The report shows the top trends defining today’s rental landscape and the services property managers must prioritize to stay competitive, including:

• Online reputations: In the digital age, online presence and reputation are more important than ever, with the majority of renters stating that a property manager’s online reputation is a vital factor in their decision-making process.
• Improving quality of life: Modern property management now directly influences a renter’s quality of life. Residents using integrated financial services and move-in tools score 14% higher for life satisfaction than non-users.
• The Move-in moment matters most: Most renters consider bundled services a vital factor when evaluating a new home, but only one-third currently have access to them, representing a massive advantage for operators who can close this gap.

The report says the modern renter’s definition of a home has expanded, and simply providing a roof is no longer enough to meet their expectations.

To remain competitive and profitable, property management companies must evolve their strategies to prioritize the resident experience as the primary engine for growth. By delivering standout service and high-value resident services throughout the rental journey, operators can drive long-term satisfaction that leads to high occupancy, retention, and diversified revenue streams beyond traditional rent collection.

The landscape of early 2026 presents a tug-of-war for many operators. Although financing pressure has eased, sticky operational costs — from insurance to maintenance — continue to compress margins. At the same time, a surge in new supply has handed the leverage back to the resident. National vacancy rates have hit a modern peak of 7.3%, driven largely by high-density construction in regions like the Sunbelt.

In this environment, property managers need to go beyond simply managing assets; they must optimize them by focusing on “resident impact.” Our research proves that when residents are supported with the right tools and services, they don’t just stay longer — they become partners in the success of the property.

This report explores how to master the “move-in moment,” close the gap between resident demand and service availability, and create a virtuous cycle where resident well-being and business success fuel one another.

Key Takeaways On The Resident Preferences And  Experience Report

• Resident Services as a Competitive Differentiator and Additional Value Driver There is a significant first-mover advantage for operators that offer services including Resident Benefits Packages (RBPs), a customizable suite of paid services offered by the property management company to the resident, usually at lease signing.
• While 78% of renters consider these services a vital factor when evaluating a new home, only one-third of residents currently have access to them. This 45-point gap represents a massive opportunity to stand out and deliver on the needs of renters.
• Furthermore, nearly 80% of residents are willing to pay for these services, likely due to the immediate cost savings and convenience they provide, compared to sourcing them independently. By offering these services through a transparent, digital move-in process, operators transform a traditional lease into a value-driven relationship that benefits both the resident’s well-being and the property’s performance.
• The Criticality of Retention in a Competitive Market In 2026, resident satisfaction has evolved from a soft metric into a primary strategy. With a higher rate of renters planning to move (39% this year compared to 35% in 2025), national vacancy rates hitting modern peaks, and rent growth remaining subdued, property managers must prioritize retention to protect NOI.
• The Rise of Resident Impact Beyond simply providing a roof, modern property management now influences resident impact — the intersection of a renter’s financial health and quality of life. Data shows that users of resident services report higher overall life satisfaction and financial well-being than nonusers. By providing convenient home services and financial empowerment tools — from credit-building resources to bundled utilities — property managers offer the support residents need to simplify their daily lives and build a stronger financial future, naturally resulting in a more stable, satisfied community that chooses to stay longer.
• Capitalizing on the Move-In Moment As a high-engagement period, the move-in window is the most effective time to provide residents with the essential services, support, and convenience they need to settle in. What’s more, a transparent, digital onboarding process replaces the friction of traditional phone tag with a clear, stress-free path to their new home — creating a foundation of trust that delivers immediate convenience for the resident and drives long-term portfolio stability for your business.

To maximize retention in 2026, property managers must combine the high touch of personalized maintenance and communication with the high tech of portals, AI, and integrated resident services. These aren’t just amenities; they are the foundation of a stable, high-performing business.

Source: Rental Housing Journal

The post Resident Experience Is Engine For Growth, Report Says appeared first on AAOA.

From working with investors across different markets, one of the most common challenges is not finding deals, but accurately analyzing them. Deals that look strong on paper often fail to perform because the numbers were not evaluated with the level of detail required to support long-term cash flow.

Start With Net Operating Income

Net operating income is the foundation of any multifamily investment analysis. It represents the income generated by the property after operating expenses are deducted, but before debt service.

To calculate accurate NOI, investors must focus on:

• Verified rental income based on current leases
• Additional income sources such as parking, laundry, or storage
• Realistic operating expenses, including maintenance, management, taxes, and insurance

Overestimating income or underestimating expenses will distort the true performance of the property. A conservative approach provides a more reliable foundation for decision-making.

Evaluate Cash Flow After Debt Service

Cash flow is what remains after all expenses and loan payments are made. This is where many deals break down.

A property may show strong NOI, but if the financing is not structured correctly, the cash flow may be minimal or negative.

When analyzing cash flow, investors should consider:

• Monthly loan payments based on realistic interest rates
• Debt service coverage ratio and how much cushion the deal provides
• The impact of vacancy or unexpected expenses

A deal should produce consistent and predictable cash flow, not just meet minimum thresholds.

Understand the Role of Cap Rate

Cap rate is often used to compare investment opportunities, but it should not be the only metric driving a decision.

Cap rate reflects the relationship between the property’s income and its value. However, it does not account for financing, market conditions, or future income growth.

Investors should use cap rate to:

• Compare similar properties within the same market
• Identify pricing trends
• Evaluate whether a deal is aligned with local performance expectations

It should be combined with other metrics to form a complete analysis.

Analyze Market Rent and Growth Potential

One of the most important aspects of multifamily investing is understanding where the property stands in relation to the market.

This includes:

• Comparing current rents to market rents
• Identifying opportunities to increase income through renovations or repositioning
• Evaluating demand drivers in the area

Properties that are below market rent may offer opportunities for growth, but those projections must be supported by data and not assumptions.

Factor in Vacancy and Expense Reserves

Vacancy and unexpected expenses are part of multifamily ownership. Ignoring these factors leads to unrealistic projections.

A disciplined analysis should include:

• Vacancy assumptions based on market averages
• Ongoing maintenance and capital expenditures
• Reserve funds for repairs and operational stability

Planning for these variables protects the investment and supports consistent performance.

Evaluate the Financing Impact on the Deal

Financing plays a critical role in determining whether a deal produces strong cash flow. The same property can perform very differently depending on how it is financed.

Key considerations include:

• Loan structure and term
• Interest rate and payment type
• Required reserves and capital investment

Investors should analyze how financing affects both short-term cash flow and long-term performance.

Common Mistakes That Reduce Cash Flow

Even experienced investors can overlook key factors that impact deal performance. The most common mistakes include:

• Relying on projected income without verifying actual rents
• Underestimating operating expenses
• Ignoring the impact of financing on cash flow
• Overlooking vacancy and maintenance costs
• Focusing on purchase price instead of overall performance

Avoiding these mistakes improves both acquisition decisions and long-term results.

Focus on Consistency, Not Just Opportunity

Multifamily investing is not about finding a single strong deal. It is about building a portfolio that produces reliable and consistent income over time.

Investors who focus on disciplined underwriting, realistic assumptions, and strategic financing are better positioned to achieve that goal.

Strong cash flow is created through careful analysis, not optimistic projections.

Final Perspective

Multifamily real estate investing continues to offer opportunities for investors who approach deals with a clear and structured analysis process. Understanding how to evaluate income, expenses, financing, and market conditions is essential to selecting properties that perform.

Consistent cash flow is not driven by chance. It is driven by preparation, discipline, and the ability to evaluate deals with accuracy and confidence. 

Source: Multifamily Insiders

The post How to Analyze Deals That Produce Consistent Cash Flow appeared first on AAOA.

In September 2025, Igor had applied for two separate apartments, both running $5,300 per month, and had been approved. His bank statements, proof of employment and ID had cleared.

Two days later, after his bank alerted Renkow that the cashier’s checks used to pay first and last month’s rent were fraudulent, the feeling crystallized. Renkow raced back to his property, hoping to intercept the new tenants before they moved in. He found the front door of one unit pinned from the inside and, in the other, a woman who told him that she had established residency and didn’t intend to leave.

Ultimately, he discovered that the woman paid a fee to sublease the unit from the fraudulent applicant and that no one intended to pay him rent. He had to embark on a lengthy eviction process to regain access to his property.

“I’m pretty sure I’m going to sell the building. I don’t need this at 74 years old,” Renkow, a small-business owner who owns a handful of rental properties, told Bisnow. “It’s been so much stress. I’ve been sick for seven months.”

Apartment operators have for years flagged fraudulent rental applications as a thorny problem that reaches into already thin margins and can ultimately raise costs across the board if it becomes too pervasive. 

More recently, artificial intelligence has made it easier to fabricate pay stubs, bank statements, identification and other documents landlords use to verify a prospective tenant’s identity and ability to pay. AI also makes fraudulent documents more difficult to spot, slowing the already difficult process of finding and catching fraudsters.

“This is something that we have been working with our members on for quite a while, to flag for policymakers that this is a deeply troubling movement and something that we all need to take seriously,” said Kevin Donnelly, executive director of the Real Estate Technology & Transformation Center.

“The cost ultimately gets borne by the community and negatively impacts affordability across the board,” he said.

Law enforcement and industry sources don’t have a comprehensive accounting of the annual costs of rental fraud, but the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center tracked more than 12,000 cases of reported real estate fraud in 2025, and estimated real estate online fraud cost approximately $275M in 2025, nearly as much as credit card and check fraud. 

The consequences can range from tenants simply living in an apartment where they technically don’t qualify to subleasing it to other renters, engaging in nonpayment or carrying out illegal activities in the unit.

In 2024, 93% of National Multifamily Housing Council members reported that they had experienced rental fraud in the previous year. Each case of application fraud costs an average of $15K to mitigate, according to Donnelly, whose organization is affiliated with the NMHC.

For Renkow, the fraud meant spending seven months on the eviction process, during which other tenants moved out of the building because of nuisances caused by the squatters. He estimated the entire episode cost him $90K.

The “avalanche” of fraud began during the pandemic era, when a pivot toward remote viewings and online approvals, as well as eviction protections, proved a “double-edged sword,” Donnelly said.

Social media also contributed to the spread of application fraud by connecting people making fake documents with those searching for them. Now, AI is making falsified documents easier to make and more convincing, according to Tim Anderson, a manager at MRI Real Estate Software.

While obtaining fake documents used to require specialized skills or was limited to those with fluency in navigating the so-called dark web to shop for counterfeit documents, advancing technology has made it as simple as sending a direct message or learning to manipulate generative AI. 

MRI Real Estate Software purchased 200 AI-generated fake IDs — some for as little as $5 — and tested them against different verification methods. Optical card readers, the industry-standard system, only flagged 26%. 

Scammers have also started to create better paper trails. In some cases, they are setting up real LLCs and issuing pay stubs from this real business, ostensibly creating legal documentation, according to Steve Carroll, co-founder and CEO of Findigs, an AI platform that automates rental screening

Renkow’s case in Los Angeles was the rare example where a fraudster was caught, charged and brought to trial. The key to cracking the case was that the fake qualifying documents used by “Igor,” identified as 38-year-old LA resident Alfred Earl Jackson, contained a fake name but his own actual photo, LA Police Department Detective Juan Campos said. 

Rental fraud isn’t a common case for Campos. The LAPD gets more than 400 complaints about identity fraud per month. Without that photo ID and the luck in tracking him down, he likely wouldn’t have found Jackson. Otherwise, police departments simply don’t have the resources or the time. 

Campos found that Jackson had gotten the new subletters to pay him $5K for the down payment on Renkow’s unit. Jackson and his accomplice may have also defrauded additional landlords.

Rising costs for tenant screening systems add one more expense layer to the risk management practice of a landlord and, thereby, tenants. And without much policy activity around preventing rental fraud, it can come down to preventive measures and more technology, according to Carroll.  

Part of the struggle is the increasingly fast pace of the rental market, according to Chris Rankin, CEO and co-founder of Rent Butter, which offers screening services for workforce and affordable housing. 

With more competition between landlords and mergers and acquisitions creating ever-larger portfolios, property managers are pushed to work faster and get tenants in units sooner.

Rankin framed it as a problem of not being able to get tenants in as fast as landlords want. As portfolios grow, it is harder to hand-check every application, and those on the edges don’t always get a fair shake. It is about streamlining operations and keeping out the bad actors, he said.

Some consumer and tenant advocates question whether the problem is as widespread as the industry claims. Much of the available data comes from the industry itself, according to Ariel Nelson, senior attorney at the National Consumer Law Center. She said the situation has been used to justify expanded rental‑screening technology that adds fees and can disproportionately harm certain renters.

“What is the actual scope of this problem? Is this just a justification to charge people money for applications?” Nelson said. “The screening industry has been hugely effective at convincing landlords that they need all of this information, but there is not good evidence suggesting that a bunch of the information on there actually speaks to the likelihood that someone is going to be a successful tenant.”

Tenant screening has grown into a multibillion-dollar industry offering to soothe landlord concerns about this type of crime. 

The apartment industry has heavily lobbied for tenant screening and other AI tools to operate more efficiently. The NMHC supported RealPage and lobbied for a ban on localities regulating AI. The industry is focused on policymakers rather than the platforms themselves, Donnelly said. 

“Unfortunately, we’ve seen a trend in policymaking circles to try to limit the use of AI or other tech in screening or other housing operations, and we find that to be extremely troubling, and that has really been front burner for us,” he said. 

But with AI being used to both perpetrate and sniff out the fraud, the situation has become a cat-and-mouse game, with tech firms constantly gaming out new methods of fraud and trying to find fixes.

“It’ll continue to be an arms race, as there’s these tools that are used to create fraud, and there are these tools that are used to detect fraud, and I don’t see that stopping,” Carroll said.

Source: Bisnow

The post AI Is Making Fraudsters Harder To Spot. appeared first on AAOA.

Based on responses from more than 2,000 renters, 71% said the American dream is changing and 60% reported it becoming less achievable. However, 61% said homeownership is still part of their personal dream.

Nearly half of respondents, 47%, cited homeownership as financially out of reach, with 38% saying they cannot afford both monthly payments and upfront costs to purchase a home. Gen Z’s mindset on homeownership also has shifted, with 81% viewing it as financially out of reach this year versus 72% in 2025.

Financial stability is a priority for renters, with three-quarters of the respondents noting that stability feels closer to their version of the American dream than owning a home. In addition, 62% said it is harder to achieve financial stability today than it was for their parents.

Renter timelines also are extending, with over half of the respondents, 51%, expecting to still be renting 10 years from now. Renters also are prioritizing flexibility. Over two-thirds, 67%, said they define freedom as the ability to move or relocate easily, while 62% said flexibility matters more than stability through homeownership.

“Renters today are balancing long-term aspirations with very real near-term financial pressures,” said Virginia Love, industry principal and multifamily housing expert at Entrata. “Homeownership remains an important goal, but the path is evolving. In response, renters are prioritizing stability, flexibility, and financial resilience, and that shift is creating new opportunities for the industry to better support them at every stage of their housing journey.”

Source: Multifamily Executive

The post Renters Redefine the American Dream in a High-Cost Era appeared first on AAOA.

National Trends Signal Softening

According to Chandan Economics, multifamily rent growth in the US eased further in March 2026, with annual gains dropping to 1.0%—their lowest level since 2021. The pace continued to decline from 1.2% in February and 1.4% in January, marking an ongoing shift to calmer rental market conditions after marked post-pandemic gains.

Monthly rent momentum also weakened. National rents fell 0.1% in March, ending 32 months of positive monthly growth. Despite broadly stable levels, this marks the first monthly decline since June 2023.

Market Breadth and Regional Highlights

While rent growth slowed overall, March saw more metros post monthly increases—65.0%, up from 60.5% in February. Meanwhile, year-over-year gains were logged in 86.7% of metros, nearly unchanged month-over-month. Strongest annual rent growth was seen in Virginia Beach (+6.3%), San Francisco (+6.0%), and Toledo (+6.0%). Several Florida and Texas metros posted notable declines. North Port (−6.0%) and Cape Coral (−5.9%) led those losses. This uneven regional performance continues a pattern seen earlier in the cycle, when rent gains briefly stabilized before leveling off again across key markets.

Supply Pipeline and Absorption

The supply outlook is gradually improving. Despite a still-high volume of new deliveries impacting multifamily rent growth, the development pipeline is no longer expanding as rapidly. Renewed absorption will be critical for any return to stronger rent growth going forward.

Outlook: What’s Next

The overall rental market is now marked by minimal growth and divergence between markets. Sun Belt metros, especially in Florida and Texas, remain a drag, while the Midwest and Northeast show relative resilience. However, the uptick in metros with positive monthly multifamily rent growth, alongside a rebalance in supply, suggests the foundation for future stabilization may be forming.

Source: CRE Daily

The post Multifamily Rent Growth Hits Its Lowest Point Since 2021 appeared first on AAOA.

The post Slowing Household Formation Rewrites Apartment Demand Outlook appeared first on AAOA.

Class B Emerges as a Safe Harbor

According to Globe ST, in the current multifamily landscape, Class B apartments are capturing investor attention as a reliable performer, according to recent analysis from Yardi Matrix. As new supply puts pressure on Class A luxury assets and affordability erodes for Class C tenants, mid-market Class B assets are holding up best, providing steady income and relatively resilient occupancy levels.

The Squeeze on A and C Segments

Current job market softness is impacting demand for high-end Class A apartments, while wage stagnation and expense inflation are driving up delinquencies in the lower-tier Class C space. Yardi Matrix vice president Jeff Adler notes that rent-to-income ratios have deteriorated most for lower-income renters, with both ends seeing limitations on absorption and financial stress, making Class B apartments more attractive.

Source: CRE Daily

The post Class B Apartments Outperform in Multifamily Market appeared first on AAOA.

Rent growth has slowed to its weakest pace since 2020, according to Zillow data from March, which shows asking rents for U.S. apartments and homes were about $1,910, up 1.8% year over year.

Why rents are cooling

Not all rental markets are seeing relief

The post Why Nearly 40% of Landlords Are Offering Concessions Right Now appeared first on AAOA.

The post Multifamily Fire Risks Rise as Owners Rely on Luck Over Maintenance appeared first on AAOA.

The post The Hidden Costs of Ignoring AI For Multifamily Property Maintenance appeared first on AAOA.