AIM 2019 Session Recap: 3rd Party Management - Ripe for Disruption?

 3rd Party Management - Ripe for Disruption?

Is it a good or a bad thing that AI may surpass humans in certain areas of property management? That was the question as a panel of operational experts convened at the 14th Annual Apartment Innovation and Marketing Conference (AIM 2019), which took place at the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach on May 5-8, 2019. Moderated by Kari Warren, Executive Vice President of Property Operations, Kairoi Residential, panelists

• Charlotte Bradley, Group Product Manager, AppFolio
• Ashby McElveen, Vice President of Real Estate, Lyric
• Andre Jordan Sanchez, Vice President of Operations, Rently

demonstrated how - just as everywhere else - AI and machine learning are changing the world of residential property management.

When the subject of AI comes up, most people immediately anticipate that it will downsize the human factor in business. Because it already has. “We’ve been able to integrate AI in these incremental forms,” said Lyric’s McElveen, “to facilitate operational enhancements.” Instead of having shift managers, for example, “we can organize an operations hub to minimize the head count but having the same level of quality.”

Indeed, when AppFolio partnered with John Burns Consulting to discover pain points that inhibit growth, said Bradley, “We found that four of the five top inhibitors were related to human resources.” Of these she noted, “Number Two was ‘too many manual processes’ (35.1%). So that’s a prime problem to apply AI, which is great for repetitive very mundane tasks.”

And when, said Bradley, repetitive manual tasks are automated, “You can work on having the best talent and growing the people who are a part of your team (giving them more responsibility). Another concern, having enough staff to handle the volume of leads, is also something that AI can help with.” Because, explained Bradley, “no one has statis demand, and AI can scale up and down, depending on the demand.” 

At Rently, we position AI for “work having to be done outside your normal working hours,” said Sanchez. “A lot of tours that you’ll see from our data, are conducted before 10 AM, after 6 PM or on the weekends. He reasoned, “If you can have a technology that supplements the human touch after hours, so you can give employees their weekends back, why not?

Bradley agreed, saying, “You want to gain efficiencies - but not at the cost of your customer experience.” Still, one part of the customer experience that could be improved (from the customer’s POV) is response. AppFolio’s survey learned that while 84 percent of property managers thought they were communicating well with their renters, only 38 percent of renters agreed with them. “AI can help you see when you’re meeting those expectations.”

Rently also has AI working in the background of its software to ensure credit authentications, as well as vetting out and securing showings. “If we didn’t AI to that degree,” said Sanchez, “I think it would be hard to scale our system.” McElveen agreed, noting how Lyric used AI to facilitate the the types of background checks that are standard in the rental industry, “even as the client is filling out the agreement.”

It’s also what the customer wants. Lyric discovered, through their rental nights, that 75 percent of their clientele have an automated stay in which they choose not to interact with employees.” Sanchez saw the merits of this: “You guys are on point with this,” also noting, “The worst companies I ever experienced when I was a renter were the ones that did not embrace technology.”