Multifamily operators want to provide an amazing experience for prospects and residents, and the more we have to worry about payment details, collections, or even refunding security deposits, the less time we have to focus on our core value of providing a home for our clients.  I had the opportunity to sit down with Chris Helmers, VP of Sales & Client Success at Zego to discuss their beginnings, as PayLease has evolved to the Zego we know today, and what they have in store for the future. 

Brent Williams: Hey, everybody. Welcome to another conversation. Today I have Chris Helmers, who is VP of Sales and Client Success at Zego.

And we're going to talk about the financial underpinnings of these relationships with our residents and hear their story because frankly, I love the back story of companies and how they evolve with the industry because we're leveraging what tools that they have to propel our properties. And so I love hearing their story.

Chris, thank you so much for joining me.

Chris Helmers: Hey, Brent, appreciate you having us. How you doing today?

Brent Williams: I'm doing great actually. Life is fantastic.

Things going OK over there?

Chris Helmers: Absolutely. We're in full swing of fall up here in Portland, OR where I live, so enjoying the cooler weather, but we're not here to talk about that.

We're here to talk about Zego and some property management technology.

Brent Williams: So what really grabs me on all this conversation is when I think about what we do at Multifamily Insiders, we put on events like Multifamily Demo Day or Webinar Wednesdays and those are our core offerings.

We want to put on an amazing event, and I frankly don't want to have to worry about collections. I don't want to worry about the process of collecting payment or whatever that is. That is a distraction generally for us, right? We just want to do an amazing event providing amazing content.

So I'd imagine it's most like the same for property management companies. They want to create an amazing experience for prospects walking in the door, residents.

They don't want to worry about how they're actually collecting the rent. They just want to do what they're best at. And so I think that's really goes along with how you all add value. It's taking away those distractions and making it simple for them to do amazing service.

So let's talk about that your your history and let's kind of rewind the clock just a bit. You all are some of the original innovators when it comes to these financial transactions, rent collections, and then we get into collections and utility payments.

And now going forward into the reverse where we're talking about, you know, security deposits and getting those back out to the residents. But before we get there, I'd like to talk about the origins and hear about that piece and then kind of walk us along how you added these different pieces along the way.

Chris Helmers: Yeah, absolutely. Well, well put, Brent. And you're exactly right.

We continue to hear there's fundamentally 2 things trying to happen within our industry. One property manager trying to do their jobs, run the back office, run the properties. And the renters just want a quality easy experience because it's, it's the biggest expense they have on a monthly basis. And frankly, it's where they live.

So Zego's story actually starts under a different name. A little company called PayLease that had, you know, quite the name in the industry for a really long time, started in 2003.

There's two guys there are fresh out of college sellers living in San Diego, you know, hitting the streets, knocking on doors. And they're sitting down after work one day enjoying a couple beers, and they're sitting there saying, we're so busy, why can't I pay my rent online?

And just like that, PayLease was born. From there, they realized that nobody actually was doing it. At this time, this idea of online payments was, was still relatively new. You know, the Internet was still on the up and up. And, when we think about renter demographics, they weren't used to paying things online the way younger renters are today.

So we fast forward a couple years, they build the platform, they launch it. We're one of the first players in the space. We move across all aspects of residential real estate. And then in 2015, we made a slight pivot and we acquired a utility management company based out of Chicago. Because if you're going to pay your largest expense ,rent, digitally, why aren't you paying your second largest expense at a property digitally, utilities?

Not only about collecting that money, but also, you know, sending it out and continuing to make that process easy for our clients and, and for the property operators. It's not just about having the tools, it's about making sure that they're automated in a simple way.

A couple years later, we made another acquisition. We bought a in a IoT company called Zego, which at the time had a resident experience app. And this idea that the experience that the resident has at your property is quickly evolving out of the physical amenities and into the digital amenities, and it was a natural evolution for for PayLease at the time.

We have a wonderful super strong online payments utility management platform. Why not embed it where renters are going? Which is they're going mobile, they're doing everything on their phone.

It was at that time we kind of picked up our heads and we're like, you know, we, we're, our core competency is online payments, but we're starting to do so much more than that. And at the time, we felt that PayLease was a little constricting.

You know, it didn't necessarily capture all the things we were doing, and we had this grand vision of the money moves on Zego.

What can we do from a technology perspective that's going to help automate the flow of money in and all the money going out?

So at that point, we pivoted and we had a new name. Zego was born and it's been incredible ever since we've focused a lot on that user experience.

We know how important turnover is and reducing those costs, keeping residents happy, all while keeping the workload simple and easy for the property managers because they're constantly being tasked with more work and the resources are commonly going down.

So we keep evolving, and at that point, Zego was acquired in 2021. Yeah, we landed in our forever home by a company called Global Payments.

Global Payments is the larger, largest technology payments provider, frankly across the globe. And we have a nice little niche carved out with Zego being their first foray into payments and in the residential real estate world.

And here we are. It's 2025. We've been growing. We've been evolving.

My story with Zego started back in 2016 when we were PayLease at the time.

I've had the absolute pleasure of working with some wonderful folks here, watching our company evolve not only with the people within it, but also as a technology provider in the space all the way to where we are now.

And Brent, as you kind of called out, not to overplay our hands, but we've got some exciting things coming down the pipeline as well.

Brent Williams: You're a unicorn for being with a technology company for coming up what, on 10 years now that, my goodness, you never see that anymore. That's amazing.

So let's talk about, you know, every piece of these. It's interesting because they have their own unique dynamics, right?

It's not just about a matter of, you know, accepting money or paying out money in a very, you know, simplistic. They're all the same. Each of them had their own quirks.

Can you walk me through how, you know, collecting rent is different from collecting utility payments and then even collecting collections at that point? How do these differ from a process perspective and even like, the differences between each one?

Chris Helmers: Yeah. You know the difference if we go backwards in time a little bit, the difference was that people were having to make multiple payments.

They're paying rent over here, They're paying utilities over here. And if they're getting any money back, it's coming from a different channel. And that's frankly, it's just not a great experience.

We think about what a modern renter looks like today. A lot of folks grew up using iPhones. They definitely grew up using the Internet.

They're, they don't have checking accounts or they don't have checkbooks to go ahead and write a physical check. They're used to paying everything digitally.

So, and again, rent, utilities, these are the largest expenses a lot of folks have on a monthly basis. So they want that quality experience that they're getting from their banks, that they're from their social media apps, that they're getting everywhere else.

So the real value is taking the rent payment and the utility payment and any other ancillary charges, consolidating it into one singular payment and giving them one opportunity to pay that directly to the provider.

It's matching how they want to pay, whether it's ACH credit card, they want to put it on a debit card, introducing flexible payments so you can pay in an installment or maybe you are a little, you know, technologically it adverse and you like paying your rent in cash.

Well, we're going to give you that opportunity to go to 30,000 plus locations, pay your rent in cash. It's secure. We digitize the transaction keeps the resident happy.

We always got to talk about why the property managers care. All of this data is getting integrated right back into their ERP and of course the money is flowing right into their accounts.

So cash flow staying strong, automation staying strong, their workloads being reduced. And we're going to outsource all of any errors and challenges that they might have from a resident or from an operator perspective and put that on Zego.

Brent Williams: If they're doing flex payments, do they pay some sort of interest charge along the way? How does that work?

Chris Helmers: Yeah, you know, it's, it's flexible, not to use a bad pun there, but the idea is that they get that opportunity to split it into different types of installments, and there's going to be a different fee associated with that as well.

Similar if you're doing an after pay or any other buy now pay later service that you might be interacting with, you know, a slew of different retailers.

Brent Williams: Do you know, just out of curiosity, how how many companies still accept physical checks?

Is that still a thing anymore?

Chris Helmers: You know, most, most, most folks will collect a physical check. It's a good thing just to have, it's a good program to have out there.

You never know. There's always going to be some level of renters who are going to want to pay that way. And it's really going to depend on the asset class.

If it's a Class A high end property filled with working professionals, high income, probably not going to see a lot of checks.

If it's workforce housing, you know, it's a more rural area and, or perhaps the folks who are under banked, those folks might still be paying rent with cash and checks.

And it's who of you as a property manager to accept all different forms because at the end of the day, you know, Zego we want as many digital transaction as possible, but we understand it's actually about providing all the different ways that folks want to pay rent to their property managers.

Brent Williams: Got it, got it. So let's fast forward now.

We've talked about these, these different ways to collect money, but now we're, we're kind of shifting gears. We're going the opposite direction.

So, tell me about the challenges that a company might have with then sending out the, you know, their security deposits once they've moved out.

Chris Helmers: Yeah. It, you know, it actually goes right back to our origin story. A couple guys sitting around drinking beer, saying, why can't I pay my rent online?

I'll phrase it with the story that one of our sellers actually shared with me.

He moved out of his apartment. It was him and a couple buddies and they were all on one lease and they had to get their security deposit back.

The property manager cut them a physical check weeks after they moved out with all of their names on it and a few of the guys that actually left the state. And the problem is our, you know, our young seller had to go to the bank with all of his buddies in order to get that cash.

That's not a great experience. That's not how people are getting cashed out. People are using Venmo and having that, that money go right into their pocket. So that's the technology we've brought into this space.

Residents need that money back. They want that money back, especially here in 2025. That could be a significant amount of money that's going into them moving.

It could be going into a down payment or maybe if they're taking that step into home ownership, they have a couple $1000 sitting on that that security deposit. They want to get that as soon as possible.

And of course, the process for the property operators is challenging as well. Keeping track of the money, making sure it's in the right account, making sure you write the check, hoping that the check gets to the resident if you have their address or if you if you haven't lost it.

So all of that brings us to one of our newest tools that we call resident payouts and Brent, exactly as you said, it's the opportunity to digitally refund security deposits right to the resident.

Brent Williams: So is the community defining the methods in which they get to the resident or is the resident defining or is it mixed of both?

Chris Helmers: The resident gets to decide.

The short of it is the resident moves out and instantaneously they can get an e-mail. The property manager has already gone in there and said this is what their return will be.

Here's they had this many, you know, maybe they, they chip some paint. So they're going to put all that together in a SODA document. We're going to put it into our payouts tool.

And then the renter receives an e-mail and the resident can say, well, you know, I do want a physical check because maybe that's the cheapest option. Or maybe they're like, I'm moving. I need it sent to my bank account.

So let's do an ACH transfer takes a couple of days, you know, maybe a little bit higher of a fee or maybe it's in high demand and you're like, I need that money now here as soon as possible and we can do an instant refund, an electronic payment with a little bit higher fee as though as well.

So whichever way you want to do it, it's always going to be automated for the property manager while giving residents the opportunity to select what's most convenient for them, that's best for their budget and abide by where they're trying to go after they move out.

Brent Williams: I'd imagine that, you know, if you're issuing physical checks and a check gets lost in the mail, well, you have 30 days to get it to them. It's not getting to them in time.

Then suddenly there's a legal ramification of not getting that where it's just, it's out of your control. There's no, you have lost control of the situation by putting it into the mail system at this point, because the mail system is, is a little, who knows what's going to happen there.

So, then it becomes, you have more, better documentation, I would imagine. Also, kind of loss or risk aversion at that point.

Chris Helmers: Absolutely. And you hit on a great thing that not only with rental payments, utility management and of course security deposits, regulations are changing fast and aggressively across our country.

We'll see something bubble up in a, in a specific state and then slowly it gets adopted elsewhere. So in, as these regulations are arising, we're hearing and noticing that a lot of our clients and folks out there in the industry are looking for technology to help them guide it.

So, and not only the technology, they're actually looking for a partnership. So when somebody reaches out to Zego, they're expecting to get a little bit of guidance.

Again, whether it's, you know, regulations around rent payment, utility management, or issuing out those security deposits, making sure you're staying compliant is, is critical.

One bad lawsuit can be irreparably dangerous for your properties and for your portfolio.

Brent Williams: You had mentioned some people are unbanked and that's why they pay rent in a certain way.

So what happens if they're unbanked and you're trying to issue their security deposit?

Chris Helmers: The best way, well, they would still be able to get a check in some capacity and go ahead and receive that and go get it cashed out.

That probably be the best way for them or in situations like that, and maybe technology is not the answer.

Maybe they're actually relying on getting in front of their their property manager and saying, hey, these, these methods you've sent me aren't the right way.

And to be clear, this product is really just a tool. We don't go into our clients and say you have to use this process now.

This is saying, hey, if you're looking to automate 50 to 75% of your returns, this is going to get you there. And the other 25%, which is always going to be a challenge, that's up to you.

Brent Williams: Very cool. So what's, I always like to talk about the past, present and then future, Anything going on in the future that we should know about?

Chris Helmers: Yeah, one I'm super excited about and it ties back into the experience.

So we really started our experience journey with our with our mobile app and consolidating all those key touch points into one location. In the future, what we're looking at that we're inches from going live on is a rewards program.

70% of renters have never received a reward, but 100% of times I go to the coffee shop, I get a couple stars, I get a couple points, and after enough times, I actually get a free cup of coffee.

Why isn't that experience widespread throughout property management?

So the simple idea is if you if, if a property manager chooses to incentivize a certain behavior, like paying their rent online, they can actually issue points, and then those points can over time be turned into various things, especially like a discount.

The biggest thing that renters are asking and looking for is rent concessions. We don't need toys, we don't need trinkets. We need cash back in our pockets because times are tight right now.

A rewards program not only kind of gameifies the living experience and creates an attachment and engagement with your property's brand, but it creates a tool and a vehicle to get those discounts back into the pockets of your renters while incentivizing that right behavior.

So right now it's pretty focused to how they might pay rent online, but we've got some pretty big plans down the road of other behaviors that we can help incentivize.

But you'll have to have me back next year to hear more about that.

Brent Williams: Interesting. Yeah, I think, I mean, when you think about credit card commercials, one of the biggest topics is cash back.

You know, so I think that that's going to resonate, especially from a- I mean of course, apartment residents, there's huge differences in demographics, you know, and some may definitely appreciate some other types of non-monetary benefits, but I would imagine a lot of them, you know, offering some short cash back is fantastic.

Chris Helmers: Everybody loves cash back.

Brent Williams: Yeah, absolutely. Chris, it's been a pleasure talking with you.

Thank you so much for sharing the story of Zego and even before that, PayLease, it was wonderful hearing that. And everybody, thank you all for joining us today.

It was great having you all here with our discussion with Chris Helmers, who is VP of Sales and Client Success at Zego.

Chris, thank you so much.

Chris Helmers: Thanks, Brent. It was a pleasure.

We'll be back soon. Take care.