How to Rent Properties 3X Faster With Automated Self-Showings and AI Leasing

Ran Fridman (00:00)

What I notice, we’re renting two, sometimes three times faster with self-showing than someone personally come and show the property. Because the system MyRemotely what we develop, every half an hour it’s a new person coming. It’s—it’s possible to do the tours. So statistically, the property rents quicker instead of agent driving or property manager or landlord driving half an hour, one hour. And sometimes what happened? The tenant don’t show up, and a person, they spend the gas and time to come, and they say, “I’m sorry, I had emergency, I need to pick up my kids,” or something else.

Cody Crabb (02:11)

Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast by Investor Fuel. I’m your host, Cody Crabb, and today I’ve got Ran Fridman with me. Ran is the founder of MyRemotely.ai, a property management platform born out of his own experience as a landlord who couldn’t find the technology he needed. So today we’re going to talk about how solving that problem led to software that’s helping landlords and property managers lease properties faster and manage them more efficiently. Ran, thanks so much for joining me today.

Ran Fridman (02:38)

Sure, thank you for inviting me, guys. Yeah.

Cody Crabb (02:40)

Yeah, so you know, as you were starting, for people that might not be familiar with your your world, you mentioned before you started this, this really began because you and your wife started buying rental properties. Walk us through that journey, and how did becoming a landlord eventually kind of lead to the steps that it did?

Ran Fridman (03:01)

Sure, yeah. So we started, as you mentioned, we started as a landlord with my wife. We started to buy in Illinois properties, then we expanded to Indiana and Wisconsin. And I saw that I cannot be in the same day in the same time doing showing in three different states. So I I star— I star— I started I started to look for property management companies that focus on technology and remote showing. And I started to interview different companies, and I couldn’t find the company that focused on multi-state self-showing remote showings. And I told my wife, “You know what? We’re just gonna start our own property management company.”

Cody Crabb (03:44)

Hmm. Wow. And I I love that. Like, you don’t find what you need, well, we can do it ourselves then. That’s that’s awesome. So tell us a little more about what you what you’ve built with… I mean, and like you like you mentioned, you know, you started this property management company, you realized the software you you needed wasn’t there, and so then you then you built it. So tell us about myremotely.ai, which is that software.

Ran Fridman (03:51)

Exactly. Exactly. So once I started my own property management company, I started to look for the software that focused on reducing vacancy rate. Because as you know, for each landlord, that’s the pain. Every day it’s empty, vacant, we lose money. So I started to look for different softwares, and I couldn’t find one. So again, I told myself, “You know what? I’m just gonna build my own software that focusing on reducing vacancy rate.” And that’s what I did. That’s my—that’s how myremotely.ai was born.

Cody Crabb (04:46)

Yeah, I I find that—and because that’s your background, right? Your background’s in technology. And so I I can— I can—

Ran Fridman (04:51)

My background… I’m a computer science guy, yeah. I’m a geeky guy, as you see, with glasses. I like technology, I like automation.

Cody Crabb (04:53)

Yeah. So it makes—yeah, well, it makes perfect sense that you would kind of look at this and go, “There’s gotta be a better way to do this,” and then just, “Well, I I know how to solve this.” So what were the other platforms not doing? So when I think of remote showings, I mean, what are you doing besides unlocking a box or something? Like, give me an idea of what a remote showing actually would look like.

Ran Fridman (06:08)

Yeah, so so what we created, and MyRemotely already working with Zillow, Apartments.com, and all the like major websites. So number one, we started to manufacture our own digital locks and devices. I’m originally from Ukraine, but I live eight years in China, and we’re manufacturing our own devices. So number one, in a landlord and property management world, response time is very important. So for the software that we build, there is—response time is less than a minute. So inquiry come or phone call come, we respond less than a minute. So as soon as the inquiry comes from Zillow or any other website, they get automated response to schedule self-tour. And then they get verified. We use the biggest verification system, Persona and Stripe, you know, and it gets verified, their identity.

So a random person cannot come for self-showings. And so they are—they—we have like face recognition, they upload the driver license. And as soon as they get verified, it’s less than a minute. You know, everything happening automated, very fast. So once they get verified, we automatically grab last four digits of their phone number, and using API technology, we transfer it to the digital lock or lockbox at this property.

Cody Crabb (07:33)

That’s amazing. That’s amazing. I I I keep picturing realtors listening to this, like, “My gosh, like all the hardest parts of my job are gone if I do if I do this.”

Ran Fridman (07:45)

Exactly. And realtors, yeah, realtors contacting us, yeah, and they say, “You know, like, I can do a remote showing. I can be in my office and in the same time do five, ten, twenty showing.”

Cody Crabb (07:57)

Yeah. So so I guess the—if I if I—I’m just putting on my my “I don’t like technology” hat, right? Like, I love technology, but let’s just pretend I don’t. If we—if I was coming at this like I’m an old-school guy, I’d go, “No, but you’re never gonna get the sale. You know, it’s all it’s all about the human stuff, and it’s never gonna work.” And like, what kind of success rates do you see with remote showings? Is it is it similar? Is—I mean, I’d be curious to know what what is missing out there.

Ran Fridman (08:28)

You know, I made a research for my own properties for 10 years before I started MyRemotely last year. Is the self-showing, 90 to 95 percent people love self-showings, that nobody breathing down, you know, like, next. Yes, yeah, yeah. So how that structure is, a real estate agent or me as a landlord, owner, or PM come to the property—

Cody Crabb (08:45)

I definitely would.

Ran Fridman (08:56)

record a nice video about the property, because they get this video. They see the property pictures and video before they come, so they’re already in advance familiar with the property. And then they like the idea that they can come to the property and see it with their wife or spouse or partner whenever they want, not whenever the agent can.

Cody Crabb (09:17)

I also like the idea because—yeah, no, go ahead, go ahead.

Ran Fridman (09:20)

Yes. Yeah. And then if they have additional questions, automated follow-up: “Hey guys, do you have any questions?” And then they reconnect again with the live agent or landlord or property manager. But they like the idea of self-showing—that it’s based on their time, not the agent time.

Cody Crabb (09:39)

Yeah. Well, and anybody that’s bought a house, I’m sure, is thinking about those, you know, the the realtors following you around, and you’re trying to like talk about, “You know, do we actually want to get this?” You don’t necessarily want to do that in front of them. So I g— it it’s an—it would be amazing to be able to have a little bit more of a private conversation, and and it’s kind of more personal. Yeah, it feels like—

Ran Fridman (09:59)

Yeah, to cat— exactly.

Cody Crabb (10:37)

So when when you do these remote showings, like what kind of—how many people end up pulling the trigger that may not do it otherwise? Like, is this—are success rates kind of similar, or or I mean, how does it work exactly?

Ran Fridman (10:52)

We we—yeah, we we renting, what I notice, we’re renting two, sometimes three times faster with self-showing than someone personally come and show the property. Because the system MyRemotely what we develop, every half an hour it’s a new person coming. It’s it’s possible to do the tours. So statistically, the property rents quicker, instead of agent driving or property manager or landlord driving half an hour, one hour. And sometimes, what happened? The tenant don’t show up, and a person, they spend the gas and time to come, and they say, “I’m sorry, I had emergency, I need to pick up my kids,” or something else.

Cody Crabb (11:33)

Yeah. Well, and I I also am—I’m thinking about like, you know, if me and my wife were driving down the road, we see a house on the side of the road, we want—we like the idea of it, we we want to go look at it, imagine how cool it would be if we could just walk right up there, and if it happened to be open, like, we could just take care of this on the front porch from our phone and then we’re good to go. Like, that’s really neat that that’s a possibility, because if if if if it’s like I have to call an agent and wait for them to get here and have them pressure me, like, that—I’m probably not gonna do that. So I see what you mean, how it could really speed things up for sure.

Ran Fridman (12:07)

Yeah, yeah, and in the same day, my friend, it’s in the same time everything is automated in technology, but in the same time we put For Rent sign with QR code, exactly in situation like you said: you’re driving by, you see For Rent sign, you scan QR code, and you can get in.

Cody Crabb (12:22)

Hmm. And I didn’t even think about this as a for— as a For Rent. You said “For Rent,” which now now I’m thinking about even even better, like, if you have a vacancy. So that’s even better. So what kinds of—what kinds of impacts have you seen on your vacancy since you since you started using this?

Ran Fridman (12:39)

We be—like for our for our personal property and we manage now, we have about anywhere from three to six percent vacancy. Wow. Which is like a—amazing, I think.

Cody Crabb (12:50)

That may be the lowest I’ve ever heard, if if if you don’t mind me saying. Because I th— I— the people I hear, it’s like ten percent is like—ten percent is like pretty—yeah.

Ran Fridman (12:58)

It’s too much. But—but but but we also—but but we also—we also put in a lease, and tenants are signing the lease that, like, let’s say they—now they’re in leasing, then we can advance… basically, we’re building a waiting list of people who already want to come and see the place before the older tenants are moving out.

Cody Crabb (13:19)

Yeah. Wow. So for a landlord that’s l— or a or a realtor or whoever that’s listening, what would be the biggest practical difference they would see on day one? Like, right after they start using this, what what differences are they starting to see?

Ran Fridman (13:35)

Number of leads and scheduled tours.

Cody Crabb (13:38)

Yeah, and I suppose it doesn’t even change your time, your free time, because it’s—they’re just doing it themselves.

Ran Fridman (13:43)

Ex— exactly. Everything is automated, exactly. Because—because nowadays people want everything instant. So if they get the response less than a minute, there is more chance they’re gonna schedule tour and go and see the property.

Cody Crabb (13:57)

Yeah. And I I guess that also takes care of—I guess that also takes care of all these people that aren’t maybe not that serious. Like, the—it doesn’t matter if they’re serious, because if the—or it doesn’t matter if they’re not serious, because if they just want to do a tour of a house, they can do that. As long as they’re verified, it sounds like they’re f— they’re fine, they’re free to do that, but then they don’t take up the time for the realtor and the landlord and stuff. So that’s that’s pretty good. Yeah, it’s it’s—

Ran Fridman (14:20)

So much time. So much time and gas and money.

Cody Crabb (14:26)

Yeah. Yeah, really. I I I think half of the reason people don’t want to be a realtor or a— or a landlord or something is just the going back and forth all the time. So the fact that there’s there’s something else here, you know. So I’d love to hear—you know, that that low—that vacancy number is pretty wild. Do you know what a typical, like, average vacancy rate is, like, just off the top of your head?

Ran Fridman (14:50)

Usually, it’s like what you’re saying, like ten percent it’s considered good already.

Cody Crabb (15:36)

Like, if you’re at ten, that’s like—that’s that’s a good thing to aim for, is what I’ve heard, is t— is like ten.

Ran Fridman (15:41)

Exactly. Yes, yes, yes, yeah. But—but again, for us, we advertise at least one—depends on the area—one month, sometimes even two months before the lease expire. So we kind of always building a waiting list of people who want to go and see the property.

Cody Crabb (15:58)

Yeah, so so I guess that—I mean, that immediately—is is there a way to like reach back out to everybody as soon as there’s a vacancy, too? ‘Cause that’s awesome.

Ran Fridman (16:05)

Of course, of course. The agent, our AI agent can do it. Yes, yeah.

Cody Crabb (16:09)

Yeah, that’s so cool. So you obviously built this from the perspective of a landlord first, and then you—then you said now you’re even building your smart lock hardware. I mean, what what other problems are you trying to solve that still haven’t been solved today? I mean, with showings, there’s a lot of—there’s a lot of problems, and I I’d love to hear what what other things you see that maybe could use some work.

Ran Fridman (16:32)

You know, another thing that we discussed, which is very useful, if you have a digital lock that always online—and that’s what we earlier discussed, that we’re building first in US lockbox and digital locks that will be always online. It will be easy. It’s possible to download eSIM, and it will always be online. So we also care about tenants as well. So let’s say tenant already moved and living at the property, and God forbid, something happens and for two weeks they don’t use the code. So the system triggers that for two weeks nobody came into the building and property. So it’s a good idea, if especially if it’s an elderly person, to check on them if everything is okay.

Cody Crabb (17:17)

Mm. Yeah, that’s—I didn’t even think about that. That’s a really good point. There’s like some other other applications for this, too.

Ran Fridman (17:22)

Yes, yeah, yeah. And it—and it’s very—also, it’s very comes handy that, like, there’s no lockouts, you know, like, everything is digital. And even, like, for all the digital locks that we install for our properties and landlord, investor we manage, we also have a physical lockbox with a key. We never have a problem, but in case technology failed, digital locks still have a physical key that we can open the door.

Cody Crabb (17:50)

Mm-hmm. I I know some people that this—were like, okay, good, because there’s a way to—there’s a way to do—

Ran Fridman (17:56)

Yeah, exactly, exactly. Yeah, so there is a physical key as well to open the door, yeah.

Cody Crabb (18:01)

Yeah. Well, this has been really interesting. I’m excited to hear, you know, how this changes some things, because I I could see this really being a major change in just how the industry works, really, if this can start getting adopted more and more. Tell us about where, you know, where the—where you’re at. Are you—are you looking for people to actually use the software? I mean, how can we find out more about it?

Ran Fridman (18:24)

Yeah, so now first I tested on twenty-two properties we own with my wife. Then we already tested in our rental portfolio that we manage, which is a hundred and fifty-six properties that we manage for other investors. And in two, three months, I’m gonna take it to public, meaning to other landlords, to other investors. And I’m looking now maybe for, let’s say, for five landlords or investors that I’m gonna give them for free the lockboxes, and I just wanna hear their feedback.

Cody Crabb (18:57)

Hmm. Wow. So if someone is hearing that and they’re like, raising—they want to be first in line, how can they get in touch with you to to kind of to do that?

Ran Fridman (19:05)

Yeah, I I think we can put something like in description or somewhere, our contact details, so they can contact you, and you can come—like, in the description we will put my contact information. And I I just wanna make it perfect. I know it’s working really well for me and our PM, but that’s why I’m willing to give three lockboxes, let me say, for first five investors or landlords, so they can give me their feedback.

Cody Crabb (19:29)

Yeah, yeah. Because I think—I mean, it sounds like you’ve already kind of taken the—you’ve already given a lot of feedback, but it sounds like there there’s some—there’s still some room. I mean, you never know. There might be problems that you’ve never seen, but I love that you’re thinking about that, because that’s how you make something—

Ran Fridman (19:47)

Exact— exactly, exact— exactly. Is the first client of MyRemotely. That’s what is fascinating, that’s what is cool. I have my own property management, and I’m a first client of my software.

Cody Crabb (20:06)

Yeah. Well, and it sounds like—I mean, like we—like you said this before you started, “I’m not gonna build something that I don’t want to use myself.” So you’re—it’s—it’s that goes to show that it’s it’s quality. So where can people go online to find out more, to contact you? What’s the easiest way to do that?

Ran Fridman (20:21)

Yeah, the easiest is go to myremotely.ai and schedule Zoom call with me, and I will just explain, answer their questions. Because again, it’s very important for me to get feedback. Like for example, maybe whatever is relevant and features we have for one hundred and fifty properties that we manage, it’s someone who has, let’s say, five hundred properties, they need more features. Or someone who have just ten properties, they need another feature. That’s why I wanna give those free lockboxes for people to give me feedback.

Cody Crabb (20:55)

Yeah, that’s awesome. So what kind of—you know, who who should be reaching out to you to kind of to—let’s just let’s to to qualify it a little bit. Like, who who would you like to be reaching out to you? Like, what size portfolio, you know, things like that?

Ran Fridman (21:10)

Yeah, any landlord or investors that have or will have vacant units that wants to rent it quicker.

Cody Crabb (21:18)

Awesome. Well, that is a—that is quite an offer. So I would say if that sounds interesting to you, jump right on that. And we really appreciate you coming on and offering that to our listeners. That’s awesome. Before we—before we head out here, before we head out here, I just wanna—my my favorite question to ask people is, you know, if you if you had some advice for a first-time investor, just like, if you had to—if you could only tell one piece of advice just on the way out the door, what would that piece of advice be? Something that you learned along the way.

Ran Fridman (21:52)

Just Nike Slogan: Just Do It.

Cody Crabb (21:56)

You know, it’s—it’s amazing how often that one comes up, because it’s—I mean, it’s just true, isn’t it? You just gotta get started.

Ran Fridman (22:03)

And that’s how, man, and that’s that’s how I started with my wife. Because I read so many books, BiggerPockets, forums, and at some point I realized I just need to do it. That’s it. Like, I can learn indefinitely, I can learn so many years, I can read so many books, but at some point you need to start.

Cody Crabb (22:23)

Yeah. Yeah, it’s gotta start somewhere. Yeah. Well, thank you so much. That—this has been really great. Ran, thanks again. And listeners, thank you, too. We’ll see ya on the next episode. Take care.