Property Tech is a crowded space.
Everyone claims to understand property management's challenges. But here's the truth: most PropTech solutions are built by people who've never spent a day in a leasing office.
I know this because I've been on both sides - first as a property manager and now as the Co-founder and CPO of Zuma.
At Zuma, we discovered that building truly effective property management solutions for multifamily requires being on-site with our customers.
By spending time in leasing offices, we’ve uncovered critical needs that most PropTech companies miss - like flexible rent collection processes, legally compliant notice systems, and the need for human backup.
This approach has led us to build features that property teams actually use, not just ones that look good in demos.
Today, I’ll share some of those lessons and how they’re shaping our product.
Reality Check: What We Learned On-Site
When we first started building our Collections AI, we thought we had it figured out. "It's just a rent reminder system." Simple, right?
Then, we spent time with property teams.
We discovered that every community rent collection process is unique:
- Some must follow CARES programs with specific compliance requirements, such as a mandatory 30-day eviction notice.
- There were various different programs residents could be a part of such as autopay, FLEX, and government assistance programs.
- Every PMC ad community has various state-specific legal procedures they must follow.
- Most juggle multiple payment methods and resident preferences.
- Site teams needed to manually update delinquency trackers daily and schedule walkthrough notices for residents if they were not communicative to see if they skipped town.
This wasn't just about building a better reminder system - it was about creating a solution that could adapt to the complex reality of modern property management.
From Insight to Innovation
Our most successful features came directly from watching property teams work.
Take our walkthrough notice system - now one of our most popular features. We didn't dream this up in a conference room. We saw property managers struggling with the time-consuming process of creating and tracking these residents who had been ghosting collections efforts.
We also learned that there are real safety concerns when it comes to rent collections and move-out comms, and automating the more sensitive parts of this process was actually providing a safer experience to leasing agents.
Here's what we built based on real property needs:
- Flexible Rent Collection
- Supports multiple payment programs
- Adapts to state-specific requirements
- Handles various resident payment preferences
- Maintains tracker for compliance documentation
- Smart Notice System
- Automates walkthrough notices
- Ensures legal compliance
- Tracks notice delivery
- Maintains audit trails
- Collections Insights
- Resident risk assessment
- Real-time collections dashboard
- Payment status across communities
- Legal status breakdown
The Human Side of Property Tech
Being on-site showed us something crucial: property management isn't just about processing payments or sending notices. It's about people managing complex relationships and legal requirements while trying to run a profitable business.
That's why we built our AI solution with a hybrid approach.
Having been property managers ourselves, we knew that purely automated solutions often fail at the crucial moment. Nobody leases without touring, so dropping the ball on a lead means losing real revenue.
What's Next for Property Teams
Our close relationship with property teams continues to shape our roadmap. We're currently working on:
- Expanding to handle processing move-outs and move-out collections
- Collections analytics and insights dashboards
- AI residents risks scores to help the team make smarter rental and renewal decisions
Every feature we build comes from real conversations and observations. It's not about building what we think properties need - it's about solving the problems we've seen firsthand.
The Zuma Difference
What sets us apart isn't just our technology - it's our understanding of property operations. We don't build generic solutions and try to force them into property workflows. Instead, we:
- Start with real property processes
- Build solutions that match existing workflows
- Ensure compliance with legal requirements
- Focus on driving actual business outcomes
This approach means our solutions work in the real world, not just in sales demos.
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Looking Forward
As we continue growing, we're doubling down on our commitment to working closely with property teams.
We believe the future of PropTech isn't about forcing properties to adopt new processes - it's about building technology that makes their existing processes more efficient and effective.
If you're managing properties and tired of solutions that don't reflect your reality, we'd love to show you what property technology looks like when it's built based on real property management experience.
Kendrick Bradley is the Co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Zuma. Before co-founding Zuma, he worked as a leasing agent, giving him firsthand experience with the challenges property teams face daily.
