Breaking the mold on industry metrics. 

Traditional multifamily housing metrics are firmly focused on the rearview mirror. They offer operators a picture of past performance but do little to provide predictive, actionable insights. During the Apartmentalize 2025 session “Breaking the Mold on Industry Metrics: Leveraging Results Through Data,” industry experts explored the future of data and strategies to empower teams, improve processes and drive sustainable growth. 
 
Featuring Maria Pietroforte, President at Maria Pietroforte Consulting, Rich George, Owner and COO at NOI Coach, and Jennifer Staciokas, President at Western Wealth Communities, the session was tailored to showcase the value of real-time, forward-looking metrics. Panelists emphasized the limitations of traditional data points and the importance of metrics-driven organizational goals to stay ahead of the rapidly evolving rental housing landscape. 
 
“With the [business intelligence] of the past, you were kind of captive to what your provider wanted you to see or how the data was going to be displayed,” Staciokas said. “The present and the future of BI is really an opportunity for us to fully customize what the data looks like. That's important to our company and to our teams, and that allows us to think outside the box.” 
 
Staciokas encouraged operators to think about industry trends and projections, and the corresponding actions they need to take to best position their portfolios. Leveraging data in decision-making, establishing a data-driven management approach and holding teams accountable to the metrics is essential. 
 
George urged session attendees to create their own data warehouses and constantly feed those warehouses with updated information to ensure data accuracy.  
 
“It's all about us pulling our data and owning it,” George said. “We have all of these different ways to parse this data, live and in real time. And we’re not just talking about data from the PMS, it’s coming from all these technologies and systems we’re implementing. There's just so many data points here that we can drill into, and what's exciting about this is they're all tightly intertwined. If we impact one data point, it's going to affect financial and operational numbers. We have no limits to what we can do.” 
 
George said the fact that the data lives digitally on phones, tablets or computers means teams always have access to it, allowing them to make swift and informed decisions for immediate impact. Training team members to not only recognize changes in data, but how they can influence property performance by reducing bad debt, concessions or vacancy is crucial. 
 
Pietroforte also urged attendees to share property data with team members at all levels of the organization to encourage engagement.  
 
“We usually have asset management, heads of departments, regionals, vice presidents, maybe your community manager look at the data,” Pietroforte said.  “But each and every one of your team members needs to be accountable for some of the numbers. This is not a top-down exercise.” 
 
Most importantly, teams have to trust their data, panelists said. Discarding longstanding data practices and having confidence in predictive analytics is the only way to move the needle. 
 
“Stop thinking about what your gut tells you and start making decisions based on what the real-time data tells you to do,” Staciokas said. “Then make sure that you're empowering your team so they can have improved outcomes.” 

Doug Pike is a Content Manager for LinnellTaylor Marketing.