IREM Special Report: Tech’s Horizon in Property Management

Best practices for technology is a pressing topic in property management and the multifamily industry. The search for an effective balance between the latest digital tools and the traditional tactics of a people business ran through the second day of the Institute of Real Estate Management’s PropertyCon conference in Boston last week.

“Our first challenge is to use technology to be accretive to the bottom line, but also to bridge the gap and allow people to choose their own adventure,” noted Tim Kramer, director of operations at Draper and Kramer.

How much to centralize operations is a key part of that decision. One potential benefit of centralization is the potential to share leasing agents among properties in an area.

“It brings things off the property and back to corporate,” thus centralizing renewal functionality, said Michael Tuer, vice president for the central and western U.S. at Yardi.

Aureen Reddy, Dubai-based director of property management at Provident Real Estate, detailed the advanced government-provided technology that provides more efficient operations. The alert systems alert managers when a spike in energy use or a water leak is detected. In addition, she said, “Most of our cold calls are done by AI.” Yet she also advised, “Use it wisely—it’s here to help you use your emotional intelligence.”

Meanwhile, the application process still contains pain points for the resident, which raises the question about how technology can make it better. Tuer related his recent experience renting an apartment, which required multiple steps for identification check, income verification and other steps. “It’s also frustrating for your team having to get involved in the process.”

Along those lines, Kramer urged the audience to go through the leasing process at a property served by the company. “You might discover some potholes in the road that you didn’t know were there,” he said. AI can be an effective tool, but the process requires scrutiny to determine whether system is losing prospects through ineffective communication and where those leaks are. As Tuer noted: “There may be some questions you don’t want the bot to answer.”

AI’s Breakneck Evolution

AI is evolving at a breakneck pace with implications for real estate that are as yet unforeseen. “There is nobody who can keep up with all of this,” said James Scott, director of the real estate transformation lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Real Estate.

He pointed to estimates that 42 percent of all business tasks will be automated by 2027 and 65 percent of information and data processing jobs will be automated in the next few years, as well.

Artificial intelligence can also “allow the team to focus on the bits that AI can’t do,” Reddy said. In Dubai, artificial intelligence is already taking pressure off the management team. In addition to providing water and power alerts, AI conducts inspections at the beginning and end of tenancy that used to take days. The result, Reddy said, is “less human interaction when it comes to heavy lifting.”

Scott illustrated the potential of AI compared to conventional methods of work calling it like “pulling up at a stoplight on a bicycle and a Porsche pulls up next to you.” Yet like other experts at the conference, Scott emphasized the importance of grasping AI’s role.

“It’s not cognitive, it’s perceptive,” he said. “You can’t give it too much agency.”