- 2 hours ago
On today’s episode, Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler talks with Brian Zitin, CEO of Reggora, about why his appraisal technology company launched HomeInspector.com, a free software platform for home inspectors.
Related to this episode:
Reggora launches HomeInspector.com as free service
https://www.housingwire.com/articles/reggora-launches-homeinspector-com-as-free-service/
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The HousingWire Daily podcast brings the full picture of the most compelling stories in the housing market reported across HousingWire. Each morning, listen to editor in chief Sarah Wheeler talk to leading industry voices and get a deeper look behind the scenes of the top mortgage and real estate.
Related to this episode:
Reggora launches HomeInspector.com as free service
https://www.housingwire.com/articles/reggora-launches-homeinspector-com-as-free-service/
HousingWire | YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXDD_3y3LvU60vac7eki-6Q
Buy one, get one FREE tickets to the Mortgage Banking Summit on October 1st
https://events.housingwire.com/mortgage-banking-summit-2026
More info about HousingWire
https://lnk.bio/housingwire
Want more from Sarah? Don’t forget to subscribe!
The HousingWire Daily podcast brings the full picture of the most compelling stories in the housing market reported across HousingWire. Each morning, listen to editor in chief Sarah Wheeler talk to leading industry voices and get a deeper look behind the scenes of the top mortgage and real estate.
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NewsTranscript
00:10Welcome, everyone. My guest today for this sponsored episode is Brian Zitin,
00:14CEO of Regora, to talk about why his appraisal technology company launched HomeInspector.com,
00:20a free software platform for home inspectors. It's a really interesting, innovative way to
00:25smooth out part of the mortgage transaction. So let's dive in. Brian, welcome back to the podcast.
00:31Thank you so much for having me, Sarah. Great to have you because we want to talk about the launch
00:35of Regora's HomeInspector.com, which I found to be really interesting. I have a ton of questions.
00:41So let's start with what is HomeInspector.com? So HomeInspector.com, we have a very, very large
00:48vision for it. But the kind of first iteration of it is we are providing free software to home
00:55inspectors to basically do everything that they need to complete and run their entire home
01:00inspection business. So everything from setting up their own website for free to booking customers,
01:08scheduling inspections, actually doing the inspection with like a mobile app, editing the
01:14report, processing payments, accounting, managing real estate agent relationships, like everything
01:19that they would need completely for free. Okay. So the first question is, as an appraisal technology
01:24company, why, you know, why wade into home inspections? Yeah, no, this is the key question.
01:31And this will be a little bit of a rant. So just to give you and the viewers the background
01:37context, right? When Regora first started, we were pure software. So we plug into lenders
01:42on one side and appraisers or appraisal management companies on the other side, and appraisals are
01:48flowing through our platform. Then we said, we want to make like the appraisal experience even better.
01:56And so we need more control over the actual outcome. So we stood up our own appraisal management
02:01company. It's like a wholly owned subsidiary. And so now lenders can use our software and order
02:08directly through us. So we went from software to then software plus fulfillment. And so like the
02:15ultimate kind of north star when it comes to appraisal experience is bringing down the cost
02:21of the appraisal, as well as the turn time of the appraisal, like everything else in the mortgage
02:26transaction, you're pulling credit, income, all that sort of stuff. It's kind of instantaneous.
02:30The appraisal is always the bottleneck is in busy markets, at least, where it takes, you know,
02:37it could take two weeks plus in some markets in this lower volume environment. Still,
02:42it's taking like five, six days sort of thing. And so our north star has always been how can we
02:48improve
02:48the experience for the appraisal in terms of turn time and cost. So then last year,
02:54we launched 24 hour appraisals. And how that worked was, instead of waiting for a lender to hit order
03:02appraisal button, and then send someone to the property to do the inspection, and then do the
03:08appraisal. What we did was we're moving the data collection up earlier in the transaction. So as
03:15soon as the borrower is engaged, like before intent to proceed, we go and send someone to the property
03:22to collect the data. And then when the lender actually is ready for the appraisal and they hit
03:27order appraisal, we already have the inspection done. So an appraiser can just turn around the report
03:31in 24 hours. So that concept is how do we get the property data before we need it to improve
03:40the
03:41cost and turn time of the transaction. So we kind of achieve that on the turn time front. So then
03:46the
03:46next question is, how do we bring down the cost even further? Well, what if we didn't even have to
03:52send someone at all? What if someone who's already going to be at the property doing an inspection or
03:58property data collection gets us the data we need at the same time? And so there's only one other
04:05individual that goes to the property on purchase transactions, and that's the home inspector.
04:11So that's the genesis and kind of thought process behind how these two things weave together.
04:16Okay. So isn't there a risk if you're gathering that information before there's really even,
04:22you talk about intent to purchase, but it feels like that could fall through. How do you
04:26handle that risk? Regora just eats it. So as part of delivering the best possible experience
04:36to the lender customers, we are willing to take the risk on our side and basically be the only ones
04:43to be able to actually deliver that experience. So it's just kind of baked in as part of the cost
04:48of doing business for Regora. Amazing. Okay. Well, let's talk about specifically home inspectors.
04:54And, you know, they're already going out to the property. So obviously they're not trained as
04:58appraisers. They don't have, you know, they're not, they don't have that designation. So what are
05:03they doing when they're out there as far as homeinspector.com? Just because for people who
05:07aren't super in the weeds, like what is the difference between what an appraiser does at the
05:12property and a home inspector to start maybe? So when an appraiser goes, they're really trying to
05:17understand what are the things that impact value of the home. So one of the primary things that they
05:24do is actual measurements. So most appraisers, they either have like a tape measure or one of
05:29those laser things. If you've ever seen, some of them are starting to do kind of LIDAR scanning,
05:32but essentially appraisers go, they do measurements of the whole property. They take a bunch of photos.
05:37They try to get the condition of the property, different materials, things like that,
05:41which is different from the inspector who's looking for broken things, right? They're looking
05:47for is the HVAC up to date or faulty? Is the roof okay? Like they're doing a much deeper dive
05:54on the
05:55actual condition of the property with less of a lens around like value, but like gathering the actual
06:04property data is universal. And especially with technology today, we've lowered the barrier,
06:11so much so that a home inspector can go to the property in the mobile app that they're already
06:16doing with the photos that they're taking and do basically like a separate scan for us where they
06:22go through the property, they scan with LIDAR. It does all the measurements for them. It spits out
06:27a floor plan. It's looking at computer vision around materials. It's identifying bedrooms, things like
06:33that. And so the home inspector is going to go and do their normal job like they would for a
06:38home
06:38inspection. And then they're going to add five to 10 minutes to do a scan for us and some other
06:44property related details. And that's going to have everything that we need for the downstream transaction.
06:50And so for the home inspector, they get free software, saving them thousands of dollars.
06:56They can also offer now a floor plan as part of their home inspection experience. And all it does is
07:04like five minutes extra at the property they're already going to. So I do think it's really
07:10interesting when we talked about a couple years ago, like, hey, we can, you know, when Fannie and Freddie
07:15are like, we can have people go out there and gather information that are not appraisers. One of the things
07:20that people thought was like real estate agents, which, you know, they're already in the, you know, they're
07:24already in the house, they know what to look for. But I do feel like, wow, an inspector has a
07:29much more
07:30particular view of the house. Like it makes sense. Like I would, if I'm a homeowner, I totally trust an
07:36inspector to gather the data that you're looking for, for the appraiser. So once that data goes in
07:41though, it's not the inspector who is saying this is the value of the house. It's your software, or do
07:46you have an appraiser on the other side of that? So think of a hybrid appraisal today from the appraiser's
07:51point of view. An appraiser is sitting at their desktop, they get a hybrid appraisal order, and then they
07:57get all the property data, and then they come up with the value. It's essentially the exact same
08:02thing. Except to your point, maybe you've heard over the years, the skepticism around hybrid appraisals,
08:08like we're sending a random Uber driver to go do the property data collection, right? So who better
08:13than like literally the highest possible level of expertise when it comes to property data collection.
08:19And then on the other side, it's actually funny dynamic, because you can envision some loan officers
08:26who are like, we actually don't want to see the home inspection, right? Because they just care about
08:33like the appraisal being accurate and coming in at, you know, the value that helps the deal, right?
08:39And also home inspectors are very, you know, they want to maintain confidentiality in terms of their
08:47data. And so the actual home inspection report itself is never shared with the lender. It's just the
08:54same exact property data set that an appraiser would get if it was a hybrid appraisal.
09:00Well, and I think this is the really key point, right? Because obviously, it's the homeowner who,
09:05the home buyer who's going to order and pay for the appraise for the inspection, correct? Whereas
09:11it's the lender who then reaches out about the appraisal. So you wouldn't want those lines crossing.
09:15Right. And so this is where some of our secret sauce comes in. Because in order to stay compliant
09:21with appraisal independence laws, to your point, it can't be an interested party doing the actual
09:26fulfillment of these data collections. So that was the whole reason why the real estate agent is not
09:31the one doing the data collection today, because obviously, there's some bias there. And so the GSEs
09:38have appraisal independence requirements that it has to be non-interested parties. And so that's some
09:43of the, you know, stuff that we are helping to ensure is still happening.
09:48So let's get into the weeds a little bit. If I'm an inspector out there, and I use this inspection
09:53software, can I use that? Not knowing if I'm going to do the property data collection that you maybe
10:00want for the appraisal? Like, are those two things linked at the beginning? Or how does that work?
10:03No, they can. It's completely free for them to use, regardless of whether they fulfill property data
10:11assignments in terms of the data collection. So they can sign up and use homeinspector.com
10:17completely free and never do anything for rigor, rigor or any property data collection.
10:23Yeah, 100%. Interesting. At the same time, you are building a pipeline of people who now know who
10:30you are, who are using your software, and who might be the perfect people to collect the data that you
10:35need. A hundred percent. It's a win for everyone, both in terms of, and I think this is only possible
10:42in the AI era. Like, the reason that this has never existed is because to build software historically
10:49cost millions and millions of dollars. So to make a bet like we're doing, to give away free software
10:56with the potential prospect that it doesn't ever work, right, would normally be a massive investment
11:03for people. And because of how good we are with technology, in terms of just developing software,
11:09we can do it in a low cost manner. So that, you know, yes, we are comfortable just giving it
11:14away
11:15completely for free to home inspectors, whether they end up doing appraisal data collection or not.
11:19Have you, I know that you guys just launched, have you seen sort of like that initial excitement
11:24from different areas of the mortgage transaction about this opportunity?
11:28Oh, yeah, 100%. I mean, this has been, it's not like we just launched it in,
11:34like we've had beta users and have been working on this for, you know, almost probably more than
11:41half a year at this point. So we already have many inspectors signed up to the platform,
11:45facilitating inspections. And so, yeah, it's all, it's all positive stuff. I think that on the
11:50appraisal side, we're always trying to think a year or two ahead. Most of the industry right now
11:56has not thought of anything other than UAD 3.6 in the last year. And so this, while we obviously,
12:03are doing all the UAD 3.6 stuff as well, in terms of transitioning our lender customers,
12:08we actually put out free UAD appraisal form software for appraisers in the last month or two
12:14as well. This will, I think, tie in, you know, for UAD 3.6 too, because one of the huge
12:22concerns
12:22about UAD 3.6 is the increased amount of cost because of the like much more in-depth data requirements
12:30and appraisers learning how to do a new form and all that sort of stuff, as well as the turn
12:34time, right? Like those are the, those are, those are the things that everyone thinks are going to go
12:38up. And we've actually seen that to be true in the numbers of the UAD order 3.6 orders that
12:45have
12:45happened so far is that both costs and turn time go up. And so you can imagine a Regora customer
12:53who is struggling or any like lender out there, if they're struggling with UAD 3.6 turn time and
12:59cost performance, and we say, well, we can do 24 hour appraisals and it's actually gonna be cheaper.
13:04That's a pretty compelling argument.
13:06That is. So, you know, tie this back to that original, the vision, like 24 hour appraisals,
13:12but like what's, what's the, even the bigger vision than that. It's like to, to get costs down,
13:17to do it faster, to like have a seamless process. Like what is the overall vision?
13:22Yeah. I mean, the, the overall vision is like right now, if you're going to get an appraisal
13:27done, depending on the geography, it ranges from like potentially four to a thousand plus
13:34dollars. And, you know, depending on the complexity of property, the zip codes, how many appraisers
13:41are in that given zip code in terms of supply and demand and turn times and things like that.
13:46AI is making the rest of the mortgage process faster and faster and more and more automated.
13:51And so the appraisal, if it doesn't change, is going to become an even further bottleneck.
13:58And so we want to make it. So any appraisal anywhere is like uniform cost across the board
14:05gets delivered in 24 hours and is like significantly cheaper. That's basically the goal is instead of all
14:11this anxiety and concern about how difficult appraisals are, it's just like a factory line.
14:15It's not even, you know, much of a concern anymore from an efficiency standpoint.
14:19And the quality is still there, right? You have like experts going and gathering property data,
14:26expert appraiser using that to now come up with a value. So you're not diminishing
14:31the quality with any of this. It's literally just improving efficiency for everyone.
14:37Well, and, you know, from the consumer side as a home buyer myself, and we all know that that's one
14:42of the most, you know, anxiety ridden parts of the whole thing is like, what will the appraisal come
14:47back at? So the faster we can get that answer, the better it is for the consumer who's trying
14:52to figure out if this whole thing is going to work.
14:54I don't know. Think about the three points in the purchase. Well, maybe there's four points in
15:00the purchase transaction that have the most amount of uncertainty for a buyer. One is like the initial
15:05offer. You don't know if it's going to get it, but let's say that it gets accepted. The three points
15:09of anxiety. Is the inspection going to pass? Is there going to be some massive, terrible thing?
15:14Is the appraisal going to come in at the right value so that I can actually finance the transaction?
15:19And then thirdly, is my insurance, like home insurance, am I going to be able to get like
15:25an actual quote? Like that's been difficult to get quotes. And that's kind of the next,
15:32again, today's three people visit the property, home inspector, an appraiser, and an insurance
15:38inspector. It makes no sense when you can have one person go and do that for everything. So that's
15:43kind of the long-term vision.
15:45I love it, Brian. You're looking at the whole thing saying, you know, here's how we can
15:49really solve a problem, solve the bigger problem for everybody in the transaction. And I would think
15:54that appraisers would be really happy to have a home inspector, like you said, like somebody who's
15:59very versed in, you know, what they're looking at, what it all means, and are used to being very
16:07precise and looking for these specific things, as opposed to, as you said, when this first was
16:13launched, you know, by FHFA saying, yeah, you could have property data collectors. The Uber driver was
16:19the thing that we were writing on. People were like, listen, they're driving around. They could
16:22just come in and take, you know, they could write down stuff about the house. I was like, I don't
16:27want
16:28my appraisal based on something that a completely untrained person is doing for property collection.
16:35100%. And like, we've fulfilled many of these and have seen firsthand that the level of expertise
16:43of the individual impacts both the quality and the efficiency. Like the worst thing that could
16:49happen in transaction, let's see, it is one of those lower quality individuals. They go to a property
16:54and then they miss something and you have to send them back. It's like holds up the whole thing.
17:00It costs a bunch more time, right? And so if you can just get it done really well, really quick,
17:04in the beginning, it's going to eliminate a ton of uncertainty and kind of improve speed through
17:10the whole transaction. So your goal of 24-hour appraisals, is that nationwide? Is it just,
17:16you know, relegated to certain areas? It's nationwide. And by the way, like we're already doing this.
17:22So we're already fulfilling 24-hour appraisals for lender customers, like consistently. The difference
17:30is that we are sending our own data collector, right? So it costs more money versus if the home
17:38inspector was doing it while they're already there. Now it's still cheaper than a traditional appraisal
17:43because there's a smaller number of appraisers, right? So the big jump in improvement from 24-hour
17:51appraisal to what we're doing now with homeinspector.com is it's 24-hour appraisals and it's even cheaper.
17:57Really interesting. And, you know, we know that there's a lack of appraisers in like rural areas
18:03or, you know, just in areas where there's less population, but having a home inspector who,
18:09I mean, if they're going to have to be going out there anyway, doing double duty sounds like a good
18:13deal. 100%. I think that this was kind of the intention of the GSEs in the first place where
18:20there's been a declining appraiser population for many, many years due to a lot of reasons that we
18:26probably don't have time to cover on this, but there's structural reasons where just there are
18:31not many new appraisers coming into the business. And so as a response to that, the GSEs came up with
18:36these new types of valuation products where you don't need the appraiser to do the actual property
18:41data collection, right? And so this is an expansion of that. And by the way, hybrid appraisals, desktops,
18:48property data collection, these are still, even though they're eligible on like the vast majority of
18:54transactions today, a tiny, tiny percentage of actual transactions. Like people are still not,
19:00we're offering 24 hour appraisals and lenders are like, yeah, I'll circle back to it after 3.6 or
19:06something like that. Right. So when I say we're like always trying to be a year or two ahead,
19:11it takes a long time to adopt these things, even if it's like the most compelling value prop ever.
19:17I love it. Well, you're building that value prop. And then when people are ready to look at it,
19:22you're like, yeah, we've even improved it. And here's, here's the other things that we can do.
19:26So kudos to you guys. Really exciting. Let's keep an eye on this too. And have you back soon.
19:31I appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Thanks, Brian.