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As companies seek to centralize property management functions, they find themselves coming up against rigidly property-based processes. Leasing—the highest profile of these functions—owes its design to the "coverage" model. Properties always needed at least one person on duty to answer phones, conduct tours, and support the leasing process. Companies centralizing leasing operations have to reimagine processes, tasks, and ultimately, jobs that have been the same way since time immemorial. 

This week I had the pleasure of attending RealWorld 2023, RealPage's annual user conference in Las Vegas. It was an enjoyable couple of days that at once offered a glimpse of the future of an evolving industry giant and a trip or two down memory lane. I will share my thoughts on both in this article.

Centralization, as we all know, is a hot topic in the multifamily industry. This conversation began a few years ago when a few public REITs began to talk about changes to their property staffing models. I, among others, initially believed that once centralization started, everyone else would follow. If a few companies were achieving superior returns, the rest would naturally want to emulate them.

I was recently facilitating an executive roundtable about a subject that's near and dear to my heart: centralization.

This week I am excited to launch the fifth annual edition of 20 for 20. For those unfamiliar, the white paper summarizes 20 in-depth interviews with ten heads of technology and ten COOs from multifamily organizations, which took place at the end of 2022.