REAL ESTATE TECHNOLOGY PERSPECTIVES THAT COUNT

RET Ventures recently welcomed its network of multifamily, single-family rental (SFR) and real estate technology leaders to Park City for the seventh annual RET Summit. The event once again brought together investors, operators and entrepreneurs for three days of discussion and insight into the technologies revolutionizing the real estate industry.

This year’s conversation underscored just how quickly innovation is accelerating across the sector. From the expanding role of artificial intelligence to new approaches in centralization, data integration and resident experience, the pace of change is only increasing, and the collective RET network is playing a central role in driving this transformation. The Summit offered a unique forum for operators to share operational perspectives, and for startups to showcase how they are solving the industry’s most common challenges.

As always, the Summit highlighted the power of collaboration – demonstrating how insight from leading owners and operators can translate to industry-wide progress. We look forward to continuing this momentum in the year ahead as we work with our investors and portfolio companies to shape the future of real estate technology.

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Real estate technology has faced some growing pains of late, but these challenges also highlight the sector’s potential for continued evolution and innovation. While the struggles of a few high-profile startups have sparked questions, many sub-categories of real estate tech remain strong, and are helping reshape the industry in meaningful ways. These include:

Resident Self-service

• What it is: Tech that empowers residents. Self-service technologies eliminate friction points associated with leasing, WiFi setup, utility setup, etc., by bypassing middlemen and putting residents in the driver’s seat.  
• Why it’s hot: Self-service helps both owners and residents, especially in a post-COVID world where flexibility is king.
• Case Study: Tour24 allows owners to create a curated self-guided tour experience. This lets residents conduct tours at their convenience – including after hours and on weekends and holidays.
  • It gives owners insights into how tours are performing, enhancing the leasing process while centralizing operations.
  • Tour24’s software revenue has grown 75% YoY.

Sustainability

• What it is: Technology that helps monitor and optimize building resource efficiency, which can often lower electricity, heating, water, and waste bills.
• Why it’s hot: Operators are pursuing efficiencies in every aspect of their operations. That extends to resource efficiency. Many ESG technologies present major cost-saving opportunities, yielding a strong ROI.
• Case Study: Parity is a remote HVAC optimization and service company for multifamily and hospitality. It manages the daily performance of HVAC systems by automatically optimizing control adjustments in real-time.
  • By limiting energy waste across properties, Parity improves building efficiency and guarantees savings back to owners with payback as little as 2 years.
  • Parity successfully closed a $20M Series B this past July to support market expansion efforts.

Artificial Intelligence

• What it is: Tech that utilizes generative AI and machine learning across a wide range of different applications
• Why it’s hot: The AI trend is here to stay, and these tools are poised to make a tremendous impact on operations — from resident communications to market analysis to back-office work.
• Case Study: PredictAP, a machine-learning-enabled invoice ingestion and coding solution for real estate accounts payable, leverages AI and historical invoice data to code new invoices more accurately and efficiently.
  • The platform reduces the time needed to process each invoice by 80-90%.
  • PredictAP has grown recognized revenue 250% YoY.

As venture investors, we’re obsessed with figuring out which companies will be the bright spots in the next few years. Typically, the perfect startup blends innovation and functionality, which for us means high-potential startups that meet the needs of our strategic investors. We favor companies with:

Easy Owner Implementation

• Cost savings are paramount. Owners are deterred from adopting technology with high upfront costs or lengthy onboarding that requires reconfiguration of their tech stack.
• We favor solutions that are no- or low-cost for the owner, both in terms of pricing and the load internal teams have to take on.
• In the RET Ecosystem: GetCovered, an insurtech company that streamlines the purchase and tracking of property and casualty insurance, has a free-to-owner model – and it's working.
  • Not only does the product provide a valuable service, it incurs no costs for owners — in fact, it gives them a new revenue stream. It also takes less than one day to deploy.

Seamless Integration into Existing Workflows

• Inertia is real - operators do not like to change how internal teams execute daily tasks. They want tools that fit seamlessly into existing workflows while providing superior outcomes
• Startups that minimize the disruption of existing workflows and create new efficiencies consistently outperform more disruptive solutions.
• In the RET Ecosystem:
  • Falkbuilt leverages tech to make prefab interior walls offsite. The company intentionally aligns with conventional construction methods, making installation intuitive and seamless for trade workers on site. Falkbuilt also virtually eliminates on-site waste, making it easier for boots-on-the-ground teams to complete their jobs.
  • Turno connects with short-term rental calendars to automatically schedule and delegate cleaning services. It works alongside Airbnb and other rental sites without altering the posting or booking process, saving hosts time by removing the hassle of coordinating with cleaners directly.

Clear ROI

• In theory, most people like radical new technologies with revolutionary potential.
• But in an uncertain economy, owners favor tech that provides demonstrable ROI. Products with obvious returns – cost cutting, time savings, new revenue streams – naturally experience more success at this stage in the cycle.
• In the RET Ecosystem: GiGstreem installs and operates ubiquitously available WiFi in multifamily buildings and semi-public infrastructure to allow ease of access, lower costs, and better performance. The company helps generate additional revenue for multifamily owners while streamlining WiFi set-up and service for residents.
  • Owners are realizing an uplift in NOI per unit of $20-$40 with returns on capital invested north of 20%.

The multifamily space has seen a surge of technology tools in recent years, each of which has promised to reshape the industry. For many owners and operators, identifying the right solutions and securing buy-in for portfolio-wide deployments from dozens of onsite teams can be difficult to navigate.

During RET Ventures’ second annual “Multifamily Kickoff Summit” at the Blueprint event in Las Vegas, RET Senior Advisor Shawn Mahoney moderated a panel entitled “From Concept to Reality: Operationalizing Innovation in Apartment Properties,” featuring panelists Saharsh Chordia, Director, Strategy and Analytics at Cortland; Rowland Hobbs, CEO and Co-founder of Stake; and Brandon Tobman, CEO and Founder of GetCovered.

Panelists emphasized the transformative power of data in property management, highlighting its role in boosting efficiency, improving the renter experience and reducing onsite staff workloads. They also addressed the importance of a nimble tech rollout strategy, stressing that while pilots can offer a valuable opportunity for learning and innovation, they must be done thoughtfully to avoid frustration and resource strain for owners. The panel also stressed the importance of integration between different technologies and encouraged startups to position themselves as true partners for multifamily owners and operators.

The session concluded with the panelists highlighting key factors for successful technology implementations, including open communication, ongoing optimization post-rollout and a strong focus on efficiency. Attendees left the session with actionable insights into leveraging innovation to drive measurable results in multifamily operations.

Watch the full session below:

Answering the Call for Operational Efficiency

In the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for self-guided touring solutions grew exponentially as renters sought safer, more flexible options for visiting properties. But it quickly became clear that self-guided tours would have staying power beyond the pandemic.

After all, not only did self-guided touring platforms offer a means of exploring apartments while maintaining social distancing, they also provided prospective renters with more flexibility to visit available units on their schedule — offering self-guided tours outside typical office hours, and on weekends and holidays. And beyond the benefits to renters, self-guided tours also offer multifamily operators other benefits.

To navigate today’s complex business landscape, operational efficiency has become essential, with many property managers seeking solutions that reduce their operational costs. By reducing the responsibilities of staff — freeing them to work on other critical projects — and associated costs, self-guided tours allow property managers to allocate resources more effectively.

A More Flexible, Convenient Touring Experience

These ongoing shifts — and the large number of multifamily owners and managers moving toward centralized operations — led to RET‘s most recent investment in Tour24.

Tour24 is a best-in-class self-touring platform that provides prospective tenants with curated tours of apartments and amenities spaces. Through the pre-recorded audio tours, leasing agents can highlight key property features without being present, creating an interactive, innovative experience that’s easy to navigate, customized to the prospects’ location within a property and attractive to younger renters.

For example, owners who want details about state-of-the-art kitchen appliances or a fitness center can customize the tour and audio guide to emphasize these features as residents view the space.

Tour24’s platform also provides multifamily owners and operators with data on tour performance and insights into the most inquired-about features of a property, facilitating more targeted follow-up after the tour.

What’s Next for Tour24

In less than five years since it was founded by Georgianna Oliver in 2020, Tour24’s technology has gained significant traction, and it now serves 525,000 units across 2,065 multifamily properties in the United States including properties owned by several RET strategic investors including GID, Berkshire Residential Investments, Highmark, AMLI Residential, and LCOR. Critically, Tour24 also integrates with property management systems, fitting seamlessly into operators’ tech stack.

Tour24’s proven track record of providing a best-in-class technology that generates a strong ROI for multifamily owners and operators solidifies our confidence in its continued potential, and we’re excited to support its expansion across the market.

Generative AI is transforming the real estate industry in a host of ways, revolutionizing property operations, improving resident experiences, and enabling more informed decision-making. But its effectiveness depends heavily on the quality of the data behind it.

At RET Ventures’ most recent “Multifamily Kickoff Summit” at the annual Blueprint event in Las Vegas, RET Vice President Jaymie Fung Bingham moderated a panel on “AI’s Impact on the Multifamily Sector” that focused on data quality and AI more broadly.

In a conversation with Stephanie Gonzalez, vice president of Innovation at Venterra Realty; Ardalan Khosrowpour, CEO and founder of OnsiteIQ; and Russell Franks, president and COO of Predict AP, Jaymie discussed the current and future state of AI as it relates to the multifamily industry. Specifically, the panelists delved into the various data challenges in evaluating AI technology (i.e. including data quality and integration), educating employees and customers regarding the implementation and capabilities of AI, as well as the primary factors that drive multifamily owners and developers to adopt new technologies. (In most cases, users anticipate — and enjoy — significant ROI from AI deployment.)

The panelists also weighed in on the overall value proposition of AI, which benefits not only executives but property staff. Through automation, AI-powered technologies can improve the management team’s efficiency as well as employee and resident experience, improving nearly every aspect of real estate in the process.

Watch the full session below: