Sync or Swim: The Multifamily Growth Show

In recent months, we have delved into the pressing issue of the lack of rental supply across Canada. This episode explores a creative and innovative solution: repurposing vacant buildings! Today's guest Howard Chai, a staff writer at STOREYS, has been writing about this topic for a while now and has chatted with many industry experts. He joins us to shed some light on this topic. He explains the c...

Our guest today is a city planner by trade and has valuable insights into NIMBYism (Not In My Backyard) and what is and isn't working in terms of community engagement in the real estate development world. Karin Brandt is the CEO and Founder of coUrbanize and, in this episode, she schools us on the importance of community engagement and how technology has evolved the way developers are engaging wit...

This episode of the Sync or Swim Podcast is incredibly exciting as we are joined by Rentsync's  CEO, Max Steinman, for the very first in-person episode! Tuning in, you will hear all about the  amazing changes that have happened at Rentsync over the last year, namely the integration of  ChatGPT, before we delve into how AI impacts the housing industry as a whole. We discuss  how Rentals.ca has evol...

If you've been playing around with the idea of making use of a bot in your company but have been worried about the added time and effort it takes to set it up, you may want to check out BetterBot. Today, we're joined by our guest, Robert Turnbull, the President, COO, and Founder of BetterBot. He's with us today to discuss the benefits of BetterBot and the world of artificial intelligence. As you t...

What role does purpose-built rental housing play in our housing solution? Today's guest passionately believes that it's going to play a big part and that we need to recognize, prioritize, and support that both as a society and as policy-makers. Tony Irwin is the President and CEO of The Federation of Rental-housing Providers of Ontario (FRPO). Tuning in, you'll hear his thoughts on the necessity o...

ChatGPT and other forms of AI are really making airwaves, and in today's episode, we unpack how this relates to the rental housing industry. Joining us for this conversation are market research and advertising expert Adhiraj Brar and digital marketer Miguel Vasquez, both from Mainstreet Equity, a leading Canadian real estate and property management company. They're here to shed light on how you ca...

What would it look like if we completely eliminated the private sector from our rental housing industry and replaced them solely with social housing, like the prefabricated panel buildings  (also known as panelkis) of Bulgaria's Communist era? On this week's episode of the Sync or  Swim Podcast, we focus on the Canadian rental housing industry. Our guest today is Peter  Shawn Taylor, the Senior Fe...

Building a successful brand requires deliberate strategizing and careful planning. The same can be said of making an impact in the affordable housing industry. Through his company, VIDA, today's guest, Ron Lovett, is taking giant leaps in providing quality, affordable housing for those in need whilst his company's brand is fast becoming a community favourite. Ron made the unlikely transition from...

"It's been in the DNA of the company from the beginning. That idea of doing extraordinary buildings has, and is, and will be what the practice does." — Robert Macdougall With rental prices increasing year on year, we're noticing that renters are looking not only for a nice place to live but for modern amenities to help justify the steep prices that they're paying to live in major markets and downt...

"The industry can expect to have real-time analytics and real-time insights as to what's happening in the rental market across the country. And to me, this was a massive knowledge gap in the industry." — Shaun Hildebrand Access to real-time rental market data has always been a challenge in Canada. Luckily, today's guests are here to share a solution to this problem! We are joined by Max Steinman (...

"You take the risks, you jump in, you learn and you get stronger. You get more confident, and I think that resiliency is really helpful." — @harishconsul Having bought his first house at the age of 15, Harish Consul has undeniably seen the property market through all of its changes. He is the Founder and CEO of Ocgrow Group of Companies , a privately held investment group involved in venture capit...

"I like to remind folks that brand building takes time. It's not easy, it takes a sustained effort over a prolonged period of time to create that repetition." — Chris Willoughby Data is the lifeblood of marketing and can help power your marketing programs, or so our guest today believes! Chris Willoughby, Vice President of Marketing for InterRent Real Estate Investment Trust , headquartered in Ott...

"We are having unprecedented demand that is met by very little vacancy." — Jesse Greenwell  Welcome back to another episode of the Sync or Swim Podcast . Today we are joined by David Frattini from Rentals For Newcomers and Jesse Greenwell , the Head of Communications, Partnerships, Culture, and Inclusion at Mainstreet Equity . Tuning in, you'll hear all about why there is a high increase in the de...

"Our core focus is just making sure we have the best experience for both renters and landlords across Canada." — Matt Danison, CEO of the Rentals.ca Network Vacancies for offices in Quebec went up to 16.5% last year, immigration is at an all-time high, and higher interest rates are preventing homeowners from selling their properties. All of these factors combined have led to an increased demand fo...

"It's a matter of really changing the housing strategy completely in our country and coming up with things that make more sense." — @MKenneyCAPREIT While there are regional variations, it's no secret that, for many people in Canada, housing is becoming increasingly unaffordable. Today's guest, however, believes that the answer to solving Canada's housing crisis is right in front of us. In this epi...

"What Spark does is essentially power the sales and digital transaction process for new developments, residential towers, or projects. We are the backend infrastructure that the sales team, the marketing team, the administration team uses to manage everything." — @SimeonGarratt Welcome back to Sync or Swim! Today, we speak with Simeon Garratt, CEO and Co-Founder of Spark Real Estate Software , hel...

"AI has taken over so much of what we do ... It was a natural migration that it would find its way to multifamily." — Brock McLean AI has seeped into most industries, and multifamily real estate is no exception. Our guest today has been in the real estate industry for 25 years and has evolved alongside real estate technology. Brock MacLean is the EVP & CRO of LeaseHawk and former SVP of Business D...

"AI has taken over so much of what we do ... It was a natural migration that it would find its way to multifamily." — Brock McLean AI has seeped into most industries, and multifamily real estate is no exception. Our guest today has been in the real estate industry for 25 years and has evolved alongside real estate technology. Brock MacLean is the EVP & CRO of LeaseHawk and former SVP of Business D...

"It's a way for you to help promote, make sure you get more traffic and more visibility, eyeballs on your listings on those sites, which will then, based on data that we've seen in our analysis, it will help to generate more traffic." — Michael Mottola, VP, Technology & Data at Rentsync Today, Rentsync is excited to announce a new feature that helps users promote their listings, make sure they get...

"As you grow, it's very easy to get distracted by bright shiny lights. There are new opportunities everywhere. But … don't get distracted by them. Just focus on what you're doing, and execute, and then work on executional excellence." — Simon Baker Today's guest has worked with online marketplaces across multiple countries, and even continents, advising on product development, and successful busin...

"That's the reality of the renter search, they're considering a wide variety of asset classes and locations. If you're going to serve that renter then you need to have all the stuff. That's what we're aiming to be — is that completely comprehensive marketplace. That's what we're building. We want to have every available listing in America." — Jonas Bordo, Co-founder & CEO of Dwellsy   With the dea...

"You can pick any asset class, and there's so much change happening at PropTech. It's the best time ever to be in the sector." - Zain Jaffer, PropTech VC & Partner at Blue Field Capital The world of technology is constantly evolving and has only been accelerated since the advent of the pandemic. Today, we are joined by Zain Jaffer to discuss the evolution of PropTech, the metaverse and modernizing...

"For us at Fitzrovia, the marketing piece is not a bolt-on component. It carries the same weight as the building's architecture and interior design." — Ryan Funt It's not often that one can boast having an apartment block that is 100% leased and 100% occupied, but through an incredible marketing campaign (which won them a large number of awards!), Ryan Funt and his team at Fitzrovia have achieved...

I wish I could be a leasing consultant again, because I can think of four different channels I would have going at the same time, and I would be making four times the commission for every appointment slot available within a given day​​​​​​​. – Rebecca Shaffrey, SVP Corporate Services at Bell Partners On this week's episode of Sync or Swim, we share a highly valuable conversation from the most rece...

"The way that we've structured the actual listing score is that a user is given a strong approximation of how complete their overall listings are, and hopefully receive a kick in the butt once they see that a particular property might be lacking." — David Aizikov You could have the most amazing property in the world, but if your listing doesn't provide users with the information they need, you cou...