It seems like no matter what apartment complex you search for online, the reviews are skewed towards the extremes. Rarely, if ever, are you going to find a balanced set of reviews for apartments. They are all grouped around one end of the spectrum or the other.
Why is this? What’s with the extreme review trend online, what should you be looking for in a review, and how much can you trust the opinions of strangers online.
Why Are So Many Reviews Negative?
There are so many things in life that people are passionate about, but none can irk you more than where you live, especially if something is wrong with it and you have to deal with it day after day. You are literally living in the problem on a daily basis.
And with the ease of sharing your opinion online and still being able to remain anonymous, the vitriol that can be slung online can come from a variety of sources.
There are many reasons why someone moves out of an apartment, but more often than not, it is because they are dissatisfied with the complex in some way, otherwise, they would not be moving. Whether it is discontent with how nice it is, the amenities, their neighbors, certain policies, the terrible parking, the neighborhood… there are a hundred different reasons why people leave.
When tenants move out or are just looking for a new place online, it becomes incredibly easy for the person to get on and 1-star the apartment complex for being dissatisfied with one particular aspect of the apartment. A simple search online will quickly show you the things people complain about.
The most complaints come in regard to staffing and management. Tenants are constantly complaining about them being too strict or over-personalizing it and making it seem like management is out to get them for some reason. Next, comes complaints about parking, and then complaints about maintenance.
Other times, there are not even any direct complaint, a reviewer will simply mark the complex as 1 star online and be done with it.
Why Do People Do This?
As we touched on, people are going to be dissatisfied in some manner when they are moving out. Even if it is to move to a different city for a new job, the apartment complex still doesn’t fit their needs because it isn’t in the right location. Same thing with college graduates, or maybe getting married and buying a house.
The apartment complex doesn’t provide something that the tenant needs, and so they are leaving.
Then we have all the people that are asked or forced to leave. A tenant decided not to pay for 3 months and destroys the apartment and is evicted? They can still go on and write a terrible review of the apartment complex that drags down the business’s rating.
Maybe a person doesn’t get along with their neighbors for whatever reason and is either asked to leave or quits the apartment on their own. It is the apartment complex itself that is going to bear the wrath of the angry party.
This inherent dissatisfaction in the complex is what is going to drive this extreme rating behavior. When people are searching apartment complexes online, especially after they have just left or are thinking about leaving, they are going to be focusing on those things that are negative in their mind, the reason they are leaving.
Can the complex do much about the fact that you don’t care for the people living across the hall from you? No, probably not, but they are the ones that are going to get the 1-star rating when you decide to vent online.
The same phenomena exists for extremely positive reviews. These should be viewed skeptically as well. Many business owners pay for these reviews or have other people write good reviews for their business to increase their status online. For some businesses, this works, and others it can be glaringly transparent. But if the review doesn’t quite match up to what you are seeing, chances are it is either paid for or friends and family gave it.
What To Look For In A Review
So you have a bunch of reviews online, and the vast majority of them are skewed either towards the 1-star side or the 5-star side. How do you know what to believe and what should you be looking for?
First off, you need to look for those people who have reviewed many things online. If a person has a profile created and they have a single review in their entire history, and it is a 1-star negative review that gives no details, chances are that someone who was evicted or forced to move out made that review. It would be best to just ignore those simple rating reviews that don’t go into detail.
Next, you should also be able to determine who is outright venting at the apartment complex after they have already left. Going into great detail about how terrible the manager is or a specific staff person, and an anecdote about their experiences is a tell-tale sign that they are just being vindictive, and the problem probably wasn’t the apartment complex’s fault. These former tenants are just trying to hurt the complex.
In the same manner, you should also be able to pick out and disregard any over-the-top positive review as well. If there is just a general great 5-star review that again doesn’t go into much detail, more likely than not, this is done from friends and family or management themselves to boost their online appearance.
Look for those positive reviews that specifically say something positive about the complex, and then see if that compliment matches up with reality.
If the post says very nice things about the community pool, and you see that, in reality, the pool is half full of brown water that hasn’t been cared for in years, you can tell that review was from someone who has a vested interest in the complex itself, or in keeping their job.
Also, pay attention to those negative reviews that go into rational detail, not outright emotional venting, about a specific problem. Say for instance they talk about parking not being available because guests are constantly taking their spot and management refuses to address the problem, you are going to have higher confidence that this is a legitimate complaint.
Especially if they give the complex a 2, 3, or 4-star rating instead of just going to one extreme or the other.
Remember, people are much more likely to remember and review a negative aspect of the apartment complex than take the time to go online and give it a positive review. This is the reason the good press is tough to get and bad press can come in fast and furious.
Write a Review Yourself
Just as you are looking online to find honest, trustworthy information from people who have experience with the apartment complex you are looking at, it is courteous to give that same information out to other people yourself.
Giving constructive feedback is one of the primary methods things get better and improve. Even if there is something negative you need to focus on in the review, it can act as a signal to management that they need to address a particular problem.
Also, they know that other people are going to see this problem posted publicly online and know potential tenants are more than likely going to be aware of the situation.
Be specific in what your gripe, or compliment is.
This allows the complex to be rewarded for the specific things they are doing right for their tenants and be allowed to address their shortcomings by fixing them. If they chose not to address these problems, then their competitors will out-compete in the market and they will lose business.
It only takes a few quick minutes to post a good review and the reasons why you gave them a good or bad rating. Either way though, both the apartment complex and future tenants are going to appreciate a well-written review.
Reviews of apartment complexes online are often shifted to one extreme or the other. Learn to disregard both extremes and focus on those reviews that are detailed, unemotional, and provide you with information useful in deciding on whether that apartment complex is right for you.
