Resident Retention

With the winter months coming fast, apartment operators are ramping up their annual efforts to retain residents, dubbing it their quest to “keep heads in beds.” 

This year, the stakes are even higher as a surge of fresh competition floods the market in various metropolitan areas. Plus, with interest rates potentially on the decline, renters may be lured into the prospect of homeownership. 

These headwinds are prompting property managers to pull out all the stops to keep their current residents cozy and committed through the colder months.

Here are five ways that apartment operators are strategizing to retain residents this winter.

Create activities for the season

Charleston, South Carolina-based multifamily owner, manager and developer Greystar believes in creating a sense of community and belonging for its residents, especially during the winter months. That’s why it builds connections and celebrates the spirit of the season through holiday-themed events. These include festive parties, holiday contests such as door and balcony decorating and pop-up holiday markets featuring local small business owners. 

“In addition, we offer fun and engaging activities such as holiday-themed comedy nights, karaoke events, cookie decorating, gift wrapping stations, potluck dinners and ugly sweater parties,” said Christina Perez, director of real estate at Greystar. 

These events bring residents together and create memorable experiences that enhance their sense of community. “For communities with ample space, we also invite food trucks to visit on a weekly basis, providing a fun and convenient dining option for residents,” she said.

To further build community spirit, Greystar’s properties organize charity drives for food, coats and toys among other things, allowing residents to give back and support those in need during the holiday season.  

AvalonBay, an Arlington, Virginia-based REIT, hosts its Spirit of Caring season from Nov. 1-Dec. 31 each year, and invites residents to participate in these efforts. 

“From donation drives to volunteer events, we find that residents appreciate the opportunity to team up and give back during this season of giving,” said Sarah Mathewson, regional senior vice president of property operations at AvalonBay Communities. 

Strengthen relationships

Even though fewer people are actively searching for new housing in the winter, it’s still important that apartment operators keep their current residents happy and feeling heard. 

“Our on-site teams are strengthening relationships with our residents year-round, but they make sure to leverage the winter months to make ‘warm calls’ to check in, gather feedback and address any maintenance or service issues,” Mathewson said.  

Resident retention is also a priority for AVB’s team. “The team is plugged in daily, quickly responding to inquiries and proactively reaching out to those who haven't decided yet, giving them a call or emailing them with helpful next steps on how to renew their lease or give notice through our customer portal,” Mathewson said. 

Offer services and giveaways

Ashley Sinclair, executive vice president of Southfield, Michigan-based property managemant firm Village Green, understands that life for most people in the winter months is pretty chaotic, so management focuses on time-saving services and giveaways to keep residents happy, which can drive retention.

“We may have gift-wrapping stations on each floor or we may offer to deliver packages to apartments with their permission — just different small touches that hopefully alleviates a little bit of stress for the residents,” she said. “We know people have choices, but one thing we can do is infuse the human touch point and customer service.” 

Joya Pavesi, president of brand and strategic services at RKW Residential, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based multifamily property firm, said that a key component of the firm’s retention strategy is its signature services — small, surprise-and-delight moments designed to provide a more personalized experience.

For instance, it offers a portfolio-wide holiday campaign featuring weekly giveaways and special offers from national brand partners like Jeni’s Ice Cream throughout November and December, where residents have the opportunity to receive free products and exclusive deals from partners for fine jewelry, health and wellness items, home goods and pet products.

“Our primary strategy is to proactively manage lease expirations to minimize winter vacancies,” Pavesi said. “When needed, one of our most effective strategies is to create a sense of urgency around lease renewals. For example, we encourage residents to renew by a specific date to receive a more favorable rate, or we offer gift cards as a reward for early renewals.”

Provide referral bonuses

The holiday season often brings extra stress for both residents and property managers. With many tenants focused on holiday plans, travel and seasonal obligations, they may be less likely to engage in lease renewals or explore new housing options.

That’s why Daniel Rigaux, managing director and head of multifamily and hospitality development for Baltimore-based management firm MCB Real Estate, said that increasing resident referral bonuses in the winter months often leads to renewal successes. Additionally, getting a handle on what residents’ plans are for the upcoming year is also a good thing to learn about during the end of the year. 

“We typically reach out to residents 90-plus days before their lease end date via calls, emails or texts, which helps us understand their intentions for the upcoming year and allows us to plan for any potential vacancies,” Rigaux said. “By offering early bird renewal incentives with a rent credit on the first month of a new lease, it encourages residents to let us know of their plans sooner rather than later to effectively remarket any anticipated vacancy well in advance of the move-out date.”

Promote indoor activities

During the winter months, it’s important to focus on amenities and experiences that enhance residents’ comfort and convenience, especially as colder weather can limit outdoor activities. 

“An effective strategy is to actively promote indoor amenities, such as fitness centers, lounges, game rooms and co-working spaces,” Greystar’s Perez said. “These areas provide residents with opportunities to socialize, stay active and relax, even when it’s too cold to enjoy outdoor spaces.”

After all, a 2023 National Apartment Association report revealed that 42% of renters consider access to high-quality indoor amenities a major factor in their decision to renew, making it essential to highlight these offerings

“Additionally, hosting indoor events and activities can greatly contribute to retention during winter,” Perez said. “Consider adding ‘winter wellness’ programs that include special promotions for wellness-related amenities such as discounts on personal training, yoga classes, sound meditation and spa services. This not only adds value for residents, but also positions the property as a place that genuinely cares about their well-being and mental health that will ultimately strengthen their loyalty.”

Understanding and communicating with multifamily residents are top challenges for property managers, according to a new report from San Diego-based management software provider Zego.

In addition, there appears to be a disconnect between what owners and managers think renters want and what they really desire.

The report draws from surveys of over 600 multifamily property managers and more than 1,000 renters. On a number of the survey’s questions about the resident experience, managers gave very different answers about what they believed residents valued in their living experience than the residents themselves. 

For instance, while property managers believed renters were predominantly moving due to lifestyle changes, a majority of renters reported their main reason for moving was because rent was too expensive. This option did not rank in even the top 12 of responses for managers, according to Zego.

All of the top five reasons managers cited for renter turnover are considered outside the property’s control — such as life changes or home purchases — while the renters’ top five reasons are within the management’s power to address or change. “This shows us that property managers have much more control over resident turnover than they think,” the report said. 

At the same time, a majority of managers believe that the most important element of apartment living for renters is a tech-enabled lifestyle. Renters instead name maintenance, security and community appearance and cleanliness among their top priorities. 

“While many apartment communities are rightfully providing alluring amenities and perks, it’s important that property managers do not lose focus on their more ‘boring’ offerings,” the report said. “Renters may be drawn to enticing features like pools, smart technology or concierge services. But at the heart of their living experience is the peace of mind that a secure and well-cared-for community brings to residents.”

Residents still value technology for certain tasks in the rental experience, but would rather have the human touch for others. A majority of renters want to perform community surveys, receive updates and alerts and pay rent on a digital platform, but prefer renewing leases, moving in and receiving packages by interacting with a human staff member.

Getting a better sense of renters’ needs and expectations will allow managers to reduce turnover and its associated expenses, which can amount to nearly $4,000 per unit, the report said. It also allows them to take advantage of renewals, which were a driver of income growth in 2023 and 2024, according to the report. 

In order for property managers to better understand their renters, Zego recommends conducting surveys, arranging face-to-face conversations between staff and residents, creating renter advisory groups and instituting reward programs. 

“Engaging with renters face-to-face reaps so many rewards that it’s made many companies utilize automation so their team members have more time for these valuable interactions,” the report reads. “Freeing them from their job’s mundane and repetitive aspects leaves more time for meaningful duties like building relationships with residents.”

As expenses have risen over the past several years, managers have turned to automating and centralizing property operations in order to increase their return on investment. 

However, a firm can only go so far with centralization before customer service suffers from a lack of human interaction. To preserve that benefit, Roberto Martinez, national field operations manager at Denver-based property manager and real estate investor Atlas Real Estate, strives for a balance. He aims to prioritize human touchpoints and communication with residents, both in maintenance and in the front office. 

“Having more hands on what we're doing is the most critical thing,” Martinez told Multifamily Dive. “Having actual people reviewing every work order coming in, being able to talk to residents, talk to property managers, communicate with each of them, be dedicated to a specific market, has changed what we do.”

Here, Martinez talks with Multifamily Dive about creating good tenant experiences, centralized staffing strategies and preventive maintenance as a value proposition for owners.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

MULTIFAMILY DIVE: How do you strike a balance between reducing costs and creating good experiences for tenants?

ROBERTO MARTINEZ: The complexity of the world we live in has made the day-to-day operations of maintenance, of property management, much more compliance-based and immediate satisfaction-based than it used to be. 

So when we talk about providing great customer service, I would say that 95% of customer service lies within communication, and the last 5% is execution. We're used to immediate gratification, hearing something from someone, calling in and not getting a robot, and that's part of the push of what Atlas is doing in order to make sure that residents always know what's going on at all times. 

We've partnered with great platforms like [property maintenance software provider] Property Meld in order to make sure that our communication channels are crystal clear. 

And the last part is sourcing the maintenance properly and vetting the right vendors and making sure we have the right people we're partnering with. It’s about providing clear communication and making sure that we hear our residents. Sometimes we can't always solve the issue, but making sure they feel understood and heard is probably 95% of our battle.

Does Atlas make use of centralized staffing strategies in any parts of its business?

We do. Our property management is located within each market we're actually in, so we're not remote market managing from really far away. We have professionals that are market experts. 

On the maintenance standpoint, we do have our national vendor manager and our maintenance coordination team lead. They're both leading that team. One is in Colorado Springs, the other one is in Mexico City. So they work with us out of Mexico and contract with us. 

And then you have our national vendor manager that's stateside. You have myself, so you have a handful of people that are working in both markets and making everything work. But that centralized staffing that we use out of Mexico City is pretty critical. They're part of our Atlas team. 

How has this strategy impacted the business?

We used to have maybe one or two people doing this, and now we realize the need to have a person per market, a person per property manager, and those touchpoints are where we were able to create a connection with residents. People forget that maintenance typically has more touchpoints in customer service than your property manager does. 

Four or five times a year you see maintenance. Your property management office you see maybe once or twice, when you move in and move out. 

So we have a huge opportunity to not just impact what we're doing on a maintenance level, but impact how people choose to renew with Atlas, if they want to stay with us. 

How do you implement tech into your operations?

Most of the systems are usually either partially automated or fully automated. We have people monitoring those and using them. If you message us directly, you're going to get a person. You call us directly, you're going to get a person. 

If it's after hours, we partner with EZ Repair Hotline, and they're going to get a person who's going to be able to answer that. 

Critical to what we do are those partnerships with Property Meld and EZ Repair Hotline that give us all the data, information and workflows that we use in order to mitigate a lot of issues for residents. A lot of times we don't need to send somebody out, but maybe we just need to provide the right information, and that resident can handle it as quickly as we could get to it ourselves. 

Artificial intelligence has also changed the way we do things. It's provided an extra tool in our arsenal for our maintenance coordination team to use to try and solve problems for residents and really up our resident satisfaction score.

What is your approach to preventive maintenance?

Being on top of things, making sure that they're being repaired and maintained properly is going to save you an astronomical amount of money in the long run. We always say a small fix now prevents a big fix later. 

We give a nice chart to an owner, and then we also provide bullet points that show, hey, these are all the issues that can happen if you do not repair this at this time. And we put costs there, and it's kind of eye opening to say, oh my goodness, those are a lot of costs that can happen if I don't take care of this home or do this right now. 

It’s easy to delay and say, I'll do it next year, or I'll do it in six months, or I'll do it when the resident moves out. But making sure that we're educating owners and preventing those issues from happening is going to save thousands of dollars and far exceeds the value of the original repair at least 75% of the time.

What are your biggest challenges?

Right now, the whole country feels the challenge to find vendor sourcing. Manual labor jobs, they've gone down. Even when you do find skilled work, it's hard to find skilled work that works faster and is available. 

So sourcing the right people, having the right partnerships, is really challenging to do, and you see different maintenance sectors where people are building out their own plumbing teams and their own electrical teams or cleaning teams, and that's becoming the new norm. 

We look at that with open eyes and say, maybe that's the change we need to make down the line. But what we do is we make our vendors and our partners feel like parts of Atlas. They're an extension of our team, and they're an extension of what we do and how they treat our residents reflects on us, and so we want those partnerships to be valuable.

Correction: Atlas Real Estate partners with property maintenance software provider Property Meld for its operations.

Walk-in closets, natural light and fresh air ventilation are the top three amenity priorities for renters in Greystar’s 2024 Design Survey Report, according to a press release shared with Multifamily Dive.

Leading a list of over 50 amenities, a full 88% of the 90,000 residents surveyed at properties owned and operated by Charleston, South Carolina-based Greystar expressed interest in walk-in closets. Thirty-seven percent said they wouldn’t rent an apartment without one. They were especially important to renters in Dallas, according to the report, released last month.

Natural light and large windows came in close behind with 86% of residents showing a strong preference and 31% requiring them in their homes, with the strongest preferences in Miami, Los Angeles and San Francisco. 

While Greystar has conducted the survey since 2017, the company revamped its question structure starting with the 2023 survey, adding new questions about sustainability and smart home technology, according to Quinn Eddins, managing director of research and analytics services at Greystar. The full report is available only to Greystar personnel and clients.

These new questions have revealed how much renters value sustainable features and technology in their homes, Eddins told Multifamily Dive. Out of these new choices, fresh air ventilation and high-efficiency appliances saw the most interest from renters — 86% and 83% respectively, with 17% and 11% unwilling to go without.

He said he was surprised by how popular these features were with residents.

“Four of the top 10 most-preferred attributes were related to sustainability,” Eddins said. “A number of them had a large percentage of respondents who said they wouldn't rent without them.”

Regional preferences

Technology and security features were especially important for renters in the Northeast, particularly keyless smart locks, according to the release. Walkability and proximity to grocery stores were also important in this area, and over 80% of New York City residents showed interest in modular closets.

Renters in the South prioritized outdoor amenities, including green spaces, barbecue grills and community spaces. Reserved parking and covered garages were also high on the list of priorities in Atlanta, Dallas and Charlotte, North Carolina.

In California, private outdoor spaces were most important, particularly balconies or patios. Pools and fitness centers were a priority in the Sun Belt, while Midwest renters value in-unit laundry and indoor co-working spaces.

Over the past year, Multifamily Dive has talked to more than 20 apartment executives to understand how the industry views centralization and how companies are adopting it. For the sixth installment, we’re looking at the balancing act between in-person and centralization services. Click here for the fifth installment.

Allyson McKay, managing director and executive vice president of management services at San Antonio-based Embrey Partners, doesn’t need to be convinced that chatbots can help property managers gain leases.

“The chatbots answer questions,” McKay said. “We can see an ongoing dialogue with the chatbot. They are able to answer prospects’ questions and then send them to somebody to set an appointment, or they can even follow up.”

But is McKay ready to turn over her leasing operation to a chatbot army? Not quite.

“The key is trying to figure out how to leverage technology with the needs of the properties to help drive net operating income without losing customer service,” McKay said. 

Relying too much on chatbots risks losing the human element key to that customer experience. “A benchmark of our company is how we serve our residents and our associates,” she said.

The question that McKay is grappling with is challenging management companies around the country. Saving money and finding efficiencies is important, but operating apartments is a people business. Veering too far into automation can turn off residents and hurt retention. 

Many apartment operators have found that specific tasks can be automated, but having people on site is still the key to success. 

Meeting customers where they are

When asked why they’re looking to centralize processes ranging from leasing to bookkeeping to renewal management, most apartment operators point to serving the customer. 

For instance, in its customer relationship management system, Houston-based REIT Camden Property Trust can now easily track interactions with residents and prospects, including calls, texts and emails, helping it fine-tune its interactions. “The whole focus on centralization was a result of us wanting to provide a better customer experience,” said Laurie Baker, chief operating officer at Camden.

Like centralization, automation is helping some managers adapt to customer demand. 

The theory goes that today’s core renters, in their 20s and 30s, grew up in a connected world where communication migrated from a phone call to an email and now to a text message or an app. By adopting technology where renters can file a maintenance claim or shop for a studio apartment via a chatbot, the industry is simply meeting these customers where they are.

“We’re going as a society toward a self-serve economy,” said Yakov Belousov, executive director of operations for Alpharetta, Georgia-based property manager Pegasus Residential. “So I don’t think this is going away.”

Take self-guided tours, for instance. Not all prospects want to interact with leasing agents when they’re apartment shopping. 

“You do have those that don't want to talk to us or that want to look in the middle of the night because of their job demands or whatever else they may be doing,” McKay said. “They don't have that time.”

Don’t push too far

Not everyone wants to go through an apartment without a leasing agent present, however. 

“There are going to be people that still want to work with someone in person guiding them through,” said Cindy Clare, chief operating officer for Greensboro, North Carolina-based owner and manager Bell Partners. “So I think it's finding that balance and being able to look for efficiencies and ways to enhance the customer experience.”

Even operators who are open to centralizing tasks admit that people need to be on site in many situations, specifically with new construction.

“We just built a $150 million asset, and we want leadership on that property,” Baker said. “Think about the exposure. You don't want to walk into a beautiful 450-unit community that you've just spent that kind of money on, and there's no leadership on site. That's a scary thing for us.”

Embrey’s McKay also points to lease-ups and customer service in luxury buildings as places where the human touch is essential. 

“You need boots on the ground,” she said. “There's so much going on with the timing of people coming in, the availability of units and the expectation at the price point. How much service can you pull back and still expect to receive the high dollar rent?”

The human touch

If you put REITs like Denver-based UDR at one end of the spectrum as one of the most aggressive adopters of centralization with its stafferless properties, Diane Batayeh, CEO of Southfield, Michigan-based apartment manager Village Green, might be near the other end.

Batayeh can’t imagine a scenario where an apartment community — whether a lease-up or many years old — doesn’t have a dedicated manager. “Your property managers are essentially the CEO of that property,” she said. “They have the insight into a property’s unique characteristics, history, challenges and upside potential, and are trained to understand the investment goals of the owner.”

Batayeh isn’t opposed to adopting technology, but she doesn’t think functions that require human contact can be centralized.

“Take payables, for example,” Batayeh said. “You can streamline the process and have an automated system, but it requires a human being's review and approval to validate an expense prior to processing payment. Otherwise, it's subject to potential errors or makes it difficult to proactively manage costs.”

While many firms are pushing their renewal to centralized service, Batayeh thinks personal, on-site relationships are a key to retention.

“The centralization of lease renewals may work in situations that don’t require human interaction, such as when a resident is renewing based only on their desire or ability to accept the proposed rent increase,” Batayeh said. “There are many instances, however, when a resident is undecided and needs convincing. Someone at the corporate office of a management company who doesn't have a relationship with or know the sensitivities of that resident won’t be as effective at convincing that person of the value proposition of renewing.”

Seeking community

Apartment operators spend a lot of money trying to boost retention by building a sense of community and establishing bonds between residents. Having staffers on site is central to that mission, many managers say.

“These are people's homes, and that's very personal,” said Woody Stone, president of Dallas-based operator Cushman & Wakefield Multifamily Asset Services. “I think walking up to a kiosk or not having a relationship with people managing your home is not for most. We're betting that people want relationships and community.”

If apartment operators decide to rely too much on technology without remembering the human component, resident satisfaction and retention can suffer. 

“The residents want to interact,” McKay said. “They want to know who’s in the office. The teams are the ones that are putting on the community events that we want the residents to come to. We want to connect the residents with the rest of the resident profile so that they stay longer.”

Click here to sign up to receive multifamily and apartment news like this article in your inbox every weekday.

The number of renters of single-family homes in the U.S. is on the rise, up from 14 million in 2020 to 14.2 million in 2023, according to Minnesota-based data provider IPUMS.

High home prices, fluctuating mortgage rates and limited availability of for-sale homes have contributed to this home rental boom, as homeownership is out of reach for many who would like to live in a single-family home. In this environment, single-family rentals have “become the new starter home,” according to a report by Point2 Homes, a division of Yardi. 

Over the same period of time, the number of new single-family build-to-rent units has skyrocketed — up from 7,676 new deliveries in 2020 to 27,495 in 2023 — as developers aim to meet this demand. Another 45,400 single-family rentals are under construction, and 2024’s deliveries are set to surpass last year’s, according to Point2.

In a survey of 1,509 respondents — 1,020 who already rented a home and just under 500 more from potential renters — Point2 found that the top three reasons renters choose homes over apartments are more privacy, more space and having a yard or garden. Rent was the most influential factor on which homes renters chose, followed by house size, pet policy and the condition of the home. 

More than 59% of current renters said they were satisfied with their home, while 27.4% are neutral. However, over half of respondents — 51% — still say that they plan to buy a house in the near future. Only 18.9% say they foresee renting homes long-term.

While renting means residents can’t modify homes to their liking the way an owner can, more than 41% of respondents said they weren’t bothered by this restriction. In fact, 4% preferred it, choosing instead to personalize their spaces with their own items.

When asked what they could change if they could, 20.9% expressed a desire for an upgraded kitchen. Additional storage space and improved energy efficiency were other popular preferences. 

Unconventional features that could convince renters to switch homes were a sundeck, a workshop or craft room, or an area to garden. When asked which amenities might justify an increase in rent, the majority — 45.1% — cited utilities included in rent, followed by a swimming pool and upgraded kitchen appliances. 

Pets take top priority

Almost 69% of the survey’s respondents had pets, according to Point2. More than 13% said their pet was their main reason for renting a home over renting an apartment — a larger share than the 11.3% of house renters looking to accommodate a growing family.

For more than 23% of home renters, whether or not a property allows pets is a crucial deciding factor in whether or not they rent a home there. Close to 6% say that pet friendliness would justify an increase in rent. 

House renters in Generation Z also showed a particular preference for sustainability. Over 44% say that sustainability is an important deciding factor in their home choice, and an additional 7.3% say it is extremely important.

“By zeroing in on what matters most to single-family renters — like pet-friendly policies, privacy, space and sustainability — property managers and developers can tap into fresh opportunities and reshape the rental landscape,” the report said.