Brian Zitin on launching HomeInspector.com.

Our founder Brian Zitin joined HousingWire editor in chief Sarah Wheeler on HousingWire Daily to talk about the launch of HomeInspector.com and the question it tends to raise: why would an appraisal technology company build free software for home inspectors?

Below are the points worth pulling out of the conversation. The full interview is embedded above and on HousingWire's channel.

Why an appraisal company launched inspection software

Brian traces the path. Reggora started as software connecting lenders with appraisers and appraisal management companies, then built its own appraisal management operation because controlling the end experience required more than software alone. HomeInspector.com is the next step outward — and he is candid that the North Star behind all of it is the same: bring down appraisal cost and turn time.

His framing of the problem is the part lenders will recognize. Most of a mortgage transaction has become close to instantaneous. The appraisal still takes days, and in busy markets it can stretch into weeks.

How the 24-hour appraisal actually works

The mechanism Brian describes is sequencing rather than speed. Instead of waiting for the lender to formally order the appraisal and only then beginning property data collection, Reggora moves the collection earlier in the transaction. By the time the order arrives, the physical property data already exists and the appraiser can concentrate on the valuation itself.

Sarah asks the obvious follow-up: what happens when a deal falls apart after Reggora has already paid to collect that data? Brian's answer is that Reggora absorbs it — the cost of delivering the faster experience. He says Reggora is already fulfilling 24-hour appraisals for lender customers nationwide.

Why home inspectors fit the model

An appraiser and a home inspector are doing different jobs. The appraiser gathers what bears on value — dimensions, photos, construction characteristics, condition. The inspector goes considerably deeper into the home's systems and defects. But Brian points out how much of the underlying factual property data overlaps.

Through the HomeInspector.com mobile app, an inspector already at the property can run an additional scan — LiDAR for measurements, generated floor plans, computer vision for characteristics like rooms and materials. He puts the added time at roughly five to ten minutes.

This is also his answer to a standing criticism of hybrid appraisals: the qualifications of whoever collects the data. Rather than a generically trained collector, the work would be done by someone whose profession is already examining houses carefully. He notes Reggora has seen collector expertise affect both quality and efficiency — missing information means a return trip, which is exactly the delay the model exists to remove.

What inspectors get, and what they don't have to do

Sarah presses on whether the software is genuinely free, and Brian is unambiguous: an inspector can sign up, run their entire business on the platform, and never accept a property data assignment from Reggora. The platform covers websites, booking and scheduling, mobile inspections, report writing, payments, accounting, and managing agent relationships — with no subscription and no per-report fees.

Brian also addresses why this is possible now. A free platform of this scope would historically have demanded a software investment too large to give away; AI-assisted development changes that math. And it isn't theoretical — the team worked with beta users for more than six months before launch, with inspectors already running real inspections on it.

The boundaries: valuation, confidentiality, independence

Three distinctions get drawn clearly in the interview, and they matter for anyone evaluating the model:

• Inspectors don't appraise. Property data flows downstream to a licensed appraiser, who performs the valuation — the same separation the hybrid appraisal model already uses.
• The inspection report stays between inspector and buyer. The lender does not receive it. Only the standardized property data the appraisal workflow needs moves on.
• Appraiser independence still governs. Brian notes why someone with a direct interest in the transaction — a real estate agent, for instance — is the wrong party to collect appraisal data, and that the model is built to satisfy the independence requirements.

The UAD 3.6 connection

Brian ties this to the transition the industry is in the middle of. He expects UAD 3.6's heavier data requirements and learning curve to push appraisal cost and turn time up, at least initially. Faster property data collection and 24-hour fulfillment are, in his view, part of the answer to that pressure rather than a separate initiative.

He also connects the model to appraiser supply, which is thinner in less-populated areas — the original reason hybrid and desktop products separated data collection from analysis in the first place. His read on adoption is sober: those products are eligible for a lot of transactions but actual industry uptake is still small, and Reggora deliberately builds a year or two ahead of where the industry is.

The bigger idea: one visit instead of three

The most interesting stretch of the conversation is the longest-range one. Brian identifies three things that remain uncertain for a buyer after an offer is accepted — the inspection, the appraisal, and increasingly homeowners insurance — and points out that today a different person may visit the same property for each.

His vision is one qualified visit producing property data that can serve multiple downstream needs. Notably, that isn't an argument for removing expertise; it is an argument for specialization. Qualified property professionals gather accurate information, and appraisers apply judgment to produce the valuation.

Sarah adds the consumer frame: the appraisal is one of the genuinely anxious moments in buying a home, because the buyer doesn't know whether the property will appraise at the number the financing needs. Compressing that timeline removes the uncertainty sooner.

Watch or listen

The full conversation is embedded above, or available on HousingWire's YouTube channel and wherever you get HousingWire Daily.