Poplar Homes’ homeowners have used personalized one-on-one visual reports to make data-driven property management decisions for 8 months, since January 2020. By integrating Cast.app audio and video player with our contactless rentals product, we were able to explain complex pricing and investment strategies to homeowners. The product addition, known as “OneCast”, has lowered vacancy costs and created $6.6 million in additional revenue for our homeowners.
“Cast has helped reduce days-on-market by 14 days for over $1 billion worth of managed properties — helping our 4,000+ customers make $6.6 million in revenue and has helped significantly improve our NPS” says Rico Mok, Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder at Poplar Homes.
Homeowner Decision Making Before Cast
A large population of Poplar Homes’ Homeowners are first-time real estate investors who are renting their home after moving or downsizing into a new home. Many homeowners are data-driven, while others might act on emotional appeal towards their investment. Regardless of their real estate experience, all rental property owners aim for profitability on their investment. Real estate investors rely on Poplar Homes as their property manager to maintain a profitable rental and guide them along the way.
Our teams capture a substantial volume of market data which we often share to homeowners through our Property Operations team. We’ve found that sheets of data are confusing to understand. Not everyone has a data analytics background or has the time to digest this data. Most homeowners might only have a few minutes a week to speak with our Leasing Team.
Prior to Cast, Poplar Homes homeowners were receiving static market updates during the leasing process by email, text message, and a phone call from the Customer Success team. Altering the leasing strategy with homeowners was fragmented and manual so only 10% of our customers would optimize their pricing strategy prior to Cast.
To increase the number of homeowners optimizing their leasing strategy, Poplar Homes looked for a way to provide interactive, automated property updates for busy homeowners.
Cast’s Impact on Homeowner Leasing Strategies
Cast’s integration with our contactless rental services provides an automatic one-on-one personal video update to homeowners. OneCast compares a property’s performance to similar properties on the market and offers recommendations to increase traction.
In our five years of business, we’ve found that it’s critical to adjust your rental price as you gauge “feedback data” in the market. Feedback data originates from all the inquiries, showings, and applications on your listing. If a property is not getting enough inquiries or showings, for example, it may indicate a problematic listing. We took our feedback data algorithm and hooked it up to the 1:1 personal video layer from Cast.
Cast offers options to change the leasing strategy with a price drop or a limited-time promotion. Homeowners can interact real-time with the data, changing their strategy with the tap of a button. Cast uniquely leverages artificial intelligence to provide unbiased recommendations. The personalized video updates do not serve an agenda, since they are not explained by a commissioned salesperson, therefore serving as a source of unbiased information.
Users can also replay the OneCast daily update or share their report to get a second opinion. If a homeowner wants to learn more about their property update, an option to contact their dedicated leasing team for a free consultation call is available right within the Cast.
Adrian Duong, Poplar Homes’s Director of Leasing, claims “price drops were the single hardest thing to do for our team. There was no way our team could create, present, and explain these price reports to all of the owners. In fact, we would barely do 3 pricing changes a week.” After 8 months of launching Cast, 40% of homeowners changed their pricing strategy or offered a competitive promotion immediately after watching a 3-minute daily OneCast.
“Market data was inherently complex to share with homeowners because not everyone was data savvy or cared to analyze lines of data. It was also difficult to visualize included promotions within the market data. Cast crunched the numbers for our homeowners in an easy to comprehend report”, says Duong.
The impact of OneCast updates has largely improved our homeowners’ property performance. OneCast lowered the average days-on-market count from 33 days to 16 days. It reduced vacancy cost by $1,500 per property, resulting in more revenue for the homeowner. 85% of homeowners watch their personalized OneCast daily. Of those homeowners, 75% of them replay their daily OneCast 3.1 times per viewing session.
The return on investment for integrating Cast into the Poplar Homes product has generated $6.6 million in revenue for homeowners as of now. The small technology and time investment felt effortless and the product provides an effective method for customer communication to drive high-value actions in a fast-paced digital world.
OneCast Product Additions on the Horizon
Cast has proven its ability in informing users with data reports to make rational investment decisions. The next product addition will include Cast one-on-one personal video reports for renters.
Cast can plug into Poplar Homes’s data sources to find and recommend similar homes to renters looking to move. Dual coding research has found that users retain 68% of the information when both visual and auditory senses are stimulated, versus 10% with only auditory senses, and is part of the science behind Cast. An OneCast product can help renters find their ideal home faster than traditional methods. Renters can then learn more or book a showing directly within OneCast.
There is immense potential to apply Cast to other marketplaces, like Poplar Homes, where Cast can help inform buyers and sellers, shrink market gaps and help customers make data-driven decisions. Applications for Cast’s one on one personal video can be applied to solve complex customer problems, from helping retail investors make financial decisions at Robinhood to daily health monitoring reports in healthcare.
You can schedule a Cast demo with a Poplar Homes Specialist for your rental property.
Learn more about our ever-evolving technology releases with Cast on the Cast Customer Stories page.
For media inquiries, reach out to marketing team at marketing@poplarhomes.com
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