Resident retention and maintaining occupancy levels are top of the list when considering a property manager’s priorities. Resident retention is the rate at which your residents stay within your community or leave for new properties.
The average resident retention rate in 2022 stood at 52.3% in the US. Residents hold most of the power regarding retention rates — ultimately, they decide whether they want to stay.
However, that doesn’t mean property managers are helpless. We’ve listed some of the top reasons why residents leave and what you can do to ensure this doesn’t happen.
1) Poor Customer Service
The service you offer your residents greatly impacts how long they decide to reside within your community. If they feel respected, heard and valued by you and your team, they’re less likely to look elsewhere for a place to live and your resident retention figures will be higher.
31% of residents choose not to renew their lease due to poor property management.
What Can You Do About It?
Make resident customer service a top priority in your day-to-day work. Whether responding promptly to requests, being on-hand to help residents or having a physical presence on-site, effective and efficient property management increases resident retention.
Part of this comes down to having a solid team you can rely on, so effective property management can be present in multiple places simultaneously.
Considering 28% of U.S. renters want to use digital tools to help manage their property, you should also look into automating some of your services to save time while still meeting your residents' needs.
2) Insufficient Maintenance
If a community is unkept or maintenance requests go weeks without action, resident retention rates will take a hit. Residents pay rent to live in clean, tidy and functional spaces, so they might start moving out if you aren’t delivering on your side of the deal.
What Can You Do About It?
An effective maintenance plan and team are essential for keeping your residents happy and retention rates stable. Helpful staff that respond quickly and efficiently to requests and maintenance issues will significantly improve resident happiness.
Again, automation has a significant impact on streamlining your maintenance tasks. By investing in a platform that allows residents to submit requests automatically, the management and execution of maintenance will be much smoother and feature fewer headaches.
3) Problems With Neighbors
Nobody wants to experience nightmare neighbors. If complaints aren’t dealt with swiftly and adequately, residents will look for a community with less problematic neighbors.
What Can You Do About It?
Responding quickly to complaints and supporting residents in this scenario is the first port of call for resolving issues and keeping resident retention high.
Another approach would be fostering a strong sense of community. Your actions and the standards you set as a property manager will instinctively impact how your residents behave toward others in the community.
Consider scheduling community events and creating shared social spaces. Neighbors are much more likely to respect those around them if they can put a face to a name.
4) Expensive Rent
While rent raises may be unavoidable in the current economic climate, expensive rent can be make or break for many residents and is often one of the primary reasons for them leaving for other communities.
47% of residents leave because they’re seeking lower rent.
What Can You Do About It?
Open and honest communication is essential to retaining residents even after price hikes. Give residents plenty of notice, be transparent with why you’re raising the rent and raise the amount in smaller increments rather than one large increase.
You’ll also want to monitor the market around you closely. If other multifamily communities are charging significantly less than you, then it might be time to review how much you’re charging, as many residents will look to move to communities with much lower rental rates.
5) Need for a Bigger or Smaller Property
We all know how much life can change. Families may grow or residents might be looking to downsize. If their current property no longer meets their needs, residents will look to the market for more suitable alternatives.
19% of residents leave because they’re seeking more floor space.
What Can You Do About It?
Depending on how many units you have to let, offering flexibility can be the key to keeping residents longer. If you have different-sized apartments or homes within your multifamily community, offer your residents smaller or larger-sized units depending on their needs.
6) They've Found A Better Community Elsewhere
The multifamily market is competitive, with communities leveling up their offerings to stand out amongst the crowd. Other local communities may have more to offer or better amenities, which can be a strong pull for residents that don’t mind moving.
21% of residents leave because they’re seeking better community amenities.
What Can You Do About It?
Keep an eye on market trends and ensure you’re always ahead. Invest in new amenities and try new ways to boost community spirit. Make your community so good that your residents don’t want to leave.
7) Relocation
New jobs, family needs and a change of circumstances can all result in a resident needing to relocate to a different part of the state or country. Sometimes, you might have the perfect community with all a resident could need, but life gets in the way.
What Can You Do About It?
There’s not a great deal you can do about a resident needing to relocate. However, filling their spot shouldn't be difficult if your community has a good reputation for all of the above.
Alternatively, if your multifamily community business operates in multiple states or locations, you could offer your resident the opportunity to transfer between developments, saving them hassle and keeping your resident retention levels healthy.
The Conclusion On Resident Retention
Ultimately, there are so many reasons why residents may choose to move away from your community. Some may be out of your control, whereas others require effective management and investment in your communities.
Life as a property manager can be busy with a lot going on at once, but you can’t afford to let retention rates suffer, as that’s what brings the money through the door.
By investing in the right teams, amenities and systems to maintain occupancy levels, you’ll save time, effort and money in the long run by having an efficient and effective multifamily community.
Wish You Had More Time to Focus on Resident Retention?
Inside the Saving Time and Money playbook, you’ll find key strategies to tackle the most common time-consuming tasks property managers face, which will free up more time to focus on increasing your resident retention and other important aspects of your position.
Download your free copy by clicking below.
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