Every figure on this page links to the organization that produced it, and each was re-checked against that source before publishing. How U.S. property managers and apartment operators use video and tours, and the evidence behind it: our own read of 335 property management homepages and the software behind them; how many renters tour in person, by video or not at all; what listed landlords report about self-guided tours; how many property managers, leasing agents and management companies there are and what they earn; renters, rents and vacancy; the fair housing and FTC rules on rental ads and fees; and where five popular numbers came from.
20.6% of 335 U.S. property management homepages we read on November 2, 2026 showed a video player and 22.7% offered a virtual, 3D or video tour; that video share is lower than for roofers (37.6%) or funeral homes (27.2%) in our same-method reads (our measurement). (Mark Studios)See details
The software behind the site tracks the video: 13.5% of AppFolio-run homepages showed a video player against 24.1% on Yardi and 25.2% on sites with no identifiable property-management software. (Mark Studios)See details
About a quarter of renters lease without an in-person visit: 27% of managed-apartment residents in the NMHC/Grace Hill survey, and 22% of Zillow's 2025 recent renters, a share that was 21% in 2018 and 23% in 2021. (NMHC; Zillow)See details
60% of 40 large apartment operators offered live-video tours in 2023, but only 20% of renters took one and 2% preferred one. (NMHC)See details
American Homes 4 Rent now shows substantially all of its homes by self-guided showing, while its resident turnover fell from 36.9% in 2019 to 26.3% in 2025. (American Homes 4 Rent)See details
BLS counted 311,180 property, real estate and community association managers on payrolls in May 2025 at a median $69,990, and 31.3% of the occupation is self-employed. (BLS)See details
The U.S. rental vacancy rate reached 7.6% in Q3 2026, and a record 22.7 million renter households were cost-burdened in 2024. (U.S. Census Bureau; Harvard JCHS)See details
"72% of renters would lease sight unseen" came from a four-day 2020 vendor survey of over 2,000 renters and owners that asked about a 3D tour, and the rental "95% more inquiries" traces to a 2017 Matterport blog about home sales. (Zumper; Matterport)See details
How many property management websites show video?
About one in five. On November 2, 2026 we opened the homepages of 400 U.S. property management companies drawn at random from OpenStreetMap, the open map database, and 20.6% of the 335 we could read showed a video player (our measurement). The frame was every U.S. place mapped as a property management office with a website: 1,101 distinct websites, each counted once however many offices it serves, out of 3,425 mapped property management offices. Many of these offices are leasing offices of single apartment communities, so apartment-marketing features weigh heavily in the shares below. With the same method, property management homepages showed video less often than eight of the other eleven kinds of local business we have measured: 20.6% against 37.6% for roofers, 27.2% for funeral homes and 12.2% for accounting firms (our comparison).
Virtual tours are about as common as video. 22.7% of homepages offered or linked to a virtual, 3D or video tour, and 37.0% had a video player or a virtual tour. 43.3% offered tour scheduling or self-guided tours, but only 4.8% named self-guided or self-showing tours. Of the video, 9.9% of homepages played a muted background loop, 9.0% used a video file hosted on the site and 11.3% embedded one from another host: 4.2% YouTube and 6.9% Vimeo. Of the pages with video, 42.0% used only files on the site. 11.3% linked to a YouTube channel. Facebook was linked from 65.7% of homepages, Instagram 47.5%, LinkedIn 11.9%, X 8.4% and TikTok 3.9%; 69.0% linked to at least one social profile. A hand check of 30 random homepages agreed with the video rule on 100.0% and with the virtual-tour rule on 96.7% (one tour link sat in a collapsed menu).
On U.S. property management homepages (n = 335, Nov 2, 2026)
Fair housing or Equal Housing Opportunity logo or statement
55.8%
Contact form on the homepage
33.1%
Chat or AI leasing assistant
30.1%
Maintenance requests
28.7%
Services for property owners
23.9%
Reviews or testimonials
23.6%
What else do property management homepages offer, and which software runs them?
They are built for renters more than for owners. Beyond the table, 12.5% linked to an owner portal, 8.7% mentioned HOA or community association management, 15.2% linked to careers and 8.1% showed a monthly rent. Only 0.9% showed a management or leasing fee and 2.4% linked to a pricing page. 34.9% showed a fair housing statement, logo or link in the visible page (the 55.8% above includes icons found only in the page source). Trade bodies were rarely named: 3.9% named NARPM, IREM, the National Apartment Association or the Community Associations Institute, including 2.4% for NARPM and 0.6% for IREM, 0.6% for an apartment association and 0.6% for CAI.
We could identify the property-management software behind 59.7% of homepages from links, scripts and requests: Yardi (RentCafe) on 17.3%, AppFolio on 15.5%, Entrata on 9.9%, RealPage on 7.5%, Rent Manager on 3.3% and Buildium on 3.0% (200 sites in all). Video depends on who built the site. 24.1% of Yardi homepages and 21.2% of Entrata homepages showed a video player, against 13.5% on AppFolio and 12.0% on RealPage; sites with no software we could identify, often custom builds, showed video on 25.2% (our measurement; small groups, so treat differences of a few points as noise).
How do renters tour apartments now, and how many rent sight unseen?
Most still tour in person, but about a quarter do not. In the 2024 NMHC/Grace Hill Renter Preferences Survey, 27% of residents of professionally managed communities said they rented their current apartment without visiting it in person (NMHC; 172,703 respondents, fielded June 13 to July 12, 2023; Grace Hill sells training and leasing tools to operators). Zillow's 2025 Consumer Housing Trends Report puts the share of recent renters who took no in-person tour at 22% (Zillow), and that share has barely moved: 21% in 2018, 18% in 2020, 23% in 2021 and 2022, 22% in 2025 (Zillow). The pandemic did not make touring without a visit permanently more common.
In the same NMHC/Grace Hill survey, 71% toured in person with a community representative and 38% used a self-guided tour (NMHC). Only 2% said they preferred a live-video tour, yet 20% took one (NMHC), and live-video tour use rose more than 50% from the 2022 survey (NMHC). Interactive virtual or 3D tours were named among the most valuable digital content in a search by 45% of respondents, up from 35% (NMHC).
Zillow asks renters what they consider essential. In 2025, 27% called a 3D or virtual tour essential and 22% a recorded video tour, against 50% for pictures (Zillow; over 24,400 renters, March to July 2025; Zillow sells rental advertising). Renters in large buildings care more: 38% of recent renters in buildings of 50 or more units called a 3D tour essential and 31% a video tour, against 29% and 21% of single-family renters (Zillow). 29% called 3D tours of common areas such as the gym essential (Zillow), and 55% a private tour (Zillow).
Measure of touring without a visit
Share
Who counted, when
Rented current home without an in-person visit (did)
NMHC and Kingsley, renters, 2020 report (fielded before the pandemic)
Would rent sight unseen if a 3D tour were offered (would, conditional)
72% / 71%
Matterport release and blog on one Zumper survey, Aug 2020
The numbers differ because they ask different questions: what renters did, what they say they would do, and what they would do if a 3D tour existed. Only the first two rows measure behaviour. The 72% and 71% describe the same 2020 survey and are kept side by side because the two vendor pages disagree.
What do renters want from a listing, and how fast do they decide?
Fast, online and with few visits. Among renters who moved between 2019 and 2021, the Census Bureau's American Housing Survey found 58.5% found a place in under a month, 46.0% found it through internet listing sites (the most common method) and 39.1% by word of mouth (U.S. Census Bureau). 64.2% visited just one unit in the neighborhood they chose, and 29.7% applied for more than one unit (U.S. Census Bureau). Internet search depended on income: 54.3% of renter households above twice the poverty line used listing sites, against 30.2% below the poverty line.
Apartments.com says the average rental search took 27 days in 2024, down from 46 in 2021, and that seven in 10 renters on its site submit only one lead (Apartments.com; its own user data; CoStar sells the listings). In its Q2 2024 survey, 64 percent of renters were interested in 3D tours and 58% in a video-call tour with a leasing agent. Zillow reports 77% of recent renters applied online in 2025 (51% in 2018), 40% signed the lease electronically, and 73% used a phone or tablet app in their search (Zillow). Earlier, 71% of recent renters took up to four in-person tours (Zillow's 2022 report) and 58% preferred to schedule tours online in 2021 (Zillow; no sample size published in that release).
Self-guided touring vendors publish their own surveys. In Rently's May 2026 survey of 800 U.S. renters who had tried to book or attend a tour in the previous 18 months, 47% had chosen or seriously considered a less ideal rental because it was easier to tour, 42% preferred a self-guided tour as a first step, and 68% had lost interest in a rental because scheduling a tour was too hard (Rently; Rently sells self-touring). For SmartRent, Morning Consult found 70% of Millennial and Gen Z renters interested in self-touring in September 2024 (n = 1,004; SmartRent), and SmartRent says 92% of its self-guided tours take under five minutes to schedule. In May 2020, 83% of 3,126 RENTCafé survey respondents said they would take a self-guided tour if offered (Yardi), and Tour24 found nearly 30 percent of about 250 prospects toured while the leasing office was closed (2021; Tour24), with scheduled tours per property up 104 percent year over year in Q1 2021.
How many apartment operators offer virtual, video and self-guided tours?
Nearly all large ones offer virtual tours; fewer offer live video. In NMHC's 2023 customer-experience technology survey of 40 multifamily companies, 95% offered virtual tours of units or floor plans, 77% virtual tours of amenities, 72% self-guided tours, 87% a tour self-scheduler and 60% live-video tours with a staff member, the tool with the lowest renter engagement in the survey (NMHC; NMHC is the apartment industry's trade association, and the 40 companies run more than 2.2 million units). Read against the renter survey above: 60% of operators offer live-video tours, 20% of renters took one, and 2% prefer one.
The listed landlords describe the same shift in their 10-K filings for 2025. American Homes 4 Rent says substantially all of its 61,479 single-family homes are shown through technology-driven self-guided showings (American Homes 4 Rent), up from "the majority" in its 2019 filing (American Homes 4 Rent). Invitation Homes offers virtual tours, floor plans and self-showings using smart-home technology alongside in-person showings (Invitation Homes), and lets prospects take virtual tours and apply through its apps. AvalonBay lists self-guided or virtual tours next to moving lease renewals to a shared service center (AvalonBay); Equity Residential lists self-guided tours and AI responses to inquiries (Equity Residential); MAA invests in virtual touring and self-guided tour options (MAA). UDR says web-based tools have brought declining marketing and advertising costs (UDR). None of these filings states a marketing budget in dollars.
EDGAR's full-text search, run on November 2, 2026, finds the phrase "self-guided tours" in 6 Form 10-K documents filed in 2025 and in 0 filed in 2019; "virtual tours" appears in 18 filed in 2025 against 5 in 2019 (SEC EDGAR). The counts are of filing documents across all industries, and most 2025 hits are apartment and single-family landlords, smart-home vendors, homebuilders and Matterport.
Turnover is defined differently by each company (same-store or same-home, move-outs over units or over expiring leases), so compare the trend within a company, not the levels across them. Single-family turnover has fallen: Invitation Homes from 30.1% in 2019 to 22.8% in 2025, American Homes 4 Rent from 36.9% to 26.3% (10.6 points, our calculation). Invitation Homes' homes sat empty an average of 47 days between residents in 2025. Fewer move-outs means fewer tours and listings to market each year.
Staffing is lean and centralizing. At the end of 2025, AvalonBay had 3,041 employees, about 61% on site (AvalonBay); Essex 1,689, of whom 1,267 on site; UDR about 1,420 full-time associates for 55,240 homes; MAA 2,507; Camden about 1,640; Equity Residential about 2,400. American Homes 4 Rent runs marketing and leasing call centers centrally rather than in each market (American Homes 4 Rent).
What do property-management software and listing platforms report?
AppFolio's software managed 9.4 million units for 22,096 property-management customers at the end of 2025 (AppFolio 10-K), up from 4.64 million units in 2019, a 102.6% increase (our calculation), or about 425 units per customer. Its revenue was $950.8 million in 2025. Its AI leasing product automates lead qualification and tour scheduling (AppFolio). RealPage, in its last 10-K before going private, said about 19.7 million rental units were managed with its software at the end of 2020 and sold property websites with video tours, animated tours and 3D floor plans (RealPage). Matterport had 14.1 million spaces under management in 2024 and over 1.1 million subscribers, without a residential split (Matterport 10-K).
Platforms report engagement on their own listings. In March 2020, Zillow saw creation of 3D Home tours for rentals rise 533% over February, and single-family rental listings with a 3D tour drew 40% more visitors and 50% more saves than listings without one (Zillow; a correlation on its own site, not a controlled test). Before the pandemic, 47% of renters told Zillow they wished more listings had virtual tours; by October to November 2020 56% wished for more 3D tours (Zillow). Zillow tells advertisers 55% of renters say 3D tours give a better feel for a space than photos. Apartments.com said in October 2024 that 85 percent of eligible listings had at least one 3D tour and that nearly two-thirds of renters want to explore properties virtually (Apartments.com).
The only split tests we found come from a vendor. PlanOmatic, which sells 3D tours and listing media, reported that adding a Zillow 3D tour to more than 70 single-family rentals in Dallas and Houston (May 10 to June 30, 2021) cut days on market 30% and raised leads more than 40% (PlanOmatic), and that across more than 162 homes in three markets days on market fell 23 percent (PlanOmatic). In the 2020 Zumper and Matterport survey, renters ranked 3D tours and videos 33% as the most important listing detail, and 82% of owners who advertised with a 3D walkthrough said they rented entirely virtually (Matterport; both firms sell into the market).
How many property managers are there, and what do they earn?
About 311,000 on payrolls, and many more self-employed. BLS counted 311,180 property, real estate and community association managers employed by U.S. establishments in May 2025, at a median annual wage of $69,990 and a mean of $83,710 (BLS OEWS). The 10th percentile earned $41,010 and the 90th $139,680. OEWS leaves out the self-employed; BLS Employment Projections counts 460.4 thousand jobs in the occupation in 2025 including them, with 31.3% self-employed, and projects growth of 3.7% to 2035 with about 36.9 thousand openings a year (BLS Employment Projections). In real estate firms themselves (NAICS 531), 252,840 of these managers earned a median $64,290.
Florida employed 30,160 of these managers at a median of $70,810 and a mean of $83,340 in May 2025 (BLS OEWS), with the 10th percentile at $45,810 and the 90th at $132,770.
Leasing agents have no occupation code of their own: BLS counts them inside real estate sales agents (SOC 41-9022). That group had 193,370 payroll jobs nationally in May 2025, at a median of $52,830 and a mean of $69,510 (10th percentile $32,970, 90th $123,590); 157,630 of them worked in real estate firms. Florida had 26,790 at a median of $49,310. BLS projects the whole group to grow 1.7% from 2025 to 2035, with 54.3% self-employed.
Maintenance technicians fall under general maintenance and repair workers: 1,529,700 nationally at a median $49,590, 316,160 of them in real estate at a median $48,360, and 111,530 in Florida at a median $46,060 (BLS OEWS). BLS projects about 148.7 thousand openings a year in the occupation over 2025 to 2035.
How many property management companies are there?
Tens of thousands, most of them small. BLS's Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages counted an average of 79,466 private residential property manager establishments (NAICS 531311) in 2025, employing 548,505 people at average annual pay of $66,787 (BLS QCEW). In 2019 the figures were 62,561 establishments, 469,347 jobs and $49,465: establishments up 27.0%, jobs up 16.9% and average pay up 35.0% before inflation (our calculations). Over the same years the CPI for rent of a primary residence rose from 331.124 to 434.889, 31.3% (BLS CPI), and stood at 450.402 in September 2026.
The Census Bureau's County Business Patterns, which counts one March pay period, found 60,818 residential property manager establishments with paid employees in 2023, up from 52,854 in 2019 (U.S. Census Bureau). 39,481 of them, or 64.9% (our calculation), had fewer than five employees; only 14 had 1,000 or more. The 2022 Economic Census found 39,404 firms with 69,603,162 thousand dollars (about $69.6 billion) in receipts (U.S. Census Bureau). The four largest firms took 7.1 percent of receipts and the 50 largest 20.3 percent: a fragmented trade. The Annual Integrated Economic Survey put 2024 receipts at 80,693,797 thousand dollars (about $80.7 billion) and publishes no advertising figure for the industry.
Landlords are a separate industry. QCEW counted 66,132 private establishments of lessors of residential buildings (NAICS 531110) in 2025 at average pay of $67,586, up from 62,168 in 2019; Census CBP counted 74,459 with paid employees in 2023 (71,800 in 2019), and the 2022 Economic Census 162,306,133 thousand dollars in receipts, with the four largest holding 8.8 percent. Beyond payrolls, Nonemployer Statistics counted 926,468 one-person or no-employee businesses in activities related to real estate (NAICS 5313, which includes property managers and agents) in 2024, up from 793,021 in 2019, and 1,380,438 nonemployer lessors of real estate.
The three counts differ by design: QCEW counts every worksite reporting unemployment insurance all year, CBP one pay period, and the Economic Census establishments of firms that answered. None of them counts one-person firms.
Florida is a large share of the trade. QCEW counted 7,358 Florida residential property manager establishments in 2025, up from 5,583 in 2019 (31.8%, our calculation), at average pay of $63,564; Florida was 9.3% of U.S. establishments (our calculation). CBP counted 5,377 in 2023 (4,500 in 2019), the Economic Census 6,075,734 thousand dollars in Florida receipts for 2022, and QCEW 3,609 Florida lessor establishments in 2025. Nonemployer Statistics found 122,879 Florida real estate service businesses with no employees.
How many renter households are there, and how much do they pay?
About 46 million. The Census Bureau's Housing Vacancy Survey estimated 46,251 thousand renter-occupied homes in the third quarter of 2026, 30.9 percent of all housing units (U.S. Census Bureau). NMHC, the apartment trade association, counts 45.6 million renter households and says 39% of renters live in apartments (NMHC). The homeownership rate was 65.5 percent, against 65.3 a year earlier, and only 36.6 percent for householders under 35, so most young households rent. Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies counts 10.4 million Gen Z renter households in 2024 (Harvard JCHS).
Vacancy is rising, which is when marketing matters most. The rental vacancy rate was 7.6 percent in Q3 2026, up from 7.1 percent a year earlier and 7.3 in Q2 (U.S. Census Bureau); 8.8 percent in principal cities and 9.2 percent in the South, the highest region. 2.6 percent of all housing units stood vacant for rent, at a median asking rent of $1,541. For professionally managed apartments, Harvard JCHS (using RealPage data; RealPage sells to landlords) reports vacancy of 5.2 percent and asking rents down 0.6 percent year over year in Q4 2025, after rent growth of 15.3 percent in early 2022.
New supply arrived at record pace: 608,000 multifamily units were completed in 2024, the most since 1986, and 488,000 were added in 2025 (Harvard JCHS), while units under construction fell to 686,000 and starts to 416,000. The Census Bureau counted 484,000 multifamily completions in 2025; new units built for rent had a median 1,000 square feet, and 42% had one bedroom (U.S. Census Bureau). Apartment household growth slowed from a record 784,000 a year in Q2 2025 to 366,000 by Q4. Single-family built-for-rent starts reached a record annual rate of 70,000 in Q3 2023. Harvard also reports that apartment marketing, taxes and maintenance costs each rose more than 10 percent from 2019 to 2024.
Rent takes a large share of income. U.S. median gross rent was $1,487 in 2024, and the median renter spent 31% of income on it (American Community Survey). A record 22.7 million renter households were cost-burdened in 2024, 12.1 million of them severely (Harvard JCHS); the Congressional Research Service puts that at 49.4% of renters, 26.2% severely, and 67.3% severely among renters with incomes under $30,000 (CRS). Florida had the highest renter cost-burden rate of any state at 59.3%, and Miami the highest of the 100 largest metros at 63 percent. In 2023 the American Community Survey found 49.7% of renters cost-burdened, and Harvard counted 22.4 million in 2022. The median renter household earned $53,700 in 2024; since 2001 median rent has risen 30 percent after inflation and renter income 9 percent, and the median rent-to-income share has gone from 27 to 31 percent. Rental homes are also older, with a median age of 45 years in 2023. Large buildings drove growth: units in them rose to 13.0 million from 2010 to 2024, while units renting under $600 fell by 2.5 million.
What rules apply to rental advertising, fees and tours?
The Fair Housing Act still applies to every rental ad, but HUD has withdrawn its 2024 guidance on digital advertising. HUD's fair housing office withdrew its April 29, 2024 guidance on housing ads on digital platforms effective September 17, 2025, in a notice published in the Federal Register in April 2026 (HUD, Federal Register), and says the withdrawn documents were removed from HUD.gov and should not be relied upon, effective September 17, 2025. HUD's counsel's office withdrew 13 more documents effective September 25, 2025, including guidance on criminal records and source of income. The statute itself and 24 CFR 100.75 on discriminatory advertising are unchanged, and private suits can still be brought within two years (HUD).
Complaints are mostly about rentals. Private groups and government agencies received 32,321 fair housing complaints in 2024, of which 27,007, or 83.56 percent, concerned rental housing (National Fair Housing Alliance; NFHA is an advocacy nonprofit that compiles agency counts). 108 were about discriminatory advertising, and disability was the basis of 54.6%. HUD itself received 1,566 complaints in fiscal 2024 and state and local agencies 6,754. Under the 2026 inflation-adjusted caps, a HUD judge can fine a first-time violator up to $26,262 per practice, rising to $65,653 and $131,308 for repeat violators (eCFR); in Justice Department pattern-or-practice suits the cap is $262,614 for a subsequent violation.
Ad delivery is regulated too. In its June 2022 settlement with the Justice Department over housing ad targeting, Meta paid a $115,054 civil penalty, the maximum then available, and had to retire its Special Ad Audience tool for housing by Dec. 31, 2022 (U.S. Department of Justice). Its Variance Reduction System had to bring delivery within 10% of the eligible audience for 91.7% of housing ads by sex, and oversight ran to June 27, 2026. The independent reviewer, Guidehouse, verified 95.1% by sex and 83.8% by estimated race or ethnicity for May to August 2024 (Guidehouse).
Hidden fees in advertised rents are the FTC's main rental target. In September 2024 Invitation Homes agreed to pay $48 million over fees left out of advertised rents (FTC); the FTC said those fees could exceed $1,700 a year, applicants paid reservation fees of up to $500, the company took in more than $18 million in application fees on deceptively priced homes, and it returned only 39.2% of deposit dollars in 2020 to 2022. In March 2026 the FTC mailed $47.2 million to 444,131 people, about $106 each (our calculation). Invitation Homes' own 10-K puts the FTC and City of San Diego settlements together at $68.0 million (Invitation Homes). In December 2025 Greystar, which the FTC says manages more than 800,000 units, agreed to pay $24 million and to show total monthly prices (FTC). The FTC's fee rule, in force since May 12, 2025, covers only live-event tickets and short-term lodging, so long-term rentals are outside it; in March 2026 the FTC opened rulemaking on rental fees, with comments due April 13, 2026. That notice cites a median deposit of $795 and a median application fee of $50. Renters reported nearly 65,000 rental scams to the FTC since 2020, many from fake listings (FTC), and the FTC alleges Zillow paid Redfin $100 million to leave rental listing advertising.
Pricing software is in court. In its August 2024 suit, the Justice Department alleges RealPage holds about 80% of the market for multifamily revenue-management software and draws on data from over 16 million units (U.S. Department of Justice); the January 2025 amended complaint added six landlords with more than 1.3 million units. The 2025 proposed settlement limits RealPage to nonpublic data at least 12 months old and appoints a monitor for three years. Cortland, with more than 80,000 units in 2024, and LivCor, with over 150,000 in 2025, settled.
Under Florida law as of 2025, landlords must return an unclaimed deposit within 15 days of the lease ending and give notice of a claim within 30 days (Florida Statutes 83.49), pay 5 percent interest under the surety-bond option, give 30 days notice to end a month-to-month tenancy and a 3 days notice for unpaid rent. A 2023 law preempts local rules on screening, deposits and fees. California's SB 611 (2024) bans fees for serving notices and paying by check and caps extra service-member deposits at 6 months (California Legislature), with 60 days notice to end a periodic tenancy, and Colorado's HB25-1090 (2025) requires total prices in rental ads, with 18% interest owed on an unpaid refund (Colorado General Assembly).
What do the popular property management video numbers really say?
Five numbers turn up again and again on property-management software, listing and marketing sites. We traced each one back as far as it goes.
"72% of renters would lease sight unseen"
It was a hypothetical with a condition attached, asked by two companies that sell 3D tours. Zumper, a rental listing site, and Matterport announced in August 2020 that 72% of renters "would rent an apartment sight-unseen if there was an accurate, high-resolution 3D virtual tour available" (Zumper). The release's own footnote says the survey went to renters and property owners together from August 7 to 10, 2020 and drew over 2,000 responses, with no split between the two groups. Two weeks later Matterport's blog gave the same result as 71% (Matterport), and Boston.com reported "71 percent of prospective renters" from "a survey of 2,000 US renters" (Boston.com), dropping the owners from the sample. Repeaters usually drop the 3D-tour condition too. Use instead: what renters did. 27% of residents in the 2024 NMHC/Grace Hill survey rented without visiting, and 22% of Zillow's 2025 recent renters took no in-person tour. Of stated intentions without a condition, Apartments.com said in 2025 that one in three renters were likely to sign a lease sight unseen (Apartments.com), and before the pandemic Avail, a landlord software company, found at most 9% of tenants in any region had actually done it (Avail; 2019, more than 1,100 tenants).
"Listings with video get 403% (or 95%) more inquiries"
Neither number was measured on rentals. The 403% comes from Australian home-sale marketing in 2012 and 2013, as our real estate video statistics page traces; vendors still pitch "403% more inquiries" to property managers with no source (Vivideo), and an Australian virtual-tour vendor pairs "403% more enquiries" with the 95% (Little Hinges). The rental version, Apartments.com's 2023 advice that "a recent study conducted by Matterport" showed video can boost rental inquiries "by as much as 95 percent" (Apartments.com), leads back to an October 2017 Matterport sales blog about home sales: virtual-tour listings get "95% more phone inquiries", footnoted only "realestate.com.au, 2016" (Matterport). We found no such realestate.com.au study. Use instead: the measured, smaller figures, and name the seller. PlanOmatic, which sells 3D tours, split 150 single-family rentals in four markets (October to December 2022) and found 55% more lead activity per property per day in Atlanta with a Zillow 3D tour and floor plan (PlanOmatic); Yardi, which sells software and 3D tours, said in February 2026 that properties with virtual tours had a 33 percent higher lead-to-lease rate (Multi-Housing News, a Yardi title).
"Virtual tours lease units 30 days (or 40%, or 25%) faster"
Each version comes from a single vendor anecdote. A landlord software blog says early adopters fill vacancies 40% faster, citing only the writer's experience (VerticalRent). Matterport's PlanOmatic case study says rentals with a digital twin rent 30 days faster, with no sample or period (Matterport), and its Onerent case study credits one property manager with leasing 25% faster, with no baseline (Matterport). A 2026 blog table claims 87% higher listing views with no source (Cor Advisors). Use instead: PlanOmatic's own split test of 233 single-family rentals (January 10 to March 23, 2022) found days on market fell 25% in Charlotte and 9% in Dallas with a Matterport tour, and published no days-on-market result for Phoenix or San Antonio (PlanOmatic). That is one vendor, two markets and one season.
"72% of renters start their search online"
It is a 2015 figure. Rentec Direct, a property-management software company, still tells landlords "72% of respondents use the Internet first" (Rentec Direct), from a January 2015 Apartments.com and Google study whose original we could not retrieve. Use instead: Apartments.com's 2026 survey of more than 15,000 people planning to rent, in which 85 percent were using or planning to use a listing site, and only 35 percent wanted unit-specific 3D tours against 77 percent for unit photos (National Apartment Association); its Q4 2023 survey of 20,000 renters found three in four planned to use a listing site or app (Apartments.com). The Census Bureau's measure of behaviour is 46.0% of 2019 to 2021 renter movers who found their home through a listing site.
"Video on a landing page lifts conversions 80%"
It was one client's test in 2009. Realync, which sells video tools to apartment operators, told property managers in 2021 that a landing-page video "can boost your conversion rate by up to 80%" (Realync). The figure starts with EyeView, a vendor of landing-page video, reporting in November 2009 that its first test, on one client's page, "boosted conversion by over 80 percent" (EyeView), and its 2010 white paper calls over 80% a result "in some cases" (EyeView). Use instead: Unbounce's analysis of about 35,000 customer landing pages per period, covering late 2020 to early 2021, which found pages with video converted about as well as or slightly worse than pages without (Unbounce). The same trace appears on our HVAC and funeral home pages.
We started from the questions people search for about property management video statistics and looked for the organization that actually produced each answer. Every figure on this page sits in an evidence ledger with its source, the exact table or paragraph it came from, the measurement period, the population measured, and the date we checked it. This edition holds 360 figures from 45 publishers.
On November 2, 2026, each sourced figure on this page was re-fetched with the fetch cache cleared and matched against the recorded wording: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics and the CPI (through the BLS data API and data.bls.gov), Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages open data, and Employment Projections (through an Internet Archive copy, because bls.gov refuses automated requests); Census County Business Patterns, Nonemployer Statistics, the 2022 Economic Census and the Annual Integrated Economic Survey (through the Census data API), and the Housing Vacancy Survey, American Community Survey, American Housing Survey and new residential construction releases; Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies and the Congressional Research Service; NMHC and NAA pages; the 10-K filings of Equity Residential, AvalonBay, Camden, MAA, Essex, UDR, Invitation Homes, American Homes 4 Rent, AppFolio, RealPage and Matterport, and EDGAR full-text search; HUD, FTC and Justice Department notices through the Federal Register, the eCFR, justice.gov and archived copies; the Guidehouse compliance report on Meta; the National Fair Housing Alliance; Florida, California and Colorado law; Zillow, Apartments.com, Matterport, Zumper, Rently, SmartRent, Tour24, PlanOmatic and Yardi pages; and the pages behind each popular claim. The homepage figures are our own measurement on the same day, described in the first section. We left out the paid NMHC/Grace Hill report (we used NMHC's public quotes of it), trade-press summaries of surveys whose owners publish no figures, the Census Survey of Market Absorption (no readable release newer than 2018), Buildium and AppFolio industry reports that publish no sample size, paid market reports, and any figure from a gated source.
We only cite the producer: government agencies, regulators, company filings and official posts, and the survey owner's own report. We do not cite statistics roundups, Statista-style aggregators, or salary sites without a public method. We did not bypass paywalls or sign-up forms; where a full report was gated, we used only the figures its publisher states publicly.
Figures marked "our calculation" are arithmetic on the cited numbers, and anyone can reproduce them:
1186 Overpass elements -> 1181 with a usable URL (minus 5 on government/university hosts) -> minus 3 on listing-portal/social hosts {'mhvillage.com': 2, 'facebook.com': 1} -> 1178 records -> 1101 distinct registrable hosts
69 / 335 readable homepages with video_player = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: video player: a <video> element or player iframe/placeholder (YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia, Vidyard, Brightcove, Loom, Facebook video ...) at least 150x80 px, or a labelled click-to-play control or hidden player embed
30 / 335 readable homepages with video_self_hosted = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: video player that is a native <video> element (file served by the site or its site builder/CDN, incl. background videos)
38 / 335 readable homepages with video_embedded = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: video player from a third-party host (YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia, Facebook, TikTok ...)
14 / 335 readable homepages with youtube_player = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a YouTube player (iframe, lite-youtube placeholder, lightbox embed link or hidden embed)
23 / 335 readable homepages with vimeo_player = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a Vimeo player (iframe, placeholder, lightbox embed link or hidden embed)
38 / 335 readable homepages with youtube_channel_link = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: link to a YouTube channel or handle (not a single video; template placeholders excluded)
159 / 335 readable homepages with instagram_link = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: link to an Instagram profile (template placeholders excluded)
231 / 335 readable homepages with any_social_link = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: any of the YouTube channel, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X or LinkedIn profile links
76 / 335 readable homepages with virtual_3d_video_tour = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: Matterport, "virtual tour", "3D tour", "video tour", 360 tour or virtual walk-through in the page text, a link or control labelled or pathed so, or a request/iframe/script from a 3D-tour host (matterport.com, kuula, cloudpano, realync, iGuide ...)
145 / 335 readable homepages with tour_scheduling_or_self_guided = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: self-guided / self-showing / self-tour, "schedule/book/request a tour or showing", "tour now/today" in the page text, a link or control labelled or pathed so (/tour, /schedule-a-tour, /showings), or a request to a showing tool (Rently, Tour24, ShowMojo, Tenant Turner)
16 / 335 readable homepages with self_guided_tour_strict = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: self-guided, self-showing or self-tour wording, or Rently / Tour24 named or requested (scheduled agent tours not counted)
278 / 335 readable homepages with listings_link = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a link or control to available rentals/listings: labelled available, vacancies, listings, for rent, floor plans, find a home/rental, rentals/properties/apartments, or pathed /listings, /rentals, /available, /vacancies, /floorplans, /properties, or an AppFolio/Buildium/Rentvine listings URL
223 / 335 readable homepages with online_application = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: "apply now/online/today", rental/online application or application portal in the page text, or a link/control labelled apply/application or pathed /apply
265 / 335 readable homepages with pay_rent_resident_portal = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: "pay rent", rent payments, pay online, resident/tenant portal or login, resident services or current residents in the page text, a link labelled so or labelled Residents/Tenants/portal/payments, or a link to a resident-portal host (AppFolio /connect, Buildium resident, RentCafe/SecureCafe, LOFT, ActiveBuilding, ResMan ...)
96 / 335 readable homepages with maintenance_request = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: maintenance request/portal/form, work order, "submit/report a maintenance or repair request", service request or emergency maintenance in the page text, or a link labelled maintenance/work order/repair request
80 / 335 readable homepages with owner_services = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: owner portal/login/services/resources/statements, "for (property) owners", property/rental owners, investor portal/services, landlord(s), rental analysis or property management services in the page text, or a link labelled Owners/Investors/Landlords/Management Services or pathed /owners, /owner-services, /investors, /landlords (owners association wording excluded)
42 / 335 readable homepages with owner_portal = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: owner portal/login/center/access or investor portal/login in the page text, or a link labelled so or to an AppFolio owner portal (/oportal)
29 / 335 readable homepages with hoa_association_management = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: HOA, homeowners association, community association(s), association management, condo(minium) association/management, COA/POA in the page text, or a link labelled HOA/association management/community association or pathed /hoa, /association-management ("no HOA" excluded)
200 / 335 readable homepages with pm_software_detected = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a property-management software vendor identified (AppFolio, Buildium, Rent Manager, Yardi/RentCafe/SecureCafe/Breeze, Propertyware, Entrata/ProspectPortal, RealPage/OneSite/LOFT/ActiveBuilding, DoorLoop, TenantCloud, Rentvine, ResMan, MRI, Rentec Direct, Tenant Turner, ShowMojo): first by a link host, then an iframe, script or request host, last by the vendor named in a credit/"powered by" text; primary vendor = the best-ranked PM system, showing tools only when no PM system is found
187 / 335 readable homepages with fair_housing_eho = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: "Equal Housing", "Fair Housing" or EHO in the page text, an Equal Housing Opportunity logo (image alt text or file name), a link to a fair housing page, or the words in the page source (icon class or title attribute)
117 / 335 readable homepages with fair_housing_text_logo_or_link = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: "Equal Housing", "Fair Housing" or EHO in the page text, an Equal Housing Opportunity logo image (alt text or file name) or a fair-housing link (page-source-only matches excluded)
13 / 335 readable homepages with trade_association_any = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: any of NARPM, IREM (incl. CPM), the National Apartment Association or a state/local apartment association, or CAI named in the page text or a badge image alt text/file name
8 / 335 readable homepages with narpm = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: NARPM / National Association of Residential Property Managers named in the page text or a badge image
2 / 335 readable homepages with irem = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: IREM / Institute of Real Estate Management or CPM / Certified Property Manager named in the page text or a badge image
2 / 335 readable homepages with naa_apartment_association = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: National Apartment Association, NAA or a state/local apartment association named in the page text or a badge image
2 / 335 readable homepages with cai = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: Community Associations Institute / CAI named in the page text or a badge image
3 / 335 readable homepages with management_fee_shown = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a management/leasing/placement/renewal/setup fee with a % or $ figure, a % or $ next to "of rent", "per door/unit" or "management fee", or pricing/plans "starting at/as low as" a % or $ (application, pet and late fees, deposits and HOA dues excluded)
27 / 335 readable homepages with rent_price_shown = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a rent figure of $100+ per month (/mo, per month, a month) in the page text, with no fee wording
79 / 335 readable homepages with reviews_testimonials = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: testimonials or reviews shown: page text with testimonials, owner/resident reviews, "what our residents/owners say", Google reviews, star ratings or review counts; a link labelled testimonials/reviews; or a review-widget request (Birdeye, Elfsight, Trustindex, SatisFacts ...)
111 / 335 readable homepages with online_form = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: an online form on the homepage: a non-search <form> with at least 2 visible fields, or 1 visible email/phone/message field, or an embedded third-party form; tel: and mailto: links never count
101 / 335 readable homepages with chat_widget = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a live-chat, web-chat or AI leasing-assistant widget: a network request to a chat vendor (incl. EliseAI, Knock, Funnel, Zuma, RentCafe chat, LeaseHawk ...) or a chat-widget element on the page (form iframes excluded)
51 / 335 readable homepages with careers_link = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: link labelled careers, jobs, join our team, now hiring, employment, open positions, hiring or work with us, or a link to a /careers, /jobs, /employment or /join-our-team path
agreement counts in own/data/handcheck.json (validate.py); sample random.Random(11) of 30 readable sites; 30/30: 6 with video (Vimeo x3, native <video> banner, click-to-play client-story videos on 1907investments.com, YouTube/other per crawl), 24 without; a 'Play Slideshow' button (liveatsavoysquare.com) correctly not counted
agreement counts in own/data/handcheck.json (validate.py); sample random.Random(11) of 30 readable sites; 29/30: 5 true positives (3D TOUR buttons on floor plans, Virtual Tours menu links, listing virtual tours on a brokerage site), 24 true negatives; 1 miss: liveatsavoysquare.com has a 'Video Gallery & Virtual Tours' item in a collapsed menu that the crawl did not capture (floor)
58 / 335 readable rows with pm_software = 'Yardi (RentCafe/Breeze)' in homepages.csv; rule: a property-management software vendor identified (AppFolio, Buildium, Rent Manager, Yardi/RentCafe/SecureCafe/Breeze, Propertyware, Entrata/ProspectPortal, RealPage/OneSite/LOFT/ActiveBuilding, DoorLoop, TenantCloud, Rentvine, ResMan, MRI, Rentec Direct, Tenant Turner, ShowMojo): first by a link host, then an iframe, script or request host, last by the vendor named in a credit/"powered by" text; primary vendor = the best-ranked PM system, showing tools only when no PM system is found
52 / 335 readable rows with pm_software = 'AppFolio' in homepages.csv; rule: a property-management software vendor identified (AppFolio, Buildium, Rent Manager, Yardi/RentCafe/SecureCafe/Breeze, Propertyware, Entrata/ProspectPortal, RealPage/OneSite/LOFT/ActiveBuilding, DoorLoop, TenantCloud, Rentvine, ResMan, MRI, Rentec Direct, Tenant Turner, ShowMojo): first by a link host, then an iframe, script or request host, last by the vendor named in a credit/"powered by" text; primary vendor = the best-ranked PM system, showing tools only when no PM system is found
33 / 335 readable rows with pm_software = 'Entrata' in homepages.csv; rule: a property-management software vendor identified (AppFolio, Buildium, Rent Manager, Yardi/RentCafe/SecureCafe/Breeze, Propertyware, Entrata/ProspectPortal, RealPage/OneSite/LOFT/ActiveBuilding, DoorLoop, TenantCloud, Rentvine, ResMan, MRI, Rentec Direct, Tenant Turner, ShowMojo): first by a link host, then an iframe, script or request host, last by the vendor named in a credit/"powered by" text; primary vendor = the best-ranked PM system, showing tools only when no PM system is found
25 / 335 readable rows with pm_software = 'RealPage (OneSite/LOFT/ActiveBuilding)' in homepages.csv; rule: a property-management software vendor identified (AppFolio, Buildium, Rent Manager, Yardi/RentCafe/SecureCafe/Breeze, Propertyware, Entrata/ProspectPortal, RealPage/OneSite/LOFT/ActiveBuilding, DoorLoop, TenantCloud, Rentvine, ResMan, MRI, Rentec Direct, Tenant Turner, ShowMojo): first by a link host, then an iframe, script or request host, last by the vendor named in a credit/"powered by" text; primary vendor = the best-ranked PM system, showing tools only when no PM system is found
11 / 335 readable rows with pm_software = 'Rent Manager' in homepages.csv; rule: a property-management software vendor identified (AppFolio, Buildium, Rent Manager, Yardi/RentCafe/SecureCafe/Breeze, Propertyware, Entrata/ProspectPortal, RealPage/OneSite/LOFT/ActiveBuilding, DoorLoop, TenantCloud, Rentvine, ResMan, MRI, Rentec Direct, Tenant Turner, ShowMojo): first by a link host, then an iframe, script or request host, last by the vendor named in a credit/"powered by" text; primary vendor = the best-ranked PM system, showing tools only when no PM system is found
10 / 335 readable rows with pm_software = 'Buildium' in homepages.csv; rule: a property-management software vendor identified (AppFolio, Buildium, Rent Manager, Yardi/RentCafe/SecureCafe/Breeze, Propertyware, Entrata/ProspectPortal, RealPage/OneSite/LOFT/ActiveBuilding, DoorLoop, TenantCloud, Rentvine, ResMan, MRI, Rentec Direct, Tenant Turner, ShowMojo): first by a link host, then an iframe, script or request host, last by the vendor named in a credit/"powered by" text; primary vendor = the best-ranked PM system, showing tools only when no PM system is found
Comparison of DRV-004 on this page with the published video-player shares on /research/roofing-video-statistics (37.6%), dental (35.0%), physical-therapy (31.2%), chiropractic (31.2%), hvac (29.5%), funeral-home (27.2%), veterinary (24.1%), mental-health-practice (22.4%), optometry (20.2%), audiology (19.3%) and accounting-firm (12.2%) video statistics pages
This edition contains no Mark Studios customer data.
Limitations
Nobody counts how many listings carry video. Platforms report engagement on their own sites, operators report what they offer, and renter surveys report what renters say; no public source counts the share of U.S. rental listings with a video tour.
Our homepage sample comes from a volunteer map. OpenStreetMap covers property management offices someone mapped with a website, and many are leasing offices of single apartment communities, so the shares describe that sample, not every U.S. property manager; 65 of the 400 sampled sites could not be read.
Most touring data comes from companies that sell tours. Zillow, Apartments.com, Matterport, Zumper, Rently, SmartRent, Tour24, PlanOmatic and Yardi sell listings, tours or software to landlords, and NMHC and NAA are trade associations; each is named beside its figure.
Did, would and would-if are different questions. Sight-unseen figures range from 9% to 72% because some count what renters did, some what they say they would do, and one what they would do if a 3D tour existed.
Federal counts differ by design. OEWS counts payroll jobs and leaves out the self-employed (31.3% of property managers); leasing agents are counted inside real estate sales agents; QCEW, County Business Patterns and the Economic Census count establishments over different periods.
Vendor split tests are small. The only controlled tests of 3D tours on rentals we found are PlanOmatic's, on single-family homes in a few markets and seasons.
Mark Studios. "Property Management Video Statistics." Last verified Nov 2, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/property-management-video-statistics
APA
Mark Studios. (2026, November 2). Property management video statistics. https://www.markstudios.com/research/property-management-video-statistics
MLA
“Property Management Video Statistics.” Mark Studios, 2 Nov. 2026, www.markstudios.com/research/property-management-video-statistics.
Chicago
Mark Studios. “Property Management Video Statistics.” Last modified November 2, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/property-management-video-statistics.
BibTeX
@misc{markstudios_property_management_video_statistics_2026,
author = {{Mark Studios}},
title = {{Property Management Video Statistics}},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
url = {https://www.markstudios.com/research/property-management-video-statistics},
note = {Last verified 2026-11-02}
}
Our calculations and the evidence table are free to reuse with attribution and a link to this page. Each underlying figure remains the claim of its original publisher, and some publishers ask for a link when their figures are reused.
We re-verify every figure quarterly and when a major source publishes a new edition. The next scheduled review is February 2027. Corrections go to contact@markstudios.com.
Nov 2, 2026: First published with 360 figures from 45 publishers, each checked against its original source.
Frequently asked questions
How many renters rent an apartment sight unseen?
About a quarter. In the 2024 NMHC/Grace Hill Renter Preferences Survey, 27% of residents of professionally managed communities rented without visiting in person, and 22% of Zillow's 2025 recent renters took no in-person tour.
How many property management websites have video?
20.6% of 335 U.S. property management homepages we read on November 2, 2026 showed a video player, and 22.7% offered a virtual, 3D or video tour. Only 4.2% embedded a YouTube player.
Do apartment communities offer virtual tours?
Large operators almost all do: 95% of the 40 companies in NMHC's 2023 survey offered virtual unit tours, 72% self-guided tours and 60% live-video tours.
Do renters want video tours?
Some do. In Zillow's 2025 survey, 27% of renters called a 3D or virtual tour essential and 22% a recorded video tour; among recent renters in buildings of 50 or more units, 38% called a 3D tour essential.
How many property managers are there in the U.S.?
BLS counted 311,180 property, real estate and community association managers on payrolls in May 2025, at a median annual wage of $69,990. QCEW counted 79,466 residential property manager establishments in 2025.
What is the rental vacancy rate?
The Census Bureau put the U.S. rental vacancy rate at 7.6% in the third quarter of 2026, up from 7.1% a year earlier, with a median asking rent of $1,541.
Is HUD's 2024 guidance on digital rental ads still in effect?
No. HUD withdrew its guidance on the Fair Housing Act and advertising through digital platforms effective September 17, 2025. The Fair Housing Act's ban on discriminatory advertising still applies.
