Technology columnist Craig Rowe reviews pre-sale renovation solution HouseAmp on behalf of Inman. The software sharply consolidates the tasks and delivers the transparency required to ensure a smooth, timely and valuable home construction project.
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HouseAmp is a real estate fintech focused on pre-sale improvements.
Platforms: Web; mobile-first
Ideal for: Lenders; builders; agents; homeowners
Top selling points:
• Consolidation of deal processes
• Emphasis on transparency
• Keeps consumer involved
• Web-driven lending workflow
• Vendor selection freedom
Top concern(s):
Adoption and sales. Few lenders will admit they can’t streamline or serve a seller for a home improvement loan, and many agents have service providers in their network. Like many other well-executed systems, HouseAmp’s biggest hurdle is the shortsightedness of the industry it’s aiming to improve.
What you should know
I’m not sure HouseAmp knows what it is actually providing the market. And I mean this in a good way.
HouseAmp is, on paper, a collaborative silo for agents and sellers to work with lenders and contractors to pitch and finance presale home improvements. It’s a vertical experience, meaning every party works in the same interface, communicating clearly from initial loan application — based on home equity — to project bidding and milestone tracking.
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Sellers and their agents can also invite their own vendors to the system; it doesn’t rely on some special list of HouseAmp-approved service providers.
HouseAmp succeeds in providing transparency with enterprise-level security, e-signing and notarization, funding oversight, contractor invoicing and essentially, an always-on funnel to collect the documents, emails, notes and every other loose marble that wants to roll off the proverbial game table that is a home improvement project. It also doesn’t limit project scope; it can be as small or large as needed in each of the 43 states in which it operates.
While HouseAmp’s team was showing me what they built, I was seeing something very different. Instead of a collaborative home improvement financing solution, I was distracted by the prospect of seeing something bigger: a platform for modernizing the home transaction that finally solves the largest source of friction — lending. Bolt on a home search front end, and we could be on the cusp of something that would excite me for the first time in ages.
It’s my job to offer my opinion on what I see, not what I hope for in a product. But my take is largely a reflection of how nonchalantly HouseAmp solves the consumer lending problem real estate perpetually faces. It works so effortlessly.
Know that I’ll forever be cynical about working with home contractors in an app environment. Even the most tech-forward general contractors out there remain burdened by countless tactile hurdles.
Granted, HouseAmp doesn’t get too deep into that thicket; it’s not trying to manage materials bidding or overtime hours. The software’s involvement remains high-level and above the fray of worksite tumult. They do have an approach that could tackle my skepticism.
“We’ve established partnerships with turnkey providers such as Renovation Sells, BOSSCAT, and ReUp, along with other service professionals in staging, moving and related industries,” HouseAmp’s Molly Priest told me. She’s the director of marketing. “Through these partnerships, service providers gain access to customized marketing materials, webinars, training sessions, and additional resources designed to make using and promoting HouseAmp as simple and seamless as possible.”
The other value-add for contractors is guaranteed payment, a benefit of the vertical services model. Vendor fees are paid from the loan facilitated and dispersed directly through HouseAmp.
Every stakeholder has a place to work inside HouseAmp that presents features, menus and content in likable, familiar terms and visuals. The consumer shouldn’t worry about logging in and, in fact, will likely always feel like the system’s emotional center, as if the others using the software are there for them.
This isn’t an easy vibe to build into a fintech system developed to address a niche industry premise. I could be wrong about that “niche” comment, too, as it appears more buyers than ever are expecting homes to be turnkey at move-in, according to a Zillow trends piece published in February.
Maybe HouseAmp can repair my cynicism about web-based home improvement solutions, since they’re not trying to manage subs or worksite operations. It’s this feature and its adept, headache-free lending integration that, in my opinion, places it atop the pre-sale renovation category and makes me hopeful for a future where the homebuying and selling experience could maybe, possibly, hopefully change for the better.
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe
Craig C. Rowe started in commercial real estate at the dawn of the dot-com boom, helping an array of commercial real estate companies fortify their online presence and analyze internal software decisions. He now helps agents with technology decisions and marketing through reviewing software and tech for Inman.
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