With rents rising and demand slowing, property managers looking to attract residents can use multifamily technology to differentiate themselves.
Smart property technology provides residents with an enhanced living experience with heightened comfort and convenience. It can also streamline the sales process, resulting in substantial cost savings.
These five pieces of smart property technology will delight residents throughout the process, from the moment they make an inquiry to the day they move in.
Using convenience as part of your sales strategy
The benefits of smart apartment living quickly become apparent to visitors, turning the devices themselves into useful sales tools for property managers.
The traditional approach to acquiring prospective tenants normally involves a guided tour of the property by a leasing agent, a process that is both costly and time-consuming.
Multifamily properties that are equipped with smart locks and community access can offer self-guided tours that eliminate the need for a property manager’s presence, saving time and reducing inconvenience. This is a significant benefit to managers especially as one company revealed that 69% of the bookings they received to tour an apartment were outside of business hours.
Properties lacking smart technology may find themselves to be disadvantaged if they cannot accommodate prospective customers’ preferred touring schedules.
Increasing value when residents move in
The five most important smart devices enhance residents’ lives either by saving them money or increasing comfort, security and convenience.
Smart locks
Managing physical keys in a multifamily property can pose continuous challenges for managers, with keys being misplaced, tenant turnover lock updates, and security concerns around visiting contractors.
Smart access empowers property managers and residents to regulate access and verify that contractors visited and departed as scheduled. These devices mitigate the hassle and stress of residents locking themselves out and eliminate costly late-night callouts.
Property managers can oversee multiple locations from a single headquarters, and residents can effortlessly monitor arrivals and departures from their phones.
Smart thermostats and HVACs
With energy costs at historic highs, residents will value any opportunity to reduce their monthly utility bills. Smart thermostats are estimated to save 15% on energy bills by reducing power consumption and waste.
Sensors can detect when the property is empty and move into a power-saving mode, while artificial intelligence learns residents’ routines and conserves energy when they are at work.
They also offer complete comfort and convenience, maintaining the temperature within preset levels without the need for manual adjustment. Many smart thermostats are also compatible with dehumidifiers and humidifiers to create a perfect atmosphere.
Residents and property managers can control the heating and cooling systems remotely, and full access to the data allows for elimination of wasted energy.
Water sensors
An unnoticed leak can rapidly cause expensive damage, and the risk of this happening in an unoccupied unit can be catastrophic. Besides reducing utility bills and protecting residents’ belongings, research from the Environmental Protection Agency suggests that catching a small leak will save up to 90 gallons of water a day.
Water management technology monitors sensors in the property to detect leaks instantly. Software responds immediately, alerting the property manager and shutting off the water supply to prevent further damage.
Self-guided tours
Prospective residents have specific property features in mind, and self-guided tours allow them to concentrate on these features. Property managers utilizing self-guided tours find that visitors tend to focus on viewing amenities like the gym or pool and bypass everything else.
Tours that would traditionally require an hour-long slot now take only 20 minutes, letting property managers accommodate more viewings at popular times. Meanwhile, smart locks allow easy entry for prospective residents keeping existing tenants safe by restricting visitor access to specific areas.
Video doorbells
Smart doorbells are one of the most sophisticated IoT devices in intelligent buildings. THey prioritize security and convenience for residents.
Residents can see who is at their doorstep at any time of day, thanks to a people detection feature that sends an alert when someone approaches.
Two-way communications let residents interact with visitors even when they are not at home, meaning they can handle deliveries that might otherwise be missed.
Using technology to attract and retain residents
These five pieces of technology are among the most effective at improving the resident living experience in multifamily properties.
If you would like to find out more, please get in touch with us today.
