The Pioneers Behind PropTech: In Conversation With Savas Karas

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 had the opportunity to chat with Savas Karas, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Transformation Officer at CAPREIT, about the current state of PropTech and what the future of real estate looks like. 

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Prior to his role at CAPREIT, Savas was the President of Enterprise Solutions Group, a technology-oriented consulting firm in Maryland. His in-depth knowledge and focus on building data-led, process-focused, and technology-enabled teams offers an expert perspective into making the most of PropTech to fuel growth. 

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Read on to learn more from Savas himself. 

To start off, we’d love to learn more about your current role and your career journey leading up to it. 
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I’m in my third year at CAPREIT and prior to this, I ran a management consulting firm—not your traditional multi-family housing experience, but it still gave me valuable insights into what works within technology. I’ve never felt like I’m industry-specific. I believe that good solutions work in good ways across multiple industries. 

CAPREIT is a wonderful company. I like to say we do the right thing even when no one is looking. We buy, sell, build, and manage multi-family housing throughout the United States, primarily east of the Rockies. We are owners and managers, and we also do third-party management.

What key learnings and advice would you like to share with others in the field? 

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I’ve had the opportunity to be the youngest person on several boards and one of the key things that I’ve learned is the value of preparation. It sounds basic, but I always emphasize reading all given materials before meetings or before making a big decision. I’m convinced that 95% of people don’t do that. 

Second would be to always engage with your peers. Active engagement can be very helpful in understanding diverse perspectives and fostering effective collaboration. 

I always recommend getting a deeper understanding of the organization’s bigger picture—where it is going, what it is trying to do, and the expected timeframe to achieve intended outcomes. I am often amazed about how disconnected people can be from larger goals. This is often simply due to no one telling them.  A well informed workforce is a well prepared workforce!

When I was in consulting, we used to have a saying: ‘Good, Fast, or Cheap - Pick Two!’. Every project comes with trade offs and quality work often requires prioritizing certain aspects over others. Last but not least, I’ve learned to be a hopeful person, show gratitude towards others, and always support your team because we succeed when the team succeeds. 

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Looking back, was there ever a challenging moment that really shaped your approach to work? Tell us about a time when you had to step up, make tough calls, or push your own boundaries—and how that experience influenced your career path.

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Back in my consulting days, I was working with the head of a major federal agency who was a very difficult person to work for. He knew what he wanted, he would go to you with very straightforward questions, and he would remember your answers. Working for a demanding leader who was clear about his expectations and had a strong memory for details pushed me to elevate my performance and accountability.

Learning to confidently say, "I don’t know" or "No" instead of giving uncertain answers was crucial to prevent overpromising. By consistently being honest, I was able to build a foundation of trust with him.

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The PropTech space is constantly evolving—is there a particular innovation or trend that’s really sparking your curiosity right now? 

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I love walking the vendor floor at conferences. I’m very curious about technology and even though I might not be a buyer in most cases, I stop and listen because I like to stay informed about what’s on the cutting-edge.

There's a lot of new innovation that is happening and I see PropTech in general as a valuable and viable path for property management companies. I’ve also noticed companies getting significantly better at improving their existing products and offerings. 

Many teams are tackling longstanding issues in fresh, innovative ways, while others are identifying entirely new challenges, each with a unique vision of a viable solution.

One thing that stands out, though, is how many companies push for attention without fully grasping their audience’s true needs or pain points.  They are there to sell their solution, not solve your problem.

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As a technology veteran, I’m sure you've seen a lot of PropTech pitches come and go. What are some of the red flags that you tend to notice? 

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The biggest piece of the puzzle is integration. Your product has to be able to integrate with the core pieces of software that drive an organization. I'm happy to help with the integration, but I can't drive the process and when I’m given unrealistic time frames it says you haven't done your homework. The conversation becomes much quicker if I don't have the confidence that they could bring to market a product that is going to add value.

If you have integration experience with another company, let me know that and if we get far enough down the road, let me talk to them as well. But integration tends to be a big issue for us.

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Integration is a topic most leaders agree with. What’s the one contrarian opinion about PropTech that doesn’t align with conventional wisdom? 

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What I really focus on is the intersection between people and technology. If people are able to use technology in a way that’s meaningful to them, then we have a win. If they’re not, then we have a problem because we are now expecting them to do something that they’re not equipped to do, and we’re setting them up for failure.

The most valuable asset that we have are the staff that are running our communities for us—the people that are interacting with our residents every single day. They are truly the most important.

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Balancing innovation and continuity is a huge topic of discussion when it comes to modernization. What is your take on finding the right balance between legacy systems and new software? 

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We really prioritize ROI. We look at every piece of technology that's in our tech stack and whether the ROI meets our expectations. We have a very full tech stack at this point—very little is additive so our focus tends to be on replacement. But replacement only makes sense if what we have doesn't work, the ROI can be justified, and the technology can be integrated with our existing systems. 

The bar is very high for the tools we use because our technology has matured. We don’t have a lot of legacy software. Our oldest software is actually our property management system, but that's also something that you don't change often. We’re also typically not an early adopter. We like to wait. We want to see what they do and see how it goes. We’ll be a little bit slower but the outcome we get from that is net ahead and also comes at a lower cost point. 

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What’s the big focus for you and your team as you look ahead to 2025? Are there specific areas where you see technology playing a major role in driving your goals forward, especially as you refine your systems for the next phase of growth?

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2025 is going to be a pivotal year for us as we reassess our tech stack and the role that each tool plays. We will look at whether our current tech stack can help us grow, help us achieve intended outcomes, and how that growth can be streamlined. We want to make our processes easier and more resilient. 

We also know we need to optimize our property management system. Since we first implemented it in 2017, we’ve had several changes in business—our software has changed and we implemented software upgrades. We need to bring everything up to a common point, align it to what we’re doing now and what we think we’re going to do for the next 5 years, and then really work on ensuring that our systems run as easily and efficiently as possible.