I grew up around real estate. That meant summers power washing roofs in brutal heat, ripping out old carpet, painting benches and learning early that nothing about buildings is abstract. Someone pays for every decision. Someone lives with every mistake. My father and uncle ran a real estate company started by their father. From a young age, the rules were simple: work hard, study hard, be grateful. If you do those things, the system will reward you. For a long time, I believed housing worked the same way. As a …
Technology
Affordable Housing Providers Have a Legal Responsibility to Know How Their AI Tech Works
Artificial intelligence use cases are increasing across many sectors, including housing. Potential deployment of AI can involve a wide range of uses, including AI-enabled customer service, rental analytics and internal operations efficiency, among others. As adoption continues, and regulators and legislators focus their attention on AI, the regulatory landscape involving privacy and housing-related issues is becoming increasingly complex. AI tools can raise a wide range of privacy and security concerns. Multifamily owners who have a working knowledge of AI-related federal and state policy issues will be set up for success, …
InterFace Panel: AI Has Infiltrated Multifamily Management Without Compromising The Human Touch
By Taylor Williams DALLAS — Technological innovation has long been a cornerstone of managing and leasing multifamily properties, and that feature of the business has only been augmented in the era of artificial intelligence (AI). But for all the operational conveniences and efficiencies that AI potentially brings to the table, multifamily management has not yet reached the point of phasing out the human element. Almost immediately after the members of the leasing and management panel at the annual InterFace Multifamily Texas conference had introduced themselves, this fundamental premise of multifamily …
The multifamily housing market is growing increasingly competitive. Newer and older properties must vie for renters, and key decisionmakers are looking toward meaningful ways of differentiating their communities. To meet this demand, multifamily properties are increasingly offering smart technology amenities to their residents including a wide variety of technologies such as in-unit smart device amenity packages, access control and smart safety and security solutions, and, increasingly, they are offering bulk internet and managed Wi-Fi. Yet our recent study, conducted jointly by myQ Community, EliseAI and RPM Living, surveyed 2,300 Class A …
Scalable Solutions for Multifamily’s Growing Package Problem
At too many multifamily communities today, managers spend much of their time receiving, safeguarding, retrieving and tripping over a rising tide of parcels awaiting pickup by residents. A range of cages, lockers and other systems promise to ease the package management burden, but most still require staff oversight and may not securely accommodate bulky items or seasonal surges in deliveries. “The sheer volume of packages residents are getting has increased, and that has driven a lot of frustration with package management,” says Shelly Peterson of Smart Package Room, which makes …
TikTok is Fueling a New Era of Real Estate Fraud — Here’s What Operators Can Do About It
By Kyle Nelson Fraud is no longer hiding in the shadows. It’s being taught and sold in plain sight — sometimes with hashtags and tutorial videos. Across the multifamily housing industry, operators are seeing the effects firsthand: Fake documents are slipping through and unqualified tenants are being approved, resulting in rising eviction rates. On TikTok, an unexpected market has emerged where users trade tips and tools for falsifying income, employment and identity to gain access to rental housing. This trend is not limited to individual bad actors offering a forged …
By Kim Young In multifamily leasing, striking the right balance between automation and human connection isn’t just a technological decision. It’s the difference between signing a lease and losing a prospect forever. According to the 2024 NMHC/Grace Hill Renter Preferences Survey Report, 73 percent of renters expect digital leasing options, yet 67 percent say personal interaction influences their decisions. These numbers tell a compelling story that every operator should heed. As managers, we aren’t merely optimizing workflows. We’re orchestrating living experiences that transform curious browsers into committed residents. Then we …
By Kristin Harlow Necessity has sparked innovation across the multifamily sector. Property managers are implementing new technology platforms to streamline leasing, maintenance and resident communications because of rising operating costs, says Jim Cunningham, president of Naperville, Illinois-based Marquette Management, which owns or manages nearly 16,000 units across eight states. Operating costs increased 7 percent last year, according to CBRE. Rising insurance costs are one of the primary drivers. Property managers are also embracing technology to enhance resident satisfaction. Wendy Deetjen, vice president of Habitat’s market-rate portfolio, says that today’s renters …
The August 6 webinar “From Sunk Costs to Strategic Savings — Risk and Insurance Plays to Strengthen Your Multifamily Portfolio,” sponsored by Foxen, explored practical ways for multifamily owners and operators to address one of their largest cost concerns in 2025: insurance. Industry experts detailed the risks of tenant-caused property damage, the operational challenges of monitoring renters insurance and the benefits of structured compliance programs. Viewers learned about property damage liability waiver programs and tenant legal liability (TLL) policies in protecting owners from uninsured losses. The panel also discussed the …
RICHARDSON, TEXAS — RealPage has acquired Livble, a flexible-payment company, and will incorporate the new payment technology into two of its own software solutions, LOFT and Buildium. LOFT is a resident-facing app RealPage launched in January. LOFT’s payment function allows users to pay their rent traditionally, directly from their bank in one lump sum, or residents can pay in two installments. With the Livble technology, residents now can split up payments into up to four installments per month. RealPage assumes nonpayment risk and manages collections should residents not pay. In …