The Pioneers Behind PropTech: In Conversation With Dean Holmes

This article is part of an ongoing interview series titled "The Pioneers Behind PropTech: Meet the Top Innovators Shaping the Future of Real Estate". In this series, we deep dive into where key industry thought leaders see PropTech heading.

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Our CEO and Co-founder Emiel Bril recently had the opportunity to chat with Dean Holmes, Senior Vice President, Residential Operations at QuadReal, about the current state of PropTech and its promise in commercial real estate. 

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Dean oversees the operations and performance of  QuadReal’s Canadian residential, manufactured housing and seasonal resort portfolios. He also serves on the Board of Directors for Article Student Living, a US Student Housing firm.

Before joining QuadReal in 2018, Dean was the Senior Vice President of Operations at Campus Apartments where he managed operations for the firm’s national student housing portfolio. Prior to that, Dean was the COO of Madison Apartment Group and the Division Vice President for Berkshire Residential Investments. Apart from being a Certified Property Manager Candidate and a member of the Multifamily Advisory Board for TransUnion, Dean is a veteran of the United States Air Force. 

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Read along for valuable insights from Emiel and Dean’s conversation.

To kick things off, we’d love to hear about your journey in the real estate industry, as well as any defining moments that have shaped your approach to residential operations?

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I head residential operations at QuadReal, overseeing an 11,000-unit conventional multifamily portfolio as well as a 25,0000-site manufactured home portfolio across Canada. We also have several thousand apartment and student housing units in the US. QuadReal has a global multifamily presence, but my focus is primarily North America. 

My journey started at the field level, working directly within a community. After my service in the US Air Force, I entered a management training program that gave me deep insights into real estate management. I moved up from community-based roles to managing portfolios, and eventually to overseeing large regional and national operations. This range of experience - from owner-operator roles to fee management to private equity - has offered me a broad perspective on the industry.

I’m really passionate about real estate and I’ve witnessed significant change in the industry over the years. One thing I’ve noticed is that historically, multifamily has been rather slow to innovate. In the last 10 years however, it’s moved at lightning speed. To see how emerging technologies such as AI are being used in multifamily is incredible. 

As someone deeply embedded in the industry, what emerging PropTech trends do you believe will have the most transformative impact? Are there any tools or innovations you're particularly excited to leverage within your own portfolio?

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AI is certainly one of the most exciting developments - it’s integral to nearly every product now. I’m also interested in the evolution of centralization tools. We’ve had a centralized platform in place long before it became a buzzword, so seeing new solutions in this area, whether for administration or maintenance, is exciting.

There’s growing innovation around revenue management and customer acquisition, with an emphasis on making the engagement process smoother and more seamless. I’m also intrigued by tools that foster resident engagement, such as reward programs and credit reporting for on-time rent payments.

With so many legacy systems in place and new tech solutions constantly emerging, how do you strike a balance between sticking with proven tools and embracing innovation in your operations?

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Innovation is one of QuadReal’s core values. We have an amazing CEO who has ingrained in our company culture the importance of experimenting rigorously and failing fast. I’m very fortunate to have been given the runway to try new things. We use Yardi across all of our asset classes, which is the foundation of what we do. However, I believe in selecting best-in-breed tools for specific needs rather than relying solely on one provider for everything. 

This allows us to leverage Yardi’s strengths while integrating specialized tools that excel in areas like vendor management, insurance compliance, and CRM. While some prefer the simplicity of an all-in-one solution, we find that carefully chosen integrations lead to better outcomes without compromising efficiency.

Most leaders I’ve spoken with agree that best-in-breed solutions shouldn’t compromise integration with the core ERP—seamless integrations are essential. What are some other non-negotiables on your tech stack checklist? 

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Integration, and single sign-on are table stakes for us. We also have a host of requirements related to privacy and data security. It can be really rigorous to get on board with us. But having seamless integrations is really the showstopper. It’s the first question I ask when I’m speaking to a new provider. I recognize that the process of integrating with major software comes at a huge cost, but if a vendor can’t demonstrate enough commitment through that step, it does make me wonder if they can live up to their promise. 

What do you think are the biggest blind spots for PropTech leaders, and how can they better address them?

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Make sure you’ve studied the industry enough to understand what sort of pain point you are solving with your solution. I see a lot of tools that I think are great but don’t necessarily solve a pain point for us. Sometimes I see startups working in isolation on a bright and shiny idea but it doesn’t really solve a pressing issue in the industry. I think the biggest blind spot is not doing enough homework to understand the business at a deeper level. 

Do you think industry insiders have an advantage in building successful technology solutions over those coming from outside the space?

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I definitely think so. I see more and more of it now. We’re seeing more venture firms in the multifamily space now, many led by people who have hands-on experience as vendors or operators. This background makes a huge difference - some of the best products we’re seeing come from those with deep industry roots.

They understand the daily realities of the field, such as how on-site staff are constantly pulled in different directions, and the need for tools that integrate seamlessly into core systems rather than relying on multiple dashboards.

For anyone in the startup space, my advice would be to have someone on your advisory team who knows the industry inside and out. It’s a game-changer. 

Looking ahead to 2025, what new tools and innovations will be central to QuadReal’s strategy? 

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We’re in the middle of integrating Parkridge - the largest manufactured housing company in Canada, so we’re excited about that. We’ve already gone live with Yardi and once the dust settles on that, we will assess other tools that we’re already using at QuadReal to find the synergies between the two. 

We’re also looking into some fraud prevention tools because it’s becoming more crucial in Canada now. We’re also exploring some inspection tools, both for QuadReal and Parkridge. 

I’m also excited about the AI products that are out there, especially around being able to aggregate data from multiple sources and making it actionable - which has been a key challenge for a long time in our space. There’s so much data available to us now, so we’re figuring out how we can distill it. We’re excited to explore AI tools that can help us cut through the noise and look into opportunities that can help us operate more efficiently.