Entrata Blog

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.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that renters must be compelled to carry renters insurance coverage. We all know that renters insurance is a good idea for residents and property owners and managers. But, the alarming reality of the situation is, if renters are allowed to execute their lease without showing proof of coverage less than 20 percent of residents in the country will procure renters insurance. This is the reason more than 2/3 of apartment properties in the U.S. require residents to carry renters insurance as part of the terms of their lease. Those who don’t require renters insurance risk significant loss and impact to the property, the resident, and overall profitability. Even if you already require renters insurance at your property, read on. There are some things you’ll want to consider:

Data is like oil to multifamily organizations, a valuable resource that takes a fair share of effort to acquire. And like oil, obtaining data is only half the battle, as both are of most value after being properly refined and processed.

Accounting and budgeting are two sides to the same coin. One helps point where you’re going and the other helps you understand where you came from. Analyzing previous spending trends informs how much you’ll need to allocate for each activity in the coming quarters and years.

Widgets? That’s right. Widgets aren’t just for smartphones. These handy, interchangeable tools can help you create a dynamic and highly functional homepage for your property or company website. Widgets are a simple way to add or edit stand-alone information on your website, often with a single click. Here’s how it works:

The Pros and cons of implementing AI solutions like ChatGPT into your property management operations AI is such a hot topic right now across all industries. There’s a lot of curiosity and dread around the possibility of AI stealing human jobs. The application that is currently getting the most attention is ChatGPT, which is an AI chatbot that combines chat with a generative pre-trained transformer. But ChatGPT isn’t the only solution like this on the market. Competing programs like Bard from Google and LLaMA by Meta offer much of the same functionality.

We had a lot of positive feedback from our webinar last month about Craigslist posting. In case you missed it, here are some of the highlights: Craigslist is one of the top websites searched by prospective renters when they’re looking for a new home. And it’s a great favorite among property managers who want to reach a large prospect pool without spending a lot of money. We’ve been working with a number of clients to develop the kind of Craigslist posting tool that is convenient to use and compliant with the Craigslist Terms of Use.