Wehner multifamily increases online payment utilization by 94% with Zego

Wehner Multifamily

Location: Texas, Oklahoma
Total Units: 22,705
Industry: Multifamily
Zego Solutions: Zego Pay, Zego Utility Resident Billing
Accounting Software Integration: ResMan

Wehner Multifamily provides full-service management for B & C class apartment communities. Thanks to a strong focus on maximizing occupancy and revenue, they have experienced rapid growth over the past few years, expanding to more than 22,000 units. With the goals of improving monthly revenue and NOI for their growing portfolio, they worked with Zego to implement a Resident Billing solution. As a result, they:

• Improved utility expense recovery: A new Resident Billing solution allows the company to recover the maximum allowable amount of utility costs from residents
• Increased payment utilization: Adding Resident Billing to their Zego account increased digital payment utilization
• Improved portfolio visibility: Built-in business intelligence provides insights to portfolio performance and helps achieve growth goals

“PayLease makes sure we are maximizing recoupment while keeping us in line with billing regulations. Thanks to all those details, we collect more at the end of they day”

Juan Leyva
Acquisition Specialist at Wehner Multifamily

The challenges

• Recovering utility expenses from residents to increase revenue at their properties
• Increasing digital payment utilization to save associates time, so they can focus on leasing and resident satisfaction

Always looking to increase property performance, Wehner Multifamily decided to implement a resident billing service as a means to recoup utility expenses. They knew that recovering utility expenses would be a surefire way to increase revenue. “Not billing residents for utility consumption results in a loss for our owners,” said Juan Leyva, Acquisition Specialist at Wehner Multifamily. “Our goals for our properties are to increase revenue per month and NOI, and one way to make that happen is to bill residents for utilities across the portfolio.”

It was important that residents would be able to pay for utility charges online, preferably in the same transaction as their rent. As a long-time Zego Pay client, Wehner had gained tremendous operational efficiencies by automating rent payments and wanted more residents to pay in this manner. They hoped that a billing solution would not only help them improve utility expense recovery, but also motivate more residents to make payments digitally.

The Solution

Because they were a satisfied Zego Pay client, Wehner’s executives were interested in Zego’s Utility Resident Billing solution. They also decided to compare Zego with another well-known utility billing provider that serves the multifamily industry.

Wehner’s team found that many of the features they liked about Zego Pay were also things that set their Resident Billing platform apart from other vendors. Smooth integration with their management software, ResMan, would give staff visibility into utility payments made by residents. Specific details about resident charges can also be viewed within the Zego interface.

For their residents, they would see a detailed view of what they owe for utilities and any other applicable charges. “Zego integrates with our resident portal, so residents can log into their account and see a new statement each month that itemizes their rent, utilities, and any other applicable charges. They can pay their total balance online which is convenient, particularly on our side since the automation saves us so much time,” said Leyva.

Wehner’s team also found benefits aside from functionality that made Zego the best choice for their business. As newbies to utility billing, they discovered the local regulations surrounding the practice to be complex.

“A big differentiator between Zego and their competitors is the guidance Zego provides about utility billing regulations,” said Leyva. “Utility regulations are very confusing and vary by property location. Zego takes the time to explain it all to us and also provides guidance on how to maximize recoupment rates for each property. We would not receive this level of guidance from other companies, so it was a big part of the decision to go with Zego,” he added.

The Results

• Wehner Multifamily recoups the maximum allowable utility costs from residents, boosting their NOI
• Digital payment utilization has increased 94% as a result of consolidated statements that residents can pay in one transaction
• Reporting features give Wehner Multifamily increased visibility into tracking property performance goals
• Wehner is able to confidently continue their aggressive growth goals, acquiring several properties each month, which are quickly onboarded to Zego

Wehner Multifamily has added approximately 45 properties to Zego’s Utility Resident Billing service. One of the results of using Zego Pay and Zego Utility Resident Billing in conjunction has been improved revenue. “Zego makes sure we are maximizing recoupment while keeping us in line with billing regulations. Thanks to all those details, we collect more at the end of the day,” said Leyva.

Digital payment utilization has also increased approximately 94%, which has allowed for more efficient operations. “Residents now have all of their property and utility charges in one statement, they pay them all at once and it’s made digital payment adoption increase. It’s definitely made business easier for us. I know just for myself, I save several hours per week thanks to the added automation.”

Zego has also proven to be a valuable tool for tracking property performance goals. The Resident Billing platform contains a built-in business intelligence platform that has given Wehner increased insights about property performance. “Our team has regular meetings to touch base about each property’s performance goals. I can easily generate reports through Zego which gives us stats on our recoupment rates and usage trends, and it makes it easier for us to track where we are with our goals.”

Wehner continues to acquire new properties each month, which Zego then quickly onboards to their Pay and Utility Resident Billing solutions. “Having Zego as one of our partners has helped us tremendously with our growth. They work to help us reach our goals and that’s a rare trait in a partner.”