NARPM Broker/Owner 2024: What we learned & trends to watch

Missed out on this year’s NARPM Broker/Owner conference in Amelia Island, Florida? Maybe you were there but were overwhelmed by all the ideas and technology?

We’ve got you covered with our two-part blog series about the latest trends and innovations that affect our industry, with strategies and solutions to get ahead. Let’s dive right in!

In this first part, we are going to look at the hottest topics from NARPM Broker/Owner Conference and the trends that seem to be shaping the industry this year:

• Automation. It’s all about documenting key processes, leveraging technology to streamline and remove the human from routine tasks while leaving high-value/relationship-building tasks for your staff.
• Centralization. There are clear benefits for slimming your technology stack and rethinking staffing to both save money and run smoothly.
• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). You can’t optimize what you don’t measure.
• Application Fraud. Fraudsters are getting more sophisticated and rental application fraud will soon be everywhere.

Let’s dig into each of these topics and summarize what you might have missed from the conference:

Automation

We’ve heard over the past few years about many companies investing heavily to document their key processes and balance between technology and humans to take the friction out of workflow that are essential in property management. When talking to conference attendees after sessions and on the exhibits floor, we consistent heard the following benefits from leveraging automation:

• Eliminate human error
• Free up time to focus on high value and relationship building tasks
• Increased efficiency and consistency

Automation seemed to be one of the top priorities for nearly everyone at this year’s conference with plenty of solutions to get started. Platforms like Aptly allow you to not only automate processes, but also elegantly hand off important tasks to your staff on a “today page” where they can stay focused on work that grows your business. Feel intimidated by implementing technology or getting your team to buy-in for process automation? Companies like BlackSheep will analyze your current workflows, implement automation software, and train your team to ensure success.

Centralization

Contrary to popular belief, multitasking does not increase productivity. In fact, the average employee loses 40% of productivity when bouncing between various tasks and apps to get their work done. Expecting our staff bounce between different property management tasks throughout the day without any accountability can lead to costly errors and poor job satisfaction. Once you’ve documented your process and leveraged automation, there are plenty of solutions to hire remote team members in lower cost markets to handle routine human tasks at a lower cost.

While companies like YesVirtual and VPM Solutions can provide staffing in remote countries, property managers are still faced with upfront and ongoing training to get these resources trained on their technology stack. We heard from many conference attendees about the benefits of “slimming their tech stack,” which is a process for eliminating redundant solutions and focusing on products that are well integrated with one another. The integrations between Property Manager Websites (PMW), RentVine, and Aptly are a perfect example of a slim tech stack that bi-directionally sync and allow property teams to minimize app switching throughout their day.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Unlocking success hinges on meticulously defined KPIs. Speaking to many of the conference attendees, it was clear that most of them have yet to define and track the KPIs that will grow their businesses. During the conference, Matthew Tringali spoke about the importance of clearly defined KPIs and tracking your team’s work back to activities that grow revenues. The theme behind KPIs was clearly a focus on transparency and team productivity, so leaders can attend a conference like NARPM Broker/Owner without a worry.

Aptly provides transparency into the work and conversations that property management staff handle on a daily basis. Leaders can leave the office with assurance that important customer communications are handled, while critical tasks are automated or completed by their staff. Solutions like Blanket provide property owners KPIs on the performance of their rentals, when determining if they want to sell or rent in the future. Additionally, Blanket allows the property management companies to keep doors when owners sell, protecting valuable management revenue.

Application Fraud

In the last year, 93.3% of landlords have experienced rental application fraud. The bad news is, if it hasn’t hit you yet… it is on it’s way. The good news is, attendees were thrilled with the screening solutions being offered right now. Aptly and VeriFast are a joint solution with advanced AI to ensure documents are untouched, and offers real-time verification for banks, IDs, credit, and income. PetScreening goes even further by ensuring accuracy and completion in assistance animal and pet applications.

PetScreening and Verifast seamlessly integrate with Aptly. This means your team can access comprehensive, fraud-free applications on one centralized platform. This not only eliminates liability but also ensures you get qualified applicants. And, in case you haven’t already heard, they hosted the best party at NARPM!