Multifamily’s New Toolbox

This summer real estate software company AppFolio introduced Lisa, a digital assistant designed to take potential apartment tenants through initial questions they might have about a particular apartment or property.  Because it was built using conversational artificial intelligence, Lisa can carry on a simple text-based conversation in real time, not only answering questions but also asking them in order to vet the prospects. It is, to state the obvious, an immense time saver for brokers and property owners. “The immediacy of responses that Lisa provides helps meet prospect expectations and gives time back to leasing agents and property management businesses to focus more on business strategy,” says Elliott Burris, VP at AppFolio.

Lisa, though, is more than a convenience—it also is representative of the great strides apartment tech has made over the last year or so. Perhaps more to the point, Lisa also symbolizes the growing number of tools that multifamily owners now have at their disposal. These tools are not limited to just technology, however. There have been a number of changes, ranging from investment focus to new thinking about demographics to changes in design, that have come online that are changing the way apartment owners and developers conduct business and manage operating expenses.

Apartments, of course, are among the top-performing asset classes; hardly—it would seem—in need of such improvements. Emerging trends, though, may change that narrative as the cycle nears its end. Some product types, such as luxury development, are not so easy to pencil anymore. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are undergoing change as the Trump Administration pushes for their privatization. Affordable housing has become a big focus, not only by developers interested in this product type, but also by voters who are irate about rising rental rates. Already, the resulting rent control measures that are being put in place around the country are starting to have wider ramifications.