interview with ryan gilbert, propertybridge's ceo

Q) Can you give me an idea what led to the creation of PropertyBridge?

RG) Three years ago the five founders of PropertyBridge zeroed in on a simple goal – make it easier than ever before for property managers to collect payments from their residents. That was when the fun started!

Between us we had identified a critical gap that was holding back the wide scale use of automated payments by property managers and owners. It was a combination of poor integration with existing systems and business processes and a lot of people turning a blind eye to compliance issues. Of course, the excessive fees that were being presented to residents weren't helping either!

That’s why we built our Payments Platform from the ground up to interlock seamlessly with the systems and requirements that make large property management firms function effectively. We also partnered on a strategic level with the largest financial services companies so that we could get the resident value proposition right.

Q) What are the key ingredients that have allowed PropertyBridge to successfully launch its Payments Platform with large property management companies?

RG) Making complex payments systems easy to use and integrate takes more than just great software. You also need strong partnerships. That’s why PropertyBridge has established unique relationships with leading financial services companies like Visa USA.

Over an 18-month period we worked tirelessly with our partners to analyze all aspects of a payment. From the resident experience through to account reconciliation, each level of interaction was scrutinized, each line of code optimized, each possible scenario considered.

Q) What are the key things that make PropertyBridge different from other approaches to payments for property managers?

RG) Of course PropertyBridge is not the only payments solution available to property managers. What makes us different? Early on we identified that large property management firms had few choices when it came to payment systems. Option one: they could try to develop their own payments solution in-house – a challenge that few corporate development teams relish, or are equipped for!

Even worse, a property manager could try option two: bolt on one of the existing real estate payment solutions. This is a risky proposition at best, given the limited integration resources, suspect compliancy, and shaky financial service partnerships that are typical.

In some notorious cases recently, payment services providers have even been prevented from accepting the most popular payment types because they failed to meet the basic regulations of the credit card associations. It wasn't’t a pretty picture! Clearly large property management firms and their residents deserve better.

That’s where PropertyBridge comes in. Our Payments Platform is convenient, compliant and secure. It meets all the key technical and business process needs of a large property management firm without cutting corners.

Q) How is the PropertyBridge Payments Platform geared to the needs of larger property management firms?

RG) When you have thousands of units and millions of dollars on the line, your payments system is no place for compromise. PropertyBridge offers an enterprise strength payments platform that balances the needs of all parties, from resident through to property manager.

We worked to a mandate that prioritized compliancy and security alongside convenience, PropertyBridge and its partners have created a robust payments infrastructure specifically for larger property management firms.

This infrastructure includes a critical layer of PropertyBridge interfaces and tools that integrate with existing systems and business processes painlessly. Our gateway sets the industry standard for payment types and options. Integration with leading property management software solutions is seamless. Each payment is placed into a contextual environment that closely reflects the needs of the parties involved.

PropertyBridge even includes sophisticated training and marketing resources to help field managers and their teams gear up and communicate the benefits of electronic payments to new and existing residents.

Q) Is PropertyBridge only working with larger property management firms?

RG) No. Although we are focused a little more on larger firms at the moment, growing firms that currently manage under a thousand units can also take advantage of PropertyBridge’s payments platform.

PropertyBridge offers an integrated, flexible infrastructure that makes it easy for property management firms of all sizes to build out secure, friendly online payments solutions.

Whether you manage tens of thousands of units or hundreds, PropertyBridge can provide a standard-setting payments solution.