There’s a tenet in marketing about client or customer attraction and retention. Studies and data have consistently shown it costs less to keep a current customer than to attract a new one. Yotpo, an e-commerce marketing company, quantifies it this way: “Acquiring a new customer is consistently five to 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one.”
While those numbers might not specifically reflect the multifamily rental market, the idea is the same: it costs less to retain good tenants than to attract new ones.
Sapir Realty in Atlanta shares Statista data that shows “the average cost per vacated rental unit in the U.S. was nearly $4,000 in 2023. This includes lost rent, repairs, advertising, and preparing the unit for a new tenant.”
We’ve all seen the razzle dazzle. Balloons, signs, and even wacky waving inflatable guys inviting everyone to learn all about that apartment complex’s fantastic move-in special. New tenant incentives, deals on rent, waived application fees—there are several promotions that appeal to future residents.
In competitive markets, deploying these marketing tactics might help give one apartment community the edge over another. For some, it’s a numbers game. The greater the number of visitors to the leasing office or model unit, the better the chance to fill vacancies. That’s not wrong, but in the long run, quality wins over the revolving door of quantity.
The Real Cost of Tenant Turnover
Attracting tenants is a necessary and important first step in cultivating what will ideally become an established, satisfied renter. Offering clean, well-maintained units filled with a desirable suite of appliances and amenities, is sure to catch a prospect’s eye.
Free rent, reduced or waived fees, and other savings all make for attractive benefits for a new renter. When the right unit is found, tenant application and screening is complete, deposits are paid, and the ink on the lease is dry, the long-term work begins.
How Long Do Renters Actually Stay?
Apartment living is largely transient. People rent for a season of their life, usually not for their entire life. Maximizing a tenant’s lease life is a wise financial investment for multifamily property owners.
In light of the housing crisis, homeownership has become more challenging, keeping renters in place longer either by desire or necessity. Clagett Enterprises, a mid-Atlantic-based real estate leasing, sales and property management firm, reported: “In the United States, the average tenant stays at the same property for about three years.”
Other sources find that average to be closer to four or five years. Financial technology company Self shares that, over the course of a lifetime, people in the U.S. will be renters for approximately 13 years.
“The average U.S. resident will first enter the rental market at age 22 when they finish college and exit around the age of 35 when they are able to afford a mortgage deposit for their first house.”
Bernice Coleman seems to be following that timeline. She signed a lease on her first apartment after graduating from college six years ago. Coleman finds the moving process to be “expensive and a lot of work.” Happy where she is, she has no plans to move.
Life happens. Plans change. Things don’t unfold in a straight line, which means these rental years might not be consecutive. For renter and veteran Chal Whitfield, his years as a renter were intermittent, but his experience was a bit longer than the 13-year national average.
After leaving active duty with the U.S. Navy, he returned to the States. He rented an apartment for nearly three years before buying a home in the metro Atlanta area. Years later, following a divorce, Whitfield found himself a renter again. That stretch lasted longer, first in an apartment for four years, followed by renting a single-family home for another seven years before purchasing his current home for a total of about 14 rental years.
Satisfied, happy tenants tell others, helping to attract more satisfied, happy tenants. There’s no denying the financial gain in converting a 3-year renter to a 13-year one.
Fintech firm Self calculated the average value of those 13 rental years at approximately $333,065 or $25,620 per year. These numbers are based on figures and statistics from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and vary by market.
Landlords and property management firms seek to run a profitable business. Tenants seek a nice, well-kept place to call home. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship, not an adversarial one as it is sometimes viewed. Rewarding good tenants who pay on time and are good stewards of their apartments is good for both parties—a win-win!
Retention Should Match Your Attraction Efforts
One marketing misstep made by some apartments is offering deals to potential tenants while doing little to cultivate keeping the paying tenants they already have in place. It behooves landlords and property managers to match their tenant retention efforts with their tenant attraction ones.
Increasing rent at every lease renewal without offering any extra services, benefits, or upgrades—an increase with nothing to show for it—gives tenants pause. Seeing move-in specials better than the lease rate they’re currently paying can breed resentment. Instead, smart landlords will leverage the loyalty of happy residents.
Maryland-based UTZ Property Management offers these landlord tips for attracting and keeping long-term tenants.
- Set the right rent price
- Highlight property upgrades and maintenance
- Market with high-quality photos and descriptions
- Screen tenants thoroughly
- Offer lease incentives
- Build a positive landlord-tenant relationship
- Provide amenity and lifestyle benefits
- Ensure a smooth move-in experience
The National Apartment Association (NAA) suggests that an astounding “60% of tenant turnover is preventable.” In addition to some of the tips above, the NAA offers other suggestions when it comes to “the art of tenant retention.”
Their recommendations to landlords include offering flexible rent payments via a custom app, implementing loyalty programs to reward long-term tenants, and making sustainable upgrades to properties. Like UTZ, the NAA also places high importance on “high-quality and timely maintenance.”
All of these benefit both the property owner and the renter. Another tool that serves both landlord and tenant is helping build tenant credit through rent reporting. Multifamily software firm Foxen explains.
“Rent reporting is a retention tool as much as a resident amenity. A renter who is actively building credit at your property has a reason to stay—not just through the end of their lease, but through the years it takes to reach their financial goals.”
Union Terminal Warehouse, luxury loft apartments in downtown Jacksonville, Florida, offers this service via RentPlus software. On-time rent payments are reported to credit agencies to boost tenant credit scores. The landlord receives timely rent; the tenant improves personal credit—another win-win!
Tools and Strategies That Benefit Both Landlords and Tenants
As of early 2026, Costar and Apartments.com projects multifamily growth but add “vacancy is projected to remain steady. Vacancy is expected to hold at 8.5% through year-end before easing to 8.1% by the end of 2027.”
Vacancy rates fluctuate by market, but many multifamily property owners strive for the goal of one hundred percent occupancy. Because turnover is part of multifamily rentals, landlords will always contend with some vacancies—past, present, or future.
According to MRI Software, a real estate tech and industry data company, “for residential properties, you should aim to retain 60% of your tenants, slightly above the national average of 48%.”
MRI concedes that, in spite of the best tenant retention efforts, people move for many reasons, including job changes, home purchases, and relocating to be closer to family—all reasons for landlords to prioritize converting new tenant attraction to long-term resident retention.
