What HomeRelay isn't.
We keep rental maintenance moving for self-managing landlords, and organize the records that work creates. Everything below is something we deliberately don't do. Tools that specialize already exist for each one; we'd rather you use those and let HomeRelay run the repair loop than do all of it badly.
Not a replacement for your accountant.
HomeRelay does organize the rental records: income and expenses, an annual expense summary grouped by Schedule E categories, vendor payments near the 1099 threshold, and W-9 details collected from vendors. We don't prepare or file a tax return, decide whether a payment is legally reportable, decide what's deductible, calculate depreciation, keep a general ledger, or give tax advice. Export the organized records to your tax software or accountant; HomeRelay keeps the repair side moving.
If you need to list a unit or screen a tenant.
We don't syndicate listings to Zillow / Apartments.com / Craigslist, we don't run tenant credit checks, we don't process rental applications, and we don't do background screening. That's a separate product category with its own legal posture (FCRA, source-of-income protection, etc.). Use a tool built for it.
HomeRelay starts working when your tenants are already in place.
If you have 50+ units and want a full back-office stack.
We're for landlords who self-manage. If you're running a property management company with hundreds of doors, dedicated trust accounting, ownership-statement generation, owner portals, commercial-grade workflow automation, the enterprise stacks built for that are a better fit. We have a 1-unit minimum and we won't grow into a 50-unit-minimum pricing tier on you.
If you want a vendor marketplace to pick from.
We don't have one and we won't build one. No HomeRelay-branded vendor network, no lead-gen fees, no curated bidding. You bring your team, your plumber, your electrician, the HVAC guy your cousin recommended. HomeRelay gives you a join link to share with them. They never need a HomeRelay account. They never pay us a cent.
If you leave HomeRelay, your vendor relationships stay yours. We were never in the middle of them.
If you want HomeRelay to physically dispatch humans for you.
We don't employ technicians, we don't run a 24/7 call center staffed with humans pretending to be AI, and we don't have a "maintenance coordinator service" that follows up with vendors on your behalf for a per-hour fee. The AI does that, automatically, included in $69/mo.
If you want in-product legal advice.
We don't ship state-by-state notice templates, eviction-deadline countdown timers, lease-clause-builder wizards, or "this is what your state requires" tooltips. Notice content varies 50 ways, the consequences of wrong advice are real, and we're not your lawyer.
We DO honor state-specific quiet hours and habitability dispatch windows for SMS, that's operational, not legal.
If you need security-deposit handling.
We don't hold security deposits in escrow, we don't generate deposit-return statements, we don't calculate deduction itemizations, and we're not party to deposit disputes. That's its own regulated product category (state-by-state escrow rules, money-transmitter implications). Landlord owns the deposit relationship directly.