A property management company can run on 15 numbers, from door growth and owner churn to vacancy, delinquency, maintenance speed, cost per door and trust reconciliation. Each one below has a definition, an exact formula, where the inputs live in normal records, and a worked example.
Every example uses one made-up company, Example Co., with round numbers. They illustrate the math and are not benchmarks. Most of these KPIs have no reliable public benchmark, so none is invented here. The only outside figures come from the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Set the rules before you count anything
Most KPI arguments are definition arguments. Write these down once:
- A door is one rentable unit under an active management agreement. A fourplex is four doors. A unit you lease but do not manage is not a door.
- Average doors for a period is the average of the month-end door counts. Use it for anything that happens across a period. Churn uses the starting count.
- One as-of date. Snapshot metrics (vacancy, delinquency) are taken on a fixed day each month, so the numbers are comparable.
- Use medians for time. One work order open for 90 days wrecks an average. Report the median and the 90th percentile (the time within which 90 percent of items finished).
Example Co. starts the year with 400 doors, ends with 424, and averages 410.
Growth and owner economics
1. Doors under management and net door growth
Formula. Net door growth = doors added − doors lost. Net door growth rate = (ending doors − starting doors) ÷ starting doors.
Where to pull it. The property or unit list in your accounting system, filtered by management agreement start date and termination date. Count units, not properties.
What it tells you. Whether growth comes from sales or retention. Show gross adds and losses beside the net. Adding 72 and losing 48 is a different company from adding 30 and losing 6, though both net 24.
Example (illustrative). Example Co. added 72 doors and lost 48. Net growth is 24 doors. The rate is (424 − 400) ÷ 400 = 6.0 percent.
2. Owner churn rate
Formula. Door churn rate = doors lost during the period from the starting book ÷ doors at the start of the period. Run the same formula with owner counts to get owner churn. Split it into controllable churn (cancelled for service, fees or communication) and uncontrollable churn (sold the property, owner moved in).
Where to pull it. Termination dates and cancellation reasons on management agreements.
What it tells you. How much of next year's sales effort goes to refilling the bucket. The owner churn calculator turns the rate into lost revenue, and the owner retention playbook covers the save process.
Example (illustrative). Example Co. lost 48 of its 400 starting doors: 48 ÷ 400 = 12.0 percent. Eighteen were sales, so controllable churn is 30 ÷ 400 = 7.5 percent. To convert a monthly rate to an annual one, use 1 − (1 − monthly rate)^12, not monthly rate × 12.
3. Revenue per door
Formula. Revenue per door per month = management company revenue for the period ÷ average doors ÷ months in the period.
Where to pull it. Your company income statement, not the owner trust ledgers. Include every fee line (management, leasing, renewal, inspection, maintenance markup, admin fees). Exclude pass-through money such as repairs billed to owners at cost.
What it tells you. Whether pricing keeps pace with the work. A falling number with an unchanged fee schedule usually means fees are being waived or missed.
Example (illustrative). Revenue of $688,800 ÷ 410 average doors = $1,680 per door per year, or $140 per door per month.
4. Lifetime value per owner
Formula. Owner lifetime value = revenue per door per month × 12 × average doors per owner × expected owner tenure in years. If churn is fairly stable, expected tenure is roughly 1 ÷ annual door churn rate. For spending decisions, multiply by your contribution margin (see KPI 13) to get lifetime gross profit.
Where to pull it. KPIs 2 and 3, plus doors ÷ active owners from your owner list.
What it tells you. The most you can afford to spend to win an owner. The door lifetime value calculator runs the same math. The 1 ÷ churn shortcut overstates tenure when new owners leave faster than old ones, so check it against owners who signed three or more years ago.
Example (illustrative). $140 × 12 = $1,680 per door per year. Tenure is 1 ÷ 0.12 ≈ 8.3 years, so one door is worth about $14,000. At 1.5 doors per owner, one owner is worth about $21,000 in revenue. At a 25 percent contribution margin, that is about $5,250 of gross profit.
5. Owner lead response time
Formula. Response time = timestamp of the first response from a person (a call, text or email, not an autoresponder) − timestamp the lead was created. Report the median, the share answered within your own target, and the count with no response at all. For calls, a missed call starts the clock.
Where to pull it. Lead created date and first outbound activity in your CRM, plus the missed-call log from your phone system. Measure business hours and after hours separately.
What it tells you. Whether your sales process starts when the owner is ready. See the missed call calculator and the owner lead follow-up playbook.
Example (illustrative). Example Co. got 40 owner leads in September. The median response was 22 minutes. Eighteen of 40 (45 percent) got a response within the company's 5-minute target, and 4 leads have no logged response. Those 4 belong in the report, not filtered out.
6. Owner lead close rate by source
Formula. Close rate for a source = management agreements signed from leads created in a period ÷ leads created in that period from that source. Measure a cohort (for example, all leads created in the second quarter) after enough time has passed for most of them to decide. Then cost per signed owner = source spend ÷ signed owners.
Where to pull it. The lead source field in your CRM. If many leads say "unknown," fix the field first.
What it tells you. Which channels deserve more money. Compare cost per signed owner with lifetime gross profit from KPI 4.
Example (illustrative). Leads created April through June, measured September 30:
| Source | Leads | Signed | Close rate | Spend | Cost per signed owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Referral | 12 | 6 | 50% | $0 | $0 |
| Website form | 60 | 9 | 15% | $1,800 | $200 |
| Paid search | 50 | 3 | 6% | $4,500 | $1,500 |
Leasing and occupancy
7. Days on market and vacant days per turnover
Formula. Vacant days per turnover = days from move-out (keys returned) to the new lease start date, averaged over turnovers completed in the period. Days on market = days from the listing going live to an approved application or signed lease. Track make-ready days separately, because the fix is different.
Where to pull it. Lease history for move-out and lease start dates; listing records for days on market.
What it tells you. Whether empty days come from the turn, the marketing or the wait for move-in. The vacancy cost calculator prices each day, and the move-out and turnover playbook covers the steps.
Example (illustrative). Example Co. completed 102 turnovers with 3,672 total vacant days: 3,672 ÷ 102 = 36 days. That splits into 12 make-ready days, 18 days on market, and 6 days from signing to lease start. At $1,800 a month, a day costs $1,800 × 12 ÷ 365 = $59.18, so the average turnover cost the owner about $2,130 in rent alone.
8. Vacancy rate
Formula. Physical vacancy rate = units vacant and available for rent ÷ (occupied units + units leased but not yet moved in + units vacant for rent). Units off the market for renovation or held by the owner sit outside both numbers but should be reported on their own line. Economic vacancy = rent lost to vacancy ÷ gross potential rent.
This physical formula mirrors the Census Bureau's rental vacancy rate, which divides vacant year-round units for rent by the sum of renter-occupied units, vacant units rented but awaiting occupancy, and vacant units for rent.1 Using the same structure is the only way to put your number next to the Census figure without fooling yourself.
Where to pull it. The rent roll on your fixed snapshot day, with each unit's status.
What it tells you. Physical vacancy is today's empty units. Economic vacancy is what empty time cost owners.
Example (illustrative). On September 30, Example Co. has 424 doors: 405 occupied, 6 leased awaiting move-in, 9 vacant for rent and 4 off the market. Physical vacancy = 9 ÷ (405 + 6 + 9) = 2.1 percent. Counting every non-occupied door against all 424 would give 4.5 percent, which is why the definition matters. Economically, 3,672 vacant days × $59.18 = about $217,300 lost, against gross potential rent of 410 × $1,800 × 12 = $8,856,000, or 2.5 percent.
9. Turnover rate
Formula. Turnover rate = resident move-outs during the period ÷ average doors. Exclude doors that left management and transfers within your own portfolio.
Where to pull it. Move-out dates from lease records.
What it tells you. How much leasing and make-ready work is coming, which drives staffing.
Example (illustrative). 102 move-outs ÷ 410 average doors = 24.9 percent.
10. Renewal rate
Formula. Renewal rate = leases renewed ÷ leases eligible to renew. Eligible means leases that expired in the period, minus those where the owner decided not to renew (sale, owner moving in) or where you declined to renew for cause. Report the exclusions as their own line. Decide once whether a switch to month-to-month counts as a renewal, and keep it that way.
Where to pull it. Lease end dates and renewal outcomes from lease records.
What it tells you. How many turnovers you avoided. Run the renewal vs turnover calculator before each offer, check rent increase notice rules and rent control laws, and follow the lease renewal playbook.
Example (illustrative). 180 leases expired. Twenty were not offered renewal (owner renovation plans or nonrenewal for cause), leaving 160 eligible. 110 renewed: 110 ÷ 160 = 68.8 percent.
Residents and maintenance
11. Delinquency rate (dollars and count)
Formula. Dollar delinquency = past-due resident rent balances on the snapshot day ÷ rent charged for the month. Count delinquency = residents with a past-due balance above a set threshold ÷ occupied units. Report current residents and former residents separately, and age the balances (0 to 30, 31 to 60, over 60 days).
Where to pull it. The aged receivables report, run on the same two days every month: a few days after the grace period ends and the last day of the month.
What it tells you. The count is the contact workload. The dollars are owner exposure. The delinquency playbook and pay or quit notice rules cover what happens next.
Example (illustrative). Example Co. charged $729,000 in October rent on 405 occupied units. On the 6th, 34 residents owed $52,200: 8.4 percent by count and 7.2 percent by dollars. On October 31, 11 residents owed $17,500: 2.7 percent and 2.4 percent.
12. Maintenance response and completion time by priority
Formula. First response time = time the work order was first acknowledged and scheduled with the resident − time it was created. Completion time = time the work was finished − time the work order was created. Report median and 90th percentile for each priority tier. Count reopened work orders separately.
Where to pull it. Work order created, scheduled and completed timestamps. Your maintenance triage playbook defines the tiers.
What it tells you. Whether urgent problems get treated as urgent. Some deadlines are set by law. For Housing Choice Voucher units, federal regulation requires the owner to correct a life-threatening deficiency within 24 hours of notification and other deficiencies within 30 calendar days, or a PHA-approved extension.2 State repair and habitability laws set others.
Example (illustrative). One month, 320 work orders:
| Priority | Work orders | Median first response | Median completion | 90th percentile completion |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emergency | 16 | 35 minutes | 5 hours | 19 hours |
| Urgent | 64 | 3 hours | 2 days | 4 days |
| Routine | 240 | 1 day | 5 days | 14 days |
Efficiency and controls
13. Cost to serve per door
Formula. Cost to serve per door per month = operating expenses to run the portfolio ÷ average doors ÷ months. Include payroll with taxes and benefits, software, office, insurance and outside services. Exclude sales and marketing. Contribution per door = revenue per door − cost to serve per door.
Where to pull it. Your company income statement, with expenses tagged as service or acquisition.
What it tells you. Whether each door makes money, and whether scale is lowering cost.
Example (illustrative). Service costs of $516,600 ÷ 410 doors = $1,260 per door per year, or $105 a month. Against $140 of revenue, contribution is $35 per door per month, a 25 percent margin.
14. Doors per employee
Formula. Doors per FTE = average doors ÷ full-time equivalent staff who work on the portfolio. Count part-time staff and contractors by hours (20 hours a week is 0.5), and the owner if the owner does the work. Report in-house maintenance technicians separately.
Where to pull it. Payroll hours and contractor invoices.
What it tells you. Capacity. The staffing capacity calculator shows the hiring math, and the staff onboarding playbook covers getting new people productive.
Example (illustrative). 410 doors ÷ 6.5 FTE = 63 doors per FTE.
15. Trust account reconciliation timeliness
Formula. Days to reconcile = date the reconciliation was completed and signed − the statement period end date, for each trust account. Report the share of accounts finished by your internal deadline and the number and dollar amount of unresolved variances older than 30 days.
Many states require monthly reconciliation. Arizona requires the broker to complete a three-way reconciliation of bank statements, client ledgers and trust account ledgers "on a monthly basis" and explain any variation.3 California requires beneficiary records to be reconciled with the trust fund journal "at least once a month," except in months with no account activity.4 Check your state at /licensing and the trust accounting guide.
Where to pull it. Completion and sign-off dates on each reconciliation report.
What it tells you. Late reconciliations let small errors grow. This is the one KPI here where a bad number can become a license problem.
Example (illustrative). Example Co. has three trust accounts. August reconciliations were signed September 9, 12 and 24: 9, 12 and 24 days. Against a 15-day internal target, 2 of 3 were on time. One $212 unidentified deposit has been open more than 30 days.
Public numbers you can put next to yours
Rental vacancy. The Census Bureau's Housing Vacancy Survey put the national rental vacancy rate at 7.3 percent in the second quarter of 2026, not statistically different from 7.0 percent a year earlier.5 By region it was 9.5 percent in the South, 6.9 percent in the Midwest, 5.9 percent in the Northeast and 5.3 percent in the West. The median asking rent for vacant units for rent was $1,531.5 The next release is scheduled for October 28, 2026.5 The figures are not seasonally adjusted, and fourth quarter 2025 estimates were based only on November and December data because of a lapse in federal funding.5 It covers all rental housing, so treat it as context, not a target.
Rent trend. The CPI index for rent of primary residence rose 2.7 percent from August 2025 to August 2026, not seasonally adjusted.6 Using the published index values (422.223 for August 2024, 436.981 for August 2025 and 448.997 for August 2026), the prior 12 months rose about 3.5 percent, so rent growth slowed.7 The October 2025 value was not published because of the 2025 lapse in appropriations.7 September 2026 data are scheduled for October 14, 2026.8
Read the CPI rent index as what sitting tenants pay, not what new leases cost. BLS prices each sampled unit every six months, and "most rents included in the sample are continuing rents."9 It is context for a renewal conversation, not a price for a vacant unit.
What to do now
- Write a one-page definitions sheet for all 15 KPIs, including denominators, exclusions and snapshot days.
- Add a required cancellation reason to management agreements and a required source to owner leads.
- Set fixed snapshot days for vacancy and delinquency.
- Pull 12 months of history as your baseline, then set internal targets that respect any legal deadlines.
- Recheck the Census vacancy figures after October 28, 2026 and the CPI rent index after October 14, 2026.
Sources
- U.S. Census Bureau. (n.d.). Definitions and explanations (Current Population Survey/Housing Vacancy Survey). Retrieved October 7, 2026, from https://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/definitions.pdf
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. (2026). 24 CFR 982.404, Maintenance: Owner and family responsibility; PHA remedies. Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, current as of October 5, 2026. Retrieved October 7, 2026, from https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-24/subtitle-B/chapter-IX/part-982/subpart-I/section-982.404
- Arizona State Legislature. (n.d.). Arizona Revised Statutes section 32-2151, Disposition of monies; trust fund accounts; deposit requirements; broker duties; violations. Retrieved October 7, 2026, from https://www.azleg.gov/ars/32/02151.htm
- California Department of Real Estate. (n.d.). Regulations of the Real Estate Commissioner, California Code of Regulations, title 10, section 2831.2, Trust account reconciliation. Retrieved October 7, 2026, from https://www.dre.ca.gov/files/pdf/relaw/regs.pdf
- U.S. Census Bureau. (2026, July 28). Quarterly residential vacancies and homeownership, second quarter 2026 (Release No. CB26-116). Retrieved October 7, 2026, from https://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/files/currenthvspress.pdf
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2026, September 11). Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U): U.S. city average, by detailed expenditure category, August 2026 (Table 2). Retrieved October 7, 2026, from https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t02.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (n.d.). Rent of primary residence in U.S. city average, all urban consumers, not seasonally adjusted (Series CUUR0000SEHA). Retrieved October 7, 2026, from https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUUR0000SEHA
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2026, September 11). Consumer Price Index: August 2026 (News release). Retrieved October 7, 2026, from https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2026, February 13). Measuring price change in the CPI: Rent and rental equivalence. Retrieved October 7, 2026, from https://www.bls.gov/cpi/factsheets/owners-equivalent-rent-and-rent.htm
Published October 7, 2026. Updated October 7, 2026. Laws change. Each rule shows its source and the date it was last checked. Read the statute and talk to a local attorney before acting. Report a correction.