#41- Smart Apartments: The Future is Here with Felicite Moorman, STRATIS CEO
We are always looking for ways to add amenities to our communities and if there is an opportunity for ancillary income, even better!
That’s why I was so excited to virtually “sit down” with STRATIS CEO, Felicite Moorman to talk all things Smart Apartments and Intelligent Buildings. She shares how technology is shaping the landscape of multifamily housing and opening up opportunities that we’ve never had before.
Worried your community is too outdated to implement smart technology? Don’t be! Felicite is sharing how implementing small options can save you thousands in the long haul.
This isn’t just for luxury communities or for Gen Z renters! There is a place for smart technology on all assets and across all demographics. Tune in to see how your community can leverage the benefits and start making the SMART move (see what I did there 😉).
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A conversation with Felicite Moorman, Startis CEO
Barbara: Will you just share a little bit about STRATIS?
Felicite: STRATIS was recently acquired by RealPage. This has been exceptionally exciting in a year that has been so tumultuous.
STRATIS is smart apartments that enable intelligent buildings. We do a building-wide network that enables property owners and managers to have perpetual control of all devices when appropriate. For example, they can't control your thermostat when you're in your unit, but God forbid you to go on vacation and there's something that happens in your unit, they do get an emergency alert as do you.
Everybody is communicating a value proposition that delivers a return on investment for both the owner, but also delivers a great amenity for residents. We do both wi-fi and resident wi-fi, and we also do smart access. So we're dealing right now with the on-demand economy, greater than ever before. That's something that multifamily is dealing with right now because, traditionally, the access systems have been fairly manual, kind of old school.
We're seeing our early adopters really flourish with things like self-touring and the ability to get visitors through a building. It really is a driver for adoption, just the access piece alone. We're in 350,000 units here in the United States, so this is certainly moving towards a standard and it's really creating a lot of efficiencies right now. It’s a lot of fun too! It's nice to be on the cutting edge of these technologies that can communicate wirelessly.
Barbara Savona: Why would someone go smart?
Felicite: Every building is its own animal. What we are finding is that property owners and operators are able to differentiate their properties enough when they put in a good smart home system that makes sense and works. We're seeing that they can charge between $35 and as high as $200 in California, per unit per month. When you go with the full smart apartment, not just a piece of it, you really have an opportunity for a rent premium.
It’s important to note that might not last forever. There may come a time where people just expect to have a smart apartment. Our early adopters are certainly reaping the benefits right now.
Barbara Savona: Are you seeing that with certain generations or types of renters, that this is a selling point for them and they're specifically looking for smart features?
Felicite: Millennials and Gen Z grew up with things like Nest. They are used to smart technology, so it isn’t surprising that they want that in their own apartment homes. But here's something that I think often gets overlooked. We're seeing this technology adopted in assisted living because it provides numerous value propositions that you don't think about for Millennials or Gen Z. Everything from voice control of devices so that you don't have to be quite as mobile. In active lifestyle spaces, it's sexy. If you're an active adult who's retired, but moving to a community where you don't have to mow your own lawn, then you want the sexy amenities. You're not looking to downgrade your technology, you're upgrading.
We see this across the board. It is really across all asset classes, too. There's something for everyone in the internet of things and we offer hundreds of devices. So we built it for ubiquity. We built it for public housing all the way to class A plus plus. And I don't see any hesitation from any of those markets or any demographics.
Barbara: I'm thinking, as the child of maybe an aging parent, knowing that some of that technology is in place that would potentially prevent some things that make life a little bit more difficult. Wow, now all of a sudden that becomes a huge selling point for me because it's not taking away their freedom or their power. Instead, it’s enabling them to keep their freedom!
Barbara: Can a more established community still implement smart technology?
Felicite: Yes, absolutely. Currently, there is a housing crisis in the United States. I think we have a 3 million unit shortage every year. That means that we need to build more of old types of housing. So we're seeing the adoption of these technologies in public housing and a lot of times that's not new development. A lot of times those $20 a month in public housing that you save on your energy bill because you're automating and using eco mode with STRATIS instead of manually turning that older thermostat, equals meals for that family.
We are hyper-focused at STRATIS to make sure that we don't perpetuate the digital divide with our technology. So if we make something super sexy for a new development, we are simultaneously feature setting for public housing. So that allows us that ubiquity that we're looking for. But more importantly, it makes sure that our technology is accessible to everyone, whether it's a brand new sexy building, or whether it's a 60-year-old public housing building.
The best part is that there are real opportunities to change lives with a small investment. And it's part of the mission of public housing to enable people to live better lives. That's what housing is about.
Barbara : Can somebody gradually embrace smart apartments?
Felicite: Yes, I usually start by looking for pain points. What does the individual property need? For example, a sexy class A plus community needs to differentiate themselves and market the smart apartments. We had a property in Denver that had 90 pre-occupancy leases signed in the first four weeks at a 20% rental premium because they did a rent-smart campaign all around the technology. It was brilliant!
But now let’s talk about a public housing community. Maybe it starts with a thermostat or a leak sensor in a building-wide network so that you get all of the alerts that you need without necessarily having the sexy Bluetooth door lock right now.
Once you start realizing the return you can look for additional options to enable. You can go as fast or as pain-point oriented as you want to. I like to say for multifamily, bite-size is the right size. You give people the option to get a little bit and realize that return, they come back to you. We've lost 13 properties in seven years and those were just ownership changes. Some things you can't overcome, but that's saying something about what the technology enables. This is simply a return on investment that continues to deliver.
Get your return and invest again.
Want to hear Felicite’s predictions for Smart technology? Tune in to hear the full episode.
