For multifamily properties, maximizing revenue yield boils down to this: optimizing occupancy and minimizing loss, by boosting efficiency and effectiveness in four areas—marketing, operations, leasing, and fraud detection.
While property managers have often relied on manual or in-house processes, they are now deploying innovative technology to understand the impact targeted marketing and productivity-focused staff tools have on improving results and maximizing yield more seamlessly.
Let's look at ways these technology innovations are being applied.
Pinpointing Marketing Spend
Determining when to “turn up” your marketing spend to address vacancies without lowering price is a key ingredient to maximizing revenue. Targeted marketing that can be flexed up or down to generate the optimal number of leads to fill specific vacancy types brings a higher return on your marketing investment.
LeaseLabs Flex Demand Optimizer from RealPage predicts when inventory of certain unit types will exceed demand, then suggests targeted digital marketing campaigns to generate the right leads. Megan Adams, director of marketing at Legend Management Group, says her firm has received “flex-generated higher-qualified leads and leases when we needed them most."
Optimizing Operations
Operational efficiencies, especially thorough innovative technologies, are helping multifamily executives boost yield by bringing ease to interactions with the property.
Rental payment collection is a prime area to reduce friction and reduce risk, by using a secure system for online payments combined with a collection box where paper payments can be mailed. These combined solutions eliminate the need for property staff to collect payments on-site, reduce the risk of theft from drop boxes, and make the payment process contactless for health safety. RealPage offers online payment technology, plus LockBox—a physical P.O. box—enabling payment collection to be low effort and risk free.
Optimizing your leasing processes to streamline the experience for both your staff and your residents ultimately drives to more closed leases at a more effective cost. Tools such as Augmented Intelligence Chat and Voice from RealPage provides artificial intelligence technology to answer common leasing questions and schedule tours, and is paired with live agents who answer additional questions when needed, helping to convert more prospects to visits efficiently and cost effectively.
Today, virtual tours are a must-have, both for health safety and for prospects who are out of town or want to engage on their own time. Touring websites or guided virtual tours allow you to showcase and highlight your property and community in a professional and consistent manner from anywhere, on any device, in a way that generates higher-qualified leads.
In college communities, where students may live away from campus part time or may be quarantining, virtual tours are a no-brainer. Campus Advantage, a student housing management company, has seen a threefold increase in time spent on its property websites after implementing RealPage virtual tours, explains Lindsay Brown, the firm’s vice president of leasing. "Also, when we text prospects links to our virtual tours, they call site staff more often to ask questions as if they are touring in person."
Leasing with Lower Risk
There is increasing concern around nonpayment of rent, which can lead to costly evictions for property managers and result in significant financial loss. Defining risk thresholds to best enable occupancy is another important area of focus.
RealPage's AI Screening solution can accurately predict not only an applicant's ability but also their willingness to pay, using a broader range of financial indicators, creating a more robust risk assessment. In addition, it can help you understand how to change your screening risk thresholds to maximize occupancy, while limiting your overall risk. CF Real Estate Services has seen a significant bottom-line impact: "AI Screening helped us reduce skips nearly 82%, from 60 to 11, in 2019," explains Bryan Davis, CF's IT manager.
Identifying Renter Fraud
Identity fraud is becoming a growing problem. In 2019, the cost of identity theft was $1.9 billion.
RealPage is tackling this problem head-on with Identity Verification, which helps property owners and managers identify and prevent fraud, saving them up to $72 per unit per year.
“In 2019, RealPage’s Identity Verification solution prevented 31 fraudulent lease applications from becoming residents, saving us $150,000 to 300,000,” reveals Davis.
When determining strategies to maximize yield, consider how adding technology to your processes will get you there faster.
Visit www.RealPage.com to learn more about how technology can help you maximize revenue.
