Atlas Real Estate: Space for Flourishing

The Atlas advantage

Atlas Real Estate was founded after the financial crisis of 2008. After initially starting as a “fix and flip” business, Atlas’ partners quickly saw that it was a limited business model and decided a better way to grow would be to acquire homes across multiple markets. CEO Tony Julianelle explains: “As soon as we started buying and holding on to real estate, we realized that managing properties could work better for us because we were finding that property managers believed other firms weren’t acting in their best interests.” Since switching to this new model, Atlas has grown and expanded its business and now operates in 8 states.

Empowering teams across borders

To be able to manage 6,500+ doors, Tony employs a fairly large team that’s spread throughout the United States and Mexico. No matter their location, his goal is for all employees to feel like they belong at Atlas: “In our hiring, we don’t talk about culture fit, we talk about culture ‘add.’ We want every team member to know that they're fully empowered.”

Tony shared that having a meaningful system like AppFolio is critical to his business. In one powerful platform, his team can access all resident communications, manage work order processes, and have a single source of truth for what’s happening at each property. 

“​​There was a time in our company when everything happened through cell phones or email, and it was harder to know what was really going on in any given situation. AppFolio's ability to centralize that communication in one place makes it clear to the resident what's happening and makes it clear for us on what we need to do.”

“Good for you, good for me, good for everything”

Just because they’re not a tech company, doesn’t mean they can’t run their business like one. Tony will be the first to admit he’s not tech-savvy, but he appreciates the fact that AppFolio is a tool that makes his life simpler. “Having a resource like AppFolio means anyone in our company can achieve what they need to do. With the demands of delivering data in the way that our clients want the partnership with AppFolio has been critical for us to be able to accomplish that.”

Before switching to AppFolio, Atlas’ previous solution lacked ‌a user interface that everyone could understand and engage with, and their software provider didn’t offer the deep partnership he was looking for. Tony explains: 

“We don’t like being a client to a vendor because that’s not how we view the world. We’d rather have a partnership where we’re able to solve problems together, and that’s what we found with AppFolio as we grew our business and expanded into different states.”

Since choosing AppFolio, Atlas relies on the easy-to-use platform to provide a consistent user experience their team can rely on; appreciates the ability to access our software from anywhere and on any device; and counts on our intelligent automation to help get their work done faster. Tony has found that a number of tools have made his business better:

One powerful platform, one reliable partnership

When choosing the right property management software, Atlas needed a true technology partner that listened to their feedback and put their business first. Before, Tony’s team used to spend too much time figuring out what to do and who to call, but with AppFolio, they can focus on the right things.

“​​AppFolio and our team meet weekly, and we have a constant dialogue with our account manager and support team. It's a tight-knit relationship that I'm grateful for. They’re fully vested in our success and care that we get it right in what Atlas sets out to achieve. They're listening to us and what we need to be successful.”

Essentials for growth and flexibility

With AppFolio on their side, Atlas has been able to move forward with their vision, expand vastly in the last five years, and execute across every category of their business. They’re able to tackle everything that comes with growth — from scaling their team to creating exceptional resident experiences — because they have a partner in AppFolio. 

“When we hire team members, they have to be able to go in and learn the system fairly easily. AppFolio is a win for us because the user interface is so intuitive, and our employees love working at Atlas and value their flexibility. Having AppFolio means they can work from anywhere — they can work from their car or home, at the office, or even from the ski slopes if they wanted to.”

“We’re also able to engage with residents in a more meaningful way because AppFolio has automated processes for us. We use AppFolio to deliver a better resident experience by committing to using the Online Portal for all communication. Our residents know that when they use the portal for maintenance requests, they’ll receive a response rapidly, and their request will be addressed.”