Bill Nye
Leading Your Culture
Multifamily Collective
Mike Brewer
Jason Kae
The Ignored Element of a Healthy Culture
Author:Bill Nye
Podcast Host: Leading Your Culture
While many struggle to define what culture is, I clearly define it in three ways: What is expected, what will or will not be tolerated and how we treat one another. I constantly state that every organization has a culture including every home. It doesn’t matter how many people make up a family or business. If there are two or more people, a culture exists
I also state constantly that a culture isn’t built, but rather it grows. Keep in mind, you don’t need to pay any attention to it for the culture to grow. It is going to grow regardless of effort or lack of effort on our part.
Now think about your family. Every parent has expectations for their children. Most parents have a list, even if it isn’t a formal list, of things they will or will not tolerate from their children This is what allows the culture to grow in your home But there is a third element that is often lacking or treated in an extremely arbitrary way and that’s how we treat one another. For many, this is not planned or strategic, but rather emotional. Far too few leaders have a strong code for how people will be treated. Employees, customers, third-party vendors, and others.
It is my belief that leaders often want this element of their culture to be flexible because it gives them a sense of control As the leader, I get to dictate how I treat others based on how they behave If they are loyal, compliant, or behave according to expectations I will treat them well.
But, if they are difficult, subpar, immature, I will treat them poorly. I am not suggesting that leaders turn a blind eye to poor performance or behavior. In fact, that should be clearly addressed in the expectations and will or will not be tolerated What I am suggesting is that a healthy culture treats everyone with respect and dignity
I can terminate your employment and still treat you with respect and dignity. I might have to terminate someone because they clearly failed to meet expectations or clearly acted in a way that cannot be tolerated. But how I treat the team should never be emotionally charged. Great cultures hold themselves to a standard for how everyone will be treated When we work at one of these companies or are the customer at one of them, we can feel the difference The kindness, patience, and attention to detail stands out
It is impossible to grow a healthy, strong culture without giving this element a lot of attention. Just as much as the expectations and what will or will not be tolerated. The new hire on-boarding and orientation should spend a lot of time on this element, but unfortunately for many it is all about the first two because the emphasis is on how to not get fired as opposed to how to excel and thrive When leaders are focusing on growing trust, respect, new skills, honesty, dependability, and predictability they are growing a culture that attracts better candidates and more customers.
All three elements of a culture are equally important. Don’t shortchange the third element. You will have less chaos, less harmful conversations (gossip), less employee turnover and fewer customer complaints. Ignore this element and chaos will become your middle name Don’t believe me? Look at any family where there is
Multifamily Collective | Mike Brewer
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Getting Started with AI in Real Estate: How HelloData Drives Efficiencies
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These days, it seems like there’s a never-ending series of multifamily conferences focused on AI, but in my experience they’re all pretty light on details. Everyone talks about how transformative it will be, how they want to adopt it in their organization, etc… but where’s the detail on how they’re actually doing it?
At HelloData, AI isn’t just a buzzword – it’s woven into the fabric of everything we do From our automated multifamily market analysis platform to the way we streamline day- to-day operations, AI drives both our product and our business
I wanted to write this two-part article to provide a few practical examples of how HelloData leverages automation and AI, not just as a product, but as a group of professionals with a relentless focus on unlocking efficiencies in our business. Part I will over where we use AI in the product itself, and Part II will cover several ways we use AI in our business. Hope everyone finds it helpful!
Part I – Product-Based Innovations
HelloData uses AI to do some pretty incredible things. We survey rent, availability and concessions data from over 150k individual property websites every single day, capturing rent and concessions data that aligns with actual rent rolls more than 90% of the time. We then apply a series of algorithms to this data to identify your most relevant rent comps, generate a comprehensive market survey, and underwrite Year 1 NOI with less than 10% median error – for any multifamily property, in any market.
The crazy thing is, HelloData does this all with only one user input: A property name or address That’s it
To many people, that sounds too good to be true But when we generate a report with the rent comps they expect, and point to specific rents and leased dates that match their actual rent rolls, they understand what’s truly possible That’s why many of the largest owners and managers in the country have rolled out our platform across their companies since we launched only 18 months ago
But how is this possible? Here are a few of the ways we use AI to achieve it:
1. Using Computer Vision to Identify Better Comps
When I worked as a multifamily broker years ago, one of the things we’d do is put together a photo grid to show how similar the finish levels were across our selected comps. This helped the owners we worked with understand how similar our selected comps were.
But that requires a person to pick similar properties, compile property photos, and put them in a grid. It was manual and time-consuming process every time.
To achieve this same qualitative analysis at scale, we trained a model to analyze listing photos and detect the room type, assess condition and quality, and identify 30 unique amenities and attributes from the photos automatically It took tens of thousands of photos of unit interiors that we painstakingly labeled, but the algorithm ultimately helped us automatically select comps that align with our users’ selections 9/10 times
2. Floorplan Analysis
We use a variant of the same technology to identify room types, dimensions and positions relative to each other from images of floorplans. This required another time-consuming data labeling process where we had to draw the boundaries of each room and common area onto the floorplan, then trained a model to automatically detect them.
Although we capture unit-level amenities from property websites, we’ve found that property managers don’t always display unit amenities. This feature helps us identify specific attributes of units (e.g. corner units, balconies, etc.) so our users can understand the value of these amenities. We also use it in our Development Feasibility Analysis feature, which recommends a unit mix based on the attributes of similar new construction units in the market.
3. Calculating Net Effective Rents from Specials
Understanding how asking rents change over time is important, but there are so many markets offering concessions these days that it doesn’t provide a complete picture. One of the most important ways we use AI in HelloData is to extract the concessions being offered from specials banners on property websites to calculate effective rents
To do this every day across 150k+ property websites, we actually had to build our own large language model focused specifically on concessions using something like ChatGPT at this scale would have cost millions of dollars a year!
Our system captures daily updates to the specials banners/property websites, extracts all of the parameters around those offerings (e.g. months of free rent, unit type restrictions, move-in deadlines, etc.), and calculates the correct concession value with over 99% accuracy. We deduct this value from the final price at which each unit leaves the market to get to a highly accurate net effective rent figure.
4. Reviews Analysis
Another interesting way we leverage AI is to analyze online reviews for apartment buildings, and recommend areas for improvement. Sentiment analysis has been around for a while, we just applied it to this specific dataset to help identify how residents rank properties in terms of staff, location, maintenance, amenities and overall value.
This helps our property management clients understand where to improve, and acquisitions teams see where they may be able to add value post-acquisition
5. Market-Driven Pricing Recommendations
By using AI to quantify the value of finish levels, unit layouts and amenities, we were able to build the most powerful feature of all: A revenue management / pricing optimization solution driven entirely by publicly available market data
This is particularly important given the current climate around pricing and revenue management solutions today.
Our system uses this detailed unit-level data to automatically identify the most similar units across your closest comps, then analyzes supply and demand fluctuations across that comp set to recommend the optimal price for your units.
By using AI to understand how the prices of similar units fluctuate with changes in supply and demand, we deliver the same detailed price recommendations a traditional revenue management system would… we just do it using 100% publicly available data
There are countless other ways we leverage AI at HelloData, but some of the most interesting examples come from how we use AI and automation to streamline our day- to-day operations In the next post, I’ll share real-world examples of these strategies in action, along with practical steps you can take to adopt similar approaches in your own business Stay tuned!
What Really Happens After the Tour?
The Key to Multifamily Leasing Success
The tour is a pivotal moment in multifamily leasing, offering prospects a firsthand experience of a property. However, it’s what happens after the tour that is instrumental to whether they sign a lease or move on. With renters taking longer to decide 5-7 days in many cases the post-tour phase is increasingly critical, especially as a record 518,000 units were built in 2024, heightening competition
Beyond the Tour: Full-Funnel Support
While leasing technology has traditionally focused on top-of-funnel activities like responding to inquiries, there’s a gap in support for the crucial post-tour stage. Tourus bridges this gap by helping teams maintain connections with prospects through text and email channels renters prefer due to their speed and convenience With 95% of texts read within 3 minutes, leasing agents using Tourus send 37% more texts after tours than before, addressing key questions and fostering relationships.
We see heavy text usage after the tour across Tourus users, as this is where prospects have questions, need clarification or more information, and are making their final decisions. In fact, 37% more texts are sent after the tour than before.
Optimizing the Decision-Making Experience
When a prospect continues to engage after the tour, it’s an obvious signal that they’re interested in renting and are often trying to collect information – this is their decision-making stage. It’s important to understand what happens here to optimize the experience for prospects as well as your team.
This year, we saw the majority of post-tour messages focus on questions during the application, highlighting the need for team support and coordination. However, leading up to applying is the opportunity for relationship-building and converting to app. The truth is, a lot of questions prospects ask after the tour were likely answered during the tour and/or can be found on your website. However, they’re coming to you for help making their decision and to get clarity, so it’s important to have strategy, support and resources so that your leasing team can continue to connect with them.
This year, we saw the majority of post-tour messages focus on issues and questions during the application, highlighting the need for team support and coordination when processing applications.
Before prospects apply, the majority of questions are around all-in costs and fees: even if it was discussed during the tour, they want to confirm and understand the all-in costs of moving in and living there. They also want more information on the unit they saw – how many outlets did it have? What floor was it on? Considering prospects on average visit 5-8 units before deciding, things can easily get mixed up. They also inquire about other units they didn’t see (“Does the one we didn’t look at have an island?”) as well as the implications of changing their move-in dates.
Tourus strives to help properties reach their full potential by empowering teams to connect with renters seamlessly and from anywhere. We’re the industry’s first mobile app for leasing teams, and enhance communication between teams and prospects for the best renter experience. With Tourus, leasing professionals can respond quickly to one-off questions via text, getting to the lease faster than ever.
As the industry’s first mobile app for leasing, Tourus equips leasing teams to respond quickly and effectively, reducing friction and accelerating the leasing process. By streamlining communication and enhancing renter engagement, Tourus empowers properties to convert interest into leases faster than ever.
Navigating the storm of rising insurance costs: Protecting
your rent roll, profits, and property value
For multifamily owners, the fallout from weather events like Hurricanes Helene and Milton doesn’t end when the debris is cleared.
The increasing pace and unpredictability of natural disasters, in addition to renter fraud and increases in repair costs, are driving up insurance premiums across the industry, with some owner operators seeing increases of 35% in just the last year. We sat down with TheGuarantors’ Mitch Towbin to learn how these premium hikes are affecting the industry as a whole and what owners/operators can do to secure their rent rolls, increase profitability, and preserve property values in spite of them.
Why premiums continue to climb
According to Bloomberg, nationwide multifamily insurance rates climbed an average of 12.5% annually between 2020 and 2023, with more vulnerable regions being hit by even greater increases. In some markets, like hurricane-prone Florida, some insurers have pulled out altogether. The effects ripple across the entire real estate industry, and owners/operators aren’t the only ones with skin in the game.
“It’s a topic that is definitely buzzing,” says Towbin, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at TheGuarantors. “It's not only something that affects our owner operator partners’ bottom lines, but it also impacts the overall health of the industry, and can trickle down to renters as well.”
Towbin laid out the many factors contributing to the premium increases. While climate uncertainty is certainly a major factor, insurers are still paying the higher replacement costs that became the industry standard during COVID.
“This pricing has persisted longer than anticipated,” he explains. “It’s a bit of a perfect storm.” When insurance companies raise premiums to protect themselves against rising replacement costs and more frequent natural disasters, owners/operators are forced to get creative in order to make ends meet. Whether that means absorbing the rising cost or passing those costs onto renters in the form of rent increases, “it’s something that is naturally going to affect occupancy rates,” says Towbin, “and could potentially negatively impact tenant satisfaction.”
Rising premiums also affect overall property value, which represents a larger-scale threat to owners. There’s a direct correlation between rising premiums and falling property value, making properties less attractive to investors.
“Investors heavily consider insurance costs when assessing property values,” says Towbin. “As those premiums rise, the property valuations will be negatively impacted.”
Protecting your property from premium increases
If increasing premiums are out of the owners/operators’ control, the question becomes, what can they do to protect their properties and bolster valuations? Towbin outlined a few strategies aimed at mitigating the risks that rising premiums pose to both rent rolls and property values.
To best protect their assets, owners should focus on fortifying their buildings and encouraging insurers to offer the most competitive premiums available.
TheGuarantors offers a variety of services aimed at helping owner operators protect their properties’ financial health, insulating them from risks such as the pain caused by insurance premium increases. The company’s Rent Coverage, which is “effectively a lease guarantee,” provides owners/operators with financial assurance in the face of missed rent or vacancy loss, strengthening their bottom line, and making their properties more attractive to potential investors — all at no extra cost to owner/operators.
“In cases where multiple tenants miss their rent, having our Rent Coverage in place ensures that owners will be compensated and made whole, which is vital in the face of escalating insurance premiums,” Towbin explains. “This is a critical defensive strategy for those facing bad debt. And for asset managers preparing to sell, imagine the advantage of having 25%-50% of your rent roll secured when establishing property value.”
Another innovative service designed to give owners/operators peace of mind when it comes to their properties is TheGuarantors’ Zero-Gap Renters Insurance. This industry-first program offers always-on compliance monitoring of each resident’s renters insurance policy and alerts the owner should their coverage fall out of compliance.
“Zero-Gap acts as a tenant liability master policy,” Towbin describes. “It’s designed to ensure comprehensive liability coverage before owners have to think about tapping into their traditional P&C or general liability policy. So it helps a property achieve 100% liability coverage in case renters do not have an active renters insurance policy due to lapses, cancellations, or expirations.”
If a policy lapses or a tenant’s renters insurance coverage falls below the minimum requirement for the property, Zero-Gap automatically places that renter onto the master tenant liability policy which can help lower other traditional liability premiums. Zero-Gap is just the latest addition to TheGuarantors’ holistic package of services aimed at giving both renters and owners/operators access to worry-free renting and leasing. It’s a high-tech solution to the challenges facing a growing, ever-changing industry . “Our platform has taken into account not only all of our professional experience, but also proprietary datasets that we’ve established throughout the years, a lot of machine learning that drives efficiencies for our underwriting, as well as our ability to weed out fraud, which does help to keep pricing and premiums lower,” says Towbin. “We’ve really taken a holistic approach to risk mitigation, and it serves our partners incredibly well by safeguarding their most valuable assets.”
