In this episode, Chris and Anne speak with Ben Pleat, the co-founder and CEO of Cobu. A technology platform designed to help multifamily marketers and owners drive resident satisfaction and community engagement, which in turn boosts occupancy and retention rates. Pleat shares that the genesis of Cobu was inspired by his mother's feeling of isolation despite living in a luxury Manhattan apartment building, revealing the widespread issue of loneliness. The conversation thoroughly explores how C...
In this episode, we sit down with Brent Camp of Asset Living and Arthur Kosmider of LeFrak to explore how Artificial Intelligence is reshaping property management and rental housing. Their perspective is clear: AI isn’t here to replace people, it’s here to remove the repetitive, low-value tasks that drain time and energy from on-site teams. Brent and Arthur break down how automation is transforming everyday operations, from routine follow-ups and late-rent reminders to 24/7 resident support. ...
In this episode, Daniel Paulino, VP of Real Estate at Reputation.com discusses the growing importance of digital reputation, dubbed "digital curb appeal", for the multifamily housing industry, particularly how it affects property visibility in search engines and AI-driven recommendations. Daniel explains that a simple average star rating is no longer sufficient; Google’s algorithm uses nine different factors, including the volume, frequency, and uniqueness of responses to both positive and ne...
In this episode of The Apartment Department, co-host Chris Johnson sits down with Minna Song, CEO of EliseAI, to discuss how artificial intelligence is transforming multifamily operations. For nearly a decade, EliseAI has helped properties automate leasing, maintenance, and resident communications—cutting lead-to-lease times from 30 days to just 14 and boosting renewal retention by 9%. Minna shares how EliseAI’s success is rooted in deep partnerships with their 700+ customers. Her team learns...
In this episode, Justin Jones, Shelly Steitz, and Anne Baum recap their experience at the Blueprint Conference including the vibe, their favorite takeaways for key technologies and AI, the opportunity for vendors and operators to co-build and co-collaborate, and some advice for first-timers in 2026. Flamingo - Resident Retention App400K+ units use Flamingo’s Resident Retention Platform to stop Retention Leak & hit 63%+ retention. Find more of The Apartment Department exclusively on our S...
In this episode, Chris and Anne talk with Marge Enrique about her extensive journey in transforming her company's approach to marketing data, emphasizing the importance of moving beyond simple last-touch attribution to a more comprehensive multi-touch model using tools like HyLy and Remarkably. Enrique details her strategies for data cleaning, source tracking, and building in-house attribution models, contrasting the performance of different marketing channels like Zillow, Apartment Ratings, ...
Have you ever wondered how the reputation and resident experience of your property actually impact marketing success and NOI? In this episode, Devin Shurtleff, CEO of Opiniion, shares their data around the ROI of reputation. In addition, the conversation highlights the critical role of resident satisfaction in multifamily marketing, emphasizing how positive online reviews and feedback directly impact key performance indicators like occupancy, retention, and net operating income. S...
In this episode Aimee Farmer, VP, Marketing at Middleburg Communities discusses how she is redefining the role of marketing through embracing data. The discussion covers the importance of tracking key metrics like booked appointment show rates and response times, emphasizing the impact of personal touch points in increasing conversions. We also examine the lengthening renter decision-making process, advocating for earlier "coming soon" campaigns and extended lead nurturing. The co...
In this episode Chris and Anne speak with Brooke Henderson, VP, US Strategic Partnerships at Yext to get an inside look at how conversational search is shifting how multifamily marketers should approach their online presence. Brooke takes us through the current search landscape and how multifamily marketers can update their SEO strategy to account for conversational search - the new trend that is being heavily driven by AI search engines. Listeners will walk away with an understan...
In this episode, Chris and Anne speak with Jami Thomas, VP of Sales at Zillow Rentals, where we cover a wide range of exciting topics including: The rumor that Zillow may be phasing out their PPL options for packages.Zillows recent partnerships with two AI powerhouses, EliseAI and Google Gemini.Best practices for creating effective Zillow listings.Utilizing your Zillow support team and data resources to maximize results.Zillow Rentals vision for the future.For any multifamily marketer or oper...
In this episode, Chris and Anne talk with Jon Simpson, about Swifty's Hyper-Effective Local Pages (HELP). AI-powered landing pages built for how renters search — by neighborhood, landmark, and location. Jon tells us the story of how they developed HELP and how this strategy helps their clients rank quickly in Google. And of course, no episode would be complete without predictions about the future of multifamily marketing.
In this episode, Chris and Anne sit down with Jacob Carter, founder of Nurture Boss, to discuss the how conversational AI + humans can revolutionize the leasing and resident experience by offering a customized, intuitive, responsive communication machine. In addition, they discuss the importance of AI tools using the PMS as the data source of truth and how operators can lead the charge on creating a more open system for sharing data across vendors.
In this episode Chris and Anne talk to Dorota Firek, CMO of Tour24, a state of the art self-guided touring technology, discusses how the future of apartment marketing and leasing includes meeting renters how they want to rent. Bonus: hear how Tour24 is approaching the self-guided tour by including the entire community in the tour process.
Paul Burke, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience at Oakwood Management Company in Columbus, OH talks to Anne and Chris about his focus on SEO, quality video content, his e-commerce experience and how an increase in organic impressions is a leading indicator clicks to come. We end the episode in a lively discussion about bold predictions after the recent merger of Rent. and Zillow and how it may impact marketers.
In this episode, Anne and Chris sit down with Grady Newman, founder of Resi, to dig into the messy side of multifamily marketing — from data silos and clunky platforms to the constant chase for better ROI. Grady shares how Resi got started, why centralization matters, and how smarter tech (plus a little human touch) can make marketers' lives way easier.
In this episode, join co-hosts Anne and Chris with guest Kristi Fickert, SVP of Growth and Marketing at Kurie, to discuss the value of streaming video ads for multifamily. For so long, TV advertising was out of reach for individual properties because of the enormous cost and lack of targeting however, the rise of streaming TV has opened up a whole new opportunity. In a time where brand awareness is a differentiator and the race to meet the renter where they are, streaming tv ads a...
In this episode Eden Chai, co-founder and CMO of Flair shares critical findings from their new secret shop tool which, after gathering data from over 600 shops allowed Eden to draw one conclusion: the prospect journey is fractured (or dare we say, broken). https://www.getflair.io/resources/free-secret-shopping-tool This episode dives into why the prospects journey often contains unnecessary hurdles including conflicting automations, outdated technologies, and outdated contact information.&nbs...
In this episode Chris and Anne welcome back a fan favorite, Sarah Wieman, to discuss how marketers can embrace technology and trends to find marketing efficiencies. They cover topics like supplier consolidation, technology to gain every day efficiencies, how to structure your marketing to get more out of your campaigns, and of course, AI.
Chelsea Kneeland, Innovation Insider at Multifamily Insider, is an expert at what is coming next in multifamily innovation. In this very special episode, she gives us her take on where multifamily is going next when we use words like "specialization, centralization, and AI" and how despite all of the change that is predicted, one thing will always stay the same and that is that humans are always at the center of our business.
In this episode, Stacey Hampton, founder of AssetNOI, and all around multifamily expert takes us into how top-notch operators analyze, diagnose, and solve occupancy challenges. In addition, she shares with us how she is able to sell marketing by reframing the conversation around revenue lost instead of expenses accumulated. Marketers - you will leave this episode knowing exactly how to reframe your budget conversations with your operations teams so that the "maths" make sense.