How Preiss Solved the Student Housing Pre-Lease Audit Problem

1

Team Member Involved

99%

Time saved

2-3X

Cost Reduction

“Using Rely, this week-long process gets cut down to an hour. And that hour was mostly me double checking things.”

Matt Guzman, Special Project Director

At Preiss, lease and pre-lease audits required teams to manually review resident packets against rent rolls and internal audit sheets. Each resident packet could contain 15–30 files including leases, guarantor agreements, addendums, applications, and supporting documentation.

“It’s tedious, straightforward work,” said Matt Guzman at Preiss. “They’re all pain.”

Depending on the transaction, audits could take 1.5–2 weeks and require 2–10 team members balancing the work alongside their normal responsibilities. The process became especially painful during active student housing pre-leasing periods.

In one case, a transaction fell through after the audit had already been completed, only to restart later after roughly 30% of the beds had turned over.

“One time, we had to redo the pre-lease audit and needed it done in 3 days,” Matt said. “15–20 people worked all day and night to hit the deadline.”

Matt Guzman, Special Project Director

Preiss began evaluating AI solutions as part of a broader push to modernize operational workflows across the business. “Our team at Preiss is innovative and we try to be on the cutting edge of things,” Matt explained. “Rely does things other groups either can’t do or aren’t there yet.”

One of the biggest differentiators was Rely’s flexibility. “I have yet to hear ‘we can’t do that’ or ‘we won’t do that,’” Matt said.

The team also valued that Rely could support both internal and external audit workflows within the same system.

“We had to redo the pre-lease audit and needed it done in 3 days,” Matt said. “15–20 people worked all day and night to hit the deadline.”

Matt Guzman, Special Project Director

After implementing Rely, workflows that previously consumed weeks of coordination and review time were reduced to roughly an hour. The accuracy surprised him even more as did the flexibility. Rely helped the teams audit demographics, specific addendum clauses and just about anything else they could think of.

Instead of coordinating large internal teams and pulling employees away from leasing and operational work, audits could now be handled independently inside Rely. “Working in the corporate office, we only have so many people who can do these things,” Matt said. “I can actually do this alone. I didn’t corral a team. I didn’t pull people off their work. I could just share it with the team. Saves time, resources. It’s a no brainer.”

For Preiss, the opportunity goes beyond faster lease audits. The team sees a future where validated operational data flows continuously between diligence, ownership, and property management systems.

That long-term vision is part of why the partnership continues to deepen. “If data was already audited with Rely, you know you’re not walking into a mess.”

Or as Matt described it: “A stamp of approval from Rely.”

“I could not believe that it was so accurate. Forty minutes of that hour was me double checking things.”

Matt Guzman, Special Project Director

1

Team Member Involved

99%

Time saved

2-3X

Cost Reduction

“Using Rely, this week-long process gets cut down to an hour. And that hour was mostly me double checking things.”

Matt Guzman, Special Project Director

At Preiss, lease and pre-lease audits required teams to manually review resident packets against rent rolls and internal audit sheets. Each resident packet could contain 15–30 files including leases, guarantor agreements, addendums, applications, and supporting documentation.

“It’s tedious, straightforward work,” said Matt Guzman at Preiss. “They’re all pain.”

Depending on the transaction, audits could take 1.5–2 weeks and require 2–10 team members balancing the work alongside their normal responsibilities. The process became especially painful during active student housing pre-leasing periods.

In one case, a transaction fell through after the audit had already been completed, only to restart later after roughly 30% of the beds had turned over.

“One time, we had to redo the pre-lease audit and needed it done in 3 days,” Matt said. “15–20 people worked all day and night to hit the deadline.”

Matt Guzman, Special Project Director

Preiss began evaluating AI solutions as part of a broader push to modernize operational workflows across the business. “Our team at Preiss is innovative and we try to be on the cutting edge of things,” Matt explained. “Rely does things other groups either can’t do or aren’t there yet.”

One of the biggest differentiators was Rely’s flexibility. “I have yet to hear ‘we can’t do that’ or ‘we won’t do that,’” Matt said.

The team also valued that Rely could support both internal and external audit workflows within the same system.

“We had to redo the pre-lease audit and needed it done in 3 days,” Matt said. “15–20 people worked all day and night to hit the deadline.”

Matt Guzman, Special Project Director

After implementing Rely, workflows that previously consumed weeks of coordination and review time were reduced to roughly an hour. The accuracy surprised him even more as did the flexibility. Rely helped the teams audit demographics, specific addendum clauses and just about anything else they could think of.

Instead of coordinating large internal teams and pulling employees away from leasing and operational work, audits could now be handled independently inside Rely. “Working in the corporate office, we only have so many people who can do these things,” Matt said. “I can actually do this alone. I didn’t corral a team. I didn’t pull people off their work. I could just share it with the team. Saves time, resources. It’s a no brainer.”

For Preiss, the opportunity goes beyond faster lease audits. The team sees a future where validated operational data flows continuously between diligence, ownership, and property management systems.

That long-term vision is part of why the partnership continues to deepen. “If data was already audited with Rely, you know you’re not walking into a mess.”

Or as Matt described it: “A stamp of approval from Rely.”

“I could not believe that it was so accurate. Forty minutes of that hour was me double checking things.”

Matt Guzman, Special Project Director

1

Team Member Involved

99%

Time saved

2-3X

Cost Reduction

“Using Rely, this week-long process gets cut down to an hour. And that hour was mostly me double checking things.”

Matt Guzman, Special Project Director

At Preiss, lease and pre-lease audits required teams to manually review resident packets against rent rolls and internal audit sheets. Each resident packet could contain 15–30 files including leases, guarantor agreements, addendums, applications, and supporting documentation.

“It’s tedious, straightforward work,” said Matt Guzman at Preiss. “They’re all pain.”

Depending on the transaction, audits could take 1.5–2 weeks and require 2–10 team members balancing the work alongside their normal responsibilities. The process became especially painful during active student housing pre-leasing periods.

In one case, a transaction fell through after the audit had already been completed, only to restart later after roughly 30% of the beds had turned over.

“One time, we had to redo the pre-lease audit and needed it done in 3 days,” Matt said. “15–20 people worked all day and night to hit the deadline.”

Matt Guzman, Special Project Director

Preiss began evaluating AI solutions as part of a broader push to modernize operational workflows across the business. “Our team at Preiss is innovative and we try to be on the cutting edge of things,” Matt explained. “Rely does things other groups either can’t do or aren’t there yet.”

One of the biggest differentiators was Rely’s flexibility. “I have yet to hear ‘we can’t do that’ or ‘we won’t do that,’” Matt said.

The team also valued that Rely could support both internal and external audit workflows within the same system.

“We had to redo the pre-lease audit and needed it done in 3 days,” Matt said. “15–20 people worked all day and night to hit the deadline.”

Matt Guzman, Special Project Director

After implementing Rely, workflows that previously consumed weeks of coordination and review time were reduced to roughly an hour. The accuracy surprised him even more as did the flexibility. Rely helped the teams audit demographics, specific addendum clauses and just about anything else they could think of.

Instead of coordinating large internal teams and pulling employees away from leasing and operational work, audits could now be handled independently inside Rely. “Working in the corporate office, we only have so many people who can do these things,” Matt said. “I can actually do this alone. I didn’t corral a team. I didn’t pull people off their work. I could just share it with the team. Saves time, resources. It’s a no brainer.”

For Preiss, the opportunity goes beyond faster lease audits. The team sees a future where validated operational data flows continuously between diligence, ownership, and property management systems.

That long-term vision is part of why the partnership continues to deepen. “If data was already audited with Rely, you know you’re not walking into a mess.”

Or as Matt described it: “A stamp of approval from Rely.”

“I could not believe that it was so accurate. Forty minutes of that hour was me double checking things.”

Matt Guzman, Special Project Director