Top Multifamily Investment Metrics: Key Performance Indicators Every Real Estate Investor Should Track
- Justin Brennan
- 3 hours ago
- 6 min read
Most multifamily investors are losing money and don't even know it.
Not because their properties are bad. Not because the market tanked. But because they're not tracking the right numbers.
Here's the brutal truth: If you can't measure it, you can't improve it. And if you're only checking your properties once a year at tax time, you're already six months behind the problems that are bleeding your cash flow dry.
The investors making real money? They track specific metrics every 90 days. They know exactly which numbers predict profit and which ones warn of disaster. And they use that information to make moves while there's still time to capitalize.
This isn't complicated. You just need to know what to measure and when to measure it. Here's exactly how to do it.
The $100,000 Mistake Most Investors Make
You're sitting on a goldmine and treating it like a piggy bank.
You check if rent came in. You look at occupancy when someone mentions it. Maybe you glance at expenses when they seem high. That's it. That's your "system."
Meanwhile, you're hemorrhaging money in ways you can't see because you're not looking at the right metrics.
Your competitor down the street is charging $200 more per unit because they know the market data. They filled their vacancies in 14 days while yours sat empty for 45 because they track leasing velocity. Their NOI grew 12% while yours stayed flat because they monitor the numbers that actually matter.
The gap between you and them isn't talent. It's measurement.
Every 90 days, you need to run three checks on your property. Think of it like a health screening. You're looking for problems early and opportunities before they disappear.
Tools like WDSuite make this dead simple by putting market data, rent comparisons, demographics, and property valuations in one place. No more hunting across ten websites to figure out if your numbers are good or garbage.
Metric Category #1: Your Money Numbers
Let's start with what actually matters—how much money you're making and whether it's going up or down.
Net Operating Income Trend
Your NOI is the only financial metric that tells the truth about your property's performance.
Here's what you do: Calculate your NOI every quarter. Then compare it to neighborhood rent benchmarks. If your NOI is flat but market rents jumped 7%, you're losing. It doesn't matter that your NOI didn't drop—it should have grown, and it didn't.
Most investors celebrate flat performance. Winners recognize it as a loss.
Operating Expense Ratio
This number reveals whether you're running a tight ship or funding inefficiency.
Track your OER quarterly. If it's climbing faster than rents, you have an operations problem. Period. Cross-check against market rent data. When local rents grow 3% but your expenses grow 6%, your margins are shrinking and you're not even noticing.
The fix: Identify the expense categories driving the increase and eliminate them or find cheaper alternatives.
Revenue Per Unit
This is the most actionable metric you have.
Pull your rent roll. Calculate what each unit generates monthly. Now compare it to similar properties within a mile radius. If they're charging $175 more per unit and staying full, that's not luck—that's money you're leaving on the table.
Use WDSuite to get precise rent benchmarks for your neighborhood. Then test new pricing. If you have 50 units and you're $100 below market, that's $60,000 annually you're giving away for no reason.
Stop guessing. Start measuring.
WDSuite's automated valuation model shows you quarterly property value estimates based on current market conditions. This isn't about curiosity—it's about knowing your equity position so you can time refinances and exits when the numbers work in your favor, not against you.
Metric Category #2: Your Operations Numbers
Your financials show results. Your operations numbers show you why you got those results.
Occupancy Rate and Leasing Speed
Occupancy percentage is table stakes. What matters more is how fast you fill vacancies.
If you're taking 40 days to lease a unit in a market where the average is 18 days, something is broken. Your pricing is wrong, your marketing is weak, or your property shows poorly. All of those are fixable, but only if you know they're problems.
Track your occupancy against market-wide occupancy rates. If you're at 91% and the market average is 96%, you're underperforming by 5%—and that's costing you thousands monthly.
Turnover Rate
Every time a resident leaves, you lose money on vacancy, turnover costs, and leasing expenses.
Calculate your annual turnover rate quarterly. If it's climbing, figure out why. Are residents leaving because of price, property condition, or management issues? Or is it a market shift—are local incomes dropping or populations moving?
WDSuite provides demographic data like income levels and renter population trends. Sometimes high turnover isn't your fault—it's a market exodus you need to understand and plan for.
Maintenance Patterns
If work orders are increasing or deferred maintenance is piling up, you're sitting on a time bomb.
Track maintenance costs and frequency by quarter. Rising maintenance spend predicts two things: resident dissatisfaction and bigger capital expenses down the road.
Fix small problems immediately. They're cheap now. They're catastrophic later.
Metric Category #3: Your Market Position Numbers
This is where most investors completely fail. They know their building. They have no idea what's happening around it.
You cannot win a game when you don't know the score.
Market Rent Levels
Where do your rents sit compared to comparable properties?
Most investors price based on gut feeling or what they charged last year plus 3%. That's insane. Use actual market data. WDSuite gives you neighborhood-level rent benchmarks so you know exactly where you stand—premium, market-rate, or discount.
If you're priced 8% below market and you don't know it, you're volunteering to make less money. If you're priced 8% above market and occupancy is dropping, you're about to learn an expensive lesson about pricing power.
Price based on data, not hope.
Market Occupancy Indicators
When your vacancy rate jumps, you need to know immediately whether it's your problem or everyone's problem.
If market-wide occupancy dropped from 96% to 89%, your vacancy isn't a you problem—it's a market problem. Your response should be defensive: hold pricing, increase marketing, improve retention.
If market occupancy is stable at 95% but yours dropped to 88%, you have an internal problem. Bad management, poor property condition, or weak positioning. Your response should be aggressive: fix operations immediately.
The data tells you which play to run.
Demographic Shifts
Income growth, employment trends, population changes—these aren't abstract statistics. They're predictive indicators of where renter demand is headed.
If median incomes in your area jumped 8% year-over-year, you have pricing power. If they dropped 3%, you're about to face affordability pressure. WDSuite shows you these trends so you can adjust strategy before the market forces you to react.
Property Value Movement
Markets move constantly. Your property value changes quarterly, not just when you order an appraisal.
Review automated valuation estimates every 90 days. Track the trend. If your property value is climbing steadily, you're building equity and may have refinance opportunities. If it's stagnating or declining while the market rises, you have a positioning or performance issue to solve.
Your equity is your wealth. Track it like it matters.
Your 90-Day Performance System
Here's the exact process. Do this every quarter.
Week 1 of each quarter:
Calculate NOI, OER, and revenue per unit from your financials
Pull occupancy rates, turnover data, and leasing velocity from property management
Review maintenance costs and work order trends
Log into WDSuite and pull market rent benchmarks for your area
Check market occupancy rates and demographic trends
Review automated property valuation estimate
Analyze tenant affordability and credit data in your market
Compare your numbers to market benchmarks—identify gaps
Create 2-3 specific action items to address the biggest gaps
This takes 3-4 hours every 90 days. That's it.
Those 3-4 hours will make you more money than any other activity in your business because they tell you exactly where to focus your attention and effort.
The Bottom Line
You're either measuring your performance or you're guessing.
Guessing loses. Every time.
The best multifamily investors track three categories of metrics religiously: financial performance, operational health, and market position. They do it every 90 days. They use market intelligence tools like WDSuite to get accurate context. And they make decisions based on data instead of gut feeling.
The metrics aren't complicated. The system isn't hard. What's hard is doing it consistently when most investors don't bother doing it at all.
That's your advantage.
Track the right numbers. Do it on schedule. Make moves based on what the data reveals. Your competition isn't doing this. Which means every quarter you do it, you widen the gap.
More cash flow. Better operations. Smarter exits. All from measuring what matters.
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