Multifamily Industry Research Blog

Insights from Turner: The Elite 8: Eight Habits of the Best-Run Properties in the Country

Written by Turner Batdorf | Feb 23, 2026 8:33:18 PM

J Turner Research and Multifamily Executive just released the 2025 Elite ORA Power Ranking, which recognizes the best properties in the country based on their online reputation. This prestigious group is limited to the top 1% of all conventional and the top 100 of all student properties in the country. This group achieved this honor based on their December 2025 ORA Score. In this blog, we will detail what made these properties stand out in comparison to everyone else by analyzing the content of their reviews.

However, as we go through their data, I want to also turn the page to 2026 and project what it will take to make the Elite this time next year. This is important to note due to the increased standards of J Turner’s new ORA Score (which you can learn about in this webinar). Now, this is not to diminish the success of properties who made the 2025 list, but the 2025 ORA Score model we just sunset was based more on historical performance than the new ORA Model we rolled out yesterday. This is because the new model goes beyond just the star ratings to analyze the content of reviews, making having a higher ORA Score more based on what is currently happening onsite than what has happened to produce the ratings you see on Google.

Long-story short, with the content of reviews factored in, avoiding complaints in 2026 will be even more important than getting positive reviews or compliments. This makes the standard for making the 2026 Elite much higher as you will see below.

Note: the findings for the 2026 Projected Elite are based on a simulation using the New ORA Algorithm on data through December 2025

The Elite 8
All findings based on 2025 Reviews

  1. Sentiment Soars: As you would expect, the Elite Class of 2025 received a much higher ratio of compliments to complaints than most properties. However, when looking at who would have made it under the New ORA Score, there is an even higher threshold of performance. The 2025 Elite got 60% less complaints than all properties in the country last year, but the 2026 Projected Elite got 57% less complaints than even the 2025 Elite did!

      2025- All Properties 2025 Elite 2026 Projected Elite
    Total Complaints 39.1% 15.6% 6.8%
    Total Compliments 60.9% 84.4% 93.2%
  2. Pests Eradicated: As we detailed toward the end of last year, the worst operational weakness you can have in multifamily is in pest management. The 2025 Elite saw performance that most properties did not in this regard. The biggest difference between Elite properties and non-Elite properties was avoiding complaints in Pests. This carried over to even stronger performance amongst the 2026 projected class.
      2025- All Properties 2025 Elite 2026 Projected Elite
    % of Reviews with Pest Complaint 4.73% 0.81% 0.22%
  3. Clean as a Whistle: This standard of upkeep carried over to Cleanliness. The second biggest delta for the 2025 Elite was avoiding complaints regarding General Cleanliness. As you will see throughout, the 2026 Projected Elite does even better with this.  

      2025- All Properties 2025 Elite 2026 Projected Elite
    % of Reviews with Cleanliness Complaint 5.58% 1.60% 0.41%
  4. Safe and Sound: One of the other Apex Threats (operational areas with the most impact on your business) we have called attention to is Security. This is an area that many properties struggle with because they also struggle with property upkeep. Inadvertently, the more they do not take care of the property, the more residents tend to perceive that management does not care about the safety of its inhabitants. Success in Security is not predicated on where you are located, but rather on doing things like having good Exterior Lighting and Landscaping. In all respects, the Elite properties perform much better.

      2025- All Properties 2025 Elite 2026 Projected Elite
    % of Reviews with Security Complaint 6.30% 2.22% 0.42%
    % of Reviews with Exterior Lighting Complaint 0.31% 0.08% 0.04%
    % of Reviews with Landscaping Complaint 1.02% 0.35% 0.15%
  5. Some Things Can Be Harder to Have Control Over: While the Elite still perform better than the average property, there are areas where you can get dealt a bad hand due to factors outside of your control. These include circumstances like shoddy building construction or active renovation timelines. All apartments have to deal with external factors, but the teams who can work with their residents the best rise to the top. Here are the areas with the least difference between all properties and The Elite, where you can still note large deltas:

      2025- All Properties 2025 Elite 2026 Projected Elite
    % of Reviews with Noise Complaint 4.6% 3.0% 1.1%
    % of Reviews with Internet Complaint 0.5% 0.4% 0.1%
    % of Reviews with Amenities Complaint 4.6% 2.6% 1.4%
  6. You Don’t Have to Have Perfect Service: Even the 2026 Projected Elite have 2.8% of their reviews feature a complaint about Customer Service. Not every resident interaction is going to go as well as you would like, but it is not about being perfect – it is about being as consistent as you can. These properties do a great job of avoiding complaints in things they can control like Communication, Financial Clarity, and Maintenance Service (completing work orders correctly the first time). Being open, honest, detailed, and caring buys you a lot of grace!
  7. Good Reviews are Still About Service: The best properties are not making these lists because of things totally unusual or unique to them. It is not because they have amenities you don’t or things that you have not thought of. The interactions of your team drive positive reviews no matter what your property is like or how they have performed in the past.

      2025- All Properties 2025 Elite 2026 Projected Elite
    % of 4- and 5-Star Reviews with Customer Service Compliment 81.1% 82.3% 85.3%
    % of 4- and 5-Star Reviews with Maintenance Service Compliment 25.9% 24.8% 21.3%
    % of 4- and 5-Star Reviews with Maintenance Timeliness Compliment 14.5% 13.5% 11.3%
  8. Moving Forward By The Numbers: The 2026 Elite will be less about having reviews across a ton of sites or just more reviews in general. It is truly about quality:
    Google Rating 2025 Elite 2026 Projected Elite
    Conventional 4.72 4.86
    Student 4.55 4.78

     

    # of Total Reviews 2025 Elite 2026 Projected Elite
    Conventional 373 151
    Student 549 161

     

    # of Review Sites (That Count Toward ORA) 2025 Elite 2026 Projected Elite
    Conventional 4.77 3.16
    Student 4.28 2.37

     

Conclusion

Everything is right in front of you. If you want to make the Elite in 2026 (whether you made it this year or not), you can focus on service and get there. While the margin for error will be much slimmer, taking care of your property and having strong interactions with residents in 2026 will put your ORA Score in the best possible position for you to make the list. The good reviews will come if you are engaged, but the hard work will be keeping people from blasting you online by doing the day-to-day tasks. You will have to be completely focused on things like analyzing surveys, answering your calls/emails, walking the property, hiring good vendors, and being thorough on maintenance requests.

I urge you to embrace the challenge! This time next year, we will have a new crop of Elite Properties that will we will be celebrating for having done it, so why can’t it be you? It is actually much easier to improve your ORA Score on this new model, so let’s make this year the best one yet!

ABOUT THIS BLOG:

The insights in this blog came from utilizing J Turner Research’s text categorization tool, Einstein. Einstein uses Thought Analysis, a proprietary AI software, to objectively show you your operational strengths and weaknesses based on anything anyone has ever said about you online in reviews. What is being said is incredibly valuable because it is essentially the "why" behind your scores. Reviews are unprompted descriptions of why a resident is satisfied (left a high star rating) or dissatisfied (left a low star rating). This means that what is being complimented and complained about can be seen by owners and operators as drivers of satisfaction/dissatisfaction. 
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