My name is Andrew Wynn and I’m a first-time homeowner in the Bay Area as well as the cofounder of Sheltr - http://www.getsheltr.com, a service designed to make home maintenance effortless.
Before I go any further I want to make clear I’m not trying to sell you anything or promote my business. Instead, I’m here to learn from you all as homeowners and real-estate aficionados.
A bit about Sheltr for context: Sheltr uses technology and a vetted contractor network to provide proactive and preventative maintenance to reduce instances of costly repair and makes it simple to book home services. Our health, our cars, and our pets all benefit from proactive care. Why shouldn’t our homes?
We’re looking for homeowners willing to do a 30 minute phone call to answer the below questions. We’ll provide you a $25 gift card / venmo / paypal payment for your time. To sign up, please go to this link and once you click submit you’ll see a link to schedule a time. Alternatively, we welcome your feedback and responses in this thread:
What problems do you face maintaining and managing your home?
How are you solving these problems today?
How much are you spending to solve these problems?
How does these problems impact your life?
What do you think of Sheltr as a solution?
What would or would not make you use it?
How much would you pay for it?
Please don’t hesitate to email me directly at andrew @ getsheltr .com and I look forward to hearing from you all! Thank you very much.
What do you know about home maintenance? I have forgotten more than you will ever know. My consultant fee is $200/hr. Built several homes remodeled dozens . Own many multi family and sfhs.
Thanks for the replies and definitely am not intending to promote our business but instead just want to find engaged homeowners to speak with.
Elt1, maybe we should just do a 1-1 exchange of your home maintenance knowledge for my sales consulting. Here’s a freebie: don’t disparage potential customers! I doubt you will accept my offer .
I think the most helpful thing would be a list of things you can do to proactively maintain a house or problems to look for, and a schedule.
For example:
In the ___ (? Fall, Winter?) season, you should clean your gutters. As you have them cleaned, things to look for that indicate a problem are… (Insert ad for gutter cleaning services).
IN the (? Fall/Winter?) season you need to clean the leaves off of your roof. What should you look for?
A tip I found recently was to check for slow leaks in the toilets by putting a drop of dye in the tank and seeing if the color seeps into the toilet an hour later. Hadn’t heard that one before, but easy. I’ll add that to my once-a-year list. (Insert ad for plumbers)
Any idea what I can use to test for leaks in my lawn/watering system though?
You can get such info on the web. Enter into iCal (can do repeat) and include some links (in the note sections). iCal can have alerts and travel times (if you plan to visit a store instead of order online). My point is for an IT professional like you, don’t need to use/buy new apps, just use whatever available for free on your Mac and iPad/ iPhone. I have mostly Apple apps which are mostly designed for personal/ individual use. Btw, you can enter those info using Siri
Hey I am a cranky old fart. But this millennium sharing crap bugs the shit out of me. I was paid big money for my engineering knowledge and expertise. Now anyone can google anything and become an expert. Sorry but my knowledge is valuable especially compared to websites that give knowledge away for free.
No matter how much I know I keep learning new things… plenty more to learn. Today I learned how to prune a vineyard. A lot of hard knuckle busting work.
Becoming a homeowner will force people to learn how to do maintenance even if they have to YouTube it.
Thanks, Terri. This is helpful feedback and much appreciated.
Our service will actually do these things for you and then instead of show an ad for gutter cleaning, make it really easy for you to just click and book it. Is that something that would be compelling to you as a homeowner?
Would Shelterly send an actual guy out to the house to that doesn’t work for the contractor to audit the contractor’s work?
If yes, then a potential markup borne by the homeowner would be worth it.
If not, then any potential markup borne by the homeowner would not be worth it at all.
BTW - If you plan to take Shelterly’s cut from the contractor’s wages ---- note that any contractor worth their salt is completely overbooked and has too much business … and so the only contractors that would sign up for shelterly would be the crap ones with not enough business.
This is not like the food delivery business - door dash/postmates/etc. There is not an oversupply of contracting services…
So — my consulting fee for your business case will be worth $3000/hr.
In most cases, Sheltr wouldn’t send somebody additional to audit the contractors work, however, will audit the contractors work through photos of work completed, before & after.
In terms of the supply side, we do think there is the ability to negotiate better rates with suppliers and make a margin there. You’re also right about the best contractors, however, Sheltr focuses on maintenance rather than craftsmanship contracting. For example, you don’t need the best person to clean your gutters or do something routine like regrout a shower.
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and travel times (if you plan to visit a store instead of order online). My point is for an IT professional like you, don’t need to use/buy new apps, just use whatever available for free on your Mac and iPad/ iPhone. I have mostly Apple apps which are mostly designed for personal/ individual use. Btw, you can enter those info using Siri 
