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TL;DR — Why McCaw Property Management switched to RentEngine
2x applications: Increased rental application volume after switching
Headcount: Two employees freed up and reassigned to other areas of the business
RentEngine AI: Team never worries about losing leads during off-hours, meetings, or travel
Owner reports: Automatically sent weekly
When the rental market hit what CEO Kyle McCaw calls "the hardest I've seen in 23 years," the McCaw team switched to RentEngine, and more than doubled their rental applications and leased 71% more homes year over year.
"We were able to pull two employees off and put them somewhere else. That's how much work it's taken off of our load."
— Melanie Steele, Marketing/Leasing Manager
Manage a large portfolio and need leasing that scales without adding headcount
Need to get more leases signed in a slow market
Spend too many team hours on lead calls and texts
Want to send professional and automated reports to owners
Need to catch underperforming listings before owners call to ask
Set self-guided showings as your default for all vacant properties. Use accompanied showings only for tenant-occupied or owner-occupied units. Self-guided removes the scheduling bottleneck that slows leasing in large portfolios. Our Q4 Leasing Data shows that self-guided showings convert 49% of new leads to scheduled showings, compared to 37% for accompanied showings.
McCaw defaults to self-guided on every property unless it's tenant-occupied or owner-occupied. Their team actively pushes self-guided to prospects. The pre-screening step doubles as a first-round qualifier. By the time someone completes a showing, they've already passed credit and income checks.
RentEngine AI responds to leads via text and call automatically, answering questions around listings, availability, and scheduling. Post-scheduling, it guides prospects through the application process. For large portfolios, this means leads never go unanswered, even when the entire team is unavailable.
McCaw turns on AI whenever the team steps away for lunch breaks, internal meetings, company travel, or weekends and holidays. Melanie describes it as “peace of mind”: they don't worry about losing business when no one is online.
This coverage is what made the staffing impact possible. The volume of repetitive lead calls and texts dropped enough that two employees previously managing the phones were reassigned to other areas of the business.
Set up automated weekly owner reports so every property owner gets a consistent update on lead volume, showings, and showing feedback, without anyone on the leasing team pressing send.
McCaw sends automated reports every Monday morning. Their owners think the reports are personally prepared and sent.
The reports also serve as an internal early-warning system. When properties sit vacant for too long, McCaw uses the data to recommend price adjustments, move-in specials or pet policy changes. One tactic that's worked especially well in a slower market is framing a free month as an immediate cash rebate (e.g., "$2,300 rebate upon move-in") instead of "one month free rent."
In February, their team went from leasing 21 homes in 2025 to 36 in 2026 — a 71% increase. In November, they went from 27 to 36. In December (the slowest leasing month of the year) they went from 15 to 30, doubling output in what Kyle McCaw called the worst market environment he's experienced in 23 years. As Kyle put it: "We do with 4 people what many firms need 10+ to accomplish — because we adapt faster than the market."
