News, insights, and perspectives on tech, trends, and multifamily housing—from the people behind Entrata.
One of the few positive consequences of the pandemic was that the odd segment of history fostered a greater connection with pets. Many shelters sat empty as adoption rates skyrocketed, and pets in general got the opportunity to witness their owners stay home more than ever.
A couple of months ago Entrata found itself facing an unforeseen crisis of seemingly limitless scale and seriousness. Along with the nationwide apartment housing industry and the local tech corridor, we worked as fast as we could to react. We quickly transitioned our entire team to work from home and a strategic task force assembled to monitor constantly-evolving news and advisories, implementing recommended changes quickly and efficiently. Essentially, we put our heads down and got to work.
Having the ability to process rent payments and applications online is a blessing and a curse for many multifamily businesses. On the one hand, it speeds up the process of getting funds from residents into your accounts. On the other hand, it opens the door for applicants to commit fraud by shielding their true identity or by creating an entirely new identity to sneak by your screening process and get approved for a unit they might otherwise have been denied, or present you with payment methods that don’t have the necessary funds.
A growing number of your prospects prefer texting to phone calls, and with the Entrata’s new two-way texting functionality, you’ve got them covered.
Why does turn week make so many student housing operators and community managers cringe? The way Mark Zikra, Director of Systems Compliance at CA Ventures, put it at Entrata Summit, “A lot of the pain comes with organization, knowing what’s accurate and up to date as far as turn goes. Drinking cases of red bull, not sleeping for three days….” Dry erase boards and sticky notes with move-in notes and check lists clutter property offices. And, matching roommates is often a high risk task that ends with at least one unsurprising disaster. Historically, multifamily software just wasn’t made to handle student housing.
The Key Components of a Verification Platform Leasing teams spend the bulk of their time aiming to attract residents to their communities. But equally important is making certain that those prospective residents will live up to the terms of their lease.
Let’s face it. It’s a matter of when and not if chatbots become part of the everyday backdrop in the apartment world. But if the early advent of chatbots has taught us anything, it’s that the tech has to be consistent for it to be effective.
What changes need to be made to ensure everyone has access to, quality housing at a price they can afford In recent years, population growth in urban areas has far exceeded multifamily housing development, leading to rising rents and a shortage of affordable housing. Because of this, affordable housing has been a hot topic among citizens and politicians alike, but there is a lot of confusion in this area as to what constitutes affordable housing as opposed to housing affordability.
Most properties have some sort of screening process to check out an applicant’s credit rating and/or rental history before allowing them to sign a lease. It’s a sad fact that it’s often better to identify and avoid a bad resident in the first place rather than try to remove one after they’ve already moved in.
In the past, waiting a week to see if you qualified for an apartment was part of the territory for an applicant. But so was the inability to track the progress of a package shipment, or the need to wait for the rerun of your favorite show if you missed the original broadcast.
Entrata recently hosted a webinar featuring experts in training and onboarding in the multifamily industry, Hyrum Balzer, Director of Product Education and Lauren Chandler, Manager of Elite Certifications, about the importance of training in creating a culture of growth. Below are some of the key takeaways from the webinar.
In our latest Resident Experts Series, we sat down with Lia Nichole Smith, Senior Vice President of Education and Performance at SatisFacts, to discuss how multifamily businesses should approach interactions with Gen Z as more and more of them enter the rental pool. The following are a few of the key takeaways from our conversation.