Ep 044 - From 'Project Panic' to Plan: The AI Tool Homeowners Need

Welcome to Be a Smarter Homeowner Podcast, where you'll discover strategies to save money, save time, and be better organized in managing your largest financial asset and biggest expense, your home. Your hosts, John Bodrozic and Beth Dodson, who are co-founders of HomeZada, have been supporting homeowners for over 20 years. They are here to share with you their tips and suggestions, as well as interviews with industry experts. With the goal of helping you become a smarter homeowner. Now here's your hosts, John and Beth.

Hi everyone, thank you for being here with us at Be a Smarter Homeowner Podcast. I am Beth Dodson, one of your hosts, and I'm with John Bedrosik, our other host, and we are co-founders of HomeZada, which is a digital home management platform to help you better manage all the details about your home. And for our partners out there, it is a customer engagement strategy after that sale you're working with. So for any of you out there, you can learn more about HomeZada at homezada.com. But let's get into our episode and why we are here. So at Be a Smarter Homeowner Podcast, we're here to bring people and content here for you about all things home, anything you need. And if you put in requests, we will also help with that. But today is part 2 Of a new feature set that we've released in HomeZada because we think it's extremely valuable to homeowners. And not all homeowners are in the project management mode, and that's what we're going to be talking about here today. However, even if you aren't, it's something that you may be in in the future. So today we're going to talk about visual design AI. Which is a HomeZada feature in our project spaces, in our project phases of the product. And we're gonna talk about one, what it is, how we can address the pain points that people are experiencing. 2, what it is, real use cases and how people are using it today. And then what's the benefit to you as a homeowner for using this? In our previous episode, which you can find on our website or in any other platform, that you have. We talked about Visual Design AI from a graphical perspective, a photo perspective, and designing and prepping for your project. John, tell people what we're going to talk about today as second phase of HomeZada's Visual Design AI feature launch.

Yeah, great segue into the visual design. Like you said, essentially allows a homeowner to explore Based on an existing photo, what future designs or what designs they want for doing a remodel and renovation. But once they come up with the design and they say, hey, I want to actually go do a project, what we're focusing in there is how visual design talks to our other homeowner AI design and actually starts to build a budget for you. Because that's one of the 2 big stresses in remodel projects. The first stress is, What is my new project gonna look like? That's the visual design AI creating different pictures. Once you have a picture of this is what I want, the next stress is, well, how much is this going to cost? And essentially the AI that we're gonna talk about now is being able to take that photo and actually generate a budget for you.

So speaking of that, 'cause we're talking about the pain points, Of what homeowners experience, and in a previous in the previous episode we talked about the amount of choices as being a plus and a stressful situation for many customers or many homeowners doing whatever project they want to do. And that's the first thing. But what other pain points do you think homeowners are experiencing or Yeah. What other pain points do you think they're experiencing as it relates to projects?

Yeah, I think it boils down to those 2 categories. First, it's the, what do I want? And that means all the different product selections. You know, do I want this type of product? Overwhelmed. And how's it all going to look? So there's the design sort of challenge that most homeowners face, which is I want to remodel my kitchen or do a patio. Well, what do I want? What materials do I want? Walk into any home improvement store and you're overwhelmed by walking down the aisle over all the different choices. Then the next stress that's sort of related to that is, how much is it going to cost me? And the two are interrelated, which is why I think our visual design AI is so important. It's the— you may like something visually, but then you may not be able to afford it financially. And so you might have to go back and forth and do what I call different iterations where there's the trade-off over designing something you want with a visual design AI and then going, oh, but that's beyond my budget. Let me go back to my visual design AI and see if I can swap out different products and maybe make it a little bit cheaper.

And the way I see some of this is that we can, any, homeowner who's choosing to do a project can do all of this upfront because preparation is king, as we say at HomeZada. Preparation is king to make sure things move smoothly through the project process. Um, but as they're trying to navigate all of this, what current tools would a homeowner be using? I mean, I've seen a lot of friends and family do nothing. I mean, literally rely on either a contract's budget, contractor's budget, designer's budget, but they literally do not come up with a budget prior to. And that has all kinds of implications to the project, which we'll get to. But what other tools are they using today, if any?

Yeah, that's a great question. And I might have one or two different answers. I think it's important.

Sure.

Because I think a lot of homeowners have an idea, I want to do this project, and the first thing they do is try and call a contractor. They've skipped over the process over asking themselves what they want and B, establishing a budget for it. So that, is essentially the challenge as it relates to, I want to do something, go straight to a contractor. The next thing that you said that they do is that they like, I want a project, and some are, they're going to whip out the spreadsheet and I'm going to start trying creating my own project budget. But that skips the phase over, well, what's the design? What do you actually want the project—

The specifics.

The specifics of the design to look at. Most people will also just like, I want to do a project, and they start focusing in on the product selections. They'll go to the home improvement store and they'll get enamored by some brand of refrigerator or countertop, and they're like, oh, that's cool. But they've skipped over that phase of like, what does the comprehensive project look like? What are all my different choices? And then what's a budget that I can actually work work on, and then getting down to the product selection process. So a lot of homeowners skip over these important planning processes. One is the visual design planning process. The second is establishing a budget, comparing that with your financials.

So, okay, so I also envision some of these things where people are using No tools at all, some generic tools and not connecting the dots, some tools in some areas but not in other areas, and hoping that telepathy is the way their contractor can communicate to them.

Yeah, I mean, a lot of them are— maybe they're going to their browser and they've got a bunch of bookmarks saved of a bunch of different products.

That's another way.

That's another sort of planning tool. I've talked to contractors in the past that are like, yeah, I spend so much time when I get a call from a homeowner and I have to guide them through all this stuff, which takes them time and effort because the homeowner hasn't done enough of the planning work upfront. And candidly, part of why they haven't done it is there haven't been very good tools for them to do it.

Correct. Comprehensive, all connected.

Comprehensive and connected, which is I'm going to inspiration sites to get pictures over photos over what I like. The problem with that is they're not photos of your room that you're remodeling. I'm going to retail sites to pick products that I like, but that's not tied to a comprehensive design. I'm calling a contractor, I'm building a spreadsheet. All of these things are not interrelated, and that's why—

That's true.

I think a lot of homeowners have anxiety about Starting some of these bigger projects.

And to your point with anxiety, I can only imagine, and because I can envision it myself, that when a contractor has to slow the process down to gain clarity of what the vision is of this project, and therefore then identify the selections, then identify a budget, The homeowner themselves becomes frustrated because they think the contractor is slowing down the process and they're trying to get into a new project by a certain date, but they can't meet that date at this present moment without all of this, these requirements, understanding the vision, understanding the selections, building the budget, and moving forward to executing the actual project.

Yes. And they're, they're absolutely connected, which is the design is connected to the budget. You want, you want, you know, high-end cabinets and high-end whatever, and you want certain sort of things. That's going to be a certain budget. If you're just going to paint your existing cabinets and put in a new sink and this, that, and the other, that's a different kind of budget. So the two are connected, and yet there's not been very great tools other than generic, you know, web searches and bookmarks and spreadsheets and phone calls with a contractor to kind of help the homeowner plan out their project before they make that first phone call.

Yeah, and I know we're going to get to it, but I think we've actually solved some problems between contractors and homeowners. So with that said, What— how does this second— we talked about visual design AI in a previous podcast. How does this facilitate now into budget building in terms of making that all succinct so the homeowner can have more clarity and confidence knowing what they need to do to move forward?

Yep. So I'm going to start by summarizing what the Visual Design AI was. Was take a photo of an existing room, enter in a description over what you want. It could be a design theme. It could be specific objects. The Visual Design AI creates a new photo in 10 seconds for you, and you can do multiple iterations of that.

Yep.

Now, once you find the iteration that you like, you're like, I really like this design, then the next step is create a project. And when you create the project, here's where the power comes in. The AI will take your existing photo of your existing space with the new photo that you've gone through visual design, and it will compare the two to see which objects have changed, because not everything sometimes changes.

Sure.

Sometimes everything changes. And as a result of that comparison, it will create a complete material list for you. Of every single object. And not only will it create that material list, it estimates the quantity, the unit price, and gives you a description again, like in about 10 seconds.

Here's a question that I have. Does it estimate the labor?

It can, yes, because when you create, when you create a project, you, you pick whether you're going to hire a contractor or do DIY.

Oh, perfect.

And if it's a DIY project, then it's just going to show you the material list. If you're going to hire a contractor, it will create a line item for labor and contractor overhead.

Oh, love it, because that's where a lot of people do forget to add budget line items, which has a huge impact on their overall project budget.

Yes.

So now that we have that, so with this functionality, we said it in the beginning with the Visual Design AI that that first phase works with all projects. Same with this second phase?

Absolutely.

All projects.

Estimate.

Big or small.

Estimate trees that you want and you plant your trees. Estimate, you know, a new front door. Estimate an entire patio. Actually, that's the sample that I have to show our audience today.

Oh, perfect.

So would you like to see it?

I would like to see it.

It's the whole, uh, image is worth a thousand words.

So yeah, so for everyone on, uh, voice, you can come back at this time to see how this operates, uh, with inside HomeZada.

Okay, so let me set the stage here. The top photo is an existing photo of my existing patio outside.

Looks a little dated. It's beautiful, but looks a little dated.

It's dated. And this below that is a photo where through visual design AI, I created a text saying I want a completely updated patio, kind of a Mediterranean theme. I even specified what I wanted. I wanted an outdoor fireplace. I wanted an outdoor kitchen, new pavers, even furniture. And it instantly Respects the geometry of the existing house, and it's basically taken all my old patio stuff away and created a fantastic visual design of that. That's what the Visual Design Part 1 did.

Which is way more current.

Look at Part 2. Based on that photo, it's now created a list of every single object in that photo. It knows that you have a built-in grass grill, fireplace, pavers, etcetera. It's estimated each one of those items, including the quantities. It's provided a unit price. It's got a total price, and it's even given you a detailed description over every single item that's in that design.

Yeah, that's brilliant. So But we all know that we're giving this budget. Oftentimes it may not match a contractor estimate.

Yes.

How do we address that scenario?

So ultimately, when you're hiring a contractor to do a project, they actually want to know what you want. So what is the design and what is the products? And then they end up giving you a price. Right? So developing a budget versus a final price, there is an iteration that happens along the way.

Yes.

Meaning AI is going to be a great tool, but it may not be 100% accurate every single time, but it gives you a darn good directional sort of view over that. The contractor then may be able to— maybe prices have gone up, maybe he's getting better prices. If they're competing on what their actual bid is, you may end up having with a different sort of price. So I think that this is part of the planning stage that a homeowner going through these 2 simple 2 steps, create a visual design, create a budget. Now, when you have that first call with a contractor, you're like, hey, I kind of already know what I want and I kind of have a budget. Can I share with you the picture of what I want, maybe? And then the contractor goes, oh, I see you have all these other things. Then when the contractor provides the quote, you could then— you're much more intelligent on having a discussion to make sure that the contractor is pricing the products that you want in your project.

That makes sense. So basically what you're doing is we're using Visual Design AI, one, To gain our vision and to create all the inspiration and put it into a photograph. Then we're taking it and putting it into a budget that starts giving us awareness and clarity as to, is this project something I want to spend money on today, or do I want to postpone it because it's just not in my budgetary situation in this particular year, quarter, month, whatever? And it's also preparing me to have an intelligent discussion with a contractor once the project gets started, which can then ultimately alleviate some frustration between all the parties.

Correct. And let me give you some real-life sort of examples with using this outdoor patio, right? So the— for our audio listeners, it summarized the patio as $40,000. Now you have to compare it against your personal budget. You might say, uh, I don't have $40,000, I only want to spend $30,000. Now you might go and say, well, you know what, I don't really need that fancy stone fireplace. Maybe I just go with a gas grill or a gas heating element that's a piece of furniture versus a built-in.

Totally.

So you start to Start to reduce the scope.

Adjust.

Adjust the scope. Because you know that this fancy one's 40 grand, but you really only wanted to spend 30. Now you could sort of adjust down. Conversely, you could do the same. You know what, I really want a TV above the fireplace. And I really want, you know, a bigger grill because I really like smoking, you know, barbecue meats and such, etc. So you can start to add components. So all of this, again, we're all about helping customers plan. It's planning both the visual design, the elements that are in the design, and then what the budget is. Because we don't have time on this call, we could then keep doing this iteration. I could go back to the visual design, add a few more things, and then ask it to create another project.

Or take away.

Or take away. And now you have 3 different projects, one with everything you want, one that's in the middle, and one that's kind of bare bones. and you're looking at 3 different visuals with 3 different budgets, you've already educated yourself of what you want and what you're willing to afford before you have that first phone call with a contractor. It's all about making sure that you're more prepared when you're engaged with the contractor.

Brilliant. And I know contractors would also appreciate this because The relationship will have more awareness of the process that the contractor has to go through, and that streamlined approach will work together better. And because a homeowner has been playing around with adding and subtracting elements of a project, then they understand when they're talking to the contractor. What would it mean if we added this or subtracted this element based on whatever project you got going on? And what is the impact to the budget? And contractors like that. They want to get in and out as quickly as they can. However, understanding that a person is adaptable to moving items or changing the different perspectives. Then that makes a huge impact to the way the project is finished and the— I don't want to say frustration levels, but the levels that the 2 parties can have together. And the reason why I say that is I think this is one of the benefits of what you're just showing here is I hear a lot of stories about Homeowners who get so frustrated with their contractors, and yet they don't take any responsibility themselves. And I'm not saying anyone's at fault, but it's a team that has to come together to work together to, to create a project that will satisfy a homeowner in the end. And contractors want referrals. So in my opinion, this is just like a win-win in that capacity. So Um, let's say someone is— they've done all this visual design, visual design AI, they've come up with a budget, and like that patio, they're like, oh, I swallow hard, I choke on my words, I choke on the numbers, and it's more than I anticipated. What happens then?

Yeah, from, from the homeowner perspective, I think that there's 2 to 3 different approaches. One is you could start to eliminate things. You know what, I don't really need that stone fireplace. Another one is you could take it to the next level of what I call shopping for specific brands. Meaning you might have a gas grill that you want in this outdoor patio. But if you go to a home improvement store or shop online, the price of a gas grill varies. How big is the grill? Is it got a rotisserie unit on there? Which brand is it? All of these choices. So you might be able to get a gas grill for, I don't know, $700 and $5,000 and everything in between.

Okay.

So there's also tying the design to the next phase, which HomeZada also still does, is shopping research. You can actually engage in shopping research over all those different elements because that may actually lower the price point. Still give you the overall design. You're getting all the items and elements that you want, but now you're saying, okay, these are the 3 brands that I'm going to consider. I can go with the low end and still get what I want, but I'm just going to end up saving me money because my product selection is on the low to mid-entry sort of one versus the high end.

One of the other things I see as a benefit, you know, I know we're jumping forward a little bit into The benefits, but this is also another area where if they if a customer I think we give customer choices at this point. I think it's like one of the biggest benefits. They have choices they get to make, and when they have choices reducing things, changing things, shopping for things, they also have a choice. Say you know what? I'm gonna hold off on this project right now. For later, and then I'm going to save up for it for the year and do it early next year when I have more of that element. So with that said, does this visual design AI retain this information within HomeZada for however long so that homeowners can come back? to projects at a later date? I know the answer, but I want to hear it.

Absolutely, Elizabeth. That's part of the benefit of HomeZada is when you create a project, you can estimate your start date. So for this project that's $40,000 on this patio, you're like, nah, I don't have that money, let's do it next year. You put a date for next year and it's part— it's stored in your HomeZada account, and now you can sort of tackle that in a year from now. And the added benefit is most homeowners are thinking about multiple remodels in their house. They're trying to swap out carpet with hardwood floors, or there's a half bath that needs remodeled. Now you can do this visual design and budgeting for all of them. And then you may say, I've got enough money to prioritize doing these this year. This one is going to be next year, and the other one's going to be a year, a year from that. So it's part of really empowering the homeowner to kind of get all this information long before they make that first phone call to a contractor.

No, it's ironic that you say that. I'm thinking about my— I have some own projects that I'm doing in a rental unit that I have, and my contractor didn't initially like the fact that I was breaking it up into 2 major projects. But I'm managing cash flow and I'm managing these other areas. And surprisingly, my contractor actually thought about it and said, this actually is a pretty good idea. You know, we'll see you in, you know, another year for the rest of it. And that way we're not rushing around trying to manage all these different details and all these different subcontractors.

Yeah.

And I go, exactly. So they appreciated it as much as I do. And knowing that I can track this information inside HomeZada over time, and keep either a project in progress or hold it until it's ready to go and it's on a wishlist status, that it just alleviates the pressure and the burden that I have to— that I must finish everything now or I must get started now.

Yep, absolutely, 100%. And just to add to that, you know, I think Why is this so much better than what's in, in the market for homeowners today? So many homeowners have an idea. I want to redo my patio. First thing they do is they go to a web search and say, how much does a patio remodel cost? And then they get a bunch of lists and they're like, oh, it could be $5,000, it could be $30,000, $50,000. 2 huge problems with that. One is there's no visual design that says, what do you actually want for your house? That's part of why the visual design helps out. The second part is all of that visual design has an impact over whether your patio remodel is going to be $5,000 or $40,000 based on what you want in it.

So let's face it, $5,000 versus $50,000 is a big gap.

Exactly, because what do you want in your patio? You could put, you know, an umbrella and some new patio furniture, or you could do the whole full-on outdoor kitchen concept. But this is why we're so excited about visual design AI inside of Homesada, which is it gives the power to every homeowner because it's so simple. You literally upload a photo of your room, you say, what do I want? And then you say, give me a budget. And the, the amount of education that you have in, in minutes over your different choices is 50x better than what people are doing today.

It turns project overwhelm into ease.

Not only ease, but greater confidence and less stress and anxiety.

Confidence and clarity. I love that. In project design, that's huge. That's huge, which most people don't always have. So we talked briefly about some of the examples of what people are doing with product design. And we've talked to a lot of our customers. And for our customers who are using HomeZada, they get to test these features before we actually release them to the public. So that's one of the benefits of being a HomeZada customer. So what have you heard from some of our existing customers On how they are leveraging this financial aspect of project management and moving forward on their projects? What are they saying about how this is impacting their— I don't know if it's their project data, project mindset, or even moving forward with their projects?

It's really helping them. It's educating them on, A, what do they want in the project and what might it cost? Which are the 2 biggest factors that create fear and anxiety with our customers.

Totally.

What do I want my kitchen remodel to look like and what's it going to cost? Those 2 key things is what customers have been telling us, that the visual design AI with the budget is really helping them because they can sit in front of their account and have this sort of discussion and really be informed both visually and financially over what this might cost. which then gives them greater clarity of, okay, should I pursue this project? Or, wow, this is going to be a little bit more than I thought. I'm going to have to put this one on pause. So it really gives homeowners confidence over whether to pursue a remodel project or not because they're gaining so much information in a self-service way that's tied to a visual and a budget.

That's brilliant. Yeah, confidence and clarity in project management and design.

Yes. I mean, I've talked to many customers in the past because they didn't have a visual over what they wanted. They went forward with the project, the project was done, and there was some sort of regret. Oh, I shouldn't have chosen these items. I wish I chose something different. That regret comes from not having a visual because most people want to see the visual. Other people are like the opposite of like, I'm going forward with the project. All of a sudden the project went from $20 grand to $40 grand. I spent way more than I thought I was going to spend. So there's— I got what I want, but there's financial regret of spending more than you wanted to. So it's both design and product selection regret and/or overspending regret. All of that, I think, is what we eliminate So much of that by just empowering homeowners to do this themselves.

So I'm hearing some of the benefits that we've been talking about throughout this podcast for homeowners who use Homesyada's visual design AI. The first one is creating a clear vision so that one, they can communicate properly with their contractors. If they choose to do that, or even, even if they choose to do it themselves, they have clarity in the process prior to getting started. 2, I'm hearing about, um, I'm hearing that they not only are having clarity about the process, but they're also having clarity about The budgetary realities that come with project remodel projects. I'm also hearing about clarity in terms of decision making and choice selection. Yes, and that then eliminates the fear of unexpected cost, the fear of not getting it right. whatever that is. I don't know what that is. That's me personally. I don't know what that is. Um, the fear of regretting the decision that they just spent— let's face it, some projects are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Yes.

And they don't love it, or it doesn't work for them. Meaning people think about their projects in terms of aesthetics, But they don't always think about their projects in terms of flow and how it operates. And I bring up a kitchen as a good example because oftentimes knowing where your stove and your sink and your refrigerator are, along with certain countertop space to actually be able to prepare a meal, has an impact on how you use your kitchen and what you get frustrated with and what you don't get frustrated with. And it sounds like those are some of the benefits that Um, there is for homeowners, and a lot of it has to do with just clear thinking. What other benefits are you seeing that Homes Atlas Visual Design AI can provide other people?

I think it helps them with interviewing and selecting your contractor.

Oh. That's a huge one.

Because there's a lot of— even though you know what you want and you have an expectation of a budget, now it's like, well, which contractor do I select? And there's that sort of selection process. A homeowner that's gone through this process of a visual design with a budget, they're much better positioned to interview contractors and assess who's going to be the best fit for their project and their budget.

That is important.

That's number one. And then number 2 is once you've made that selection, it's the management of that project with your contractor so that there you have less unknowns and less things that come up that suddenly go, oh, there's a change order. And it's like, how do I manage the contractor so that they're putting in what I want? If you don't have a picture over what you want and you don't have a budget over what you want, Then those things get pushed during the construction phase, which creates a potential lot of conflict between a homeowner and the contractor.

So it's a reduction in conflict as well.

Which is a reduction in stress and, and finance, both, both sort of emotional slash relationship stress because you're working with this contractor to get your, your vision in place. And if everybody is working off the same sheet music, so to speak, Everybody sees the same image. Everybody understands what the budget is. Then you're much more likely to get a better relationship with your contractor and everybody ends up happy at the end of the project. You get what you want, you get it on your budget. The contractor knew what they needed to do. They end up getting, you know, a great project and hopefully they're— you're a reference for them as they're trying to grow their business.

So yeah, so I see a bunch of other benefits just by you explaining that. One, the risk of overspending is less likely to happen because there's clarity. Two, the other thing is contractors are happier because they might be able to get through the project faster and they can move on to the next client.

Yes.

Like, I even see the benefits for the contractors. I'm like, this is like brilliant.

Yes. I've spoken to many contractors in my past. Contractors love homeowners who know what they want and can describe it and show it to them and have a realistic understanding of what budget they're capable of doing. Why? Because essentially they're what, what a contractor would say is they're near contract ready. They've already done the planning process before they called me. I don't have to spend multiple phone calls coaching the homeowner through all these design decisions over what they want and how all these different trade-offs. If a contractor says, oh, here's what you want, give me a price, they can go from first phone call to signing a contract, hopefully like in a couple of days versus weeks or even months sometimes. And so that reduces their sales cost to land the next job.

Oh my gosh. And I bet you homeowners would be surprised to think that they are part of the problem on this call. Yes, sometimes as homeowners, we are part of the problem.

I mean, contractors don't get paid unless they win the job and actually do the job. So all of the time that they're spending with the homeowner coaching them through all this stuff is their cost, essentially, that they're investing in trying to win your project.

Correct. Yeah, I forgot to think about it like that. That's, that's brilliant. So this then changes the mindset of the homeowner. to a more prepared mindset, to one that's— that is more— I don't want to say structured, but more organized.

100%. And that's part of HomeZada's mission has always been to get homeowners to be more empowered about managing proactively and planning for their house. And yes, HomeZada did have the ability to track budgets, but we didn't have it tied to the visual design component. Because the visual design drives the budget. Now the two are related with one another, and homeowners can essentially do this on their own, you know, in the comfort of their home on their laptop over multiple weekends to decide all these design decisions and budgetary decisions again long before you make that first phone call.

Brilliant. Contractors will be happy as well. Can't make this up. So How do people get started with this? Where can they find it?

It's so simple. It's literally go to homezada.com, create an account, upload a photo of a room, describe what you want. It'll generate the visual generation idea, and then click remodel project and it generates your budget.

Oh my gosh, brilliant. And so I'm so excited for these new features. I can't wait to start testing it on some of my own household projects. And we will include not only the links to how you can sign into HomeZada to play around with this and see how it works for you, but also other content that we have as it relates to how-to videos, and also the previous podcast that talks about visual design AI from a photographic element And then you will be able to tie the two together. So we want to say thank you so much for joining us. If you think anyone could find value in what we're talking about here today, please forward this to them. Please share it. Please like us if you think this is valuable content, and let us know what you want to hear in Be a Smarter Homeowner podcast. Until now, have a wonderful day.

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