12/02/2026
11 am PT / 12 pm MT / 1 pm CT / 2 pm ET
*approximate length: 45 minutes to 1 hour
Presenter: James Scott, Lead Researcher, MITS Real Estate Innovation Lab
Residents and tenants increasingly assess a property on more than location, design, and rent. Digital-first amenities such as concierge services, embedded insurance programs, credit-building rent reporting, package management, and move-in tools are becoming an important part of the leasing decision and overall customer experience.
In this webinar, James Scott, Director of at the MIT Real Estate Transformation Lab will examine how residential and mixed-use owners and operators can use these services to improve convenience, increase retention, and create new ancillary-revenue opportunities. Attendees will gain a practical view of the technologies residents value, the business models behind amenity monetization, and how to implement services that strengthen both asset performance and resident trust.
Learning Objectives:
- Recognize the digital amenities that increasingly influence leasing and renewal decisions.
- Identify ancillary-revenue opportunities from embedded services, partnerships, and resident platforms.
- Understand how experience technology can reduce friction and support resident retention.
James Scott, who is working with IREM as Technology Innovator-in-Residence, is Lead Researcher for the MIT Real Estate Innovation Lab (REIL). REIL merges MIT’s school of real estate with its technological capabilities to create an innovative real estate tech research platform. Among other projects at REIL, Scott has been responsible for creating a global database of all real estate-oriented technology companies, and has identified over 1,800, with that number continuing to rise. His experience with this project further validates the impact of technology on the world of real estate. As Innovator-in-Residence at IREM, Scott’s goal is to identify innovations that can help IREM members operate their buildings more efficiently, improve their properties’ competitive positioning, and better serve tenants and clients.