Multifamily Housing and AI: How Predictive Tools Save Owners Time and Money

All images courtesy of CAMP Facility Services

Imagine fleeing your apartment, chased by a massive blaze, the blare of fire alarms and shouts from neighbors. There’s only time to grab a few essential items and hope firefighters can contain the flames before they engulf all your worldly possessions. This was the ordeal faced by nearly 200 residents at Avana on Main in Atlanta, Georgia in August of 2020.

The Avana on Main apartment fire eventually gutted the roof and top floor of the building, leaving 213 units severely damaged or destroyed by the blaze. 81 units had to be demolished to the slab due to structural instability from the fire, 63 units had all finishes removed due to water damage, and the fire affected 68 units with varying levels of damage from smoke and water. Meanwhile, personal belongings and work-from-home items essential for residents socially distancing during the pandemic were either destroyed or left at risk of being lost during the massive remediation effort.

“To protect everyone’s safety and the integrity of the personal items that survived the fire, we needed a powerful tool,” says Steve Grogan, CAMP Facility Services Director of Estimating who spearheaded the restoration job. “This is the first time we used artificial intelligence to systematically document the contents of people’s residences before we packed them out, ensuring the items we could salvage made it back to their rightful owners and it worked incredibly well. We also used AI drone mapping to develop and inform damage estimates with exterior imagery that enabled us to create a buildout diagram of what the project required so we could accelerate the rebuild and get residents back home as quickly as possible.” 

The future of multifamily restoration and multifamily housing maintenance is now, and with new artificial intelligence tools it is even predictable. AI technology integration within the construction industry has shown a 50% decrease in time and travel cost, 30% faster project completion and a 75% reduction in project planning costs according to Matterport, an industry leader in 3D digital twin platforms used in the design and construction sector.

A digital twin utilizes artificial intelligence to create dimensionally accurate fully immersive replicas of any property. This technology is helpful because using a digital twin enables the user to accelerate restoration and renovation estimates by up to four times with accurate updatable documentation shortening the insurance claim cycle. Additionally, according to case studies by Matterport, the time savings from not having to utilize outdated field estimator techniques such as measuring, sketching, and scoping saves $100,000 per estimator per year in labor costs.

CAMP Facility Services is working to further reduce owners’ out of project costs by using AI to develop an imaging system and evaluation that can use predictive analysis modeling for a facility over 5 to 10 years of maintenance costs and capital needs. “This will change the way we develop and analyze project costs internally, providing a solid base for factoring in changes like interest rates, inflation and geographic constraints,” says Chris Yates, CAMP Facility Services CEO.

“AI automates a much more accurate breakdown of costs shortening the development cycle for faster feedback. Predictive software allows for preemptive planning and reduction of loss value of maintenance to stay ahead of issues. This delivers earlier execution of projects and a shorter completion window allowing clients to capitalize on assets faster. Predictive software even allows for preemptive planning for the reduction of loss. AI streamlines data collection, enhances data accuracy, and improves data analysis allowing us to work with clients for more accurate budgeting of yearly maintenance and other property needs.”

According to Matterport, artificial intelligence allows project managers to access all their data in one place. The technology tracks repairs in real time simplifying maintenance and provides 3D context using photorealistic and dimensionally accurate visual references. AI helps to scope work and negotiate service contracts resulting in an 80% cost decrease of site surveying and as-built modeling.

CAMP Facility Services explains knowing what to expect, when and how much it will cost is everything in the renovation, restoration, and facility maintenance business. With AI’s capabilities today and its ability to learn and improve each time it is used, the potential future benefits for multifamily investors are limitless.