AIM 2026: The Price is Right: What We've Learned about Fee Transparency

The Price is Right: What We've Learned about Fee Transparency

Greg Benson, Managing Director of Marketing at Greystar, joined experts from Apartments.com, Yardi, Engrain, and BH Management to share data on total monthly leasing price. The consistent finding across multiple datasets: renters prefer transparency, and giving it to them can improve business performance.

Greystar surveyed more than 50,000 prospects and residents and found overwhelmingly positive responses to enhanced fee disclosure. Across more than 2,400 communities, nearly 70% saw reputation scores improve following implementation, with the increase averaging 18 points above the expected organic improvement. Greystar's modeling associated that improvement with more than $75,000 in incremental NOI per property.

Apartments.com data reinforced the consumer preference: 85% of renters surveyed wanted an all-in monthly price, and roughly half considered an unexpected difference between advertised and final price a deal breaker. Properties displaying total monthly pricing generated 15–20% more leads and approximately 20% higher lead-to-lease conversion than competitors in their markets.

Yardi's analysis of roughly 400 properties similarly found that communities moving from base rent to total monthly leasing price increased leads and leases consistently across a seven-month period. Rather than reducing engagement, cost calculators encouraged renters to personalize their costs and accelerated high-intent prospects toward applications.

Perhaps the strongest example came from BH Management's Right Price Promise pilot. Three communities consolidated recurring fees into one transparent price. Initial lead and tour volume declined, but prospects increasingly self-qualified before contacting the property. Applications and approvals increased, renewal conversion improved, and over the 12-month pilot, average NOI increased 7.3%, bad debt declined 44%, and Google ratings improved from 3.0 to 3.8.

Key Takeaways

• Treat transparency as marketing, not just compliance. Clear pricing can build trust and improve acquisition.
• Fewer leads can still produce a better funnel. Transparency allows prospects who cannot afford the true cost to self-qualify out earlier.
• Cost calculators drive engagement. Renters want to personalize parking, pets, storage, utilities, and other expenses.
• Simplify the fee structure. Yardi found an average of 26 fees per property, raising the question of whether fragmentation creates unnecessary confusion.
• Make total pricing machine-readable. Structured data and schema can help transparent pricing appear in traditional and AI-powered search.
• There may be a first-mover advantage. As regulation and consumer expectations converge around total pricing, operators implementing it now may benefit before it becomes standard practice.