Matthew Whitaker
Founder/CEO, EvernestEstablished: 2008 \ Location: Birmingham, AL
Why AppFolio: \ When the housing market took a turn, Evernest Founder/CEO and CEO Matthew Whitaker found an opportunity. Instead of just buying and selling homes, he could also manage them. To meet his ambitious business goals, Matthew partnered with AppFolio Property Manager and found the automation and integration capabilities needed to grow his business quickly and efficiently.
Multifamily, Single-family, Community Associations
Units Managed
32,000+
AppFolio Customer Since
2015
A local partner with a national presence
Matthew Whitaker began his property management journey years before getting the idea to start his own company. Before the housing crash of 2008, Matthew worked in a construction management position while buying and selling homes in his free time. After finding success, he decided to leave his job to focus on real estate full time. When the housing market slowed things down, he decided to pivot and grow the property management side of the business. And as the saying goes, the rest is history.
Today, Evernest manages close to 32,000 single- and multifamily units and community associations in 19 different states and has over 400 team members. But Evernest isn’t just your typical property management company. Matthew shares that they’re much more than that:
“We don’t want to be known as just a property management business; we want to help our clients with all aspects of their portfolio. What makes us stand out from the competition is that we’re known as a national brand with a local presence that can provide specialized knowledge. We also offer full-service property management services from brokerage to association management and have a full-service maintenance side that supports all of the homes we manage.”
The Evernest team has five values that they keep close to heart: doing the right thing, growing daily, owning the outcome, winning together, and embracing the grind. They rely on AppFolio Property Manager to help them live these values and reach their goal of managing 25,000 single-family homes.
Going above and beyond
To reach their ambitious goal, Matthew knew that they needed a provider that could grow with and as fast as his company while allowing them to automate repetitive tasks.
“When we thought about growing and scaling our property management company, we thought of our people. Our previous provider’s user interface wasn’t very intuitive or easy to use, and there was a lack of automation. That became the biggest blocker, but knowing that AppFolio can be a true partner and understand our business is why we wanted to make and extend our commitment with them.”
AppFolio gives them the tools they need to manage and run their entire portfolio. With next-level productivity, unrivaled experience, and seamless integrations, Evernest trusts AppFolio because they need a partner who not only listens to their needs but also anticipates them.
“What the AppFolio partnership means to me is exactly what it is: a partnership. AppFolio is a customer-focused business, and they understand what we need and build a system that aligns with our expectations.”
Putting the customer first
In the fast-paced world of property management, Evernest needed a provider that innovates and keeps up with the latest industry trends. Built for stability, scale, and innovation, AppFolio is constantly improving to deliver great capabilities like future-first automation and AI-driven insights. Matthew shares his experience:
“When we think about technology at Evernest, we don't think about it as replacing humans. We think about it as making humans superhuman. So if you take really great team members, enable their decision making with technology, and give them visibility into the business, it creates a superhuman experience.”
Matthew Whitaker,
Founder/CEO, Evernest
Growing pains turned into growing gains
Since making the switch in 2015, Evernest has found great value in having the powerful AppFolio platform to support their growing portfolio. One of the ways Evernest scales their business is through acquisitions. When a small mom-and-pop property management business or a larger management company decides they want to sell, they trust Evernest to serve their teams and communities. In 2023, Evernest acquired the retail portfolio of Texas-based Darwin Homes, doing so quickly and efficiently.
Operational efficiency is one of the biggest challenges for property management companies, but with AppFolio on their side, they can do more with less friction.
“When you’re growing your business, you need software that's easy to integrate and can automate as many processes as possible. We were confident in this purchase because we have the confidence that AppFolio is going to help us.”
The capability they’re most excited about is the AppFolio Stack™ integration marketplace. With best-in-class proptech solutions and a seamless integration within AppFolio, Evernest can use a host of partners to take their business to the next level without compromising on usability.
“We're really excited about the relationships AppFolio has with their current partners. We think they’re going to have partners in the future that can be integrated into our business, making it much more efficient to access our data in AppFolio.”
Developing a team to win
For Evernest, intuitive software helps them automate and boost efficiencies in key workflows, deliver better experiences for residents and owners, and empower local teams to stay productive at their desks or in the field.
One of the many reasons Evernest chose to partner with AppFolio is because of the easy-to-use interface that provides a clear, consistent user experience. Matthew explains:
“We used to spend too much time training employees on the old system, and it was very frustrating. But with AppFolio, everything is automated, and we can instead focus on the right things. Our employees love to work at Evernest because of the freedom they get, and with AppFolio, it allows them to have much more clarity on their role.”
This means that he’s able to get new hires up to speed faster, provide robust self-serve training options, and flatten the learning curve so that his team can operate at the top of their game.
Space for more
Because Matthew and the Evernest team can automate core functions within their business, they can focus on more meaningful work, such as enhancing the owner and resident experience, expanding their business to new markets, or even taking time to make memories with family.
“AppFolio is giving me the time to help pursue my passion of developing people personally and professionally. If we spend time doing monotonous things, it doesn't give us the bandwidth to accomplish our purpose. When I think about things outside work, AppFolio gives me the time to pursue making memories with my family, like teaching my daughter how to drive and allowing me to coach my son's baseball team.”
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