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A new layer of review interpretation has entered the multifamily space. In the past eighteen months, renters have been leveraging LLMs as an additional tool during their apartment search
As we observed in previous studies, namely Beyond the Star Rating, renters are digging deeper into the actual content within reviews — and now AI is doing it for them. This phenomenon is a double-edged sword: high star ratings can be nullified by condemning review summaries, while fair but not outstanding ratings can be redeemed by glowing summaries. LLM usage in this context is growing increasingly more pervasive. 45.9% of renters say they now use AI tools for apartment searching or review analysis.
Within this group, 19.8% say AI was integral to their search process. 26.1% used it as an occasional complimentary tool.
We asked renters specifically what they used AI for during their apartment search. The top responses were generating lists of apartments that meet their requirements, comparing communities side by side, and researching neighborhoods/safety — at rates of 42.3%, 40.0%, and 36.6% of AI users, respectively.
Previously foreshadowed was the two-faced phenomenon of a negative AI summary overriding a strong star rating and a favorable summary rehabilitating a less than stellar star rating.
62.3% of renters responded that they were less likely to tour a property given an unfavorable AI-generated summary while only 20.9% saying that the summary does not sway their decision to tour. The remaining 16.8% actually said that they were more likely to tour because the AI summary gave provided specific information, conveying a different type of engagement with the summary.
Now looking at the other side: when presented with a property with a 4.3-star rating, 67.3% of renters said they would be more likely to tour. This dwarfs the 8.6% of people who expressed that the AI summary cannot overcome the star rating.
This signals the potential for communities that receive genuine, positive review sentiment but may have had their star rating capped due to any number of reasons. AI summarization can shine a light on inner operational excellence that a star rating may not have.
J Turner Research will continue to track the ubiquity of AI usage in the apartment search process and its specific use cases in the months and years to come. Increasing utilization of AI tools in conjunction with growing sensitivity towards the actual content within reviews, operational excellence will only continue to be more important.