Multifamily economist Jay Parsons, Kristy Simonette, and teams from UDR, BH, and more took the Forum stage to discuss trends, case studies, and strategic planning in the new operating model.
SCOTTSDALE, AZ — The second day of the 2026 Forum conference was packed with panels, speakers, and case studies, diving deep into the latest operational and economic trends shaping the future of multifamily in real time.
Check back for complete recaps of each panel, but for now, here’s the TL;DR on everything you missed at the “best conference in multifamily” (if we do say so ourselves).
Jay Parsons, nationally recognized housing economist, eight themes + questions for 2026
When multifamily leaders want to understand where the housing market is headed next, they turn to Jay Parsons.
A nationally recognized housing economist, Parsons has spent years helping investors, developers, lenders, and operators make sense of the forces shaping rental housing. Prior to launching his advisory work, he served as Chief Economist at RealPage, where he analyzed housing trends and market performance across the country. Today, Parsons works as a consultant, speaker, and podcast host, translating complex housing data into insights the industry can act on.
At Forum, Parsons framed today’s multifamily environment as a mix of short-term pressure and long-term confidence. Operators are feeling real strain from investors as returns lag expectations, and uncertainty remains a constant backdrop. But structurally, the fundamentals of rental housing are still strong, driven by a highly competitive and fragmented industry where operators of all sizes can compete and win.
Parsons focused on eight key forces impacting multifamily, all pointing to a supply-driven reset rather than a broken demand story.
After a historic supply surge that peaked in 2024, deliveries are set to drop sharply in 2026, creating the conditions for a gradual recovery. All while new construction starts have fallen to roughly 230,000 units annually, back to 2013-2014 levels, and future supply is expected to hit 10-year lows. At the same time, affordability is improving, with three consecutive years of wage growth outpacing rent growth and rent-to-income ratios returning to about 22% for market-rate housing, while demographic trends continue to extend the renter lifecycle.
These factors, Parsons says, are signs that despite recent struggles, growth is rebounding. Slowly, but surely.
“I know you remember, survive until ‘25, and now there’s a fix in ‘26, it’ll be heaven in ‘27, it’ll be great in ‘28,” Parsons said. “We’ll keep coming up with new ones until one day it’s right. I don’t know if it’s gonna fix in ‘26, but I do think we’re gonna see some improvement this year.”
UDR’s next generation of centralization
Few multifamily operators have as long a history with centralization as UDR.
Ranked No. 15 on the NMHC Top Owners list and No. 31 on the NMHC Top Managers list, the publicly traded REIT operates roughly 60,000 apartment homes nationwide. Nearly a decade ago, UDR began reshaping how work was distributed across its portfolio, moving administrative functions offsite and creating specialized roles designed to improve efficiency and the renter experience.
What started as an efficiency play supported by tools built in house years before Funnel came to the market now, evolved into an experience-focused next step in their centralization journey supported by Funnel’s solutions. They’re moving from fragmented interactions across teams to a more unified, concierge-style model where one centralized team member owns the entire journey, creating a single point of contact for the renter and resident and a more seamless experience from first inquiry through residency.
At Forum, Josh Gampp, SVP & Chief Technology Officer, Kim Garfield, VP, IT Solutions Delivery, Dana D’Alessio, Sr. Director, IT, and Mackenna Mullins, Director, Centralized Operations walked the audience through their journey, iterating what centralization would look like for their teams and renters, and why having a like-minded partner ready to hit the gas is essential.
Their centralization journey was grounded in real customer data after feedback showed renters were confused by multiple touchpoints.
“We first aligned our centralized groups [by] business functions… What we’ve learned over the last, especially the last couple of years as we really try to shift and focus much more on the customer experiences, was wow, those verticals probably made it more efficient and easier for us, but it wasn’t a great experience for our customers,” Gampp said.
The impact of an omnichannel communication platform and a concierge model improved early prospect touchpoints, which is significant, as Gampp reported that a bad move-in experience is the number one driver of poor renewals.
By partnering with Funnel, UDR consolidated its CRM, communications, and workflows into a single platform, creating a true omnichannel experience and a 360° view of the customer that reduced friction and built trust across both centralized and onsite teams.
With Funnel as the system of record, UDR eliminated duplicate work, automated repetitive tasks, and created space for higher-quality conversations. Instead of optimizing for speed alone, teams began prioritizing better interactions, using data and AI to understand sentiment, reduce friction, and intervene earlier in the renter lifecycle.
Trust, but verify. Modern fraud prevention, for a better bottom line
Today, 93% of multifamily operators report experiencing fraud, with 70% seeing increases year over year.
The good news: AI technology has made it easier and more efficient to find these bad actors. But the bad news is AI turned what used to be an obvious bad Photoshop job into polished, scalable attacks, forcing operators to rethink screening from the ground up.
Property management leaders Sarah Allwardt, Director of Marketing and Resident Experience, at Kane Realty (6,000 units, split evenly owner-operator and third-party-managed), Nate Thompson, Director of Resident Qualifications, at Morgan Properties (No. 3 on the NMHC Top Owners list, 115,000 units), and Marcy Bardenwerper, AVP Strategic Operations at Windsor Communities (No. 20 on the NMHC Top Owners, 56,000 units) were joined by fintech expert Jackie Endres, Head of Enterprise + Fintech Partnerships at Plaid discussed the role of targeted friction in this new era of AI and fraud prevention.
The biggest challenge for operators is mitigating fraud risk without breaking the prospect experience. And the operators getting it right aren’t choosing between speed and security, they’re redesigning their workflows to deliver both.
By moving verification earlier, centralizing decisioning, and applying friction only where risk actually exists, teams are speeding up approvals for qualified renters while stopping bad actors before they get through the door.
Windsor, for example, moved income verification directly into the application, cutting approval times from 4.5 days to under two days, and protected estimated $2.6M revenue in Q1 2026 based on flagged applications.
At the same time, operators like Kane Realty processed 25% more application volume year over year, while reducing applications flagged for review by 30%.
“It’s a difficult market for all of us and every lease counts, so we want to make sure we’re not slowing down the process for those who should be getting into our properties,” Allwardt said. “So when we partnered with the Funnel team [with Online Leasing]… our application approval speed improved 47% as well. By embedding that smarter risk intelligence into the process, it proves that strong screening doesn’t have to create unnecessary roadblocks.”
“Our application approval speed improved 47% as well. By embedding that smarter risk intelligence into the process, it proves that strong screening doesn’t have to create unnecessary roadblocks.”
The fight against fraud will be defined by how well operators balance trust and verification. AI is accelerating both sides, enabling fraud at scale while also helping detect anomalies, flag risk, and eliminate manual work.
From centralized ops to signature experience: The evolution of BH’s Mint Experience
For BH, centralization was never just about efficiency. It was about service.
Ranked No. 11 on the NMHC Top Managers list, BH manages more than 93,000 units across 42 states and operates a national portfolio spanning both ownership and third-party management. As the company scaled, leadership began asking a larger question: how do you deliver a consistent, high-touch resident experience across thousands of interactions and hundreds of communities?
The answer became The Mint Experience.
At Forum, Christi Weinstein, Chief Operating Officer, Amy Walling, Unified Strategic Services Senior Project Manager, Amy Davis, Vice President of Shared Services, and Andre Washington, Director of Contact Center Technology, discussed the impact the Mint Experience has had not only on the resident journey, but also on employee satisfaction and retention.
By shifting from generalist on-site roles to specialized centralized positions, BH has created clearer ownership and more focused workflows, leading to a 40% reduction in employee turnover in centralized roles. Plus, nearly all centralized team members previously worked on-site at a BH property and now work in fully remote positions, improving work-life balance and reducing burnout.
“Employee satisfaction that’s really just gone through the roof on my team,” Washington said. “Because they are in a place where they feel most comfortable, they don’t feel they’re deviating from where they feel as their talents and their confidence.”
“Employee satisfaction that’s really just gone through the roof on my team,” Washington said. “Because they are in a place where they feel most comfortable, they don’t feel they’re deviating from where they feel as their talents and their confidence.”
The combination of BH’s centralized teams and AI tools that assist in the journey, prospects are moving through the funnel faster. The BH contact center, described as the “front door” to The Mint Experience, balances speed and personalization to make every interaction feel intentional.
BH saw a 150% increase in tour bookings overall, including a 1,150% increase in tours booked by the virtual assistant and a 109% increase in tours booked through automated scheduling links year over year. They also saw a 200% increase in voice AI containment rate, allowing more conversations to be fully resolved in the first interaction without adding pressure to on-site teams.
By combining automation with thoughtful handoffs to humans, the team is able to move faster without sacrificing connection.
Those gains are the result of designing an experience that works for both sides of the interaction. By removing friction for teams and bringing consistency to every touchpoint, BH has created a model where better workflows lead to better jobs, and better jobs lead to better renter experiences.
Strategic career planning in the new operating model
The traditional multifamily career ladder is breaking down, and operators are actively redesigning what growth looks like.
At Forum, DeAnna Moore, President at Elmington, (No. 42 on NMHC Top Managers list, 38,000 units), Meghan East, Operations Manager, Centralized Services at ZRS (No. 13 on NMHC Top Managers list, 110,000 units), and Allison Dunavant, Senior Vice President Human Resources at Camden (No. 16 NMHC Top Owner, 32 NMHC Manager, 58,000 units), discussed why employee retention success now comes from aligning roles to individual strengths.
The old path of multifamily career growth from leasing consultant to property manager no longer reflects how work actually gets done today. Instead, moving toward role specialization and lateral mobility, aligns with employees’ desire for more purpose and opportunity, not just promotions.
ZRS moved high-volume tasks like lead management and initial prospect communication into centralized teams, and created entirely new roles focused on speed, responsiveness, and portfolio-wide performance. Those roles are often filled through internal promotions, giving employees a faster path to growth while improving outcomes at scale.
“We noticed teams were missing about 50% of their calls,” East said. “We know when you’re onsite you wear a lot of hats, you can’t really avoid it. After we deployed to centralized, missed calls dropped to 10% or less.”
“We noticed teams were missing about 50% of their calls,” East said. “We know when you’re onsite you wear a lot of hats, you can’t really avoid it. After we deployed to centralized, missed calls dropped to 10% or less.”
At Camden, the impact of this shift is showing up clearly in retention and engagement. Onsite turnover dropped 18%, while centralized team turnover fell 36%, as roles became more focused and supported.
Elmington is leaning into that same philosophy, building a culture where internal mobility is expected and encouraged. Growth isn’t reserved for a select few, it’s something employees are invited into.
“It was a great opportunity to be able to pour into the people that are out here on the front lines,” Moore said. “You raise your hand, you continue to excel. We’ve created an environment that really allows for that. It allows for an entrepreneurial spirit, which is something that’s special about our company.”
Retention, however, starts earlier than career progression. Camden found that onboarding often ranged from “sink or swim” to information overload. In response, they simplified the first 30 days (which is when Camden’s research shows 75% of employees will decide if they’ll stay), focusing on what employees need to succeed in their role, supported by managers and peer mentors.
“Over the last 3 years, we’ve seen significant improvement in employee engagement scores that have gone up 4%,” Dunavant said. “People are feeling valued and engaged in the work they are doing.”
The companies keeping their best people aren’t getting lucky. They’re designing jobs people don’t want to leave.
Leading the industry forward: A fireside chat with the RETTC chair Kristy Simonette
Camden doesn’t just survive tough markets. They use them to reinvent how they operate.
Kristy Simonette, Chair of the RETTC Steering Committee and Senior Vice President of Strategic Services and Chief Information Officer at Camden, walked through a pattern that’s repeated across decades. She spoke with Funnel CEO Tyler Christiansen in a closing fireside chat about the organization’s evolution through a “never waste a crisis” approach.
The company was born out of the savings and loan crisis in the early 1990s. Then, in 2009, during the financial crisis, Camden launched its contact center after discovering 80% of calls were being missed and half of those were leasing opportunities.
Then came COVID. Just days before shutdowns, Camden met with Funnel and committed to a new journey with Funnel built around self-service, centralization, and a modern CRM foundation.
“There’s so many horrible things about COVID, but there’s so many good things about COVID. It revolutionized the way we do business,” Simonette said. “We were able to do business and not in person, and the expectation of our customers changed. And so that was the turning point. We could have pushed all this stuff along eventually, but it wouldn’t have come full circle if the customer’s expectation hadn’t been there. So it’s all about meeting your customers where you are.”
Now, in a no rent growth environment, the same mindset applies. Every decision comes back to one question: does it move the needle? For Camden, the most recent example is their recent launch of Funnel’s Voice AI product,
“We reduced hold times by 44% from March 6 to March 13, 2026” Simonette said. “That’s a coup if you run a contact center, it’s unheard of. That certainly moved the needle.”
“We reduced hold times by 44% from March 6 to March 13,” Simonette said. “That’s a coup if you run a contact center, it’s unheard of. That certainly moved the needle.”
They have also paired operational change with a culture that keeps employees engaged, recognized, and invested in the outcome.
That culture shows up in both results and reputation. Camden has been named one of Fortune’s Best Companies to Work for every year since 2008, a reflection of leadership consistency and a deliberate focus on people.
From early centralization efforts to AI today, Camden has built momentum by giving teams a role in shaping how the business evolves.
Forum proved the industry isn’t one size fits all. Different operators. Different models. Different paths to centralization.
But when you put them in the same room, sharing what’s working and what’s not, that’s where things start to move faster. That’s what makes Forum special.
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