Chad Hall and Jonathan AmarCourtesy of Remodelmate
Click a button and get your renovation done. That’s what Remodelmate wants to make happen for Millennials priced out of newly constructed homes or intimidated by hard, gut renovations. Remodelmate claims to help Millennials make their dream of homeownership, “push a button, new crib, easy.” No Angie’s List, here.
Founder and CEO Chad Hall, and co-founder, Jon Amar, both 28 years old, believe that if they can make the renovation process less messy, more homeowners will take advantage. Started in 2016, Hall, with a background in construction and at LivingSocial (now Groupon), and Amar with a corporate marketing background working with real estate developers, came up with a way to make renovations more predictable through technology. They built an algorithm that takes homeowners’ cares like cost, experience, and time, and auto-assigns them to the best contractor for the job. According to Hall and Amar, this gives locally and independently-owned companies an opportunity to compete with the bigger companies. This also gives homeowners an option to have a hands-off experience – if they can handle it.
Maryann Reid: I work with homeowners who want to be there to make sure their contractors are doing the job. They won’t be sold on the idea that they don’t have to be there, because they already want to. How do you get around that?
Jon Amar: To be frank, those aren’t our customers. We’re focused on winning over people who use technology in their daily lives and who find the remodeling process to be overwhelming, stressful, and a suck on their lives.
These tend to be people who recently experience major life events such as buying their first home, getting married, or having their first child. We’re also building for Millennials, as they’ll soon become the largest home owning demographic in the United States.
Reid: Can someone renovate their home and live someplace else?
Amar: All they really have to do is make sure contractors have access to their property. We make that possible by mailing lockboxes directly to homeowners to make the logistics easy.
For a small fee, homeowners can opt into our Concierge service where they won’t ever have to worry about securing any necessary permits or ordering and delivering materials. We handle that. You can literally be on a beach in Maui and self-manage an ongoing home renovation on Remodelmate or have us manage it.
Reid: Some television shows have really made the renovation process look manageable, and even fun. What don’t homeowners know about renovating a home?
Chad Hall: Renovations are unpredictable for homeowners and contractors. This often means lost wages or time for contractors who have been slow to adopt technology. Homeowners have become so accustomed to unpredictable home remodeling experiences that they expect a renovation to run over budget and over schedule. They enter into agreements, spend thousands of dollars, and expect a terrible experience. That’s crazy to me. Our mission is to turn a too-often lose-lose situation into a win-win.
Reid: What makes you different in terms of the results customers get?
Hall: We think it’s really as simple as: push a button, get a kitchen. Think about what Casper did to mattresses or what Warby Parker did to glasses. They both create a single predictable (and incredible) user experience. That’s what makes Remodelmate different.
Reid: Statistics show that Millennials are spending more money on home renovations. Besides getting a home customized, what are the other benefits of Remodelmate?
Hall: The biggest benefit is that we believe we make urban home ownership possible for millions of Millennials who would prefer to spend $50K on renovations instead of putting that cash down on a cookie cutter house in the middle of the suburbs.
Reid: How has being black in this space helped or hurt?
Hall: I’m hesitant to say that being black has explicitly helped or hurt. In real estate and in technology there are “ol boys clubs.” Being black definitely hurts if I have to be in the club to get something done….We’re building our own, and being a young, black man definitely helps here.
Reid: Who are some of the people you look up to in the business?
Hall: Robert F. Smith of Vista Equity Partners, who is my fraternity brother. Ryan Williams, CEO of Cadre. Rodney Williams, CEO of LISNR. These are all black men in real estate, technology or both and neither of them ever asked for permission. I look up to them because they rewrote their biographies; they don’t read off the script others wrote for them. They influence my management style, goal setting, strategy, everything.
Reid: How many homes and people do you want to impact by 2020? What’s the bigger version in 5 years?
Hall: We will turn one million Millennials into homeowners in the next 5 years. In 2019, we’ll help around 1,200 buy and fix their first homes in DC. In 2020, we’ll help between 6,000 and 10,000 do the same in NYC, Chicago, Boston, etc.
Reid: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Hall: Notorious B.I.G over Tupac. Company policy.