Progress Residential Stops Trespassers in Their Tracks with VacantView™

How Swidget helped one of the largest SFR operators cut break-ins by 86% and save $250,000 in three months.

Case Study at a Glance

When Progress Residential began experiencing increased incidents of trespassing across its portfolio, the need for a flexible and scalable security solution became urgent. Within the first week of deploying VacantView™, Swidget’s modular, portable vacant property monitoring solution, Progress was already catching intruders in real time, providing actionable evidence to law enforcement, and providing peace of mind to staff and law enforcement entering trespassed properties. The success of the pilot reshaped Progress’s broader security strategy, supporting their rollout of the solution in over 230 properties across 7 US markets.

The Challenge

Progress Residential, one of the largest providers of single-family rental homes in the U.S., manages tens of thousands of properties across multiple states. Many of these homes sit vacant between renovations or leases, making them frequent targets for break-ins, trespassing, and theft.

In high-risk markets like Dallas, Atlanta, and Memphis, the problem was growing. Trespassers were occupying homes and costing Progress tens of thousands of dollars in lost rental revenue and legal fees for evictions, all while staff were putting their safety at risk when entering these trespassed properties blind.

Traditional security systems like hardwired cameras, alarms, or mobile patrols were too rigid, expensive, and slow to catch incidents in real time.

Progress needed a smart solution that could be deployed quickly, detect activity instantly, and provide the kind of evidence that law enforcement would take seriously.

The Solution: VacantView

AI-generated content may be incorrect.Swidget developed VacantView to meet these exact needs. It’s a portable, cost-effective smart monitoring kit purpose-built for the unique demands of vacant property monitoring.

What’s in a VacantView Kit?

A VacantView kit includes:

Smart cameras
Proximity sensors, and
A secure LTE hotspot

Designed to be deployed in minutes and moved easily from property to property, the system delivers real-time alerts and cloud -based video footage to Progress’s central monitoring team.

How it Works

Install Swidget outlets and/or switches in vacant homes (a simple, low-cost upgrade).

Plug in the smart sensors and hotspot and begin monitoring in minutes.

Remove the kit components (sensors and hotspot) once the property is rented. Reuse the kit in your next vacant property.

This flexible setup ensures long-term readiness without requiring expensive infrastructure or permanent installations at each location. And, since the kits are portable, Progress can move them to the vacant properties that need them most, maximizing coverage and minimizing monitoring costs.

The Results

Progress Residential launched their pilot program in April 2024 and deployed 50 kits between the Dallas, Atlanta, and Memphis markets, seeing immediate results.

Immediate Intrusion Detection

In Dallas, the system detected a break-in just days after installation. Progress staff were able to confirm the incident remotely and evict the trespasser safely and immediately, without need for intervention from law enforcement.

Behavioral Insights

In Atlanta, the VacantView kits helped identify how repeat trespassers were accessing a particularly problematic property, allowing Progress to re-secure the home more effectively and to develop smarter, more strategic security responses.

During the 3-month pilot program, Progress saw the following results:

86%

reduction in trespassed homes

$250,000

in approximate savings

The solution delivered a real, measurable impact:

Immediate evictions without escalation.

Reduced costs by lowering legal fees, minimizing property damage and theft, and avoiding expensive, long-term monitoring contracts (approx. $50,000 in savings related directly to security expenses).

Improved safety with live video feed, making routine field visits safer.

Faster & safer law enforcement response thanks to visual evidence that provided critical situational awareness before entering homes.

Identified suspects through video surveillance footage, leading to the recovery of thousands of dollars’ worth of stolen appliances.

Operational flexibility to reuse and redeploy kits across the portfolio.

Better evidence for prosecution, giving Progress the ability to pursue charges and strengthen legal cases.

What started as a security solution quickly became a strategic asset – supporting Progress’s broader efforts to reduce operational risk, improve field safety, and protect property value.

What's Next

Thanks to the pilot program’s success, Progress has expanded its use of VacantView nationwide, making it a core part of its layered security strategy.

Meanwhile, Swidget continues to evolve the VacantView platform with AI-powered analytics and new integrations to give operators and property owners even more insight and protection.