5 Minutes in Multifamily: Episode #2

Recorded on May 3 by Hyro

5 Minutes in Multifamily—a new video series featuring real estate and #proptech experts sharing their insights on key industry topics and trends, all under 5 minutes. Well, usually under 5 minutes.

For this episode, we were honored to welcome Tyler Billings, Director of Revenue Management at Hamilton Point Investments, to dish on topics such as:

• Remote operations as being more and more commonplace; leading to a diminishment of the human factor
• The importance of adding amenities to increase the value of community, that adhere to social distancing but still have that technological appeal
• The marriage between marketing data and supply demand data, to help make wise decisions towards performance optimization. 
• The value in reading about how other industries are operating in your areas of focus and then applying it to your own

Our Key Takeaways:

• Automation is key to mitigating a reduced workforce
• Elevating the resident experience should be a main focus nowadays
• The real estate industry can learn from the airline and hospitality industries in several ways

About Tyler:

Tyler Billings is Director of Revenue and Marketing for Hamilton Point Investments LLC, overseeing pricing strategy and national marketing accounts. Tyler has come to Hamilton Point with more than 12 years of multifamily real estate experience where he oversaw revenue management, asset optimization, and financial analysis. Tyler received his Doctorate from California Intercontinental University.  Before multifamily, Tyler served as Corpsman in the US Navy.

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CHECK OUT THE FULL RECORDING:

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FOR THE FULL TRANSCRIPT, KEEP SCROLLING:

Monica: Thank you, everyone for viewing today. I'm so excited to have Tyler Billings here to hear what he has to say about the real estate industry. So, Tyler I'll go ahead and have you introduce yourself, where you work, what you do and how long you've been in the industry.

Tyler: Sure, I am Tyler billings. I am with Hamilton point investments. I oversee marketing and revenue management, and I've been in the industry for about 15 years. 

Monica: Awesome. So you're gonna have an incredible perspective. Can't wait to hear it. 

Question #1: What are the top three things that owners and property management companies should be thinking about for 2022? 

Tyler: I guess over the past year and a half, two years, the pandemic uncovered a lot of wonderful opportunities for us and within the multifamily industry, one of them being the rapid adoption of technology within operations, now going into 2022, I believe the mentality isn't really gonna change. So the focus would be to continue that adoption for newer technology, to meet the consumer's needs. Now, if I had to acknowledge my top three, I believe that companies should be 1) creating different ways to interact with prospects, and streamline the sales funnel, 2) more automation into operations to mitigate the reduction of workforce, so i.e. chatbots, automated phone services, or call centers. Lastly, increasing the value of communities by adding amenities that still adhere to that social distancing, but have that technological appeal. So that could be virtual concierge services, free wifi, or even creating some additional, private business centers, anything really to increase the value of the community while being COVID-conscious. So, essentially, these amenities would provide additional appeal over the increased demand that we're seeing just across the board, in single family home rentals.

Monica: So as a quick recap, your focus is on adapting more technology, creating efficiencies around the sales process and also providing more amenities and community experience for residents and prospective residents. Is that right?

Tyler: Absolutely.

‍Question #2: What are some risks for companies who are hesitant to adapt to today's digital demands and changes?

Tyler: I've actually had quite a few people ask me that, honestly, everything's going digital. For the companies that are reluctant or hesitant to adapt to today’s technology, or at least take steps in that direction, they're gonna be left in the past. When it comes down to it, companies cannot be competitive against someone that has adapted to today's digital demand, so to answer your question, companies would risk their operational performance. 

Monica: Wow. That's definitely not something that people want to do! So , let's take Tyler’s advice and be open to the change. 

Question #3: So what are you reading? 

Tyler: I’m currently reading about the airline industry and the hospitality industry and how they're operating and how we can utilize it. 

Monica: Awesome. Learning from other industries - that is incredible. 

Question #4: Who do you think are some of the trailblazers in the industry, and how can we learn from them?

 Tyler: Okay, well, is it okay to say Hamilton Point? So, taking Hamilton Point out of the equation, when I think of industry trailblazers, I think innovation, and that said, one person that came to mind would be Brandy Daniels, VP of BH management. I am kind of biased, since I have had the pleasure of working with her in the past, but BH management and that team has truly done some amazing things within their organization. You know, within the past five to seven years, they built their own business intelligence reporting software. A lot of companies still use third party vendors. They've also elevated their revenue management practice, to not only just make decisions off of a singular pricing software, but they've married marketing data with the supply demand data and to really make some decisions to really optimize their performance. So, what we can learn from them is, you know, to use more data and think outside the box and not necessarily conform to what we've always traditionally thought, you know, just to look out, and see what another opportunity is.

Monica: I love this, as it kind of goes back to your first point, which is we need to be open to innovating and changing. That's how companies can stay relevant.

Question #5: What do you think is the next big trend in the multifamily industry?

Tyler: That's a really good question. So, I don't know if it's a good thing, as a lot of people would be scared of hearing this, but I think we're gonna continue to see that technology is being adopted, especially, you know, remote operations. Anyone can work remotely now, technology is making it possible and operating in house will slowly diminish and reduce substantially. The technology today is slowly removing the human factor and the sales transactions. So essentially, prospects can already tour themselves, apply at their leisure, move into their new apartment with little to no human interactions. So I would say, obviously it's not gonna happen here in the next two years, but I would say in five to ten years, we're gonna see less and less human interaction in our communities. There's still gonna be a need, but we're not gonna have a team of ten, how we used to traditionally operate, but it's gonna go down to say, five or less.

Monica: Again, this consistency of, hey, let's adapt to the times, let's support the remote environment and let's automate and create more efficiencies. I would expect nothing less, especially as Director of Revenue and Operation. 

How can we stay in touch?

Tyler: Yeah, I have a lot of folks reaching out to me on LinkedIn. I think that would be the best way to connect with me.I'm always sharing ideas, my studies, and answering any questions that they have.

Monica: Thank you so much, Tyler, for answering and, and being our guest today. If you had to nominate anyone else to be up next on our industry experts' interviews, who would you nominate? 

Tyler: Brandy Daniels. 

Monica: You go after Brandy? Yes. I love it. okay.

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Show Notes & Learn More:

Connect with guest Tyler Billings:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-billings-dba-426b6b74/

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Follow Hamilton Point Investments:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hamilton-point-investments-llc/

Website: https://hamiltonptinv.com/

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Read more on Hamilton Point Investments:

Hamilton Point Investments LLC is a private real estate investment company that owns and manages multifamily apartment properties. The company, with over 120 employees, has acquired over 7,000 apartment units since 2009, spending approximately $500 million to assemble an institutional-quality portfolio. The firm's principals average 25 years of institutional real estate experience each and have senior-level experience in real estate investment and management, structuring and originating commercial mortgage backed securities ("CMBS"), lending and real estate investment banking. The company has never missed a distribution to investors and has a positive full cycle track record.

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Want to be our next podcast guest? Contact liat@hyro.ai.