Eddy Perez Career Background
What is your biggest career achievement?
- There have been many moments in my career that I look back and say, "Wow, that really was a special moment for me". But to share a few... I remember in April of 2020 receiving an email that had me jumping out of my work-from-home office chair. It read, "Congratulations Eddy Perez, you have been recognized as one of IREM's top 30 under thirty real estate professionals". I remember reading about Florida's Senate Bill 1084 passing and being signed into law weeks after we lobbied our State Legislators during the Florida Apartment Association's Legislative Days. I remember picking up each of my NAA designations (CAM, and CAPS) and smiling big at the idea of my name having an alphabet behind it on LinkedIn like the fancy people do. I remember being 20 years old and being selected to Equity Residential's Diversity Council where I was flown to Chicago on their dime to discuss efforts on making EQR a more inclusive workplace for all people. I remember standing inside of the United State's Capitol moments before a meeting with Senators and Representatives and pinching myself to make sure it was not just a dream. I remember my first paycheck from the industry at 19 and buying a fish tank because I had no idea what to do with "all this money".
All the above bring warm sentiments, but it was not until I received a call from a gentleman named Ricardo Alicea in October of 2020 that truly made me feel like I had hit my biggest career milestone. It was a call to tell me I was selected to fill one of three open seats that were vacant on the board of directors for the Apartment Association of Greater Orlando.
For me, this achievement is more than just a new title, it's showed me that my voice matters, and that being a young professional does not discount you from having a seat at the table. This truly is my greatest achievement to date, especially because of the smile it brought to the faces of my parents who sacrificed everything to bring me to this country.
What is your ultimate career goal within the rental housing industry?
- My ultimate career goal is to retire content... Content in knowing that I helped as many people as I could find fulfilment in their lives. I want all those that I will one day have the privilege to lead to feel as if they not only had a seat at the table, but they too are empowered to create tables for themselves and those whom they lead. For me, there is nothing more gratifying than fulfilling one's life purpose, and mine has always been to make a difference in the lives of those who I come in contact with, and I desire nothing less out of my career.
In addition to the above, I hope to one day play a part in the development of a master-planned community from its beginning. This is less about a role for me, and more about impact. I hope to one day walk the communities I helped develop and smile knowing all the jobs that came to be, the entertainment, the good eats, and the perfect places to lay one's head at night. To be able to thoughtfully design these locations that in turn create experiences of a lifetime is a dream I plan to one day achieve.
What's one rental housing trend you have your eye on?
- The pandemic has showed us some of the gaps we currently have in our industry. We have become so consumed with providing housing, that we often times forget that what keeps our business flourishing is the creation of value for our current and future residents alike. Often times, the end-user, or in this case, the future resident, would need to settle with the lack of accessible technology being offered and come to terms with whichever tour option a community provides. This recently introduced one of many emerging trends such as the standardization of nationwide self-guided tours across many different property management companies. For those companies who jumped on this wagon, they have seen an increase in their capacity to engage future residents in ways unseen before, and I'm not talking about a "swing by the office for a key" type of self-guided touring. I am speaking about the intermingling of artificial intelligence that has the ability to lead future residents through the community by utilizing geo-fencing and points of interests as both their location tracker and tour guide.
So, imagine your office team being supplemented by an artificially intelligent agent that is engrained within a tour platform that can unlock doors, show amenities, explain apartment features as they are being walked, and share details about nearby entertainment. Sure this may sound expensive and too far in the future, but in an era where so many things are interconnected, it would behoove a new developer to begin the adoption of hardware that could later down the line be streamlined into a platform that allows for the use of artificial intelligence. Currently, hardware and software such as these are still in early stages of development and usage. They are mainly being used for future residents during the leasing process, but imagine a community offering a virtual assistant, much like Siri, Alexa, and Cortana, whose sole purpose is to elevate your experience within your home and community. Sure the aforementioned assistants can already manage some details in your home, but they are limited and not interconnected with any property management software or access controlled devices around a community.
I believe that added value always proceeds increased revenue, and the possibility of introducing a new in-home/community virtual assistant that is powered by artificial intelligence would yield increased revenue tomorrow. Name the assistant what you want, but I choose Ezra, which means helper in Hebrew. I can see this feature play out like below.
Eddy: "Hey Ezra, please reserve for me the grills tomorrow at 2:00PM and the EV charging stations at 7:00PM. Also, please send me my renewal offers for review and place a work order to replace my air filter".
Ezra: "Sure thing, Eddy. Would you like for me to order you a Baja Bowl from Jimmy Hulas as well for dinner w/ a sweet tea? By the way, your lease renewal offers are xxxxxx, would you like me to let the office know that you;d like to renew?"
Eddy: "Yes, to both questions, Ezra."
Ezra: "Eddy your order is set to arrive at 7:30PM, I have provided the directions to the delivery driver and provided a one time entry code into the community. Your x card was charged $12.73. Also, the office is aware of your choice to renew for forever and will be sending you your new lease in the morning. You made a great decision! Let me know if you need anything else from me".