Multifamily measures everything: rent growth, renewal rates, delinquency, turn times. If it moves, we dashboard it. Yet in conversations with operators, one area we consistently hear feels harder to pin down is marketing ROI. 

Why? It’s not because teams aren’t tracking performance; they are. The challenge is that the dynamics shaping demand have changed.

While churn patterns hold steady, the ways renters search — and the channels operators rely on — have expanded. Marketplaces, paid channels, and search platforms all play a role in discovery, and exposure costs now reflect this mix. That makes long-term ROI harder to read cleanly. And it’s why so many operators are beginning to revisit a familiar question:

How do we build a more predictable, controllable, and repeatable foundation for demand?

Many are finding the answer requires a shift the industry has talked around for years: moving from third-party leasing dependency to first-party leasing control. Let’s explain.

The ILS Problem: Why Marketing ROI Feels Harder to Maintain 

Marketplaces have long been central to multifamily leasing. We all know the ILS landscape: Zillow, Apartments.com, Rent.com, ApartmentList — highly influential platforms, built on operators’ inventory, data, and advertising budgets.

This reliance on ILSes made sense when multifamily portfolios were smaller and resident data was harder to connect. But scale has changed, and the math along with it. Now, operators spend billions every year filling exposure through these platforms. And every year, the same structural realities repeat:

1. Churn is high — and painfully predictable.

Over 40% of multifamily residents move out each year. That means every 12 months, operators have to replace a significant share of their customer base just to stay flat.

2. Most movers remain qualified renters in the market. 

About 75% of departing renters stay in professionally managed housing. Meaning, they aren’t leaving the ecosystem. They’re just moving to a different property — often, another institutional operator using the same marketing channels.

3. Operators pay to acquire the same type of customer again and again.

Between marketing expenses and vacancy loss, operators lose an average of $3,000–$5,000 in turnover costs per unit. A good chunk of that is paid to third-party pipelines, so that renters can effectively shuffle between similar properties in the same cities. It’s an elegant business model if you’re a marketplace. But for operators? Not so much.

What This Means for ROI

On the surface, marketplace performance can look straightforward: a listing generates leads, leads become tours, and some of those tours convert. It’s clean attribution. But clean attribution isn’t the same as long-term efficiency. 

Over time, relying on that surface-level clarity has led the industry to accept a pattern where:

  • A “successful” leasing strategy relying on ILS platforms and PPC campaigns runs hundreds to thousands of dollars per acquired renter
  • Renters’ average LTV remains capped at 12–18 months
  • The same renter could be reacquired multiple times by the same operator, each time at full price
  • And ILS spend only rises as more operators rely on it to patch over churn

You don’t need us to say it: This distribution model is not sustainable. And it’s not the model hotels, airlines, retail, or subscription businesses chose once they understood the economics. They built first-party pathways — ways to keep customers in-network, not in the open market.

Multifamily is now at that same inflection point.

Why the Future of Leasing Will Be First-Party

As operators look for ways to bring more stability to their demand mix, many are revisiting the role their existing residents can play. That shift has brought more attention to first-party leasing — making it easier for residents to renew, transfer, or relocate within the same portfolio.

The unlock is the early intent that shows up long before a resident turns to outside listings — intent that often goes unseen today. And the next step is understanding what it takes to surface and act on those signals across a portfolio.

What First-Party Leasing Looks Like In Practice

At its core, first-party leasing comes down to a few key capabilities:

  • Portfolio visibility. Residents can easily see relevant alternatives within the operator’s portfolio — options that reflect their current home, preferences, and what’s changing in their life.
  • Predictive signals. Operators gain earlier insight into resident intent — the questions, preferences, and pressures that often surface weeks or months before a formal notice to vacate.
  • Supported transitions. When a resident signals they may be relocating — because of price, space needs, or timing— they’re guided toward in-network homes before beginning a broader search.
  • A continuous experience. Moves within the portfolio don’t require residents to reapply, duplicate deposits, or navigate disconnected processes.
  • Loyalty that’s rewarded. Residents experience recognition and tangible benefits for staying within the operator’s ecosystem, rather than starting over each time they move.

TL;DR: First-party leasing connects the lease cycles, helping residents stay in-network and helping operators keep the relationships they’ve earned.

How First-Party Leasing Strengthens ROI

When these pathways become part of everyday leasing, the economics start to shift in ways operators can both feel and measure:

  • Lower acquisition costs. When more residents stay in-network, operators depend less on paid channels to fill exposure.
  • Reduced vacancy loss. Internal transitions can shorten the time between move-out and move-in.
  • Higher lifetime value. Extending residency — whether through renewal or relocation — increases LTV without additional marketing spend.
  • Stronger brand continuity. Residents begin to experience a portfolio as a unified brand, which strengthens recognition and trust across communities.

In short, more of the demand operators create stays with them. Platforms like Renew Marketplace help support that continuity behind the scenes, without requiring new operational lift.

What a Successful Hybrid Model Looks Like

To be clear, a first-party leasing model doesn’t replace the need for external channels. And nor should it. Marketplaces and paid channels will always have a place in multifamily — they offer reach, visibility, and access to new audiences. The opportunity is to rebalance how these channels work together.

When first-party pathways are layered in, operators often find that demand becomes more evenly distributed. In practice, a successful hybrid model looks like:

  • Renewals and in-network moves carrying more of the leasing load.
  • Residents starting their search inside the portfolio vs. the open market.
  • Third-party channels serving as a strategic supplement rather than the default source of demand.
  • Marketing budgets shifting toward strengthening relationships with known residents.
  • Exposure becoming more manageable as more demand originates internally

We’re already seeing operators move in this direction, with early outcomes showing stronger retention, steadier leasing performance, and clearer marketing ROI over time.

The 2026 Playbook: How to Build a More Resilient Leasing Model

If the goal is to capture more demand from the residents already in your portfolio, the question is how to operationalize that. In our experience, resilience in 2026 stems from practical shifts that strengthen internal pathways and reduce reliance on external volatility. You can start off by:

1. Shifting your mindset from “Cost to Fill Units” to “Cost to Keep Customers.” 

New demand is essential, but retention and in-network mobility increasingly drive long-term results. When teams factor in the value of keeping a resident, not just the cost of acquiring one, the math changes. More renewals and portfolio moves lead to:

  • Less reliance on paid channels to backfill demand
  • Fewer and shorter gaps between residents
  • Stronger lifetime value
  • More predictable marketing spend

This shift creates a stronger foundation for 2026 — one where growth comes not only from generating demand, but from holding onto more of it.

2. Making portfolio options visible at the moments that matter.

Residents rarely make a housing decision all at once. Their intent shows up first in small signals — questions about price, interest in more space, or changes in their day-to-day needs. Historically, operators haven’t had a way to surface in-portfolio options when those signals appear. A first-party approach helps by:

  • Showing relevant homes across the portfolio based on a resident’s preferences and changing needs
  • Responding to intent signals internally before they become marketplace searches
  • Creating a consistent, simplified transition process for moves within the operator’s ecosystem

At Renew, we automate these pathways so operators don’t have to stitch systems together manually.

3. Reinvesting saved acquisition dollars into resident value.

As internal pathways strengthen, spending on external channels often becomes more flexible. We see a lot of operators choose to reinvest a portion of that capacity into resident experience improvements, like:

  • Early renewal incentives
  • Transfer credits
  • Lighter, more supportive touchpoints during transitions

These small shifts can meaningfully influence resident behavior by making in-network options feel more straightforward.

4. Use third-party channels strategically.

In a first-party model, the role of marketplaces and paid channels often becomes more intentional. Instead of carrying the full weight of demand, they’re used to support specific moments where external reach adds the most value. In practice, that can look like:

  • Calibrating spend to real exposure risk, not fixed budgets. Renewal momentum, projected expirations, and internal pipeline strength can help indicate when additional reach is useful (and when it isn’t).
  • Deploying marketplaces where they add the most marginal value. This might include seasonal softening, new lease-ups, or submarkets where internal pathways are still taking shape.
  • Diversifying the channel mix. Testing multiple marketplaces, paid search, social, and local advertising can surface which sources bring in higher-intent prospects for each property or region.
  • Evaluating performance through LTV, not just CPL. Channels that attract longer-tenured residents may deliver stronger long-term value, even if the initial cost is higher.

In this setup, third-party channels offer flexibility rather than reliance, supporting internal pathways instead of replacing them.

A More Predictable Future for Multifamily

If there’s a common thread running through all of this, it’s that multifamily has more value sitting inside its portfolios than the current model captures. First-party pathways, portfolio visibility, and a more intentional use of third-party channels all move in the same direction: helping operators keep more of the demand they’ve worked hard to earn.

For residents, that translates into fewer restarts and a clearer way to stay with a brand they trust. For operators, it translates into steadier performance and marketing investments that compound instead of reset every year. And the more multifamily can align those two outcomes, the stronger the industry will be. 

The next phase of NOI growth belongs to operators who can own more of their own demand, not rent it back from third parties. That’s the future we’re designing Renew around.

‍Explore how we support operators building first-party pathways.