'We Need to Start Using Today’s Technology': Why One PropTech Founder Thinks It's Time to Rethink Property Management

It’s been said that an estimated 69% of manager work will be automated by 2024 – and that means it’s time to rethink property management, according to one industry disruptor.

“We need to acknowledge and start using today’s technology,” Kerri Davis, CEO of Fortress, tells GlobeSt exclusively ahead of our Multifamily Conference in Los Angeles next month. “Where inefficiencies, repeatable tasks, and workflows exist, automation can thrive…There is no time like the present to future-proof your business.”

Davis says owners and operators are “still figuring out their tech ecosystems,” with many companies onboarding dozens of solutions that purport to solve a single problem. That can lead to poor integration between solutions and redundancy among tasks. She’ll lead a highly anticipated session on Monday, October 24 at the event where she’ll share ways to streamline property and portfolio data to make insightful decisions and — perhaps most importantly — to improve ROI.  The proptech founder says she’ll also draw on various use cases and discuss how types of automation ranging from Prompted/Triggered to Business Process/Workflow to AI can help everyone from on-site managers to regional property managers be more efficient, accurate and data-driven.

“As a fast example, an auto-generated text message is a form of prompted automation. Where owners could implement this type of automation is with maintenance feedback,” Davis says. “Owners and operators can get immediate insight by having a text sent to a resident after the maintenance technician marks a job as closed. The resident can review the work and flag if more attention is needed, providing a nice client touch point and way to prompt feedback.”

Davis launched Fortress with automation and centralization at the forefront. She says that automating redundant and repeatable work, and creating centralized, focused workflows, you can pay less people more money to do a better job – whether that means less on-site support, more centralized teams, or dispatched pods of leasing agents.

“We think the future of property management is flexible, nimble and customizable,” she says. “Regardless of the path you choose, you will need a software that allows you to be creative. Property management is a tough job. Today’s managers are tasked with everything from community relations to collections to vendor management. Our vision is for management professionals to do more specialized work versus being a generalist.”

Check back soon for more insights from Kerri Davis and other industry experts at this year’s GlobeSt Multifamily Conference October 24 and 25.