Free AI and Pay-at-Close Renovation Hacks Every Agent Needs with Chris Cuellar, Melvin Franklin, and Miguel Picart

Why I Had This Conversation

I run my live podcast sessions out of Cigar International at The Colony every couple of months because I want my audience to hear from people who actually move the needle for agents. Too much of what gets sold to our industry is noise. I look for the signal.

Chris, Melvin, and Miguel each came at value from a different angle. Chris lives in the tech and lending space. Melvin made the jump from twenty years in mortgage to selling homes. Miguel runs renovation projects that help listings show better and sell higher. Three lanes, one theme: give the agent more ammunition.

Why I Had This Conversation

I run my live podcast sessions out of Cigar International at The Colony every couple of months because I want my audience to hear from people who actually move the needle for agents. Too much of what gets sold to our industry is noise. I look for the signal.

Chris, Melvin, and Miguel each came at value from a different angle. Chris lives in the tech and lending space. Melvin made the jump from twenty years in mortgage to selling homes. Miguel runs renovation projects that help listings show better and sell higher. Three lanes, one theme: give the agent more ammunition.

Watch the full episode here:

Free AI Built Specifically for Real Estate

Chris opened with something I think too many agents ignore. If you are not using AI yet, you are already behind. His pitch was not generic, though. He introduced AngelAi for real estate agents, a tool from Celligence built only for the real estate and mortgage world.

The difference matters. General chatbots write copy that sounds pretty but ignores fair housing rules, because there is no obligation baked in. A real-estate-specific engine is trained on the guidelines, the acronyms, and the compliance traps that can get an agent in trouble.

“AngelAi is dedicated just to the real estate industry to bring value. Its sole purpose is to help out realtors and their clients. It’s going to have the acronyms, it’s going to have the technical language, and maybe even consider housing laws.”

What stood out to me was the breadth. Chris described around forty different uses, from generating marketing content to building landing pages, all white-labeled to your name and your preferred lender. There is even a hybrid call center component that can reach out to expired listings or past clients and transfer warm prospects back to you.

The honest takeaway is that the right tool beats the free generic one. Compliance is not optional in our business, and using software that respects it protects you and your client.

Why Buyers Almost Always Need an Agent

Melvin’s story hit a nerve with me. He spent two decades in mortgage, knew the process cold, and still bought his own first home without an agent. Then he watched himself miss things he did not even know to ask for.

He had no idea about the loan products available to him, the entity options, or the neighborhood-level details that an agent lives and breathes. He moved blind into an area he did not know, and he handled negotiations without anyone in his corner who did this for a living.

“I wasn’t aware of all the products that were available to me. Just that deep dive into the area… the negotiation process, knowing what to ask for that’s not customary to ask for. All of that, I definitely would have gotten a better view of what I had to work with.”

Here is the lesson I keep coming back to. Buyers see instant savings when they skip representation, but they do not see the consequences down the line. There are too many nuances in a transaction for someone outside the business to catch them all.

Stop Wearing Too Many License Hats

Melvin also touched on something I feel strongly about, so I pushed on it. A lot of agents stack licenses. They sell real estate, write mortgages, and carry an insurance license, and then try to operate in all three lanes on the same deal.

I rarely see anyone do that well. You end up mediocre across the board, your client can see exactly what you are making at every layer, and the disclosure burden becomes a headache. The cleaner play is to keep things at arm’s length. Refer the mortgage. Refer the insurance. Take yourself out of the conflict and protect the relationship.

“When you can remove all of that and make it arm’s length, do referrals, take yourself out of it, way better success. I advise you to consider not trying to operate all those businesses at the same time.”

The mistake to avoid is greed disguised as efficiency. Doubling and tripling up on a single transaction usually costs you more in trust than you gain in commission.

Pay-at-Close Renovations and Pre-Listing Inspections

Miguel brought the piece that surprised me most. As someone who has flipped over a hundred homes and fronted my own contractor costs, I know the pain of carrying renovation expenses. His pay-at-close home renovation model removes that pain entirely.

Working through Curbio‘s program, sellers can access funding for repairs, staging, landscaping, or full updates with no money out of pocket. Through partner lenders, it runs on a soft credit pull, the financing covers up to seventy-five thousand dollars, and nothing is owed until the home sells and the loan is paid off at closing.

The economics make sense. Put thirty thousand into cosmetic work, and you can often return more than that at sale, all while listing at retail value instead of taking a discount for condition.

That ties straight into something I do on every listing. I run a pre-listing inspection, because issues found before contract cost half as much to fix and twice as much once a buyer and lender are involved. Miguel confirmed his team can take that inspection report, treat it as a scope of work, and turn around a proposal within forty-eight hours that you can use directly in negotiations.

I also value that this is a true general-contractor model with project management built in. They hold the vendor relationships, the volume, and the availability that individual contractors lose the moment a better-paying job comes along.

What Changed for Me After This Conversation

“If you have a special report, you can give that to us. To me, it’s the scope of work. We’re going to work with our contractors to get the best price, and you can have a proposal within 48 hours.”

That line reframed my pre-inspection habit. I already inspect early to save my sellers money, but I had never thought to immediately route those reports out for fast, fundable bids on the big-ticket items like HVAC or plumbing.

I now think about value-add tools for real estate agents as a stack rather than single tactics. Free, compliant AI handles my marketing and outreach. Clean referral relationships protect my client’s trust. Pay-at-close renovations let me list homes at full value without anyone fronting cash. Each one removes a reason a deal might stall.

How I apply this is simple. I audit every listing for which of these levers fits, then I pull the ones that do before the home ever hits the market.

**Want to hear my full conversation with Chris, Melvin, and Miguel on the tools real estate agents need to succeed?
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Frequently Asked Questions

Is AngelAi really free for real estate agents?

Yes. Chris described it as free for agents, including white-labeled marketing content, landing pages, and access to the hybrid call center feature, with paid add-ons available for larger needs.

How does pay-at-close home renovation work?

A partner lender funds the repairs through a soft credit pull, the seller pays nothing up-front, and the financed amount is repaid out of the proceeds when the home sells and closes.

Why does a pre-listing inspection save sellers money?

Issues caught before going under contract are far cheaper to address. Once a buyer and lender are involved, expectations and leverage shift, and the same repairs often cost significantly more.

Apply as a Guest on the Real Estate Success DFW Podcast

The agents winning right now are the ones using every tool, relationship, and program available to them. If you are actively working in real estate, mortgage, renovation, or any space that creates real value for agents and their clients, I want to hear your story.

I record these episodes live and turn them into resources for a whole community that helps agents grow. Insights like the ones Chris Cuellar, Melvin Franklin, and Miguel Picart shared are exactly what move careers forward, and your experience could be next on the Real Estate Success DFW podcast!

Real Estate Success DFW is produced by Icons of Real Estate, the #1 Real Estate Podcast Network. If you are a real estate professional, apply to be a guest speaker across the network!