This week, I'm fortunate to be joined by fellow South Dakotan, Ray Hespen. Ray is CEO and co-founder of Property Meld, a maintenance automation software company. based in Rapid City, South Dakota.Let's start with some performance metrics from Property Meld's 2023:$723,997,461 in repairs completed8,467,099 maintenance phone calls eliminated378,082 maintenance issues prevented4.40 average resident satisfaction across all customers4,786,554 maintenance tasks automatedDuring our conversation, we discuss some of these metrics and how great communication can play such a critical role in maintenance automation. Ray breaks down the challenges of maintenance coordination and why property management needs to improve despite these challenges. Ray and the team at Property Meld take a holistic approach to tackling challenges in property maintenance, gathering data, and providing automations. You'll hear about that and more. Lastly, you'll hear me plugging Property Meld's conference, Maintenance Summit in here as well. If you're in property management, either in the field or tech side, then a trip to South Dakota this year in September has got to get on your schedule. More about Ray and Property MeldProperty Meld is a web-based property maintenance software dedicated to simplifying maintenance coordination. We provide unmatched visibility into crucial maintenance metrics, empowering property management companies to make data-driven decisions. Our robust solution connects property managers, residents, vendors, and property owners in one location. Automated workflows, AI-fueled thoughtful responses, centralized scheduling, and best-in-class communication drive positive, predictable, and profitable maintenance.Ray Hespen is the CEO and co-founder of Property Meld, a maintenance automation software company. Ray and his co-founder, David Kingman, started Property Meld in 2014 to bring intelligent maintenance to the property management world.Follow Property Meld on TwitterFollow Property Meld on LinkedInCheck out Property MeldCome to South Dakota for the annual Maintenance Summit, hosted by Property Meld - https://pmusersummit.com 

In this episode, I interview Zach Gorman, co-founder and COO of RealReports, an AI-powered real estate data platform that consolidates multiple data sources and provides agents with comprehensive reports. The platform offers agents the ability to generate new business, win deals, and conduct research and diligence more efficiently. We discuss the challenges of fragmented and inaccessible data in the residential real estate industry. He shares his non-traditional path to real estate and the inspiration behind RealReports. We explore the value of technology in solving problems and creating efficiencies. We also get into more about the branding and marketing of RealReports, including RealReports' rebrand.  Of course we couldn't finish the discussion without getting into broader trends of AI in real estate.More about RealReportsReal estate data is fragmented, expensive, and time-consuming to access. This costs companies billions of dollars and makes rapid innovation in the industry nearly impossible. We are building an infinitely flexible data marketplace to serve as the infrastructural backbone for the entire real estate ecosystem.Our flagship product is called a RealReport — an AI-powered "Carfax for homes," powered by data from 30+ best-in-class providers and Aiden, an AI copilot, which can answer any property question instantly. RealReports provide comprehensive property information for every home in the United States and empower real estate professionals to win more deals, generate leads, and build trust with their clients. Follow Zach on TwitterConnect with Zach on LinkedInFollow RealReports on TwitterCheck out RealReports

For episode 200 of Tech Nest, I wanted to share some thoughts on the journey of the podcast, as well as some general life and work updates. Of course I owe so much to so many in the industry—so I spend some time discussing past guests and what this show means to me. You'll hear a brief bit of the success stories of startups featured on the show and highlights the challenges faced by proptech companies. Lastly, I leave you with some helpful info on upcoming events across the country you'll want to get on your radar. Below are links to many of those events for you to consider attending.I mentioned in this show Geek Estate. For those not yet a member, please reconsider. Learn more at: https://www.geekestate.com  Event Links:https://www.imn.org https://blueprintvegas.comhttps://promo.inman.com/upcoming-eventshttps://www.narpm.org/conferenceshttps://ioisummit.realtorMy Links: Follow Nate on TwitterConnect with Nate on LinkedInFollow Tech Nest on TwitterFollow Tech Nest on LinkedInJoin the Tech Nest NewsletterSubmit News for Tech NestApply to Be On Tech Nest 

Pat Kinsel, Founder and CEO of Proof, discusses rebranding from Notarize, fraud risks in real estate transactions, AI's impact, and the importance of security. He highlights identity verification and the challenges in ensuring trust. The conversation also touches on systemic bias fears and task automation challenges in the industry. Listen to learn how Proof is revolutionizing digital transactions for real estate.

Today's guest is Matt Service, COO of Apartment List. In this episode, Matt discusses the unique user experience and value proposition of Apartment List's matchmaking rental marketplace and announces the company's latest innovation: Lea Pro. As they describe it, Lea Pro is "a groundbreaking AI-powered leasing assistant designed to work hand-in-hand with property management companies and leasing agents." This is an iteration of their already available automated leasing assistant, Lea. Lea has already proven valuable to agents and has been recognized for being a leading technology solution in leasing. We also get into the apartment leasing business. Matt highlights the importance of surfacing trade-offs in apartment hunting and leveraging technology to enhance the rental process. He shares insights into the current trends in the rental industry and the challenges faced by brokers and agents. Of course, we also briefly cover the anticipated wave of new apartment inventory on the horizon and how that may impact leasing trends in the near future.More about Apartment ListApartment List, the leading rental matchmaking marketplace, today announced the launch of Lea Pro, a groundbreaking AI-powered leasing assistant designed to work hand-in-hand with property management companies and leasing agents. Building on the success of its predecessor, Lea, which earned the 2024 AI Excellence Award from the Business Intelligence Group, Lea Pro is a game-changer in the world of AI leasing assistants. Powered by cutting-edge generative AI, Lea Pro is designed to work alongside leasing teams, proactively engaging with renters across multiple channels in a way that feels intuitive, natural, and remarkably human.Follow Apartment List on TwitterCheck out Apartment ListRead the full announcement about the launch of Lea Pro - https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/introducing-lea-pro-by-apartment-list-ai-powered-leasing-assistance-enhances-renter-experience-302099676.html 

This week's featured guest is Gavin Myers, Managing Partner at Prudence, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in technology companies in the real estate sector. We dig into Gavin's background and transition to proptech, as well as Prudence's investment strategy of backing differentiated and defensible companies. Gavin shares the importance of understanding the sector and the people involved, as well as the challenges of finding talent in proptech—a topic I'm passionate about (collectively, we as an industry need to do more to attract high-caliber talent).Gavin also provides insights into Prudence's new fund and their focus on AI and construction tech. This is Prudence's third fund at $80 million, bringing their total AUM to $230 million. News of the fund is linked down below.More about Gavin and PrudencePrudence is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in technology companies leading the global transformation of the real estate sector. Prudence is an early investor in companies such as Casafari, Compass (COMP), CREXi, Evernest, Hemlane, Maxwell, Propify, Salus, Sundae, and VendorPM. Gavin and his team are investing across Proptech 2.0 – software innovation driving data capabilities to power autonomous business processes in real estate. Gavin Myers is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Prudence. He currently serves on the Board of Directors at AI Clearing, Casafari, Morty, VendorPM and CREXi (observer). Before co-founding Prudence in 2009, Gavin worked at Sun Capital Partners, focused on middle market private equity, as well as Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs. He received a BA in Political Science from Yale University and an MBA in Finance from Columbia Business School.  Connect with Gavin on LinkedInFollow Prudence on TwitterCheck out PrudenceNews: Prudence Closes Its $80mm Fund III To Invest In Technology Companies Transforming The Built World

Yves Perez, CEO of WorkBnB, discusses the significance of workforce housing and the challenges faced by workers in the construction industry. He highlights the importance of mental health and the need for comfortable accommodations for workers who have to travel for their jobs. Perez explains the practical differences of workforce housing compared to traditional options like Airbnb and hotels and shares how companies can work with WorkBnB and the about the potential impact of tech advances on the real estate industry, with a shift in the approach to corporate housing. Perez even gets into the power of branding and word of mouth in building a successful marketplace, noting Workbnb's exciting partnership with the NFL. Finally, Perez gives his predictions for the future of WorkBnB and the workforce housing category.  Of course, what's a real estate discussion without touching on the need for more affordable housing solutions—so we got into that as well. More about Yeves and WorkbnbWorkbnb is a Techstars Venture backed, B2B SAAS travel platform on a mission to accelerate the proliferation of workforce rental homes and improve the lives of millions traveling for work.Yeves Perez is a highly innovative and visionary CEO who has taken the lead in revolutionizing the future of workforce travel and prop tech. With a strong background in marketing, advertising, and brand architecture, he co-founded Workbnb with a mission to transform the rental homes industry for the better and enable millions of people traveling for work to enjoy a better quality of life. Under his dynamic leadership, Workbnb has been featured in top publications including SKIFT, Black Enterprise, and the Harvard Business Review, and is now providing temporary housing for Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas, Nevada as a proud supplier to the NFL. Perez also has the distinction of being a graduate of the inaugural cohort for Build in Tulsa Techstars Accelerator, the Tulsa 12.Follow Yeves on TwitterFollow Workbnb on TwitterFollow Workbnb on LinkedInCheck out Workbnb

Brandon Peterson, the founder and CEO of GeoKey, discusses the benefits of mobile access control and property management solutions. He shares his background as a serial entrepreneur and the inspiration behind starting GeoKey. Brandon explains the importance of partnerships and integrations in the proptech industry and how GeoKey is leveraging AI to streamline operations and enhance the customer experience. He also discusses market trends, and the future of building access and security.About Brandon and GeokeyGeokey is a mobile access solution for property owners and tenants to control the security of their assets without requiring Wi-Fi or readers. In a single app, Geokey controls interior and exterior doors, elevators, gates, amenity access, thermostats, water detection, and guest passes. With detailed data and analytics, it’s easy to see live tracking and it’s simple to add new users or change their level of access.Brandon is a third generation entrepreneur with a passion for innovation and solving problems. After gaining experience in starting a coworking space, real estate project, nonprofit, ecommerce, and managing gyms - the idea for Geokey was born. He bootstrapped their beginning, got a patent for using location services to authenticate access and now they’ve found their niche in multi-family and college campuses. Connect with Brandon on LinkedInFollow Geokey on TwitterCheckout Geokey

In this episode we have Clayton Collins, the Founder and CEO of HW Media. Clayton discusses the growth and vision of HW Media, the challenges of building a media powerhouse, predictions for the real estate market in 2024, and their upcoming annual event, The Gathering. Clayton shares insights on interest rates, inventory, and consumer psychology in the housing industry. He also highlights the importance of research and data in providing a full picture for housing professionals. The conversation concludes with a discussion on HW Media's plans for the future.More about Clayton and HW MediaHW Media provides mortgage, real estate and fintech professionals the news, knowledge and community they need to support decision making and business growth. Aligned with our mission to Move Markets Forward, we publish daily news and content through each of our core publishing brands including HousingWire, RealTrends, and Reverse Mortgage Daily. HW Media is based in Dallas, TX with team members across the country.  Clayton Collins is the founder and CEO of HW Media. He leads HW Media’s corporate strategy and content roadmap, while building a world-class team of business media professionals. He is also managing partner of Riomar Capital, an entrepreneurial investment firm that acquired HousingWire in 2016. Prior to founding Riomar Capital, Collins worked at RBC Capital Markets in the mergers and acquisitions group and served as vice president of national sales and marketing at Citibank. Connect with Clayton on LinkedInFollow HousingWire on TwitterFollow HousingWire on LinkedInCheck out HousingWireCheck out The GatheringAnd for those considering attending The Gathering, HousingWire is giving Tech Nest listeners 50% off the cost of VIP tickets. Just use this link when you register to get your VIP ticket at a lower cost than the standard admission. Register here: https://events.housingwire.com/the-gathering-by-housingwire?promo=NESTVIP  

Tim Ray, CEO of VeriFast, discusses the importance of identity verification in the real estate industry and the challenges of tenant fraud. He explains how VeriFast's single-source verification platform helps verify individuals' identities and financial details, providing a more secure and flexible screening process for renters—especially for those with a non-traditional income. Tim also highlights the company's integrations with property management systems and the need for trust and transparency in data sharing. He predicts that credit checks will become less relevant in rental applications and that document processing using PDFs will fade away as technology advances.More about Tim and VeriFastVeriFast is the only single-source verification platform for identity and financial data that enables applicants to verify their data via a digital connection or document upload with OCR and fraud detection.  VeriFast provides a simple, configurable API and turnkey UI that delivers that best ROI for companies that need to validate identity, banking, payroll and/or tax data.   VeriFast claims to be a super aggregator of the best verification technology vendors into one universal platform that configures and enriches data to deliver superior decisioning with a best-in-class user experience and trusted by everyday consumers to share their data digitally.  There are a multitude of verticals from real estate to banking, insurance, government, and beyond that still rely on slow, analogue processes to share and verify identity and financial data.  VeriFast provides the most trusted verification platform in the world with the highest converting opt-in rate in the industry. Getting consumers to share their data is tough, it’s our superpower.  VeriFast has a four-star rating on TrustPilot, and we’re the only company brave enough to invite every applicant to rate their experience publicly. Tim Ray is a 4X Founder and Angel investor with a passion for building and scaling innovative businesses from ideation, and a track record of successful exits. Tim is passionate about the importance of creative "out-the-box" thinking, analytical decision-making and developing great relationships to solve complex problems and find winning outcomes. Currently Tim is Co-Founder & CEO of VeriFast, the first single-source verification platform that helps companies verify an individual's identity and financial details using consumer-permissioned data; reducing billions of dollars lost to inefficient underwriting and fraud annually. Tim plays dad to an amazing family with 3 kids and an incredible wife, and is passionate about travelling and being active with friends: skiing, golfing, cycling and more recently kite surfing.Connect with Tim on LinkedInCheck out VeriFast