People-First IT in Property Management with Lara Hamilton

For many property management teams, technology can feel more like a hurdle than a help. But what if IT could actually empower your staff instead of overwhelming them?

In this episode of Tech Diva Biz Talks, Audrey Wiggins speaks with Lara Hamilton, Director of IT Services at HelpDeskRealty. Lara has spent more than 15 years helping multifamily and affordable housing organizations simplify their systems, scale their infrastructure, and maintain compliance across complex property portfolios.

They discuss cybersecurity, AI, scalable IT infrastructure, and the often-overlooked human side of technology, how making systems usable and practical for staff can transform day-to-day operations and strengthen entire organizations.

CONTACT LARA HAMILTON
https://www.linkedin.com/in/larahamilton-multifamilyit/
HelpDeskRealty.com

Transcript

[00:00:01 - 00:00:41]
Welcome to Tech Diva Biz Talks, where we tune in, dive deep, and level up. I'm your host, Audrey Wiggins, AKA the Tech Diva brand strategist, marketing mind, and your guide through the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. Let's talk tech. Hello, Tech Diva Nation. I'm excited to have you here today and I'm excited for our guest. Her name is Laura Hamilton. She specializes in helping property management leaders simplify technology, scale IT support across multiple property portfolios, and navigate the complex compliance demands of HUD and LI htc. Now, Laura, what is that?

[00:00:41 - 00:00:52]
Housing. That is low income tax credit housing. So that is you have to qualify to live in certain apartment complexes based off your income.

[00:00:52 - 00:01:32]
Okay, thank you. Thank you for that. All right. With more than 15 years of experience in property management IT, she works at the intersection of technology, operations and compliance, turning complex systems into practical people first solutions. Her approach focuses on making technology fit the way teams actually work, empowering staff, reducing daily friction, and building security and compliance into everyday workflows. At the core of her work is is a simple goal. Keep people supported, properties running, and data protected. Laura, welcome to Take Eva Biz Talks.

[00:01:32 - 00:01:34]
Thank you so much. I'm so glad to be here.

[00:01:35 - 00:01:40]
Yes, you are so welcome. And before we get started, can you give us a fun fact about you?

[00:01:41 - 00:01:49]
Oh, a fun fact? Yeah. I have four border collies. It makes my life very entertaining.

[00:01:50 - 00:01:52]
You understand the least, right?

[00:01:52 - 00:01:53]
Yes.

[00:01:54 - 00:01:57]
That is awesome. And we have any other animals here?

[00:01:57 - 00:01:58]
I have a cat.

[00:01:59 - 00:02:01]
Okay. And how do they all get along?

[00:02:01 - 00:02:12]
They get along pretty well. But the cat, the border collies being a herding breed, they like to herd the cat. That's their sheep. So he plays along for a little while.

[00:02:13 - 00:02:22]
Oh my gosh. That is funny. So I know I gave an introduction, but in your words, what problem are you solving for your clients?

[00:02:23 - 00:02:54]
Well, the problems that we're solving are the technology that the people that we support use is a tool for them. It is not their main means of daily work. For us, we are in software. We are working in hardware all day, every day. It's second nature to us. So our goal is to help that tool work in the way that they need it to work so they can do what they do best, which is provide housing to people within various communities across the country.

[00:02:55 - 00:03:48]
Awesome. Thank you. We're going to unpack and learn some more about what you do there. On the other side of this message, knock out your competition with All Together Marketing. We elevate your brand, take a stance with your business name, logo, the tagline Your colors, even the for your business. And then jab left with your website, jab right with core values, back up with product experience and bring it on with you. Visit AllTogether Biz and let us help you create a knockout brand. Welcome back Laura and tech diva nation here. So, Laura, you live at the intersection of IT operations and compliance. For leaders in property management who still see it as just, just tech support, what mindset shift do they need to make now?

[00:03:49 - 00:04:33]
Well, there's a lot more to it than just tech. It's making sure you know if, if your software isn't working the way you need it to work, you can't get that lease created or the lease printed with the correct information. That means that person this afternoon that sitting in front of your at your desk waiting to move into that unit cannot move in without that information being accurate. That could mean the difference between them being homeless today or not. And so we want to make sure that what we're doing is not just fixing hardware, pieces of equipment or helping them within their software, but helping them use the tools that they have as a means to provide housing to people across the country.

[00:04:33 - 00:04:48]
You support more than 1400 users across platforms like Real Page, okay, and AMSI. What's the biggest mistake you see companies make when trying to scale their tech across multiple properties?

[00:04:49 - 00:05:16]
Due diligence is the biggest mistake I see. Where property management companies take on properties, they go back and forth between property management companies sometimes and not really doing a due diligence on the technology that's already in place and making sure that it's up to date because you could start managing a property tomorrow and that property has security liabilities and risks that you're not aware of.

[00:05:17 - 00:05:30]
Affordable and multifamily housing come from serious HUD and LIHTC compliance demands. Where do organizations most often underestimate the risk of getting it wrong?

[00:05:30 - 00:06:09]
The software that they use daily is really critical because there are multiple different platforms out there. RealPage, Yardi, AMSI, all the different platforms that, that you can use for your software that have compliance pieces built into those, using those to the best of their abilities is one of the main things in making sure that what you've built on that foundation of your software really is accurate information and it's built as solid as it can be so that it's building that, keeping that compliance up to date on a daily basis and then you never have to worry about being out of compliance.

[00:06:09 - 00:06:20]
You've said technology should empower teams, not overwhelm them. What does People first It actually look like, or actually look like in day to day property operations?

[00:06:21 - 00:07:19]
Well, day to day property operations, somebody might be, let's just say you've got a maintenance tech and they're going out to fix a water heater at someone's unit. They have, we have technology built in place for that person, that's that maintenance tech to use. So they can take that iPad with them, they can make sure that they're notating what's wrong, what's not, what's being replaced, what's not being replaced and what that does. Although it seems like on, on the front end it seems like paperwork, right. But on the back end, what it does is it allows us to pull reports and information off of that one particular piece of equipment, that hot water heater. How much money are you spending on that hard water heater? How much time are you taking to repair it? Would you be saving money if you replaced it? Things like that. So there's lots of ways technology can make their life easier, save them money and all the things in every aspect of property management.

[00:07:19 - 00:07:35]
Let's look at cyber security and AI. They're hot topics, but also overwhelming ones. If you had to narrow it down, what are the non negotiables every property management leader should have in place today?

[00:07:35 - 00:08:48]
Well, let's start out with AI. Everyone needs to have an AI governance policy. And it's not just important to have a policy in place, it's important to educate your employees about that policy. You don't want proprietary information being entered into a open large language model AI source where it can be now free to the public. So it's very important that your employees understand what that means. It's easy for me to say because I work with this every day and I talk about this every day. But for someone that doesn't understand the implications of what could happen, we do things such as training, small training courses that we push out for all employees, things like that that can give, that can educate them, but in a way that a regular person that's not in it would understand it. You know, sometimes I think that in IT and in any industry, a doctor for example, they get so much information that they have about a subject that they talk about it in a way that the common person that's not a doctor doesn't really understand it. And it's finding that balance and being able to explain it in a way that anyone can understand and see the risk that's involved.

[00:08:48 - 00:09:01]
You often translate complex systems into practical solutions. Can you share a real world example where SIMPLIFYING it dramatically changed how a team worked or felt about their jobs.

[00:09:01 - 00:09:59]
Sure. I'll use Covid as an example for that. During COVID a lot of companies had to change the way they did business. They had to change it from everyone in the office every day, five days a week, Monday through Friday, eight to five, everybody's at their desk to opening that up to where a lot of people could work a hybrid schedule or work from home due to the coronavirus. And so we had to work with companies to be able to do that. And some of the things, the challenges that companies faced were having all of their files in a server, sitting in an office, and then having employees be able to access that information from home. One of the things that we help implement, which I is just the way that the technology is going now, is to migrate those files into a SharePoint or into the cloud where they can be accessed for anywhere, wherever you are with your laptop. And I think that that's really changed the game for a lot of companies.

[00:10:00 - 00:10:17]
Absolutely. I definitely believe that. All right, so you work with growing portfolios that can't afford downtime for leaders listening who are expanding fast. What's the one IT decision they should make before growth exposes the cracks?

[00:10:17 - 00:11:35]
That's a great question. Technology wise, I would say make sure that you have a solid foundation built. I keep, I say that, I've said that before, but it's really important to make sure that, like I said, that if you've got your stuff in SharePoint, make sure you've got a good permission basis there to where the correct employees have access to what they need. But you don't have employees that don't really need access to those things with access to them that you've got your, your format of your, your domain, all the things that you, that you have set up, that it can, that it can support growth. You want to be able to have enough Microsoft license and all these things. And I'm talking from the hardware aspect on the software aspect, it's different. You know, you want to make sure that you've got proper training on your current employees and that they can cross train any new employees coming in. We recently saw one of our clients had 70 new employees came into their company overnight. And so it was a huge undertaking, you know, to make sure they had all their computers and all the things set up properly and all the things that go along with that. But it was, it was a tax that we took on and, and we're able to get it completed.

[00:11:35 - 00:11:44]
Wow, that's Fantastic. So, Lara, Lara, how can we get in touch with you or work with you if we're in the, in the industry property management there.

[00:11:44 - 00:12:00]
So you can call us at 901365, 1362. You can email me at L. Hamilton resources.com or you can look on our website at helpdeskrealty.com.

[00:12:01 - 00:12:10]
oh, that's realty.com. awesome. Thank you. So we're going to take our last break here, then we're going to come back and we're going to do that rapid fire round that we talked about off camera.

[00:12:10 - 00:12:11]
Great. Let's do it.

[00:12:11 - 00:12:31]
Okay, all together domains. Bringing your business online, whether you are launching a new venture or leveling up your brand, AltogetherDomains.com helps you secure your digital real estate the smart way. Visit altogether domains. All right, Laura, we're gonna do that rapid fire. Are you ready?

[00:12:31 - 00:12:33]
I don't know. I hope so.

[00:12:33 - 00:12:35]
I'm scared. I know.

[00:12:35 - 00:12:35]
Don't be scared.

[00:12:35 - 00:12:40]
It's gonna be fun. It's gonna be insightful, you know, because you're gonna answer all these questions.

[00:12:40 - 00:12:41]
Let's do it. Let's do it.

[00:12:42 - 00:12:48]
All right. All right. Let's go. Okay. The first thing that comes to your mind. One I T myth Property managers need

[00:12:48 - 00:12:50]
to let go of being afraid of

[00:12:50 - 00:12:53]
AI Most overlooked cyber security habit.

[00:12:54 - 00:12:55]
Clicking on things in your email.

[00:12:55 - 00:12:59]
Ooh. Best way to reduce tech stress for staff.

[00:12:59 - 00:13:01]
Enough memory on their computer.

[00:13:03 - 00:13:08]
Oh my gosh. Okay. AI excites you most for property management

[00:13:08 - 00:13:16]
because it can speed up something that you're trying to do with reporting that takes several days into like 20 minutes.

[00:13:16 - 00:13:20]
Tech decision makers should ask this question more often.

[00:13:20 - 00:13:22]
How is this affecting the users?

[00:13:22 - 00:13:44]
Excellent. Well, Laura, if there is one thing you want property managers leaders to remember after this conversation is this. Technology doesn't just protect systems, it protects people, communities and peace of mind. What's the first step leaders can take this quarter? To turn technology into an asset instead of an obstacle.

[00:13:45 - 00:13:46]
Having the proper IT staff.

[00:13:47 - 00:14:39]
This has been a powerful conversation. Larry really helped us to see that it isn't just about software. It's about people protection and long, long term stability. If you're in property management and today's conversation sparks something for you, I encourage you to contact Lara and explore work@helpdesk realty.com we'll have the phone numbers and emails she mentioned earlier there in the show notes so you can catch this episode show notes and more smart business resources.com your home for bold conversations and techtune leadership. That's it for today's. Techneva Biz Talks. Hope you caught a gem or two. If you did, share it, review it and most of all, put it into action. Until next time, tune in, level up and talk tech.