From Sidewalk To Sofa: How Smart Technologies Help Meet Residents’ Great Expectations

Multifamily tenant expectations grew dramatically in the past year and a half as people spent more time at home than ever before during the coronavirus pandemic. 

Far from being satisfied with four walls and a view, multifamily residents want smart spaces that are inspirational, sustainable, cost-efficient and designed to be future-proof, as noted in a recent white paper from building technology company WiredScore.

Those are the aspirations targeted by RealPage, a technology platform provider that enables owners and managers to improve the way people experience and use rental space through the use of integrated and automated operational functions.

“People are accustomed to living a tech-enabled lifestyle today,” said Felicite Moorman, co-founder of STRATIS, a RealPage company. “A few years ago, this lifestyle would have been seen as aspirational or limited to a small group of people. But now for many, it’s not just an expectation — it’s a requirement.”

Tenants want apartments that can optimize their use of lighting, heating and cooling; monitor their waste, energy and water consumption to make them more efficient; and alert them to leaks and other problems. They also want all of these functions to work in unison and keep pace with their busy lifestyles, Moorman said.

How does a building meet or even exceed tenants’ high standards? By getting smart.

STRATIS Smart Building provides a connected “sidewalk-to-sofa” smart technology experience for residents of apartments and student housing, she said. This appeals especially to the 68 million members of Generation Z who, as prospective renters, prize tech-based amenities.

Multifamily owners can charge an additional $25 to $40 per month in rent with a base smart apartment package, Moorman said. Key elements of a smart building experience include intelligent and integrated approaches to building access, WiFi, and energy, waste and water management.

Smart Access

People have grown used to concierge-style services in the on-demand economy. But all of those dog walkers, repair people and plant waterers need to be credentialed to allow safe access to apartments when the tenant is away or busy.

“With smart access solutions, such as mobile credentialing and remote unlocking, you can grant entry to visitors, maintenance people and others without service providers needing building staff to be present,” Moorman said. “And packages can be securely delivered without building staff needing to be present.”  

Smart tools also permit potential residents to self-tour and allow landlords to offer short-term rentals without needing to create new keys for temporary residents. This creates new revenue opportunities for building owners, she said.

Smart WiFi

In the past year, internet security and reliability have grown from an extra feature for paying bills online or streaming movies to an essential service many residents now need 24/7 to do their jobs.

However, traditional single-family broadband solutions that most apartment buildings employ are costly, limited to individual apartments and unreliable. That’s not good for tenants who need to jump on video calls from anywhere in the building or download large files throughout the day.

“Smart WiFi offers online access on a bulk basis but with the crucial difference that it gives each unit its own private and secure local area network,” Moorman said. 

A managed high-speed internet access solution can also provide residents with roaming access, create a guest network for nonresidents and grant access for on-site staff. RealPage says this technology both enriches the resident experience and gives building owners another opportunity to add revenue streams — as much as $15 to $20 per unit per month.

Smart Use Of Resources

More people working from home means all those coffee grounds and uneaten lunches that used to go into office wastebaskets now end up in residential buildings’ dumpsters. At the same time, an average apartment building already spends thousands of dollars a year on hauling fees, which creates a drain on net operating income.

A smart waste solution can provide benefits that include alerting the building to contamination issues, such as when recyclables and landfill-bound waste are mixed. It can help the building avoid recycling container collection issues and associated penalties, which can be as high as $2K per property per month.

“Real data shows it can also reduce pickup costs by monitoring containers’ fill levels and sending out an alert that they are ready to be picked up,” Moorman said. “A solution like this can cut waste management costs by an average of 40%.”

Thanks to the Internet of Things, smart devices also can provide better visibility into a building’s energy use, down to the level of usage in individual units. A building manager can be alerted when air conditioning is running needlessly in a vacant unit or when boilers, water heaters and HVAC systems require maintenance to perform more efficiently. 

“Operators using smart energy solutions can earn a Certified Sustainable Property designation from the Institute of Real Estate Management,” she said. “This tells prospective residents that their new home makes a real difference in energy conservation, which appeals especially to members of Gen Z and other young renters.”

Smart tools can monitor water usage, too, allowing landlords to quickly address issues like running toilets, continuous drips or unnoticed leaks. Residents can even compare their own water usage against that of their neighbors.

All of these smart features and more can be controlled through an app from STRATIS. 

“Smart solutions offer building residents greatly improved accessibility, fast and secure personal internet, and a comprehensive set of energy management and conservation-related tools,” Moorman said. “Building owners and management will see their utility costs go down even as smart features create significant opportunities for amenity revenue, new leases and resident retention."

To learn about six ways to make your building smarter and your residents happier, visit here.

This article was produced in collaboration between RealPage and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.