SANTA BARBARA, Calif.–More than 100,000 housing applications have been created in RENTCafé® Affordable Housing since the product launched last year. Averaging more than 6,000 applications created per month, the numbers continue to grow as the online solution sees wider adoption across the affordable housing industry, the company said in a statement.
“Affordable housing applications have evolved from cumbersome, paper-based hassles into easy, online workflows. Applicants can submit documentation from their home computer or mobile device. That freedom saves applicants from taking time off work to come into the office for a lengthy in-person interview,” said Dave Kessler, vice president of affordable housing and PHA at Yardi.
“If you consider it takes a housing specialist an hour or two to conduct an interview and key in the data gathered, then multiply that by more than 100,000 applications created in RENTCafé Affordable Housing over the past year and a half, you see just how significant this product is for the affordable housing industry,” said Kessler.
Self-service applications reduce the need for property managers to set aside office hours for interviewing applicants. “One of our goals for RENTCafé is to give onsite property managers more time to serve their current residents. Shortening, and in some cases eliminating, intake interviews helps us achieve that goal for our clients,” said Kessler.
RENTCafé Affordable Housing is also effective in promoting fair housing as the self-service process eliminates the perception of coaching and is available in more than 80 languages.
