Cortland Finds Smart Solution for Inspections

The Challenge: Efficient inspections platform needed for aggressive value-add strategy

Historically, Cortland focused on development rather than acquisitions. But as the firm became more aggressive with its value-add strategy, due diligence emerged as a major priority.

According to Carlos Smith, Cortland’s Director of Pursuit and Transitions, the company needed a mobile-first platform that could streamline and automate aspects of inspection procedures. The platform also had to be able to scale with the rapid growth of the company, which, at one point, averaged as many as nearly 30 acquisitions annually.

‘When you’re investing millions … you want to know what you’re buying’

Paper inspection forms had proven problematic for Cortland’s inspection teams: Hand-written reports were time-consuming, data entry on the back end was labor-intensive and inefficient, and the entire process bore the risk of potential human error.

“When we first started implementing our due diligence process, most other companies were only walking about 10% of the apartment homes in order to get a general assessment of the asset,” said Carlos Smith, Cortland’s Director of Pursuit and Transitions. “When you’re investing millions of dollars into a community, you want to know what you’re buying. We realized that we needed to introduce tools to make us more efficient.”

The Solution: Inspection Management streamlines and customizes inspections

The Inspection Management solution allowed Cortland to tailor the inspection process to fit the company’s needs. Smith said SmartRent’s guidance has been—and continues to be—invaluable as the inspection teams refine and perfect that process.

“The biggest pain point we had was figuring out what we wanted to look for and what options we wanted to include,” Smith said. “Inspection Management has really enabled our inspection process to evolve. We’ve been in there together, setting up templates and establishing those inspection items. It has been a great partnership.

“We have the flexibility to either build out our own inspection templates or tap into the SmartRent team whenever we find ourselves needing a bit more customization and support.”

The Results: SmartRent makes inspections more accurate and comprehensive, paving the way for sound strategy

The Cortland-SmartRent partnership has helped put Cortland—an NMHC Top 50 owner—ahead of the game in terms of inspections. Cortland has grown its portfolio by 145% since it began using the SmartRent interface.

According to Smith, Cortland’s inspection teams love Inspection Management because it helps eliminate the potential for mistakes. Using the SmartRent app, the inspection team can make a comment or take a picture during unit walks, and later reports can be pulled to get a summary of items of concern.

Real-time data and reliable documentation instilled confidence

“Through our integrations, Inspection Management will be able to access and then analyze the data just like it does the physical due diligence inspection data points,” said Smith. “Now, I will be able to get a summary report almost instantaneously, which will save a tremendous amount of time. With the solution, you’re capturing the information in real time. I can go in mid-inspection, and if I have concerns that need to be addressed with the seller, I can do that right then and there.

“The real-time data gives us the insight we need to confidently close a deal—or walk away if needed. My team relies on this aspect of the platform. With a simple tap, they’re confident that the information is being documented accurately.”

What SmartRent’s Inspection Management does for Cortland

Inspection Management makes the Cortland inspection teams’ job easier by offering the following:

• Fast inspections: Streamline property inspections with a mobile and tablet app on both iOS and Android.
• Team coordination: Schedule and assign inspections to on-site team members, vendors and contractors.
• Cost tracking: Set standard costs associated with repairs and replacements, and update them during inspections to build an accurate budget.
• Easy documentation: Set required fields like a photo, signature, condition or comment for any given question.
• Flexible templates: Create, edit and reuse customized forms on the fly to easily meet the needs of each property and process at no additional cost.
• Insightful reporting: View real-time data using customized filters, allowing you to easily analyze, export and share what you need to make informed decisions.

The Cortland inspection teams’ favorite product features: Team management, scheduling, geofencing

Moving forward

Since deploying Inspection Management, Cortland continues to work with the SmartRent team to customize its reporting format and employ additional capabilities, like lease-file audits. Those efficiencies will continue to help enable Cortland to ramp up its growth trajectory, especially with a small due diligence team.

“Having a tool to quantify the data and turn out the results quickly is allowing us to not only continue, but also increase, our growth pace,” Smith said. “Our team wouldn’t be able to support Cortland’s growth goals as efficiently or cost effectively without Inspection Management or our partnership with the SmartRent team.”