Home improvement and renovation projects can be so cumbersome and unfulfilling.

Between isolating and prioritizing projects to finding contractors who can work within a budget and offer competitive bids, homeowners are sometimes expending more time and energy than if they picked up a hammer and saw themselves. 

Identifying issues with a home. Finding a contractor. Waiting for that contractor to show up and assess the situation. Sorting through quotes. Working within a budget. Trying to agree on a contract. All of this wastes time.

Home renovation and improvement projects should be gratifying and fun. They should instill in a homeowner a sense of pride, rather than a sense of confusion and frustration generated by many moving parts.

Working to resolve these issues is Zuriel Babalola, who launched the revolutionary startup Homezze to streamline the home renovation industry and simplify the process for customers and the professionals hired to serve them. The Homezze solution illustrates a range of issues plaguing the industry, including:

• The lack of price transparency and difficulties in obtaining quotes.
• Limited competition and downward pressure on prices in existing platforms.
• The need for a solution that benefits both customers and professionals.

Any homeowner or contractor who signs up with the platform—there is no charge—will see in short order how Homezze generates competition, drives quality and decreases costs. Costs are market-driven. Milestones drive project management. Pay-as-you-go defines how financial obligations are met. The removal of barriers to getting work done underscores the entire process. 

Contractors have immediate access to project notifications, which extend into the local community. Once a project is created, service professionals can engage with the homeowner directly through a messaging app; video conferencing; or in-person meeting. 

In addition to renovations, Homezze services include fire and water damage services; lawn and garden; cleaning services; gutter services; painting; tree services; HVAC installation; pool installation and servicing; and more.   

Homezze expands its reach through a series of partnerships, with financial institutions providing home improvement loans and retail stores creating project funnels for contractors.

Key to the Homezze solution is its unique bidding system and the way in which it offers direct engagement between homeowners and service professionals. This feature offers control and choice for contractors as they place bids on projects, and provides homeowners with transparency and fairness in their selection of service professionals.

Zuriel devised the bidding system in the wake of his own frustrations with home renovations. What he envisioned as a straight-forward project turned into a two-year ordeal, and he ended up simply selling the property. One of his biggest takeaways was how the bidding process failed homeowners. So he developed a model in which contractors competed against their peers for a job, rather than submitting price quotes to homeowners in a vacuum.

This approach solves a number of problems by:

• Bringing efficiency to a market saturated with lead generation engines and fake leads
• Avoiding counterparty risks that can emerge when services are paid for but not delivered, or are delivered with poor quality.
• Saving time that can be wasted when homeowners and service professionals are negotiating a contract. 
• Emphasizing bilateral project management synchronized between clients and service professionals. 

“Our team empowers both homeowners and service professionals,” Zuriel said. “That’s the uniqueness that my team understands and what we’re trying to do in this space—and that’s what motivates them.”

He added that, even with Homezze’s small team, “They see the big picture, and that fosters their collaboration and their energy—their intensity. And that, of course, translates into deliverability, delivering products and services that truly add value.”

The Homezze core values, Zuriel said, revolve around “Our team. It’s the collaboration between team members and the sense of urgency to create solutions for consumers. We’re solving problems that are affecting people’s lives. To create that solution, we really had to challenge ourselves with the idea of what it means to collaborate, what it means to have a sense of urgency and what it means to take a complex idea and make it simple.”

As the leader of this team, Zuriel relies on the experience he gained as a senior product manager who worked in tech for the last dozen years. With his past work, he developed applications in a range of business verticals, including the Victoria’s Secret and Express fashion companies. He has also worked in multiple product roles focusing on energy, logistics and club management sectors.

Now, customers are weighing in with positive reviews on Zuriel’s latest endeavor—Homezze. 

“I needed a door replacement for a newer one I got from Home depot,” said Cindy S. “Within one hour, I received competitive bids from professionals in the area. I would recommend Homezze simply for the ease of use and responsiveness.”

Barbara C needed to replace a tub.

“So, we took a picture and posted a description of what we wanted done,” she said. “I was really surprised to see how easy it was to receive competitive bids from many plumbers and how professional they were. We will be using Homezze again.”

Service professionals can learn more by visiting homezzepro.com. Homeowners can learn more by visiting homezze.com.