How is Technology Impacting Residential Leasing?

IRVINE, CA—CoreLogic has introduced a new cloud-based online leasing solution for multifamily housing owners and managers called "Leasing Manager from CoreLogic." The software features a simplified application process designed to keep prospective residents online so they complete the application.

In response to property-owner and manager demand, CoreLogic realized the need for an online leasing solution that streamlined an applicant's workflow, provided a compelling applicant experience and enabled property managers to configure and customize the user interface to reflect their branding and messaging. GlobeSt.com spoke with Suzette LeSane, VP of product management and delivery for CoreLogic, about how technology is impacting residential leasing and the various challenges to introducing new technology to the leasing market.

GlobeSt.com: How is technology impacting the leasing market?

LeSane: We hear a lot about workflow. The client wants to enable that applicant to convert to a resident and then engage with the resident in an automated way. A lot of technology has been moving toward that to enable a seamless experience. We service clients from small independent landlords all the way up to REITs with 8,500 units across many properties. No matter what your size, you need to have a seamless workflow so that the applicant experience is solid. That translates into dollars from rent, and that's where the market and our clients are moving. We're responding to the shift in consumer as well as client needs.

GlobeSt.com: What is technology likely to do for the leasing market in the future?

LeSane: The ability to tie the workflow together to be seamless is important. Clients rely on us to deliver business intelligence on a workflow platform. They want to know who their best-resident profile is, and we can tell them that it's someone who has two dogs and a cat and pays their rent on time 85% of the time. This is good information for a property manager. So we bring data and analytics to the platform, the ability to help clients understand the health and wealth of the consumer and the property they're sitting on. The question of whether they have the right analytical tools to deliver that, to deliver the insight needed to make better strategic decisions, is the wave of the future for our clients.

GlobeSt.com: What are the challenges to introducing new technology to the leasing market?

LeSane: A big part of introducing technology—particularly workflow technology—is a need for integration, to have it tie in with other vendors' software. There are no standards associated with most of the vendors. Property management companies might have other platforms with which they're working, so the ability to connect with those other players in the market is big, whether it's property management, a payment provider or another element. Depending on who the vendor is, they may be in different stages with their software: some have an open platform with which anyone can integrate; others have a closed system and are not interested in integration. Technology is moving, the customers are moving, but the industry is not there even though the customers are pushing for it.