The real estate industry, especially multifamily real estate, is slow to adapt technology compared to other sectors. Many businesses depend heavily on technology for growth, innovation, and success. To thrive in reality, property businesses must stop running their businesses like legacy multifamily businesses.
Multifamily property businesses are isolated from other areas of businesses and lack skills and technical know-how that professionals would otherwise bring from different sectors. There is reluctance in the real estate sector to change how things are done. Those operating them don’t see their properties as a business. They consider them just like real estate and operate them and measure the performance as such.
According to a survey of 701 multifamily personnel, 85% believe that they would be able to improve profits and growth with better insights into how the property is performing. One could witness a change in the multifamily world.
With the increasing impact of PropTech, renter expectations are increasing, and properties are automating several tasks, allowing them to extend the horizon to meet the growing demand. Also, the pandemic has accelerated these changes as customers expect no-to-low-contact settings and virtual property tours and ask for digital communication.
Multifamily property owners or managers are new to technology; therefore, they will experience some pain in learning, adapting, and implementing new tools. For Property Managers, there’s an opportunity to implement proptech tools to transform the industry. Below are some trending technologies that are appropriate for multifamily real estate businesses.
Best Practices For Incorporating Technology
CRM Platforms
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools simplify property management, helping leasing teams improve customer experience. Salesforce CRM For Real Estate management is an automated system that provides automatic reminders for agents. It also enhances leasing agents’ workflow, providing gamification for their day-to-day tasks, giving them more motivation in their workday, and keeping them engaged with their work. These platforms are easy to use and will be a fun, enjoyable experience.
CRM Platforms also enable teams to measure their goals and determine the pain points affecting the property’s net operating income (NOI). Automated reminders can help follow-ups, improve activity logs and response times, and personalize future interactions with the prospective residents.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI is the biggest asset for multifamily Property Managers looking to improve the efficiency of their teams. AI and Chatbots lead great solutions. AI is popularly used to automate and outsource manual tasks like data entry, scheduling appointments, and other time-sensitive tasks like follow-ups, converting leads, checking conversion funnel, and others. With AI, Property Managers can automate more of their activities which empowers them to improve their productivity. It also provides them with faster response times. Furthermore, AI agents can respond to prospective residents even when the leasing team is off the clock, making scheduling virtual or onsite appointments easy irrespective of the day. Automating timely responses with AI decreases the response time, preserving leads viability and improving the potential for conversions.
Virtual Reality
VR is another major technology that significantly impacted the real estate industry during a pandemic. Virtual Reality made virtual tours possible when in-person tours were impossible, emerging as a viable alternative. VR made things easy for leasing agents to showcase their property without close contact and allowed prospects to filter property units from the comfort of their homes.
It is essential to understand that VR tours of properties can play a significant role in the leasing process. Property Managers can also use pre-recorded property tours, allowing prospecting residents to tour a property at their convenience and more accessible. In-person tours are important, but by supporting VR tours, leasing teams can maximize their options by offering in-person and virtual tours.
Implementing these technologies and others can rightly offer operators the ability to provide residents with flexibility, especially in the multifamily leasing industry, where Property Managers still struggle to attract and retain customers due to lack of technology.
