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Increase in Collection Rates
Increase in On-Time Rent Payments
Overall Lead-to=Lease Rate
Oxford Companies has been a fixture of the Ann Arbor, Michigan real estate landscape since 1998. What started with a handful of properties and a vision to build a fully integrated investment real estate firm has grown into the city's largest private commercial landlord, with a portfolio spanning more than 2.6 million square feet of commercial space and housing across 567 residential units.
On the multifamily side, Oxford operates as a fee manager for a diverse roster of property owners, most with portfolios of ten or fewer assets. The portfolio is heavily oriented toward student housing serving the University of Michigan community, a market segment that comes with compressed leasing cycles, high seasonal turnover, and young renters who expect communication on their terms.
Oxford's team is lean by design. Rather than staffing dedicated leasing agents at each community, the company runs a centralized, shared model where portfolio managers double as leasing consultants, maintenance coordinators, financial advisors, and resident liaisons, while members of the Oxford leadership team including Director of Multifamily Property Management Katie Vohwinkle and Senior Residential Portfolio Manager Terri Boland, oversee technology strategy and process development for this unique leasing model.
For years, Oxford's residential portfolio essentially leased itself. Ann Arbor's student housing market was defined by high demand and limited supply, and students who needed a place to live found their way to Oxford without much intervention. Tours were rare, most leasing happened online, and the team's deep market knowledge and reputation made success look seamless.
That changed when the City of Ann Arbor passed Ann Arbor City Code Section 8:530, a local law that fundamentally altered the leasing landscape. The new regulation restricted when landlords could tour occupied units and compressed the effective leasing window to roughly 30 days. For a student housing operator whose entire annual revenue hinges on filling units during a single spring cycle, the impact was immediate. The margin for missed leads shrank to nearly zero, and Oxford needed to ensure they had a diverse set of tools designed to instantaneously capture and convert leads at every stage of the leasing funnel.
The challenge was amplified by the composition of Oxford's portfolio. Unlike a conventional multifamily operator with a central leasing office and a few hundred units in one location, Oxford manages dozens of scattered-site properties spread across Ann Arbor. Grouping properties for cross-selling required careful segmentation, and the team had to build that logic from scratch.
In response to this development, Oxford first explored a lead management product that ultimately proved to be a poor fit for their needs. It was oriented more toward resident response than prospect capture, causing the Oxford team to realize they needed a system that could nurture leads through a compressed, high-stakes leasing cycle while accommodating the complexity of a scattered-site portfolio. A softening Ann Arbor market and compressed leasing cycle raised the stakes, and Oxford knew they needed to find a partner that could meet both the pace and operational specificity of their leasing model. Fortunately, they found EliseAI.
Oxford's rollout of EliseAI began with ResidentAI before moving to LeasingAI, the product that addressed the most urgent gap in Oxford’s operations, handling first contact, qualifying prospects, scheduling tours, and following up across email, SMS, and webchat. Over the first twelve months Stella, Oxford’s AI Agent, engaged 2,612 leads, converting 177 to signed leases at a 7% lead-to-lease rate with a median time of just nine days from first contact to lease signed.
What set Oxford apart from a typical LeasingAI deployment, however, was how deliberately the team configured the handoff between AI and human. Oxford leaned heavily into EliseAI's Human Touch Automations, building a workflow that reflected the team's conviction that certain parts of the leasing process require a person. Stella handles initial outreach, qualification questions, and tour scheduling, alerting Oxford's leasing team to step in when prospects haven’t responded for 3 days to give them an extra nudge. When a prospect finishes a tour, Human Touch Automations in Elise creates a task to ensure the team gives the prospect a call to close the deal, recognizing that a live agent touchpoint at the right moment can improve conversion rates. If a prospect is missing opt-in for AI communications or chooses to opt-out entirely, Stella can open a task for human agent outreach to understand their needs and nurture the prospect towards a lease. Oxford also uses Human Touch Automations to push prospects with no matching unit configurations onto a shared waitlist before triggering a task for human leasing agent follow up, allowing them to build a relationship, identify the prospect’s needs, and shortlist them for upcoming vacancies.
The arrangement of automated communication handled by AI and human intervention at just the right moments plays to each side's strengths. Stella ensures no lead goes unanswered and captures the 41% of leads that come in after hours, while the human team focuses on the high-judgment, high-touch, “perfect timing” interactions that drive conversions. Fifty-seven leases over the past year were signed by prospects who first engaged with Stella outside of business hours, leads that would have gone entirely unworked before EliseAI. VoiceAI extended that same coverage to the phone, with a 100% answer rate ensuring every single lead that came in by call (regardless of time of day), was captured and converted.
On the resident side, Delinquency delivered Oxford's most measurable financial impact. The product automates empathetic rent reminder outreach via text and email, meeting students on the communication channels they prefer. Over the twelve-month period, Stella collected $2.1 million autonomously, helping elevate Oxford's collection rate by 90 basis points post-AI rollout, with a 350 basis point increase in on-time rent payments. Translated to the bottom line, Oxford is collecting an additional $22.73 per unit per month compared to pre-AI performance.
For Oxford, the value of EliseAI extends beyond any single metric. The partnership has given a lean, versatile team the infrastructure to compete in a market that looks nothing like it did a few years ago as Ann Arbor's student housing supply continues to grow, the regulatory environment remains restrictive, and the compressed leasing window shows no signs of widening. In that context, the operational advantage Oxford has built with EliseAI is a durable one. The team has spent over a year refining how Stella works alongside their leasing consultants, tuning their Human Touch Automations to match the way Oxford actually operates rather than conforming to generic workflows.
The partnership has also become a point of pride for Oxford's property owners. As a fee manager, Oxford's reputation is its product, and the ability to offer AI-powered leasing, collections, and resident communication has become part of the value proposition Oxford brings to every owner relationship. Their owners are enthusiastic about the technology now that they’ve seen the results, viewing it as a reflection of the operational sophistication they expect from Oxford.
Looking ahead, Oxford and EliseAI continue to expand the relationship. The team has grown from its initial deployment to 121 active communities across LeasingAI, VoiceAI, and Delinquency, and recently added AI-Guided Tours to the portfolio. For a team that entered the partnership as self-described skeptics, the trajectory speaks for itself. Oxford brought the market expertise, the operational discipline, and the willingness to pressure-test a new technology. EliseAI brought the platform, the responsiveness, and the Human Touch Automations that give Oxford the flexibility to work how works best for their teams. Together, they’re redefining the way humans and AI agents collaborate in multifamily operations.
Katie serves as Senior Vice President of Operations at Oxford Companies, leading the organization’s Commercial and Residential Property Management, Maintenance & Repair, and Customer Service teams. She is focused on driving operational excellence, strengthening client relationships, and supporting Oxford’s continued growth through strategic business development and team leadership. Katie is passionate about developing people and enjoys mentoring team members to help them grow professionally and build confidence in their careers. She values collaboration, process improvement, and creating an environment where both employees and clients can succeed.
Terri Boland serves as Senior Residential Portfolio Manager at Oxford Companies in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she has spent the past four years overseeing multifamily operations. She brings deep experience across multifamily, affordable, and senior housing, with a demonstrated ability to grow revenue, build high-performing teams, and cultivate strong stakeholder relationships at every level. Terri is a data-driven leader who embraces strategic change and seeks out smarter, faster ways to deliver results. Her breadth of management experience shapes a leadership style rooted in leading by example and investing in her team's growth, creating an environment where people feel supported, valued, and motivated to achieve their goals.
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