What Property Managers Can Learn About Automation from Propertyware’s Inaas Arabi

Small property management businesses have a lot of opportunities, even as they’re competing with larger companies. As a small business in the property management space, you have a lot of unique abilities, such as your talent for providing local service. The local knowledge you possess is irreplaceable, and it takes those big businesses some time to understand the local dynamics in your city and the different microeconomic environments. You also have the benefit of being able to move quickly. When you’re small, you’re nimble. You can maneuver and get more business when you use that to your advantage. Another way to get more business is by doing what the big companies do to optimize their services. One of the most important things they do is automate. If you can embrace automation, you can grow faster and smarter. Today on The Property Management Show, Alex is joined by John Bykowski, Fourandhalf’s COO, to talk about automation with Inaas Arabi, the new vice president and general manager at Propertyware who is in charge of single-family homes. Introduction to Inaas Arabi Inaas’s career has a lot of depth. He started his property management game in 2005, when he was the regional property manager and real estate broker at HelpUSell. Within 18 months they became the seventh largest company for volume sales within their state. They were working to get investors reasonably priced rental homes that brought in high returns. Then, he became the regional director of operations at American Homes 4 Rent in 2012. Today, that company is the second largest owner/operator of single-family rentals in the U.S. They own 62,000 units. The business model is to buy a lot of properties at good prices, remodel them, and rent them out. Inaas understands timing, and it has helped him build an impressive career with a lot to be proud of. His instinct for switching gears and taking advantage of the right opportunities has helped him compete as a small business owner and grow companies into larger businesses. Now, he’s working his magic at Propertyware, and his experience in property management is bringing companies better products and better results. Investing in Operators to Develop Programs Propertyware serves a unique market, where it’s important to choose an operator rather than a technologist to run programs. Technologists are great at what they do and they come up with outstanding products. But, if you’ve never been in a property manager’s shoes, it’s hard to understand the reality of the job and the pain points. You can talk to property managers about what they need, but to provide an effective product, you have to understand where they are and where they want to go. Propertyware has a competitive advantage in bringing on a property management operator at this level to help bridge the service gap with industry knowledge and unique systems.  Property Management Growth: How to Help Growing a property management business is done in one of three ways. You can add units, produce more revenue per door, or cut your expenses through customization and automation. Propertyware doesn’t see itself as a marketing company, but they want to help businesses grow by adding doors. So, they’ve decided to partner with companies that are great at marketing (like Fourandhalf), thus giving them a product that will help property management companies grow. It bridges a gap. This is how an operator thinks. First, partner with a company that helps clients get more doors. Then, the business owner can provide more value and more money per door. Then, the business owner can reduce business expenses with automation. While a technologist can build a tremendous platform, it will come with a lot of tools and widgets that...