Modern Multifamily is an interview-style podcast where we talk with leaders across the Multifamily industry about ways we can keep moving it forward. Topics include and are not limited to: technology, innovation, proptech, and improving renter experiences with a focus on positive impacts on both industry operators and suppliers.
Summary
The rental market can be improving without feeling recovered. Chris Salviati, Chief Economist at Apartment List, joins Mike Wolber on Modern Multifamily to explain what was changing in the October rental data and why the national picture looked so different from individual cities.
The conversation connects construction, AI hiring, hybrid work and renter preferences with decisions facing multifamily operators, marketers and investors. Chris also explains how an economics team earns trust with reporters and brings market understanding into a technology business.
Chapters
00:00 Meet Chris Salviati
01:25 Economics inside a real estate technology business
05:22 Earning trust with reporters and data
08:40 Reading the national rent report
12:16 San Francisco and the local supply picture
15:58 Remote work and the return to the office
20:36 Super commuters and secondary markets
25:06 The amenities renters will compromise on
28:18 A thawing market and the demand question
31:31 Research resources and staying in touch
Takeaways
Improving rent growth and tightening occupancy can coexist with still-soft market conditions.
Local hiring, supply additions and affordability explain why markets diverge from the national average.
Hybrid schedules can widen the area a renter considers without removing the need to reach a job center.
In-unit laundry is a practical amenity worth emphasizing when it is available.
Reliable methodology and useful research help an economics team earn trust inside and outside a business.
Connect with the Guest
Chris Salviati LinkedIn:
Company Website: https://www.apartmentlist.com (https://www.apartmentlist.com)
Research and monthly rent reports: https://www.apartmentlist.com/research (https://www.apartmentlist.com/research)
Research team: research@apartmentlist.com (mailto:research@apartmentlist.com)
6 Oct 2026
Grotto AI on leasing as sales, asking twice and 9-day ramp-ups
Grotto AI's Nick Deveau on leasing as sales, why coaching beats scoring, asking for the application twice, and Hillpointe's 27% conversion lift.
29 Sept 2026
Exhaustion from 40 logins and AI: Results from a 20for20 white paper
Summary
Dom Beveridge, Founder of 20for20, returns to Modern Multifamily for the eighth edition of his annual white paper, built on 20 structured, open-ended interviews with multifamily executives. Host Mike Wolber, Chief Sales Officer at Apartment List, digs into the word that kept surfacing this year (exhaustion), why a balance sheet industry finds three years of P&L focus so draining, and how centralization now looks settled for owner operators while third party managers still depend on their owners to roll it out.
The conversation then turns to tech bloat: community managers with more than 40 logins, the third of operators now running tech freezes and shedding applications, the VC funding model that quietly drives over-buying, and the 6 companies Dom calls AI first, who are configuring their organizations around automation instead of buying widgets. Dom closes with his early read on 2027: a possible peak in the proptech VC wave and a push to simplify the resident application process. For multifamily operators, marketers and anyone selling technology into real estate.
Chapters
00:00 Why a digital leasing assistant isn't an AI strategy
00:46 The 20for20 thesis after eight editions
03:15 Owner operators versus third party managers on centralization
05:36 Exhaustion becomes the word of the year
09:39 Tech bloat, tech freezes and cutting 40 apps to 20
14:50 Shifting sands for proptech vendors
17:52 The VC model and the tech bloat trade-off
20:18 AI first operators versus widget buyers
26:27 Conversion rates when AI nurtures every lead
32:06 The 2027 outlook: peak VC and simpler applications
Takeaways
- Exhaustion is structural: a balance sheet industry has spent 3 years focused on NOI while also changing how it operates, and the same second-half recovery has been predicted 3 years running.
- Community managers routinely carry more than 40 logins, and getting rid of technology is at least as hard as acquiring it.
- About a third of operators now treat shedding tech as a formal initiative, with tech freezes and one large owner operator cutting from the low 40s to under 20 applications.
- The VC model that gives startups access to LP operators creates an incentive to roll out software most portfolio companies will never grow into.
- AI first operators configure the organization around automation and ask software to tell them how to improve, while most of the industry still reflexively buys widgets like a digital leasing assistant.
Connect with the Guest
Dom Beveridge LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dombeveridge/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dombeveridge/)
Company Website: https://20for20.com (https://20for20.com)
Who has been a guest on Modern Multifamily
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Dom Beveridge
Anne Baum
Joya Pavesi
Kevin Owens
Sara Scarborough Graham
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
YouTube views
29,704
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
18 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
14 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 64 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
69
Social presence
0
YouTube
72
Engagement
77
Contact Modern Multifamily
Guest appearances
Books guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.
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