Centralization Has Come for the Multifamily Sector
Centralization is transforming real estate, and for good reason – owners and operators find that centralization improves the quality of property operations, lowers costs, and boosts productivity.
What is Centralization
Traditionally, most property operations occurred onsite. As tech has matured, a growing amount of activity can be centralized in an off-site location.
- For front-end operations, centralization streamlines and manages prospect screening and communication, property marketing and ongoing resident engagement.
- On the back end, owners gather, store, and analyze portfolio-wide data behind one pane of glass – producing more accurate reporting, driving better decision-making, and simplifying compliance.
What’s Behind Centralization
Economic challenges and a labor shortage have real estate owners looking internally for value creation. Centralization can play a crucial role.
- Centralized systems are inherently scalable, enabling owners to onboard new acquisitions more easily.
- Moving screening, collections, and renewals offsite to specialized teams allows onsite staff to focus on resident experience and retention.
- Centralized roles allow operators to provide a uniform, repeatable approach to things like screening.
- Consolidating resident communication channels enables more prompt responses to inquiries and more effective conflict resolution.
- Centralized platforms offer robust reporting and data analytics, providing actionable insights on resident sentiment and asset performance across a portfolio.
- Streamlining administrative work allows owners to optimize onsite resources and/or reduce overhead costs.
- Centralized management promotes a more consistent resident experience. It creates true relationships with renters, prompting them — when they move — to favor apartments within the operator’s portfolio.
- Centralization creates clearer career progression pathways and more stable work environments for onsite staff, enhancing employee retention.