About Uncle AI
Uncle AI is an AI-powered home maintenance assistant that helps homeowners and property managers diagnose home problems — and either walks them through the fix or tells them when to call a licensed professional.
Why Uncle AI Exists
Every year, American homeowners spend billions on unnecessary service calls — dispatching a plumber for a $5 flapper, calling an electrician for a tripped breaker, or paying an HVAC technician $200 just to confirm a dirty filter. The problem isn't that people are careless. The problem is that diagnosis is expensive and inaccessible.
A licensed contractor charges $100–300 just to show up and tell you what's wrong. That cost is justified for complex issues, but for the majority of residential maintenance problems, the diagnosis itself is the fix. If you know what's broken, you often know whether you can handle it or whether you need a pro.
Uncle AI closes that gap. It asks smart questions — the same ones an experienced property manager would ask — to diagnose the problem before any money changes hands. Then it either walks you through a step-by-step repair or tells you clearly: this is beyond DIY, here's why, and here's what to tell the contractor when you call.
The Founder
Uncle AI was built by Andy Chao. Before founding Uncle AI, Andy spent 25 years in multifamily real estate — running a social impact real estate firm that acquired and managed 1,500 apartments in South Los Angeles and bought land and developed another 1,200 units. He's a graduate of Columbia University's Master of Science in Real Estate Development program.
The idea for Uncle AI came directly from operating experience. When you manage 1,500 apartments, you see the same maintenance problems thousands of times. You learn which problems tenants can fix themselves in five minutes and which ones require a licensed contractor immediately. You learn to ask the three or four diagnostic questions that separate a $5 fix from a $500 emergency. And you realize that this knowledge — the diagnostic layer between "something is wrong" and "here's what to do" — is exactly what most homeowners are missing.
Uncle AI captures that operational knowledge and makes it available to every homeowner in the country, for free.
The Mission
Home maintenance shouldn't require a $200 service call just to find out what's wrong. Uncle AI exists to make home repair diagnosis free, instant, and accessible to every homeowner in the United States — whether you own a single-family home, manage a portfolio of apartments, or are a first-time homeowner who doesn't know a flapper from a float valve.
When the diagnosis says DIY, we walk you through it. When the diagnosis says call a pro, we tell you exactly why — so you don't get overcharged and you know what to expect.
What Uncle AI Does
Uncle AI covers the most common residential maintenance categories: plumbing, electrical, HVAC, appliances, doors and windows, roofing and exterior, walls and ceilings, and cleaning. For each problem, Uncle AI provides a step-by-step diagnostic conversation, a DIY repair guide with tools and cost estimates, and clear "call a pro" signals when the problem is beyond safe DIY.
Every repair guide is localized for 100+ U.S. cities with cost estimates adjusted for local labor markets. Uncle AI currently publishes in-depth city guides for 25 priority metros including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, Atlanta, Miami, Boston, Seattle, and more.
For property managers, Uncle AI integrates with your maintenance workflow — helping triage tenant requests, reducing unnecessary dispatches, and providing data on your portfolio's most common issues.
Try Uncle AI
Describe a home problem. Uncle AI asks the right questions and tells you what's wrong — and whether to fix it yourself or call a pro.
Start free diagnosis →