Marty Gonzalez is the office manager at Keystone Realty Group, Inc., a small business that oversees 23 residential units and 10,000 square feet of commercial space. With years of experience closing countless deals in real estate and property management, he knew Keystone would fall behind without the help of property management software. When Keystone implemented Yardi Breeze, Marty saw an immediate positive impact on his office and relationship with tenants. We asked him to share his story and insights into what it takes to run a modern, successful operation.
What was the challenge for you before using Breeze?
Managing several multifamily properties with spreadsheets and outdated software created multiple pain points, making it cumbersome and time-consuming to perform even the simplest tasks. Managing logins, taking maintenance requests by phone, figuring out late fees and updating listings proved too much for our small team to handle. Keystone needed a way to bring its marketing, property data and owner reports together in one place. That’s the only way we’d get an edge.
What used to take me around 15 minutes now only takes five.
What did Breeze change for your workflows?
Yardi Breeze proved to be the all-in-one solution that fit the bill. With a single login and dashboard showing real-time portfolio information, I can effectively oversee multiple properties in seconds flat. Plus, I save several minutes of work every time I need to drill down for more detail.
With Breeze, we’re able to scale up operations while scaling down staff workload. The improvements in resident retention, owner communication and overall efficiency have been priceless benefits to the company.
Another thing: When Keystone hired a new employee who had never used Breeze, I showed her how to use the online Help Center. She became proficient with Breeze in less than two weeks.
Have you noticed a difference in retention?
Thanks to tenant portals, there are no more phones ringing off the hook at all hours of the day. Everything tenants used to ask about is now easily submitted via their online portals (e.g., rent payments, maintenance requests).
Tenants used to rent for a year until the lease was up. Now, many of them stay for two or three years. Thanks to Breeze, our business operations are more efficient, and communication is much improved.
What accounts for how much time you’re able to save now?
The dashboard is the biggest time saver. It’s kind of like having five screens of information at once. I don’t need to drill into different tabs. I can click right into them from the main page to see accounts payable and find out what’s still owed. I don’t even have to go into individual tenant profiles or search each property to tell me who hasn’t paid. It’s all here in one place. What used to take me around 15 minutes now only takes five. And that’s what I need.
We thank Marty Gonzalez for sharing his time and experience with us. We also wish him best of luck on his other business operation, Marty Real Estate.
