Lessons of Multifamily Success from RETCON (Part 1)

Yolanda Muchnik:
Hello and welcome back, multifamily pros. For those of you just tuning in today, I'm Yolanda and this is my co-host, Charles.

Charles Buggs:
Hello everybody, thank you for joining us.

Yolanda Muchnik:
Awesome. Today we are breaking down some noteworthy panels and discussions that happened at RETCON in April. While our company Zego attended the conference, I personally wasn't able to, and I finally had a chance to watch some of the panel discussions that were posted on Revyse's website. That's R - E - V - Y - S - E dot com. The Revyse community is a hub for multifamily innovators to connect, collaborate, and level up the tech conversation.

You'll need to join the community to watch these panels yourself, but I highly encourage you to do that and no this episode is not sponsored. Since launching last year at Apartmentalize, Revyse has done a great job of posting, connecting, and sharing resources with the multifamily community. So this is simply just a hat tip and a shout out to them for me.

Charles Buggs:
I mean, we wouldn't be opposed to a potential advertising opportunity. But yes, to Yolanda's point, this is not about them. We're just really impressed with what they've done.

Yolanda Muchnik:
Hahaha! Yes, yes, of course. I hope you're out there listening, Revyse.

Okay, so we watched five panels and conversations from RETCON and wanted to take a moment to break down some of the key takeaways for you guys, our listeners, because they really hit on the heart of the multifamily experience. We'll be breaking up this discussion into two episodes, so be sure to tune in to our next one as well.

Today, our discussion is about use cases and renter expectations when it comes to technology. And of course, depending on the solution, we can also call it FinTech, PropTech, and even as one panelist said, RentTech.

Charles Buggs:
RentTech, let me sit with it, I like it, I like that. It's a very cool phrase, I'm gonna use that. But you know, from some of our off-air conversations, the three topics that we're hitting on today, I think will really resonate with our multifamily audience and ideally give them an interesting takeaway or maybe help them look at their own decision-making processes.

Yolanda Muchnik:
Exactly. And the three topics we're going to chat about today are who are modern day renters and what are their expectations, the internal processes needed to select the right technology vendors at the right time, and also how FinTech drives the rent payment process and even current housing options.

Charles Buggs:
Yeah, and I think one thing that was really interesting from your notes was a thing that was said by Whitney from The Preiss [Company]: an awkward conversation is one of Gen Z's top three fears. And I think that's super critical when you're thinking about meeting people where they are. The option to go end to end with no contact is kind of the future. Many companies have been able to do this by thinking it gets caught up when we get past that point of move-ins because you still have to go and pick up keys, drop off deposits, etc.

Yolanda Muchnik:
Yes, and that's a fascinating insight on the future of multifamily. In that same conversation you're referencing, I was struck by Leigh, I think is her name from Venture. And she was talking about how fully personalized experiences have gone from nice to haves, they're being nice to haves, now they're must haves. And two things they're doing for this, that I haven't heard really discussed much yet, are removing application fees and agnostic applications. So basically they're having prospects now apply to a community instead of a specific apartment unit. And then technology matches those applicants directly to available units based on those applicants' needs and budgets. And obviously this also helps with qualifying renters in advance.

Charles Buggs:
That is so cool. It's super interesting. Just everything they're doing in the future is just so intriguing.

Yolanda Muchnik:
Additionally, as a marketer, I've been nodding to Grady, who was also on that panel. And he mentioned a few stats, like the fact that 80% of visitors who have a bad experience on a website never return. I'm one of them, especially if I go to a website and it takes more than five seconds for something to load, you've totally lost me.

Charles Buggs:
Right.

Yolanda Muchnik:
I thought that was a great point that he made. It is impacting multifamily communities here as well, so something to keep an eye out for. And he also made the case that renters are increasingly seeking original content from their communities. And you can see that more and more in almost any industry. Today's consumers are wanting to learn more and do their own research on their own time before making a purchase or making a big decision, like choosing where to live.

Charles Buggs:
Yes, yes Yolanda. I think finding a place to live is kind of important on that list. For most people, me included.

Yolanda Muchnik:
Big decision.

Charles Buggs:
Big decision, top three at least, but a final tidbit on that. Meeting renters, who are the renters and what are their expectations? For me, this session with Cortland was super interesting where he made this observation that renters, or at least a contingency of them, are renters by choice. This has led to treating renters in the experience of renting like a consumable product focusing on high quality living expectations. This was considered kind of like a, I don't want to say renegade position maybe 10 years ago, but now it's rather normal.

Yolanda Muchnik:
Yeah, and that's a pretty short time period for that kind of a change to have occurred. Now, the second area that we wanted to touch on today focuses on the internal processes that are needed to select the right technology vendors at the right time and in another session, Mike from LCOR went into great length about this topic. And one highlight for me was when he shared two things that he looks for in a new tech vendor. And the first is that he looks at who's the CEO of the company. Do they have the ability to drive that company forward and the ability to manage change or pivot the organization as needed?

And the second point he noted was that he looks at financial viability. So in others, will this company still be here in three or more years, or will it be gobbled up by a competitor or completely dissolved, and then you'll have to replace everything that you did? I thought that was really helpful and useful information.

Charles Buggs:
Yeah, that is super interesting when you think about the long term with the company and still being there, that's kind of important. And also, the other two phrases I found super fascinating, the company lives at an intersection of tech and hospitality, curating a museum-like experience. Super cool.

Second one is, the phrase curb to kitchen describes having one single app for the resident to take care of all the things in between. Amazing. And the last part I wanted to jump into was also very interesting. The way they operate from 2017 to now is completely different in the type of building they're looking to deliver is also different. So speaking about that short timeframe, that's crazy. We're talking about 2017.

Yolanda Muchnik:
Agree. 2017 really is not that long ago. And for me, yeah, it wasn't.

Charles Buggs:
Right.

Yolanda Muchnik:
For me, one final eye opener from that conversation was that their vendors had to be willing to play in the same sandbox as other vendors. This openness, I don't think is in the norm for our industry or most PMS vendors. And I like how Mike points out that reality, that portfolios are constantly changing and buildings are constantly being sold. And it's for this reason that it's essential to ensure that your systems can work and play in the same sandbox as other vendors. Because if you buy a new company or if you get acquired or merged, like the shift of moving from one vendor to another is so much more difficult, but it's easier if you're set up for success in advance.

Charles Buggs:
Right.

Yolanda Muchnik:
So even in the largest operators and owners, if you look at our space, each of them still have a pretty tiny slice of the pie and this is still a pretty fractionalized industry.

Charles Buggs:
That is so interesting and I completely agree with that. Okay, don't leave me on a tangent. I'm gonna get on to our final topic here.

For the RETCON Insights part one, how FinTech drives the rent payment process and housing options. I believe this was primarily pulled from a panel discussion on the multifamily e-commerce and FinTech revolution. Is that correct?

Yolanda Muchnik:
Yes, though to kick this off, I want to go back to an earlier mention of Venture and them using those agnostic applications to match renters with new units. LCOR mentions something connected to this and is about how they're tightly focused on preventing fraud by ensuring an applicant can pay their rent for their unit in advance. And he gave an eye-opening stat, at least on the East Coast, that evictions are now taking an average of nine to 10 months to complete as opposed to previously the 60 to 90 days. So when you take this into consideration, the actual cost of eviction can be massive when adding in all costs like rent, parking, utilities, etc.

Charles Buggs:
I'm surprised by that, Yolanda. That's super, yeah. That's super surprising and I think interesting, as everything you say. But it also correlates with something Grady said about our Gen Zers. A third of them are worried about the cost of living. Non-controversial, I don't see any lies there.

Also, this aligns with some things that Whitney mentioned about Gen Z, which is that there's a significant demand for flexible payments. I think that's huge. Having this option has helped, in her words, reduce delinquency. I think they will expect this, talking about student housing, moving from student to the standard multifamily housing.

Yolanda Muchnik:
Yes. Absolutely. And something else that Whitney said that I found pretty cool was the largest payment option requested by Gen Z, not surprising to me, but the largest payment options are Apple Pay and Google Pay. And that Plaid is great, but younger residents, they're looking for more. And I think that's something our own customers are seeing as well.

Charles Buggs:
Absolutely, I mean, convenient ways to give you money seems like the first thing in business, but I'm no expert. But yeah, the people, the people, your residents want to pay you, right? And the most convenient way for them to pay you should be the most convenient way for you to accept.

Yolanda Muchnik:
And so the last payment related comment that really struck me that I want to point out here as well from Leigh, she said that they provide discounts for setting up Autopay. And to me, I thought what a great win-win renter perk to do that. You get paid on time and in full, automatically, and you're kind of giving your renters a little bit of a deal in order to ensure that happens.

Alright, as we close in on the end of this episode, the final topic discussed during this RETCON panel was the structure of communities themselves. Leigh mentioned she knows companies that are testing what she's calling micro-communities where they're purposely having no amenities like a gym or a pool, something like that. And this ties back to another example given that a large student housing company is also developing communities with limited services. And these building units are much more affordable, but they come obviously with noticeable limitations. Like for instance, maintenance only being available two days a week outside of emergency services or something like that. This is just another example to me of the ways that operators are moving to meet renter demands while also preserving their own margins and negotiation rates.

Charles Buggs:
Super interesting Yolanda. The margins and the negotiation rates, I am interested to find out how these all turn out in the short term and the long term. I think Grady mentioned this successful trial in Canada where renters were chosen as the property managers. And I mean to wrap this up, it stood out to me because it's like everything is old and new again. Right? Like back in the day, property managers would live at the property they manage. There are a lot of reasons for it. It still happens today in some cases, but it seemed more as like a benefit. But the, the, trial in Canada kind of made this super interesting and you know, kind of full circle, circle of life thing, I thought was kind of cool.

Yolanda Muchnik:
Old is new again. That's one I've never heard but probably true. Probably true.

Charles Buggs:
It's for my Midwesterners.

Yolanda Muchnik:
I think this is a good ending for the first part of our RETCON panel discussion breakdown. Please stay tuned for our next episode where we'll cover two more sessions and the insights that you can bring from them to your own apartment communities and multifamily operations.

But hold on, we're not quite done yet. Stay tuned for the Good News.

Good News

Charles Buggs:
Hello, thank you guys for joining Good News. For the record, Good News can be anything, a successful initiative, fantastic resident review, or a shout out to a work colleague or friend. It's your time to promote yourself, so we want you to take this opportunity to shine. There's enough stress, enough anxiety in the multifamily space, so we hope to shine a brighter light on what's going right.

How do you submit us your Good News? It's really, really easy. You can go to any platform you're listening on and go to the show bio or go to gozego.com/podcasts and click the show in the link. You can leave a text or voice message and we'll be happy to shout you out on the episode. So please, please, whenever you get an opportunity, reach out to us with your good news and we'll share it on the show.

Now, getting into some Good News from our listeners. We got five Anonymous today, so I'm gonna give a little spiel of like, we love to shout out your name, but if you wanna go in Anonymous, we love that too. So let's get through these today.

The first one says, I got a pay raise this year. Well, let's go. I love to hear it. Pay raises are always necessary, always necessary, and they're always necessary. So when you get one, let us know, we'll happily shout you out. Looking forward to the next one, I'm sure.

The next Anonymous one reads, I was recently promoted to an executive position and I'm leading an amazing team. I am overseeing $5 million in capital projects and have had major growth in my career in the past two years and it's been challenging and extremely fulfilling. I love that. When you meet that point of work where it's challenging and kind of filling up your cup, I think that's perfect. So as things progress and that 5 million turns to 10 million, please let us know. We love to shout you out in the next milestone. I love that, challenging and fulfilling. Can't we all get that in a perfect world? We're happy to hear that you do. Please let us know how progress happens.

Our next caller or texter, let us know that they went on an awesome cruise recently. I love cruises and I love that you thought enough of us to let us know about your cruise. Please send over some pictures and let us know how that went. And if there's any stories about what went great on that cruise to make it awesome, we love to hear that too.

The next caller, or texter, said, I learned how to exercise my voice muscles. Being able to speak to people has truly been a win and I have an amazing support system.I love that. I think finding your voice professionally and otherwise is a big deal. And when you see that once you use it, that there’s positive results from that, I think that's a big step in the right direction for a career, wherever you're at. So continue to use those voice muscles, speak up for yourself, and let your support system do what it does and support you.

Our next one, and our last one, will be both my kids graduated this year. Woot, woot. I'd like some more details if you want to let us know. Graduate from where, where they're going, what they're doing after? We would love to show that on the show, but you're across the finish line. Congrats on the graduation and all our other graduates this year because tis the season.

Lastly, I want to say thank you to everybody who's written in and let us know your good news. We love to share it and we love our listeners to hear it. So if you could reach out to us, give us your good news. And if you can't, please listen and hear some Good News from some others. Thank you again and we'll see you next time.