AI in Property Management is a hot topic at the moment – its implementation, when done properly, can leverage both the artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to streamline and enhance a number of areas of our functions.
And in a candidate-poor marketplace where revenue is also under immense pressure which is our current reality, it looks like a very attractive way to fill in staffing gaps economically and take the administrative load of our line Property Managers to allow them to concentrate on what’s truly key in the business – the relationships with our clients.
BUT
While Property Management involves the oversight, maintenance, and administration of the physical asset, for all the much-vaunted advantages of AI and ML to fill gaps in the back-end functions, it also still requires empathy, negotiation skills, and judgment – human skills that AI lacks.
We also need to be aware of ethical and legal considerations, such as legislation and regulations, when implementing AI systems to ensure they are used in a responsible and compliant manner, as well as address the privacy aspects if we’re inputting sensitive client information.
AI platforms are being increasingly adopted in the agency landscape so that we can improve our efficiency, reduce operating costs, and provide better services to property owners and tenants. It offers us some incredible ways to better do our job and lift ourselves above the pack when it comes to the client experience, as well as reduce our own stress levels – and if we reduce our stress levels, we may even reduce the numbers of highly experienced PMs who leave the industry through burnout.
I’ve compiled a bit of a list of areas for deploying AI and the potential benefits, it’s by no means an exhaustive one but it’ll give you a few key areas to think about should you be looking at bringing in some tech to assist your Property Management division:
Automated Communication: AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants are already in common use to handle more routine inquiries, such as rent payment reminders, maintenance requests, and lease inquiries. These systems can provide 24/7 support and free up our Property Managers’ time for more complex tasks or the one-to-one communication that our clients expect.
Tenant Screening: AI-driven tenant screening processes can quickly assess rental applications, checking credit and rental histories, along with preliminary contact with previous managing agencies and employers. This helps property managers make informed decisions about prospective tenants while adhering to fair housing regulations.
Rental Pricing Analysis: AI can analyse market trends, pricing data, and competitor information to produce CMAs to assist in making strategic decisions about their properties and setting appropriate rent rates to reduce time on market and losses in income.
Maintenance: we can use algorithms to collate and analyse data from sensors and historical maintenance records to predict when equipment and systems in a property may need maintenance or repair. This more proactive approach of routine upkeep can assist in preventing costly breakdowns and ensure the efficient operation of appliances, as well as track routine inspections or compliance checks.
Property Valuation: AI can analyse market data and property attributes to estimate property values more accurately. This is particularly valuable for property owners and investors looking to buy, sell, or assess the worth of their properties.
Energy Efficiency: it can optimise energy consumption in properties by adjusting heating, cooling, and lighting systems based on occupancy and weather conditions. This can lead to substantial cost savings and reduced environmental impact.
Security and Surveillance: AI-powered security systems can analyse video feeds in real-time to detect suspicious activities and intrusions. This enhances the security of properties and can provide peace of mind to both property owners and tenants.
Data Analytics: AI can process vast amounts of data related to property management just as much as it can to sales, including rent collection, maintenance requests, and lease renewals. This data analysis can provide insights that help us make informed decisions and improve overall efficiency.
Document Management: AI can automate document classification, extraction, and indexing, making it easier to manage leases, contracts, invoicing and other paperwork associated with our roles.
Customer Relationship Management: AI can help maintain better relationships with tenants and property owners by tracking interactions, preferences, and feedback. This can lead to improved landlord and tenant satisfaction and retention, so think about automating your data collection and NPS.
Now, none of this is really new to us but we need to remember that while the implementation of AI offers numerous advantages to us, it’s still only Artificial as the name suggests, and it’s vital that it should complement rather than serve as a replacement for our own, human, touch.
Personalisation isn’t a perk; our clients want and deserve a personalised touch, and AI can assist this by freeing up our time so that we can concentrate on delivery of superior levels of service, but the delivery has to be ours, not the machine’s; they now expect that a business in any sector which they regularly interact with should pretty much already know what they want – and we interact with our clients very regularly.
Agencies which have actively invested in personalisation as well as AI are noticing a big impact; the balance is in ensuring that your agency’s approach to it is right – tailoring content, offers, products and services that are of genuine interest to the client, rather than forcing them to accept the generic content we sometimes deliver.
We can deliver better personalisation experiences using various strategies, from individualised messaging, content, and recommendations to optimising our fees for different clients (a new client vs a loyal client), one of the key challenges we face when deploying personalisation is how to effectively manage data from varying CRMs and routinely use it to better inform the client experience, that’s a trick all in itself but there are ways to work around this.
How do we know what our landlords and tenants want?
Simple.
