The Apartment Department

Send us Fan Mail Most vendors never find out why they lost the deal. This episode tells them. Anne Baum and Chris Johnson sit down with Kim Boland, a multifamily marketer with more than 18 years in the industry, for a candid look at what operators wish vendors knew and what vendors rarely hear when they lose a deal. Kim has spent her career building vendor relationships that have followed her from...

Send us Fan Mail The renter journey is changing, but multifamily marketing does not need to throw everything out and start over. In this episode of The Apartment Department , Anne Baum and Chris Johnson sit down with Reid Wicoff, founding partner and CEO of Digible, to explore how renter behavior is evolving as AI becomes part of the search and decision-making process. The conversation goes beyond...

Send us Fan Mail Streaming TV has changed significantly in the past year, and the opportunity for multifamily marketers has changed with it. In this episode of The Apartment Department , hosts Anne Baum and Chris Johnson welcome Kristi Fickert, SVP of Growth and Marketing at Kurie, back to the podcast for a conversation about what’s new, what’s working, and how marketers can think differently abou...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when an industry becomes so focused on technology, automation and efficiency that it forgets the humans at the center of the experience? In this episode of The Apartment Department , Anne Baum and Chris Johnson sit down with Toni Blake, a 42-year veteran of multifamily and founder of TotallyToni, to talk about what she calls The Great Human Recalibration : bringing hu...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Apartment Department, Lauren Turner of The Bainbridge Companies shares how brand immersion helps onsite teams understand the story behind a community and turn that knowledge into a better renter experience. The goal is to move beyond selling square footage and start selling the lifestyle, history, design, and details that make a property different. Turner sh...

Send us Fan Mail Property management is entering a new chapter, and it will be shaped by more than technology alone. In this episode of The Apartment Department , Anne Baum and Chris Johnson sit down with Jacob Carter, founder of Nurture Boss and author of AI in Property Management , for a wide-ranging conversation about where the industry is headed. What begins with Jacob's new book quickly...

Send us Fan Mail Apartment communities have never looked more alike. Luxury finishes, similar amenities, nearly identical websites, and now AI-generated marketing are making it harder than ever to stand out. So how do you create something renters actually remember? In this episode of The Apartment Department , Anne Baum and Chris Johnson are joined by Stacey Feeney, Founder and Chief Creative Dire...

Send us Fan Mail Go-to-market is a well-established business framework, but it's a concept that's only beginning to gain traction in multifamily. In this episode, Anne Baum and Chris Johnson sit down with Mike Wolber, Chief Sales Officer at Apartment List, to explore how go-to-market thinking can help organizations design better customer experiences. The conversation begins with Apartmen...

Send us Fan Mail What if renters aren't choosing communities based on amenities at all? In this episode, Lia Nichole Smith, Chief Brand Strategist at Spherexx, joins Anne Baum and Chris Johnson to explore the rise of identity economics and what it means for the future of multifamily. Lia argues that today's renters are increasingly making housing decisions based on identity, belonging, a...

Send us Fan Mail Andrea Taylor, Founder and CEO of Livsee, joins Anne Baum and Chris Johnson to discuss how AI is reshaping multifamily leasing, pricing, and operations by turning renter conversations into a continuous source of intelligence. Andrea shares how operators are using AI-powered follow-up to re-engage lost leads, improve tour conversion, and uncover what prospects and residents actuall...

Send us Fan Mail This week, Anne and Chris sit down with Martin Canchola, co-founder and chief strategy officer of Apartment SEO and founder of Multifamily Builders Club, for a conversation about how apartment search is evolving and what multifamily marketers should actually be paying attention to right now. Martin explains why many of the SEO fundamentals marketers have heard about for years, lik...

Send us Fan Mail This week on The Apartment Department, Anne Baum and Chris Johnson sit down with Brian Miller, Director of Partner Experience and Engagement at Zillow Rentals, for a conversation about what marketing teams are really navigating right now. Drawing from conversations with operators and marketers across the country, Brian shares the patterns he’s seeing across the industry, including...

Send us Fan Mail This week, Anne and Chris welcome back Jude Chiy, founder and CEO of Flamingo, for one of their most candid and wide-ranging conversations yet. Jude opens up about the early struggles that shaped his leadership style, including hiring mistakes that pushed him to completely rethink how he builds and manages a team, and how those hard lessons led him to build a company where every r...

Send us Fan Mail Marketing and operations are aligned around the same goal: stronger performance across the portfolio. In practice, that alignment often takes shape through reactive and responsive workflows. In this episode, Justin Godwin, Director of Marketing Strategy and Innovation at Cushman & Wakefield, breaks down what it actually takes to evolve that dynamic at scale. From restructuring...

Send us Fan Mail What role does visual content actually play in apartment performance—and why are most operators still treating it like a one-off asset instead of a system? In this episode, Anne Baum and Chris Johnson sit down with Izzy Carunungan of LCP (Lights, Camera, Pixels) to unpack how photos, 3D tours, and unit-level media are evolving from marketing “nice-to-haves” into operational infras...

Send us Fan Mail Marketing cannot operate in a silo. When strategy lives in one department and execution lives in another, performance breaks down. In this episode, Paul McClain, founder of AiinaT Brand Solutions , joins us to share how he helps bridge the gap between marketing strategy and site teams. From digital audits and attribution conversations to middle funnel exposure and renter behavior...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Jillian Fickert of Buckingham Companies joins Anne Baum and Chris Johnson for a practical conversation about what it really takes to make marketing a trusted, strategic function inside a multifamily organization. They explore how marketing leaders can move beyond the “cost center” label by building credibility through transparency, shared language, and clear perfo...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Apartment Department , Anne and Chris sit down with D.D. Cobb , Regional Director at Apartments.com , to unpack how the apartment search has fundamentally changed. Today’s renters are making decisions long before they ever tour a property. Powered by AI, mobile-first search, and radically different expectations around transparency, the traditional prospect j...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode Anne and Chris sit down with Kara Rafferty, National Director of Sales at Apartment Geo-Fencing, for a long-anticipated conversation on what collaboration in multifamily really looks like. Kara brings a wide-ranging perspective shaped by years on the vendor side of the industry, deep involvement with apartment associations, and a passion for building relationships...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Chris and Anne speak with Tamela Coval and Tami Siewruk, two of the creators of Multifamily NEXT , a series of hands-on workshops designed to integrate artificial intelligence into the apartment industry. The guests explain that their "hackathon-style" events are moving beyond abstract concepts to help property owners and executives achieve AI fluency an...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Chris and Anne speak with Ben Pleat, the co-founder and CEO of Cobu. A technology platform designed to help multifamily marketers and owners drive resident satisfaction and community engagement, which in turn boosts occupancy and retention rates. Pleat shares that the genesis of Cobu was inspired by his mother's feeling of isolation despite living in a luxury...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we sit down with Brent Camp of Asset Living and Arthur Kosmider of LeFrak to explore how Artificial Intelligence is reshaping property management and rental housing. Their perspective is clear: AI isn’t here to replace people, it’s here to remove the repetitive, low-value tasks that drain time and energy from on-site teams. Brent and Arthur break down how automati...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Daniel Paulino, VP of Real Estate at Reputation.com discusses the growing importance of digital reputation, dubbed "digital curb appeal", for the multifamily housing industry, particularly how it affects property visibility in search engines and AI-driven recommendations. Daniel explains that a simple average star rating is no longer sufficient; Google’s...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Apartment Department, co-host Chris Johnson sits down with Minna Song, CEO of EliseAI, to discuss how artificial intelligence is transforming multifamily operations. For nearly a decade, EliseAI has helped properties automate leasing, maintenance, and resident communications—cutting lead-to-lease times from 30 days to just 14 and boosting renewal retention b...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Justin Jones, Shelly Steitz, and Anne Baum recap their experience at the Blueprint Conference including the vibe, their favorite takeaways for key technologies and AI, the opportunity for vendors and operators to co-build and co-collaborate, and some advice for first-timers in 2026. Flamingo - Resident Retention App 400K+ units use Flamingo’s Resident Retention Pl...