Virginia Suliman, chief information and digital officer at Invitation Homes Inc. (NYSE: INVH), says that when she joined the REIT five years ago, residential real estate overall was far behind in terms of technology advancement.
“Single family rental is not an offshoot of multifamily, however much of the early tech was built from that sector, which created a need for a lot of SFR customization,” she says. “Since that time, the industry has made great strides in catching up to other sectors, as seen by the incredible influx of fintech and proptech companies focused on the SFR sector.”
Prior to joining Invitation Homes, Suliman was senior vice president of software engineering at Hilton Worldwide. She also held various positions with AMR, the parent company for American Airlines, and has worked in hotel management.
Suliman spoke to REIT.com about the tech journey Invitation Homes has taken and the opportunities it is creating.
How is Invitation Homes using technology to create value across its portfolio?
Simply put, we build technology to enable the business. We strive to deliver technology that makes our residents’ lives easier, and we work to ensure every associate has the tools they need to do their job securely and efficiently. In determining where we place our attention to create the highest value, we require a business case for each project over a certain threshold to ensure there is the right return on investment.
Two particular areas of focus right now are our third-party management business and artificial intelligence. For third-party management, we’re creating technology-enabled processes that are helping our teams more quickly absorb into our property management processes those homes owned by third parties and now managed by Invitation Homes. Our work here has been very satisfying for our technology team and has helped us show potential third-party management customers the value of working with Invitation Homes.
Where is INVH situated today with regard to its tech journey, and what are key priorities ahead?
We established an aggressive five-year plan in 2020, driven by the key principle: “own the experience.” In that time frame, we’ve built a product-led fully agile team and processes, stabilized core systems, assembled strong engineering and data teams, and created a Project Management Office (PMO) construct to oversee delivery and governance.
We’ve delivered not only industry-first digital experiences like a proprietary web-based leasing experience and a resident-facing mobile app, but we also have elevated the experience of our associates through multiple time-saving applications that put data at the center of our universe.
Looking forward, key priorities will continue to revolve around building systems and solutions that support the growth of the company and that continue to elevate the resident experience.
Does INVH take inspiration for tech innovation from other industries?
Many of our technology leaders, including me, spent time working in other industries so we are naturally wired to look at many sources for inspiration. For instance, our new leasing application process online was modeled after the best retail and travel e-commerce processes. Innovation also comes from our residents; we learn from our engagement with them about what makes their experience better.
Is there a tech project at INVH you’re particularly excited about right now?
We are deploying AI across a few areas including Microsoft Copilot, homeowner association (HOA) notification, and within our leasing process. Specific to leasing, we partnered with EliseAI last year to pilot their leasing assist bot, and after a successful test period we are currently in the process of deploying that technology across the organization. We plan to expand that effort into renewals this year and will explore other areas that an AI bot will reduce friction for our customers and increase efficiency for our associates.
What goes in to rolling out a new project. What sort of internal collaboration is needed to ensure success?
We categorize projects into two groups—those focused on system/team impact and those focused on cross-functional impact. Our single-system projects typically are tied to a single stakeholder and thus collaboration is more easily achieved due to the ability to narrow focus. Cross-functional projects require a higher level of planning and engagement. We assign a PMO project manager and establish a cadence of cross-team engagement under a single project plan, and we include robust organizational change management to ensure successful scale rollouts. Lastly, we partner with our human resources team to define training needs and curriculum.
To what extent is generative AI a useful tool at Invitation Homes. What are some of the opportunities and challenges you see?
We believe generative AI can be useful as it stabilizes its updates and gains knowledge about our industry. Until that time, we are evaluating areas where AI will be a benefit and how generative AI can improve that value over time. This allows us to obtain benefit in the short-term while being ready to introduce generative AI as appropriate.
We are interested in implementing the right solution for the problem versus looking for problems that generative AI can potentially solve. It is an important balance so as to not over-engineer or over-implement generative AI when a similar solution is available, while also ensuring we are diligent to not miss faster success by using it.
Aside from utilizing AI and generative AI in our systems and applications, we are also using various Copilots to aid in office activities by our management associates and our engineers. Overall, we see the use of AI/generative AI and technology tools as a way to amplify, not replace, the work our associates are doing to deliver an exceptional resident experience.
What sets single family rentals apart from the rest of the residential sector in terms of the scope of tech innovation?
My peers in SFR are equally savvy and committed to advancing the technology maturity and sophistication of our sector. This has allowed SFR to create solutions that are no longer built with a multifamily backdrop. The SFR collective has created a shift in how we do business with our vendors, which has opened the doors for all real estate sectors to take advantage of those advancements.
How would you describe the tech recruitment landscape today? What is Invitation Homes looking for in potential candidates?
The tech landscape has improved since the pandemic, and we are seeing a fair number of qualified candidates for our positions. Certain highly coveted skilled positions remain difficult and expensive to fill. We start by focusing on a skill evaluation to ensure the skills presented match the actual ability.
Once that’s out of way we focus on curiosity, the ability to connect with other humans, a desire to make a difference in the rental experience, and a capacity to inspire these attributes in others. At Invitation Homes, we believe our people are our best asset and that they make a real difference, thus we want team members who will continue to elevate who we are collectively.
Is there anything else you would like to share about Invitation Homes and its tech journey?
We believe we provide a great resident experience today, but we will not rest on our laurels. We will continue to strive to use technology to enable better experiences for our customers and our associates. This requires us to stay nimble, creative, and diligent, and we know that our business growth will continue to provide exciting opportunities for creative technologists to make a real difference in how our industry functions.