38 Properties. Five Different Brands. An AI Agent Shaped by the People Who Know Them Best.
“It's almost like another employee. It's just like an employee that you can train, but at this point it's almost unlimited as far as her skills.”
— Don Tyree, Founder & Director of Operations, Family Heirloom Storage
38
Properties
5
Brands
7
States
96.6%
Customer Satisfaction
About Family Heirloom Storage
Family Heirloom Storage is part of Florentine Holding. The portfolio spans roughly 40 self-storage properties under five brands: Family Heirloom Storage, Eagles Landing Storage, Affordable Storage, Southeastern Self Storage and Hawthorne Self Storage. The properties stretch across Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi, and recent acquisitions keep the portfolio growing.
Most properties are managed remotely. A handful have on-site managers, but many are run by managers who each look after six to eight properties at once. A few have no walk-in office at all and serve tenants entirely by phone and email.
The Challenge
What happens when the person who answers the phone is also covering eight properties?
Before Lumio, calls to each property went straight to its remote manager. With six to eight properties per manager, the phone never stopped: payments, gate codes, balance questions, move-out notices. Every routine call a manager picked up was a sales call that rang through to voicemail.
“We were finding that the way we were handling it before AI was very inefficient,” says Don Tyree. “A lot of the managers were handling calls and missing potential rental calls, the more important calls.”
Remote managers each covering 6–8 properties
Routine calls (payments, gate codes) crowding out new rental inquiries
Prospective renters reaching voicemail while a manager took a payment
Ownership with little visibility into what happened on calls across the portfolio
The Rollout: Pilot to Portfolio in Seven Weeks
Family Heirloom started carefully. In August 2026 it piloted Lumio's AI agent, whom the team calls Penny, at six properties in Southeast Georgia across two brands. Lumio connected directly to CCStorage, their management software, so Penny could see real tenant accounts, balances, units and pricing from the first call.
“I was expecting a few hiccups, but it actually went so smoothly. I'm a little shocked,” Don said two weeks into the pilot.
The pilot didn't stay small for long. In mid-September Family Heirloom brought 14 more properties live across Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina. Eleven days later, on September 28, the rest of the portfolio followed: 18 properties in Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas and Mississippi, including shared regional phone lines that ask callers which location they need.
The managers were wary at first about bringing new technology into the fold. But as Don stated “they don't realize there's really no extra technology they have to learn. The AI agent is picking up and doing all that on its own.”
The first of the month
The real test came on the first of the month billing cycle, the first rent day with every property live, preparing to receive hundreds of calls. Managers had worried that tenants wouldn't take to paying an AI over the phone.
“I was getting texts all day saying, ‘Penny took another payment for me!’ They were a little nervous and not sure if the customers would be receptive. But everybody was thrilled with it. I think I got a text or an email from almost every manager.”
— Don Tyree, Family Heirloom Storage
Operational Impact
Wide spectrum of calls handled by AI.
Gate codes, balance questions, move-out notices and payments are resolved without a manager picking up.
Payments at any hour.
“You tell them to get on autopay, but most of them still like to pay over the phone,” Don says. Penny takes those payments on the card or bank account already on file, around the clock. “It's amazing to look overnight, even after hours, and see that 10 customers paid over the phone with the AI.”
Sales calls warmed up before a manager says hello.
Penny runs the front of every sales call. She checks live availability, helps the caller pick a size, and gives a full monthly quote that includes the protection plan and Family Heirloom's required $12 StorageDefender fee, so the price never surprises anyone at move-in. She captures the caller's details and hands a qualified prospect to the manager to close, or logs the lead when the manager is out. The ability to customize Penny’s exact workflows and processes are what most impressed Don. He didn’t want an out-of-the-box agent that follows the same workflow across all operators. He wanted to be able to customize the agent so that customers can still get the authentic Family Heirloom experience.
More properties per manager.
Don expects each manager to be able to cover two to three more properties now that they’ve implemented AI into their call flow. For a portfolio that is still acquiring, that significantly changes the math on growth.
Visibility for ownership.
Every call shows up on the Lumio dashboard, and Don can read the transcripts himself whenever he chooses. “We get to see all the leads that come in, and that's a huge way to make sure the managers are following up,” he says. Don doesn’t just use Lumio to help him manage the AI, he uses Lumio to help manage his managers as well.
Tenants are on board.
Penny is achieving a customer satisfaction score of 96.6%.
Lighthouse: The Engine Behind a Self-Improving Agent
Every operator runs differently. Family Heirloom has remote-only properties, a required motion-detector add-on, special building codes at one property, and five brands with their own names and numbers. An AI agent that only knows a generic script would hit those edges on day one. Penny keeps getting better because of Lighthouse, Lumio's built-in AI assistant. Lighthouse turns what happens on real calls into improvements the operator controls.
“Going into it, I didn't expect this much customization at all.”
— Don Tyree, Family Heirloom Storage
How the loop works
Every call is reviewed.
Lighthouse analyzes each conversation and flags where Penny didn't have an answer, transferred when she didn't have to, or could have done more.
Insights suggest the fix.
Lighthouse will surface those moments into suggested changes, such as a new FAQ, an updated workflow or a new skill, each backed by the calls that prompted it.
Managers flag what they see.
Any team member can leave feedback on a call in one click. Lighthouse reads the call, works out why Penny answered the way she did, and drafts the change.
The operator decides.
Nothing changes until someone at Family Heirloom approves it, for one property or the whole portfolio, and they can edit it in plain English first.
Penny learns everywhere at once.
An approved change goes live on every line it covers, from the next call on.
“Managers might point out a change they want made, and I say, ‘Well, did you submit the feedback?’” Don explains. “They submit it, and then either Lighthouse trains her right away or I go in and accept the new improvement.”
What Family Heirloom's managers taught Penny in her first weeks
No surprises in the quote.
A Chattanooga manager asked for the required $12 StorageDefender fee to be included in every rental quote ("$35 a month, plus $12 for StorageDefender, so $47"). It became the standard across every Family Heirloom location.
Warn tenants about the exact consequences of paying late.
For Walter Street, Penny’s guidance is tied to the date the tenant says they’ll pay: rent is due on the 1st, a 15% late fee is added on the 6th, and a $15 overlock fee applies on the 7th. If rent remains unpaid, the unit stays overlocked until the balance is paid in full. That’s a property-specific timeline, not a generic “you may owe a fee” answer.
Identify a tenant after a call transfers between properties.
Family Heirloom asked for customer matching on transferred calls. At the destination property, Penny can recognize callers whose phone number is on their account; if the number isn’t listed, the workflow needs the tenant’s name. This helps the receiving location figure out who’s calling before handling a request such as a move-out.
Handle a request to change units.
For a tenant running out of space, Penny confirms the current unit and desired size, records how soon they want to move, and proceeds with the unit transfer workflow.
Five managers sent that feedback straight from their calls, and most changes went live almost immediately. Don has also used Lighthouse to resolve a manager's help ticket himself.
“I input it into Lighthouse and it was able to fix it on its own. It's great that I can make the changes myself instead of waiting to have someone else do it.”
— Don Tyree, Family Heirloom Storage
What other operators use Lighthouse for
Across Lumio's operators, Lighthouse has become the way teams run their agent:
One operator traced an unexpected answer to the exact line of their knowledge base that caused it and corrected it in the same sitting. They found their Lumio knowledge had become more current than their own employee manual.
Another reviewed a week of 342 calls in one sitting, found a few questions the agent couldn't answer, and approved a single answer for its whole portfolio.
At a third, a front-desk team member asked Lighthouse in the middle of a live call for nearby landmarks to help a lost caller find the property.
The same assistant guides onboarding. Lumio turns an operator's policies, fees and procedures into the agent's knowledge before the first call.
Looking Ahead
38 properties. Five brands. One team teaching its AI how the business actually runs.
Family Heirloom didn't just add an answering service. Its managers helped shape how Penny handles the details that make each operation different—from required fees to remote locations. Through Lighthouse, they can turn what happens on real calls into reviewed improvements, then apply those lessons across the properties where they fit.
That matters as the portfolio grows: the team can add locations without starting from scratch on every line. Penny handles the calls she can; managers stay in control of the decisions and customer moments that need them.