THE CHALLENGE
Tracking resident trends in a visual format
The multifamily industry relies on real-time data more than ever before to track resident trends and enhance asset value. As a nationally recognized apartment company with more than 40,000 apartments under management, Village Green understands the value of utilizing location-specific data to accelerate asset performance. However, the methods Village Green has deployed in the past were not capturing the full picture of delinquency, vacancy and resident feedback and how location was influencing these trends.
“For nearly 20 years we’ve utilized dot maps at all of our communities, but we thought the data would be much more insightful and actionable in a digital format,” said Daniel Melton, associate vice president of technology at Village Green. “If we could incorporate vacancy, occupancy and other resident trends and extract that information right out of our operating system, that would be a game changer for us.”
Village Green wanted to dial in to tracking delinquency, notices to vacate, and resident feedback based on where residents were located within a community. Melton knew that type of location-specific insight would add tremendous value to the company and improve operations.
“Being specific in what you’re looking at is crucial to operations and asset value,” Melton said. “If we want to know what’s happening within a particular building, map visualization and resident feedback gives us a more detailed picture of why residents are more likely to renew there than other buildings. When you see that information visually, it really speaks to you.”
THE SOLUTION
Deploying Engrain’s Unit Map Power BI Plug-in
Village Green has partnered with Engrain on other projects for years and Melton heard about some of the new data visualization software Engrain was deploying. During a scheduled call with Engrain, Melton learned about Engrain’s Unit Map Power BI plug-in.
Power BI delivers map-based visualizations of property performance data. The real-time data visualization would streamline identifying trends, outliers and patterns within Village Green’s communities. While tracking real-time inventory is important to Village Green, the company also wanted to pull in other resident trends and information to display on a community map.
“We look at charge codes by apartment, so if a community has a parking garage, utility, trash and pet charges, we can isolate and filter out only one of those charges and the map will react,” Melton said. “When we know where pets are within a community and we can see it on a virtual map versus just a spreadsheet, we don’t have to comb through multiple documents and it saves a lot of valuable time.”
The interactive Power BI dashboard hosts maps that provide context not just regarding building and apartment desirability trends, but also for financial patterns. Village Green can more effectively anticipate turns and exposure, set the appropriate performance goals and manage renovation or move-in schedules from one single platform. Engrain’s Power BI plug-in gives Village Green a tremendous advantage as clients want to see beyond occupancy and vacancy – they want to see all of the nuances of a community.
"The biggest benefit is looking at trends based on location within a community. It’s extremely helpful for us internally when we look at the information and consume it in that visual format, but on the other end of it, we’re building out visuals for our clients as well and they really appreciate that level of insight and context."
Daniel Melton
Associate Vice President of Technology, Village Green
