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AppFolio ships updates to improve resident experience

Craig C. Rowe; Canva

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Property management software company AppFolio is shipping a number of new updates to its multiple enterprise solutions. Largely driven by artificial intelligence, the enhancements spread to its student and affordable housing products, Inman learned in a June 18 press release.

Released in 2023, AppFolio Realm-X is the publicly traded company’s flagship product and where the updates are focused. Heavily supported by AI, Realm-X is the foundation on which an end-to-end multifamily housing operating system rests, designed to flatten and integrate the countless daily activities faced by institutional apartment owners. It also works with private landlords and can scale to serve management offices of all sizes.

Users can engage with the product in a number of necessary, daily operations that are ripe for automation. According to the company, Realm-X “eliminates repetitive tasks,” such as work order status inquiries, common email and vendor communication needs, and alerts on project completion dates, among other tasks.

The new Realm-X features include personalized automation at the specific user level, according to Will Moxley, senior vice president of product at AppFolio. In a statement, he called it “an additional pair of hands.”

“Our early customers recognize Realm-X as a strategic advantage that streamlines their daily operations, freeing up time to reimagine how they want to run things in the future,” Moxley said. “And right now, it’s allowing them to sustain their growth while improving the productivity of every team member.”

Users will experience Realm-X Assistant, and Realm-X Messages, the company said. The former, a “co-pilot” experience, will give users the power to request reports, conduct tasks at the project- or bulk-level and request any number of commonly critical, but burdensome, work details.

Realm-X Messages offers users a more efficient way to communicate. “Realm-X Messages uses a message’s context to guide users towards appropriate steps, and provide quick, clear, and relevant replies with personalized details,” the release stated.

For its student housing customers, AppFolio has released Flexible Leasing, which enables the system to accommodate group or individual leases and will employ features accordingly, such as lease payment assignments and individual terms per occupant, or mixed-leasing.

Affordable housing managers now have available Tenant Income Certification (TIC) support to better how they manage Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC), including new methods for working with HUD to recover costs, according to the release.

AppFolio also built a “stack marketplace” for finding new business partners to plug into their solutions. More than 50 solutions are available and a new Resident Experience that company says will “transform the rental journal,” for lease applicants using digital onboarding and empowering smoother move-ins, along with faster communications and an improved approach to ensuring positive housing transitions.

In June 2023, AppFolio linked up with Latch, which acquired Honest Day’s Work, a company founded by Jamie Siminoff, founder of video doorbell company Ring.

AppFolio is based in Santa Barbara, California.

Email Craig C. Rowe