Today, you can trade stocks with a tap and sell cars online in an afternoon. Yet residential real estate is still stuck in manual workflows, endless paperwork, and opaque commissions.
For husband-and-wife founders Trey McMeans and Caroline McMeans, the disconnect was impossible to ignore.
“Technology is supposed to bring more value to people,” says Trey, Homepoint’s co-founder and a veteran of the Birmingham tech scene. “The more we dug [into real estate], we saw that technology has not really done that in real estate. It’s made the process more profitable for agents or outside parties, but it has not brought consumer savings.”
With Trey’s tech background and Caroline’s real estate experience, the two have teamed up to build Homepoint, a tech-forward brokerage designed to “right-size” the value of the real estate agent by stripping away the friction of the traditional transaction. And even in its early stages, it is gaining traction across the Southeast.
Real Estate Gets A Tech Upgrade
For sellers, the journey on Homepoint begins by uploading property details directly to their account. From there, the platform becomes a digital project manager.
Sellers receive a turnkey experience, including professional photography, smart lockboxes, and yard signs. The platform allows homeowners to approve or reject agent tours in real-time and presents incoming offers in a “digestible way,” removing the jargon that often clouds high-stakes real estate decisions. Importantly, Homepoint replaces percentage-based commissions with a transparent flat fee.
While the platform focused on bringing tech into real estate, the McMeans emphasized that the “human” element isn’t going anywhere.
“People still need an expert,” Trey noted.
The software is designed to handle the administrative heavy lifting of paperwork and scheduling tasks so agents can focus on what they do best. According to Caroline, this allows their team to prioritize “negotiation and strategies that actually drive value.”
Meet The Team
Launched on Labor Day 2024, the company hit the ground running, moving over $7 million in volume in its inaugural year. The team said the platform has saved customers over $150k in commissions (something possible after the National Association of Realtors’ settlement in 2024).
Caroline is a licensed broker who has worked in commercial and multifamily development. Trey brings over a decade of experience in the mobile, software, and technology development spaces. He’s previously built consumer-based tech brands, including My Greek Study, and is currently the VP of Engineering at Birmingham-based Pharmacy Marketplace.
For Trey, the name “Homepoint” is a nod to first successful exit, when he was CTO of Directorpoint. But the name also defines the startup’s mission of helping both the buying and selling journey.
Looking forward, the McMeans say that AI will become an increasingly important part of their business and software infrastructure.
“Real estate will continue to require human involvement for the foreseeable future, but we are building toward 90 percent of our daily operations being handled by AI. This includes transaction management, vendor coordination, and property analysis using visual intelligence,” they told Hypepotamus.
The team wrapped up 2025 with a big win at Alabama Launchpad, a program of the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama (EDPA) in partnership with Innovate Alabama. Through the program, Homepoint received $75,000 in non-dilutive funding, which allowed Caroline to jump into the business full time.
Homepoint is currently up and running in Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia. Florida is “on the immediate horizon,” with the team eyeing Louisiana and Mississippi after that.