Customer Story
How AppFolio Property Manager gives Velo Residential space to maximize efficiency and build meaningful relationships along the way
JC Castillo
President & CEO, Velo Residential \ Founder & Managing Principal, MultiFamily Property GroupEstablished: 2006 \ Location: Dallas-Fort Worth Metro
Why AppFolio: \ JC Castillo knows that the key to success in business, especially property management, lies in creating strong, meaningful relationships. The powerful yet simple functionality of AppFolio Property Manager allows his team to be more efficient in their day-to-day tasks, resulting in more bandwidth to focus on delighting residents.
Portfolio
Multifamily
Units Managed
800+
Customer since
2013
Why property management?
For JC, hard times led to hard assets.
“I spent the first 15 years of my career as a semiconductor engineer, but got laid off in 2001. After contemplating how I got myself into this little bit of a pickle, I realized that I needed an income stream, so I decided to buy real estate. I started with single family homes and worked my way to apartment complexes. In 2007, I stumbled upon Texas and saw the growth in Dallas-Fort Worth and have been buying ever since. We recently realized that we have a great property management business that we can offer as a service to other owners. So we launched Velo Residential, like velocity.”
“I spent the first 15 years of my career as a semiconductor engineer, but got laid off in 2001. After contemplating how I got myself into this little bit of a pickle, I realized that I needed an income stream, so I decided to buy real estate. I started with single family homes and worked my way to apartment complexes. In 2007, I stumbled upon Texas and saw the growth in Dallas-Fort Worth and have been buying ever since. We recently realized that we have a great property management business that we can offer as a service to other owners. So we launched Velo Residential, like velocity.”
JC’s edge
His previous career in Silicon Valley exposed JC to the power of purpose-built technology. That's why choosing AppFolio was a no-brainer after pivoting into real estate.
“I remember the day that I decided to switch to AppFolio. It was back in 2011 or ‘12. I saw this ad for a vacant unit on Craigslist that was so beautifully formatted, and I saw a little AppFolio logo at the bottom and the words ‘Powered by AppFolio.’ And I was really intrigued, because most Craigslist ads back then were very clunky. But this one had pretty pictures, and it was formatted right, and everything looked good. I started exploring and learning more about AppFolio Property Manager, and I became convinced that they would be the right fit for us.”
“I remember the day that I decided to switch to AppFolio. It was back in 2011 or ‘12. I saw this ad for a vacant unit on Craigslist that was so beautifully formatted, and I saw a little AppFolio logo at the bottom and the words ‘Powered by AppFolio.’ And I was really intrigued, because most Craigslist ads back then were very clunky. But this one had pretty pictures, and it was formatted right, and everything looked good. I started exploring and learning more about AppFolio Property Manager, and I became convinced that they would be the right fit for us.”
“It’s all about satisfying the people that live at our properties, and the employees that interact with them and building these personal relationships. That is what drives our business.”
Comprehensive, AI-powered leasing data that helps increase NOI
A major challenge that JC was experiencing before AppFolio Property Manager was not being able to tell where leads were coming from, and as a result, not knowing which advertising channels to prioritize.
“Having the leasing data, and the source data, and the traffic data that the AppFolio AI Leasing Assistant, Lisa provides, has completely changed the game for us, because we have been able to eliminate a lot of the paid advertising that we used to spend money on, because the data told us that we were getting most of our hits and our conversions from a simple free Google business listing. We can be a lot more strategic with how we market our properties.”
“Having the leasing data, and the source data, and the traffic data that the AppFolio AI Leasing Assistant, Lisa provides, has completely changed the game for us, because we have been able to eliminate a lot of the paid advertising that we used to spend money on, because the data told us that we were getting most of our hits and our conversions from a simple free Google business listing. We can be a lot more strategic with how we market our properties.”
With AppFolio Property Manager, JC puts his people first
As important as JC is to the business, he knows that without his on-site teams, there is no business. That’s why he puts their happiness above all.
“We have to make our on-site teams happy. And if we do that, then by default, we make our customers happy. They can’t be overloaded with a bunch of back office stuff. Let’s talk about maintenance. With AppFolio's technology, we can automatically route maintenance calls to an offsite maintenance call center. So just imagine how many phone calls and people walking into the office that we free our staff from. Their life is so much less stressful, and really, that's what it's all about.”
“We have to make our on-site teams happy. And if we do that, then by default, we make our customers happy. They can’t be overloaded with a bunch of back office stuff. Let’s talk about maintenance. With AppFolio's technology, we can automatically route maintenance calls to an offsite maintenance call center. So just imagine how many phone calls and people walking into the office that we free our staff from. Their life is so much less stressful, and really, that's what it's all about.”
The evolution of Velo
Multifamily Property Group, JC’s first venture, owns and operates over 700 units in the Dallas-Forth Worth Metro.
“We raise money from Silicon Valley, buy properties, and renovate them. Everybody participates together.”
Velo Residential, which manages over 800 residential units was a natural next step. Because as we got really good at owning and managing our own portfolio, we also realized that we had created a better, more efficient way to operate.
“So we started Velo Residential, which is a third party property management company to service other properties with our tried and true formula, where we partner with AppFolio.”
Space for more
By helping optimize Velo Residential’s day-to-day operations, AppFolio created space for JC to focus on projects that strengthen his relationship with the community at large.
“It’s about personal relationships. We built a soccer field (at West Wind) that’s become an amazing centerpiece. It really gets the kids to do something together, and that's great for the community. It's a hit not only at our property, but all the kids and families from neighboring properties know about it, and I know we get a lot of referrals from people that come over and see our soccer field and then they actually decide to come live here. So it's a win-win all the way around.”
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“It’s about personal relationships. We built a soccer field (at West Wind) that’s become an amazing centerpiece. It really gets the kids to do something together, and that's great for the community. It's a hit not only at our property, but all the kids and families from neighboring properties know about it, and I know we get a lot of referrals from people that come over and see our soccer field and then they actually decide to come live here. So it's a win-win all the way around.”
“AppFolio Property Manager gives us the space to build very personal relationships with our customers and at the end of the day, that's what it's all about.”
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