About

I built this for my own house first.

That's me on the left, on a climbing day. The console watches the house so I don't have to.

I'm Max Goshay. I build software, I live in San Rafael, and Headlands Console started as the screen I wanted for my own home in Marin. Before I offered it to anyone, it was already running my lights, my solar, my water, and my cameras. If you're thinking about letting a stranger wire up the systems that run your house, you should know exactly who that stranger is. So here's the whole thing, in plain words.

The short version

I'm a working software builder, not a sales office. I'm one person in San Rafael, about ten minutes from most of the homes I'd build for. When you email Headlands, I'm the one who reads it and the one who writes back, usually within a day. There's no call center, no account manager, no script. That's the deal, and I like it that way.

The house this runs on is mine

Plenty of the companies that sell you a smart-home dashboard have never lived inside one. I built this because I got tired of running my own house through six different apps that don't talk to each other. The solar and battery are Sol-Ark, the lighting is a 20-year-old Lutron system every dealer had written off, the water is on Flume, and all of them are on the console live today, alongside the cameras and even our cars. The pool is Jandy, and it joins when its receiver hardware goes in. What I did for my own house is exactly what I would do for yours.

That matters for one reason. The console this site sells is the one in my own home, not a demo I stood up for a screenshot. It is watching my solar production as I write this, and the Lutron rescue in my own walls is finished and running through it: 157 loads answering over a serial cable that every dealer had called a dead end. That same rescue work is what I sell. You can click around a live demo of that same console right now, no login required.

Why I only build things you own

Here's the part I feel strongest about. I watched too many people get locked out of the systems meant to run their own homes. Subscription platforms raise their prices, get bought, and sometimes just shut down, and your setup goes with them. Dealer systems are worse in one specific way: to change a light scene or fix an automation, you have to call the dealer and pay for a service visit, because you're not allowed to touch your own house. You paid for it, but you don't own it. You rent it.

I didn't want to live that way, and I won't sell it to you. Everything I build is yours in the contract. Owned, not rented. That one word, owned, is the whole company.

What "owned by you" actually means

I'd rather show you the mechanics than ask you to trust a slogan. Here is exactly what "yours" means:

• You see the price before any work starts. A flat build, quoted first. For a home, from $2,500, one time. No hourly surprises on the build itself.
• It runs on hardware and accounts you own. Your domain, your logins, your data. Nothing important lives on my platform where I could hold it hostage.
• The care plan is optional, and you can cancel it. $99 a month if you want me keeping it monitored, updated, and answered. Cancel anytime, and the console keeps running, because it was never renting from me.
• You get the keys. Full documentation and the configuration, handed to you. What you can change yourself after I'm done and paid: everything.

"What happens to my house if you disappear?"

It's a fair question to ask a solo builder, so I'll answer it straight. If I vanished tomorrow, your house is fine. The console runs locally, on hardware you own, so it keeps working with or without me. You hold every account and login. You have the documentation and the config in hand. And because it's built on standard parts and your own accounts instead of a proprietary black box, any competent installer can pick it up and keep it going. Nothing about your home is trapped inside me or inside my company. That's by design, and it's the same design whether I'm around in ten years or not.

About being new

Headlands is young, and I'd rather say that plainly than dress it up. I don't have a wall of reviews yet. What I'd point out is that "new" cuts the other way here: because I build things you own outright, you're not betting your house on my company lasting forever. The whole point of an owned console is that it outlives the person who built it. The honest proof I can offer today is the house I described above, with this exact console running in it, ten minutes from you. And you're welcome to come see the real thing work.

How to start

No pressure, and no deposit just to talk. The first step is a free walkthrough. You tell me what your house runs on, I show you what your console would look like, and I give you a flat price. If it's not right for you, you owe nothing and we part as friends. If it is right, I build it, and you own it.

Everything you run. One screen.

Written by Max Goshay, San Rafael, California. Published July 2026. Of the systems described, the Sol-Ark solar and battery, the Flume water meter, the Lutron lighting, and the cameras are live on my own home's console today; the Jandy pool joins when its receiver hardware is installed. Full prices are published at headlandsconsole.com/start. A real person, me, replies to [email protected] within a day.