KeyBank’s Payments Platform Provides a Lifeline to Multifamily Owners
Multifamily owners and operators are turning to digital payments to improve administrative efficiency and cut costs. Digital payments products simplify tenant rent collection, vendor reconciliation and reimbursements.
The technology solution couldn’t come at a better time. Apartment investors are adapting to changing market fundamentals and navigating challenging economic headwinds. Payments technology reduces time on administrative tasks and curbs budgets, allowing apartment owners to dedicate resources and time to manage their properties and focus on business growth.
Kittle Property Group is among the multifamily owners that has benefited from a robust payments strategy. The company owns 18,000 units in 19 states across the country, providing homes to 35,000 residents—and it is continuing to expand. Kittle started transitioning its banking services to KeyBank in 2018 to meet internal needs for a national banking platform with a broad suite of products to support the organization’s growth. Since then, Kittle has adopted payments products AvidPay and Key2Prepaid®, the bank's prepaid debit card product, with great success. The payments strategy has delivered benefits to Kittle beyond what the organization had expected.
Solving Operational Challenges
Traditionally, property owners handle reconciliations by arduously drafting invoices, entering them in a bookkeeping system and manually cutting checks. The process is labor intensive and time consuming. “That isn’t going to work in the environment that we are in anymore,” says Lissa Tichenor, CFO of Kittle Property Group. “As we grow and develop more units and become a larger organization, we need to find a way to ensure the accuracy of payments, make sure they are secure payments and make them as efficiently as possible.”
The company turned to KeyBank for payments solutions, starting with the organization’s AvidPay product, an AI-enabled automated tool that lets users make electronic payments. Tichenor describes the system as a “great fit” for the company and she and her team at Kittle work closely with Key to locate pain points and provide solutions. “There is always an issue that is causing a headache,” says Tichenor. “When we formed a stronger relationship with KeyBank, we started to see how they could solve the problems that we were having with other platforms.”
“When we formed a stronger relationship with KeyBank, we started to see how they could solve the problems that we were having with other platforms.”
Lissa Tichenor, CFO of Kittle Property Group
Right off the bat, Kittle had one specific challenge that Key was able to eliminate: tenant utility reimbursements. The company owns a low-income housing portfolio, and the government pays the monthly utility bills. At the end of every month, Kittle has to reimburse tenants for those utility payments. This was a taxing process where Kittle would cut individual checks to each resident in various low digit amounts and send them out by a specific date as part of a regulatory requirement. The team at Key recommended switching to prepaid debit cards – and now Kittle completes all the payments with a single ACH transaction. “It saves us a significant amount of time every month,” says Tichenor. “It’s so easy now – and knowing the payments will reach residents on time has been a major help.” The product also benefits residents, many of whom don’t have a bank account, giving them better and more consistent access to funds.
The true value of digitized payments is hard to quantify, but Tichenor sums it up in headcount. As she explains, Kittle has doubled in size since onboarding KeyBank, but her finance department has only had to hire a handful of employees to keep up with the workload because of the efficiencies gained through automation. The payments platform allows Kittle to dedicate resources to core business objectives, rather than day-to-day administrative tasks.
Serving as a partner
KeyBank’s technology and product options are critical components of a successful payments platform, but Tichenor says that the company’s relationship-style banking model set it apart. “Key is very much walking side-by-side with us on our journey as a company. They are truly a partner, and they are truly trying to figure out what is going to be the biggest benefit for us as a company and help us on that journey,” she says. “They want us to succeed as much as they want Key to succeed.”
Kittle has quarterly calls with its KeyBank team. In those discussions, KeyBank takes the time to uncover any issues and discuss new challenges. It is on these phone calls that Key suggested using prepaid debit cards to replace the utility reimbursement checks. “This partnership helps me think of things differently than maybe I would have,” says Tichenor. “Having those conversations is important to finding the right solutions. They are going to give us the best ideas and help us get to where we need to be.”
“This partnership helps me think of things differently than maybe I would have.”
Lissa Tichenor, CFO of Kittle Property Group
Developing an Effective Payment Strategy
For many apartment property owners, digital payments is a new frontier. Conquering it requires a trusted partnership with an organization that can provide the services and products that meet each business's unique needs. For companies beginning the journey, Tichenor recommends starting with the biggest administrative problem first, and then see how other efficiencies develop naturally. For many owners, time is the biggest challenge in the current environment. “It is all about finding that first one,” she says. “Any problem where you feel like you are wasting time on a task, find a digital way to help solve that problem.”
Now more than ever, apartment owners are looking for ways to streamline operations and keep costs down. Through payment technology platforms, owners can eliminate administrative tasks, deliver stronger customer service, and better manage vendor relationships. As Tichenor says, this system has saved her company time and money—and in today’s market, there is nothing more valuable.
To start the conversation, connect directly with Kittle’s payment manager, Michael Lee, KeyBank senior vice president and leader for advice on bringing automation and efficiency to your affordable housing and market rate portfolios. You can also connect with KeyBank’s affordable president Rob Likes and SVP affordable program manager Al Beaumariage.
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