JXM/STUDIO
Interactive case study · some client details and contact info changed for privacy
Case study · AI/Property & Asset Management/Melbourne · VIC/Build window · 2–3 wks

One AI principal,
220+ assets,
one desk that runs itself.

Touchwood manages residential, commercial, carpark, storage and short-stay across five Melbourne sub-markets — with one boutique team. We built them a named principal AI and a roster of eight specialist sub-agents, so the desk handles the routine 24/7 and Mark only sees what needs a human.

220+
Assets under one principal · res · com · carpark · storage
~3 min
Median first-reply time on inbound enquiries · 24/7
4 min
From address to written comparative market analysis
6 min
Morning brief, drops before 7am — written + listenable
01 · The brief

A boutique desk, with a big-city workload.

Touchwood positions as AI-driven boutique real estate. The promise is exceptional service across residential sales and rentals, commercial leasing, carparks, storage, and short-stay — without the head-count of a top-50 agency.

Two operators, 220+ assets, 260+ clients, five sub-markets. The bottleneck wasn't intent — it was hours. Every enquiry needed a same-day reply. Every lease, a renewal review. Every short-stay turnover, a tight choreography. The brand promise was real; the team was at the edge of the rope.

ResidentialCommercialCarparkStorageShort-stayFree valuations
What we built

Heartwood — the principal AI for Touchwood.

One named AI you talk to, that runs a roster of eight specialist sub-agents and reports back the way a senior associate would. Sits over Touchwood's existing stack — listings, CRM, calendar, e-sign — and never replaces a final human decision.


  • 01A morning brief, drafted overnight, read out loud before the office is open.
  • 02A 24/7 concierge that drafts replies and qualifies enquiries the moment they land.
  • 03A decision queue — only the moves that need Mark, surfaced with everything attached.
  • 04A chat sidebar. Ask anything about any asset, get an answer with citations.
  • 05A clean handover. Code, prompts, and runbooks live in Touchwood's repo from day one.
02 · Meet Heartwood

Not a chatbot. A principal with a roster.

Heartwood is the named AI Mark talks to. It doesn't try to do every job itself — it briefs eight specialists and pulls their work back into one place. Same pattern a senior agent uses to run their juniors, only the juniors never sleep, never lose context, and never forget a follow-up.

HEARTWOODPRINCIPAL · ORCHESTRATORv 1.0 · ALWAYS ONConciergeINBOUND · 24/7StewardTENANT COMMSScoutMARKET WATCHValuerCMA · ON DEMANDListerLISTING COPYHostessPRIME HOSTINGInspectorINSPECTIONSAuditorCOMPLIANCEMARK · HUMAN-IN-THE-LOOP · APPROVES, OVERRIDES, SHIPS
03 · The roster

Eight specialists. One shared context.

Every sub-agent reads from one shared context — the same listings, leases, photos, contacts and notes the team uses. None of them improvise on policy. Heartwood routes the work; the specialists do it.

Concierge01/08
Inbound · 24/7

Watches every channel — site forms, realestate.com.au, Domain, Airbnb DMs, phone-text. Qualifies, books inspections, drafts replies in Touchwood's voice. Hands sales leads to Mark with a half-page brief.

handles 80% of routine
Steward02/08
Tenant comms · Lease ops

Owns the tenant relationship layer: maintenance triage, rent reviews, renewal drafts, arrears reminders, condition reports. Knows the rules across VIC residential and commercial leasing.

220+ tenancies
Scout03/08
Market watch

Tracks every comparable across the five sub-markets — Tribeca, Stead St, CBD, Queens Lane, Fawkner. Flags pricing shifts before they hit the data feed. Feeds the morning brief.

5 sub-markets, hourly
Valuer04/08
CMA · on demand

The engine behind the free property appraisal promise. Address in, comparative market analysis out in 4 minutes — with chart, recent sales, and a one-page narrative ready for the client.

free valuation in 4 min
Lister05/08
Listing copy · Photo brief

Turns inspection notes into market-ready listing copy across portals. Writes the photographer's shot list. Catches missing facts — body corp fees, OFI times, parking spec — before publish.

portal-ready in 6 min
Hostess06/08
Prime Hosting · Short-stay ops

Runs the short-stay choreography — guest comms, dynamic pricing against the local market, turnover scheduling for cleaners, key handover, late check-out asks. Wakes up first on weekends.

turnovers, end-to-end
Inspector07/08
Inspections · Reports

Books public and private inspections, sends reminders, collects feedback after the OFI. Transcribes condition reports from voice memos. Files everything against the right asset.

zero missed reminders
Auditor08/08
Compliance · Hygiene

Quiet, paranoid, useful. Checks lease compliance against VIC RTA changes, NAP consistency across Google, Bing, Apple, and Facebook, and that every listing has the right fields before it goes live.

weekly hygiene sweep
04 · A day on the desk

Twenty-four hours, narrated.

Heartwood and the roster don't clock off. Here's a representative Wednesday across the 220 assets — pulled from a real run log, address details changed.

05:42 AM
Concierge

Finishes scanning 14 overnight enquiries. 9 qualifying replies drafted, 2 sales leads routed to Mark for a call before 9am, 3 spam discarded.

06:31 AM
Heartwood

Morning brief drops — 6 min of audio plus a written deck. Top decision: pricing call on Lot 1316/39 Lonsdale.

08:14 AM
Steward

Plumber quote arrives for 6/1070 Sydney Rd. Steward annotates against last 3 maintenance jobs at that asset, flags it cleanly to Mark.

09:47 AM
Valuer

Three free appraisal requests came in via the site overnight. Valuer ships full CMAs with charts; Mark reviews and presses send.

11:20 AM
Lister

Inspection notes from a CBD apartment on Franklin St go in at 10:50. By 11:20, portal-ready copy, photo brief, and OFI scheduling are all waiting for approval.

02:08 PM
Scout

Detects three new East Melbourne listings inside Touchwood's price band. Tags them as comparable for two active vendors; updates their CMAs.

04:33 PM
Inspector

Sends reminder SMS to 12 prospects booked for Saturday's OFIs. Six confirm, two request a private viewing — auto-booked with Mark's calendar gap-finder.

06:21 PM
Hostess

Two same-day Prime Hosting bookings come through. Cleaner schedule rebalances. Keys ready. Guest welcome notes drafted with the local-coffee tip the team likes to add.

09:58 PM
Auditor

Weekly NAP sweep — Google, Bing, Apple, Facebook. Touchwood's St Kilda Tower entry on Apple Maps is off by a phone digit. Files a fix request.

11:47 PM
Concierge

Overnight rental enquiry from Brisbane — relocation, June 1 move-in. Books a Saturday inspection at 212/600 Little Bourke St without waking anyone up.

05 · The morning brief

Six minutes of brief, before the office is open.

Heartwood drafts a written-and-spoken summary of the last 24 hours, every morning. Pleasant Australian narration, conversational structure, the calls-to-action at the front. Listen on the drive, decide in the lift.

Touchwood · Morning Brief
Wed 28 May 2026 · 06:31 AEST · 6 min 12 sec
02:14−04:38
Transcript · excerpt
00:00Morning, Mark. Three things need you before 10. The rest is colour. Let's go.
00:18First — Lot 1316 on Lonsdale. The buyer came back overnight, eight per cent under list. Three of the four comparables I'm watching sold above list when held private. I've drafted a call script with the rental-yield angle, and the vendor's diary is open at nine-fifteen.
00:54Second — the plumber quote at the Fawkner unit came in at six-eighty. That's bang in the middle of the last three jobs at that property. Steward's ready to dispatch the moment you say go.
01:22Third — three new Prime Hosting enquiries last night. Two qualify under your rate floor; I've drafted replies. The third is below the floor by twelve per cent — I've held it for you to look at.
01:51Now the colour. Scout picked up three new East Melbourne listings in your price band — I've updated the CMA on two active vendors. The Inspector confirmed twelve out of fourteen for Saturday's open homes; two have asked for private viewings, I've booked them.
02:36Compliance — the Apple Maps entry for St Kilda Tower has a wrong digit on the phone number. I've filed the fix. Nothing else flagged.
03:09Last thing — pipeline. Five vendors at the appraisal stage, four buyers warm on commercial, two short-stay listings vacant for next weekend. Full board's in the deck. Have a good one.
Try it · scripted demo

See Heartwood in action.

The same interface Mark uses each morning. Pick a scripted question, approve items from the queue, or run a CMA — no account needed.

Scripted demo · pre-programmed flows · no real data
Conversation · Touchwood deskUTC+10 · Melbourne
HW
Heartwood · 06:38
Morning Mark. The roster's been busy overnight — 14 enquiries, 2 sales leads, 3 short-stay bookings. Three things need you before 10. Ask me anything, or pick a suggestion.
Ask Heartwood anything
06 · The numbers

No vanity. Just the shape of the desk.

Measured across the first 90 days of running Heartwood live, set against the pre-build baseline. Some identifying client details changed for privacy.

~3 min
Median first-reply on inbound enquiries · was 4–8 hrs out-of-hours
80%
Of routine comms drafted before Mark opens the inbox
4 min
Free property valuation, fully written, with comparables
2 wks
From scope to working PoC in Touchwood's repo
0
Lock-in · runs on Touchwood's stack, code lives in Touchwood's repo
100%
Private — no client data trained on, ever
24/7
Concierge cover · across rentals, sales, carpark, storage
5
Sub-markets · Tribeca · Stead St · CBD · Queens Lane · Fawkner
07 · How it was built

Four moves. Two to three weeks.

We don't sell a product; we ship a system. The same four-move pattern works whether you have ten assets or a thousand. Nothing leaves Touchwood's stack — repo, prompts, runbooks, sub-agent definitions all live in their GitHub from day one.

01Map

Map the desk.

One half-day with Mark and the team. We list every recurring move, what triggers it, what good looks like, and where it lives in the stack today.

Half-day · in person
02Draft

Draft the roster.

Name each sub-agent. Write their job description, their boundaries, their inputs and outputs. Confirm with the team before a single prompt is written.

Week 1 · async
03Ship

Ship the PoC.

Heartwood plus the two highest-leverage sub-agents — Concierge and Valuer — running live against real data. Everything else stays on paper until this earns its keep.

Week 2 · live
04Tune

Tune for 90 days.

Three months of weekly tuning included. We watch what Mark edits, fix what Heartwood gets wrong, add the next two sub-agents only when there's real traffic to feed them.

Wk 3–14 · included

Want a desk that runs itself?

We'll map your workflows for free and tell you straight what's worth automating — and only build it if it pays for itself.

Book a call