:14)
Great question. When I think about our next giant leap, it’s going to be to expand the number of homes that we have in the environment right now.

We are building the number of property addresses, HomeHubAi, all one word, in the app stores. And we have a great orange logo with a wonderful insignia on it. And we’re also looking to pull in providers. So when you think about the roofers and the HVAC people and the plumbing people, and we are actually sponsoring a coupon, if you will, or a fun give.

You know, let us get through hurricane season and having our business vendors list for free. And so that is something where I would love to talk to all, whether it’s a property manager, whether it is a home services provider of whatever industry, and really get their information so I can get them through our vetting process and get them in the app. And then like I said, we’re starting in Florida. That’s where my residence is, and then we’re expanding throughout the country. So

one neighborhood, one zip code, one, you know, one home at a time is just really what we’re trying to do and and and massive and fast. And you know, we want this to go across the country in every home if we can.

Michelle Kesil (19:33)
Amazing. Thank you so much for sharing. So before we wrap up here, if someone wants to reach out, connect and learn more, where can people find you?

Dianne Wheeler (19:43)
Yeah, the easiest thing is to find me on LinkedIn or on HomeHubAi.info. That’s our website. And we’re gonna be having a a little update on our website coming within the next few weeks. So I’m really excited to see and share some of those updates on there. if anybody wants to reach out personally, Dianne, two N’s and an E, at HomeHubAi.info. I welcome their email. I welcome their feedback.

I’d welcome to know if there’s anything else they’d like us to include in the ecosystem. And when we think about how big this is, there’s room for so much more. And I know we’re at the point where we’re really, you know, getting the surface and diving into the different segments. But the more people get involved, the more people like, the more people share with us their story about how having a detailed record of their home has helped them, the better.

Better and the more you know, I think adoptive people will have you know, for the journey for HomeHubAi. So that’s really what I would love to have happen is just people to reach out, ask questions, post videos. We’re on all the LinkedIn social media, Facebook, Instagram, all that good stuff, and just share a clip with us. How are you using it right now? How does it feel to document everything? what would you like to see in our next iteration? So

Michelle Kesil (21:10)
Okay, perfect. Well appreciate your time and your story. Thank you for being

Dianne Wheeler (21:12)
Here.

Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Michelle Kesil (21:16)
Course and for the listeners tuning in, if you got value, make sure you’ve subscribed. We’ve got more conversations with operators like Dianne who are building real businesses. And we’ll see you on the next episode.