Multifamily risk can show up in many places and, due to fragmented compliance management, most operators struggle to identify and fix the key sources of these costly gaps.
Foxen CEO Kevin Jacobson and NetVendor CEO Dave Cooper recently sat down for a live conversation — moderated by Justin Dilley of Multifamily Weekend Update — to spotlight how resident risk and vendor risk are really two halves of the same compliance problem, and what it looks like when two multifamily category leaders decide to solve it together.
How can you minimize portfolio risk and costly compliance failures? Here's a recap of the biggest themes from the discussion, plus a look at a brand-new industry initiative announced live on the webinar.
Key Takeaways
- Vendor risk and resident risk are two halves of the same compliance problem — most operators manage them separately, but both hit the same P&L line.
- Compliance gaps are an NOI problem: a non-compliant vendor incident can mean absorbing costs that should never land on the operator, and an uninsured resident incident can mean hitting an expensive property deductible that should have been covered.
- Before choosing a compliance partner, ask about their track record, reference clients, property management system integration, and whether they can support you through a PMS switch.
- Foxen and NetVendor are launching the Multifamily Risk Collective, a new industry initiative giving multifamily owners and operators a shared forum for risk, compliance, and advocacy.
Protecting Multifamily Properties from Vendor and Resident Risk
Foxen and NetVendor were both created to solve strikingly similar problems that open multifamily owners and operators up to unnecessary risks.
Foxen's founding insight, nearly a decade ago, came from a simple but expensive gap: residents sign a lease requiring renters insurance, hand over a certificate of insurance, and get the keys. But those renters insurance policies may lapse, be canceled, or fail to meet the lease requirements. At any point during a 365-day lease term, a renter can fall out of compliance with their lease — and if a resident negligently causes a fire or water event, an operator can find themselves on the hook for the remediation costs.
NetVendor emerged to solve a similar pain point on the vendor management side. Multifamily properties are exposed to risk from multiple angles any time vendors show up to perform work on site. Dave Cooper described an industry where vendor credentialing was historically an afterthought — a property with "a binder full of papers and COIs," and little real visibility into whether a vendor was actually covered, licensed, or compliant until something went wrong.
Put the two together, and the pattern is clear: multifamily operators have long had blind spots in their risk exposure — one on the resident side, one on the vendor side. Foxen and NetVendor built their solutions to address each of those gaps separately, and are now working together to help operators think about both sides of that risk profile in a more connected way. See how Foxen's brings renters insurance compliance, rent reporting, and pet management together in one system.
Strategic Risk Management with Smart Partnerships
For customers, the benefit of this partnership is a shift from reactive to proactive risk management. Rather than treating resident compliance and vendor compliance as separate fires to put out, operators get to work with two category leaders who each bring deep, focused expertise to their side of the risk equation — and who are now helping customers think about that risk profile more strategically and holistically.
"This is two market leaders coming together, with our objective really focused on addressing the risk profile holistically." — Dave Cooper, CEO, NetVendor
That combination of specialized expertise matters. As Kevin Jacobson put it, operators are looking for fewer one-off, piecemeal vendors and more of the strategic alignment that comes from partnering with best-in-class solutions built specifically for each part of the problem:
"Our clients are looking for more strategic vendor relationships, where best-in-class vendors work together, and we have less of these one-off, random solutions. That's what we're excited about delivering together." — Kevin Jacobson, CEO, Foxen
Boost Property NOI with Gap Free Compliance
The conversation kept returning to one throughline: compliance gaps aren't just a paperwork problem, they're an NOI problem — on both the vendor side and the resident side.
On the vendor side, a non-compliant vendor incident can mean absorbing costs that should never have landed on the operator. And as Dave Cooper pointed out, the impact isn't limited to worst-case incidents — a vendor ecosystem that isn't performing well shows up fast in tenant satisfaction and, increasingly, on social media. Compliance friction also gets in the way of vendors doing their actual jobs:
"Vendors want to be out in the field delivering value — whether it's on a roof, or in the landscaping, or working on the HVAC systems. They don't want to be focused on tracking down this information." — Dave Cooper, CEO, NetVendor
On the resident side, an uninsured resident property damage situation can mean hitting an expensive property deductible for an incident that should have been covered. Kevin Jacobson connected that risk directly back to what property teams spend their time on:
"What we're trying to do is redirect the team's attention to higher-value things — focusing on heads in beds, not renter's insurance compliance." — Kevin Jacobson, CEO, Foxen
The takeaway for operators: the fastest way to protect NOI isn't just avoiding worst-case incidents — it's removing friction so residents, vendors, and property teams alike can spend less time on compliance busywork and more time on the things that actually drive value.
How to Select the Right Compliance Partner
With so many point solutions competing for attention in proptech, Kevin Jacobson and Dave Cooper offered a few grounded questions operators should ask before choosing a partner:
- How long has this business been operating?
- Can you talk to a reference client?
- Does the solution integrate with your existing property management system? And, if so, what is the day-to-day workflow?
- And critically — If you switch property management software, can the solution accommodate the transition and continue to deliver compliance?
Dave Cooper also pointed to something less visible on the surface: how compliance is actually verified. With AI tools now capable of generating convincing-looking documents, real verification matters more than ever.
And ultimately, for both leaders, it comes back to the same three fundamentals: consistent service, ongoing platform investment, and genuine domain expertise. As Dave Cooper put it when asked what customers say they value most:
"If you ask our customers what they love about NetVendor, first and foremost, it is that phenomenal service — and we hear that over and over again about Foxen, too." — Dave Cooper, CEO, NetVendor
On the expertise side, Kevin Jacobson pointed to Foxen's depth working across every major property management system in the industry:
"We consider ourselves experts at all things renters insurance compliance — monitoring, offering residents options, delivering fully integrated solutions that take work off site teams' plates." — Kevin Jacobson, CEO, Foxen
A New Industry Initiative: The Multifamily Risk Collective
The webinar closed with a first look at something new: the Multifamily Risk Collective, a joint initiative from Foxen and NetVendor built as a private circle for multifamily owners and operators focused on compliance, risk, and operational enforcement.
The Multifamily Risk Collective will be an exclusive community of multifamily owners and operators created to share ideas, resources, and advocacy efforts to protect their properties, business, and residents from risk through industry-leading risk management initiatives.
Members of the collective will help shape the conversations Foxen and NetVendor bring to the market going forward — through both live and virtual events throughout the year.
Operators interested in getting involved early can visit multifamilyriskcollective.com to request membership.
Watch the Full Conversation
Watch the full webinar including discussion on incident claims and subrogation, resident engagement strategy, the role of AI in vendor verification, and a live audience Q&A.
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