As one of the largest multifamily property managers in North America, Weidner Apartment Homes closely analyzes spend to optimize partnerships and consistently deliver on its promises. The team created a groundbreaking multi-touch attribution model to evaluate the performance of its partners and accurately assess which collaborators are pulling their weight. By implementing Rentgrata's renter insight platform across 95% of its portfolio, Weidner achieved a 7% reduction in Cost Per Move-In (CPMI), significantly increased lead-to-lease conversion, and strengthened community engagement—all while maintaining tight control over marketing expenses.
“With Rentgrata, we are adding value to people already in the funnel. We’re making the process smoother for prospects, while shrinking CPMI. That’s magic.”
- Josh Draughn, VP of Marketing & Customer Experience
Weidner is one of multifamily’s most established and cost-leading ownership groups, in part due to its laser focus on precision, accountability, and expense management. While many property management companies rely on broad or incomplete metrics, Weidner consistently digs deep into performance data to ensure that every marketing tool and vendor is truly earning its place in their strategy.
“Our team quarterbacks the strategy for marketing the communities so leasing teams can lease. We’re focused on finding the best recipe of marketing sources and combinations of tools to generate the right volume and quality of leases at the best costs. It's not simply a “copy paste” mentality across the portfolio; it’s about finding unique solutions in a complex marketplace.”
- Josh Draughn, VP of Marketing & Customer Experience
In their ongoing commitment to being more efficient and effective, Weidner has always looked for ways to reduce marketing spend, improve conversion rates, and enhance the human element of their leasing process. But those goals come with inherent challenges that required a unique solution:
Recognizing these challenges, Weidner needed a solution that would not only drive down costs but also foster genuine connections and provide reliable insights into their marketing effectiveness.
Weidner saw firsthand the impact Rentgrata had after seeing the results from just one community. As positive results started to emerge, Weidner saw an opportunity to differentiate their communities with an effective—and human—solution they’d been looking for.
Josh Draughn, VP of Marketing & Customer Experience, describes the impact:
"We describe Rentgrata internally as grease, it doesn’t sound great but let me explain. Rentgrata doesn't necessarily bring in new leads but adds value to people already in the funnel, making the whole process smoother while shrinking CPMI. We all heard the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and that remains the case in this scenario. You never know what ILS might need a little dab of grease to increase their conversion rate until you try.”
Encouraged by early successes, Weidner expanded the platform to 17, and then 40 properties, to test its scalability.
"Rentgrata has been a force multiplier for our marketing efforts. It doesn't just bring in traffic; it converts our existing traffic more effectively by twice or more. Early wins made it easy for us to get buy-in for our entire portfolio. Our team is always looking for tools that generate the right volume of quality leases at the best cost, and Rentgrata delivers on both fronts."
- Josh Draughn, VP of Marketing & Customer Experience
With continued strong performance, Rentgrata was implemented across 95% of Weidner’s 300+ properties, 72,000+-unit portfolio.
Prospects often interact with multiple marketing channels before signing a lease, making it difficult to accurately attribute conversions to specific sources. Traditional attribution models like first-touch or last-touch do not capture the full picture, leading to inefficiencies in marketing spend and an inability to optimize effectively.
Weidner recognized this challenge and developed a more accurate method to assess each advertising source's impact on conversions.
To accurately measure Rentgrata's impact, Weidner developed a blended Cost Per Move-In (CPMI) approach that compares the total marketing spend relative to the number of move-ins providing a holistic view of its effectiveness within the complex marketing mix.
"The team created a blended CPMI (paid and unpaid) analysis to most effectively measure the impact of Rentgrata on the cost and volume of move-ins. Since Rentgrata isn't an ILS, this model allowed us to compare the multi-touch CPMI with and without Rentgrata with greater accuracy."
Rentgrata has consistently demonstrated its value by converting existing traffic into more leases while lowering CPMI by 7% across Weidner’s portfolio.
Many internet listing services charge their clients on a cost-per-lease basis. Because Rentgrata significantly increases lead-to-lease conversion rates from all sources, including ILS, “For Weidner, Rentgrata ends up being more of a revenue position than a cost center,” says Josh. “Some of these ILS’s should be paying Rentgrata.”
"Talking to Jason made me feel like I already had a new friend if I moved in. I know that sounds silly, but it made me feel welcome. He’s in the same floor plan that interests me so was able to provide some good points about being on the second floor and having a pet. Thank you for allowing this interaction to happen. Very impressive."
- Prospect Survey Response
"Connecting with a current resident gave me real insights that I couldn't get from brochures or websites. It made my decision so much easier."
- Prospect Survey Response
"It's a no-brainer. How does this not already exist? It makes perfect sense that people are using AI chatbots to help with a lot of things, but people want to connect to people. What better way to actually know what's happening at a place than to talk to somebody who lives there?"
- Cody Lee
Weidner envisions Rentgrata’s approach becoming a standard, not only in multifamily, but also in other industries.
“I truly believe, from a sales perspective, that we’re going to see a Rentgrata-like approach in many things we buy and do. It's all about reputation. In five to ten years, there's going to be something like Rentgrata for almost everything.”
- Josh Draughn, VP of Marketing & Customer Experience
Rentgrata continues to support Weidner’s commitment to providing meaningful, personalized experiences while enhancing leasing efficiency and reducing cost. And with the numbers to back it up, it's clear that this partnership is built on more than just good intentions—it's driven by results.
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