Data Mapping Emerges as an Optimal Tool for Apartment Teams

How data is generated, comprehended and visualized for apartment companies at the site level is having a bigger impact on performance than ever before.

Leading executives Diana Norbury, Senior Vice President, Pillar Properties; Stephanie Gonzalez, Vice President, Venterra Realty Management; Brandy Daniel, Vice President, BH Management; Kevin Geraghty, Vice President, AvalonBay; discussed the fast-developing trends in a session moderated by Brent Steiner, Founder & CEO, Engrain, at National Multifamily Housing Council’s OpTech Conference in National Harbor, Md.

Norbury said onsite staff can fear data reports because they might reflect negatively on them or their property. “There shouldn’t be a sense that this is punitive; it’s not a witch hunt,” she said.

Daniel and Geraghty said it’s best to involve the site team – the ones who will be using the data – to help determine what type of dashboard is needed.

Daniel said that today, “companies should be providing data to everyone because it’s easier to have and easier to use.” She said her company’s culture is one of “failing forward’ and that experimentation and learning from it is in place.

Companies need to define their data by using, essentially, a data dictionary, Steiner said.

Visualization Improves Data Understanding

Employees have to realize the difference between accessing their data on their phone while at the property versus using a report, Daniel said. “With reports, you have to go back to your office and adjust it,” she said. “When it’s on your phone, sliced in various categories as you want it, such as by community, you can have real-time conversations about what the data is telling you and what you see.”

And visualization is key, Gonzalez said. “By seeing the data in interactive maps, it can really tell the story. It’s easier to decipher. It might be on a community-wide image view, corresponding to an apartment unit, rather than just showing up as text. A map is stickier. You can be more emotionally attached to it. It also speeds up the entire process.”

She spoke of how showing a prospect a map of the entire community that indicates that only two of the types of apartment they are interested in are available creates a sense of urgency in them to lease right then.