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In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Dylan Silver interviews Kevin Fox, a service provider in the managed Wi-Fi space. They discuss the benefits of managed Wi-Fi for multifamily properties, the importance of automation in real estate, and how integrating smart technology can enhance tenant experiences. Kevin explains how managed Wi-Fi can increase property value and tenant satisfaction, while also discussing the future of smart homes and security systems. The conversation highlights the cost-effectiveness of upgrading to smart technology and the convenience it offers to both property managers and tenants.

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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

Dylan Silver (00:01.177)
Hey guys, welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Dylan Silver. And today we have Kevin Fox. Kevin is a service provider to the real estate industry and to real estate investors in the managed wifi space. Kevin, welcome to the show.

Kevin M Fox (00:19.602)
Thank you, it’s privilege to be here.

Dylan Silver (00:22.06)
Absolutely. So Kevin, this is a niche space. And before we spoke actually earlier on in the week, I had been unfamiliar with it even as someone who’s done multiple wholesale deals and networked with investors. So before we get into exactly what is managed Wi-Fi, tell us how you got into managed Wi-Fi.

Kevin M Fox (00:42.81)
Yeah, well, so I got into it by installing Smart IoT into multifamily properties. Saw that there, saw how happy it made everybody and saw how easy it was now for that property to manage their property with the software that they had for their PMS. And I really liked how it was beneficial to not just the property manager, but the tenants.

And so I knew that it was something that I wanted to get into because it’s a win-win for everybody. It’s a win for the tenants and it’s a win for the property owners because their property value goes up exponentially with all the additional revenue that’s generated from our services.

Dylan Silver (01:24.216)
So initially it was a you were an installer. I’m assuming you as for somebody else and you had this opportunity. You said hey, let me let me try that out. Okay.

Kevin M Fox (01:33.094)
Yeah, so try that out as an installer. And then I became a trainer. So I trained people on these processes as well as recruited. So I know the right type of people that we need to be installing on the teams, as well as training people. It’s paramount that everybody’s trained well. And you have the right people there with the tenants because we want friendly people, right? We’re serving people. So we want people who like being around other people and like building relationships.

Dylan Silver (01:54.902)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (02:00.726)
When you were an installer yourself, was there a steep learning curve? that like being an electrician or is it less deep? How deep into the home are you going with some of these?

Kevin M Fox (02:15.28)
Well, so for the managed Wi-Fi, yeah, there’s a little bit of a steep learning curve because you got to understand gigabyte speed and the managed Wi-Fi and the APs and how it works and where they cover and where they don’t cover, right? So there’s some buildings where you need an AP in every unit. And then there’s some buildings that are made of sheetrock and wood. And so the radio frequencies from the AP can actually service two units instead of just one. So there’s a cost savings there.

Dylan Silver (02:45.421)
Another super specific question is this going to be dependent on what the city has headed to an area or is every home eligible to get upgraded smart Wi-Fi?

Kevin M Fox (02:59.266)
Every home is including a single residence homes. So we can work with HOAs and condo, homeowner’s associations. So COAs and HOAs to where the resident, instead of them getting their internet from internet service providers like Comcast or Spectrum or whatever, they get it from the HOA. So I’ll charge the HOA for the internet at a discounted price, but faster speed. So we’re talking gigabyte speed here. And so

We’ll charge them, they’ll charge the resident and most people are paying $80 to $100 gigabyte speed. A lot of people are paying $120 for that kind of speed. So they’ll make that much money. I’ll charge them 40. They’ll charge 100 bucks. So they’re gonna get $60 per unit per month profit.

Dylan Silver (03:49.342)
Hmm. So in that case, basically all the residents have Wi Fi right when they move in, they don’t have to worry about it, right?

Kevin M Fox (03:57.828)
wrecked so so if it’s a multi-family property no matter where they are on the property it’s ubiquitous wi-fi so if they’re at the pool they’re on their wi-fi if they got a wireless printer up in their unit then they can print from that for their dog parks anywhere in the leasing office of course they are it’s a

It’s a program called Vault and what happens is everybody’s encrypted. So I can’t see what you’re doing and you can’t see what I’m doing and I’m not constricted to my unit anymore. Now I can be down by the pool or playing games and I’ll be at the gym and I’m still on my wifi.

Dylan Silver (04:33.74)
This is a big deal because for those of us who are still renting, and I was in San Antonio recently, you go and you’re like, hey, I want a quiet place to work. You find your quiet place, maybe you’re on the patio. And of course, apartments can be expensive for folks in the middle class. So you’re like, I’m paying all this money. And you go and you don’t have any reception.

Kevin M Fox (04:39.346)
you

Mm-hmm.

Dylan Silver (04:55.956)
And so now you’re maybe finding their reception and you’re putting it up there and then you’re like, I need to print something. There’s a printer right there, but I can’t connect to it. So there’s really a value add there. And I tell you, I’m not going to say the name of my apartment complex that I was living in in San Antonio because I don’t have anything negatively against them. But beautiful place, wonderful pool, wonderful amenities. But I could not get any work done there. And so as a result, I had to go out of my way to go to a Starbucks to go

rent an office space to go somewhere where I had access to a printer, stable Wi-Fi, and I would have much preferred to do it at home.

Kevin M Fox (05:34.278)
Well, and it also appeals to people who work from home, right? So you have people who they need a set up, they need reliable wifi, they need fast wifi, and it’s also very appealing to gamers, right? Gamers, they need that quick gigabyte speed wifi to help them be more competitive on the games that they’re playing. So there’s a lot of people who really want this amenity that not very many places are getting. So again, a lot of people will want to rent from that place.

over another one that doesn’t have that ubiquitous Wi-Fi.

Dylan Silver (06:07.452)
And we were talking before we started about how, you know, there’s certain processes that investors have in place to automate their business to some degree. I do want to get your feedback on that a little bit here. For investors who are trying to become remote or who may be remote already, and as someone who’s in the digital space yourself, a lot of investors, especially with short term rentals, have a cleaning staff there.

They may have a VA or several VAs, many cases out of the country. And they have a process for checking guests in, checking guests out. And it very much relies on the teams that they have in place, but also their processes. And so as an outsider looking in, I envy this, but I also see how tricky it is. I dream one day I would love

to be able to live outside of the country and do real estate in the United States, know, make American money but outside of the United States. But I also understand how challenging that can be. And I think when people are looking at the types of software and upgrades and tools that they can have to become remote, they’re looking also at like, hey, this sounds crazy, but robots that cut the grass.

Kevin M Fox (07:30.674)
Yeah. Yes.

Dylan Silver (07:32.316)
You know, smart locks like they don’t want to accidentally leave a door unlocked, especially potentially if it’s in a city area where it could get broken into. You know, they want to make sure that the heat is at the right temperature so that they’re they’re not blasting hot or cold when no one’s there. And I’m sure I’m missing some things. But what’s your feedback both in and outside of your business on?

maybe some things that you see as an insider, how people are automating their business.

Kevin M Fox (08:04.338)
So we have a software that integrates with their PMS system. so remotely, like you were saying, they could be in Canada or they could be in India. And they can go on their phone and app on their phone and check on all their properties. They have four properties. They can look at each one and see what their vacancy rates are. They can go in there and also see on the vacant units.

they can see what the temperature is because a lot of times they’re doing a make ready in a unit. The painter opens all the windows and turns the heat up. And so then at the end when he’s done, he’ll shut all the windows, but he forgets to turn off the thermostat. So now it’s baking in there, right? And they’re using a bunch of their utilities, whereas now they can look at each and every one of those and that saves them that way. But also they can check in on their properties remotely.

Dylan Silver (08:52.746)
That’s a really neat feature. if they have multiple separate, let’s just say you own multiple apartment complexes, you have the good fortune to have multiple commercial properties, they could see both of them in the app. Okay, and they can see the, wow. So that…

Kevin M Fox (09:05.33)
Yes, they can click on and look in and see what their vacancy rate is. can click on that. Then they can go back into the other one and see another one. They’ll get notifications because we’re going to install leak detectors, right? Which is also going to help them with their insurance premiums. But if there is a leak that’s detected, they’ll get an alert. The property maintenance will get an alert. The tenant will get alert. So if the tenant’s out of town, you know,

It doesn’t matter the property maintenance team is going to be there. They’ll go in, they’ll turn the water off so there’s no property damage, clean things up, fix the leak and then leave the unit. by the time that the resident gets home, everything’s back to normal.

Dylan Silver (09:46.686)
Hmm, this is really an interesting thing to talk about because I’m looking at it as even if you own a handful of single family homes, if you can look at all of them in the same space and manage them and everything smart, you got the doors, the heat, the AC, you know, leaks.

There’s so much there that it simplifies things, but then you can scale it up to, you know, a thousand doors in an apartment complex and it still does the same thing on a larger scale.

Kevin M Fox (10:24.592)
Yeah, and it makes it more simple and easier for the property to manage their property. So by moving somebody in, they just send them an email that says, hey, welcome to your new home. Here’s your account. Here’s the download our app. Here’s where your username and then you create your own password. And from that point on, they can remote operate the door lock. So like you were talking about earlier, I think everybody’s.

been on the road and they’re like, oh man, I lock my door? I’m not sure. Well, now they can look on the app and if they didn’t lock the door, now they just hit a button and the door is locked. They can adjust the thermostat. So I like to talk about when it’s 105 degrees outside and you’re grocery shopping from the register stand, you can turn the air down in your unit so it’s nice and cool when you get home.

Dylan Silver (11:12.963)
Are you familiar at all with the barrel alarms that investors will put in new constructions? Have you ever seen those? Do you know what I’m referring to? There are these legit barrel alarms. People will stick them in a barrel and if someone breaks into the new build or fix and flip, the alarm will sound off and it’ll alert EMS or first responders, the police.

Kevin M Fox (11:20.924)
Uh-uh.

Dylan Silver (11:41.331)
but it will also scare the heck out of the person who’s physically there. And so I’m thinking about how, you I don’t know if it would be possible, but it would be interesting to see if it would be maybe somehow feasible to get something like this maybe in the future. Maybe we need new technology where instead of having that barrel alarm, they could have some type of security system, Wi-Fi in place even before the home is built.

I don’t know if that’s possible, but that just seems like an idea I’m throwing out there.

Kevin M Fox (12:11.73)
It is and they’re working on additional integrations but right now the tech that I use, they are compatible with the security system so they can operate it and they can get notifications if a door opens or a window opens or something like that. That’s more for single residential units but I’m sure they’re working on something for MDUs.

Dylan Silver (12:32.615)
Yeah, I I was at a job site. I was assisting a little bit here with a new construction and a window had been broken and the barrel alarm went off. So whoever broke in left, but it’s still incurred costs. you know, people on top of that, I’m thinking about the people who have new builds and many cases you’ll just have material on the ground, especially if you’re

not doing this at such a tremendous scale that maybe you have a team to carry material on and off. Maybe you just leave the material there, which I think is common for many single family home investors and fix and flippers. And that material gets stolen. People have to budget for loss. And it’s unfortunate. But you think like, well, I’m going to leave this here. Some of it’s going to get taken. I just have to put up with that. And so I could very easily see not so far down the road, maybe, you know, next year or two.

There being some system in place where it kind of AI determines if something is being taken off the property, even if there’s not a adverting break in or a door opening, it can kind of sense malactors and people who might not supposed to be there taking items off the property.

Kevin M Fox (13:50.352)
Mm-hmm. Yep, right, yep.

Dylan Silver (13:53.233)
So let’s dive into a little bit here about how the MDUs can upgrade their Wi-Fi specifically. know a lot of people, me for instance, I’m thinking, I have my spectrum or AT &T or my Starlink, which is what we’ve got out here on the ranch. How is this going to benefit me and why is this any different? I get relatively good signal here. I’m able to do most things.

Kevin M Fox (14:14.716)
Yes.

Dylan Silver (14:23.078)
What’s the upgrade that I’m getting?

Kevin M Fox (14:25.586)
The upgrade is you’re going from, if you’re Starlink, I’m not sure how much megabytes per second is your speed, but you’re gonna get gigabyte speed. So everything’s gonna run so much more smooth, and it’s a fiber network. So we’re gonna bring the circuit right up to the property, and then we’re gonna use fiber to distribute it through all the units in there so that everybody’s fast. And that’s automatically gonna speed things up because we’re oxurally.

actually communicating at the speed of light versus the speed of electrical pulses through copper. So that alone is going to increase the capability of the network because it can communicate faster. But number two, because we have the circuit right there, we’re not losing any speed whatsoever. So we can be anywhere on the property and be at close to gigabyte speed. Yes, sir.

Dylan Silver (15:13.2)
So it sounds like, correct me if I’m wrong, because I’m totally new to this, but I have lots of questions. There’s two things happening, maybe more. Bringing the fiber to the home, and then also within the units, creating the strongest signal possible. Is that correct, or am I butchering it?

Kevin M Fox (15:22.93)
No.

Kevin M Fox (15:30.818)
Right, no, so we have engineers that are going to engineer the property and so we’re going to know if we need AP in every unit, just depends on what it’s built of. know, lot of, you know, out in Florida there’s a lot of hurricanes, so a lot of their buildings are built made out of cement and radio frequencies does not like cement very much. And then you have others where it’s wood and it’s, it’s a…

Drywall and and things like that and the frequencies are much more friendly So it really depends on that and we’re gonna make sure that they’ve got the right system for their property

Dylan Silver (16:03.366)
As I’m thinking about all of this, I’m thinking about myself, selfishly here. And I’m thinking, know, in my dream scenario, where I’m a commercial investor, I’ve gotten to that point. So I’m looking at, you know, long term gains and heavy cash flow, lots of doors. And this is kind of thinking about the future, both literally as in now and also my future, hopefully.

I’d like to have as much automated as possible. You know, I want to make sure that the pool is cleaned Preferably by some type of technology that’ll do that for me the grass is kind and I had mentioned that there’s An investor that I spoke with who had robots cutting the grass. I want to have my VA’s and assistance at the property getting the maintenance orders and anything that would

Kevin M Fox (16:43.548)
Mm-hmm.

Dylan Silver (16:58.64)
prevent it or from becoming too distressed, I want to make sure that I’m handling that. And I want like the leak detectors, right. And I also want to have systems in place for filling every unit. don’t want there to be tremendous vacancies. That way I can be hands off. Now, ideally, you have a property manager that does all of this. But I think the way that these things come together,

Kevin M Fox (17:03.59)
by community detectors.

Dylan Silver (17:26.957)
is in just making your life darn easier. You don’t have to do every single thing yourself. And right now I can speak for millennials and Gen Z, I think if our wifi goes down, you might as well be out of water. Like that’s as great of an emergency as anything else. So I can speak for us. And I think probably most people living right now might feel the same way. You you’re cut off at that point.

Kevin M Fox (17:30.396)
Yes.

Kevin M Fox (17:44.786)
Right.

Dylan Silver (17:56.561)
Specifically in some areas of Texas, I can say where you might not have signal elsewhere. I grew up in New Jersey, so that’s probably rare out there. You probably got signal everywhere, but some parts of Texas, you’re cut off. You’re off the grid. So.

Kevin M Fox (18:10.194)
Sometimes it’s where you are in the multi-family property. So if you’ve got a radio tower here, so your cell coverage is here, but you live on this side of the property, the opposite side of the property, this guy’s not gonna get good reception. This guy’s gonna get great reception. Whereas if you put in fiber throughout the entire property, now everybody gets great, great service.

Dylan Silver (18:35.022)
Kevin where is your company doing most of your work is it in Texas or is it all over.

Kevin M Fox (18:42.054)
Right now it’s in Texas, but we’ll go to all 50 states. You know, I keep joking that I hope somebody has a property out in Alaska because that way I can go out there and visit with my son. So things like that. We’ll go to all 50 states. We’re very professional. We know what we’re doing. We go in there with a plan. There’s always something that might change things, but we’re always anticipating those things. And we have ways of overcoming whatever obstacles that we may incur.

Dylan Silver (18:52.994)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (19:08.706)
Are there certain I know you mentioned working with a two ways I’m sitting for my real estate license God willing it’ll be after or before this podcasters release but are there restrictions on this type of thing like well if you go to an H.O.A. and you know you’re you’re you’re talking about this is it a huge lengthy process to get in or how does that work.

Kevin M Fox (19:31.77)
No, so what happens is the HIA will pay for it upfront or as the installation is happening. And we’ll go in there, we’ll install it, we’ll run the fiber right up to the house. If the person wants us to put in APs so they don’t have to worry about a router or anything like that, we can absolutely do that. If they want bulk Wi-Fi, which is where there’s a router inside the house, depending on the size of the house, then we can put that in there as well. We can help them with a smart home.

solution as well as those residents move in. You want Sonos speakers, we can provide that for you and integrate it into our system. And what’s really great about the multifamily is our tech is the only tech that allows tenants to add their own smart devices to our app. So if they want a Sonos device, they can add

a Sonos speaker to that. If they want smart light bulbs, a lot of people are decorating their homes with lighting, colored lighting. You know, they want to set the mood, right? So they’ll do that as well. They can integrate those as well. It’s a very simple process. And if they’re not sure, we’ll help them. We’ll talk them through it. So that smart garage door openers. I mean, think about it. If you were in a luxury,

Dylan Silver (20:30.862)
Yeah.

Kevin M Fox (20:48.57)
apartment complexes and you had your garage door and the the property manager says hey you can operate this garage door remotely so then all you do is push a button that opens automatically for you or you give it a command like I was talking earlier hey Alexa welcome home the garage door opens automatically for you

Everybody’s going to want that. It’s the coming times. Everybody wants that tech and they want it right now. And that’s what helps them with their occupancy rate because nobody wants to walk away from that because nobody else has it. So they’re giving up that amenity or they’ll go toward two properties. The one that doesn’t have it is going to lose every time. The one that does have that smart tech is going to win every time.

Dylan Silver (21:30.605)
take it even a step further. worked for Amazon briefly. And believe it or not, Amazon and Amazon delivery service partners can open people’s garage doors and drop off packages. So this would happen where usually doesn’t you go to a home and it’s got a garage door and you just drop it off at the door but specific people I don’t know if this is available everywhere in the country but it was definitely available.

Kevin M Fox (21:45.778)
They can’t.

Dylan Silver (21:59.672)
in DFW Dallas, Texas area. You could go straight up to the home as an Amazon delivery driver, open their garage door, take a picture of it and leave. And so that’s the future. And that’s what we’re talking about. We’re talking about, you know, systems and some level of trust or a great level of trust that opening your door and, you know, other things to like just just throwing ideas out there. Now, if you’ve got a leak, right?

Kevin M Fox (22:02.321)
Mm-hmm.

Kevin M Fox (22:09.894)
Right.

Dylan Silver (22:29.377)
and you’ve got video cameras in your home and you’ve got first responders coming, maybe at some point in time they’ll be able to see a live feed of where this is or where the breakdown is happening. If there’s a break-in, they might be able to identify even the room where this is happening and secure it faster.

Kevin M Fox (22:48.306)
Well, Dylan, I’m glad that you brought that up because we ring doorbells integrate with our tech. Not only that, but that garage door opens up. They’re gonna put a ring camera in that garage door. It’s gonna show everything so that if the driver does anything nefarious, we’ll have it on camera. It’ll be recorded. Somebody shows up to your door and rings the doorbell. You’re gonna get a notification. You’re gonna be able to…

to look at who it is. hey Mark, I’m on my way home, I’ll be there in 10 minutes, but here, let me unlock the door from ya. You don’t have to swap apps, you just do it from that same app. So everything, that’s that next level smart home experience.

Dylan Silver (23:29.538)
those ring doorbells are another layer of security. They’re like, I’m not messing with anybody in any neighborhoods who’ve got them and now everybody’s got them. Everybody’s got them. It’s because you all see the next door app. see everybody’s, you know, what’s going on. It’s just like, it’s truly, I don’t know if they knew that going in. was probably they didn’t know that that was going to be such a great utility, but.

because everyone’s got one, they can all see what’s going on. They’ve got this community. It’s like everyone’s got it. We’re on lock. This is like Defcon one level security in this cul-de-sac.

Kevin M Fox (24:03.442)
Right, yeah. So that’s the convenience that we offer with our tech is you can integrate all this all into one app. additional security cameras, absolutely no problem. Ring doorbell, I know people want them because I’ll walk in a multifamily property and there’s ring doorbells all over the place. So people want.

these ring doorbells. They want to see who’s at their front door or who’s coming in and out at two o’clock in the morning. And so that are the speakers. They can entertain people. You know, I always like to joke about how…

You can do the colors so it’s a bright purple and bright orange and have a little mini rave inside your unit if you want. Or if you just want something a little more serene, soft green lighting there throughout your unit. mean, it makes it more customizable to them. So it’s more their home now because…

Dylan Silver (24:55.413)
Yeah.

Kevin M Fox (24:55.948)
You have all these devices, they set it up the way they want it set up and they just feel much more comfortable there and they don’t have to get up and say, Alexa, turn on my mood lighting, all right? turn on the music, classic 80s rock and she’ll turn all that on from you and it’s all originating from the same app.

Dylan Silver (25:07.701)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (25:16.833)
Speaking about the lighting, there’s some research that is coming out and I can, I have experienced it, that the lighting in your home can affect your sleep, your circadian rhythm, and so they’re recommending different hues of light depending on the hour of the day to the point where Apple, your iPhone, if you have the twilight setting on your phone will actually change the hue of the phone itself. So some people,

might not even be aware that this is happening because it’s later on in the day but I know the last couple iPhone updates I think a lot of people have it your your phone changes color is any is there anything like that available for homes like I don’t know if there is at the end of the day the home might change a color.

Kevin M Fox (26:01.874)
Absolutely, so you can set everything up with our tech and our control you can set everything up to timers So if you wanted the lights to turn off on just before sunset

You can set it up for just before sunset and as the sunset changes, so will the time that the lights come on. If you want the lights turned off at a certain time or if you want lights to while you’re not there to turn on or off so people think that you’re home, you can absolutely do that as well. So you can set everything up according to time, according to sunrise or sunset. And so you can change the luminous of the light bulbs as well.

So at noon, you don’t need as much light, so you can dim the lights inside the house, or later on you can make them brighter if you like. Everything’s possible right now. This is right now technology that we can install in every multifamily or MDU. Student housing, not only can they have their own lock on their own door on the inside, but they have a unique lock on the outside that only the people who live in that particular student unit will have access to that code.

Dylan Silver (27:08.821)
Hmm. Wow. You know, I all this is a cutting edge. Man, I have so many questions. I hesitate to ask, but it sounds like depending on what you get, of course, you’re going to have incur more costs. You could go with a very specific, you know, I’m going to get upgraded Wi-Fi or you could go all in and say I’m to have electric, you know, locks, garage door lights.

So on and so forth. I’m also thinking, is it tremendously more out of you want to give us all the game here, Kevin, but is it tremendously expensive, more expensive to install the the electric locks, the electric garage door, the electric lights versus traditional analog that doesn’t have those things?

Kevin M Fox (27:59.836)
Well, it depends. There’s two different packages that are very popular in the MDU space. So one of those is where if it’s a class A apartment is more luxury, you’re going to want that control in there. The control will, you can upload pictures. So it’s a digital photo album, as well as you can control everything from inside your unit from that. And some people prefer control on the side of the wall. Other people prefer using their app on their phone and other people prefer just using their voice.

in order to control things. So yes, we can do that. There’s two different packages. So one includes that and a couple of light switches, the leak detectors and the lock and the thermostat. And that’s about 1,100 bucks per unit.

The other one is a smaller package where you don’t need a control, you don’t need a hub, you can operate the whole thing without any of that and it would be a lock, a thermostat, and two leak detectors only. And that’s only about $500 per unit investment. So per unit, that’s how much it would cost to invest to upgrade to that lock, into the thermostat, into the leak detectors.

Dylan Silver (29:11.496)
In my head, I’m thinking, you know, I can’t imagine that that’s tremendously more than what people are already spending just for the analog equipment. This is going to, you know, be something that’s going to protect you, your tenant. It seems like a no brainer. think where people right now, at least, will probably change in a bit here, but where people right now are running into maybe a mental block is I’ve already got my

my doorknob, I’ve already got my leak detectors, I’ve already got my wifi, I would say, hey folks, if you’re doing a new build, or if you’ve got a commercial complex and you’re making plans for it, put this stuff in before you put the other stuff in, the analog, because this is what you’re gonna have over the long term. Those tenants that are living there now, well, in a couple years, they’re all gonna see, this complex has that.

Why isn’t that here? And then you’re going to have to pay for it anyhow. So just put it in upfront. And I think that’s the most sensible thing.

Kevin M Fox (30:16.668)
Well, I completely agree. And you’re right. They’re going to be outcompeted if they don’t get these smart devices installed because others are. There are so many multi-family properties out there that see the benefit, that see how it’s more attractive to tenants, that helps them with their, they’re not only just cash over cash by charging for the managed Wi-Fi and charging for the IoT, but it’s the…

efficiencies in their utilities by having less turnover at that unit, by being able to monitor and control the temperature of vacant units, for them being able to easily move people in and just as easily move people out, they see what the convenience is for everybody. So it helps the property manager with labor and efficiencies, with tenant efficiencies and utility efficiencies.

Dylan Silver (31:10.846)
Yeah, mean, wow, I learned so much. I think I’m probably going to be chat GPTing a lot of the terms that were thrown out here today because a lot of things that I didn’t know about and I’m sure our listeners didn’t know about. know, the avatar of our listener is someone who’s doing 50 plus deals per year, but we also have a lot of newcomers. So to our newcomers out there, I would just say, hey, you know, if you’re getting into your first deal and

you realize you’re going to be spending money anyhow and maybe this technology seems cutting edge and like I don’t really need it. Well, this is your first project. You might consider contacting Kevin or someone who offers similar services and upgrading to the more powerful Wi-Fi, the overall smart home package because ultimately, you know, your tenants or your Airbnb, if it’s a short term rental, it’s going to be out competed by those folks who have it.

Kevin M Fox (32:07.324)
You know, and I’ve used an Airbnb where they said, OK, here’s the code to the front door. Right. And so I go up to the door. It’s a six digit code. I open it. I have access. Right. I don’t have to worry about hiding a key under a mat. I don’t have to worry about what the temperature of the thermostat is because all that’s integrated into the same thing. Right. So there’s a lot of convenience for the Airbnb is also in that then they can just change the code remotely. Right. They got a cleaning staff that goes in after that first person leaves.

Dylan Silver (32:12.179)
Yeah.

Kevin M Fox (32:35.282)
and they change the code and they say, okay, here’s the new code. And they go in and they have their own new code now.

Dylan Silver (32:40.456)
Here’s a fringe question for you and it may be a little bit difficult to answer, but Pete, I know there’s gonna be some old school, old school people who are gonna say, well, I don’t want my home to get hacked. Do you think that’s a legitimate concern? Do you think there’s a time where you have a situation where some malactor could hack into a home and open the doors? Is that something that has happened ever?

Kevin M Fox (32:43.545)
French crisp.

Kevin M Fox (32:54.599)
Mm-hmm.

Kevin M Fox (33:08.474)
Not that I’ve heard of. So the encryption process that you have for your managed Wi-Fi is the same that you have for your IoT. Because your IoT or your Internet of Things is what that stands for and I’m referring to the smart devices. So those devices are connected to the managed Wi-Fi and as you’re part of Vault, your control over those IoT devices also are encrypted. So we’re talking next level.

super encryption. Is it hackable? Yeah, to the super spy ring, you know, but it’s not something that they’re going to want to hack into each individual person. If they get able to hack into that kind of encryption, they’re going to go after banks or if they have nefarious things.

Dylan Silver (33:53.437)
It’s not not happening anytime soon. I feel safe. I want to do it We’re coming up on time here. Kevin, how can folks get ahold of you?

Kevin M Fox (33:57.52)
Yeah. Well, absolutely.

Kevin M Fox (34:04.426)
easily. You can visit me at FoxQuestInc.com. can email me at Kevin at FoxQuestInc.com. Or you can call me direct to my cell at 972-880-8100.

Dylan Silver (34:21.799)
All right, folks, that wraps up another episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast by Investor Fuel. lot of terms and smart home technology, IOTs thrown at us today. So I think this is gonna be educational for a lot of even seasoned investors. Until next time, thank you and we’ll see you next time.

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