Inspiration
Every home tells a story, built year by year, shaped by weather, wear, and the decisions of the people who lived there. But most homeowners are left in the dark about the risks quietly building up around them until something goes wrong and a claim is already filed.
We built Nest Guard around a simple belief: owning a home is complicated, but understanding it should not be.
We wanted to create something personal — a tool that takes your home's history, your current conditions, and the environmental forces surrounding your property, and turns all of that into something you can actually act on.
Not a wall of insurance jargon. Not a generic checklist.
A living risk profile that grows smarter the longer you use it.
What It Does
Nest Guard is an AI-powered homeowner risk assessment tool that helps you understand, visualize, and reduce the risks your home carries before they become claims.
Risk Report
Answer a short intake quiz about your home (year built, roof type, construction material, location). Nest Guard generates a personalized risk score across 3 categories: Natural Disaster, Home Condition, Neighborhood
Our scoring model uses:
- User-entered inputs (roof age, construction type, year built)
- Location-derived natural risk data (ZIP‑based environmental scores) Every recommendation is traceable back to a specific variable. No black boxes.
Interactive 2D Home Map
Your risk comes to life on a visual cross-section of your home. Each element: roof, foundation, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, is color‑coded by its individual risk level.
Click any element to see:
- What is causing the risk
- What history says about homes like yours
- What actions can you take
Tips & Action Plan
Every risk has a fix. Nest Guard generates a ranked action plan tailored to your home. Mark actions as complete and watch your score improve in real time.
Live Natural Disaster Alerts
Nest Guard monitors real-time weather and environmental conditions. If a storm or flood warning appears near your home and you have a known vulnerability, you get a live alert with steps to take immediately.
How We Built It
| Layer | Technology |
|---|---|
| Frontend | React + Vite + Tailwind CSS |
| Animations | Framer Motion |
| Backend | Python FastAPI |
| AI Risk Engine | Gemini API |
| Natural Risk Data | OpenFEMA + NOAA APIs |
| Property Data | ATTOM Data API |
| Deployment | Vultr + Vercel |
Challenges We Ran Into
Information Overload Home risk is complex. Our biggest UX challenge was deciding what to show, what to hide, and how to present serious data without overwhelming users.
Intake Quiz Design We needed enough data to score meaningfully, but a long form would lose users. Finding the minimum viable inputs required careful research into which variables actually drive claim variance.
Time Constraints vs. Depth We had to scope down entire categories like liability and security. Every feature was a tradeoff between depth and a working demo.
Accomplishments We’re Proud Of
- A clean, calm UI that makes risk data feel approachable
- All core features working end‑to‑end
- Our own in‑house LLM powering the risk engine
- Deep domain research into insurance and actuarial logic
- A homeowner‑first experience that filters signal from noise
What We Learned
- Insurance is far more data-driven and nuanced than expected
- How to structure real-world data for LLMs
- The gap between insurer metrics and homeowner understanding
- Great UX in high-stakes domains requires cutting, not adding, information
- The most useful product surfaces the right thing at the right moment
What’s Next for Nest Guard
- Transform into a mobile app
- Add in Security & Liability categories
- Security: alarms, deadbolts, cameras, monitoring.
- Liability: pools, trampolines, pets, umbrella policies.
- Full 3D home model: An interactive 3D walkthrough where users can explore risk spatially.
- Deeper personalization using more user inputs or data from the web
- Integrating:
- Neighborhood crime indexes
- Fire station response times
- Historical claim frequency
- Seasonal weather patterns
- Claims History Integration: Look at the previous claims and see how we can help our users not to repeat them.
The long-term vision for Nest Guard: a tool that remembers everything that has happened at your address, not just what you enter.
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