In the first episode of the Yardi Living Series, we sat down with Grant Robertson, technical and compliance director at ila, to explore the journey of launching a build to rent (BTR) operator from scratch—and the crucial role that Yardi played in making it happen.
A Fast-Tracked Foundation
“ila was formed in 2022…as an in-house management company for an investor who had previously used external management agents…They recruited a small team in order to build that platform, and I was lucky enough to be approached as employee number three.”
With a pipeline of 3,500 units under construction, ila had just six months to prepare for their first letting. “The three of us on a blank piece of paper, we sat down and started to sketch out what that process would look like and what technologies we were going to need.”
The brief was clear: “We had to go from literally nothing, a blank sheet of paper and three laptops, to a fully functioning system that encompassed a website, an e-commerce platform, a back-end finance system, a CRM system, and a property management system—all in one go.”
Why Yardi?
“The cast list for potential software wasn’t huge…that could actually even meet those criteria.”
The team was looking for a cloud-based system across the board: “We didn’t want to own any physical hardware… everything had to be cloud-based.”
Yardi stood out for its all-in-one capability and openness: “If one system could accomplish everything, then it’s clearly easier to keep everything in that one system… but we also wanted a system that would embrace other providers… and that was a consideration as well.”
“Yardi was the product that came to the fore… it did have all of the various elements that we needed as a startup. And it could be done within the timeframe we had available.”
Onboarding and Early Implementation
“The team that we were allocated were able to draw out from us what we needed and then to put that in place… but it was a very steep learning curve.”
“As the system administrators… we were then to train out our own teams as and when they came along. So again, it was a steep learning curve to go from being a complete novice Yardi newbie to then turning around a week later and training that out to a team.”
Grant credits the support team for bridging the knowledge gap: “The team that we had from Yardi were good at coming back in from time to time to build up those gaps in knowledge.”
Day-to-Day Support
“We have support on a more regular basis from the technical account managers and the relationship managers… and then we have a fortnightly call with the technical team in Cluj as well, who have been great.”
“The Romanian team have been absolutely fantastic and we deal with them very regularly.”
Building for Scale
Starting from scratch brought its own advantages: “We weren’t dragging mountains of data with us. We weren’t wedded to any particular processes… we were quite happy to sit back and say, tell us what the Yardi way is and we’ll fit in with that.”
“As much as possible, we wanted to keep it as plain vanilla as possible… because of the speed element, and to avoid any additional complications.”
Now, with nearly three years of growth behind them, the team is seeing tangible benefits. “Everybody has a different standard or a different requirement for reporting… it was useful that Yardi offers that reporting option.”
Integration and Innovation
“There are some things Yardi doesn’t do, so we’ve had to go to other providers for those… but it’s also good to see that Yardi is now becoming more open with the thought of integrating with other platforms.”
“The integration with the Tenancy Deposit Service… that’s an absolute key must-have within the system and it works pretty well.”
“We’re literally about to turn the switch on… an integration with HomePeople [for referencing].”
ila is also exploring AI to manage documentation and compliance. “We’re working with a company who are employing AI now to classify all of those documents… and to be able to ask natural language questions… and get those documents returned to us really quickly.”
Where ila Stands Today
“We’ve grown quite quickly given that we started in ’22 with nothing… now we’re managing just over 2,200 units in nine different sites across the UK.”
“We’ve got another three sites planned to open this year in Cardiff, Salford, and in West London… and sites in West London and Leeds opening next year.”
A massive thanks to Grant for taking part in this first episode of the Yardi Living Series. Keep your eyes peeled for Part 2, which is coming soon.
If you want to discover how Yardi can support your BTR operations, book a demo with our team here.