When so many rental listings include a free month, that free month may not be doing much work. Concessions appeared on 43.9 percent of studio, one- and two-bedroom listings across the 50 largest metros in September, up from about 42.6 percent a year earlier, according to Realtor.com. In markets that absorbed a wave of new apartment supply, including Charlotte, Denver, Dallas and Austin, roughly two in three listings carried some kind of concession as of July, according to Zillow.
With discounts this widespread, operators need other ways to stand out, and Rently’s research points to a few. In the company’s 2026 Renter Touring Expectations Report, a May survey of 800 renters who had recently toured found that 47 percent said they’d chosen or seriously considered a less ideal rental simply because it was easier to tour. Its 2026 Apartment Access & Security Report, an August survey of 800 apartment renters, found 60 percent would accept a rent increase for community-wide security upgrades.
Insights by Blueprint spoke with Rently Co-Founder Merrick Lackner about what’s tipping the scales for renters, whether a free month is worth it versus investing in the resident experience, and where the line is between resident safety and surveillance. We edited the conversation for length and clarity.
Insights by Blueprint: Concessions are in nearly half of listings in the biggest metros. When every property is offering a free month, what’s actually breaking the tie for renters right now?
Merrick Lackner: When every listing has the same offer, the concession stops being a differentiator, and the experience becomes the tiebreaker. That experience starts earlier than most operators think. In our 2026 Renter Touring Expectations Report, 47% of renters said they had chosen, or seriously considered, a less ideal rental simply because it was easier to tour. And 68% have lost interest in a rental because scheduling a tour was too difficult.
So the first tiebreaker is ease. Can I book online, see it today, and take my time while I’m there? The second is trust. Renters read every step of the process as a preview of what living there will be like. Eighty-eight percent told us a disorganized tour process changes how they view the property itself. When prices are essentially the same everywhere, renters choose the place that feels well run. Third, when shopping for similar homes, renters will consider amenities. If one home has a fully active smart home system with a doorbell camera, it wins out over a home with no technology.
Is a free month a bad deal for operators compared with putting that money into the resident experience? Have you seen any operator run that math, for example, concession dollars against lower turnover?
I wouldn’t call it a bad deal. In an oversupplied market, a concession can be the right call to protect occupancy, and plenty of strong operators are using them. It gets expensive when it becomes the only lever. A concession is a one-time cost that buys a lease. The resident experience is what decides whether that lease renews. The back-of-the-envelope math is worth doing. In a 200-unit community with typical turnover, a free month on every new lease can run well into six figures a year, and that money disappears once the resident moves in.
Across our client deployments, connected smart access and smart home typically save a 200-unit property $120,000 to $180,000 a year in operating costs alone, and that value keeps paying back year after year. And renewals matter just as much. When you invest in the resident experience, you recoup that initial cost through higher renewals, avoid lost rent from a vacant unit, and potentially avoid another set of concessions.
Where are concessions heaviest, by metro or by asset class? Are your customers in oversupplied markets like the Sun Belt behaving differently?
The listing data tells a consistent story. Realtor.com’s September report found concessions on about 44% of studio, one-, and two-bedroom listings across the 50 largest metros, and Zillow’s data shows roughly two in three listings carrying a deal in markets like Charlotte, Denver, Dallas, and Austin. It’s heaviest where a lot of new, higher-end supply was delivered at once, so newer Class A communities in lease-up are feeling it most. Operators in those markets are focused on speed. When a renter has five comparable options with the same free month, the property that gets them through the door first usually gets the first serious look.
Do concessions change who your clients attract or how long those residents stay? Is there a “concession chaser” problem that experience-driven differentiation helps solve?
A concession attracts renters who are price-shopping, and that’s not wrong. The real question is whether you give them a reason to stay once the free month is behind them. If a discount is the only thing that brought someone in, the next discount down the street is a pretty good reason to leave at renewal. That’s where the experience does the work, and renters are clear about what pushes them out. In our Access & Security Report, only 29% of renters who raised a safety concern said management fixed it quickly. Those are operational problems with operational fixes, and fixing them costs far less than re-leasing the unit. So I’d frame it less as a concession-chaser problem and more as a follow-through problem. Operators who deliver on what they showed at the tour turn price-motivated renters into residents who renew.
Nearly half of renters say they’ve picked or seriously considered a worse rental because it was easier to tour. What does “easy” mean to them in practice: self-guided, same-day, after hours?
“Easy” means the renter controls the timing. In our touring research, 42% of renters said they prefer a self-guided tour as their first step, more than any other format. Their reasons are practical: 41% want to take their time looking around, 35% want to tour on their own schedule, and 32% want to avoid feeling pressured.
Timing plays a big role. More than half of self-tours happen when the leasing office is closed; Saturday is the busiest touring day, and 88% of leads on our platform tour the same day they inquire. It also starts before the tour. Renters’ top scheduling frustrations are having to call or email instead of booking online and waiting for someone to confirm a time, and 78% said they’d move on within three days if a leasing office didn’t respond. In practice, an easy-to-tour rental is three things: booking online in a couple of clicks, seeing it today or this evening, and looking around without someone hovering.
Self-guided touring is becoming standard. If everyone offers it, how does an operator still win on ease?
Offering self-guided tours and delivering a great self-guided tour are two different things. The operators who win on ease get the details right in ways renters actually notice. It starts with fewer booking steps. When a renter can schedule directly from a Zillow or Apartments.com listing, they don’t have to switch platforms or wait for someone to follow up. They can schedule at the peak of their interest and most likely tour that same day.
Then the tour itself has to work every time. Renters told us they want confirmation that the listing is legitimate, clear instructions before they arrive, and help if something goes wrong. If the code fails or a renter can’t find the unit in a large garden-style community, you’ve lost them, and you’ve signaled how the property is run.
The last piece is people. Fifty-seven percent of renters still want someone available to answer questions about rent, fees, or lease terms. The best operators use self-guided tours to free up their teams for those conversations, and they follow up based on what actually happened on the tour rather than sending a generic email the next morning.
Your report says only 11% of renters fully trust listing claims like “gated community.” Does the tour now mostly serve to verify what the listing promised?
Increasingly, yes. The tour is where the listing either earns trust or loses it. Beyond the 11% who fully trust those claims, 37% of renters in our Access & Security Report said they mostly trust them but still verify on site, and 30% assume they’re exaggerated until they see proof.
About one in five physically check whether entry doors, gates, or cameras work before signing. That skepticism comes from experience. 56% of renters have lived somewhere with a security feature that existed but didn’t work, so they’ve learned to test what they’re told. For operators, that’s actually an opportunity. If your access and security match the listing, the tour proves it. With a free month on nearly every listing, a property that shows renters exactly what it promised has an advantage a discount can’t buy.
In a soft market, owners are cutting capex. Is now really the time to sell security upgrades, and who’s actually buying?
A soft market is the best time to focus on tech-stack efficiency and optimizations to drive better results. Tie tech stack decisions to what owners care about: renewals, rent, and operating costs. Renters are telling us they’ll pay for reliable security upgrades. In our Access & Security Report, 60% said they’d accept a rent increase for community-wide security upgrades, averaging $74 a month among those willing.
On retention, when security features break and stay broken, residents leave, and every move-out in this market likely comes with another concession. Owners aren’t buying more devices right now just for it. They want access and security that connect to the systems they’re already using, cover more of the property with less hardware, and give the on-site team time back instead of adding work.
Our sales data reflects all three scenarios. The main groups purchasing our access control and security cameras are operators replacing aging systems, communities where staff spend hours operating gates and meeting vendors, and new construction or build-to-rent designing smart access control from day one.
Comfort drops sharply for license plate readers (21%) and face scanning (19%). Where is the line on resident surveillance versus resident safety and security, and has any customer pushed too far?
The line is transparency and purpose. Renters are fairly clear about where they draw the line. In our survey, 67% are comfortable with at least one advanced security technology, led by cameras in shared spaces (37%) and cameras that alert staff when someone enters a restricted area (34%).
Comfort drops for tools that identify residents personally, like plate readers and face scanning. What I take from that is that renters welcome technology that protects the community and want more say over technology that identifies them. A plate reader that opens the parking gate for residents is a convenience when it’s explained and limited to that job. It feels very different if no one tells you it’s there. The strongest signal in our data is about notice. Fifty-two percent of renters say advance notice before anyone enters their home matters more than any other safeguard.
That’s the principle I’d apply everywhere: tell residents what’s happening, why, and give them control. I won’t speak to individual customers, but the operators who get this right explain their technology at move-in, use it for a clear purpose, and offer alternatives where they can.
If concessions continue into 2027, what does the winning operator look like 12 months from now?
The winning operator treats concessions as a tactic, not a strategy. As new supply tapers, many markets should start to tighten, and operators who bought occupancy without building loyalty will feel it at renewal time.
Here’s what I think the winner looks like. Renters can book a tour in a couple of clicks and see the home the same day, on their own schedule. The access and security features in the listing actually work, and when something breaks, it gets fixed quickly. Residents know who’s entering their home and when. Leasing teams spend their time building relationships and securing renewals instead of opening doors. Underneath it all is connected access. Every door at a property, from the tour to the front door to the amenities, tells you something about what’s working. Operators who connect those signals and act on them will lease faster, keep residents longer, and need fewer concessions.
– Nick Pipitone
