Multifamily Operators Face Severe Staff Shortage Only AI Can Cure

Among the biggest questions remaining to be answered about artificial intelligence are how disruptive the technology will be in terms of replacing human workers and which sectors will get hit the hardest.

When you talk to people about it, you can hear the trepidation as they ponder the possibility that as AI gets smarter it will make more humans in the workforce irrelevant.

But there’s one CRE sector that is welcoming bots with open arms, because it really needs to replace people—people who have left the business.

“Replacing people is actually what’s needed in multifamily right now,” John Helm, Founder and Partner of RET Ventures told Globe St. “We can’t hire people. The turnovers rates, the burnout rates are really high and we can’t keep those positions filled.”

RET invests in proptech startups for more than 40 Strategic Investors who cumulatively own and manage more than 2M multifamily and single-family rental units across North America.

The company is an early stage investor in AI, making an investment last year in Travtus, the bot-maker that produced Adam, a bot which it is being marketed as an “everything teammate” for multifamily operations.

According to Helm, there are multifamily operators who have annual turnover of their leasing staff as high as 80%. “Any multifamily operator today will tell you that they can’t hire enough leasing staff. Those people just aren’t there,” he said.

As they grapple with this problem, RET’s investors are looking for applied technologies that can be deployed today. Proptech including bots, CRM software that enables centralization of leasing, and access control that facilitates self-touring of properties are being deployed to reduce staffing needs.

“The chatbots have been a godsend. They can answer the leasing questions. Operators are having AI pick up the slack and carry on those conversations,” Helm said.

As the bots move in and the human leasing staff gets smaller, a new dynamic is emerging, he said. The remaining staff is populated with the most qualified people—who are making more money.

“We have people telling us they have fewer, more qualified people, and those people are making more money and closing more leases because AI is helping and they don’t have to waste all that time on the initial conversation,” Helm said.

The staffing shortage is accelerating the trend toward centralization of leasing by owner-operators. RET invested in Funnel, a CRM platform for leasing. According to its website, Funnel’s platform “streamlines the renter experience from inquiry through renewal.”