Are Apartment Websites Getting Worse?

Apartment websites may look better than ever—but are they actually performing better for renters?

In this episode of The Multifamily Marketers Podcast, hosts Josh Grillo and Caroline Mills break down why many apartment websites are becoming overly complicated, slower, and harder to use despite advances in technology and design.

From hidden pricing and chatbot overload to slow load speeds and confusing navigation, this episode explains what renters actually care about—and why the best-performing websites are often the simplest.

You’ll learn:

• Why some apartment websites are hurting conversions despite looking “luxury”
• What renters actually want first: pricing, floor plans, availability, and specials
• Why the floor plans page is one of the most important pages on the site
• How slow websites increase Google Ads costs and hurt performance
• Why too many pop-ups and chatbots create friction instead of conversions
• The biggest conversion mistakes: hidden pricing, confusing navigation, and weak CTAs
• What the ideal apartment website experience should actually feel like

To suggest a topic, get in touch!

For more multifamily marketing help, connect with us at Resident360.

Drop Us a Review If You Enjoyed the Episode!

TRANSCRIPT

Episode 41: Are Apartment Websites Getting Worse?

Podcast Co-Hosts: Josh Grillo and Caroline Mills, Resident360

Josh: Welcome back to the Multifamily Marketers Podcast. I’m your host, Josh Grillo, co-founder here at Resident360, and I’m joined by Miss Caroline Mills, currently sitting in her new place in Florida. Caroline, how was the trek down south?

Caroline: Wow, it was a trek. I’d say it’s about 10 or 11 hours of driving. Thankfully, we broke it up over a couple of days and had family along the way. And my weather has shifted. You always hear me talk about how chilly it’s been in North Carolina. Now we’re well into the 90s, so I think going forward it’s pretty much a low of 75 and a high in the 90s.

Josh: And how was it traveling with the pooch in the car?

Caroline: Oh, he was a very good boy. He honestly slept most of the way. I made him a huge bed in the back seat. He had the entire back seat to himself, with blankets, so he could walk around and do whatever he wanted.

Josh: Your dog is pretty big, right? What kind of dog is it? A golden-poo? A goldendoodle, that’s it.

Caroline: A goldendoodle, yeah. Big boy.

Josh: All right. I’m glad you made it safe and sound and everything is going well. I know you’re feeling the heat down there in Florida right now.

Caroline: Yes, but we’ll take it over our chilly 40 degrees, so I can’t be mad. We have a beautiful pool and palm trees.

Josh: All right, let’s jump in. Today we’re talking about something that feels a little controversial but also very real: Are apartment websites getting worse? Caroline, are they?

Caroline: This is an interesting one, because I genuinely think some of them are. Someone might say technology and AI are advancing, but we’ll dive into why that could make websites worse, or how people may be using it the wrong way. We’re seeing super-polished websites and luxury branding, but when you actually try to use these websites, it’s virtually impossible to find what you need.

Josh: I think that’s often the case. Visually, they look better, but from the renter experience and marketing perspective, maybe not.

Caroline: Absolutely. We’ll dive into how this affects different things, but I think everyone assumes you want it to look great because that’s what sells. But that’s not always the case.

Josh: If you’re a renter, you’re just looking for answers quickly: pricing, availability, floor plans, pet policy, location, amenities. But sometimes you have to click through five different sections to find basic information, in some cases even the phone number.

Caroline: Yes, absolutely. We’ve talked about pop-up overload and AI chatbots, too. All of that affects the renter’s experience and whether they find what they’re looking for, and you could be losing leads because of it.

Josh: All right, we’ve roasted apartment websites a little. Let’s flip it around. What actually makes a great apartment website today?

Caroline: Honestly, the best ones are usually pretty simple. I don’t mean they lack creativity. I mean they feel simple, intuitive, and easy to navigate. You never want the renter to feel overwhelmed. A good website should answer questions quickly and guide someone naturally toward scheduling a tour or contacting the property.

Josh: What would you say are the absolute must-haves?

Caroline: Every strong apartment website should have clear floor plans and pricing, updated availability, really strong photography, easy-to-find contact options, or CTAs (calls to action), and a simple tour scheduling process. You want a mobile-first design and fast load speed. Honestly, that alone will put you ahead of a lot of websites that you might think look better.

Josh: One mistake we see is websites trying to put everything on the homepage. Everything is on the homepage, but the internal pages have nothing on them.

Caroline: Yes, all the time. Not every piece of information needs to hit the renter immediately. You want the homepage to do a few things: establish the brand and lifestyle, help renters understand the property within a few seconds, and guide them to the next action.

Josh: So not 12 pop-up banners and six sliders.

Caroline: Please, no. Sometimes less really is more when it comes to conversions and getting people to take action.

Josh: What do renters actually care about most when they land on a property website?

Caroline: I can speak to this very clearly, having just gone through it myself. You want the practical information first. A lot of marketers assume renters want a huge luxury experience, super luxe and fancy. But most people immediately look for things like pricing and floor plan information, some amenities, availability details, and probably any specials. When you’re quickly going through 20 or 30 apartment websites, you want to decide fast, so you need to know what you’re getting.

Josh: I feel like the floor plans page is probably one of the most important pages on the website.

Caroline: One hundred percent. A floor plans page is huge for both SEO and paid ads. If someone is searching for a two-bedroom and you don’t send them to a dedicated two-bedroom page, your conversion rate can drop, and the person might just bounce. There could be a lot of lost opportunity.

Josh: I think that makes total sense.

Caroline: And that’s where the website really supports the marketing strategy. You don’t want the website to just look good. You want it to be creative and eye-catching, but it also needs to convert traffic. Traffic from your Google Ads, SEO, social media, everything needs to be able to convert when it gets to the website.

Josh: Now I want to get into paid ads, because I know you talk about this a lot as our director of digital marketing here at Resident360. How much does website speed actually matter for Google Ads?

Caroline: It matters a lot, and I think a lot of people underestimate how much a slow website can hurt, not only the experience of people on the site but also your campaign performance. Google looks at landing page experience as part of your Quality Score, so if your site is slow or hard to use, it can actually make your ads more expensive. I don’t think a lot of people realize that.

Josh: So your website can literally increase your ad costs. That’s what you’re saying?

Caroline: Yep. You could have amazing targeting and ad copy, but if the landing page experience is poor, Google sees that and understands it. And on the renter side, people are impatient now, especially on mobile. Think about it the next time you search for a place to eat or a product. If something takes more than a few seconds to load, you get frustrated. You hit refresh or go back. You’re not going to stay there and complete the action you originally came to do.

Josh: Especially if they clicked on an ad, right?

Caroline: Exactly. You might be paying $8 or $10 a click, and on the high end in some markets, even $15. Then the website takes forever to load because of giant videos, autoplay animations, chatbot software, multiple tracking scripts, and huge images. Now you’ve wasted that ad spend, because the person got frustrated and left, even though they cost you a lot of money.

Josh: I feel like marketers blame the ads first when conversions drop.

Caroline: That’s often what we hear, and often the ads are fine. It could really be the website driving that drop.

Josh: So let’s talk about the chatbot situation, because almost every property website has some sort of chatbot in the corner.

Caroline: Yes, absolutely. They can take up so much space on your screen. They jump out at you. You land on a homepage, and suddenly a chatbot pops up, a “schedule a tour” prompt pops up, then a cookie notice, then a text opt-in, and then a promo banner. Meanwhile, as the renter, you don’t even know whether they have the floor plan you’re looking for. You haven’t seen a single floor plan image yet, and you’ve been attacked by pop-ups.

Josh: Yeah, it’s almost like six people are trying to lease you an apartment at once, with all the chatbots, pop-ups, and privacy notices.

Caroline: Exactly. And we’re not anti-chatbot. I think AI leasing assistants can be helpful if they’re implemented correctly. But some websites have become so aggressive that they create more stress instead of helping the renter.

Josh: Okay, let’s talk about conversion mistakes. What are some of the biggest conversion mistakes apartment websites make?

Caroline: One is hiding information, and that may not be intentional. If someone clicks an ad for a two-bedroom apartment, they should immediately see the floor plan, pricing, availability, and layout options, and then you want them to take action, whether that’s scheduling a tour or applying. Instead, some websites make renters hunt for everything. They click into one place, then another, then they have to enter a date. That’s just frustrating.

Josh: Or they force you to fill out a guest card before showing you pricing.

Caroline: Yes, and people hate that. We all do. Think about clicking on a news article, or a “free trial” that makes you enter all your information before you can use it. People want transparency.

A few other big mistakes I often see are confusing navigation, where people can’t figure out how to get around the website, and unclear calls to action. We’ve talked about that before. Maybe it’s a new development, and one button says “Contact Us,” another says “VIP List,” and another says “Schedule With Us Today.” You don’t know what you’re supposed to do, and it becomes too confusing. That’s why I say the best-performing websites are usually some of the simplest.

Josh: Okay, Caroline, rapid-fire time. What do apartment websites need to stop doing?

Caroline: Ooh, easy. Autoplay videos with sound; I’ve talked about those before, and I hate them. Hidden pricing, definitely a no-no. Massive pop-up overload. Tiny text on mobile, which I’ve seen recently. Broken floor plans, slow-loading galleries, generic stock photos. And one we’ve touched on a lot: making users click five times to see availability, or chatbots covering the screen. Those would be my top ones.

Josh: Yeah, hidden pricing drives people crazy.

Caroline: It really does. Transparency truly converts better now.

Josh: All right, let’s talk about the ideal website experience. Can you explain what that looks like?

Caroline: Ideally, you get to the website, the page loads quickly, and it matches exactly what you searched for. If you searched for two-bedrooms, you’re sent to the floor plans, and you immediately see relevant information. There’s a strong visual connection, meaning it can look good, but it should reflect the lifestyle and what the renter is looking for. They can easily explore the floor plans. And the CTAs should be obvious without being too aggressive. We don’t want them popping up constantly, but we don’t want them hidden either.

Josh: So which CTAs work best?

Caroline: The simple ones we usually recommend: Schedule a Tour, Check Availability, View Floor Plans, and Apply Now. You don’t want anything overly complicated.

Josh: So basically, the best apartment websites aren’t necessarily the flashiest ones. If you had one piece of advice for multifamily marketers working on website redesigns right now, what would it be?

Caroline: Design for the renter first. Put your prospect hat on. Don’t design for trends or flashy animations, or for what looks impressive in a presentation. Focus on speed, clarity, and usability, and make it easy for people to take the next step.

Josh: I think that’s the perfect takeaway. Your website should help leasing, not create obstacles.

Caroline: Absolutely.

Josh: Well, we’ll wrap up this one. Caroline, thank you as always. We’ll see everybody next week with a new topic on the Multifamily Marketers Podcast.

Caroline: Thank you, guys. Bye!