Survey Results: Multifamily Market Data Collection Practices

We recently surveyed apartment managers on how they survey their competitive landscape which revealed some interesting results. The survey posed questions around three primary concerns in regards to apartment market survey practices: collection method, collection frequency and data confidence.

datacollection-resized-600Market Survey Collection Methods

More than half of respondents indicated that phone calls continue to be the primary method for conducting apartment market surveys. Of that 51%, nearly 2 in 3 supplement their market survey data by monitoring the competition’s online ads. Additionally 1 in 5 respondents say they still make use of the technology stalwart that is the fax machine to survey their market.

Market Survey Frequency

data2-resized-600The frequency with which properties collect current apartment market data spread evenly between once a week and monthly. 13% of respondents said they survey their market on a quarterly basis. As more and more property management companies implement revenue management across their portfolios – 41% of survey respondents
reported that they use revenue management software – and the often daily optimized pricing changes that come with using such a system, it’s surprising that more than half of respondents are electing to survey their market only on a monthly or longer frequency.

Market Survey Data Confidence

data3Conducting regular market surveys is critical to ensuring your pricing strategy is appropriate for your unique local market. As such, confidence in the data you are using to make pricing decisions is of utmost importance. Notably, less than 10% of survey respondents have a positive opinion of their market data accuracy.

Market Survey Automation

More than half of survey respondents said that conducting apartment market surveys takes more than one hour per property every month. The survey did not take into account the time spent validating and confirming collected market data to ensure accurate business decisions, and when combined with the lack of confidence respondents have in their survey data, could contribute substantially to time and resource costs markset quote-resized-600associated with sourcing competitive pricing data. VaultWare Market Comps solves for the problems of data collection frequency, consistency and accuracy by automating market survey collection and providing frequent, weekly updates of data from multiple trusted industry sources. Even better, Market Comps can alert you to changes in your self-defined, local competitive market beyond thresholds that you set.

Want to learn more about how VaultWare Market Comps can automate your market survey data collection and help you validate your pricing strategy? Watch the video and request a private demo.

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