Forum recap | Lessons learned from the original centralization pioneers

BH, Essex, and UDR were among the first to dive into centralization. What have they learned years later? Go fast, circle back, and refine.

Forum 2025 brought together four executives who weren’t just early adopters of centralization—they architected the new operating model we know today. While they paved the way for what is possible and inspired owner-operators and third-party managers of all sizes to pursue centralization at their own companies, their journeys still continue today. 

After years of pioneering the path to centralization, Funnel brought them together to discuss what they’d do again, what they wouldn’t, and how they see their own strategies evolving in this new era of AI. 

BH: Improving the customer and employee experience through centralization

BH cracks two NMHC top 50 lists as the 11th largest manager, and 39th largest owner, putting Chief Operating Officer Christi Weinstein in the unique position of navigating centralization from a third-party manager perspective, and as owner-operators.

Weinstein led an ambitious transformation at BH: centralizing across 100,000 units and 42 states. 

BH mastered the art of the pivot when scaling centralization and role specialization across their vast portfolio, including internal contact center, screening, account management, and renewals—but the goal always remained the same. 

“Our goals, which are shared around this room, were to enhance the customer experience. For BH it was not just the customer experience, but it was also the employee experience,” Weinstein said.

“We’ve overly burdened our on-site teams to where the customer is not first, which is unfortunate because that should be the mentality on-site. Lifting and shifting work [allows them to] focus on what works at that community, which is prospects coming in for tours and resident satisfaction.”

“We’ve overly burdened our on-site teams to where the customer is not first, which is unfortunate because that should be the mentality on-site. Lifting and shifting work [allows them to] focus on what works at that community, which is prospects coming in for tours and resident satisfaction.” — Christi Weinstein, Chief Operating Officer, BH 

Weinstein said her teams are outperforming in every metric, including appointment-to-tour ratio, tour-to-lease, fraud mitigation, delinquency reduction, and more. But perhaps the most important is internal retention. 

“We are seeing incredible numbers when thinking about the employee experience,” Weinstein said, noting that BH saw a 40% reduction in turnover when comparing on-site vs. shared services. “Turnover just isn’t there in those centralized roles, and I think that is because they are doing higher level, specialized work than [they would] being a generalist.”

Managing workload and securing buy-in

For BH, 2024 was the year of scale, and 2025 is the year of refinement. Weinstein and the BH team are looking at technology gaps and areas of improvement across the board to continue refining their approach to centralization. 

“The heaviest workload is probably on the resident account management, just based on the amount of interaction they need driving delinquency and resident conversations,” Weinstein said. “My hope is that with Funnel’s new Resident AI they just announced, we will be able to see some improvements in scale there over time.”

BH is betting on AI and automation to shoulder more of that burden—particularly in high-touch, high-frequency interactions—so centralized teams can focus on nuanced cases that require more specialized support.

BH is betting on AI and automation to shoulder more of that burden—particularly in high-touch, high-frequency interactions—so centralized teams can focus on nuanced cases that require more specialized support.

But as for finding the perfect staffing formula? It’s not so simple. The goal isn’t to cut headcount. It’s to right-size the workload to ensure the experience—both for renters and employees—continues to improve. 

“It took about a year for our on-site teams to truly embrace the impact, and now they want the technology. They don’t know what their lives would look like without these centralized groups,” Weinstein said. “Everybody has a specialty but I think the important piece there is that collaboration is key. It’s not a one-to-one change, it’s a one-to-many impact.”

Essex: Owning the future of AI-powered centralization

Essex Property Trust (Essex), the 13th largest NMHC owner in the U.S., and a publicly traded REIT with 262 communities totaling 62,000 units. The company had centralized some functions before Michael Kao, Chief Technology Officer joined the team. Amy Larson, Senior Manager of Enterprise Applications at Essex who had been along for the entire centralization journey joined the panel to share her perspective as well. 

“Inheriting [a centralized operating model] has been the biggest gift,” said Kao, who joined multifamily from the financial space just a few years ago, and has only known the centralization operating model. 

Essex is laser-focused on making sure their model stays current, with an emphasis on AI adoption, best-in-class tooling, and interoperability.

“One of the things we love about Funnel is the fact that it is interoperable with lots of different systems—even systems that may potentially compete against it. I think that helps our centralization journey and momentum quite a bit,” Kao said. “We have a lot of optionality [with Funnel]. And that’s not only for us—it’s for everyone in this room. You can take the Funnel option, or use your own depending on where you are in centralization.”

The ancillary benefits to centralization

Essex was Funnel’s development partner in their online leasing solution. Larson was instrumental in working with other leaders at Essex to create the best-in-class ecommerce solution Funnel developed. 

Since those early days, they’ve seen multiple benefits from creating a centralized, specialized team to take care of specific areas of the leasing journey and pairing those specialized teams with industry-leading solutions to remove friction, prevent fraud, and speed up the leasing process. 

Automating identity verification and the application process proved to be a success not only for centralized teams, but also for the prospect experience.

“Prospects could complete the entire leasing process from the start of their application to signature essentially from their couch, which is what they want to do,” Larson said.

“That end-to-end experience being fully digital and streamlined meant fewer drop offs and a more seamless journey for our customers.”

 “That end-to-end experience being fully digital and streamlined meant fewer drop offs and a more seamless journey for our customers.” — Amy Larson, Senior Manager of Enterprise Applications, Essex

Not to mention the time it frees up for associates who no longer have to check IDs and chase paperwork for new prospects. From mid-2024 through the end of Q1 2025, Essex achieved a 91% automation rate for ID verification requests after implementing FunnelSecure and Funnel’s online leasing solution.

“Only 6% of ID verifications [are manual], so you can see how big of a deal that is taking that workload off of our associates. But it’s also a big deal for the customer. Being able to do it in one process online without having to back out of the application, make a phone call, scan stuff—it’s a big win,” Larson said.

“Only 6% of ID verifications [are manual], so you can see how big of a deal that is taking that workload off of our associates. But it’s also a big deal for the customer. Being able to do it in one process online without having to back out of the application, make a phone call, scan stuff—it’s a big win,” — Amy Larson, Senior Manager of Enterprise Applications, Essex

“In the end, these processes did not just improve the operational efficiency, it elevated the experience for both customers and associates, and for Essex that is a win across the board.”

UDR: What it takes to lead the charge

UDR, the 15th largest NMHC owner in the U.S., and a publicly traded REIT with 60,000 units, centralized operations by moving administrative functions offsite, and creating specialized roles over a decade ago—before centralization was even a buzzword in multifamily. They built their own CRM, because no solutions—at the time—allowed them the flexibility they needed to shift their operations. Throughout their centralization journey they centralized admin, sales, renewals, and move-in functions. 

But eventually, their in-house tech hit a ceiling. 

“We got to a point mid last year where we realized we’re not a software shop—we’re a real estate company,” said Josh Gampp, SVP, Chief Technology Officer at UDR. “We had been keeping an eye on Funnel for a few years… we realized Funnel was really passing us by in what we could do internally.”

Now, UDR is rolling out Funnel’s full product suite, a move Gampp calls “insanely fast” thanks in part to the Funnel team working to onboard more than 160 UDR properties in just eight weeks. But Gampp said that is not the only reason their rollout with Funnel is going so smoothly. 

“We are already taking advantage of being in a centralized operating model and you realize that is where your advantages are—it’s how you operate,” said Gampp. “Already having that operating model in place made it a bit easier to switch over [to Funnel], and our teams are very excited. Funnel is a much better product than what we built.” 

Funnel’s renter-centric® architecture is a core differentiator between all other multifamily CRMs, and gave the UDR team the ability to use an industry best-in-class solution to facilitate the next iteration of their centralization journey. 

Doubling down on success

Panelists agreed that the path to centralization isn’t a walk in the park. Mistakes and wrong turns are inevitable—and success depends on knowing when to reflect and pivot, and when to double down.  

At UDR, that meant getting one thing right from the very beginning: trust. He said early and honest communication was critical in easing the transition to a centralized model, and eventually a new CRM, and establishing buy-in from the ground up. 

“We were very open in communicating [to associates] that it is a company decision, these are going to be better opportunities, better jobs, and here is what it means for all of you,” Gampp said. “But the message has to come from the top. If you don’t have that top player, you’re probably going to struggle.”

Gampp said UDR was lucky that they established immediate buy-in from stakeholders, which allowed them to move quickly. And for UDR, momentum mattered more than perfection.

“We are not afraid to hit the gas and go,” Gampp said. “I think if you are hesitant and it takes you a long time to make decisions, you’re just going to keep stumbling.”

“We are not afraid to hit the gas and go,” Gampp said. “I think if you are hesitant and it takes you a long time to make decisions, you’re just going to keep stumbling.” — Josh Gampp, SVP, Chief Technology Officer, UDR

“It’s okay to make mistakes. It’s okay to not get it quite right—but you have to go and do something so you can start learning.”

Lessons learned: Go fast, circle back, and refine

Centralization isn’t a trend. It’s a transformation. And like any transformation, it requires clarity, conviction, and a commitment to doing the work—even when the path isn’t perfectly paved.

The leaders from UDR, Essex, and BH didn’t wait for a perfect roadmap. They moved first. They tested, iterated, and adapted. They built centralized models not just to reduce costs—but to elevate team performance, improve renter experiences, and future-proof their operations.

Feel inspired? Learn how centralization and role specialization can transform your organization.