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Every once in a while, you come across an idea that's much bigger than you initially realize. About a year ago, I published a paper on how unit-level search is redefining multifamily websites. It's a simple concept: Humans tend to search for things visually, and that increasingly applies to technology experiences: think Uber, travel or restaurant booking sites or apps, and so on. Multifamily assets are physical, so to meet the expectations of prospects and residents, maps need to be central to apartment search.

Followers of my writings on multifamily property management have probably noticed that I am in my "multifamily maintenance should work more like single-family" era. The two may be showing signs of converging, as this article will attempt to explain.

Regular readers of this blog are probably familiar with my views on what motivates people to buy software.  Sellers tend to characterize value propositions in terms of numbers ("Roll out this software and increase your x by y%!"). Buyers of technology, on the other hand, are seldom impressed with these projections, at least during the phase of a sales cycle when they are most persuadable.

There's been a lot of coverage of centralization on this website over the last few years. As this year's 20for20 white paper explained, maintenance differs profoundly from either admin or leasing centralization. Leasing and admin tasks can be automated away or, in the case of leasing, made self-serve. We can offer residents some self-serve maintenance options, but most of the time we need a team member to deliver the service.

Spring conference season this year is a bit more interesting than usual. It's mostly thanks to a couple of new conferences on the circuit that I think will further important industry conversations. A few weeks ago, the inaugural "Forum," Hosted by Funnel Leasing, established a new place to discuss the increasingly popular topic of centralization. Last week saw the inaugural REBA Insights conference in Vail, CO. There were parallels between the two events that I will discuss in this post. 

The inaugural Forum—the User Conference of Funnel Leasing—is in the books. I was privileged to take part in a hugely successful event that boasted an impressive attendee list last week at the stunningly beautiful Terranea Resort near Los Angeles. 

2024 seems likely to be a year of rapid acceleration in the adoption of AI in multifamily. The question is how rapid and what kinds of tasks will it be doing for us? During this year's 20for20 interviews, the 20 leaders were asked to speculate a little on the direction AI is likely to take. What the conversations revealed is that most leaders view AI as something you buy from third-party vendors specializing in this area. 

What is a trend? A couple of months into 2024, there's been a lot of talk about the prevailing trends for the year ahead, as there always is. Our brains are hardwired to look for patterns in everything that we see. As a species, we like to read the tea leaves.

It's a brand new year, and with it comes an opportunity for a fresh take on a familiar theme. Readers of this blog will be familiar with the view that multifamily technology vendors often approach their products incorrectly. Specifically, in their eagerness to identify the key selling points for their technology, they often overlook the main reasons why companies buy their products. 

It's December, which is the time of the year when I have the absolute pleasure of sitting down for 20 in-depth conversations with multifamily executives. For those unfamiliar with 20for20, it's an annual survey where 20 leaders (ten heads of operations and ten heads of technology) from leading multifamily companies share their thoughts on the year that is ending and the year to come.