The Company
Walton Communities is a privately held company based in Marietta, Georgia. It develops, owns and manages apartment communities throughout metro-Atlanta and Augusta. With a heartfelt mission to serve its residents, Walton Communities is committed to providing exceptional residential, affordable and active adult housing at a great value in a friendly neighborhood environment.
The Challenge
Maintenance Oversight
Inspections and regular maintenance are a top priority for Walton. The company is meticulous about the condition of its properties, inside and out. From move-in to move-out, Walton is focused on keeping its units clean with all features and amenities in excellent working condition and its grounds green and beautiful. To meet these goals, the company requires transparency across its maintenance operations.
The Solution
Yardi Maintenance IQ
Yardi Maintenance IQ, part of Yardi Elevate for multifamily, streamlines maintenance operations with real-time visibility using a single database and mobile app. The solution can reduce vacancy days and increase net rental income with faster unit turns as well as integrated vendor payment and supply procurement.
The Story
Integrated Inspections and Preventive Maintenance
With Maintenance IQ, Walton has a mobile app to connect its teams, ensuring transparency and control across its maintenance operations. According to Jennifer Price, Walton’s director of systems, the company’s staff were quickly trained on mass creating and assigning inspections. “We’re using it full force now for our preventive maintenance,” Price said.
Preventive maintenance is critical for Walton so having a tool to schedule and track maintenance tasks is one of the biggest benefits they get with Maintenance IQ. “We go in quarterly for preventive maintenance and do a full housekeeping inspection — we check for everything including leaks and replace filters. In addition to move-ins and move-outs, we perform playground inspections at our communities. Maintenance IQ keeps us on track,” Price said.
Total Transparency
Walton accesses its portfolio-wide information using one centralized Yardi database. Price loves that Maintenance IQ works seamlessly with the company’s suite of Yardi solutions, which provides them with reliable real-time data. “Other companies claim to offer integrated solutions, but they use interfaces which aren’t the same thing,” Price commented.
Walton previously used Smartsheet for their inspections process, and the data lived outside of the company’s property management system. There was little transparency, and tying inspections down to the unit level was difficult. Being able to tie inspections to the property, unit and even resident level — and include photos — with Maintenance IQ is huge for Walton.
Price commented that the new user-friendly app is well designed and appealing to the eye. And it’s also intuitive — taking and attaching photos is easy. “We get full transparency across our maintenance operations,” Price said. “We see every issue, along with trends across our properties, and can dive deeper into inspections.”
Price added that Walton is excited about more reporting and additional features from Maintenance IQ. “Being able to track engagement and oversee the activity of our inspectors is fantastic. We can deliver high-level reports to our area directors and partners to show what preventive maintenance is being done, how our quarterly inspections are going and what we’re doing every month to make our properties exceptional,” Price said.
