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Watch Episode 28

In This Episode

Hosts:
Bob Frady & John Siegman
Properties:
4518 Browndale Ave, Edina, MN 55424 and 3109 Friars Bridge Pass, Franklin, TN 37064

Episode Summary

Welcome back to PropertyLens! This week, Bob Frady and John Siegman unveil LensAI, the newest AI-powered assistant built directly into every PropertyLens report. Now you can ask your report questions and get clear, data-backed answers before making one of life’s biggest investments.

Key Takeaways
In this episode:

• How LensAI surfaces hidden risks like toxic exposure, radon, and PFAS in water

• Why Minnesota’s insurance costs shocked even Bob as a homeowner

• The smart questions every buyer should ask before signing

Whether you’re a first-time buyer, seasoned investor, or real estate pro, this episode shows how AI makes property risk data clearer, faster, and more actionable.

New features & Insights:
• LensAI launches inside PropertyLens reports ask anything, get answers

• Real example: toxic exposure, hail risk, tax hikes, and insurance red flags revealed

• Walkthrough of how AI pulls from reports, listings, past events, and real data

• Key questions buyers should ask: radon testing, unreported additions, roof replacements, soil runoff, HVAC condition

• Demo with a Franklin, TN home: new roof, windows, and HVAC, but big tax hikes and storm history

Resources

Realtor.com
Try it:Propertylens.com
Questions Contact us: support@propertylens.com

Transcript

[00:00:00] Bob Frady: 
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and Girls, ships at sea. It is time for another episode of Property of the Week. With PropertyLens as always. For those of you who don't know, I'm Bob Frady, CEO, and co-founder of PropertyLens with me. As always,

[00:00:27] John Siegman:

 John Siegman, president and co-founder of PropertyLens.

[00:00:30] Bob Frady:

 John, we have a very exciting development today.

[00:00:34] John Siegman:

 We do? What is it?

[00:00:36] Bob Frady:

 We do. Well, everybody's talking AI this and AI that, and AI, your mama AI, everything. AI, AI, okay. So what we have decided to do is we train the big brains in the back who do all the work here to harness the power of AI technology inside of a PropertyLens report.

[00:01:02] So now you can go into a PropertyLens report and ask it questions and see what it tells you. So in case you're like, oh, I don't know how to make sense of this, just talk to the report. So I thought what we do today, 'cause it's still not live yet, it won't be live for a couple more days, is go in, take a look, ask a few questions and see what happens.

[00:01:23] What do you think about that? John Sigman?

[00:01:25] John Siegman:

 I think that's really cool. And by the time anybody sees this, it will be live.

[00:01:30] Bob Frady:

That's right. Here's the good news about this Agentic AI is it works in any report. So even if you've already ordered a PropertyLens report, you can go back in. It asks questions of that report, assuming that it's still live.

[00:01:45] This is one of the sample reports that we've had on our site. So you've seen this sort of report before and you got all the stuff on there. Yeah. It hasn't been for sale, so it's not gonna be as updated as some regular things. And down in the corner you'll notice this little thing. Called LensAI. Okay, so LensAI is your AI assistant for property insights.

[00:02:09] Ask me anything about this property. I'll see what are the top three things and see what happens. That takes a second. It's gotta think. It's gotta go through a lot of data. It accesses data on our website. It access data into the report. It accesses data from our podcasts. It accesses data from our postings.

[00:02:27] It accesses data from the large language models in general. So here's the three things. High risk for toxic exposure, high risk of radon, possible pfas contamination in the drinking water. And you know what? When I bought this house that was not disclosed. Number two, electrical and water heater concerns.

[00:02:47] This is a situation where this is not a concern, but it's a really good thing to bring up. Because when we renovated this house, we renovated the electrical system and we replaced the water heater. It's not disclosed in here because we haven't sold the property. And you don't need permits for a water heater generally.

[00:03:04] And the electrical system gets buried. So this is to say, Hey, make sure you ask about this stuff. Now that the answer is, it's great, but it's something that you want to keep an eye out for. And then the third thing, John?

[00:03:14] John Siegman:

 Looking at serious hike and insurance increases.

[00:03:18] Bob Frady:

I cannot believe what a raise my insurance agent has gotten over the last three years from our property.

[00:03:25] It is crazy. The cost of insurance in Minnesota has gone nuts. Ironically, very low non-renewal rates in Minnesota, but the premium it costs more than insure property in Minnesota than it does here in California, even with our wild wildfire exposure. Let's see if there's anything else notable in here.

[00:03:43] Okay. Hey, here's anything else. You've had a recent remodel and an upgrade. It's true. Our roof was replaced in 2019. Which is true. risk of toxic exposure. We covered, insurance and tax considerations. It's high. replacement cost is above where people think it is. it's got moderate risk for wind, hail, tornado events.

[00:04:04] It has some hail and wind damage in the past. Low crime, good police, high walkability, not as much public transit. You get walk all the way down to 50th and catch a bus. Not so good. When the pollution environmental concerned, which is kind of the cool thing. So let's say I've got some hail. How do I protect myself?

[00:04:25] Reinforce the roof. It's the one thing I miss. When I bought this house, I should have gotten in class four shingles and I didn't, which ticks me off. Make sure you maintain the roof. There's a lot of eaves, collects a lot of stuff. Clear that stuff out. There's some tree overhang. Ugh, this is a continual point of contention.

[00:04:45] The person who makes the decisions in this family, that tree's gotta go and the tree's still there. Review your insurance policy to make sure it covers ha damage. Effectively put some shutters potentially especially against the side that the weather comes from and regularly inspect your exterior walls and siding.

[00:05:05] So why shouldn't I buy this house? High insurance costs? Yep. For sure toxic risk. We've covered that. Old systems, some of which are outdated. That would be fixed on a relisting, wind and hail risk listing. The assessor mismatch, which is interesting because the assessor thinks this house is a lot smaller than it is, mostly because they don't, I mean, they.

[00:05:31] Updated their records to reflect the fact that we've done a renovation and there's some risk of pollution around this area. but there's green flags, like recent remodels, new mechanical systems, and a good neighborhood safety rating that you might wanna consider. let's see, what's the tax rate in Edina?

[00:05:46] Let's see what happens. It doesn't tell you much about, about Edina and reassessment, so it's some, listen, not every question's a home run, but you could sit here and ask any question that you want to. About the report and it will pull in the information that we have to try to give you a more intelligent answer.

[00:06:01] And listen, it's AI. It's not like you're talking to a person. So sometimes you gotta ask the question a couple of different ways, but it now gives you the ability to go in and say, Hey, I have questions. What questions can I answer? Agentic AI, the LensAI assisted, here's a new listing. So Franklin, Tennessee.

[00:06:22] Friar's bridge paths. It looks like a nice house. 18 possible damaging events. I would see what kind of damaging events, multiple hail events, including some big hail.

[00:06:41] John Siegman:

And looking at it, it's like 19% tax increase year over year for the last 16 years. What the hell happened?

[00:06:48] Bob Frady:

 Yeah, it's gone up quite a bit.

[00:06:51] Taxes have doubled. In the last year and gone up quite a bit in the last several years. So yeah, it's, doubled since 2019. This is a question you want, probably want to ask the owner. It's like, what's up with the property taxes? Because it looks like it recycles on a two to three year timeline.

[00:07:12] 'Cause these were the same. These were the same. And then boom, here's the new one. Which may be why it's for sale. It's, hard to say. Okay. That's one way we kick it. So the system has guardrails on it. If it doesn't know, it's not gonna tell you.

[00:07:32] John Siegman:

 Not gonna make things up. All right.

[00:07:34] Bob Frady:

Yep. Franklin, Tennessee. It's fast growing. Suburb of Nashville. That's what I'm gonna guess. It says, I don't know. Here's what it says. My historic charm. Good amenities, transportation. It is a little bit of a, Growing area. 

[00:07:52] John Siegman: That's a perfect part.

[00:07:55] Bob Frady:

Without the greatest infrastructure in the world, Tennessee is growing so fast that the infrastructure's having trouble keeping up.

[00:08:04] Now they're working on it, but there will be traffic, there's some amenities. Public transportation's limited, moderate crime. If you're the historic district, there's some restrictions around building permits, so you wanna make sure you're aware of that. Relatively low environmental electric disaster risk.

[00:08:25] So it's all, All good. Any questions you wanted to ask John?

[00:08:31] John Siegman:

 What concerns should I have in buying this house?

[00:08:36] Bob Frady:

Let's see.

[00:08:40] Radon, you wanna check that out? Square footage, discrepancy. There's some soil issues 'cause of runoff. You want to check the basement foundation to see if there's anything that looks like it's getting a lot of water or if water's draining away from the house. Wind and hail, replacement cost is high and it's been a pretty big increase in taxes, utilities about $1,200, but no, it doesn't.

[00:09:11] And then. Get a home inspector to help you out, but there's nothing really stands out, any red flags.

[00:09:19] John Siegman:

 No major concerns. So if we look at that discrepancy and bedding, if there's a basement, that's what's causing it.

[00:09:29] Bob Frady:

 Part of it is because there's no bedrooms, bathrooms listed on here. So does it have a basement?

[00:09:37] Let's 

[00:09:38] see.

[00:09:38] John Siegman:

 Well, does it have a listing?

[00:09:42] Bob Frady:

 Yes.

[00:09:43] John Siegman:

Well, it'll be described in there. I would think.

[00:09:46] Bob Frady:

 It's coming. There it is. Yeah. It doesn't show bedrooms and baths in the listing. That's interesting. And it's contingent already. How about that?

[00:09:57] John Siegman:

 That good for them? Yep. That's pretty quick. 18 days beautifully.

[00:10:04] Just a short scroll. I don't really see a whole lot about the house.

[00:10:10] Bob Frady:

 Nope. New windows. In 2022. New roof in 2022. New water heater, new upstairs AC. There you go. House has been updated. So you don't gotta worry about your internal systems all that much.

[00:10:25] John Siegman:

 Being kept up, which is always good.

[00:10:27] Bob Frady:

So John, what do you think?

[00:10:29] John Siegman:

 I like 

[00:10:30] it. 

[00:10:30] I think the LensAI can help somebody who is, not a dated dog like yourself and. There's a lot of data in our reports. That's why we built the summary, get it down to two pages of the things that we think are the most important. But what we think and what you think as a viewer or a user of the reports might be two different things.

[00:10:55] So being able to ask the AI tool, hey, which I'm still gonna call Bob, what is, Bob, what's the value? what's gonna happen here? What's likely to, what are my concerns? it's good to see that, like the last house, there wasn't a concern about crying. There wasn't a concern about frost teeth.

[00:11:25] There wasn't a concern about, wildfires, but hey, you got rayon. You got a few other things that as long as it's mitigated properly. Way less of a concern, so being able to ask the AI assistant may help you determine which questions you're really gonna ask the agent or episode.

[00:11:49] Bob Frady:

 It's, you know what?

[00:11:50] It's a, lemme see what I asked it.

[00:11:53] John Siegman:

I just triggered another question. I'm sorry. Audience. I shouldn't have done that. Yes, you can blame me. This is probably gonna add five minutes to the tape.

[00:12:02] Bob Frady:

 Okay. I asked the AI, so what are the top five questions I should ask the seller? Number one, has the property been tested for radon and are there any mitigation systems in place?

[00:12:12] Because it's not addressed in the listing at all. Are there any unreported additions because of the square footage discrepancy? Has the property ever, been maintained to prevent hail and wind damage, especially given the frequency, probably the new roof? You don't wanna ask them, Hey, was that because of hail or just because it was time to replace it?

[00:12:34] What ima what measures are in place to manage soil runoff? Have you had a soil runoff issue at this location? And what have you done to manage it? And what's the current condition of the HVAC system after the upgrades? So, five basic questions. You walk in there like, Hey.

[00:12:51] John Siegman:

Those are very good questions.

[00:12:53] Bob Frady:

 Those are the kind of questions I would wanna know before I walked into a place and put down. $76,000 of earnest money or whatever it happens to be, because why not? It's, better to go in prepared. Like John said, by the time you see this podcast, it'll be live in the system. So if you've ordered a report before, you can go in and ask questions of the report.

[00:13:19] If you're ordering a report, now it comes bolted in with, there's no extra charge for the AI agent. And as always, if you have questions that aren't covered by the ai, you can reach out to us to support. PropertyLens.com and we'll take a look at it. So for Property of the week this week and our new AI agent, I'm Bob Frady.

[00:13:42] John Siegman:

 I'm John Siegman, and Bob didn't say it, but if you haven't subscribed.

[00:13:49] Bob Frady:

 Click the subscribe button. It makes us feel better about our old selves. Thank you very much, and all right, till the next time. We'll see you soon.

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