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SMS Assist Launches New Residential Division; Hires Leading Real Estate Executive Mike Travalini as Division President

February 4, 2016 6:01 AM EST

Residential division focused on improving resident experience, reducing costs and enhancing logistics for property owners

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- SMS Assist, an innovative mobile and cloud-based multisite property management company, today announced the creation of its new residential division and the hiring of real estate executive Mike Travalini as president of its fast-growing residential service team.

Travalini will expand the company’s management, repair and maintenance capabilities as well as the technology platform for its residential and real estate investment trust (REIT) clients. SMS Assist is launching its residential division with major clients already on board, including Colony Starwood Homes (NYSE: SFR), Home Partners of America and others. Travalini’s hiring represents the company’s commitment to grow its offerings to service explosive growth in the residential market.

In recent years the number of individuals and families in rental housing has ballooned to more than 43 million, according to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. And single-family rentals make up roughly 35 percent—14.9 million units—of the rental housing market, according to the American Housing Survey and Urban Institute.

As single-family residential investments grow to meet this increased rental demand, SMS Assist’s disruptive technology platform and world-class team are helping clients reduce spending and improve service efficiencies for emerging leaders in the rapidly expanding residential and REIT market.

“Mike is a real-estate all-star and his proven success managing elite teams and large portfolios reflects our entrepreneurial values at SMS,” said Mike Rothman, CEO of SMS Assist. “Our platform, presently servicing more than 110,000 locations, helps clients save time and money, and Mike’s world-class talent is helping us grow our services to create a true one-stop shop for our valued residential clients and affiliates.”

Travalini joins SMS Assist with more than 15 years of real estate experience, most recently as the senior vice president of operations for Starwood Waypoint Residential Trust, where he oversaw customer service, repairs and maintenance for a national portfolio of 17,000 homes. He was also involved in data management and strategic partnerships for the brand, which merged with Colony American Homes in January 2016 to form Colony Starwood Homes, the third-largest single-family rental REIT in the U.S. with more than 30,000 homes.

“I’ve experienced the transformative quality of the SMS Assist platform firsthand, initially as a client and now as part of the world-class SMS Assist team,” said Mike Travalini. “I believe in the technology because I’ve seen what it can do. Not only does the platform improve in-house employee efficiencies and quality of service while saving time and other costs, but working with SMS Assist to maintain residential and REIT properties can actually help protect the asset value over the long term, which creates better experiences for the individuals and families renting the units and ultimately, driving value for the property owners.”

Prior to Starwood, Travalini was the director of acquisitions at the Laramar Group, a Chicago-based residential owner and operator with more than 40,000 national apartment units. Previously, Travalini was an analyst with the Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation and a senior auditor within the real estate practice group at Ernst & Young, LLP.

Travalini, a CPA, holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Boston College.

About SMS Assist

SMS Assist is a Chicago-based technology company providing multisite property management to a roster of clients with more than 110,000 service locations. Using its proprietary software platform to manage its network of more than 20,000 affiliate subcontractors, SMS Assist offers a suite of property management benefits including leveraged pricing of products and services, $30 million risk indemnification, real-time services validation, instant invoicing, automatic service audits and data analysis to ensure quality and cost efficiency. SMS Assist is revolutionizing multisite property management services for its growing list of national and Fortune 500 clients including Family Dollar (NYSE: FDO), O'Reilly Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ: ORLY) and Colony Starwood Homes (NYSE: SFR). To learn more, visit smsassist.com.

Aileron Communications
Martha Arendt
312.629.9400
[email protected]

Source: SMS Assist



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