AIMx, the Apartment Innovation and Marketing Conference’s supplier partner discovery event, took place on Thursday. Industry experts from companies such as RentCafe, ICONIQ Capital, real estate business analysis and Airbnb discussed trends surrounding multi-family housing, property management of the future and new technological solutions.
The Property Management Company of the Future – Progress Report
Heather Wallace, Executive Director of Bozzutoalongside Carol Enoch, CEO of Enoch & Co.and Jaja Jackson, Senior Vice President at ICONIQ Capital, discussed how asset managers can better position themselves to better help their clients.
Guidance for real estate companies, or PropCos, provided at the virtual event included flexibility, listening to consumers, partnering with aligned incentive structures, and weeding.
Jackson talked about the property management company that ICONIQ uses and partly owns, sentral. After realizing that innovations could be brought to the multi-family market and that there was not yet a property management company that could fully deliver what ICONIQ needed in one place, Sentral was launched. Jackson noted that a deep partnership comes from a collaborative relationship as well as access to centralized key information.
“Having more access to better information faster produces a greater bond of respect between owner and operator. It is this shift that creates the inventiveness for a deeper partnership,” Jackson said.
Other trends discussed in this part of the conference include virtual tours.
“Virtual tours are here to stay,” Wallace said. Enoch and Jackson agreed, adding that a high percentage of visits are now virtual and will continue to be so. Things like virtual tours are a way for service providers to get closer to an owner’s mindset in terms of offerings.
Budget season: how to determine and justify your SEO budget
Esther Bonardi, Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Head of REACH by RentCafegave a presentation on understanding the impact of search engine optimization and how to justify its inclusion in future business decisions.
Bonardi noted that to make the case for why SEO is so important, you have to look at the finances. She said the return on investment from professional SEO marketing is much greater than other forms of paid advertising. Case studies show that organic leads from optimized websites compared to unoptimized websites are much higher. Return on ad spend is often in the triple digits for SEO, while other sources of advertising often only have a single digit return on ad spend.
Good SEO providers will have automated ways to track and analyze volume and data from click through rates, query data, bounce rates, etc. SEO providers are constantly working.
“SEO is not about set it and forget it. It’s ongoing,” Bondardi said. She continued that SEO is the cheapest and most productive source of paid marketing available.
READ ALSO: Driving your SEO strategy to outperform the competition
Data Pain to Data Gain: REBA
Owners, operators and asset managers need to make smart decisions quickly. Meaningful insights come from rich data analysis. In rental housing, the capabilities of real estate technologies have increased, creating more data that can take time to sort through. Donald Davidoff, co-founder and CEO of REBA, said a single source of data and truth is possible through REBA.
Davidoff showed how REBA creates 3D building models rather than charts and graphs so business owners can search for resident, financing, maintenance and management data in one place.
Furnished rentals, short-term rentals and the future of living
Lisa Tully-Lavian, Senior Vice President of Marketing at sentraland Curtis Palmer, executive vice president of acquisitions and capital markets at Dreamscape Enterprisesdiscussed post-COVID initiatives around flexible short-term rentals and the future of what consumers want.
“We want to disrupt what is happening in the industry. We understand that today’s tenants are looking for something new,” said Tully-Lavian. She said Sentral offers any length of stay for residents. Sentral is backed by ICONIQ as well as Bozzuto.
“Lisa said the future of short-term rentals. I think it’s the present,” Palmer said.
There’s a misconception that residents are against short-term rentals in their apartment buildings, Tully-Lavian noted. Colocation, as an equipment, is a way to have flexibility and monetize lifestyle. There is a valuable adjunct in long-term rentals as well as short-term rentals and home sharing, depending on what residents are looking for. It’s just one of the many ways to attract and retain tenants.
“There is no expense for home sharing,” Palmer said. Dreamscape Companies and Sentral are adapting to changing times and incorporating home sharing and short-term rentals as add-ons to their management structures in multi-family buildings. Layering these types of options into traditional rentals is their business model.
“Flexible living is the future, and the people who get there first will do their best,” Palmer said.
Maximize the value of real estate assets
Jesse Stein, Global Head of Real Estate at Airbnband Steve Lefkovits, executive producer of Joshua Tree Conference Group, explained how the multifamily benefits from new innovations and changing trends. Airbnb works with apartment community owner partners to create tools and initiatives for residents to earn extra income when they travel.
“I think the best example is a property we launched in San Diego earlier this year,” Stein said. He went on to describe a property where residents can rent out their home while landlords have controls and transparency along with a dashboard. He noted that hosts at this property earn enough through Airbnb in additional income to pay 61% of their rent. This benefits both residents and owners. Residents who live in full-time assets open their homes and earn money. In addition, property managers receive a small commission on this income. There is additional flexibility and earning potential for both parties.
“At the end of the day, where the puck goes, people are looking for flexibility. Also, costs are going up and people need a place to live, but people also want to travel,” Stein said. He argues that it’s a way to create a unique real estate experience as well as a unique residential experience.
“We’re constantly iterating and coming up with new concepts, and adapting those concepts,” Stein said. “We will grow”.
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