Multifamily Tech Gurus

Hosted by Kerry W. Kirby

Technology Business Entrepreneurship

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Episodes

124

Latest episode

Oct 2026

Language

EN-US

About the show

The Multifamily Tech Gurus Podcast Series brings you the latest real-world experiences of PropTech innovator Kerry W. Kirby and technologist James W. Lancaster. Kerry and Jimmy live on the technology side of the multifamily housing industry. Kerry has built an award-winning company, 365 Connect, the multifamily industry's leading innovator in AI-driven marketing, leasing, and resident engagement platforms, that he founded over two decades ago, and Jimmy leads product development at the company. Together, they are on the frontline of managing their team of developers, customers, and all the craziness in-between.

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60 recent

October 22, 2026Episode 12427 min

The Integration Standoff: RealPage and EliseAI Ignite a PropTech Power Struggle

Join Kerry W. Kirby and Jimmy Lancaster , the masterminds behind the Multifamily Tech Gurus Podcast Series , as they examine a developing dispute between two prominent technology providers that is raising important questions across the multifamily industry. RealPage's decision to pause new integrations with EliseAI has sparked a broader conversation about platform control, data security, customer choice, and the rapidly evolving role of artificial intelligence. As property management technology becomes increasingly interconnected, this situation highlights the growing tension between protecting established systems and enabling the next generation of innovation. Kerry and Jimmy explore both sides of the integration debate, examining RealPage's stated concerns surrounding security, contractual obligations, and the expanding capabilities of AI agents, alongside the importance of interoperability and technology choice for multifamily operators. While established platforms have legitimate responsibilities to safeguard sensitive information and maintain system integrity, emerging technology providers depend on access to connected systems to deliver innovative solutions. The discussion raises a fundamental question: Where should platform oversight end and customer choice begin? Kerry and Jimmy's Words of Wisdom: "Technology innovation thrives when systems work together, but connectivity must come with accountability. As AI becomes more deeply embedded in multifamily operations, balancing open integrations, data security, and platform control is becoming increasingly complex. Technology providers must protect their systems and customer information, while operators need the freedom to choose solutions that best serve their businesses. The future of PropTech isn't about choosing between innovation and security. It's about delivering both without compromising customer choice. Because real innovation isn't about controlling the ecosystem. It's about making the ecosystem work." Resources: Artificial intelligence is now the driving force of business transformation

October 15, 2026Episode 12322 min

The Attribution Illusion: Why Lead Sources Don't Tell the Whole Story

Join Kerry W. Kirby and Jimmy Lancaster , the masterminds behind the Multifamily Tech Gurus Podcast Series , as they explore one of the most persistent challenges in apartment marketing: determining where a renter actually came from. Today's renter journey can span search engines, listing services, social media, Google Maps, AI platforms, property websites, reviews, and repeated visits before a prospect ever submits a lead. Yet many multifamily organizations still attempt to assign that entire journey to a single lead source. In this episode, Kerry and Jimmy examine why modern attribution is becoming both more sophisticated and more difficult. Privacy settings, browser restrictions, cookies, cross-device activity, embedded forms, and disconnected technology can prevent almost any tracking system from capturing every interaction. At the same time, relying on renters to select how they found a community from a long dropdown menu introduces another problem: human memory. Automated attribution may not capture every touchpoint, but it can provide a far more objective picture of digital behavior than asking prospects. Kerry and Jimmy's Words of Wisdom: "Lead attribution has never been perfect, and today's renter journey makes it even more complicated. Privacy settings, browsers, multiple devices, search, social, AI discovery, and repeated website visits can all create gaps in the digital trail. But asking a renter to remember that entire journey and choose one source from a dropdown isn't necessarily more accurate. The goal shouldn't be giving one channel all the credit—it should be understanding how multiple touchpoints work together to influence the decision." Resources: Maximize Productivity with Automation and AI-Copilot Capabilities

October 8, 2026Episode 12222 min

The Retention Gap: Why Multifamily Keeps Chasing the Next Renter

Join Kerry W. Kirby and Jimmy Lancaster , the masterminds behind the Multifamily Tech Gurus Podcast Series , as they explore one of the most overlooked contradictions in multifamily operations: the industry spends enormous amounts of time, money, and technology finding the next renter while often overlooking the value of keeping the residents already living in the community. From advertising and concessions to lead generation, tours, and leasing incentives, operators continuously invest in filling vacancies—but every resident who walks out the door starts that expensive cycle all over again. In this episode, Kerry and Jimmy examine why resident retention should begin long before a renewal notice ever reaches the inbox. Maintenance responsiveness, communication, service consistency, digital convenience, community engagement, and the everyday resident experience all influence whether someone decides to stay. Yet many operators focus their retention efforts in the final months of the lease, when the resident's opinion of the community may already have been shaped by hundreds of interactions throughout the year. Kerry and Jimmy's Words of Wisdom: "Multifamily spends an incredible amount of time and money finding the next renter, but sometimes the best opportunity is the resident already living in the community. Every move-out restarts the acquisition cycle—make-ready costs, marketing, concessions, leasing resources, and lost revenue. Retention doesn't start when a renewal notice goes out; it's built through every interaction throughout the resident lifecycle. Resources: Empower your renters with comprehensive self-service options. #Proptech #Multifamily #AI

October 1, 2026Episode 12127 min

The Marketing Mirage: You Can't SEO Your Way Out of Overpriced Rents

Join Kerry W. Kirby and Jimmy Lancaster , the masterminds behind the Multifamily Tech Gurus Podcast Series , as they tackle an uncomfortable reality facing apartment marketers: not every leasing challenge is a marketing problem. When traffic slows, leads decline, or occupancy begins slipping, the immediate reaction is often to increase advertising, replace the website, or question the marketing provider. But sometimes the real problem has nothing to do with visibility; it is the product, pricing, location, or competitive environment renters encounter once they find the property. In this episode, Kerry and Jimmy explore what happens when communities expect marketing to overcome fundamentals the marketing team cannot control. From luxury rents in challenging locations to competing properties offering newer units, better amenities, lower pricing, or aggressive concessions, renters ultimately determine whether the value proposition makes sense. SEO can increase visibility, and advertising can generate traffic, but neither can manufacture perceived value when the rent doesn't align with what the market is willing to pay. Kerry and Jimmy's Words of Wisdom: "Marketing can create visibility, generate traffic, and put your community in front of more renters, but it can't manufacture value the market doesn't see. If the rent doesn't align with the location, product, or competitive environment, spending more on SEO and advertising won't solve the underlying problem. Before blaming the website, the marketing strategy, or the vendor, operators need to understand what the data is really telling them. Sometimes the renter is finding you just fine—they're simply deciding that what you're offering isn't worth what you're asking." Resources: Creating Digital Velocity Across Each Step of The Leasing Journey

September 24, 2026Episode 12022 min

The Gemini Effect: Google Takes Aim at The Traditional Apartment ILS

Join Kerry W. Kirby and Jimmy Lancaster , the masterminds behind the Multifamily Tech Gurus Podcast Series , as they examine Google's bold move to bring AI-powered apartment hunting directly into the mainstream consumer experience. After years of renters relying on Internet Listing Services to search, filter, and compare apartments, Google is now showing a fundamentally different journey through Gemini—one where renters simply describe what they want and let AI find the options that fit. In this episode, Kerry and Jimmy connect Google's move to a transformation they have been discussing for months: renters are changing how they discover everything around them. Search is evolving from entering keywords and sorting through pages of results to AI understanding intent, evaluating information, narrowing choices, and delivering personalized answers. Apartment hunting is a natural extension of that shift. If Gemini can help a renter identify communities based on price, location, lifestyle, amenities, commute, pets, and other preferences without starting the journey on a traditional ILS, the question becomes harder to ignore: What happens to the ILS when renters no longer need to go there to search? Kerry and Jimmy's Words of Wisdom: "Google isn't just advertising Gemini—it's showing consumers an entirely new way to find an apartment. That should be a wake-up call for multifamily. The future of visibility belongs to operators who build their own digital ecosystem across websites, content, social, Google Business Profiles, and every channel AI can discover and understand. The ILS isn't going away tomorrow, but its role as the starting point could disappear faster than anyone expects. When AI becomes the apartment hunter, the winners won't be the communities with the most listings—they'll be the ones AI knows, trusts, and recommends." Google Gemini's Apartment Hunt TV Commercial Resources: We are leading the way in transformation across the multifamily industry.

September 17, 2026Episode 11926 min

The Vibe-Coding Hangover: Why Experience Matters More Than Ever

Join Kerry W. Kirby and Jimmy Lancaster , the masterminds behind the Multifamily Tech Gurus Podcast Series , as they explore an unexpected consequence emerging from the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence in software development. AI-powered coding tools can generate applications, features, and complex code faster than ever, but as AI-generated code moves from prototypes into production environments, companies are discovering that speed doesn't always translate into quality, reliability, or long-term maintainability. In this episode, Kerry and Jimmy examine the growing divide between developers who learned software engineering fundamentals before generative AI and those whose development experience has been shaped largely by AI-assisted coding. While vibe coding can dramatically accelerate development, experienced engineers bring something that can't be generated through a prompt: years of architectural knowledge, security awareness, and the judgment to recognize when seemingly functional code may create deeper problems within an application. Kerry and Jimmy's Words of Wisdom: "AI has made it incredibly easy to generate code, but generating code and engineering reliable software are two very different things. The real value of an experienced developer isn't how fast they can type—it's the years of knowledge behind every architectural decision, security consideration, and line of code they review. As vibe coding accelerates software development, that experience becomes more important, not less. AI can give someone incredible speed, but it can't instantly give them the judgment that comes from years of building and maintaining real-world systems." Resources: Tomorrow's Intelligence Built for Today's Renters

September 10, 2026Episode 11823 min

Beyond the Search Box: How Google is Rewiring Apartment Discovery

Join Kerry W. Kirby and Jimmy Lancaster , the masterminds behind the Multifamily Tech Gurus Podcast Series , as they explore how Google is fundamentally changing the way renters discover, research, compare, and ultimately connect with apartment communities. From conversational search and AI-generated answers to Google Maps, Business Profiles, and increasingly intelligent advertising, the traditional renter journey is being replaced by a new discovery model in which fewer interactions require renters to leave Google's ecosystem. In this episode, Kerry and Jimmy examine how these changes are disrupting the traditional apartment marketing funnel. Renters are moving beyond short keyword searches and scrolling through pages of links toward longer, conversational questions that generate immediate answers, recommendations, comparisons, and localized results. With more searches ending without a website click, Google Business Profiles are becoming increasingly influential in local discovery, and intelligent agents that can research properties on renters' behalf, the path from discovery to decision is getting shorter. Kerry and Jimmy's Words of Wisdom: "The renter journey is moving beyond ten blue links. Renters can increasingly ask Google what they want, receive personalized recommendations, compare their options, and take action without following the traditional search funnel. That changes the rules for apartment marketing. Your website, content, Business Profile, reviews, pricing, availability, and property data must all work together to tell Google one consistent story about your community." Resources: The Future Beyond Search is Driven By Intelligent Visibility

September 3, 2026Episode 11728 min

The Missing Middle: Making Workforce Housing Economics Work

Join Kerry W. Kirby and Jimmy Lancaster , the masterminds behind the Multifamily Tech Gurus Podcast Series , as they explore one of the most overlooked challenges in today's housing market: serving the growing population of middle-income renters caught between subsidized affordable housing and increasingly expensive market-rate communities. Often earning between 80% and 120% of Area Median Income, these renters may make too much to qualify for traditional housing assistance, yet still struggle to afford the rapidly rising cost of conventional multifamily housing. In this episode, Kerry and Jimmy examine how a new generation of technology, automation, and intelligent operating systems can help change that equation. From autonomous marketing and leasing workflows to centralized operations, digital resident services, automated communications, and streamlined back-office processes, technology creates opportunities to operate communities with fewer manual tasks and lower administrative overhead. Rather than using innovation solely to add amenities and features, Kerry and Jimmy discuss how technology can become part of the affordability equation by helping operators deliver quality housing more efficiently. Kerry and Jimmy's Words of Wisdom: "The missing middle isn't only a housing supply problem—it's a math problem. If the industry wants to deliver quality housing at attainable rents without relying on deep subsidies or luxury-level pricing, we have to rethink the entire cost structure behind the property. That means finding smarter ways to build, market, lease, and operate communities more efficiently. In the future of workforce housing, operational efficiency may be just as important as bricks, land, and financing." Resources: The World's Most Powerful AI-Driven Platform in Multifamily Today

August 27, 2026Episode 11625 min

MCP Connectors: Unlocking the Next Generation of AI in Multifamily

Join Kerry W. Kirby and Jimmy Lancaster , the masterminds behind the Multifamily Tech Gurus Podcast Series , as they explore one of the most important advancements shaping the future of artificial intelligence: Model Context Protocol (MCP) connectors. While most conversations around AI focus on chatbots and content generation, the next wave of innovation is centered on giving AI secure, real-time access to the systems, data, and workflows that power modern businesses. In this episode, Kerry and Jimmy explain what MCP connectors are, why they're gaining momentum across the technology industry, and how they enable AI to interact with business applications in ways that were previously impossible. The conversation explores how connected AI can retrieve information, automate workflows, coordinate tasks across multiple systems, and deliver more accurate, context-aware responses by securely accessing live business data instead of relying solely on pre-trained knowledge. Kerry and Jimmy's Words of Wisdom: "Artificial intelligence is only as powerful as the information it can access. Until now, AI has largely operated in isolation, answering questions without understanding the real-time context of your business. MCP changes that by securely connecting AI to the systems, data, and workflows that power your organization. This isn't just the next feature in AI—it's the foundation for the next generation of intelligent business operations." Resources: Tomorrow's Intelligence Built for Today's Renters

August 20, 2026Episode 11521 min

The Ownership Gap: What Owners Expect That Operators Can't Deliver

Join Kerry W. Kirby and Jimmy Lancaster , the masterminds behind the Multifamily Tech Gurus Podcast Series , as they examine one of the most important challenges facing the multifamily industry today: the growing gap between what property owners expect and what many management companies are equipped to deliver. As technology, automation, and real-time data continue to reshape business operations, owners are demanding faster execution and more measurable performance. In this episode, Kerry and Jimmy explore how ownership expectations have evolved beyond occupancy reports and monthly financials. Today's owners want continuous insight into leasing performance, marketing effectiveness, operational efficiency, resident satisfaction, and portfolio health — all supported by technology that delivers accurate, real-time information. The discussion examines why delayed reporting, disconnected platforms, and manual processes often create frustration on both sides of the relationship, leaving operators struggling to meet rising expectations. Kerry and Jimmy's Words of Wisdom: "The ownership relationship is no longer defined by collecting rent and sending monthly reports. It's defined by delivering continuous visibility, operational intelligence, and measurable performance. Owners are investing millions into their assets, and they expect management companies to operate with the same level of speed, transparency, and accountability they demand from every other part of their business. Closing the ownership gap isn't about better reporting—it's about building greater confidence." Resources: Autonomize your leasing process to operate around the clock.