HappyCo

““Prior to using HappyCo for our Due Diligence walks, it was taking our teams on average 5 minutes to inspect a single unit and it required two people — one to inspect while the other person recorded everything using a clipboard. Now, we only need one person and it takes on average just 45 to 90 seconds per inspection. So the time savings is phenomenal, which is really critical when it comes to acquisitions.””

““It’s incredibly easy to use, so training our staff was really fast and straightforward.””

““We’re proud to be a partner and to have helped develop the product. The HappyCo team has been incredibly responsive and has consistently applied our feedback to make the software one of the best products on the market,””

“"It's hard to quantify just how valuable the HappyCo Due Diligence software has been for us, but it's significant. With the automated unit reports including inline photos, it's much easier to present property and unit issues confidently to the seller. A great example is a recent acquisition, where we reduced the purchase price significantly due to issues with the HVAC setup. This would have been a much more difficult negotiation process previously, but with HappyCo it was easy, and there's several cases where we've seen a substantial return."”

“We are definitely looking at implementing HappyCo in other areas of our business. By the end of the year, we plan to add quarterly preventative maintenance walks, which are key to ensuring our staff are really engaged in actively managing the multimillion dollar asset in their care. We’re very, very excited to see what else we can achieve,” said Gil.”

“Site performance has improved greatly. Maintenance has really enjoyed being able to take the iPads or iPhones around, and as soon as they get back in the office, it syncs up and emails a report right to me. Compliance has improved dramatically since we started using the app.”

“It’s important to keep our kids safe at the playgrounds, so we need to make sure we’re doing those weekly inspections,” said Gil. “Photos are timestamped and dated. There’s no messing that up. We did it, we can prove we did it, we are being safe, and we are trying to keep our properties safe.”

“I believe the Inspections app has helped improve our relationship with residents because they’re able to actually physically see everything when we perform the move-out with them, and they trust that the data we’re capturing is being accurately entered into our system,” said Rachel Smith, Business Manager at Riverside Park Apartments and Aster Townhomes. “My disputes have gone from 10 per quarter down to three per quarter.”

“Now with HappyCo, our hotline staff can just go into Yardi and access the move-out form and inspection photos instantly,” said Gil.”

“I feel that we’re capturing more move-out charges because our teams are having to be more detailed when they do inspections.”

“The customization is very important,” said Shelly Gil. “Our teams follow a process, so to be able to match that exact process — going through each bedroom, kitchen, bathroom in the order they’re used to — and being able to replicate that on an iPad, is amazing. It feels like the app is our own, like HappyCo made it for us.”

“I’m an older person, I’m used to doing things old ways,” said Bob Gil, Maintenance Supervisor for Tarragon, “but when this app came, switching to it — once I saw it — was an easy thing to do. I wanted to do it because I knew our system didn’t work. And this has worked.”

“We were worried that it was going to be a difficult process because it was a new program to us, but it was easy to learn. It probably takes about 5 to 10 minutes to train someone on how to use the Happy app. We had one webinar and the whole staff just took off and started doing the inspections.”

“Each site had an iPad prior to deploying HappyCo, so we didn’t have to purchase new hardware,” according to Gil. “Our IT team was able to deploy the app across all devices at once.”

“There was a short period when HappyCo and Yardi had to talk to one another. But that process was very quick, maybe about a week total.”

“We are in a world of instant gratification — people want to have answers right away,” said Shelly Gil, Regional Manager for Tarragon. “It was important for us to be able to bump up our customer service, bump up our timeliness in getting back to residents and fulfilling their needs. Because HappyCo integrates with Yardi, we are now able to access any inspection from anywhere — and that’s exactly the solution we were looking for.”

“The industry is moving away from making decisions based on assumptions and is now moving towards a data-driven model, and tools like Inspections by HappyCo are accelerating this trend,”

“But if I find that units are laid out differently or there’s always carpets in every unit, at lunch I’ll make changes to the template right there using the DD Manager’s Dashboard and dispatch the updated templates before the lunch break is even over. So I’m able to speed up the walk, and I can even spot trends with issues on the property in real time. Before you just had to hold your breath and hope there weren’t a bunch of issues the seller had not advised you of — now we can see the status of the water heaters, carpet etc. right as the inspections are completed.”

“Prior to each due diligence, I customize our inspection forms so they best match the property and its unit layouts, so our staff can go into each unit and complete the inspection faster,”

“We made a training video, but the Inspections app is so easy to use there’s not much training required.”

“Our staff travels from all over the country to perform these walks. I needed a tool that was incredibly easy to learn — so if they’d never seen the software before they could still use it right away,”

“Our inspections actually take longer now, but that’s a good thing because we’re collecting far more data which allows us to prepare an accurate budget and renovation strategy.”

“Where the software becomes really useful is in formulating the renovation strategy. It’s incredibly powerful to know the different styles of unit flooring, countertops and appliances. It’s this detailed level of unit data that allows us to specify with a high degree of certainty where we should invest our renovation dollars and how much we need to invest.”

“When you’ve got a deal, it’s critical to be able to move fast as that’s part of the competitive advantage. The sooner you close, the more likely the seller is to accept your offer. You need a tool that’s super nimble with minimal training. The user interface is 99% of this game.”

“I find that a lot of Multifamily products out there have been designed for engineers, while the HappyCo product is super intuitive, and one of the only tools I’ve found that people can just pick up and use.”