Every apartment leader understands why setting an Annual Target Occupancy, or ATO, is important but they don’t always understand what that number should be.
In our experience interacting with multifamily professionals, some have said they want their ATO to be 100%, which would only be possible if every new resident moved in the day after a tenant moved out. We have also seen others automatically set their ATO to 95% without considering whether it's the optimal ATO. While picking a number like 95% may be perfectly reasonable for their team as it matches their historical performance, doing so ultimately limits the opportunity to maximize revenue as the focus has shifted to occupancy and away from overall rent performance.
In the video below, David Watson, RentVision Founder & CEO, explains the detailed calculations that go into setting an Annual Target Occupancy that’s both helpful for maximizing revenue and realistic for your team to achieve.
Your ATO must be realistic in order to optimize your leasing team’s performance. When they know that they’re striving for a target occupancy that’s realistic, they’ll be more bought into the action plans necessary to attain it. This way, when your current occupancy falls short of your ATO, everyone is on the same page for how to fix it and can work together on increasing advertising spend, walking properties to review if they’re any issues preventing more signed leases, and evaluating leasing calls.
To learn more about how to set your Annual Target Occupancy and get access to the ATO Calculator referenced in the video above, fill out the form below to download and read our ebook Best Practices For Multifamily Revenue Management.