Rently’s self-guided apartment touring technology will now be available to prospective tenants of Pinnacle Living’s properties nationwide, according to a press release issued July 30.
The two companies worked together on a smaller number of properties in Texas as national restrictions on in-person showings took hold. Pinnacle, a division of Cushman & Wakefield, has more than 169,000 units in 34 states and was founded in 1980.
Rently’s automated process for scheduling and verifying prospective tenants holds eight patents, and since its 2011 inception, has managed more than 12 million agentless tours. It is also used for stand-alone residential listings.
The mobile-forward technology leverages smart-locks and secure verification software requiring six different security checkpoints, including “selfie checks” and credit card authentication, to ensure aspiring renters are who they say they are.
The individual receives a code via text to gain access to the apartment. A credit card number must be entered, and users are charged a one-time, $0.99 fee.
“Self-guided touring technology is more important now than ever, and we only see that need increasing as we enter into our ‘next normal,’ post-panedemic,” said Garin Hamburger, senior director of national property marketing at Pinnacle. “Rently offers us a robust solution with a variety of options that can work at any property across our portfolio.”
People who register with Rently to tour a property are then offered as leads to the customer.
Statistics offered by Rently say that 40 percent of all property tours occur outside of standard working hours, putting additional work burdens on landlords and management staff.
In March, not long into the grips of the pandemic market, Rently announced it would be rolling out its tenant tour tech to 75 communities within the Pegasus Residential portfolio.
Such a broad rollout of self-tour technology by a major commercial real estate company suggests that industry practitioners are growing more comfortable with not accompanying aspiring tenants and homebuyers on initial visits. However, homeowners are different than landlords, and may not take to the practice as easily.
Andre Sanchez, Rently’s chief operating officer, said that single-family, self-tours have been the company’s “bread and butter” historically.
“But, we haven’t seen as much growth in that vertical, mainly because we focused on it heavily since we launched. Multifamily is now recognizing what single-family did years ago,” he said in a phone call with Inman. “It’s been a weird dynamic for us because of the doom and gloom of the situation.”
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe
Craig C. Rowe started in commercial real estate at the dawn of the dot-com boom, helping an array of commercial real estate companies fortify their online presence and analyze internal software decisions. He now helps agents with technology decisions and marketing through reviewing software and tech for Inman.
