Slow repairs lose residents

Buildium's 2026 Renters Report, a vendor survey of 1,500 U.S. renters fielded in spring 2026, found that “84% of renters expect a response from their property manager within 24 hours” and “61% expect a response the same day or faster.” The breakdown: within one to two hours 17%, same day 44%, next business day 23%, two to three business days 11%, and four to five business days 5%.

The pieces add up. 17% + 44% = 61% for same day or faster, and adding the 23% for next business day gives 84%. That leaves 16% (11% + 5%) who would wait two business days or more. Note that the question asks about a response, not a completed repair.

In the same Buildium survey, 24% of renters say maintenance is “the most stressful part of the resident experience,” and 25% report dissatisfaction with the completion of maintenance and repairs. Buildium also reports that 39% of renters say better maintenance follow-through is the leading factor, in its words.

Owners feel it too. A Buildium blog post citing the company's 2026 State of the Property Management Industry Report says that “38% of rental owners say maintenance is their top source of stress, more than filling vacancies, managing residents, or collecting rent.” That figure appears in the blog post, not on the report's public preview, and Buildium does not give the sample size on either page.

AppFolio's 2026 Renter Preferences Report is a vendor survey of 3,002 renters, fielded in early 2026 and syndicated by Stacker in September. It found that renters satisfied with maintenance are “81% more likely to renew and 36% less likely to move.” Among renters satisfied with maintenance, 79% said issues were resolved within a few days or less.

Be careful with what that means. It links self-reported satisfaction to stated intent, not to renewals counted in a ledger. A satisfied renter is more likely to say they will stay; that is a weaker claim than the number being a measured retention gain.

Buildium's 2026 Renters Report asks the question from the other direction. Among renters who are undecided about renewing, 37% say they would stay if their manager invested more in maintaining the property, and 35% say they would stay if their manager were more responsive. That is also stated intent, from a vendor survey, among a group that has not decided.

Entrata's 2025 Resident Report, a vendor survey of more than 2,000 U.S. renters, found that 73% rated their property's maintenance process moderately-to-extremely effective. The other side of that figure is 27% (100 − 73) who did not rate it that way. Entrata sells property software too, so this is the third vendor in this post and each runs its own survey with its own wording. Their numbers should not be added together or averaged, and we have no breakdown for the residents of small landlords.

If you want a rough sense of scale for a small building, Buildium's 25% dissatisfied with completion is 2.5 households out of ten (10 × 0.25). It is national survey data, so it is a prompt to ask your own residents, not a forecast.

The Terner Center's study of small multifamily properties of 5 to 49 units, with 764 qualifying respondents from July to September 2022, found that “owners of one in four properties admitted to postponing maintenance of some kind. Minor maintenance issues were deferred in 21 percent of properties, and most maintenance work was postponed in another 4 percent.” The two shares do add up: 21% + 4% = 25%.

It also reports that 28% of properties were in fair or poor condition, and that “owners of one in five properties reported that they did not conduct regular unit inspections.” The limits: the properties are larger than a typical small landlord's, the response rate was about 2%, and California is over-represented.

What does deferred maintenance cost later? We looked for a solid figure for rental housing and did not find one. Multipliers circulate online, but we could not trace them to a primary source, so this post does not repeat them. What the data above can support is narrower: a quarter of small multifamily owners postpone work, and a fifth do not inspect.

Acknowledge every request the same day, even if the message only says you received it and when they will hear next. Buildium's survey says 61% of renters expect that speed.

Give each request a status the resident can see: received, scheduled, done. A resident who can see where the repair stands has less reason to ask.

Close the loop. When the repair is done, ask the resident to confirm it. Buildium found 25% of renters dissatisfied with completion, and the only way to find out whether yours are is to ask.

Inspect on a schedule. Terner found that owners of one in five properties did not conduct regular unit inspections, and an inspection is where a small problem is found before it is a repair request.

PropLane drafts the acknowledgement and the follow-up for a manager to approve.