In a conversation with CanadianSME Small Business Magazine, Juan and Carlos Leal, founders of Leasey.AI, share their journey from managing rental properties to creating an innovative leasing automation platform. With firsthand experience as landlords and backgrounds in management consulting, the Leal brothers developed Leasey.AI to address inefficiencies in the rental ecosystem. The platform simplifies property management by automating over 90% of leasing activities, improving efficiency, reducing risks like tenant fraud, and enhancing service quality. Their recent partnership with Discrepancy AI is further strengthening tenant verification, offering property managers advanced tools to streamline operations and reduce risks in today’s competitive rental market.
Juan Leal, CPA, CA – Founder at Leasey.AI
At Leasey.AI, we understand that property management should be a seamless and efficient experience. Our essence lies in simplifying the complexities of property management through cutting-edge technology and personalized support. We envision a future where property owners can focus on what matters most to them while we handle the rest.
Carlos Leal – Founder at Leasey.AI
I’m an entrepreneur on a mission to create a future of trust, transparency, and meaningful connections. My passion lies at the intersection of business, technology, and innovation, where I explore how they enhance human experiences.
Right now, I’m building Leasey.AI, a game-changer in property management. Our platform streamlines leasing, saving time and effort. We’re targeting asset managers, property managers, and residential real estate operators, making leasing smoother.
Can you share the journey and inspiration behind founding Leasey.AI, and how your personal experiences as landlords influenced the creation of this leasing automation platform?
Leasey.AI’s journey began with our firsthand experiences as landlords, managing a small portfolio of rental properties for over a decade. Our hands-on involvement in real estate, coupled with our backgrounds in management consulting, highlighted significant inefficiencies in the rental process.
As we sought to streamline the leasing process for our own properties, we found ourselves juggling various tasks with tools like Calendly for scheduling, Equifax for credit checks, and DocuSign for leases. While these tools were useful individually, their lack of integration led to a fragmented and time-consuming process.
During my tenure advising large institutional real estate asset managers at EY, I observed these inefficiencies on a grander scale. This realization drove Juan and me to develop a unified, automated, and intuitive platform that could manage the entire leasing process and offer insights to enhance tenant selection. This vision gave rise to Leasey.AI, a platform designed to simplify and optimize the leasing process for landlords and property managers.
What are the key challenges in the rental ecosystem in Canada that Leasey.AI addresses, and how does your technology help mitigate these issues?
1. Shortage of Property Managers
Canada’s rental market faces a 50% shortage of property managers, worsened by retiring boomers. Leasey.AI addresses this challenge by automating key tasks and streamlining processes, enabling property managers to manage their workloads more effectively and cope with the shortage.
2. Shortage of Housing and Backlog Due to Inefficiencies
With rising demand due to a growing migrant population and limited rental housing, inefficiencies are causing application backlogs and slow response times. Leasey.AI tackles these issues by automating the leasing process, reducing manual tasks, and accelerating application processing. This creates the capacity for property managers to handle more applications efficiently and improves the rental experience for tenants.
3. Increase in Tenant Fraud
The risk of tenant fraud is on the rise. Leasey.AI addresses this issue with advanced screening and verification tools, enabling property managers to make well-informed tenant selections and minimizing eviction risks. This enhances the security and reliability of the rental process.
With the recent partnership with Discrepancy AI, how can clients transform their leasing operations, and what immediate benefits can they expect from this integration?
93% of US property managers have encountered tenant application fraud in the past year, according to the National Multifamily Housing Council. To combat this, we’ve partnered with Discrepancy AI.
Discrepancy AI enables our clients to meticulously examine every supporting document uploaded by a tenant, offering detailed insights into its content and identifying any signs of manipulation, such as an altered paystub or employment letter using Photoshop.
Our AI engine cross-references this data with all other application information, helping property managers verify that a tenant’s application is complete, accurate, and legitimate.
This integration not only enhances the reliability of the leasing process but also provides property managers with the confidence that their tenant selections are based on accurate, verified information.
How does Leasey.AI’s focus on automating over 90% of leasing activities improve efficiency, reduce risk, and enhance service quality for property managers and their clients?
Leasey.AI’s focus on automating over 90% of leasing activities offers significant improvements in efficiency, risk reduction, and service quality for property managers and their clients:
- Improved Efficiency: By automating tasks like lead response, scheduling, tenant communication, and document management, Leasey.AI drastically reduces the time property managers spend on manual processes. This allows them to handle more properties with the same resources, speeding up the leasing cycle and filling vacancies faster.
- Reduced Risk: Automation minimizes the risk of human error in critical tasks such as tenant screening, contract execution, and compliance checks. Leasey.AI’s AI-driven tenant screening ensures thorough and consistent evaluations, reducing the likelihood of selecting incompatible tenants and lowering the chances of disputes or defaults.
- Enhanced Service Quality: With mundane tasks automated, property managers can focus on providing a more personalized and responsive service to their clients. The platform’s ability to track and manage every aspect of the leasing process ensures that nothing falls through the cracks, leading to a smoother, more reliable experience for both property managers and tenants.
