Did Remote Property Management Work?

COVID-19 upended the property management business model overnight. From mid-March on, leasing agents worked from home, the economy shut down, and apartment residents holed up in their units. But property managers adapted quickly to keep the business running. Virtual leasing became the norm. We leaned on technology and on each other more than ever. Now, the results are in. Did it work? And what does it mean for the future of property management? Jay Parsons, Vice President of Asset Optimization at RealPage, invited two experts—Marcie Williams, President of Rivergate KW Residential and Alison Brown, Senior Vice President of Operations at LivCor—to voice their opinions in a session at RealPage’s RealWorld conference in September 2020. The data is full of surprises First on the agenda: the report card. Mr. Parsons and his team reviewed RealPage’s proprietary trove of transactional data out of the property management system to look at KPIs like lead volumes, execution of new leases, occupancy and retention. April was rough, but in May, June, July and August rocked. Lead volumes were up by an average of 14.7% year over year. And since mid-May, customers had signed more new leases than over the same time period last year. Retention rates improved about 3.5 percentage points on average, boosted in part by heavy usage of tools like RealPage’s ActiveBuilding resident portal and ModernMessage resident engagement and loyalty platform. And by the end of August, occupancy had inched up about 10 basis points compared to the same time last year. Said Mr. Parsons, “Bottom line, our customers crushed it despite tens of millions of layoffs, double-digit unemployment and a pandemic. They kept business going and fulfilled their role as essential workers.” Tech plus people is the winning combo Impressed by these results, Rivergate KW Residential’s Marcie Williams looked to the changes that ultimately led to their current su...