The value of learning management systems as a catalyst for organizational improvement was the topic of a recent webinar hosted by Patty Evans, industry principal for Yardi Aspire, and featuring employees of the Boulder (Colo.) Housing Authority. Learning management systems can promote stability among an increasingly restive employee population. Evans noted that more than 47 million Americans voluntarily left their jobs last year. A recent study of U.S. workers by Cengage Group showed that 64% of survey respondents identified training as integral to their role, while 78% of employees who quit in the preceding six months took an online course to prepare for their next job. An Amazon-Gallup study found that 47% of employees are “extremely interested” in training that upgrades their skills and advances their careers. “It’s clear that if employers do not provide adequate training, employees will find ways to develop the needed skills and that may mean getting a job elsewhere.,” Evans said. “Employers need to have a new mantra: If we want to retain our staff, we have to focus on skills development.” These factors have prompted BHA and other agencies to adopt Aspire, an online learning management system that automates the delivery of personalized learning experiences to half a million users worldwide. Along with live event management, Aspire includes about 1,300 courses on Yardi software, HR topics, compliance and safety, professional skills development and more. Its content is routinely upgraded to reflect changes to Yardi software, industry standards, and federal and state legislation. Learners seeking to refine specific skills can use the site-wide search tool or interactive catalog to locate and sign up for training on more than 200 industry skills and review recommended training options for their current or desired role. Boon to virtual onboarding Along with offering workers immediate skills practice and real-world applications, Aspire also benefits BHA and other organizations as a virtual onboarding tool that automatically assigns relevant training and resources for success to new employees as they begin new roles. The system also automatically recalibrates training assignments as employees transfer to new roles or locations throughout their career. “We can customize the Aspire content with unique company messages such as BHA’s values and mission. This helps make a great first impression of the organization with new employees,” said Carrie Murphy, BHA’s learning management system manager. “You’ll be surprised how much you can do with Aspire’s proprietary authoring and communication tools to make your staff feel not just welcome but connected to your organization. With a little imagination, your employees can dive in and immediately interact with your organization through Aspire,” Evans added. Benefits of automation and personalized learning The webinar revealed that employee engagement and efficiency offered by Aspire holds increasing relevance in today’s work environment. “Since the start of the pandemic online learning has seen a massive increase in participation and continues to grow. Companies benefit when employees feel confident and employees thrive when they’re given opportunities to learn new skills, receive feedback on their training performance and participate in a learning community,” Evans said. Aspire helps BHA’s training administrators by automating time-consuming, repetitive processes, from training announcements, registration management and training and skills assessments to feedback collection and recommended next steps. It also delivers new organizational efficiency and direct cost savings with self-paced content that is automatically developed and maintained by Yardi and industry experts. Trainers can spend less time developing and delivering introductory information and beginning skills and focus more time training advanced topics and imparting institutional knowledge. “Automated training management saves us a lot of time,” Murphy said. Rosemary Mendenhall, a community manager for BHA, offered the user’s perspective. “I love that I can personalize my learning with Aspire. I can pick the classes that I want, with my managers assigning me additional classes that tie in with my job and experience,” she said, noting that the variety of training methods – including highly interactive content,...
Power Panel Ebook
McKnight’s & Yardi
From staffing to compliance to technology, there’s no shortage of pressing topics circling the senior living industry. And the latest McKnight’s Power Panel — Pandemic Year III: Keys to Success — gathered experts to discuss it all. The online roundtable prompted panelists to debate today’s issues and offer solutions for the year ahead. And to help a larger audience access the insights, McKnight’s put together a fresh ebook that presents the biggest takeaways from their conversations. That ebook is available now. Whether you attended the roundtable or not, the ebook is worth a read. See below for a quick highlight of what you’ll find: New Mcknight’s Power Panel ebook With panelists from different verticals in long-term care, the McKnight’s Power Panel was full of varying perspectives. How will operating conditions continue to shift with the pandemic? How is the “new normal” changing again for providers? These types of questions received a range of answers throughout the roundtable, and lucky for you, they’re recapped in the ebook. Featuring insights from Yardi expert David Bellew, read the ebook to learn: Technology’s role in the industry todayPredictions for a post-pandemic landscapeStrategies for the futureAnd more About panelist David Bellew David Bellew is an accomplished leader in the healthcare industry. Currently serving as the Director of Client Services here on the Yardi senior living team, David has over 20 years of experience implementing enterprise software systems. Through years of dedication, he has become highly skilled in requirements analysis, as well as managing implementations for ERP and clinical systems. If you have questions for team Yardi about our solutions in senior living, we encourage you to reach out to us. Download the resource Yardi is pleased to sponsor events like the McKnight’s Power Panel that spark insightful conversations in...
Yardi Canada R&D...
Innovation Update
Last fall, Zach Scott, vice president of programming for Yardi Canada, provided our readers with an illuminative look at the role of his engineering team on Yardi’s most cutting edge product offerings. In the research & development realm, progress moves fast, so recently we brought Scott back for an update on project progress and current initiatives. Let’s kick it off with machine learning, which is now being practically applied to multiple Yardi products, with more to come in the near future. Zach, tell us about machine learning’s role in the Yardi Full Service PayScan experience? Scott: On this machine learning test, we have almost 200 clients live. So far this year, we have processed 1.3 million invoices. We went from 290,000 invoices per month in January, to 390,000 in February, to 450,000 in March. We’re anticipating growth to 600 clients by mid-year. This has been a huge success. What machine learning does is automatically extract a half dozen key fields from the invoice image, such as invoice number, date, property details, vendor info, phone number, email address, and more. It pulls all of that directly off the invoice. The overall accuracy is typically around 75 to 80 per cent. How about the use of machine learning in the Yardi Marketplace on-boarding process? Scott: When new vendors are onboarded into Yardi Marketplace, it often means uploading massive spreadsheets that contain more than 20,000 product barcodes (SKU). Before machine learning was applied, this was a manual process that meant personnel were sorting through every SKU to place them into three categories. That means 60,000 category assignments had to be manually selected. This used to take weeks to complete. Thanks to machine learning, we can now categorize 20,000 SKUs in about 15 minutes. After that initial sorting,...
Connected Debt Management
Single Platform Benefits
Wondering how to simplify and increase accuracy for debt management? You’ve probably been hearing about the benefits of a single connected platform. Whether you’re a borrower or lender, there are multiple aspects of debt to manage. Key processes include calculating amortization schedules for simple and complex loans, tracking collateral and managing critical dates and covenants. Borrowers need to track debt against real estate collateral and account for loans by paying lenders through invoices or journalizing transactions. When done manually, these processes are time-consuming and prone to error. It’s also inefficient and risky to access information from multiple systems and databases. Read on for best practices to streamline debt management using a single connected solution. Eliminate spreadsheets and disparate systems Whether your interests are in managing loan information or debt investments, it’s critical to gain transparency from the investor to the borrower. You need to closely track debt from the borrower along with key deliverables and covenants with lenders. Going paperless and using a system that centralizes all loan data and provides accurate information is the first step for creating greater efficiency. By moving away from manual processes, you gain transparency, mitigate risk and increase efficiency through automation. By centralizing tracking of all loan terms in a single connected system, you can reduce manual errors and ensure data accuracy. Gain visibility into critical dates A key component for clients with debt investments is visibility into critical dates regarding when things are due to be received by the borrower and meeting compliance for key financial covenants. This capability mitigates risk by ensuring deliverables are sent to lenders on time, and tracks collateral and critical dates with notifications. With a single platform that centralizes all debt information, you can provide access to internal stakeholders for the entire loan investment portfolio. You also get deep insight into key metrics and can monitor the status of compliance with all covenants. Automate accounting and reporting For debt investments, you need complete insight and the ability to automate transactions from the borrower through the investment structures to investors. A connected software platform can deliver that for you, as well as enable you to track, account for and accurately calculate all types of investment loans and structures: interest-only, principal and interest, draw loans, revolvers, letters of credit, inter-company, syndicated loans and more. You can also streamline financial consolidations, partner transfers, fund rebalancing, allocations and other processes. For lenders with debt funds, syndications or other debt investments, whether servicing themselves or using a third party servicer, an integrated solution will provide full insight into the performance of this asset class and can automate accounting through the investments to investors. For those lender clients servicing their own loans, you can facilitate collections and secure automation of receipts. A single connected platform enables you to deliver timely and accurate reporting for all ownership structures. You can easily manage the complexities associated with numerous entities and levels between investors, investments and assets. Automate payments With a connected debt management platform, borrowers can automate payments to lenders and gain full visibility and audit trails into payment history. You can easily review historical and outstanding charges and the principal balance of every loan with drilldown into transaction details. Integration with accounting at every level of the ownership hierarchy provides utmost efficiency. Debt investors can automate transactions from the borrower through the investment structures to the investors. In addition to calculating principal and interested, a connected platform will also track funded and unfunded reserves and amortization of fees as well as payment of necessary taxes and insurance at the collateral level in certain regions. Automate billing For client lenders servicing their own loans, a connected platform can automate borrower billing and increase visibility for internal stakeholders by tracking collateral and critical dates. If you have debt as an investment, you can more easily manage and service your debt including billing borrowers and managing capital...
Step Up Security
CISA tips to thwart phishing attempts
Perhaps you’ve noticed it in your email inbox or text messages: there is a recent uptick in the number of attempts to gain private information that compromises your personal and financial security, as well as that of organizations and corporations. According to a recent report from Proofpoint, email-based phishing attempts became increasingly successful in 2021, as did ransomware attacks. As many as 83 percent of organizations said they experienced a successful email-based phishing attack in 2021, compared to 57 percent in 2020. These upticks appear to be continuing in 2022. Across a variety of industries, phishing attacks are becoming more prolific and targeting employees from entry-level to executives. That means it’s more important than ever to protect yourself and your business by exercising vigilant technology safety protocols and learning best prevention practices. The U.S. Cyberinfrastructure and Security Agency (CISA) offers the following tips that can help you and your organization avoid these attacks. Understand the threat. Phishing is a form of a social engineering attack, which means that common social norms are used to gain and compromise information about a company and its technology systems. Messages claim to be legitimate communications from vendors, banks, employees and other business contacts, but are really fraudulent attempts to obtain confidential information from recipients. The imposter may even offer information that claims to support their identity. Be skeptical, even when a message appears to be from a trusted source. An attacker may send email seemingly from a reputable credit card company or financial institution that requests account information, often suggesting that there is a problem. They could also pose as a vendor who needs account information changed or even an internal employee who claims to need verification of information. When users respond with the requested details, hackers can...
Elevate Revenue
A Way to Optimize Returns
Yardi has launched Elevate Revenue, a CRE solution stack that streamlines the entire deal lifecycle from lead to lease. Specifically intended for owners, asset managers and leasing teams, the all-in-one solution was designed in collaboration with commercial experts and industry leaders. The end-to-end portfolio management suite, supported by decades of real estate research and software development knowledge, optimizes the deal workflow through powerful automation, enhanced team collaboration and extensive insights. Providing unmatched portfolio visibility, Elevate Revenue seamlessly integrates marketing, leasing system and commission management tools into one centralized platform. With Edge Marketing, real estate professionals can effortlessly market listings and generate verified leads through Yardi’s rapidly growing CommercialEdge Listing Network. From there, Deal Manager further streamlines leasing operations by enabling users to smoothly manage prospects and oversee each stage of the deal flow, while automatically comparing deal economics to approved budgets and prior leases. Additionally, to simplify the legal process and easily track legal documents, the Elevate suite includes Deal Manager Legal Module, an intuitive tool that allows users to automatically generate standard lease agreements directly in the application. And it doesn’t stop there. CommissionTrac, Yardi’s commission management tool, efficiently rounds out the leasing process by automatically tracking and paying the commissions of both in-house and third-party brokers. Elevate Revenue is fully integrated with Yardi Voyager thanks to Yardi’s built-in CRM — this smooth connection ensures maximum portfolio and deal pipeline oversight in real-time. Voyager clients can sync properties, spaces and availability across their portfolio. Listings are automatically published based on lease expiration dates or automatically unpublished once a tenant is activated for a specific space in Voyager. In October, Macerich — an owner, operator and developer of retail and mixed-use destinations throughout the U.S. — leveraged Deal Manager and Edge Marketing solutions to...
Multifamily Experts Agree
Tech Eases Transition Challenges
Demand for rental apartments through the first three quarters of 2021 was 28% higher than the U.S. single-year high in the same time frame in 2018. Asking rents were up 11.4% nationally year-over-year through September, with the occupancy rate of stabilized properties reaching 95.9% in August. Stats like these inspire observers to use words like “robust,” “red-hot” and “overheated” in discussing the state of the multifamily industry. Is this strong market built to last? Or is it too good to be true? What key trends will chart the industry’s direction in 2022 and beyond? A group of experts offered insight in a recent conversation with Richard Malpica, vice president and Eastern region general manager for Yardi. Online tech’s scope expands Social distancing mandates fueled expectations for increased online service and flexibilityamong renters and property teams. The desire for a frictionless digital experience extended to all aspects of property management, including marketing and leasing, electronic money orders, vendor payments, invoice processing, self-guided tours and more. Cincinnati-based Towne Properties and BH Management Services of Des Moines, Iowa, whose representatives joined the discussion with Malpica, are among the property management companies that have accelerated their technology adoption for these and other operations. Joanna Zabriskie, BH’s president and CEO, reported that nearly all residents at the company’s properties who were previously paying rent by check converted to electronic payments after the onset of COVID-19. Among other forward-thinking initiatives, BH is also rolling out leak detection technology that prevents costly water damage and enables instant maintenance services, she added. Fraud, staff shortages spur adoption With fraudulent digital transaction attempts against businesses on the rise, risk mitigation is another principal concern for property managers. The discussion participants predicted that artificial intelligence facial recognition technology will be increasingly incorporated into self-guided tours, online leasing, vendor access, income verification and other operations. The group noted a trend toward adopting virtual assistants that respond to all prospect and resident communications, including chatbots that can generate high-quality leads. Smart home tech for locks, thermostats, leak detection and other elements of multifamily housing is also moving up as a priority for residents and managers alike. On another front, the so-called “great resignation” across the economy has impacted the multifamily industry, making it harder for property managers to find and retain qualified staff. Some have responded by centralizing leasing, renewals, collections, maintenance and other operations, automating processes or instituting a combination of centralization and automation. “Centralizing some of our leasing and maintenance has helped us meet our prospects’ and residents’ demands while mitigating staffing shortages,” said Chad Munitz, vice president at Towne Properties. “We were able to move to a hybrid work environment. I think flexibility to work from home has become an essential perk in today’s tough labor market,” added Zabriskie, who noted that 13% of BH’s onsite positions have been open for several months. “It’s harder than ever to hire and retain valued employees,” prompting the BH recruitment team to place more emphasis on positive corporate culture elements such as days off for mental health, bonuses and added benefits. Boston-based Berkshire Residential Investments also sharpened its focus on company culture issues, instituting monthly town hall meetings to address remote work challenges and other issues, according to Josh Glastein, its chief information and technology officer. ESG’s importance grows With 15% of emissions coming from real estate, sustainability continues to grow as a priority. Institutional clients are increasingly asking for sustainability to be included in property budgets, and ESG is growing in importance for residents as well, according to the discussion participants. Local and federal requirements to comply with ENERGY STAR® standards and other energy initiatives have spurred an interest in energy software capable of gathering and reporting consumption data to property owners and managers. The way forward The participants agreed that, as multifamily property managers and owners adapt to new expectations in the post-pandemic era, carefully chosen and properly utilized...
How Online Learning
Can Help Cut Costs
If you are still conducting live training courses, you are missing out on the opportunity to save time, save money and customize the learning experience for your employees. e-Learning can work on its own or in tandem with live trainings to expedite corporate education. Why e-learning? The market size of e-learning is growing at exciting speeds. The market value surpassed $250 billion in 2020, and it is anticipated to grow more than 21% before 2027.This industry-wide shift away from classroom education reflects the perceived and calculated costs of live training courses. Yardi Aspire is a training solution that transitions clients to online learning using role-based plans. The customizable program offers savings in four key areas: Personnel This category includes the cost of all people involved in producing the training such as content designers, IT professionals, reviewers and approvers. Aspire software significantly reduces administrative costs through the introduction of technology. The software also allows users to eliminate travel and lodging expenses.Technology The cost of the e-learning solutions, computers, web conference system, and any other technology involved in conducting the training are included in this category. These costs are the primary reason many companies choose to invest in e-learning.Content This category includes the cost of content production and the cost of acquiring content from a vendor. By recording an instructor once and delivering the recorded course online, organizations can maximize the use of content and decrease costs associated with instructors.Administrative Significant time is spent recording training activities, setting up training opportunities, and communicating with trainees and instructors before and after the event. Decreasing administrative costs offers benefits throughout the organization. Cost savings, line-by-line What do these savings look like in a real world, real estate example? Let’s take a sample client who is in the middle...
Maintenance Made Mobile
10 benefits for all
Why does your maintenance team need to be mobile ready? Mobile maintenance software gives techs the tools that they need to work more efficiently, act promptly and easily document their progress. But the benefits don’t stop there. Read on to learn how your staff can take maintenance to the next level with a mobile-accessible solution. The paper trail is holding back your maintenance team Paper maintenance requests, paper work orders, paper task logs, paper order forms and paper approvals: paper is a problem. Paper can only be in one place at one time, meaning that you need copies (read: redundancy and waste) to keep multiple team members on track. If information is updated on one sheet, you’ve got to update all other sheets, redistribute and store as needed. If you have not already, it’s beyond time to transition into a paperless maintenance system. Online property maintenance software such as Yardi Maintenance IQ makes it easy for leasing staff and maintenance team members to stay on track and up-to-date with tasks. First, renters submit their requests online. It is then easily dispatched to maintenance leadership and their technicians. Technicians can progress through work orders from the field without multiple trips to the office. They can issue status updates, include photos and notes, and request supplies from a single mobile device. All information is automatically updated in Yardi Voyager. In addition to improving efficiency, mobile tools help improve retention by providing great service to residents. Today’s residents are accustomed to doing so much online, from ordering food to paying bills. Residents seek an easy way to submit requests, get quick responses and frequent updates—all of which you can deliver with an advanced maintenance system. The benefits of Maintenance IQ do not end there. Here are the top ten benefits for everyone from on-site staff to stakeholders: Save time. Staff spend more time doing their jobs and less time filling out paperwork, making calls, placing orders and traipsing between units and the office.Reduce paper. No more paper forms or printing, thanks to online work orders and digital signatures. This cuts costs and also meets green initiatives.Prioritize better. Know instantly what the high priorities are every minute of every day, with access to photos from the site and work order entry notes.Get real-time updates. Supervisors, staff and techs can view current updates on a centralized online calendar.Drive less. No need to drive to the office to pick up or drop off maintenance paperwork, and no unnecessary site trips when requests are rescheduled or cancelled. Online directions with mapping, along with resident contact info, help ensure no time is wasted.Track everything... Receive up-to-the-minute status reports and audit trails on assigned and unassigned work orders and employee whereabouts, including emergency responses, and follow them to completion.…that includes tracking costs. Track turn costs and days on the unit turn dashboard and see upcoming units.Get accurate reports. Time-sensitive reporting provides business intelligence and better oversight.Improve productivity. When you’re mobile, you’re not tethered to a desk. Get out it in the field and get more done with your mobile device while interacting with your staff, residents and tenants.Save money. Failing to respond to maintenance requests in a timely manner can result in much more expensive repairs later as well as an increase in costly move-outs. Now you know ten of the most compelling reasons to take your maintenance mobile — and why using a solution that works seamlessly with your property management and accounting system will yield the multiple benefits. Read more about how Maintenance IQ can help expedite rental turns and elevate rental...
Online Payments
How to Boost Enrollment
Online payments offer benefits for renters and site staff such as convenience and lower costs. But before you can reap the benefits, you’ve got to get residents to enroll. We’ve got a few quick tips to make the process easier. Online payments add value for residents Per the National Apartment Association, about 78% of residents prefer to pay their bills online. Renters value the convenience of 24/7/365 access to their accounts. And they can submit payments at any time, rather than working within the confines of leasing office hours. Additionally, each online method reduces the risks and data entry associated with cash as well as the hassle of ordering, writing and waiting on paper checks to process. Online payments offer a variety of payment methods to fit your residents’ preferences. Bank account, credit or debit card ACH transactions may occur on single and reoccurring basis. TextPay and voice payments via Resident Services: Alexa Skill are added conveniences. All payment options are easily accessible through your RENTCafe resident portal, which adds value for your renters. More than 92% of respondents consider online rent payment an important resident portal feature. Optimize staff hours with online payments What can your staff accomplish in a workweek without opening mail, scanning checks, trips to the bank, or data entry? Much more. They can nurture new leads and promote retention by building rapport with residents. Both skills bolster your bottom line far more than tedious and redundant tasks like data entry. When you increase adaptation to online payment processing, everyone wins! But first, you’ve got to get renters to enroll. Check out these five tips to boost online payment enrollment. Create an awareness campaign including emails, social media posts, and print posters at the leasing office (especially near the rent...
Tech Trends + Innovations
Proptech to Drive Success in 2022
Technology has permanently changed how consumers search for, tour, rent, buy and sell real estate. Check out which established proptech tools get a fresh twist this year, and which innovations bring greater conveniences to the industry. Multiple tour options are no longer optional Today’s prospects expect multiple ways to view a property. Technology plays a huge role in the ability to offer multiple convenient tour options. For most renters, the search begins online. A survey reveals that “renters are becoming so comfortable with renting digitally, that 72% say they would rent an apartment without ever seeing the property in person if a 3D virtual tour was offered.” In stead of stagnant photos, 3D self-guided tours use special software to give online viewers a 360 tour of every space in the property. While the majority of renters may sign a lease at this point, for many, this option acts as a filter. It helps prospects identify which units they want to further investigate. Live virtual tours allow prospects to remotely attend a walk-through lead by an agent. This gives prospects an opportunity to ask clarifying questions about the unit, property and neighborhood. The engagement gives the agent a chance to build a relationship with the prospect. Not all prospects want the guidance of an agent. For self-guided tours, prospects use online scheduling software like RentCafe Self-Guided Tours to book a tour. After a quick yet secure verification process on their mobile phones, prospects access the unit. They complete the tour at their own pace, unassisted by an agent. Multiple tour options give forward-thinking property managers an advantage over less tech-savvy competition. Digital twins have joined the chat Want to get ahead of the tech curve and offer your prospects something truly unique? Digital twins have a growing presence in real estate. A digital twin is software that uses real world data to create simulations that predict how a unit or building could perform. The technology empowers prospects with a better understanding of a property: its environmental efficiency, typical cost of utility bills, and the scope of resilience against natural disasters to name a few. Properties that offer special structural features now have a way to demonstrate those advantages. Bitcoin establishes itself among flexible payment options Online payment options have included ACH and debit / credit cards. More recently, text and voice command payments entered the real estate scene. Now, real estate professionals are also integrating cryptocurrency and blockchain-supported contracts. Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, began disrupting real estate transactions en masse in 2013. Since then, its popularity and legitimacy has steadily grown. Blockchain, the supporting database, offers secure, anonymous and accurate transactions from start to finish. Real estate firms interested in optimal efficiency and seamless international transactions may consider cryptocurrency with blockchain-supported transactions. Chatbots with machine learning improve responsiveness Responsiveness will make or break a relationship with consumers. Chatbots can answer inquiries 24/7/365 without inconveniencing human agents. Chatbots with machine learning, like RentCafe Chat IQ, will offer a noticeable difference in customer service. These AI-supported bots “learn” with experience, adapting to the nuances of human vernacular to improve future interactions. With chatbots, property managers can offer stellar customer service at any time of day. Staff leans into automated ads Software can automatically transform ILS listing into detail-specific ads. If needed, staff can adjust parameters to hone in on key audiences. For each automated ad campaign, staff receives data on views, clicks and demographics, allowing tweaks throughout the process. Automated ads reduce manual labor while improving ad spend control and ROI. Tech for the win Tech is a powerful ally for any growing real estate business. Technology improves staff efficiency and reduces menial task loads. The same products serve as differentiators that offer sought-after conveniences to consumers. Seeking a tech partner to help your business grow? Join a webinar to discover a suite of multifamily tech tools to support your...
Multifamily CRM
What to Look For in 2022
Are you setting fresh, ambitious goals for your multifamily business? Quality customer relationship management (CRM) software can help you reach them. We’ve got top insights in what to look for when choosing a multifamily CRM solution. What is multifamily CRM? You’ve likely heard of CRM and even dabbled in some of its features. Such software is increasingly critical for the optimal efficiency and functionality of your multifamily business. CRM gives you a 360-degree view of your relationship with each contact, from prospect to former resident. It offers a centralized location for managing client info, tracking correspondences and compiling data on client behaviors. With such insights, you can market for more conversions, sign more leases, improve retention and revenue. A good CRM tool will also help office workloads feel lighter, resulting in more energized and focused staff with less turnover. If that sounds good to you, read on! What to look for in multifamily CRM… There are lots of CRM options on the market. To select the one that is appropriate for your business, consider the following. Scalability Different tools at different price points will offer options that are suitable for your business. Select an option that meets your current needs and can grow with you in coming years. Automation We will spend a lot of time here. Your staff will need automation to streamline workflows and reduce manual, redundant and often time-consuming tasks. Consider follow-ups: quick responses (under five minutes) are 21 times more likely to lead to a sale. This is because 88% of consumers expect a business to respond to their inquiry within 60 minutes. More than 30% expect a response in 15 minutes or fewer, per the 2020 NMHC/Kingsley Apartment Resident Preferences Report. With automated text messaging and emails, your CRM...
Abby Development
Senior Housing Success
“We had to identify a single solution that could do what we needed, out of the box, instead of pursuing ten different vendors for ten different things. That was a big piece of choosing Yardi.” That’s what Chief Financial Officer Marc Abraham says about Abby Development’s path to Yardi solutions. From financials to business intelligence, this Texas-headquartered provider needed an integrated system — one built for their exact needs. That’s just the beginning of Abby Development’s story. Luckily, we hopped on the phone with Abraham to get the full picture, learning all the details of their experience with Voyager Senior Housing and Senior IQ. And these interconnected tools are driving real success for Abby Development, company-wide. Keep reading for a highlight: The Challenge: Limited Analysis Abby Development was using a software system with limitations. As a fast-growing company, frequently compiling data and running reports, they needed a solution that enabled a deeper level of analysis. They searched for a single connected solution to capture real-time insights, eliminate errors and save time. The Solution: Yardi Voyager Senior Housing & Senior IQ Yardi Voyager Senior Housing unifies property management, finance and business oversight on a single platform. Built for the unique needs of senior living providers, Voyager ensures Abby Development has every tool needed to manage their communities. With Yardi Senior IQ, a senior living business intelligence solution, Abby Development accesses real-time data in attractive, sharable dashboards. Drawing portfolio-wide information from Voyager, Senior IQ helps Abby Development act confidently and make informed decisions. The Story: Comprehensive Insights Describing the system used prior to Yardi, Abraham noted, “It wasn’t the at level we needed — the functionality just wasn’t there.” By selecting solutions from the Yardi Senior Living Suite, Abby Development now accesses key metrics, reports...
Leveraging Tech
Discussion at ONPHA
Technology has the power to transform our work and our lives. During the Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association (ONPHA) conference, Yardi sponsored and moderated the session, Impactful Innovation: Leveraging tech to gain visibility and empower your teams. Meherzad Bakht, senior account executive at Yardi Canada Ltd. moderated the panel attended by Kelly Black, chief administrative officer, District of Timiskaming Social Services Administration Board (DTSSAB), Clinton Reid, quality assurance and compliance manager, Woodgreen Community Centre and Abdulle Elmi, business lead, Housing Management Enterprise System (HoMES) at Toronto Community Housing Corporation. The live virtual event explored solutions that can help organizations improve oversight and visibility into their facilities and operations, elevate resident management and tenant care, and inspire diverse teams and drive efficiencies. Here are some of the highlights from the discussion. The quest for change Different factors served as catalysts for change within their organizations. Two consistent threads emerged: front-line staff endured repetitive, time-intensive manual tasks that often resulted in inefficiencies and inconsistencies; and disparate systems resulted in murky reporting and limited data analysis. The organizations sought for a way to streamline reporting, requiring fewer employees to spend less time identifying a single point of truth. Reid explained, “When we communicate to leadership that we can get the job done, we neglect to convey the amount of time and effort required to pull and complete a report.” He continues, “When COVID hit, we realized the number of resources put into reporting was significant.” All three organizations experienced some resistance at the ground level. Staff were leery of learning complex software that didn’t completely meet their needs or understand the social housing reporting requirements. The request to document processes also resulted in a sense of unease, though leadership assured their teams the efforts would ultimately support and simplify their work. Elmi said,...
PropTech for Gen Z
Appealing, Engaging, Converting
Do you know if your proptech will maintain its appeal to future generations of prospects? If not, no worries. We’ve done the research for you. We’re exploring proptech with staying power, tools for today that will continue to deliver results well into the Gen Z lifecycle. Cut costs with lasting proptech Proptech is a major investment in money and hours. The technology you choose should evolve with users’ changing needs to ensure that you get the best impact per dollar. Not all new solutions will stand the tests of time. Are you confident that your proptech lineup is ready for Gen Z? Read on for the essential solutions that your organization needs. REACH brings you the freshest data on Gen Z Gen Z is comprised of about 67 million people, the oldest of whom turn 25 this year. We learned more about the largest renter demographic ever through the REACH by RentCafe Gen Z Renter Study. This survey of more than 10,000 next gen renters gives insights into their habits and interests. The results confirmed what we’ve observed: Gen Z is an intelligent, tech-savvy generation that values efficiency and creativity. They value proptech that feeds their need for contactless transactions as well as quick and easy access to information and services. Tech for targeted and engaged marketing One average, Gen Z search terms are 4.9 words long, longer than all previous generations. They know that using detailed queries will bring them closer to what they really want rather than wading through pages of irrelevant results. Appeal to their specific searches with longtail keywords and campaigns crafted by search engine marketing professionals. Expert search engine optimization (SEO) strategies will help your content rank well and be discovered by prospects. When supplemented with pay-per-click (PPC) advertising,...
Increasing Investor Confidence
It's All About Transparency
How are you providing timely information to your investors and internal stakeholders? If you manage investments, you already know that investors want information on demand. They often prefer to view it in convenient digital formats, often from a mobile device. You also know that executives require quick access to reports, and other staff need investor information fast. Do you have a single source of truth and easy data access across your organization? Are you using tech that increases transparency and investor confidence? If you’re not sure, read on. Consider this scenario: one of your company’s investors calls your office asking for details about an asset or a deal. The investor explains that her contact is not responding. Given the urgency, she needs to speak with your CFO immediately. However, both the CFO and controller are in a meeting behind closed doors and are not to be disturbed. Does this sound familiar? Suppose you don’t manage the assets or your investment management and proptech systems aren’t integrated. Then you hit a wall, and your investor is bound to be dissatisfied when they can’t have instant access to the information they need. Here’s great news: a single platform for investment management and accounting with an investor portal offering self-service access to data and documents can go a long way to make investors happy and improve their confidence. This solution will also increase operational efficiency. With a single connected platform, you can centralize communications with existing and prospective investors, automate the management of capital call and distribution notices and improve collaboration on investment opportunities. You will also increase efficiency for internal stakeholders, such as executives requiring financial reports and investor relations staff needing access to investor information. These capabilities drive a higher level of investor confidence through the responsive online delivery of timely data. Investors can view property-level metrics, and investment managers can communicate new investment opportunity information through a secure portal instead of email. Empowering internal stakeholders Expand access across your organization to enable more staff to help investors when they need information, fast. With a secure investment management platform, more of your employees can have usable data at their fingertips, including key metrics and financials, without impacting your accounting team. That kind of access is one of the myriad benefits Holladay Properties is getting from their investment management platform, according to Wills Gardner, the company’s director of capital planning. “Holladay staff can get more information on their own and answer investor queries immediately, which is both more efficient and satisfying for investors,” Gardner said. Scott McGinness, CFO at Cohen Asset Management, can also attest to the value of a connected investment management platform. “I was probably the bane of my controller’s existence previously, but now I can log in to the system and generally I can pull anything I need,” McGinness said. Increasing investor confidence Recent changes in investor expectations stem from technological advances. Current and prospective investors are more closely following the operational aspects of their real estate investments and how those assets will be enhanced in terms of value and income generation. Those aspects include a property’s day-to-day activity and productivity, such as rental income, leasing, marketing and capital improvements. Whereas investor reporting previously was largely confined to financial performance, today’s investors want not only the numbers but also what’s driving them, knowing that property operations impact cash flow and ultimately give rise to distributions and higher asset value. A single connected technology platform enables analysis of investor, fund and portfolio key metrics, effective communication with investors and efficient management of fundraising and deal tracking. Such a platform gives investment managers and investors alike clarity into their holdings, helps identify risks and provides full transparency from an investor to asset operations. That level of transparency increases investor confidence and satisfaction. A clear path to success Let’s look back at our original scenario. With an investment management platform that integrates with an asset’s operational data, the investor may have been able to view the information she needed on her iPhone. Satisfying tech-savvy, increasingly sophisticated and inquisitive...
Home, Smart Home
Meet Yardi's Smart Home Solution
Smart home technology is expanding rapidly. Renters want smart home amenities for security and convenience. Property managers are interested in its easy and productive operational management. Smart home technology is also used for risk mitigation and real-time insights to improve buildings’ sustainability as well as property managers’ understanding of their properties’ processes. RentCafe Home IQ is Yardi’s smart apartment solution for the multifamily industry. It allows for increased revenue opportunity and resident retention by offering advanced technology features and experiences. Home IQ deploys and manages a fleet of connected devices without installing custom or third-party software, making it easy to add convenience, streamline operations and manage risk. With new technology comes fresh considerations and questions. Here to help is Vice President Greg Smith. He’s been with Yardi more than 20 years and has been instrumental in the development of Home IQ. Below he shares a little insight into the smart home market, why we made Home IQ and how it compares to other products for multifamily. What is the current state of the smart home market? Smith: Smart home is hopping! And it’s not just for the techies out there. We’ve seen that renters are beginning to look for it and, in some asset classes, expect it. The good news is that smart home tech has as many (or more) benefits for the property owner and operator as it does the resident. Why is Yardi getting involved? Smith: Smart home tech is a natural expansion for Yardi. It’s easy to think of smart home as just a resident function, but the reality is that it can be a huge efficiency gain for the owners and operators. Yardi is always working on solutions to help our clients improve asset revenue and decrease risk, and smart...
Social Media Habits
Of Generation Z
After getting to know Gen Z, REACH by RentCafe investigated how these young renters search online and how they use ratings and reviews while doing so. Today, we’re sharing data related to one of the most notable and important aspects of this generation’s lifestyle: social media. All about social media, all the time Welcome to the world of social media, where Gen Zers are no strangers to the posts, snaps, influencers, advertisements, stories and hashtags that dominate these platforms. And how could these young renters not be well versed in the art of social media? They have grown up in the age of smartphones, tablets and computers. In fact, 95% of Gen Zers use a social media app or website at least once a week, while 33% claim they spend most of their time outside of work or school on social media. It’s important to grasp the prominent role social media plays in the lives of Gen Z so you can attract these young renters. After asking over 10,000 members of Gen Z to name their top 3 social media channels, REACH by RentCafe found that those most often chosen included Instagram (46%), Facebook (43%), YouTube (39%), TikTok (33%) and Snapchat (30%).Interestingly, this data informs marketers about what exactly Gen Zers are doing while on social media. Most of these platforms center around videos, meaning that Gen Z is spending a great deal of time seeking entertainment. In a survey, Gen Zers identified the three things they felt most connected with while using social media: entertainment, their friends and the world. Reaching Gen Z on social media So how can you attract Gen Zers using social media? We have a few tips to help you out: Use storiesDid you know that Instagram alone has...
Managing Investments
Connecting operations in one platform leads to success
You might be hearing a lot about the benefits of connecting the accounting, operations and investor relations within real estate organizations in a single technology platform. It’s natural to wonder what the appeal to this approach is. The single connected platform strategy stems from a growing realization among investors and investment managers of the deficiencies of spreadsheets, inefficient communications and other outmoded tools. Entering data into multiple spreadsheets and relying on disparate investment, investor and accounting systems can be inefficient and error-prone for investment managers. For their part, investors increasingly expect on-demand service and self-service access to key metrics, capital transactions, documents and reports. Technology that facilitates these operations has become widely available to investment manager service providers over the past several years, improving collaboration among investment participants and increasing investor confidence. A single connected platform centralizes investment managers’ communications with existing and prospective investors, automates the management of capital call and distribution notices, and improves collaboration on investment opportunities. Such a platform also improves efficiency for internal stakeholders. Executives needing a report, can get it themselves from the centralized database without asking Accounting. Investor Relations has full access to investor information readily available from the platform. An added benefit comes in the form of a higher level of investor confidence that comes from the online delivery of timely, responsive data. Investors can view property-level metrics, and investment managers can communicate new investment opportunity information through a secure portal rather than email. Yardi Investment Manager is one example of how a technology platform can unite real estate investment activity. It provides a single source of the truth for investor and investment information that eliminates the need for disparate systems and manual data transfers. Investment managers are empowered to give their investors timely access to...
New Dimensions
In Property Security
With many workers staying at home during the pandemic, commercial buildings emptied but the obligation to maintain security for buildings, technology, hardware and data remained. Now that many of those employees are on the verge of returning to work, managers of residential as well as commercial properties are bolstering traditional physical security – the protection of outer and inner perimeters and interiors with guards, fences, locks, video surveillance, fire detection and more – with new capabilities. Seventy-five percent of respondents to a recent survey of U.S. physical security and facility management professionals said the pandemic increased the importance of physical security in their organizations. Propmodo, which covers the global property industry, notes, “The expectations about safety and security have changed [after the pandemic] and security teams and the buildings they manage need to be prepared to meet these new higher standards.” Enhanced systems for evolving needs As a result, many property owners seeking to mitigate risk are embracing a notion of security that combines traditional physical security elements with access control technologies that have evolved, as Georgia-based real estate investment advisement firm Think Realty says, “to support a digital environment for tenants and property managers.” Advanced access systems encompass door entry, video surveillance and intrusion detectors, and real-time monitoring of entrants and the property. Many such systems are cloud-based, enabling remote management and scalability. Many employ voice, retinal, and facial recognition, thermal imaging and artificial intelligence. Engaging a technology platform capable of seamlessly physical and data security operations with other Internet of Things building infrastructure elements gives security and facility managers “the opportunity to create an environment that is not only safe and secure, but promotes productivity, collaboration and success,” Propmodo says. Commercial and residential property owners most likely will adopt other new practices...
