Adding technology and security is no longer a luxury for multifamily residential properties. It’s a must-have if they want to compete. This is especially true with tech-savvy generations looking for a place to live.
How do you incorporate security technology without affecting the net operating income? It’s getting more challenging to find ways to increase NOI.
Fortunately, there’s a way to put a high priority on security for multifamily residential properties while boosting net operating income.
The Need for Security in Multifamily Residential
Many economic factors increase the need for security in multifamily residential buildings. The supply chain is one of them. The ongoing shortages of high-demand, low-supply items drive up their cost. These items are then sought after by criminals because the black market pays well for them.
Additionally, there have been changes to laws impacting policing due to criminal justice reforms. The reason for this is that state legislatures have reclassified many crimes from a felony to a lower-level crime or misdemeanor. The punishment has become more lax compared to when these crimes were classified as a felony. This means the police have changed their priorities regarding the types of criminal activities they focus on. The types of crimes that may affect your multifamily residential property could fall under the umbrella of these lower-level crimes.
The bad news is that all these moves in the name of criminal justice reform are causing more problems than solutions as explained in the NICB Informer publication. Police departments have seen their budgets slashed, higher turnovers, and fewer new recruits.
Some lawmakers and municipalities have instituted a no-response or no-pursuit policy to prevent injuries and deaths. In other words, law enforcement won’t get involved unless it’s life-threatening. The goal is to reduce high-speed chases that could put lives at risk.
When you put all of these things together — inflation, supply chain problems, reclassifying crimes, de-policing, reducing police response — it could push the crime rate to climb. For one thing, car thefts are on the rise in the U.S. The number of car thefts in 2022 surpassed one million for the first time since 2008 as reported by the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB). This went up 7% in 2022 compared to 2021.
Property managers need to pay attention to auto theft. House Grail Car Theft references FBI Crime Data Explorer statistics showing that 40% of vehicle thefts happen at a residence and 22% take place in a parking lot or garage. Both of these affect multifamily residential buildings as they are residences with parking lots or garages.
To ensure their community members thrive and feel safe, multifamily residential buildings will need to invest in security. However, the wrong security technology can increase overhead and operating costs. It’s critical to choose the right security technology to help increase net operating income (NOI) while supporting the resident retention strategy.
How Reactive Security Systems Hurt Net Operating Income
Traditional physical security systems include alarm systems, on-site buzzer systems, legacy access control systems, and security cameras without monitoring. These outdated systems eat away at the net operating income. They use legacy systems that are cumbersome and take up employee resources. They require staff training, maintenance, and updates. All of these put a big dent in time and resources.
For example, security cameras without monitoring tend to save all data to local systems and local hard drives. These make the search processes slow and error-prone. It also makes it challenging to grant access to outside vendors such as maintenance, cleaning staff, package delivery, and contractors.
Resident turnover is another problem. Sometimes residents don’t turn in all their keys and access-related items. It impacts time-consuming tasks, such as key management, re-keying processes, manual updates to the legacy intercom systems, and on-site updates to access credentials. If the building uses a PIN, then it will have to be changed and communicated to everyone.
Another huge challenge is the management of packages. Just in 2022 alone, ApartmentData indicates each resident gets an average of nine packages delivered per month. A building with 200 residents will receive 2,000 package deliveries every month. Do a little math and that makes the average about 65 packages per day! These numbers become even higher during the holiday season.
Managing packages puts a huge burden on the staff. They may have everyday responsibilities that have nothing to do with package management. Property management tells The New York Times that package deliveries are a problem every day and cause chaos.
If you want security that delivers a higher net operating income and greatly reduces staff involvement, then look at integrated security that contains video surveillance with remote monitoring and a modern access control system. Alternatively, you can explore creative ways to cut costs to further boost net operating income.
Increase Net Operating Income with Integrated Security
The advantage of an integrated security system with current technologies is they work together seamlessly and centralize processes. All the security functions can be managed from one place. If it uses the cloud, then people can manage it from any secure connected device. This allows people to grant access from anywhere. No one has to go back to the office to make it happen.
Integration also avoids the complexities that come with using one system for access control and another system for remote video surveillance. Combining these two security functionalities ensures all video recordings contain a time stamp from the access control system. It speeds up searching video recordings and simplifies the tracking of activities.
The cool thing is that someone watching the security cameras can easily grant and revoke access in real time when people approach the building entrance.
An integrated security system at a multifamily residential property may contain some or all of these technologies:
- Security cameras
- Access control
- Trained human monitoring operators
- Video analytics
- Video review and analysis
- Two-way remote audio speaker
Siloed security technologies can add a lot of work. For example, the access control system indicates personnel went into a limited-access room at a specific time. Then, someone would need to search the recordings from the security cameras to find that specific moment in time. That’s what happens when security technologies aren’t integrated.
An integrated security system will save all recordings for later retrieval and analysis. The footage does more than identify the guilty party in a crime. It can also help with liability claims, fraud, and on-site injuries.
Integrated security systems enhance operational efficiencies while simplifying monitoring and reporting. They also fortify security with multiple layers built-in. The more layers in a security system, the less likely someone will try to break through them.
Some companies have video surveillance with remote monitoring done by humans. But they leave out another essential part of the equation, which is video analytics. Humans watching hours and hours of video is an exhausting task. It’s all too easy to fall asleep or miss something. Video analytics takes on a lot of the heavy lifting in monitoring.
Video analytics is like the tech brain. It has been programmed with many scenarios. The system analyzes all the cameras to find a match to one of the scenarios. As soon as a match pops up, it notifies the human monitor. They work together to boost the effectiveness of the monitoring.
The monitor knows how to respond to each scenario. If video analytics caught something that isn’t a concern, the monitor trains the video analytics by providing feedback. This helps video analytics get more accurate. In the event that there’s a bad actor, the monitoring operator can talk to the suspect over the onsite speakers. If they are unresponsive, then the operator can call the police.
Integrated security with remote video monitoring and an access control system can improve the safety of your property while providing the previously mentioned benefits. This pairing can spot potential problems and prevent expensive issues associated with loitering, vandalism, and theft. These tend to cost a property management company more than the damage associated with the crime.
Vandalism and theft may cause the property to close off some parts of the building for repairs. This will not make residents happy, and it will turn off potential residents. The property can appear unsafe.
Integrated Security System for Multifamily Residential Properties
How do you know what integrated security technology to get that increases net operating income? A good place to start is with these questions to ask a security company. If you don’t know what’s right for your property, interview security consultants and ask lots of questions.
The right integrated security technology delivers a fast ROI while increasing the net operating income. Many ECAM clients see a return on their security investment within months. In choosing Stealth as your security partner, you’ll have access to security professionals who have experience in securing multifamily residential properties.
Multifamily residential property management has a responsibility to keep the community safe for residents, employees, visitors, and vendors. Any accidents or injuries on the property can result in a liability claim. Fortunately, remote video surveillance can help lower liability risks.
To learn more about this technology, pick up this guide on Monetizing Security While Balancing Access, Safety, and Profitability. If you’re interested in learning more or have questions, please contact us. Texas Private Security License Number: B14187
