Design Driven Prefab Homes with Steve Glenn, CEO of Plant Prefab
What do you think of when you hear the words "prefab home"? Maybe like me you think of what looks like a stick-built home, but it's delivered on the back of a truck and put in place (this is what I witnessed as a kid right next door to our home). Maybe you think of homes typically associated with mobile home parks. But what is prefab home meant beautifully designed, energy efficient homes, suitable for any neighborhood or setting? What if it meant reduced cost and time to build, and could be part of the solution towards solving housing shortages in some areas? Some of these questions and more are answered by Steve Glenn, CEO of Plant Prefab. Plant Prefab designs and builds homes for consumers that are described as smarter, healthier, and higher-quality. You'll hear Steve describe the different types of homes that can be considered prefab, the advantages and disadvantages of prefab, and what's likely to trend moving forward. Steve also gets into how his company has be growing and their plans to significantly multiply their growth through a hub and spoke distribution strategy, leveraging smarter manufacturing technology. The built world is getting very exciting!
Rental Inspection Transparency with Lydia Winkler, Co-founder and COO of RentCheck
Whether turning over a rental unit or performing somewhat regular rental inspections, the practice of keeping record of the condition of a unit can prove to be beneficial in the short- and long-term. This can help owners and managers know what is or is not in good working order and what may need to be repaired in the near future. The problem here is the time it takes driving to each building, walking each unit, scheduling with renters, and having to go through someone's living space(if currently occupied) can be a major time suck, can feel like a nuisance to the renter, and can add unnecessary expense to the management business. RentCheck is working to solve for this. RentCheck was co-founded by Lydia Winkler, who's also the COO. She came up with the idea of enabling owners and managers to configure self-guided inspections, performed by renters, after a significant dispute with her landlord several years ago that resulted in her having to sue (and she won!) said landlord. RentCheck provides an app to renters, giving them a step-by-step guide on what to document to complete a rental inspection. Allowing the renter to perform the inspection removes all of the friction points mentioned previously. RentCheck also has transparency checkpoints in its app, such as only allowing for photos in real-time through the app, so all photos are accurate to the time and date (vs uploading photos). All of the inspection photos and notes are then sent back to the manager's account in RentCheck, which also integrates into other management platforms. Lydia and talk about rental inspection. renter experience, and more throughout this episode. There's a very large potential market for RentCheck and the company has seen explosive growth in the last few years as that demand responds to the platform.