What makes the OPTECH Conference and Expo so special? It’s our industry’s most exclusive conference. With a focus on operations and technology-related products and services, it allows attendees to explore new solutions for the key aspects of their multifamily business.

At this year’s conference, there were more than 130 companies who showcased their products and services. That’s a lot of booths to visit. If you didn’t get a chance to go to OPTECH, or to visit every booth, we did the hard work for you. Here’s a quick summary of the best tech and takeaways from the event, so you can get back to the office, put those learnings to work, and be a multifamily maven.

What Tech Took the Spotlight?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) took the spotlight in both sessions and booth-presence this year. Multifamily property owners and managers are becoming privy to the benefits that the tech can bring them. And, vendors are catching on to more applications for making AI more useful for the industry.

At the LeaseHawk booth, you may have noticed a couple of orange-haired mannequins and wondered what they were. They represent the future of leasing—leasing assistants powered by artificial intelligence.

Chatbots are prevalent on property websites today, but these simple bots miss a key component of the leasing process. The ability to speak. ACE AI from LeaseHawk, is a virtual leasing assistant that pleasantly answers your property’s phone calls (and chats on your website) to answer prospect’s questions and convert them to appointments.

According to LeaseHawk data, 60% of your properties inbound communications are phone calls. If your properties are missing calls, you’re missing a huge opportunity to interact with your prospects and convert them to appointments. Virtual leasing assistants that can answer the phone and chat on your website are key to never missing those opportunities.

Key Takeaways

With more than 50 sessions, breakouts and pitches presented at OPTECH, there was a lot to soak in. Here’s one takeaway from a handful of helpful categories, so you can get back the office inspired:

• Culture: By investing in your human capital, you are able to better protect your tech investments. Train your people how the technology helps them, and you’ll see how it helps to attract and retain talent.  

• Marketing: Having a handle on your data can help you to improve systems, procedures and reduce expenses. Embrace your vendors to help reveal the business intelligence hiding in your data.

• Operations: Maximizing your telecom infrastructure should be high on your priority list. After all, it’s the key infrastructure that supports just about everything. According to a recent survey by the NMHC, 91.7% of residents say high speed internet is very important to them.

• Investing: The emergence of PropTech has led to new investment opportunities for the multifamily industry. Some major real estate players are partnering with VC firms in hopes of finding and developing the next big thing in real estate technology.

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OPTECH set the tone for the building momentum of tech in the multifamily industry. We’re excited to see the new changes that will come in 2020. For more information about how to implement artificial intelligence for your properties, or any other tech curiosities, reach out to us at LeaseHawk. We look forward to strategizing with you.

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