The 2026 AppFolio Resident Preferences Report asked residents many interesting questions, but one portion was not what I expected.

Residents aren't actually asking you to fix the leaky faucet before they finish reporting it.

What separates a maintenance experience residents are satisfied with from one they're not?
The answer wasn't "same day." It wasn't "within the hour."

It was a FEW DAYS. That's the bar. A few days. 😳

Yet 53% of dissatisfied residents said they waited weeks or more.
WEEKS ya'll! Weeks! I am flabbergasted.

We're not losing people because we can't achieve the impossible.
We're losing them because we're falling short of the completely reasonable.

Maintenance is the single biggest driver of resident satisfaction in this report, and it shapes everything downstream: renewals, reviews, referrals.

Residents satisfied with maintenance are 56% more likely to renew.
83% say they'd recommend their property manager.
The ones who aren't satisfied? 69% are already planning to move.

All of that is riding on whether someone hears back in days or weeks.

I think about what actually happens in the gap between those two
outcomes. It's usually not that the work is hard. It's that the resident has no idea what's going on.
They have no update, no timeline, and no sense that anyone is paying attention. The request goes in and then... silence. And we all know that silence reads as "you don't matter here."

In 2026, with all the technology, AI, better software, and communication-focused platforms, it is a travesty that we can't figure this out.
Sometimes, just telling someone you got their request and here's what happens next would be enough. That communication alone moves the needle.

The data also shows that residents with access to an online portal are more satisfied with maintenance than those without, 85% versus 78%.
Not because the portal fixes anything faster, but because it gives people visibility. They can see the status. They're not wondering (we all know how much we love the Domino's pizza tracker!).

We spend a lot of time in this industry talking about amenities, technology, and ancillary revenue and all of that matters.
But the resident who's deciding whether to renew is probably thinking about the time they submitted a work order and waited three weeks to hear back.
What does your current maintenance communication look like between submission and resolution?
(link to the 2026 AppFolio Resident Preferences Report: https://bit.ly/4dReQFn )