Homey

Homey logo
Project scheduling, and resource planning sheet. Planned down to the minute.

Backstory

In a bustling city, where dreams of owning a home seemed distant and unattainable for many, there lived a group of friends who shared a common dream - to buy their first homes. These friends were software engineering students who had a passion for using technology to make a difference in people's lives.

Their vision was simple yet powerful - to unlock the path to homeownership for everyone. They developed an innovative service that assessed an individual's financial situation and provided personalized recommendations and guidance through a friendly and helpful chatbot. This chatbot became a trusted companion for aspiring homebuyers, offering insights, answering questions, and providing step-by-step assistance on their journey.

How it works

Our product is a service designed to assess a prospective home buyer's eligibility for purchasing a home. If the individual doesn't meet the criteria, a customized chatbot steps in to guide them on the necessary steps to achieve their goal of becoming a homeowner.

This product harnesses the power of Microsoft's Virtual Power Agent as its AI chatbot. By leveraging datasets provided by Fannie Mae, in addition to data from government websites and open-source sources, we've developed a program that profiles the potential buyer and compares their financial standing against the minimum requirements for home ownership.

Backend Development

In the development of our algorithm for eligibility assessment, we implemented a strategy involving the utilization of dynamic parallel arrays for managing raw and processed data, ensuring data integrity through iterative processing, and employing robust exception handling to maintain stream buffer states. We also prioritized proper file stream management; additionally, our algorithm incorporated industry-standard formulas provided by domain experts (sponsors) to process data accurately, particularly in financial calculations. These practices ensured the reliability and precision of our eligibility assessment algorithm.

Time Management

In order to properly access and allocate the resources to our team members in the very limited time frame of a hackathon, we utilized project management techniques, such as project scheduling and resource planning in Microsoft Project. We were able to remain on task and productive the entire 32-hour period of the hackathon, with carefully managed break periods and rest blocks to optimize efficiency. Following this resource, we were able to derive overallocatations in tasks and solve these issues with careful management of human labor. By leveraging this resource, we identified task overallocations and addressed them through effective management of human resources. Additionally, this resource provided insights into various metrics such as the total expenditure on food and beverages, transportation costs, and individual time contributions to the work.

Key Takeaways

Exploring the intricacies of real estate and finance industries can be quite challenging. Over the course of this hackathon, we frequently encountered questions such as, "How do experts in these fields calculate complex data?" "How do they extract valuable insights from seemingly unrelated variables?" and "In a world where data is often behind paywalls or buried beneath irrelevant information, how do professionals locate pertinent data?"

At the conclusion of this hackathon, we've gained valuable insights and knowledge from our experiences, which will undoubtedly enhance our skills and make us better-equipped individuals.

What Is Next For Homey? - Personalization and real-time integration of data

Our project encompasses two key components: a user-friendly AI chatbot that engages with users to assess their financial situation, provides insights on home affordability, and offers guidance on achieving financial stability for potential homeowners. Additionally, we have developed a progressive data analyzer capable of processing financial data from banks, buyers, and government sources, so as long as they have the appropriate file type. Comparing it to the minimum requirements for home affordability.

Looking forward, we are optimistic about Homey's potential. Our chatbot has the capacity to evolve into a personalized financial guide and mentor, assisting individuals in realizing their dream of homeownership by providing tailored steps towards financial independence. Furthermore, our algorithm's adaptability to various data sources is a significant asset. However, a notable constraint is that data must be input before running the program or directly upon program launch. Our aspiration is to integrate real-time financial information into the product, offering individuals who handle substantial financial resources a sense of confidence and security in their financial status without the need for meticulous budgeting.