Landlord & Property Management Statistics You Can Use (2025)
What these trends mean for Indianapolis rental investors
We closed out this month’s podcast with a data-driven look at national property-management and renter trends—translated into practical moves for investors in the Indianapolis metro. Below is a concise roundup of the numbers and how to use them to protect cash flow, reduce vacancy, and scale your portfolio wisely.
Maintenance & Operations
- 61% of PMs say maintenance coordination is the biggest daily challenge. Investor move: authorize a sensible repair threshold (we recommend ~$500) so urgent items are handled same-day, protecting tenant satisfaction and renewals.
- 58% of PMs struggle with slow owner approvals. Delays trigger extra trip charges, rescheduling, and unhappy residents—costs that dwarf the initial repair.
- 40% still use paper for inspections/notes. That’s error-prone and slow. Modern, photo/video-documented inspections reduce disputes and protect your asset.
- Only 38% use automated workflows (renewals, rent increases). Automation = fewer misses, faster cycle times, and tighter revenue management.
Resident Experience & Retention
- National tenant retention averages <51%; top-tier managers hit 60–65%+. Renewals are far cheaper than turns—fast, transparent communication wins here.
- One mid-lease inspection can cut damages by ~40%. Pair that with video documentation and a 30-day violation/remedy process for best results.
- 25% of renters consider online maintenance requests non-negotiable. Offer it or risk losing quality applicants.
Renter Demand & Demographics
- 30% of renters are actively shopping for their next place. Leasing-ready homes (clean, priced right, pro photos) capture this demand.
- 66% plan to rent 3+ more years. That’s your retention opportunity—keep response times tight and renewal increases reasonable.
- Median renter age is ~39; renter households are 35%+ of U.S. households and growing.
- Boomer renters (55+) projected to rise ~22% by 2030. Single-level floor plans and “primary on main” layouts will lease fast.
Landlord Landscape
- ~70% of rentals are owned by individual investors. You’re not competing with institutions as much as many fear.
- Why landlords sell: maintenance headaches (43%), difficult tenants, and poor cash flow. The antidote: tighter screening, proactive maintenance, and realistic underwriting over a 5–10 year horizon.
Market & Screening Trends
- Rents rose ~18% since 2020, but growth cooled to ~2% YoY in 2024–2025. Budget for modest increases; win on occupancy and turn efficiency.
- Application fraud is up ~17% in two years. Expect fake IDs and doctored pay stubs—deploy layered screening, document verification, and fraud tools.
- Top renter “must-haves” include in-unit laundry hookups and central air. In single-family rentals, provide hookups; avoid maintaining W/D units unless you must.
- Flexible lease terms are attractive to renters, but risky for owners. Align expirations with strong leasing seasons (spring/early summer) to limit vacancy loss.
- Tenant churn could rise 10–15% as supply stabilizes. Beat the average with responsiveness, fair increases, and well-timed renewal outreach.
Action Plan for Indianapolis Investors
- Protect retention: 24–48 hour repair response, proactive inspections, and renewal outreach 90–120 days before lease end.
- Harden screening: income/employment verification, ID forensics, fraud detection, and strict rental criteria.
- Automate the boring stuff: renewals, notices, follow-ups, rent-increase logic—keep people focused on resident care and asset protection.
- Design for your renter: single-level living, central air, fenced yards, and pet-friendly policies (with fair pet fees) expand your applicant pool.
- Think 5–10 years: modest rent growth + strong occupancy + controlled turns = durable returns in the Indianapolis rental market.
Want these systems working for you? See our Indianapolis property management, browse Indianapolis homes for rent to benchmark pricing, or learn more about our investor-first approach at Red Door Property Management.
Transcript Here
00:07 Stats Segment Introduction
All right, guys. We finally come to the end of the podcast. We're going to jump into the RIP rental market uh as it pertains to statistics to individual landlords as well as property managers. So, it's kind of like a behind-the-scenes look at some of the numbers of what property managers struggle with. Uh why you might be interested in hiring a property manager because uh so many other landlords are struggling with the same things. Let's look at some of the behind the scene numbers that we're seeing on a national level. Uh and let's just kind of talk about I'm just kind of curious about this. This is this is kind of um I'm kind of in for my own interest. Um going to read off some of these numbers and I'm going to bore Mike with some of these. So, let's dive into some of these and let's see let's see where it takes us. All right. All right.01:01 Maintenance Coordination Challenges
So, number one, and I've already mentioned this a couple times to Mike, uh, so you should have it memorized at this point, but we're going to mention this first one again. 61% of property managers say maintenance coordination is their biggest day-to-day challenge. So, number one, I guess Mike, would you agree with that? Do you do you think that that's is that something we at Red Door find uh one of our biggest struggles? What do you think?Yes. Uh I mean maintenance is I mean you talk to any owner of of of rental property and that's probably their number one complaint is maintenance, right? Uh it's it's just a pain. I mean it just is it just is you know coordinating with the tenant, coordinating with a vendor, finding uh finding trusted vendors who are going to provide a good service at a good price uh is it's just difficult. I mean it's it is unbelievable. We have an entire maintenance department. We have full-time uh maintenance coordinators that that's all they do. Like they just work between the vendors and the tenants and the owners and that's all they do. I mean it's it's a tremendous amount of work. Yeah. To coordinate all this. It just is.
Yeah. Yeah. And and if hopefully we can only spend just a couple lines on each one of these as we can blaze through them. Um but I know that you and I could both go into a long spiel on each one of these data points. Yeah. Yes. Uh, one of the one of the top reasons uh, new new investors or even long-term investors or if they've expanded their portfolio, the reason they're reaching out to a property manager is because handling the maintenance uh, at a scalable level is very difficult. So, having a property manager, not only that, hiring a trusted vendor is so difficult, right? You call someone you think is reliable and they don't show up. Uh, and doing that from out of state is absolutely uh, unsustainable. You you can't do it. So, uh, yes, 61% of all property managers say maintenance coordination is their biggest day-to-day challenge. And that is absolutely true. That is where a majority of our staff lies so that we don't make it a challenge for our individual uh, owners.
02:45 Outdated Paper-Based Systems
All right, here we go. 40% of property managers still rely on paperbased systems for inspections and notes. See, I that's why See, this is going to get excite me as we go through these. Yeah. Right. 40% of property managers still rely on paper as they're doing their inspect. 40% almost half. This is for what? Inspections. What is this?Yeah. For inspections, uh for paperbased systems for their inspections and notes.
Wow.
No, no. We do video. We do photos. These are all online systems that we use. Gosh, it's only a matter of time before AI makes these systems even better. And if you're still on paper and pen doing your inspections, oh my gosh, this is this is what you're going to get. And not only that, the mistakes that are that are possible. So errorrone very errorprone. Uh so in fact if you're in search of a new property manager uh maybe I'd be asking do you rely on a paperbased system for your inspections? That is a good question. That is a good question.
Absolutely. Right. And the answer is no. We don't. Uh we are very technologically based system. Uh that is one way we're able to keep our monthly management fee at still a reasonable level. Uh but we're still at a point where we're able to employ these systems uh so that we can protect your asset to the best of our ability. So there you go. 40% of all property managers use paper and pen.
Wow. You got to think if they're using it for the inspection that they're they're doing that at the office level, too, you know.
Exact. Can you imagine? I can't imagine going back to that. It's just it's not sustainable. It's it's chaos.
Yeah. Yeah. That's crazy.
04:17 Client Loss from Poor Communication
All right. Here we go. 75% of property managers say they've lost clients due to poor communication. Now, this doesn't surprise us, right? But I had to highlight. I had to mention it in these uh the 60 that I have to go through. I don't have 60, but I have a lot. I do have a lot that I want to go through. 75% of property managers say they've lost clients due to poor communication.If you've watched our podcast, this is exactly why or if you've had me on the phone, this is exactly why uh we put such so much money, so much effort into our communication platforms, our our video communication platforms. Yes. If we know that if we excel in this area, we're taking 75% of of the other property managers clients because we're we're awesome at it. Okay. So, yes, we put a lot of effort in our communication platforms and abilities.
So yeah, if you're an owner, you better make sure that the communications systems that your property manager that you're vetting has in place are are top-notch.
Yeah. How how do you communicate would be, you know, is it email when we do email, text, video, phone, all the above?
Yeah. Video. We do video. Video you and I or we maximize video communication. I love me some looms. You know I do. I love me some looms.
05:34 Owner Delays in Approving Repairs
All right. Here we go. 58% of property managers say dealing with owners who don't approve repairs promptly is a top frustration. 58% of property managers. Okay. So, well over half of property managers say that dealing with owners who don't approve repairs promptly is a main concern.Yes, that is. I know that uh it's easy these days to get owners to understand why we have a $500 maintenance limit. Um now, we we we will reduce that. We we absolutely stress the importance of not reducing that lower. In fact, gosh, you almost need to hire it these days. But, uh, yeah, $500 maintenance limit is absolutely essential to respond to maintenance concerns because responding to those maintenance concerns is absolutely going to bleed into your tenant retention. Okay?
And and so, and so the numbers speak for themselves. Over well over half of property managers say that dealing with owners who don't approve them promptly is a main concern. And that's a concern that we have. We understand as an investor, you don't want to spend money, but it's also important that we educate you. The reason uh to spend that money is to overall maximize your return.
Yeah. Uh so, and having a property manager that isn't needlessly spending your money is important also. So, for sure, well, it's like you got to have a you got to have a level of trust with your with your property manager because, you know, they're managing a huge asset for you.
And what ultimately ends up happening is if you get a non-responsive owner or if you have somebody who, you know, won't let you spend any money at all without without approving them, what happens is you'll go out there, you'll send a a contractor out there, they'll diagnose the problem and if you can't get a response from the owner, then they're going to have to go on and then they have to come back. Well, you've now incurred a trip fee. Now, I mean, the days of free estimates, that's over. Everybody charges, I mean, a hundred to $200 just to go out and do anything. And so that repair now has doubled in cost a lot of times because you've got to pay that trip charge. Uh and you got to get them back out there to do the whole thing.
And then not to mention, you've also irritated the tenant because now now you haven't fixed it in a timely manner. Now you got to get them back out there. You got to get rescheduled. Some some tenants are weird and they want to be home for all of this. So now you just you introduced additional time, additional delay, and additional irritation to the tenant. And the more you do that with a tenant, the less satisfied they're going to be and the less likely they are going to be to renew, which is then going to increase your uh vacancy rate, your turnover cost, all that kind of stuff.
So, it really does it really does benefit you to uh respond quickly and, you know, have some trust in your property manager.
Yes, it's costing you a lot more than the immediately observable dollar that you're seeing in that repair. Yes. Yes. Tenant frustration.
08:00 Lack of Automated Workflows
All right, moving on. Only 38% of property managers use automated workflows for lease renewals or rent increases. Now, this you talk about what sets us apart from other property management companies. Mike, only 38% of other property managers are using automated workflows.It's insane.
How are they surviving? How are they doing it? Well, they're not doing it efficiently and as effectively as they could. I can promise you that.
Yeah.
Or all that. Yeah. I mean it's the same people who are using the uh the paper checklists, you know.
Yeah, exactly. We have built these automated workflows to be efficient not only for us but for our owners. So there you go. What sets us apart? We have automated workflows for every situation that comes up with with your asset. So there you go. Sets us apart from a large majority of them.
09:01 Tenant Retention Rates
Okay, here we go. The national average tenant retention rate is below 51%. Top tier property managers exceed 60 to 65%. So the only reason I'm highlighting this is because well we're top tier. All right. So we have a much higher retention rate than your average property management companies. So uh again back to I love patting uh patting myself on the back and that comes to my association with Red Door Property Management. We're we're hitting that uh we're hitting well above that and that's due to all these other other reasons that we've already mentioned.All right, let's keep moving this along.
Well, let me just add two cents on that, Chris.
All right. Go ahead.
Uh, just kind of the just to highlight the mentality that we have here. So, we actually uh incentivize our property managers to have a higher lease renewal rate. I mean, like that's one of their quarterly bonuses is based on achieving a certain lease renewal rate with our existing tenants. And the reason is is because we want to be financially motivated. We want to be like on the same page with the owner.
So, uh, if the owner wins, we win. And so, that's that's kind of the how we try to structure everything is that it's a it's a win-win situation for Red Door, for the owner, for even the tenant. Um, and so anyway, just wanted to mention that that that we literally put our money where our mouth is. We bonus our property managers on a quarterly basis based on the renewal rate of the current residence.
Yeah. So the point there is not only tenant retention doesn't only infect your your pocketbook as an investor but also uh Red Door employees. So we are incentivized. Yes, tenant retention is absolutely top top concern.
10:36 Mid-Lease Inspections Reduce Damages
Okay here we go. Property managers who conduct at least one mid lease inspection reduce tenant damages by 40%. Now uh yeah so um a lot of property management companies will say that they do a uh an inspection. Okay. uh very few of them actually get it completed. Not only do we complete it, but it's our process that goes in place when there is a lease violation in place.So, any any damage that might be observable that is going to exceed normal wear and tear on a property, we do issue a 30-day lease violation to the tenant and insist that it be resolved within that 30-day time frame or we discuss uh what next steps are appropriate. So, we do hold the tenant responsible and we are absolutely reducing tenant damages. So, um, yeah, it's important and and not only that, our inspection, at least as of right now, is, uh, still included at no additional cost to you. It is included with your standard fee structure. So, it is it is free to you. Uh, so that that inspection is completed, shared with you, and then actioned as as appropriate.
Yeah. And uh, it is true that a lot of property managers don't don't do the inspection. So, I mean, going back to communication and transparency, I mean, not only do we do them, but we send you the video. It's a video walkthrough of the home. And so, it's sent to the owner. So, I mean, there's like literally no doubt uh that a we did it or b that you're not seeing the condition of the property. So, uh anyway, I just want to highlight that that we we do video walkthrough and we send it to the owners.
Yeah. Yeah. Documentation of the property is very high on my list is absolutely essential.
12:10 Renter Behavior & Demographics
So, okay, we're moving on. We're going to go on to renter behavior and demographics. Only got a couple here. Uh so bear with me here. 30% of renters are actively looking for a new rental. So there I mean that talks to several different of these other data points. Uh but tenant retention, why are they actively looking for a new rental? It's also why rent uh in real estate investment is is still great. 30% of renters are still actively looking for a new rental property. Uh, so it's a great time to still get into real estate investment. Uh, no, it's not too late. Uh, the rental market's booming. 30% of them are currently looking for a new rental property.Uh, 66% plan to rent for at least three more years. Okay, so 66% of all tenants are planning to rent for at least three more years. You need to make every effort that those three years are spent with your property. That's tenant retention. Uh, everything that we've mentioned is going to speak to how you can maximize your tenant retention. All right. 66% plan to rent for at least three more years.
Median renter age 39. Just thought that was interesting. Median renter age.
Oh, crazy. That is—
I know, right? I thought it would be much younger, right?
Yeah. I thought it'd be like 29.
Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Just making sure you thought the same.
Yeah. Uh, renter households now make up over 35% of US households and growing quickly.
So, if you're considering getting into real estate investment, yes, it's a great time to do so because that market's growing. 35% of US households.
13:47 Landlord Stats & Reasons for Selling
All right, let's get into a couple landlord stats here. Now, we're we're almost there. Yeah, we're almost there. We only got about uh 62 left. Uh landlord stats. Individual investors own about 70% of all rental properties in the US. Now, there's this big um big big push, big um what's the word I'm looking for? You know, everyone thinks that these large conglomerate um investors are picking up all the properties. Well, that's not exactly true. 70% uh are are are owned by individual investors.Interesting.
Yeah. Yeah. All right. Top three reasons landlords sell their rental property. And now we've we've— Can you guess?
No. Give me just give me here.
This is fun. We're doing this. I don't care. We're doing it. All right. Top. Top three reasons. Okay. That landlords sell their rental property. Can you give me Can you give me one?
Maintenance cost.
Yes. Number one, maintenance headaches. Maintenance headaches. 43% are selling it because of maintenance headaches. Hire a trusted property manager. Can you want to give me another one?
Uh, yeah. I I know it's kind of open. Other than maintenance costs, I don't know what the—
I don't know money. Not enough money.
Not enough money. Poor cash flow, right? It's not making them any money. And then uh so here we go. Maintenance headaches. 43% are unloading their properties uh because of maintenance headaches.
Number two, difficult tenants. Well, if you don't if if you're new to this, difficult tenants is part of the game. Uh start with a property manager who knows how to handle difficult tenants. We we we come across in the hundreds of properties that we manage. Uh and then number three is poor cash flow, right? So just probably making poor decisions uh which is leading to poor cash flow or or having a little bit of a—I think we see this a lot where um investors have uh not a not a long enough time horizon, not a long long enough uh outlook and they're looking at this this week or this month or this year. And real estate investing is about the long term. It is the long play.
Um, and so yeah, there's going to be months or years where you will lose money in investing in real estate. And if you can't if you don't go into it with that mindset, of course, you're going to get frustrated and of course you're going to sell because you're not going to make two, three, four, 500 bucks a month right off the bat, you know, uh, buying a house. And and I mean, of course, you can do that, but you got to do some work, probably do a rehab and all that kind of stuff. But yeah, it's not about that. It's not about that. It's about having a longer time horizon for uh for the rental home.
Yeah. Exactly. Exactly.
16:28 Rent Prices & Market Trends
All right. Now, let's get into a category. Rent prices and market trends. Here we go. Rent prices have increased 18% nationally since 2020, but growth has slowed. And this is the reason I want to mention this. Growth has slowed.Um, averaging about 2% year-over-year in 2024 and 2025. So, rent prices increased 18% nationally since 2020. We've seen that, right?
But I do think that we are we are right in the middle of seeing that the other is true as well. It's it's averaging out now. Um it's not growing like it like it was. We get a lot of new owners, you know this as well as I do that it's our vacancy is um oftentimes um new properties new properties have a much higher vacancy rate than than our properties that are having turnover right because those are of often trained landlords. They understand they've trust us we run the analysis we do minor uh rent increases as the market allows but these new investors right now they're still trying to capitalize on that 18% uh and and Westfield's a good good idea you start with this astronomically high rental rate where you need to tamper your expectations.
Like to your point, you don't need to cash flow $500 off the bat. There are other advantages to real estate. Uh and also know that that that boom that we were seeing from 2020 that is essentially over in my opinion. We are seeing still modest increases year-over-year. Uh but you're not you're not jumping your rent by $300 on an annual basis.
No, it's not going to happen. Uh, I mean, we'll probably see that again, but who knows when that's going to happen. The again, it's it's about the long time horizon. You're never going to time the market. Nobody ever saw COVID coming. Nobody saw the the increases like that coming, but you just you experienced it as an investor because you owned those homes. And so, we're, you're right, we're probably not going to see 20% year-over-year increases. Uh, but it's going to be a little bit, a little bit, a little bit, and then maybe something will happen, then it'll be a big, and then a little little, and it will average out over time. And again, have that long time horizon. Uh, and it will it will pay off.
18:32 Rental Application Fraud
That's right. Exactly. Yeah. Rental application. No, this is it. This is another big one. Okay. All right. Rental application fraud has risen by 17%. 17% in the last two years.I would say 117%. Honestly, that's what we've experienced.
Yes. So, my goodness, if you don't have the systems in place, and by judging by some of those previous statistics, a lot of property managers very likely don't have the systems in place uh to properly qualify your tenant. Uh or if you if you're trying to self-manage, my goodness, fraud, application fraud has increased, and we're seeing it here on the ground. Our applications team has had to become literally forensic scientists to identify fake IDs, fake payubs, and they can do it, and we see it every single day. Uh, so yeah, either have the systems in place to do it or you better be really good at it as an individual landlord or hire someone who's trusted.
I would be I would be terrified to approve somebody as an individual landlord, honestly.
New to this. Yeah. Can you imagine? No way.
No way.
No. No. That's Yeah, I thought that was a staggering statistic there.
19:36 Tenant Preferences
Um, okay. Here we go. We're almost there. I promise. Uh, tenant preferences. Top three renter must-haves. Now, this is uh this is the only reason I'm mentioning this is because of the second one here. So, top three renter must haves.63% of renters say that they must have in-unit laundry. Now, when I immediately read this, I read it as it must have a washer and dryer. I don't think that's what they're saying. They they think that it just must have the ability for a laundry unit. What do you think?
Uh I think that probably was geared more towards multif family is what it sounds like to me.
Right.
Um so yeah I would say uh washer and dryer. So but but it's a different the expectation is not there if you're doing single family homes. It's just to have a washer dryer uh connection.
Yeah. So if you're thinking about washer my my uh recommendation is always uh I wouldn't it's not uh considered expected now in single family homes. I would not provide them unless you have them and you don't need I don't even then I might even consider I would get rid of them personally I would get rid of them. They're just down all the time. People treat them like crap. They're expensive to repair and it doesn't matter what you have in your lease agreement. You can say that you're not going to repair them but tr it doesn't matter. The tenant is going to expect you to repair them which then you have now a frustrated tenant.
All right. All right. Here we go. Um oh I have to mention one other one in that category. Uh must have central air. Central air conditioning. It's a no-brainer. Yeah.
It's 2025. If you don't have central air, you better be looking at putting it in.
Um, okay. More than 40% of renters say flexible lease terms would be a key decision factor. I wasn't sure about this one. So, we don't have very flexible lease terms. It is uh and and we do that, I think, for a reason. Maybe you'll say otherwise, but I think we do that for a reason. to set set the expectation on the front end that look, we we want to be accommodating, but the term the terms are what the terms are so that both parties know what's expected of them. And if you're flexible on those, it gets real muddy real fast.
No. Uh, sorry. As an owner, no. I want to know that my tenants going to move out in April and not in November. So, I don't want to have a You could just give me 30 days notice and get out of here. No way. So, I maybe they want that, but I would say for a landlord that is a terrible idea.
It's not in your best interest. Exactly. Yeah. So, but I thought that was interesting to at least be aware of.
21:53 Online Maintenance Requests & Future Trends
Okay, we only got three more and we're done. Um, okay. Nearly 25%ers, excuse me, nearly 25% of renters say online maintenance requests are non-negotiable.So, one in four, and we talk about these other property managers who are using paper and pen, uh, but these one in four renters are saying that they have to have the ability to submit an online maintenance request. If you're an individual landlord, you don't have that ability. I It's almost certain. Okay. Uh, as as an experienced property management company, we of course do.
Um, here we go. Two more uh trend predictions. Here we go. for 2025. To wrap this up, increase in renter population from boomers 55 and over is projected to rise by 22% by 2030.
Okay. Yes. I I thought that was pretty crazy. So, over the next five to 10 years, uh renting is the game that you want to be a part of.
Well, and you think about that. So, boomers, what are they going to want? They're going to probably want ranch homes or at least a master on the main on the main level. That's right.
Yeah. Yep. So, you know, those little three-bedroom, two baths, 1500 foot ranches are where it's at, you know, and those are the ones, if you go back to our podcast, I mean, those are the houses we're encouraging people to pick up. And that, you know, 250 to 300 range in Westfield or in Noblesville or whatever it is. So, uh I don't know, maybe something to keep in the back of your mind if you're thinking about picking up a rental home here.
That's exactly right. That's before I even shared any of these statistics with Mike. Uh is yes, go back to our podcast, look at our market reports. It's exactly why our experience is leading to educate you on the type of investment property that you should be looking into. And that's because this information was already in our blood.
23:42 Tenant Turnover Predictions & Closing
All right, last one. Here we go. Uh tenant churn rates expected to rise by 10 to 15% as housing supply stabilizes.So, not that much of an ending boom, but just an interesting fact. I thought tenant turn rates expected to rise 10 to 15% as housing supply stabilizes.
Cool. That's it. That's going to wrap up our market statistics for an individual landlord and your property management companies. And I don't know what you think. I think a lot of good information there for conversationwise. And I know we're on the tail end of our podcast and we're like, let's wrap this puppy up. But I think there was some good valuable information there, not only for us uh to to continue to keep us as the experts in the industry, but also for anyone who's looking for uh a new property management company. So, I think there's value there.
Absolutely.
All right, guys. Uh thanks for tuning in. Like, subscribe. You're going to get all these uh individual segments that are broken up, but you can watch it from front to end at your convenience. Uh all of our uh social media channels are listed at the bottom of those graphics. Check it out. Uh you can find us on Instagram, Tik Tok even. Can you believe that? I don't even use Tik Tok that much. But uh Facebook of course, uh Instagram, all those things. So be sure to check, find us out, like and subscribe, reach out with questions. If you're looking for a rental analysis, uh you know how to reach us. I've already mentioned several. Drop in the DMs. Uh we'll get back to you here as soon as possible. Uh until then, we'll catch you in the next podcast.
See you.
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