CFAA Highlights

Industry on the Move

By Lee Ann Stiff on Jun 28, 2017 in News

Yardi Canada’s Peter Altobelli and Sam Jaishankar had the honor of speaking about key technology innovations impacting the real estate industry at the Canadian Federation of Apartment Associations (CFAA) Rental Housing Conference, June 6-9 in Toronto.

The conference brings together leaders from the rental housing industry from across the country to discuss topics such as building and development, marketing, leasing, staffing and technology. Yardi participated in three sessions this year.

Yardi is proud to sponsor industry events including the CFAA conference and participates in a variety of educational opportunities that help move the real estate industry forward.

Property and Operations Management Apps

Improving rental operations and solving problems using technology were the focus of this session. Pain points included processing payments, tracking maintenance, completing inspections and managing vendors.

Panelists included Peter Altobelli, Vice President and General Manager, Yardi Canada; David Janowski, CEO, Pay Quad; Leonard Drimmer, CEO, Property Vista; and Andy Larson, VP of Business Development, HappyCo.

Altobelli spoke about using mobile apps for more efficient property operations and how these tools help companies advance and take their services to the next level. Not only are mobile apps key to optimizing real estate business processes, but they are also critical to engage the next generation of employees who expect tech-forward workplaces.

“We are starting to see a transition here in Canada with deploying new technologies to operations staff — be it maintenance or leasing or financial accounting. Consumers demand a quick turnaround in everything they do. They want to go online or use their mobile device to make a request or complete a transaction at their convenience, they expect quick responses and they want instant confirmation when things are done. For real estate, these customer demands require operational changes,” Altobelli said.

Automating the Marketing Process

To discuss best practices and tools for marketing automation, Sam Jaishankar, Team Leader of Marketing at Yardi Canada and Darren Henry, CEO, National Efficiency Systems joined with moderator Jeremy Jackson, Vice President of Marketing at Killam Properties.

The session began with the importance of understanding the rental community, determining corporate goals and identifying your strategies for every stage of the resident lifecycle. The panelists then discussed what you need to think about when identifying business partners or service providers and finally, dealing with change management once you begin automating the lead to lease process.

Jaishankar elaborated, “To create a marketing strategy you first need to understand your customers. You need tools and services for every stage of the resident lifecycle to attract prospects, convert them to residents and then retain them.”

Those services include online applications and leasing along with mobile and text payment options. Jaishankar acknowledged that technology implementations can be a hurdle and change can be challenging, but the rewards of innovation far outweigh the growing pains. Jaishankar pointed out that tech-loving Millennials, as the largest and still growing demographic in the work force, have an overwhelming influence in every industry and real estate is no exception.

“Millennials are the influencers. They have purchasing and decision making power, and every business needs to offer products and services that cater to their preferences. But relying on technology is no longer just a millennial trend — it is now the reality for nearly every generation, and that’s why automation is so important for businesses to succeed,” Jaishankar said.

Top New Marketing Trends and Ideas

Malcolm Mo, National Marketing Director, Rhapsody Living, Max Steinman, Director of Sales, Landlord Web Solutions, and Sam Jaishankar joined with moderator Ciana Canci to explore the best new developments in real estate marketing. They discussed targeting, using video as content for campaigns, ensuring your content is mobile friendly, leveraging social media and reputation management and finally how metrics and operational data play a key role in making smarter marketing decisions.

Automated Text Messages

Automated text messages to respond to prospect inquiries are growing in popularity. How it works: when a prospect finds your property website, they can text you about the specific type of unit they’re interested in, and your system uses an auto-detect tool to text them back with relevant URLs to click through, saving them time navigating your website.

Social Media and Reputation Management

With so much unfiltered online activity and nearly every aspect of daily life played out through social media, there are always challenges to deal with — and that’s what reputation management is all about. The good news: these platforms empower you to communicate with your customers, when they’re happy and when they’re not. Responding to complaints and negative reviews is an opportunity to showcase customer care and service. Being responsive is key.

Marketing Analytics

When it comes to knowing which marketing sources are really working for you, thanks to tools that provide real-time data access and detailed performance metrics, marketing ROI is now an exact science. You can see the direct impact that digital ads and campaigns have on your revenue, so you know exactly where to direct your marketing spend.

Consolidating portfolio data, automating operational processes including marketing and using smarter tools that untether staff and satisfy tech-savvy residents is helping real estate businesses reduce costs and grow revenue.