Company Name
Realty Solutions
Door Count
2,600+ Doors
Portfolio Type
Multifamily Single-family
Buildium Customer Since
2010
Company Name
Realty Solutions
Door Count
2,600+ Doors
Portfolio Type
Multifamily Single-family
Buildium Customer Since
2010
New Jersey management company Realty Solutions knows how much a solid tech stack can increase efficiency, reduce costs, and boost staff productivity. They also know that staying competitive in the rapidly evolving property management market requires a shift toward more scalable and flexible technological solutions.
As they brought on apps to help them with maintenance, security deposits, owner experience, and other operations, however, they found it inefficient to keep track of disparate tools and dashboards. Too many apps—and too many logins—became a hindrance for their team—and a burden on their bottom line.
When Buildium launched Marketplace, an ecosystem of industry-leading apps that integrate seamlessly with Buildium, Realty Solutions found the fix.
For this case study (and video), we talked to Jeannie Connors, COO of Realty Solutions about their challenges as they built out a tech stack and how Buildium’s Marketplace reduced their team’s manual work and let them transition from reactive to proactive.
New Jersey management company Realty Solutions has leveraged Buildium’s property management platform for 14 years to manage their mixed portfolio of over 2,600 properties, that includes a range of types of properties, from commercial to multi- and single-family, to affordable housing.
“We’ve always had a saying at Realty Solutions: If it’s not in Buildium, it didn’t happen,” says Connors. “So, it was a disadvantage to us to have four different dashboards to be looking at and then four different partners—Buildium and then three other partners to help us.”
The three apps Connors is referring to are Obligo®, a security deposit alternative; Property Meld®, a maintenance automation tool; and Steady®, an owner benefits app. Each of these apps was helping them streamline processes and boost efficiency in each of their verticals. But keeping them apart in different apps still affected overall operations.
To make all of their operations “happen in Buildium,” Realty Solutions needed a way to pull all of the apps they used into one place with one login.
When Marketplace launched almost two years ago, Obligo, Property Meld, and Steady became part of the ecosystem, and Realty Solutions jumped at the chance to integrate them with their Buildium account. Now, when they log into Buildium, they can see all of the apps they’ve integrated with on one landing page, and navigate to each app’s dashboard easily.
Depending on the partner integration, data flows either into Buildium from the app or vice versa.
Here is a breakdown of those partners and how they have helped Realty Solutions realize their goals:
Obligo allows owners and property managers to offer alternatives to traditional security deposits, providing more flexibility and financial freedom for tenants.
Realty Solutions uses them to eliminate the risk and hassle that comes with security deposits.
“The liability of holding all of those security deposits is huge for any company,” Connors points out. “And the administrative time to enter all the security deposits is a lot of time. Obligo saves us time, which is money, and that hits the bottom line.”
With Obligo, they can offer tenants the ability to apply their traditional security deposit to their balance.
For current tenants, they can offer a credit.
“They can get a credit for that security deposit that they paid two years ago . . . and then we’re not holding that money anymore. It’s less of a liability for us. We’re not cutting a check when the tenant does decide to leave or the resident decides to leave. It’s a really good incentive. The residents were so excited. So we try to do that with every lease renewal. If there’s a traditional security deposit in place, we try to convert it to an Obligo security deposit alternative.”
Property Meld is a streamlined maintenance tool that automates work orders, tracks tickets, and keeps communications in one place. For Realty Solutions, it bridges the communication gap between vendors and residents.
Property Meld tasks create a ticket in Buildium.
In addition, Connors uses Buildium’s Maintenance Contact Center. Backed by RealPage, it’s a call center that manages service requests 24/7/365 and delivers prompt responses to residents with full visibility to what’s going on. It saves the Realty Solutions team time by taking maintenance calls for them.
“Property Meld and Maintenance Contact Center really help our maintenance program,” says Connors. “They make it so much easier for the maintenance coordinator. All the communication between the vendors and the tenants in Property Meld is just the way to go about it. It’s so much easier.”
Steady’s Owner Benefits Package™ protects rental income and unlocks liquidity for owners with its Rent Advance™ program. Through it, owners can get up to 12 months’ rent in advance to reinvest in their properties.
“Steady is the partner we use for our owner benefit package, and the owners are really loving the incentives that Steady has,” explains Connors. “The Rent Advance is a great feature because owners can use money to renovate properties or buy new properties. Getting a whole year of rent in advance.”
“I mean, that’s an amazing thing, and they can use that money really for whatever they want. Obviously, we’re hoping they put it back into the property or expand their portfolio.”
But a lot of our owners have actually done it twice now, so it’s working.
Connors says that many of her owners have taken advantage of the program, using it to help them renovate a current property or buy a new one. Either way, owners are building their revenue, which, in turn, allows Realty Solutions to build theirs.
Realty Solutions has now integrated eight partner apps in Marketplace. Connors describes the experience as easy as turning on a switch.
“Now that they’re integrated, there’s a lot less stuff outside of Buildium,” says Connors. “We can rely on one platform, and the partners in Marketplace have been really great about making things easier.”
Connor says it has allowed her property managers to move from a reactive to a proactive team.
“Our team has more time to critically think through situations and provide top notch customer service,” she says. “It’s the whole endgame. Right? We have all these processes in place and all these partners we’re working with, and the end goal is to have a happy owner, a happy resident, and a happy property manager.”
To learn more, check out Buildium’s Marketplace.
