Customer Story

Adaptive Realty: Utilizing Tech-Driven Solutions for Scattered-Site Property Management

Adaptive Realty

Established: 2011
Location: Los Angeles, California

Adaptive Realty is an investment and property management company specializing in acquiring, renovating, and managing apartment buildings. Founded in 2011, the company manages more than 140 buildings comprising 1,000+ units across the Los Angeles metro area using a unique scattered-site model. Early in Adaptive Realty’s growth, the company chose AppFolio to streamline operations and foster internal collaboration. Co-founder Moses Kagan highlighted how AppFolio has been key to Adaptive’s ability to scale quickly, operate efficiently, and maintain long-term partnerships.

Portfolio

Multifamily

Units Under Management

1,000+

“There’s no way that we could run the business with the efficiency that we run it with, without AppFolio.”

Moses Kagan
Co-Founder and President, Adaptive Realty, 1,000+ units

From One Building to 1,000 Units

In 2007, the Adaptive Realty team acquired its first apartment building. What began as a small venture has since grown into a sophisticated real estate business managing 140 buildings with 1,100 units. Today, Adaptive Realty effectively operates both a property management firm and an investment management business with the help of AppFolio.

“Adaptive is an affiliated group of companies, but broadly speaking, there are two businesses. We raise money from investors to buy and often renovate apartment buildings. Separately, we have a property management business through which we manage those buildings and [others] owned by a small group of third-party owners.”

Driving Sustainable Growth With the Right Clients

Adaptive Realty takes a deliberate approach to growth, rooted in working with clients who share its long-term vision. The company onboards owners who value high-quality and reliable service and who focus on relationships rather than rapid expansion. Moses explains how being selective positively affects their business while strengthening lasting partnerships.

“It has the effect of slowing the growth of the third-party management business … but that is good because those clients are more profitable and better to work for in every conceivable way. There is a limit to the speed at which a service business can grow without impairing the quality of its service, so what we’re looking for is reasonable growth that is sustainable over the long term.”

Adapting to New Business Needs by Adopting New Tech Solutions

Over the years, Adaptive Realty has established many long-standing clients, secured high-quality residents at optimal rents, and enforced transparent maintenance practices. To continue delivering that level of service for both clients and investors, the company reevaluated the software it was using early on and quickly realized the need to transition out of spreadsheets and into AppFolio. Moses understood that technology specifically designed for the real estate industry would only make his team more efficient.

“My employees came to me and they said, ‘This is not working. We need to do something.’ It was not an easy sell to me, but [upgrading] was absolutely the right thing to do, and I’m very glad that we did it.”

Growing and Evolving Through a Trusted Partnership

As one of AppFolio’s earliest customers, Moses has found great value in a long-term technology partnership. While Adaptive Realty originally evaluated other solutions, AppFolio’s user-friendly interface, hands-on approach to implementation setup, and commitment to expanding functionality made it the winning choice. More than seven years later, Moses confirms that AppFolio has become central to his company’s operations.

“The AppFolio specialists were astonishing in helping us take the leap and setting up the business. AppFolio has continued to open the API (application programming interface), so there's more innovation going on.”

Centralized Efficiency Across Teams and Time Zones

Adaptive Realty manages a unique and challenging portfolio of scattered-site properties, often without onsite local managers and maintenance teams. Because its properties are geographically dispersed, the company needs seamless coordination between teams across the world, including leasing agents, property managers, virtual assistants based in the Philippines, finance teams, external vendors, and senior leadership. For more than seven years, Adaptive Realty has relied on AppFolio to navigate these complexities and foster collaboration, becoming the glue that keeps teams aligned and operations cost-effective.

“Our business would not exist without AppFolio. It would be impossible to manage. Scattered-site property management is really hard, and the economics wouldn’t work. You’d manage fewer units per manager, and you’d have to charge a lot more to make the math work from a management perspective.”

Focusing on Resident-Centric Solutions

While Adaptive Realty values AppFolio for internal teams and investor relations, the company’s residents also appreciate the ability to pay rent and manage work requests online. Moses has seen that providing these digital solutions boosts resident satisfaction and streamlines rent collection and maintenance operations in general.

“About 94% of our residents pay online. We also like the ability for them to submit work orders via their phone or via the portal. That’s valuable to them and to us.”

Utilizing Property Management Technology in Crisis Situations

Beyond daily operations, AppFolio has also been crucial for Adaptive Realty in times of crisis. For instance, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company needed to send residents mass communications and timely updates as government guidance constantly shifted. Moses explains that having a technological solution in place before it is needed can provide critical details and build trust between management, staff, and residents.

“As we figured out what we were going to do and as the government told us what we needed to do, there were communication challenges. The ability to message the whole portfolio or parts thereof, in a reasonably time-efficient way, ended up being very valuable.”

Bridging Property Management and Investment Management

Adaptive Realty owns 50 smaller buildings with various investors, so managing multiple tax returns, K-1s, and distributions across numerous entities can be daunting. By centralizing this data within AppFolio, Adaptive Realty streamlines these processes and saves significant time. A unified platform also seamlessly connects the property management and investment management sides of the business to reduce operational overhead.

“It has been helpful to have a central source of truth. Who are all of our prospects? Who are our existing investors? What have they invested in? Taking that out of spreadsheets and into a central system is very valuable to us … We save so much time because the property management is directly connected to investment management.”

Leveraging AI to Maximize Productivity and Profitability

Property management is a labor-intensive industry, and Adaptive Realty recognizes the critical role AI plays in optimizing operations. AI-powered tools in AppFolio, such as automated communication suggestions and quick access to relevant tenant data, are already helping the team. As AI continues to evolve, Adaptive Realty anticipates it will enable each property manager to oversee more units and boost profitability.

“[Advances in AI] are going to make an enormous difference. They will allow our existing team to manage more buildings than they are currently managing and, therefore, will allow us to materially improve the profitability of the property management business.”

The Future of Property Management

After attending FUTURE, the Real Estate Conference by AppFolio, Adaptive Realty looks forward to upcoming tech advancements in property management, particularly in AI. The company sees AppFolio’s AI capabilities and innovations as a game-changer in driving efficiency and success.

“By far the most interesting takeaway [from FUTURE] was getting to see the new AI features that AppFolio has on the property management side. It was not just because the features themselves were interesting, but it’s more of what they signal about what’s coming down the pike. Over the next couple of years, we’re going to see a major improvement in productivity of frontline property managers as a result of the new features.”