Success Story #1

Understanding a reduction in lease renewals

Issue:

A real estate management client noticed an increase in tenants deciding to live somewhere else. The property management team told the CEO the reasons were outdated counter tops and amenities. The CEO instinctively knew there was more to the story.  He wanted data to understand the real reasons why residents were not renewing their leases.

We were hired to define build a web based reporting (BI Dashboards) solution that would reveal the real reasons for renewal decline.

Solution

Working closely with the client, we defined how the dashboards must look and function.  The format, content, and use of the reporting helped define the data requirements.  We worked alongside internal IT resources to source data from customer satisfaction surveys, maintenance records, and property management systems to build the dataset and reporting they needed.

The data told a different story than the leasing staff.  Reporting identified a direct connection between tenant / management company relationships and leasing.

On properties where the maintenance staff were responsive, and the leasing staff courteous, the lease retention was high.  Whenever this was not true there was a greater reduction in renewals.   The data revealed several other causes but confirmed the CEO’s instinct was correct.

Working closely with the client, we captured the best practice of the top performing properties and helped them roll out a new training program.

Results

Instead of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars upgrading finishes, building new amenities, and inconveniencing the existing tenants, the client investing in training the management staff.

The result was a 70% increase in rent retention on underperforming properties.  The added benefit was a more targeted marketing campaign to address the vacancies caused by tenants moving for reasons outside of their control.