Entrata Blog

In a session at the recent NMHC OpTech Conference, panelists ruled on the debate over whether or not to add smart home technology to apartments: It’s not a matter of if, but when. What a smart apartment actually looks or sounds, however, is still very much in question.

We’re pleased to announce a new feature to our online leasing and renewals product: Automated Renewal Options. Our system now allows property managers to email renewal notices to residents with multiple renewal terms and pricing options so managers can generate the resident’s new lease based on their response.

In an effort to gain a better understanding of the resident experience and what properties are doing well and what they can improve upon, Entrata launched its first ever Resident Report. The Report contains the results of a survey of 2,000 renters living in managed properties with more than 50 units.

Creating ancillary income can be a slippery slope. You can produce extra revenue by assessing fees to your residents, but you have to walk a fine line to avoid alienating them with fees they might interpret as frivolous.

When building out your renter’s insurance program, you want to make sure you’re working with A-rated carriers. When you work with A-rated carriers it means that the carrier has been vetted and you can feel comfortable that they will be able to meet all of their obligations to you and your residents. When working with lower rated carriers, you can’t be as confident that they’ll pay your claim, even if you’ve paid all of your premiums.

Very few in the business world would dispute the power of partnerships. The challenge exists in finding the right partner, one that is mutually beneficial and genuinely moves the needle for an organization.

There is no disputing that onsite teams are busy. They juggle prospect outreach, real-time resident requests and community events throughout the day—just to name a few of their duties.

We can’t all have the latest technology all the time. Smartphones, 3D televisions, Pinterest, self-parking cars, e-tablets, Google+, Draw Something. Chances are the average person could claim three or four of the seven listed. Adoption of technology will always have its laggards. However, in the case of utility bill and collect, failure to innovate can be costly for multifamily properties.

Apartment managers trying to forecast the wants and needs of tomorrow’s renters need look no further than the occupants of today’s student-housing communities. Based on the insights of panelists in the Student Renters: Defining the Future of Multifamily Experiences session at 2022 Entrata Summit, the apartment industry needs to prepare for a different kind of resident.

If multifamily apartment leasing had a middle name, it would be multitasking. So says Sarah Greenough, a leasing office veteran and now chief marketing officer for Lowell, Massachusetts-based Princeton Properties. Greenough calls multitasking the nature of the beast in high-touch leasing centers that involve hundreds of people and hundreds of things all going on at the same time.

Entrata recently hosted Daniel Berlind, a real estate executive and the CEO of Snappt, a data driven, fraud detection software that helps prevent financial fraud in the multifamily housing industry, as part of our Resident Experts Series. Below are some highlights from our conversation.

For CA Student Living, a Chicago-based provider of student housing for nearly 20 years, data is at the heart of every decision they make. As a result, it is imperative that they have access to all available data in one spot to speed up the decision making process. To accomplish this, they built a home grown platform called Unite that consolidates a number of data sources, including from Entrata, to provide them with transparency across the organization and actionable data that can be distributed at the property, regional, and organizational level.