Why we're building Helm

A home is the most expensive thing most people will ever own. It is also, somehow, the least documented.

You get a stack of paper at closing and a tour that lasts twenty minutes. After that you are on your own with a house worth a few hundred thousand dollars and almost no record of what is in it, how old any of it is, or how to take care of it.

We think that is backwards.

The owner's manual that never came

Every appliance ships with a manual. Every car has a service log and a history report a buyer can pull before they sign. A house, the single largest purchase in most lives, comes with none of that. The knowledge exists, but it is spread across a builder, an inspector, a previous owner, and a dozen stickers behind a dozen panels.

Helm is the owner's manual the house never came with. Room by room, system by system: what you own, where it lives, when it was installed, and what it takes to keep it running.

Start with the close

The realtor is already at the center of the most important day in a home's life. They hand over the keys. They should hand over the manual too: a housewarming gift the buyer actually opens for the next ten years, not a bottle of wine and a cutting board.

So that is where we start. Builders and realtors capture the home before the keys change hands. The owner gets a complete, searchable record on day one.

Where this goes

Capturing the home is the foundation. On top of it: a home you can simply ask, a maintenance reminder that knows your actual furnace instead of a generic one, and eventually a record that travels with the house when it sells, so the next buyer knows exactly what they are getting. Certified pre-owned, for houses.

We are in alpha now, working with a small group of realtors and builders. If that is you, the founding pilot is open.