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Rentec Direct leverages ChatGPT to market apartment vacancies

Craig C. Rowe; Canva

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Having listing copy written for you or inspired by OpenAI’s ChatGPT isn’t reserved only for residential sales listings.

Rentec Direct, a property management software firm, uses it to help clients quickly draft marketing content for available rentals, according to a June announcement sent to Inman.

Nathan Miller, President of Rentec Direct, said in the announcement that his company is always looking for ways to help clients shrink their business processes.

“Crafting enticing property descriptions can be time-consuming for property managers and landlords,” Miller said. “By using ChatGPT’s technology to automate this process, our clients can create creative rental listings in a fraction of the time, allowing them to focus on other critical aspects of their business.”

Users need merely input some basic property features into the ChatGPT plugin for it to create a usable description that can be published directly or edited as needed. Like all plugins, the tool is accessible from within its host system.

“Once the description is completed, property managers and landlords can easily publish their ads on their websites or syndicate their listings to over 20 of the most popular rental search websites through the Rentec Platform,” the company said.

While marketing vacancies is a core part of a property manager’s value to their clients, other matters often take priority, such as maintenance, rent collection and processing and emergency responses. Using an evolving technology like ChatGPT can at least make the tedium of writing about a unit less so. It can also lead to less time between turns or the transition between tenants.

Rentec Direct claims to be the first software company in its space using ChatGPT for this purpose, but AI is being used in other ways throughout the rental industry.

Forbes reported in 2021 about the onset of AI in multifamily, citing its benefits in predictive marketing and building maintenance forecasting. For example, an AI engine can monitor for regional utility concerns during heat waves or storm cycles and generate reminders to tenants to consider curbing usage or to be aware of potential outages. It’s very common for property managers to handle such tasks manually, making it slower and inconsistent.

Zumper, a rental industry software firm, is using ChatGPT to enhance its search process for users, Inman reported.

The apartment search capabilities will enable more natural, long-form search queries, a now common use of ChatGPT’s LLM or large language modeling. For example, it will allow prospective renters to enter, “Find apartments in South Lake Tahoe with views of the lake that allow dogs.”

A single-family rental investment property technology company Picket will soon launch a property management module that will automate much of its tenant-agent communications. Picket also uses computer vision AI to predict the quality of potential investments and potential repair costs by scanning submitted images of property interiors.

Rentec Direct is located in Grants Pass, Oregon, and helps landlords and property managers with a wide range of business services, from property websites to tenant screening and payment collection.

“We are thrilled to offer this industry-leading solution to help our clients save time, streamline the marketing process and give them a competitive advantage,” Miller said.

Email Craig Rowe