Say hello to Arun Das, head of marketing and technology at Pangea Properties in Chicago. Arun is featured in Yardi’s new Real Estate Questions Answered series, a fantastic way to find out about how real estate professionals use Yardi software to solve problems in real life. Arun’s role at Pangea means that he’s a fluent in marketing technology. He’s also a genuinely nice person. We recently talked with Arun about the online renter experience, website optimization and conversion rates – and peanut butter! Keep reading to learn a little bit about Arun and how you can apply what he’s learned from his marketing initiatives at Pangea to your own properties. Can you tell us a little more about Pangea? A: Founded in 2008, Pangea Properties is a private real estate investment trust (REIT). We have more than 500 buildings and 12,000 apartment units spread across Chicago, Indianapolis and Baltimore. Pangea’s mission is to provide service, value and care, one resident at a time. We’re also extremely passionate about giving back to the communities in which we operate. What are one or two marketing objectives you’ve been addressing lately? A: Over the past year, we’ve focused on a variety of process enhancements. Specifically, we’ve been working to streamline resident communications and improve our overall application experience for prospective residents. How does Yardi technology help you accomplish your goals? A: Yardi’s full stack software solution allows our RentCafe, RentCafe CRM and Voyager instances to seamlessly communicate with one another. That lets us use robust Yardi resident communication tools without having to transfer information between different software platforms. On the prospect side, the application and screening tools give us the ability to collect custom information, which then provides us a better underwriting process and overall a better application experience for our residents. The seamless online application process also saves our staff a lot of time – we estimate we saved around 150,000 hours over the last year. What would you personally like to achieve in your role at Pangea? A: I would love to continue having a positive impact on the lives of our residents as well as positively representing the communities and neighborhoods we serve. I’m passionate about Pangea Cares, our corporate social responsibility program designed to give back to our Chicago communities. (Watch a video about the impact of Pangea Cares and how it helps the company connect with the community.) Our staff is encouraged to take time to volunteer for Pangea Cares’ community efforts. They might use it to create marketing materials, put together baskets for Thanksgiving deliveries or hand out back-to-school supplies to area kids. So far, we’ve donated around 7,700 volunteer hours, and I’m personally invested in the continued success of this initiative. What marketing trend are you currently most excited about? A: I’m excited about artificial intelligence. There are starting to be services out there that can take over your property tours or your call center or your website. We’re years away from a product that will match our level of service, but things are coming, and I think this could really transform the industry. Tell us something interesting about you that would surprise someone. A: Something interesting about me that would surprise pretty much everyone is that I absolutely hate peanut butter. I think it’s the most disgusting condiment ever, and I catch a lot of flak for it daily. Watch Arun’s real estate questions answered videos and find more answers to real estate technology questions on the Real Estate Questions Answered...