CARROLLTON, Texas (September 14, 2010) – RealPage, Inc.(www.realpage.com), a leading provider of on-demand software and services to the rental housing industry, today announced results from the use of CrossFire® Online Leasing at five Campus Habitat student housing properties. Campus Habitat, looking for a differentiator in its highly-competitive market, chose to deploy CrossFire Online Leasing, in conjunction with RealPage's Student Living solution, to cater to the busy lifestyle of today's college student.
Online Leasing allows students and their parents to complete their entire leasing process on the Web, from filling out an application, selecting a floor plan, conducting background screening and paying fees electronically, to signing lease documents with a legally-binding, secure eSignature. The online process allows students to lease quickly and at their own convenience.
"There's no doubt that Online Leasing has improved our pre-lease numbers," said Rob Martin, executive vice president of operations for Campus Habitat. "Some of our properties are as much as 50% ahead of where they were the previous year."
"We receive leases at times when I would think that most students aren't even awake," said Martin. "We'll come in the next morning and there will be 8, 10 leases showing up at these properties, and that is a significant gain over our competitors."
Campus Habitat employees at the site level have also benefitted from this new technology, as it enhances their selling power, and extends their ability to serve current residents.
"The positive changes that I've noticed are a faster leasing process, getting leases at night when the office is closed, less paperwork, more time to show the apartments and to be more hands-on with the residents," said Sara Fitzgerald, assistant property manager for a Campus Habitat community in Kalamazoo, MI.
Along with increases in occupancy, the corporate office has been able to streamline operations and make strategic staffing decisions to run sites more efficiently while maintaining revenue.
"I can allocate staffing and hours at properties in very different ways, knowing that they have the ability to be leasing 24/7," said Martin. "Online Leasing allows us to get twice as much done in a day as any other operating company."
Campus Habitat believes that the benefits derived from RealPage Online Leasing give it the upper hand in its highly-competitive Student Housing market. Martin states, "I wouldn't recommend it to other student housing companies, because I wouldn't want them to have the advantage that we have."
About RealPage
Located in Carrollton, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, RealPage provides on-demand (also referred to as "Software-as-a-Service" or "SaaS") products and services to apartment communities and single family rentals across the United States. Its six on-demand product lines include OneSite® property management systems that automate the leasing, renting, management, and accounting of conventional, affordable, tax credit, student living, and military housing properties; CrossFire® sales and marketing systems that boost occupancy and build retention; YieldStar® asset optimization systems that increase asset valuation and investment return; Velocity™ billing and utility management services that increase collections and reduce delinquencies; LeasingDesk® risk mitigation systems that reduce a community's exposure to risk and liability; and OpsTechnology™ spend management systems that help owners manage and reduce operating expenses. Supporting this family of SaaS products is a suite of shared cloud services including electronic payments, document management, decision support and learning. Through its Propertyware subsidiary, RealPage also provides software and services to single-family rentals and low density, centrally-managed multifamily housing. For more information, call 1-87-REALPAGE or visit www.realpage.com.
About Campus Habitat
Founded in 2002 by Maximus Yaney and headquartered in New York City, Campus Habitat acquires, renovates and manages student apartment communities near universities nationwide. With a portfolio of fourteen properties spanning nine states, Campus Habitat creates upscale environments that focus on value-adding amenities and all-inclusive packages that today's student values. Its proven student housing model—leveraging RealPage's process automation technologies— has helped catapult Campus Habitat to number 220 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing private companies.