Nice Healthcare gives residents access to cost-effective healthcare right in their apartment.
In this episode, we sit down with John Young, who is the Senior Vice President of Growth at Nice Healthcare, and Kelly Krasner, the Vice President of Growth.
SCOTTSDALE, AZ – The Multifamily Innovation® Advisory Council announced today its formal launch with approximately 1.5 million apartment units being represented. The council is on track to grow to north of 3 million units by end of year, with a focus of being the catalyst for innovation, through delivering insight to leaders across the industry.
The Multifamily Innovation® Advisory Council is led by Chairman Patrick Antrim, Founder and CEO of Multifamily Leadership, a media and events platform providing streaming content around technology, innovation, leadership, and investing. Antrim is an industry professional and producer of the highest-level events in the multifamily apartment industry, through their podcast network, conferences, and annual summits.
Serving as Chair of Technology Initiatives for the Multifamily Innovation® Advisory Council is technologist Kerry W. Kirby, Founder and CEO of 365 Connect®, a leading provider of automated marketing, leasing, and engagement platforms for the multifamily housing industry. Kirby is an accomplished entrepreneur, innovator, and industry influencer. He holds 95 technology awards, has presented in over 150 webcast reaching over one-million listeners from around the world, and is changing the way we think about the convergence of technology in the rental housing market.
Antrim and Kirby have built their careers collaborating with leaders in the multifamily space, and have been extracting the perspectives from investors, developers, and operators or more than 20 years. They have been meeting in individual and small group gatherings over that past two years to discuss a variety of topics, from shifting consumer expectations, reimagining the role of our workforce, and analyzing the way next-generation renters can be accommodated.
Daryl Smith, Chief Marketing Officer for Kettler stated, “The Multifamily Innovation® Council is a diverse group of intra-disciplinary professionals obsessed with a vision for innovation that will inspire the next generation of multifamily operations and leaders. I am extremely excited to participate, the discussions are timely and strategic, while inspiring me to imagine the calculus of innovation and its impact on our consumers and operations.”
Members of the Multifamily Innovation® Advisory Council gain access to a diverse group of high-level multifamily owners and operators, where ideas are exchanged about deploying and using different types of technology, without investing valuable resources into a venture capital fund. Working together to identify opportunities and navigate obstacles, members openly share their experience in finding solutions that are the proper fit for their operations.
Mike Brewer, Chief Operating Officer at RADCO Residential added, “The Multifamily Innovation® Council allows me to see the signal in the noise. Gone are the days when I must sit through endless sales pitches without understanding which technologies truly meet the needs of my business. The council takes the hard work out of making informed business decisions.”
The private invitation only group of council members attend weekly meetings to openly discuss real-world experiences related to utilizing technology across their communities. The members are void of any vendor influences and sales pitches to allow them to freely think through challenges they had or are having in deploying technology, as well as finding quality solutions for their operations. Council members also meet in-person annually at the Multifamily Innovation® Summit to join panel discussions, as well as celebrate the Best Places to Work Multifamily®.
Kim Boland, Director of Digital Marketing at Morgan Properties stated, “The Multifamily Innovation® Council allows me to not feel alone when evaluating and implementing new programs. They help me realize that other people are having similar experiences. Listening to feedback from other operators and seeing how they have planned, tackled, and succeeded in rolling out technology programs allows me to know that challenges are normal, and success is possible.”
Membership to the Multifamily Innovation® Council is by application only. Those applying must be with a firm that owns or manages a minimum of 1,500 apartment units. To learn about membership opportunities, visit MultifamilyInnovation.com
ABOUT MULTIFAMILY INNOVATION® COUNCIL: The Multifamily Innovation® Council is a private, members only group focused on assisting owners and operators of multifamily communities by reducing risks associated with vetting new technologies and implementations. Through leveraging the knowledge and creativity of people within the organization, emerging digital transformation can be explored and accelerated. For more information visit MultifamilyInnovation.com
Underwriting is all about assessing risks. That means a lot of paperwork.
Companies hire MBAs and other professionals to do multifamily underwriting. It’s expensive. It’s slow. And it’s worked for decades.
Technology is getting more powerful, and jobs that have always been done by humans are being done by computers. More and more companies are realizing that these innovative technologies can take hours of work and finish it in minutes.
Ten years ago, no one would have thought you could underwrite a deal in four minutes. Entire companies exist to help with underwriting so employees can focus on more important work.
One of our clients, Parag Goswami led a company with dozens of analysts doing the same basic tasks every day. He realized that more analysts was the wrong answer.
The industry is changing, and billions of dollars of real estate deals are underwritten by artificial intelligence every year. Companies are starting to recognize that.
Clik.ai was an early software company that did the underwriting for deals. Parag Goswami, the owner of Clik.ai, had to teach companies what AI could do for them. It was new. No one was used to it.
That was five years ago. The environment has changed. When he talks with clients, they are often already aware of the benefits of the technology.
Finishing deals faster and getting onto the next one. Enabling workers to focus on more important work. Being fast enough to get that one breakthrough deal.
Automatic underwriting is becoming the industry standard. Seventy years ago, “computers” were people who did simple math for a living. (They “computed” math.) It was basic labor. Computers were the standard then and are the standard now, but instead of a person it’s a device. A calculator.
Are your underwriters people, or an AI? The people doing your underwriting are professionals with degrees. They are spending their time doing work a computer could be doing instead.
“Computers” did math by hand for decades. It worked. Businesses did underwriting by hand for decades. It worked. Now the industry is changing. AI is able to assess deals faster. Fewer deals are slipping through the cracks.
Clik.ai automates over $50 billion in real estate underwriting every year. That number is growing. The industry is changing. Are you?
In this episode of the Multifamily Innovation Show, Patrick Antrim hosts Trevor Park, a specialist in multifamily and real estate development who now serves as the Head of Marketing for a software company called BetterBot.
BetterBot is based out of Seattle. Park’s goal is to connect people and to provide them with strategic solutions through world-class support and good data. BetterBot is a sophisticated AI chatbot. It aims to give people their time back and create more freedom in when, where, and how people can access their information. The company views itself as customer-centric.
(2:20) – Getting away from emails
“300 million emails are sent each day, and only 18% are opened,” says Antrim, turning things over to Park to explore why that is.
Park answers that the main problem is the sheer volume of emails sent out. BetterBot helps reduce the number of emails coming in, and ensures the emails that do arrive are better leads. That frees up lots of time for property management teams.
Park says BetterBot can also help with resident retention, explaining, “By freeing up the front end, it allows you to focus on that back door.”
(4:40) – The way people consume information is changing
People want things instantly these days. BetterBot gives them instant responses, leading to a massive improvement in rent conversion times. Conversions started happening in about 13 days rather than 45.
(6:30) – Lessening touchpoints
Since BetterBot handles a lot of the preliminary questions, you don’t need to have as much back-and-forth over email.
(7:40) – The Handoff
BetterBot doesn’t try to trick people into thinking they’re talking with a human; it’s very clear and upfront that it’s a chatbot. With email nurturing, they also offer things people can do online rather than needing to connect with a human.
Park believes the handoff between the automation and the human is one of the most important parts of the technology. AI doesn’t do things better, it’s just different, and Park wants to create a good interaction and workflow between technology and humanity.
(10:00) – Texting
People are already used to being on their cell phones constantly. That platform is similar to chatbots because you can send messages without having to worry about someone being active on the other side; you can even send automated messages. Some companies have AI guided text conversations to help people make purchases or get tech support.
(11:40) – Prospect interaction
Almost 60% of traffic is coming after hours, Park says. When things come in during working hours , the leasing agents can handle it, but it’s the late-night hours when direct interaction is most valuable. The company that responds right away is more likely to get that person’s business. Plus, it’s expected! People want instantaneous results.
(14:20) – Building a bot
It takes BetterBot 3 days or less to build a bot tailored to your apartment. Then, they can adapt that so you can have it across your entire portfolio.
“By having that level of data come through, you’re able to really evaluate where the trends are coming from, where are you seeing the best ROI from your marketing sources, where are you seeing the most traffic, what’s converting well? You can start to evaluate it on a much grander scale,” explained Park. “When you’re looking at isolated data points, you can really be blinded by initial results and skewed data.”
(16:30) – Why trust BetterBot?
It’s all in the data. They’re at almost 100 million greetings. That’s 100 million data points and prospects they’re directly influencing. From those, they’ve had close to 50,000 conversions, which is an enormous impact in the market.
They’re also very transparent about sharing data points, even when it shows disappointing news. Even bad news gives you insight into trends you can then remedy.
(18:00) – The evolution of BetterBot
The company was originally focused on natural language processing. They chose to go with guided conversations instead. Those conversations work like a choose your own story book. They built from there, integrating things like virtual tours. They also rolled out email nurturing bots recently. Now, they can map what best leads to good conversions.
They want to evolve more to the resident side of things moving forward. Now, you can learn more about the resident experience even while using the chat bot.
(23:30) – Why don’t more properties use BetterBot?
BetterBot focuses on the U.S. but does have some links in Canada. Park believes the only reason it hasn’t expanded even further is because of the cost. They don’t do per-unit cost, it’s by property.
“I would say if you take your total web traffic and take out 60%, that’s pretty much the miss you have right there,” said Park. “Not being able to answer questions for people who look at your website, that’s 60% of traffic that you’re losing. Then factor in the number of emails you’ve gotten and the ones you’re able to follow up with.”
By factoring in the number of leases most properties miss out on, Park believes BetterBot pays for itself. When people try out BetterBot’s demo, they see how efficient it is.
Keep in mind, not all leads are qualified; some people are just checking out a tour or looking at the units. They might not be a lead worth nurturing off the bat, so BetterBot helps weed those out rather than leasing agents wasting their time.
(28:00) – How does this work with email?
Chatbots are limited to marketing links and websites.
“Where email comes into play is pretty much everywhere else,” explains Park. That could include places like Zillow, where people might click a link to send an email. The property can’t always follow up, so BetterBot responds for them and instantly engages with the prospect, then driving the prospect to the chatbot to schedule a tour.
BetterBot has tracked how response time influences successful signing of leases. More often than not, the first property to respond is the one that got the lead.
(30:30) – The future of leasing
Park thinks virtual tours are going to dominate the digital space. As in, being able to see the 360 view of the space while online.
“Then, when we start getting into when they’re about to convert and they want that tangible piece, this is where I truly value having a leasing agent being able to show me through a property and give me their elevator pitch on why this community is awesome,” said Park. “But I see the benefit in self-guided tours. I see being able to take yourself on your time after hours, before the office is open, what have you, and being able to actually tour the property without having to be beholden to a leasing agent’s schedule. That was huge.”
Park predicts those two will fuse, so people will be able to choose the time and day and that will determine whether it’s self-guided or not. If someone is available to host the tour, they’ll be there; if not, you can do a self-guided one.
(33:40) – Emotional vs. Logical buyers
Antrim points out that not all sales people or leasing agents are good at everything; some are good at details in the property, some are good at building strong relationships.
Park worked at Greystar for a bit and knew people who were fantastic at building relationships. People would check in just to be friendly and chat, not simply engage for transactional purposes. A chatbot can’t do that.
(35:40) – What’s it like to work at BetterBot?
“It’s like a job I have yet to consider an actual job. I get to test out new things, I get to build things, I get to explore what works and doesn’t work,” said Park. He doesn’t have a fear of failure, because everything is a team effort.
BetterBot has two different stakeholders: they have to evaluate what the consumer needs from a quality experience; but they also have to factor in their client and how they engage with the onboarding experience, reports, and so on. Those factors always have to be top-of-mind.
(39:20) – Handling tough conversations
Park says being transparent and sharing data is the best way to communicate. That’s the best way to find solutions. Maybe the company’s website is outdated and isn’t a good platform for the chatbot; maybe the chatbot is sending good leads but the agents aren’t closing them. Better performance requires a better picture of what’s going on.
Antrim points out that the multifamily industry has tons of smart people but has historically fallen very behind in technological advancements. For those that have been avoiding new tech, they’ll need to jump on soon. It’s a good time to do it, since technology is becoming more affordable and there’s more evidence to prove how automation pays for itself.
Park points out that onboarding takes time and effort; by fixing the onboarding process early and understanding what it takes to do that gets the company over that hurdle.
(44:50) – Final thoughts
Be more open to new tech solutions. Adopt one that fits your company, not one that fits the exact immediate solution you need; that way, you can build on the tech moving forward.
There’s a great misconception that providing smart tech for your multifamily assets can only be done with ease on new developments and lease-ups.
Multifamily owners and operators think the learning curve is to high for staff, the startup and maintenance costs will be too high, smart tech only belongs in Class A multifamily properties, installation is a burden and you’re already understaffed, and there are too many providers without a single-source for cross-app integrations.
The list is long. The list is wrong.
Most multifamily owners and operators are thinking about the cost of utilizing smart tech rather than the cost of not utilizing smart tech.
Consider the cell phone in your pocket or on your desk right now. Remember how big and clunky they were in the 90s? Remember having to hit the buttons multiple times to scroll through the alphabet and numbers? They were a commodity. Something for rich people (remember when you had to pay per text?).
Look at where we are now. The sheer computing power of the modern mobile phone has grown exponentially year over year.
According to Pew Research Center, 97% of Americans own a cell phone now and that is because it has become a deflationary asset. As technology advances, cell phones become smarter, more powerful, and more affordable.
Our research partner and client, Arize, states that by “2023, 53.9% of homes across the United States will feature smart tech (that’s 20% more smart homes than in 2019).”
Do you see that? That’s over half of all the homes in America that will be using smart tech.
Whether you like it or not, these smart devices are now a dealmaker or dealbreaker for your residents.
In fact, residents are expecting multifamily properties to have these features for security and cost-efficiency and will go as far as to rent an apartment based solely on those amenities.
Not only are residents choosing the smart apartment, they are staying longer and paying more for it.
According to Arize, “91% of renters believe home intelligence is a necessity, and 66% of current renters are willing to pay at least an extra $20/month for a smart device package.”
Certain smart technologies have the ability to perform climate control activities and avoid wasteful utility usage through water leak detection and other services.
This allows properties to distinguish where they are losing money on unnecessary expenses while giving them a tool to prevent this all together.
All of the sudden, those objections to smart tech in apartment communities become obsolete because of the necessity for this technology.
Additionally, smart tech is a deflationary asset that is now benefiting stabilized properties. Most owners and operators think it is too expensive, but companies like Arize are coming up with innovative ways for operators to fund and get smart tech into existing apartments.
Arize believes that by providing a personalized experience along with unique services like competitive payment plans and customization, they are making it possible for all properties to have smart technology in their portfolio without breaking the bank.
Those multifamily owners and operators who choose to provide smart tech for their communities will scale faster, stay competitive, retain residents, and thrive through any impending real estate bubble pop.
This report on Smart Apartment Tech Trends will explain the statistics behind smart home technology and how increasing demand has moved beyond solely Class A properties.
Recently, our client BetterBot put forth a bold statement: “Property management teams need to stop depending on emails.” The company released an explanation for their challenge, but we wanted to learn more about the thesis.
BetterBot is a Marketing and Leasing Automation Software that replicates your best leasing agent and allows customers to inquire about apartments and homes and receive an instant answer at any time of day or night. There are over 200 property management companies already signed on with the company. The business says its BetterBot for Web solution helps find prospective renters who are more qualified, increases the time it takes to secure a lease and frees up team members to focus on other work.
We set out to learn why improving this may benefit the multifamily industry. We spoke with Trevor Park, the Head of Marketing at BetterBot. He says emails are, put simply, failing.
“Ultimately, it comes down to response time and staying top of mind,” explained Park. “Response time instantly drops for communities after-hours, and most of them do not have any sort of nurture campaign to ensure they stay top of mind. Even with a nurture campaign or quick response times, it can be challenging for property management companies to stand out in a sea of crowded inboxes. Not to mention the work involved for the leasing teams to maintain and track follow-ups if they don’t have a solution that can help with both of these.”
There are some obvious ways the days of the multifamily chatbot have been reigning supreme. With people browsing on their phones looking for new places to live, they expect answers quickly. Office hours only cover a specific portion of the day, and with today’s technology, people just don’t want to wait. If they send an email late at night and the property doesn’t answer until the following day, they could lose interest. Automation helps accommodate the immediacy of the modern era.
But BetterBot presents some other compelling arguments, too. For instance, promotional and branded emails are often filtered out and automatically sent to the spam folder, defeating the purpose of creating it in the first place. BetterBot has worked to ensure their emails make it to their inboxes by working directly with the major email providers. Email boxes can also get over-crowded, and the vast majority of people tend to delete marketing emails without ever opening them. It can also be challenging to categorize leads well enough to pay proper attention when property management teams are flooded with emails each day.
“The problem isn’t necessarily with how Property Management teams handle emails; it is the volume of emails and leads that come in for them,” explained Park. “Take any specific property and look at the average number of inquiries that come in. How can one leasing agent tell the difference between those ready to convert and those just shopping around?”
He says many of those emails are simple questions that automation can quickly answer through lead nurturing or the use of a chatbot. That’s not only better for the client; it clears out the property management teams’ inboxes of tedious work so they can more aptly focus their efforts. On average, leasing automation saves between 56 - 60 hours per month for a single property.
“These menial tasks take away from the qualified and engaged prospects that the property management teams can be engaging with to build a strong relationship and ultimately convert them to a resident faster than the window lookers,” said Park.
BetterBot recently launched their newest product, BetterBot for Leads, geared towards leads coming in through a community’s marketing sources, such as Apartments.com, Apartment List, or Zillow.
The leads are the element property management teams are most likely to lose as they get bogged down in small, simple tasks that add up to take a significant chunk of their day. Rather than having a person send a quick question and lose interest as they wait for a response, BetterBot’s instant-response AI gets the preliminary steps out of the way. Then, prospects are more ready to move forward and talk with the leasing team more meaningfully. As BetterBot puts it, by giving them time back in their day to do what they do best, be human.
“BetterBot for Leads can then help nurture those leads and sort through the prospects to provide the leasing teams with the ones that have the highest likelihood of converting so they can focus on engaging with those prospects first for easier wins,” said Park.
Park says it’s all about identifying the pain points and bottlenecks that sap efficiency when it comes to leasing. Here, he says, pairing automation with human touch solutions can save the day. It’s not a one or the other solution but rather a partnership that can help improve efficiencies and drive more substantial ROI.
“BetterBot for Leasing replicates your best leasing agent and gives your leasing team time back in their day by responding to and nurturing the leads at the top of the funnel. When automation nurtures a lead effectively, team members can focus on high-value tasks, such as tours, move-ins, and resident retention.”
Automation for marketing and leasing, it seems, is the future of multifamily. BetterBot says 56% of website traffic happens after property management offices have closed up for the night. It’s impossible to compete with companies whose customers have 24/7 access to answers and communication. The final argument would be simply for the loss of human touch a chatbot may have. There, again, BetterBot has a solution. Since property management teams are no longer overwhelmed with the low value, menial tasks, they can be more engaged with the prospects that have scheduled a tour, are ready to convert, and ultimately build the relationship with the resident. It’s a chance, the company says, to “infuse authenticity into customer interactions.”
Although emails likely aren’t going anywhere, software like BetterBot’s can help make old tech function better. If your email inbox is less crowded, you’ll be able to focus more on what’s in there. The logic is tough to argue with. So at Multifamily Leadership, we concede BetterBot may be right: property management teams need to stop depending on emails.
Did you know that 300 billion emails are sent each day, but only 18% are opened? Most property management teams today are too dependent on email. Usually, they see how much time and energy email takes, but don't know how to break the cycle.