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Company Spotlight

How to Automate SFRs

Quit Wasting Valuable Time and Resources By Kori Covrigaru Could you be wasting 2-4 hours a day on manual marketing processes? We recently conducted research on the time spent on manual processes during a rental turnover and found that marketing departments are losing days of their time on processes that could be automated. For example, let’s say a company has a marketing coordinator who is managing these processes, and they get paid $60 an hour. You are spending up to $480 a day on manual frontend and backend tasks that could be automated through a simple integration. Instead of wasting eight hours on manual processes, you could re-allocate those hours toward more strategic initiatives. From acquisition to tenant turnover, we will inspect each part of the process, enabling you to streamline your steps and save you thousands of dollars each quarter. Single-Family Rental Workflows Single-family rentals (SFR) go through the same cycles repeatedly: acquisition, renovation, tenant acquisition, and tenant turnover. So, you have workflows for every stage of that SFR cycle, but are those workflows fully optimized? Acquisition Acquiring new properties is time-consuming when done in the traditional way. There might be travel time, showings, inspections, and contract negotiations involved that could take months. But with a good system in place, you could acquire new properties 100% virtually. PlanOmatic’s Property Insights does the legwork for you. We collect property data for due diligence, renovations, and leasing decisions and provide you with reports to help make property acquisition decisions. Not only do you get the property condition report, but you also get a Matterport 3D tour. You get accurate property details that you would not otherwise know, and you will better understand the layout, condition, and measurements of the property you are considering. Renovation You have found the right property. It is in the perfect location but needs a little beautification. So, it’s time to start the renovation process. How do you keep proper oversight while you are managing your properties from a distance? Try Matterport 3D tours. Schedule a virtual walk-through during different periods of the renovation so you can oversee the construction without having to be there. Tenant Acquisition Tenant acquisition is the single most important piece of your workflow: without tenants, you have no income. There is a lot of work involved in marketing your rental property – and photography, virtual tours, and listings take time – but you can streamline these processes. You can schedule your photography through PlanOmatic and use an API integration to manage the process easily. The API integration works like this: PlanOmatic’s system tells your system the photos and virtual tour are ready, then it will automatically syndicate it across your different distribution channels. In a recent study, PlanOmatic found this process saved time equivalent to three full-time employees. Tenant Turnover When a tenant leaves, the entire process begins again. Often, property managers need to renovate, acquire new tenants, and onboard new tenants – all of which take a sizable chunk of time. But let’s look at this process holistically with automation in place. Manual Process •          The construction team or property manager sends a communication (by email or spreadsheet), letting the marketing team know the renovation is complete. Marketing gathers the communication daily, spending about 2-4 hours on this process. •          Then, your system automatically orders photography and 3D tours. PlanOmatic automatically emails to communicate that the photography is finished and ready to download. The marketing team downloads the assets and uploads them to Dropbox. This process takes an additional 2-4 hours per day. Automation •          The construction team or property manager simply sends an alert through the client’s system to PlanOmatic, informing them that the house is ready for photography. This will automatically schedule photography. •          When the photography is ready, PlanOmatic’s system will automatically tell the client’s system that the order is ready and then it will automatically syndicate it. One client confirmed that after implementing PlanOmatic’s integration, they could reallocate three full-time employees’ time to new, more exciting marketing activities. PlanOmatic Automates SFR Management PlanOmatic is obsessed with helping property managers and real estate investors be more efficient. Our latest API integration makes it easy to streamline your workflows to save time and money. Learn more about how PlanOmatic integrates with your internal systems by visiting www.planomatic.com/our-services/api-integrations/.

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SFR Marketing Plan

Study Shows One Marketing Tweak Results in 39% Reduction in Days on Market By Kori Covrigaru You can reduce a property’s time on the market by 39% by making one minor change to your single-family rental (SFR) listings: add 3D tours. Is there a return on investment when using 3D tours rather than still photography only? That is the question we set out to answer when we partnered with a client who was considering adding 3D tours to their rental listings. We will not bury the lead. We found that 3D Matterport tours reduced the number of days on the market. Not only that, but it also led to more pre-qualified leads and an increase in unique website visitors. To quantify that, if your carrying cost is $50 a day and you reduce the number of days on the market by seven, your ROI is 133.33% over one year. Considering your Matterport tours can be used repeatedly, you can extrapolate that over several years. That is a massive ROI. Let’s go deeper into what we found during our study, using 137 homes in Charlotte (91) and Dallas (46). Experiment Note: The control group used 15 photos and our test group used 15 photos and a Matterport 3D tour. Data Shows Decrease in Days on Market When we conducted this study, we analyzed 137 homes in two markets — Charlotte and Dallas. We found that on Zillow, listings with 3D Matterport tours received three to five leads per week. In Charlotte, this was an increase of 18%. On SmartRent Tours, we received one to three leads per week. This was a slight increase, likely because in-person tours are not necessary when you have already toured virtually. Our client also added Matterport tours to their website and found that the tours increased page views by 12% in Charlotte and 57% in Dallas. Unique visitors increased even more. Charlotte saw a jump of 18% while Dallas received an increase of 63%. Why Do 3D Tours Perform So Well? In a crowded market, there are many benefits to a 3D virtual tour: •          Extra visibility | They are more visible in listing apps. Zillow, Trulia, and the other major players highlight 3D tours in the list and map view, making them stand out. •          Special icons | Listing sites provide special icons indicating that the listing has a 3D tour. •          Pre-qualifies applicants | Because potential renters can see the whole home by virtually walking through it, they are less likely to pull their application or back out of a lease. With the extra attention that Matterport tours provide, the average days on the market decreased significantly. In Charlotte, the days on market decreased by 39% and in Dallas, the number decreased by 9%. After reviewing the data against different categories (such as price per category), we discovered that the reduction in days on the market was across the board. 3d Tours are Becoming Standard in SFR Marketing While conducting this study, we wanted to go beyond our test group, and research how many SFRs are using 3D tours in their marketing. We found that from 2021 to 2022, there was an increase in 3D tours among the three markets we researched. While not everyone is using 3D tours yet, we predict it will soon become standard. Now, you need to consider this question: are you going to implement 3D tours or be left behind?

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Increase in 3D Tour Adoption

SFR Owners and Investors Are Optimizing Operational Efficiencies and Leasing Their Properties Faster By Kori Covrigaru 3D tours have been around the real estate market for more than ten years at this point. However, it was not until the pandemic did we see the adoption of 3D tours take off within the Single-Family Rental industry. Owners, operators, investors and property managers needed a tool that would enable them to continue their business operations. Whether the focus was onsite punch list checks during renovations or virtually marketing to a future resident, Zillow 3D and Matterport tours, in particular, began to pop up on rental listings across the nation. At PlanOmatic, the leading provider of quality photos, floor plans, and 3D tours to the SFR industry with speed and at scale nationwide, we increased our number of 3D virtual tours for SFR properties across the country by 270% from 2020 to 2021, and increased the number of SFR homes we photographed by 187% during the same time period. Our most in-demand markets for 3D virtual tours and photography of SFR properties in 2021 were Charlotte, Dallas, Orlando and Tampa. Charlotte, NC  •         3D tours | 1,571% increase from 2020 to 2021 •          Photography | 253% increase from 2020 to 2021 Dallas, TX •          3D tours | 608% increase from 2020 to 2021 •          Photography | 234% increase from 2020 to 2021 Orlando, FL •          3D tours | 139% increase from 2020 to 2021 •          Photography | 180% increase from 2020 to 2021 Tampa, FL •          3D tours | 77% increase from 2020 to 2021 •          Photography | 171% increase from 2020 to 2021 As the SFR market continues to thrive and become even more competitive, property owners, investors and management firms are taking advantage of 3D virtual tours and professional photography to attract and capture the interest of consumers online, resulting in faster leasing activity. Essentially, all home searches start online today, and this has fundamentally changed the way SFR properties are marketed. Our clients are trying to get as much property information in front of the consumer as possible, and a 3D tour stands out online allowing future residents to walk through the house imagining themselves there without visiting it in person. We anticipate even greater adoption of 3D tours in 2022 as SFR owners and investors look to optimize operational efficiencies and lease their properties faster. What the Research Shows We conducted a study last year that measured the impact of 3D tours on SFR property marketing on the Zillow Rentals platform, which includes Zillow, Trulia, and Hotpads. The 3D tour study was conducted in partnership with a national provider of well-maintained SFR homes and revealed that SFR property leads increased by 40%, and days on market decreased by 30%, when a 3D tour was published on the Zillow Rentals platform. At PlanOmatic, we have captured and created thousands of 3D tours on behalf of our SFR clients and according to them, 3D tours have resulted not only in more views per property, but in fewer lease opt-outs because the leads are more qualified. In fact, PlanOmatic measured the impact of 3D tours on SFR property marketing and found that property leads increased by 25 percent, and days on market decreased by 23 percent when a 3D tour was used to market a property, compared with only using professional photography. A 3D virtual tour is like a buy-one-get-one-free deal and something every investor should be thinking about leveraging in 2022. It is an easy way to ensure your SFR properties stand out against the competition when they are marketed to consumers, and it is a great way for your operations team to get the dimensions of the property to better inform renovation decisions. 3D tours also allow future residents to explore the home in a real-life way and get a clear visualization of the space, creating more qualified leads. Our 3D tour studies are conducted by PlanOlabs, the research, data, and consulting hub at PlanOmatic that analyzes and optimizes the property lifecycle for SFR investors, owners and operators. With PlanOlabs, we analyze SFR investors’ current state and use our industry experience to optimize their operational and marketing processes to scale and meet their portfolio growth goals.

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3D Tours Utilized on Zillow Rentals

Increase SFR Property Leads by 40% … Decrease Dayson the Market by 30% By Kori Covrigaru Most house hunters start their property searches online today and digital tools such as a 3D virtual tour make viewing a rental home remotely even faster and easier. Whether from a smartphone or laptop, 3D tours allow consumers to get a realistic experience and feel for what a single-family rental (“SFR”) property is like without having to visit it in-person. According to a recent Zillow study, most Americans would like to use digital tools while home shopping, and a vast majority (79%) of those surveyed said they wanted the ability to view a 3D virtual tour. At PlanOmatic, we recently measured the impact of 3D tours for SFR property marketing on the Zillow Rentals platform, which includes Zillow, Trulia, and Hotpads. Zillow is the leading real estate and rental marketplace dedicated to empowering consumers with data, inspiration and knowledge around the place they call home, and connecting them with great real estate professionals. Our 3D tour study was conducted in partnership with a national provider of well-maintained single-family rental homes. The purpose of the study was to determine if the provider should invest in a 3D tour solution to use on Zillow Rentals—their number one lead source—to attract more rental prospects and to provide a superior client experience. Our study data found an increase in lead activity and applications, and a decrease in days on market (“DOM”) when a 3D tour was published on the Zillow Rentals platform. The data revealed the following: Lead activity in the single-family rental home provider’s CRM showed an increase of more than 40% when a 3D tour was published on Zillow Rentals Lead activity from Zillow Rentals increased by 101% when a 3D tour was published on the platform Applications submitted per property by prospective residents increased by more than 35% when a 3D tour was published on Zillow Rentals The DOM showed a 30% decrease for properties that used a 3D tour on Zillow Rentals compared with properties that only had photos on Zillow “Essentially all home searches start online today, and this has fundamentally changed the way properties are marketed. Our clients are trying to get as much property information in front of the consumer as possible, and a 3D tour stands out online allowing future residents to walk through the house imagining themselves there without visiting in person,” said Tim Rose, Director of Operations for PlanOlabs at PlanOmatic. “Our study was conducted to test whether a 3D tour had a measurable impact for our client, and the results prove that by publishing a 3D tour on the Zillow Rentals platform, SFR owners will generate more property leads and applications, and reduce the days on market.” Rose added, “This is a case of supply and demand. Consumers are demanding and prioritizing 3D experiences online, and by adding 3D tours to the Zillow Rentals platform, SFR owners and operators are meeting that demand with a high quality virtual experience that their future residents now expect.” The 3D tour study was conducted by PlanOlabs, the research, data, and consulting hub at PlanOmatic that analyzes and optimizes the property lifecycle for SFR investors, owners and operators. At PlanOlabs, we analyze SFR investors’ current state and use our industry experience to optimize their operational and marketing processes in order to scale and meet their portfolio growth goals. For this particular test case, PlanOlabs tracked more than 70 of our partners’ properties across two markets—Dallas and Houston, Texas. We created a 3D tour for Zillow Rentals for half the properties in each market and compared that to a control group of properties that received a standard professional photo shoot. The test case properties were tracked between May 10th and June 30th.

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Kairos Living

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Q&A with Phillip Yates, VP of Operations & Head of Leasing & Marketing How Technology Sets Us Apart from the Competition Q: To begin, tell me a little about Kairos Living? A: Kairos Living began operations in July 2019 based out of Chicago. We are a vertically integrated real estate company that handles all aspects of property ownership and operations from sourcing and acquisitions to renovations, leasing and property management. We currently operate in 17 states and over 60 MSAs with a portfolio fast-approaching 2000 single-family homes with more on the horizon. Our biggest market is Oklahoma City, followed by Amarillo, Birmingham, then Dallas. We are also in Houston, Atlanta, and Fayetteville, to name a few. Our approach to utilizing progressive technology eliminates the need for local offices allowing for more freedom to expand our target markets. Our remote structure also significantly reduces the overall cost of the operation. We run a lean but efficient staffing model with just over 40 employees. Q: How long have you been involved and focused on the New Construction niche of the industry? A: Our original sourcing strategy was based on the renovate-to-rent model. As the pandemic hit early last year, we anticipated and quickly shifted our approach to focus on new construction homes acquired through several strategic relationships with national and regional builders. Q: What attracted Kairos Living to New Construction homes? A: The appeal for new construction homes is four-fold. The ability to capture higher rent due to a more desirable product for renters, lower R&M and capital expenses with builder and manufacturer warranties in place, lower turnover costs with superior building products and workmanship, and lower property taxes initially captured. Q: How and when were you introduced to PlanOmatic? A: Our Leasing Manager, Elizabeth Erikson, had used PlanOmatic at a prior company with great success and knew they would be an essential partner for us to successfully grow our portfolio. Consequently, we have been using PlanOmatic since the start in 2019. We consider PlanOmatic a Premier partner. The team at PlanOmatic has been extremely engaged and very responsive with the continued expansion of our processes as we grow. They are eager to find new ways to personalize services, reduce turnaround time and provide a superior product for us to hit the market. We greatly value the impact they bring to our business and really see this as a long-term partnership for years to come. Q: Can you describe how you use the PlanOmatic technology, specifically the 3D Tours? A: We currently utilize the full stack of services from PlanOmatic to help run our business, from new construction inspections using Property Insights to dynamically marketing our homes with Interior/Exterior Photos, Digital Floorplans and of course 3D Tours. Marketing a home is a lot like selling a great novel; the goal when a reader picks up the book is to be drawn into the story and visualize themselves engaged with the content. The more dynamic and accessible the book is, the higher probability you will capture a sale. The same goes with property marketing. For most renters, the point of origin starts online when looking for a place to call home. As you compete against other products, it is crucial to utilize every advantage in your arsenal. 3D Tours with PlanOmatic has done exactly that for us; making a defining statement online and hooking the prospect to tour in person. We see a visible ROI from increased lead generation and overall app volume. Q: Is your focus on technology a key distinction between Kairos and your competitors? A: Yes. Kairos Living sees technology as a key path to achieve a competitive advantage and differentiate ourselves from other industry players by leveraging that tech in every aspect of our business, empowering us to abandon the traditional “boots on the ground” ideology and embrace more of a centralized operating model. Proptech is still young in the SFR sector, but we see that changing everyday with new and seasoned platforms that have been servicing multi-family for years gaining large appetites for SFR growth. Our centralized model allows us to be agile, presenting as the ideal group to partner with as these platforms present themselves. Kairos Living’s success will continue to go hand-in-hand with a culture of innovation and embracing new technologies all while still providing a great experience for our Residents. For more information, you can email Phillip at pyates@kairosliving.com or visit kairosliving.com.

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Q&A with Jennifer McGuinness, President of Invigorate Finance

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Starting a New Chapter and Looking Ahead REI INK had the opportunity to interview Jennifer McGuinness, the president of Invigorate Finance, a newly formed partnership between Mortgage Venture Partners and Fay Financial. McGuinness brings over twenty-five years of lending and aggregation, banking, asset management, servicing, securitization, and structured finance experience to Invigorate Finance. Most recently, she was the Founder and Head of Aggregation & Structured Finance for Mortgage Venture Partners. She is also the Founder of Strategic Venture Partners. Both Mortgage Venture Partners and Strategic Venture Partners were named 2020 Top 25 FinTech Innovators. Q: You recently announced a new chapter with Invigorate Finance. Why did you decideto partner with Fay as opposed to staying on your own with Mortgage Venture Partners (“MVP”)? A: Both MVP and Invigorate Finance are closed loan mortgage conduit aggregators. Under the MVP structure, we were solely able to offer delegated correspondent aggregation. But with Invigorate Finance, we will also shortly launch a non-delegated correspondent channel. In addition, generally lenders face two really big challenges:  (1) the cost to originate is expensive and (2) servicing transfer is difficult and can cause significant “noise” for their customer leading to, for example, a less than desirable customer service experience when they make their first payments or take their first draw on a line of credit. I have known Ed Fay a long time and he has done a good job building  a services business that I believe will add significant value for certain Invigorate Finance clients. This partnership allows for us to deliver a quality of service that no other aggregator can match. Invigorate Finance truly offers complete solutions and is a real partner for lenders and investors alike. We are not merely a “take out”. Q: How do you work with Lenders to increase production without sacrificing customer service? A: Entities that are solely in the aggregation business to flip loans to other investors will make a little money standing in the middle, but they tend to outsource everything. When a lender deals with an “outsourced” aggregator there is a general lack of consistency in standards and practices, which is important because it can impact how loans are underwritten and whether exceptions are prudently assessed, for example. This is not the Invigorate Finance business model. Invigorate Finance does not outsource the operational features of its business, such as credit; hence the lender truly builds a relationship with us that is based on knowledge and that is how a business thrives. At the end of the day, Invigorate Finance is a customer service driven business. If the lender is working on an exception when underwriting a loan, they are going to be working with our internal team; if they are working to clear a condition before we purchase the loan they will be working with our internal team. We do not ask vendors to run our business for us. We run our business and that creates true rapport with our lender partners and investors. Q: Whenever you take a new step in your career it seems to be to invent something. Why is that? A: I think it is less about inventing things and more about the enjoyment of taking on a challenge that, if achieved could bring the market forward or enhance access to credit. I also love to learn new things or grow aspects of my knowledge base further. Throughout my career I have been very lucky to have been given the opportunity to truly build and run the full lifecycle of origination, asset management, servicing and structured finance, and have done so in lenders, banks, aggregators, hedge funds and REIT’s. I believe this background allows me to look at an opportunity from all sides rather than from only one “silo” and therefore provides me, our team, our lender partners, and investors with optimized outcomes. Now, it is important to note that I have not done any of the things I have achieved alone. I have been blessed with great mentors and team members over the years and it is their achievement as well as my own. Q: You are making a push to solve some of the supply problems we are seeing in the single-family rental space through aggregating new construction lines of credit—explain your thinking here. A: When looking at the market today, the biggest challenge I see initially is that demand does outweigh supply if you are solely looking at “for sale” real estate and mortgage rates. The demand of the homebuyer, coupled with the demand of the institutional investor, continues to drive home prices up in many markets. This, hand in hand with record low mortgage rates, has well positioned home buyers to make better purchase offers which could result in lower investment returns for investors, should they have to increase “buy prices” to acquire additional real estate. Single Family housing starts have increased by over $1.2 million in November 2020 per the Census Bureau which is more than a 25% increase from 2019. While a lot of the new construction will go to owner-occupants, this significant addition of new homes will begin to equalize the lack of supply for investors. By offering new construction lines of credit we are funding what is necessary to effectuate the build of the homes to actually help that demand be put to work. Q: Where do you think the market is heading? A: Now that the broader market has begun to equalize, the non-QM and non-agency markets are both starting to rebound. In addition, with recent announcements from the GSEs, there are additional opportunities opening up for non-agency segments of the market. For example, the 7% saturation for non-owner-occupied properties really does create opportunity for other lending programs to pick up additional volume to service this customer base. Good examples are our 1st lien HELOC, our 1st lien jumbo and our non-QM 1st lien programs—they all have applications for second homes and non-owner-occupied dwellings. The obvious follow up question is, “Will that create

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