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July 28, 2025 5 mins

On today’s show we are looking at one of the most over-looked aspects of real estate product design. The problem is that the architects don’t get involved. The electrical engineer and electricians don’t get involved, and the general contractor doesn’t get involved. These systems often end up as an oversight or an afterthought. 

Let’s start with building access. On today’s show we are going to only focus on securing the perimeter of your building and the common areas and amenities.

The way residents interact with your building is often a function of the technology decisions you make to incorporate systems within your building. The life cycle cost of operating and maintaining those systems is also a function of the choices you make. 

---------------

**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:**
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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Welcome to the Real Estate Espresso podcast, your morning
shout out what's new in the world of real estate investing.
I'm your host, Victor Minash. On today's show, we're looking
at one of the most overlooked aspects of real estate product
design. The problem is that architects
don't get involved. The electrical engineer and the
electricians don't get involved in the general contractor
definitely doesn't want to get involved.
These systems that are key to the functioning of your building

(00:24):
often end up as an oversight or an afterthought.
Well, the way that residents interact with your building is
often a function of the technology decisions that you
make to incorporate systems within your building.
The life cycle cost of operatingand maintaining those systems is
also a function of the choices that you make.
Smart building systems are a fast moving area of technology.

(00:45):
The technology obsolescence curve is very short compared
with a life cycle in your building.
Once you invest in a system, youwant to be sure that your choice
is going to be a good choice forthe next 20 years, not just the
next two years. Will you be able to find
compatible spare parts when you need them?
Will there be recurring cost with the supplier and will the
supplier maintain reasonable pricing over the life cycle?

(01:06):
Will the equipment supplier increase the recurring cost once
you're prisoner to their solution?
Is it possible to even find a system that does not have
recurring costs? Will the system integrate well
with your property management software?
Will the customer experience in the human interface reflect the
property's identity and branding?
If you're in an area with multiple language support

(01:26):
required, will the system indeedsupport multiple different
languages? There's so many questions.
Well, let's start with building access.
And on today's show, we're goingto focus only on securing the
perimeter of your building and the common areas and amenities.
On tomorrow's show, we'll focus on features within apartments.
When residents come to the building, they want to be able
to enter the building with a minimum of hassle that they

(01:47):
might be carrying packages and juggling keys, packages in the
door. That can all be awkward.
The low tech solution is the conventional metal key and
pretty secure but costly to maintain.
When keys get lost and residentsleave, it becomes increasingly
difficult to maintain an accurate inventory of keys.
As time goes by, the perception might be of degraded security if

(02:08):
not all the keys are accounted for.
Programmable solutions are becoming more popular.
These might be a key card or a fob that will unlock the door
when presented to a sensor next to the building access door.
The newest systems allow for your smartphone to act as the
key instead of the foam. The problem with the smartphone
is the battery can die if you use your phone a lot or if you
fail to charge it. This might leave you locked out

(02:29):
of your building with no way to get in until your phone is at
least partially charged. The newest systems use facial
recognition, including advanced features to ensure that someone
really showing up with a pictureof your face will not be allowed
entry. When visitors come to the front
door of the building, they want to be able to gain access
through the intercom system. With a directory, that's a
matter of policy. How the building directory is

(02:49):
going to be programmed? Will it be full names listed, or
just initials? Maybe just apartment numbers?
The directory lookup will initiate a call to the
resident's smartphone, who can see who's at the front door, and
neither grant or deny access to the building.
The same smartphone system can be programmed to give residents
access to the building's amenities, like the gym, the
pool, the storage lockers, the party room and so on.

(03:10):
Entry to the parking garage can also be programmed to use smart
systems. The more sophisticated systems
have an electronic reader withineach authorized vehicle.
Some systems will recognize the license plate numbers of
authorized vehicles and automatically open to the gate
to those vehicles. Parcel delivery and maintenance
access are two important factorsto be taken into account.

(03:31):
You want to provide single access for an isolated event
like a parcel delivery. Maybe you want to grant access
to your cleaning staff, but onlyon Thursday mornings once a
week. All of these Special Situations
can be accommodated with the most advanced systems.
The big question is who and whenis going to be tasked with
programming all of these access rules.
In a large complex, this can be very time consuming.

(03:51):
What happens when you have a visitor who's going to be
staying with you for a week? Does the resident authorize the
access or is it the property manager?
When a new tenant moves in, doesthe property management software
automatically provision the building access, or does the
property manager need to duplicate all of the information
in a separate database just for the building access?
How do you ensure that when someone moves out that their

(04:12):
building access has been properly removed, including all
members of their family and roommates who might also have
access to the building? Will the smart building system
work with commercial door locks or do you need to buy the
vendors locks? There's a lot of choices out
there. After careful consideration,
we've narrowed our choice down to two systems.
We currently use Ubiquity for a lot of our properties.
Their system has the advantage. There's no recurring fees and

(04:35):
the directory and management dashboard is hosted locally on
site as all of the modern features including artificial
intelligence in their cameras and you can remote access the
system from anywhere. The other system under
evaluation is called Butterfly MX, which has been adopted by
property manager for at least one of our projects.
It all comes down to ensuring the resident experience is ideal

(04:55):
with a cost effective and scalable solution.
As you think about that, have anawesome rest of your day.
It'll make some great things happen.
We'll talk to you again tomorrow.
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