Company Profile
| Company Name | Pan American Properties |
| Market | Southern California |
| Units | ~3,300 |
| Property Types | Multi-family and single-family residential properties |
| Use Cases |
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Key Results
Improved leasing velocity by an estimated 40 to 50%.
Delivered a well-received, mobile-first leasing experience.
Implemented real-time leasing activity reporting.
With over 3,300 units scattered from North L.A. to the Inland Empire and down to San Diego, Pan American Properties faced a challenge that’s familiar for large, geographically dispersed property management companies.
“We have about 3,300 units under management now all throughout Southern California,” said Rick Hoegler, President at Pan American. “It was obviously completely impossible for a leasing staff to be able to cover that swath of area.”
At the same time, rents in many of these markets had plateaued. So growing the team to match the company’s geographic reach wasn’t feasible.
The Search for a Solution to the Coverage Problem
Hoegler and Emily Rizvi, Property Supervisor at Pan American Properties, decided they needed to implement self-showings to cover their territory.
After exploring a few different technologies, they chose ShowMojo and MojoBoxes for their usability and the quality of the Rent Manager Integration.
“We did try some other AI leasing assistant, but this one [ShowMojo] we really liked because it integrates the best with Rent Manager. And it seems to be really user-friendly,” Rizvi said.
Beyond those details, though, ShowMojo also fits Hoegler’s philosophy for selecting technology.
“My big thing has always been because we have an open API [with Rent Manager], we can go out and find the best software to bolt in, instead of being captive,” Hoegler explained.
It’s more economically efficient too because you guys obviously want to keep your game at the top, right? And so does Rent Manager. So I think there’s a nice symbiotic relationship there.
Rick Hoegler, President at Pan American
Scaling with Self-Showings and Automation
Pan American soon started rolling out self-showings and prospect-guided scheduling. First, at properties without on-site managers. Then, at properties with on-site managers.
“For properties that don’t have resident managers — and even if they do, for after-hour showings — this just works better,” Hoegler said.
In short order, the team could manage a significant portion of showings remotely without needing additional headcount.
But self-showings didn’t just solve the coverage problem. They became a powerful selling point for the business.
“I’m the chief sales guy here,” Hoegler added. “When we’re bidding on new accounts, one of the things that always comes up is, “How are you going to cover it?” Because we have these capabilities, we’re ready to go.”
Word of that capability is spreading. Hoegler mentioned that at least one new property owner reached out unprompted after hearing about Pan American Properties’ remote leasing abilities.
Maintenance Gets a Boost, Too
Referring to the MojoBoxes, Gilburne said, “What we’re trying to do now on the go forward is, because the lock boxes work so well, we’re going to start using them on our maintenance side too.”
The maintenance techs will use the MojoBox just like a prospect. That way, Gilburne’s team has better control over who has access to a property, when, and for how long.
This also means Gilburne doesn’t have to worry about the security risks of keys. “They’re getting unique codes. And if we get a rogue maintenance guy that quits, we don’t have to run around and change 130 different lockbox codes.”
Although he didn’t directly mention it, Gilburne’s maintenance team will undoubtedly spend less time searching for a missing key or driving to pick up a key. And that will be a game-changer for improving efficiency across Pan American’s widely dispersed property operations.
The ShowMojo Effect: More Than Just Coverage
It didn’t take long for Rizvi and Hoegler to start putting ShowMojo to work as not just a scheduler, but a linchpin in the modernization of how they:
- Communicate with Prospects and Residents
- Market listings
- Make pricing decisions
Modernized Communication with Prospects and Residents
“Everybody wants to do everything on their phone,” Hoegler said. “If you can lease an apartment on your phone, that’s pretty cutting edge versus ‘come into the office and fill out a bunch of paperwork.’”
Additionally, as Hoegler explained, because his team now uses ShowMojo to communicate digitally with prospects, it sets an expectation for digital resident communications. And that makes the whole operation much more efficient.
“If they have any issues, they can communicate with our system through our manager, they can text, we can email. That just keeps, again, the overall volume of work on the management side down versus if you’re doing everything verbally,” he said.
Faster, Less Error-Prone Leasing
For Hoegler, simplicity is always a priority. That’s why ShowMojo’s Rent Manager integration was so important to him. And so far, it’s paying off with a much better leasing operation.
Instead of logging into multiple sites to update listings, the Pan American team updates Rent Manager, and ShowMojo handles the rest.
“We just did a lease-up… and as soon as we got final approval from the city, within a day or two we were fully up,” Rick said. “I’d estimate we’re leasing 40 to 50% faster now.”
Smarter Pricing Decisions
It’s not just the ease of managing listings that has made Pan American more effective at leasing. It’s also the access to data.
With the real-time data that flows into ShowMojo’s Listings Activity Reports, Hoegler and his team make quicker, more informed decisions when listings are lingering on the market.
He explained how he uses ShowMojo’s reporting:
“If we’ve got properties with excessive availability, I’ll engage. What’s the issue? What’s the feedback? That way we can adjust more like an in-flight correction instead of waiting for the plane to land.”
Learning from Pan American’s Success
Much of Pan American Properties’ success is thanks to Rizvi’s hands-on approach to implementing and continuously improving how the company uses ShowMojo.
“Emily’s actually coaching the resident managers about how this could be done better. So you really need, on the implementation front, you need a champion. You need somebody that has that buy-in,” Hoegler said.
Thanks to Hoegler’s vision for best-in-breed tech, and Rizvi’s ability to evangelize that technology across operations, Pan American Properties has:
- Integrated self-showings to expand coverage without additional leasing staff.
- Reduced leasing friction and modernized the prospect/resident experience.
- Unlocked timely leasing insights through real-time performance data and reporting.
- Increased leasing velocity and decreased marketing setup time for new properties.
- Positioned itself as a tech-forward leader in a competitive market.
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