The Multi-Family Development Opportunity in Smart Home Integration

Written by:

Steve Marcinuk

Date:

18 Dec 2025

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The multi-family housing sector is experiencing a significant shift as developers seek new ways to differentiate their properties in an increasingly competitive market. Smart home technology, once considered a luxury amenity, is rapidly becoming a standard expectation among renters, particularly as younger demographics enter the market with different technological expectations than previous generations.

Dan Ross, Executive Director at Native Realty, brings a unique perspective to this evolution. With nearly two decades in the smart home industry, including 15 years at luxury automation company Savant Systems and experience in energy automation, Ross recently joined Brilliant to lead their strategic expansion into professional installation channels and multi-family development.

The Challenge with DIY Smart Home Solutions

The current smart home landscape presents a fundamental disconnect between consumer expectations and reality. While many residents have experimented with individual smart devices, these piecemeal solutions often fail to deliver the seamless, integrated experience that users ultimately desire.

“You have a lot of smart consumer devices that if you have an intelligent Gen Z or young millennial, they’re still very capable of grabbing these parts and pieces from Amazon and configuring some DIY smart home solution,” Ross explains. “But I truly believe that individuals, when they buy their first home versus rent, are going to say, ‘I want something that’s integrated, that I don’t have to do all the work on.'”

This pain point represents a significant opportunity for multi-family developers. Rather than leaving residents to assemble their own smart home systems, properties can offer integrated solutions that provide both convenience and reliability.

Addressing Historical Smart Home Frustrations

Many potential users, particularly those from older generations, carry negative associations with integrated smart homes. Ross acknowledges these concerns are rooted in legitimate experiences with early systems that required expensive maintenance and frequent troubleshooting.

“Many of those previous users, particularly the boomer generation – every time I talk to one of them, they say, ‘Dan, I’ve lived with these systems, and I hate them all,'” Ross notes. “It’s not that they hated the functionality; it’s that the updates, changes, and things falling offline because of software updates or network changes created a bad user experience.”

The problem wasn’t just the initial cost but the ongoing maintenance requirements that weren’t clearly communicated upfront. Traditional high-end systems required yearly service, programming updates, and occasional hardware replacements that could cost thousands annually.

The Professional Installation Advantage

Brilliant is positioning itself as a middle-ground solution, offering integration without the complexity or expense of traditional luxury systems. Ross envisions the company moving toward professional “do it for me”solutions.

“After installing it in my own personal home, I believe that it really should be a ‘do it for me’ solution, meaning you should have some type of professional trade, whether a low voltage integrator, an electrician, a security installer,” Ross explains.

Professional installers provide ongoing expertise and support that individual residents cannot match. “The professional installation world, this is what they do for a living. They have teams of educated, certified people. They’re up to date on education, active in our webinars and education tutorials, up to date on our most recent integrations and roadmap.”

This expertise translates directly to resident value by ensuring systems work properly and that residents get maximum benefit from their smart home features.

Multi-Family Market Opportunities

For multi-family developers, smart home technology represents both a differentiation opportunity and a practical management tool. Ross identifies two key areas where Brilliant provides value: the unit-level experience and the property management platform.

“We want to first empower the developer to offer home automation as a standard at the unit level,” Ross explains. This typically includes Brilliant’s touch panel processor, lighting switches, and control interfaces that provide residents with capabilities beyond basic smart thermostats.

“By including the brilliant hardware at the unit level, the client has more capabilities. If they want to add music control, they can do it. The thermostat will already be connected. The door lock will already be connected. They can walk into their home and press ‘Welcome home’ and activate their scenes.”

Brilliant Command Center streamlines tenant transitions and provides property managers with valuable oversight. “It allows property management services to assist in moving residents in, moving residences out, logging them off of the smart technologies that are in that unit. Maybe it’s a smart thermostat, a smart door lock, a smart leak sensor.”

The system enables seamless transitions between tenants while providing property managers with real-time monitoring capabilities for maintenance issues like leaks or climate problems.

Amenity Integration and Building-Wide Systems

Beyond individual units, Brilliant’s approach extends to common areas and amenity spaces. “You want this consistent experience from the unit to the amenity level,” Ross notes. “We look at areas where they might have a bar or coffee area, or TVs or a pool table, making sure we provide an experience there that’s similar to the unit level, where they’re controlling the music, controlling the shading, controlling the lighting, and it’s available to the actual tenants, not just property management.”

This consistency creates a cohesive smart building experience that differentiates properties from competitors while providing practical benefits for both residents and property managers.

Market Positioning and Growth Strategy

Brilliant is strategically targeting multiple market segments, with particular focus on mid-market residential and multi-family developments. For production builders and developers, the company offers a competitive differentiator at a reasonable cost point.

“Production builders really want to differentiate their communities from the other builders building right next door to them, and a great way to do that is to introduce an integrated smart home offering. Due to Brilliant’s low cost of entry, it’s been a great value add for production builders.”

The company’s value proposition is especially relevant given current economic conditions. “Looking at today’s market dynamics – politically, economically, geographically – people are becoming more conservative about spending on advanced home technology,” Ross observes. “We’ve created an avenue for them to have a 90% cost reduction in their home automation platform without sacrificing features.”

Technical Advantages for Developers

One of Brilliant’s key differentiators is its simplified approach to system customization. Unlike traditional high-end systems that require custom programming and specialized training, Brilliant’s platform is designed for broader accessibility among installation professionals.

“With Brilliant, there is no custom programming required at all. These pros do not need to send their IT guy to a special training center. They don’t need to buy specific equipment. They can literally install and program these systems from an application on their phone.”

This simplified approach makes Brilliant accessible to a broader range of installation professionals while still delivering a robust, integrated experience for end users.

Future Outlook

Ross is focused on rapid growth as he shapes Brilliant’s strategic direction. “I generally enjoy working with smaller startup-focused companies that are prepared for significant growth very quickly. And I believe that’s where we’re going.”

His experience in the professional installation channel is already showing results. “The pro installation channel is a wide-open channel for us in terms of adoption. Our dealer acquisition rate is already starting to spike after just a month or two.”

For multi-family developers and property managers looking to differentiate their offerings, integrated smart home technology represents both an amenity opportunity and a practical management tool. By bridging the gap between DIY limitations and high-end complexity, solutions like Brilliant’s are reshaping how the industry approaches smart building implementation.

The key for developers is recognizing that smart home technology has evolved beyond novelty features to become practical tools that can enhance both resident satisfaction and property management efficiency. As Ross notes, the focus should be on creating systems that are “reliable” and provide genuine value rather than just impressive demonstrations.

For the multi-family sector, this evolution represents an opportunity to move beyond traditional amenities arms races toward technology solutions that provide lasting value for both residents and property operations.