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How 35 Companies Shaped the Future of AI in Rental Housing │ Julianne Goodfellow, Head of Community and Policy at RETTC

Summary

Julianne Goodfellow is Head of Community and Policy at RETTC, the Real Estate Technology & Transformation Center, where she leads the committees and working groups that bring housing providers and tech partners together. After starting her career on Capitol Hill, she has spent 15 years with NMHC and RETTC, making the case to policymakers that real estate technology is a force for good. She sits down with host Jacob Kosior to explain how 35 companies with very different interests agreed on rental housing's first AI governance framework, why a patchwork of state AI laws worries the industry, and where transparency actually matters for renters. Along the way, they get into who should own AI governance, why data privacy comes first, and what's ahead at OPTECH 2026.

Rental housing providers need to lean on tech partners. I think that's that's where you get a really exciting opportunity for people to learn from each other and figure out how to navigate the problems we're all dealing with.

In This Episode

Takeaways

  • The "nearly impossible" group project helped inform the entire industry.
    Julianne was tasked with getting 35 companies with very different interests to agree on how rental housing should use AI, and her first reaction was that it would be nearly impossible. What brought everyone to the table was a common worry: states moving fast on AI regulation, often without the resources to understand how rental housing works, creating a patchwork of rules without industry context. She expected a nightmare group project. Instead, operators and tech partners came in with goodwill and produced the industry's first AI governance framework.
  • "We should use AI" isn't a strategy.
    Julianne sees two kinds of companies. Some adopt AI because the C-suite sees it covered everywhere. Others start with a specific process they want to improve, narrow the scope, and measure the difference. The second group is the one seeing success. 
  • Operators don't have to be the tech experts.
    Housing providers aren't always technology experts, and that isn't their job. However, tech partners are, and Julianne encourages operators to lean on that expertise. The biggest opportunity comes when both sides learn from each other to navigate the problems they share, which is why RETTC has opened its committees, once owner-operator only, to more of the industry.
  • Transparency only works when it's specific.
    "Be transparent" means little on its own, so the framework had to define it without making it overly broad. Julianne's test is where AI actually touches a renter's life: the data being used, where it comes from, and fair housing. Where a decision affects someone's living situation, there has to be a window into how it was made. Elsewhere, transparency matters less.

See RETTC’s AI Governance Framework here.

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