Ty Specht has spent his career solving problems most operators didn't know they had, and Foxen has built a business around that instinct. What started as a renters insurance compliance play has grown into a full platform tackling rent reporting, credit building, and now pet management with PetClear. I sat down with Ty to talk about where Foxen has been, why compliance and NOI are more connected than most owners realize, and what's next as the company expands its footprint across multifamily. 

Chelsea Kneeland: Well, thank you for joining us, Ty. We are so thrilled to have you here with us.

I know you are VP of Relationship Management at Foxen which is quite the title, but thank you for joining us at Multifamily Insiders to tell us a little bit about Foxen and the story of Foxen, because we always love to hear more about what our partners are doing and how they're making an impact on the multifamily industry.

So Ty, at Multifamily Demo Day, which shout out to Demo Day because we love it so much. You showed us the new PetClear solution, and we were thrilled to see that, but I also know Foxen has been serving the multifamily industry for a really long time.

Can you tell us initially what started out Foxen and kind of what problems in the market your company originally aimed to solve? Because that's always my favorite part of this story!

Ty Specht: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's, it's funny to think about it.

Foxen's been around for a really long time. We say really long time. It's been about a decade since Foxen's been started.

But in today's space, there's new players coming into the market every single day.

Chelsea Kneeland: That's a long time!

Ty Specht: That is a pretty long time, but Foxen really got started, it's one of my favorite stories to tell, out of a sister company who owns and manages roughly 40,000 apartments across the country.

So we're fairly unique in that sense that a lot of technology companies start from the technology space building software. We actually started from the property management space, so we understood the problems that we set out to solve because we were living them firsthand.

One of the big challenges that we were facing at that point in time was the renter's insurance compliance space. We realized it was becoming incredibly time consuming for the on-site teams.

They were manually tracking policies. They were verifying certificates, having to follow up with residents.

I know residents would show up with a U-Haul and go excited to pick up their keys and they weren't allowed to get their keys until they handed a certificate of insurance.

Or on the flip side, the side staff would feel very focused on making that a positive experience, so they would let that resident move in and all of a sudden that resident didn't have coverage, you know, six months into their lease and started a fire.

Chelsea Kneeland: Me! I was that person way back late.

Ty Specht: So many people experienced that!

So when we sat down and looked at the time consumption from the leasing teams as well as the risk, we realized that there was a major gap in the industry.

That was really why Foxen got started.

We really set out to automate these processes that gives owners and operators the confidence that every single resident is compliant, while also making sure that the automation and the simplicity for all users end to end was working as intended.

Chelsea Kneeland: That's always, I think the best start for a company is when you know that problem so well and you see it because you live it every day and you say, hey, we can solve this. We know that there's a better way to do it.

And truly, I was that person way back when. It's hard to have a tough conversation when you've worked so hard for a lease and you really want to make sure that your residents are satisfied and happy. But that's not always the best for your owners and your management company to think about.

Ty Specht: 100%

Chelsea Kneeland: "Well, don't be mad at me that I have to ask you another question." Right?

Ty Specht: I get it.

Chelsea Kneeland: Yeah, so it seems like you guys have evolved a ton since then and you also offer rent reporting and pet management overall.

Tell me a little bit more about those solutions.

Specifically, how do they support Foxen's mission, and what you do every day?

Ty Specht: Yeah, so our mission has really remained consistent throughout this entire process.

Everything that we're focused on is ultimately designed to reduce risks, create operational efficiencies, delivering economic value to owners and operators, and ultimately providing value to the residents as well.

Our renter's insurance compliance products remains the core foundation of what it is that we do today.

It's providing 24/7, 365 guaranteed compliance for the owners and operators with near instant COI verification.

So again, reducing that friction time from what the staff is having to do and also making sure that the resident experience is a positive one.

We then expanded into the rent reporting space. We were looking for additional products that still fit in line with the renter's insurance compliance, and we realized that there was really an opportunity to create true resident value there by allowing residents to participate in a program that would report their rental payments to all three credit bureaus.

If you think back to 10 to 15 years ago, that concept did not exist.

You looked at one of the major downfalls of renting compared to owning a house, and it was really that it was this is your largest monthly payment that you're going to be making at any given time.

Yet, it's not positively impacting your credit score.

We introduced rent history really with that designed to create significant value and really an amenity for the owners and operators that we were already serving.

Then in September of 2025, we launched PetClear, which is our pet management pet compliance solution to really streamline the pet compliance process from end to end.

Obviously, we talked about the renters insurance compliance space that we already have lived in for the last 9 to 10 years, and as we were just having more and more conversations with our customers, we realized that there was a lot of that concept that we could apply into the pet management space that allowed streamlined pet management policies, allowed for us to do the certificate monitoring from the ESA perspective and really just take that burden off of the on-site team.

So again, as we've grown, really our core remains the same. It's creating those solutions that create a lot of operational value to our partners.

Chelsea Kneeland:I love that you guys do the rent reporting because I have to tell you again, way back when right, when I was on site, but then also when I was one of the people who was renting at my properties, I would get so frustrated.

I was paying more in rent than many of my friends were paying in their mortgage, and I'm like, "But mine doesn't count."

It was so frustrating to think, well, how does that make sense?

So I love that you're doing that both for, you know, for your company, that makes sense for the owners and operators and that fiduciary responsibility, but then that really gives back to resident experience and making sure that renters know that, hey, the amount I pay, I'm paying timely, which matters to everybody. You know, it's going to have an impact overall.

I absolutely love that.

Speaking of taking care of your customers, I know Demo Day is one of the things that you mentioned that when we were doing that recording of that demo is that Foxen builds products based on feedback from your customers, which I always love, right?

A company that cares about their customers and my favorite kind.

So tell me a little bit about the background on what kinds of challenges you were hearing from your customers that led Foxen to develop PetClear in particular? Because I love that.

Ty Specht: Yeah, honestly, PetClear is probably my favorite story to tell and, and how it came through.

It was a couple of years ago, we were out in California with five to six customers of Foxen's and we just, we were having a session, we were saying, "Hey, take Foxen aside, what challenges are you guys facing? What challenges from the executive level are you facing?

"What challenges from a property level are you facing and what challenges are you hearing from your residents?"
During that session, every single person had wrote down pets, pets as a challenge.

So after that, our product team really did started to dig into that more and more and understanding, OK, when you say you're having challenges with pets, what does that actually mean?

Because it can mean a lot of things as you know in this industry.

As we started to have those conversations, obviously one of the biggest things that was coming up at that time was the fraudulent ESA requests.

In today's world of AI and just overall accessibility, there has been a significant spike in ESA requests and it's roughly 75% of owners and operators are concerned about fraudulent ESA's at this point.

It's becoming a major pain point for the owners and operators.

In addition to that, the pet revenue has been dropping significantly in the last five years as well, partially tied to that, but as we've dug into this more and more, we've started to learn what's actually driving the ESA behavior here.

It really boils down to two things from a resident perspective, it's accessibility and affordability.

So either residents can't find a community to live in that is near them that is welcoming a certain breed or it's just the affordability that you see owners and operators charging pretty significant fees maybe upfront and on a monthly basis that it's causing certain behaviors.

As we look as at the industry as a whole, we have to start to think through, "OK, how can we help support minimizing some of those behaviors going forward."

I think when you also look at some of the data, especially since COVID, the number of pet owners has just drastically increased by 15-20% in the last five or six years.

At this point, roughly 60% of renters have a pet. and this is always a mind-blowing statistic to me.

That means that at this point, a renter is more likely to have a pet than a child.

It's crazy to think about that, in today's space that more people today, you know, are bringing in their pets and the accessibility has just become such a challenge.

When you tie those challenges together and then you say, "OK, on-site team, go deal with these challenges," now you're taking away from what the core of their responsibility is, which is, you know, creating a positive resident experience obviously focused on getting heads in beds and maintaining a high, you know, leasing velocity.

Chelsea Kneeland: Yeah, and honestly, some of those things are so fascinating to me to hear these statistics because as a COVID pet parent and a parent of children, you know, those are really hard conversations too, because I'll tell you, one of them causes a lot more damage and costs a lot more than the other, and it might not be the one you think.

So I understand that, and those are really emotionally charged conversations to have, I think, for the on-site teams.

I love that what you all do kind of help separate that away from the team having to say like, "Hey, we can't accept this type of pet or, you know, you have to pay extra for the deposit for this pet."

Like those conversations can be really difficult, especially when the leasing team or the on-site team is trying to have a really emotional connection with the people who live there because it matters to them.

And again, as an adopted Pitbull parent, I know what that's like too, right?

I remember the days of trying to say, "No, really, they're fantastic animals, I swear," you know, So I know where both sides are coming from.

It's really easy to see how hard it can be for people to find somewhere to live that loves their fur babies like they do.

Everybody will take a kid.

Ty Specht; But with the breed restrictions, obviously, I mean, you've probably experienced it.

Maybe if you have that, it just becomes incredibly challenging to find a place that would allow that animal to live there.

Some of these residents are being left with no other option, and I think part of that is why we're in the position that we're in across this industry.

It's really interesting, obviously for Foxen, we're excited to continue to dig into this space more and more with, you know, the additional components that, you know, you think about with pets, Obviously the compliance is part of it.

You've got the liability that is a major concern for the owners and operators, as well as the pet damage. You just spoke to, you know, the pet damage.

There's somebody in the house that's causing some damage, and yeah, I think we all know which one it is.

I can speak to that as a as a fellow dog under myself.

Chelsea Kneeland: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I love that the things that you all do helps on both ends of the spectrum, right?

Because what we really want is for everybody to be happy, our residents and our teams and our ownership groups and everyone.

This is a win, win overall, and I absolutely love it.

We've talked a lot about the problems that teams face on site are the things that they're having to juggle and how much they're having to do.

One of the things I talk about all the time, especially more recently, I feel like we're in a new, you know, technology age of just increased tech all over the place, but these teams are juggling so many different tech platforms and tools.

How can tech providers ease this burden for property management teams because they are absolutely overwhelmed, and how does your team at Foxen address this challenge specifically?

Ty Specht: I think one of the largest mistakes that technology companies can make is assuming that adding another platform automatically creates value for the on-site teams.

Every single additional login creates another process for them to have to manage too.

So our philosophy is that the technology should remove work obviously, not add to the work.

One of the ways that we really focus on that is through integrations.

Our products are fit naturally into the systems that our customers are using, the property management softwares, and we're focused on continuing to strengthen those integrations, automating as many of those tasks, making sure that the information can live in an accessible place for the operators as well as the residents, so everybody can really make that access point in one location.

The other part of that is, you know, the software is one component of making these programs a success.

The other side is making sure that there is ongoing support.

So when we think of support at Foxen we think of it through all ends of the partnership, so that is a, you know, the leadership level, making sure that they have the visibility and access into the information that they're looking for.

It's the on-site teams that they have the ongoing support and accessibility to what matters to them.

And then also the residents, you can't forget about the residents.

Ultimately, a lot of these services that we're providing, you know, trickle down to the resident experience and we've experienced it firsthand in some of our earlier days, that if you're not creating a positive resident experience, you're not creating a good positive experience for your customers.

Because that just means that it's something that they're going to have to deal with at the end of the day, which is going back to the point, we're not trying to create more work for them.

We're trying to reduce the burden on them.

Chelsea Kneeland: Yeah. That is something we have heard from teams across the nation just consistently how, you know, they are just so overburdened with tech and so many platforms and so many things they sign on to and so many different dashboards, all while also being tasked with creating an excellent leasing environment, resident environment, you know, making sure they're doing all these other things.

So I love that that's part of your focus and that you make sure that it works seamlessly and easily.

I always joke that it's like when you were in school and every teacher goes, "Well, it won't take you that long for your homework, right? It's just going to be an hour."

And you're like, "Well, an hour from every class."

What else am I going to be able to do right?

Ty Specht: Perfect, yeah.

Chelsea Kneeland: I think that's such a good example for what happens so often is every tech provider, every solution provider is like, hey, we promise it's only going to be ten minutes or it's only going to take this much time, but when you stack it all together, it's a lot.

It's a really heavy burden on the team.

I love that you all do that and focused on it, it's really important.

So it sounds like y'all are doing all the right things, all the best things. I love this, the solutions that you provide.

But tell me a little bit from the insider view, what does growth look like for Foxen, in the year or next two years ahead, and how are you deciding like what's that next big problem that you're going to solve for?

Because it sounds like you've really got your pulse on or your finger on the pulse on what the problems are for our industry.

Ty Specht: Yeah, I think, you know, first and foremost, Foxen's never gone out trying to be the vendor that's creating a dozen different solutions and, you know, throwing it up, seeing if it works and going from there.

Our road map is truly driven by our customers and there was a really a prime example of that.

We're constantly having conversations with the owners and operators that we work with, learning what the friction points are for their on-site teams from their residents.

Where is there unnecessary risk that we feel there's an opportunity for us to support them in.

When you think about the different, you know, systems that are out there today, you know, we really want to specialize in, you know, the space that aligns with the current products that we're already offering and it doesn't feel like a random part within the process that why is Foxen getting inserted here.

So as we look ahead, we are continuing to invest into our existing products, making sure that the enhancements, the programs are running, you know, with the demands of our customers, everything in today's world with the Amazons that are out there, it's instant gratification.

You need to be able to service and support them in real time, so we're really focused on making sure that the solutions that we're offering today are working as intended.

Then at the end of the day, we're looking to see how can we solve real problems.

If it's something that can, you know, fit naturally into our current bandwidth within our relationships, create meaningful efficiencies for our operators, it's conversations that we're having and continuing to explore.

Chelsea Kneeland: That's really the way to go.

It's just so impressive that you'll continue to listen to your customers and try to figure out, you know, exactly what problems need to be solved and you do that well.

We're so glad that you've partnered with Multifamily Insiders and that you were participating with us during Demo Day.

We just have enjoyed this so much and I have loved getting to learn all about Foxen and a little bit more about you as well, so thank you so much, Ty.

I appreciate this and appreciate your time.

It's been a fantastic learning about what's on the road map and what's coming next as well.

Ty Specht: Thank you so much for having me.

Chelsea Kneeland: Thank you, Ty.