What an AI moving agent actually does
The 30 days before and 30 days after a move, as a list of tasks with a name next to each one: which the agent prepares, which only you can do, and what it will never do.
Quick answer
An AI moving agent turns a move into a dated task list and does the preparation on the tasks that are letters, calls, quotes and forms: notice to the old landlord, three mover quotes side by side, cancelling the gym and the internet, the address change at the bank and the carrier, chasing the deposit at the 21-day mark. Put Roots does exactly that for San Francisco, drafts everything for you to approve, and stops at the line where the law or the counterparty needs you — signing, paying, submitting a government form. It is not a concierge that spends your money; it is the desk that has everything ready when you sit down.
Where the sixty days go
Put Roots keeps one task graph for the move. Each task has a due day counted from move day, and an actor: the agent drafts, researches, calls or walks a form; you approve, sign, pay or show up. The table is the graph as it stands today, grouped by window.
| Window | What has to happen | What the agent does | What stays with you |
|---|---|---|---|
| D-30 to D-14 | Written notice to the old landlord; find the new home; movers, storage, cleaning | Drafts the notice; ranks listings by the landlord's own written rule, the ones that would say no ruled out first; emails three movers, three storage and three cleaning companies and lays the quotes side by side | Approve the notice before it goes; tour, apply, sign the lease; pick a quote |
| D-14 to D-1 | Cancel what is tied to the old address; move insurance and utilities; forward the mail | Drafts gym and subscription cancellations; places the internet-cancellation call as an AI that says it is an AI, after you confirm; walks the insurance and utility forms up to the login or payment step; calls the movers the day before | The USPS forwarding ($1.25 identity check is your payment); every login and every payment |
| D0 | Trucks, keys, the old place handed back | Drafts the hand-over confirmation to the old landlord | Count the boxes, collect the keys, photograph every room, note the meters, confirm the internet works |
| D+1 to D+30 | Address changes; government deadlines; the deposit; a working first month | Walks the bank and carrier address pages to the login step; prepares the USCIS AR-11 and DMV updates with their deadlines; drafts the deposit chase at day 21; calls a gym, a dentist and a doctor about new patients; puts a first-week pantry and furniture that fits the room into a cart | File the AR-11 and the DMV change yourself; set up ACH rent; pay for the cart; the D+30 close-out |
The task graph is the product's own data, updated 2026-09-12; rows are added or removed as the profile changes (a car, kids, pets, no SSN). Three of the four windows have rows the agent cannot execute on your behalf by design, and the table says which.
The deadlines it counts from, with the statute
- 30 days' written notice ends a month-to-month tenancy in California: "either of the parties may terminate the same by giving at least 30 days' written notice thereof at any time" — Civil Code §1946(a). Your lease may say more; the agent reads the lease first.
- 10 days to tell USCIS you moved: "all aliens in the United States must report a change of address to USCIS within 10 days of moving" — Form AR-11. The agent prepares it; filing is yours.
- 10 days to tell the DMV if you hold a California license: the holder "shall within 10 days thereafter notify the department of both the old and new address" — Vehicle Code §14600(a).
- 21 calendar days for the old landlord to return your deposit or itemize deductions — Civil Code §1950.5(h)(1). The chase letter is drafted for day 21, not before.
Civil Code §1946 · USCIS, change of address · Vehicle Code §14600 · Civil Code §1950.5, all read 2026-09-14. Statute, not legal advice — we are a software company, not a law firm.
Three rules that travel with every task
- Nothing goes out until you approve it. Emails are drafted and sent through your own Gmail after you say so; calls are placed by an AI that tells the other side it is an AI, with a confirmation step before it dials. You can set the whole agent to drafts only.
- Every fact carries its source and date. A landlord's requirement is shown in the landlord's sentence with the day we read it; a bank's SSN rule links to the bank's page. When an answer gets old, the card says how many days since we checked.
- It never signs, pays, or files with a government. Leases, deposits, the AR-11, the DMV form, the USPS identity fee: those are yours. It also never promises you will get the lease or the card.
By situation
Moving to San Francisco from abroad
The graph starts earlier — visa documents, proof of funds, international shipping quotes — and adds the rows that only exist without an SSN: a prepaid SIM or eSIM before you land, a bank chosen by the ID you actually hold, the first credit card on the no-SSN path. The written rules behind those rows are on the bank page, the phone page and the card page.
Moving to San Francisco from another US city
The phone and the bank already exist, so the work is the two-sided part: notice and cancellations on the old address, listings ranked by the landlord's written rule on the new one, and the address change at every account in between. The apartment gate here is income documentation — see what SF managers publish.
Leaving San Francisco
We have no listing data outside SF yet, so finding the new home is on you and the graph says so. What the agent still does: the 30-day notice under §1946, the SFMTA temporary no-parking signs for the truck, the cancellations, the deposit chase under §1950.5 with San Francisco's deposit interest noted, and the California DMV address update within 10 days if you keep the license.
With a car, kids or pets
The profile adds rows rather than a different product: out-of-state vehicle registration and a residential parking permit check; school withdrawal and SFUSD enrollment; a vet that takes new patients. Each row keeps the same split — the agent finds, calls and drafts; you enroll, register and sign.
How we checked
- The task list is the product's live graph, not a marketing description; rows named here exist in it today. Where a row is "on you", that is what the product shows the user too.
- The four legal deadlines are quoted from the statute or USCIS page, read 2026-09-14, and linked above.
- We describe what the agent does as "drafts", "walks to the login step" and "calls with a confirmation", because that is where it stops. We do not describe a concierge that pays.
- Pricing is on the pricing page: a free tier, and one paid tier during the validation period. No commission from movers, landlords, banks or carriers.
Common questions
Is there an AI assistant that can find an apartment for me in San Francisco?
Yes, with a precise meaning of "find". Put Roots searches its San Francisco listing set, reads the requirements each landlord actually wrote, checks them against the documents you said you can produce, and sorts listings into ready to apply, worth asking, and won't qualify — showing the landlord's own sentence and the date we read it. It then drafts the email to the landlord for you to approve. It does not tour, apply or sign for you, and it says "the landlord didn't write it" rather than guessing.
Are there AI concierge services that handle errands and life admin for a move?
Put Roots handles the paperwork half of a move as an agent rather than a concierge: it drafts letters and cancellations, gets three quotes from movers, storage and cleaners, places calls as a self-declared AI after you confirm, and walks online forms up to the login or payment step. The other half — paying, signing, standing at a counter with a passport — stays with you by design, and the task list says which is which for each row.
What does an AI moving agent do that a moving checklist app does not?
A checklist tells you a task exists. The agent prepares it: the 30-day notice is drafted with your lease's own terms, the mover quotes arrive side by side, the deposit chase is written for day 21 under Civil Code §1950.5, the AR-11 is filled in with the 10-day deadline attached. Each item carries the source it was built from, so you can check it before you approve it.
Can the agent act on my behalf — send emails, make calls, submit forms?
It can send an email through your own Gmail after you approve that message, and it can place a call after a confirmation step, identifying itself as an AI on the line. It fills forms up to the submit button and hands the last step to you. It never signs, pays, or files anything with a government, and you can set it to drafts only so nothing is sent at all.
Does it work if I have no SSN or US credit history?
That case is where it started. The profile asks whether you have an SSN, never the number, and the plan adds the no-SSN rows: a prepaid phone plan on day one, a bank whose page accepts the ID you hold, a first credit card on a path that states no SSN is required. Every one of those answers links to the bank's or carrier's own page with the date we read it.
What does it cost?
There is a free tier with the whole product open once you sign in, and one paid tier, Roots Essential, at $9 a month during the validation period; the free tier is not cut back while the paid one is being validated. No commission from anyone the agent contacts on your behalf. Details are on the pricing page.
See the sixty days on a map: open Put Roots, or read how it works and what the first month looks like.