Multifamily property managers encounter financial discrepancies often, and maybe more often than expected. The Center for Real Estate Technology & Innovation (CRETI) and SurfaceAI asked 325 industry professionals about financial discrepancies and found that 60% run into monthly discrepancies and 40% face quarterly ones.
The study revealed that many key inefficiencies relate to lease and rent roll inaccuracy with billing errors being a leading source, according to 100% of the property managers. The errors, which are not isolated events, range from incorrect rent charges to misapplied amenity fees and duplicate invoices. These are all errors that could impact portfolio performance, operational efficiency, and net operating income.
“These survey results confirm what many in the industry already know—financial and leasing discrepancies in multifamily operations are a systemic issue, not just an occasional mistake,” shares Jason Wallis, CEO at SurfaceAI. “The reliance on outdated reconciliation processes leads to inefficiencies that cost property managers time, money, and trust. AI-powered automation presents a clear opportunity to eliminate these errors and drive financial accuracy at scale.”
Manual reconciliation, as Wallis mentions, presents a major challenge for property managers who cite human error as a persistent cause of inaccuracies in lease and rent toll data. The majority of property managers agree that their current processes of identifying and addressing lease or rent roll discrepancies are ineffective.
While traditional chatbots can help with tenant inquiries, CRETI and SurfaceAI point out that chatbots do not detect errors or analyze financial data and AI agents may be a step in the right direction.
“The future of property management technology will be driven by AI automation that delivers measurable financial impact,” says Ashkan Zandieh, managing director at CRETI. “This survey highlights the need for next-generation AI solutions that proactively prevent errors rather than reactively fixing them.”
AI agents could potentially transform financial operations for property managers by automatically auditing lease and rent roll data; identifying and correcting billing errors in real time; and eliminating manual reconciliation efforts, the organizations say. These solutions could potentially reduce revenue leakage and free up property teams to focus on other tasks.
