As we come upon the fall conference season and many panels (and one whole conference) dedicated to technology in multifamily housing, it got me thinking. When I first started working in this industry, it was very clear that we were real estate companies using technology; but now I wonder if we’re becoming technology companies running real estate?

Give the importance of buy/sell decisions and the amount of human resources dedicated to operating individual properties, the answer is probably that we’re still the former; but it may not be so clear cut…and the pendulum may swing dramatically over the next decade. Consider the following:

Lest we think this only affects operations, the deal side of the business is equally ripe for innovation. AI-driven algorithms could one day (perhaps sooner than we think) do a better job of analyzing investment options that humans.

So maybe we’re still real estate companies using technology, but it wouldn’t hurt to think a bit more about how we could be better technology companies that just happen to work in real estate!