Insights from Turner: These 3 Things Will Tank Your ORA Score

This past week, J Turner Research released new research that we believe ushers in a new era of online reputation management. The main takeaway from the study was that the content of what is being said in reviews is more important to your business and more reflective of resident satisfaction than the star ratings review sites have published and shown on a Google search. It makes sense - fifteen years of historical reviews, increased gamification/fake reviews, and many sites/ILS’s switching to a pay-to-play model has made the review landscape messy at best.  

At JTR, we have worked tirelessly to develop and refine an algorithm that manipulates how the star ratings are perceived by our ORA model in an effort to cut out as much of that noise as possible (that is why ORA has such a strong correlation to financial forecasting). But now that AI is being used by 51.6% of prospective renters to summarize operational strengths/weaknesses and we have developed a proprietary data process for accurately analyzing all multifamily reviews (Einstein), we are ready to include the content of reviews in the next iteration of the ORA Score which will debut early in 2026.  

As a reader of this blog, hopefully you have found tremendous value in the analysis of what is being said in reviews – the “why” behind the scores. But now that our research is complete and the ORA Model is in the final stages of testing/fine tuning, I wanted to give you three areas that I am confident will have massive implications on ORA Scores next year.  

Before we get into it, I highly recommend you read our new research! There are plenty of takeaways that you can use to not only sure up your online reputation management strategy but also steer your operations teams to what matters most to both renters and prospective renters. You can read it here.

Introduction  

The Big Picture: Not all 1-star reviews are created equally. Using a proprietary “Threat Score,” J Turner Research was able to provide mathematical proof that a negative review centered on Pests carries over 18 times the reputational threat of one focused on Amenity Quality/Condition. While many companies look at review performance through simplistic metrics like straight averages, or worse, focus on chasing 5-star reviews to try to bury negative reviews, the new era of online reputation management will necessitate an approach centered on prioritizing resident satisfaction. Namely, the best properties and companies will be focused on reducing complaints and performing incredibly well in the handful of operational areas that almost instantly sway renter/prospect behavior: Pests, Security, and Financial Clarity.

Why it Matters: Doing well in these three areas is vital because of the immediate impact on your business. Three out of four renters stated that two comments (out of 100+ reviews) complaining about any of these issues is enough to make them believe that there is a red flag. Moreover, 35.8% of renters were categorized as “unforgiving,” meaning that the presence of these issues would move them off living at the property regardless of how high the star ratings are.  

Why These Three Issues?

Pests, Security, and Financial Clarity are what we consider “Apex Threats” because no matter how we phrased or showed renters/prospects questions and scenarios, they always rose to the top. Specifically, they scored at or near the top in each of these three categories of our study:  

1. On a scale of 1-5 with 5 being “Most Important,” how do you rate the importance of a property performing well in this operational area
2. Out of these 22 operational areas, please indicate which of them would be deal breaker issues – things that would cause you to not lease at a property regardless of how high their star ratings or other reviews may be
3. Of the following 22 operational areas, please select the 3 things that matter most to you for a property to perform well in

So, while many of the other categories scored high on some of these questions, and it is of course important to perform well in general, the fact that these three always bubbled to the top showcased their influence on renter behavior and overall satisfaction.

What Exactly are These Three Categories?

What Does this Mean for ORA?  

Long story short, you can’t have any volume of complaints in these three areas and expect your property to have a good ORA Score. Period.  

While there will be a threshold analysis within ORA that takes into account how recent the review was left and how many complaints you are getting, these “Apex Threats” will carry tremendous influence given their correlation to renter behavior/satisfaction. I have detailed a few scenarios that will contextualize how we anticipate this playing out for ORA Scores in 2026: 

Scenario 1 – The Most Negatively Affected: Property 1 has a good ORA Score on the current model, buoyed by a 4.5 average rating on Google and supplemented by a 4.7 average rating on both Apartments.com and Facebook. All of these review sites have high volume, a testament to the team’s focus on getting new 5-star reviews each month. However, residents are frustrated with the onsite team’s slow resolution to the roach problem that negatively affects people living on the first floor. They have received five reviews complaining about Pests in the last 12 months. 

• This property should anticipate a big drop in their ORA Score under the new model. Our study showed that residents believed a property with a 4.5-star rating but complaints about Pests was actually a 2.82-star rated property.  
   

Scenario 2 – The Unaffected: Property 2 is doing well. It has a 4.2 average on Google and has chosen to not pay for other ILS’s. While they do get their portion of positive reviews, the lighting renovation project has been a nuisance to a small portion of their residents, resulting in a handful of negative reviews about Interior Lighting. 

• This property should not expect much change in their ORA Score. While they are not an elite property, they are not getting a high volume of complaints, nor are residents frustrated about high sensitivity issues like Financial Clarity. It is business as usual.    

• They are killing the resident satisfaction/retention game – we can expect their ORA Score to go up to reflect their hard work onsite to make their residents happier than they were with the previous management company.  

What Do I Do Next? 

1. Read the research report linked here – it has the data you need to get buy-in within your company for changing how you evaluate online reputation. Involve everyone from onsite, to operations, to training.  
2. Analyze what has been discussed in your reviews recently – do you have a problem on your hands, especially with one of these Apex Threats at your property/properties? If so, work with your operations team to address these onsite issues ASAP.  
3. Go a step further & look at your resident surveys – are there low scores around cleanliness or comments about not feeling safe? If so, respond to the survey takers, work with the disgruntled residents to address their concerns head-on, and develop an action plan for property wide improvement before someone takes the conversation online. 
4. Evaluate your Communication Policies – the biggest correlative category to negative reviews is not responding when someone brings up a concern/issue. Ensure your properties work the problems as they arise. There are no perfect properties, just ones that handle issues timely, with empathy, and transparently.   

Are there Other Categories I Should Be Looking at?  

There are definitely other categories that will have a big effect on ORA, even if the movement is not as drastic as these Apex Threats. It is a little bit too early in the process for us to fully disclose how much each category will move the needle with 100% certainty, but outside of the three highlighted in this blog, I would recommend looking into:  

1. Condition of the Unit 
2. General Cleanliness 
3. Packages & Mail 

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.