90-Day Renewal Playbook to Keep Good Residents

People leave when the last 60 days felt neglected, or when the renewal email is the first time they heard from you. Retention is a calendar, not a vibe.

Run this on every lease that ends in the next quarter. Same steps, same owner.

The 90 / 60 / 30 cadence

If day 90 never happens, you are negotiating against a listing they already opened.

Day 90: fix the repeats first

Pull the unit’s tickets for the last year. If the same symptom closed twice, it is not “resolved.”

Typical retain-or-lose list:

• HVAC comfort and filter neglect
• Recurring leaks
• Pest that returns every season

Schedule the work before you talk rent. A renewal offer on top of an open leak reads as a threat.

Publish response expectations in the portal: office hours, what is an emergency, and how long until the first update. Residents stay when the next update arrives when you said it would.

Day 60: write the option, do the math

Send one page:

• Proposed term and rent
• What you already completed since day 90
• How to accept or give notice
• Deadline that leaves you time to list

Then do the hold-vs-turn math on a scratch line:

increase $ × remaining months vs vacant days × daily rent + make-ready + leasing time

If you cannot fill those numbers, you are guessing. A slightly lower increase for a resident who pays on time and does not generate rework is often the higher-NOI choice.

Day 30: no surprises

If they have not answered, call once, then follow the written deadline. Do not invent a new discount in a text thread that accounting cannot post.

If they are leaving, lock the make-ready date the same day. Retention playbooks fail when the turn starts late because nobody wanted to admit the renewal was dead.

Convenience that is worth the work

These reduce “death by a thousand papercuts”:

• Autopay with a receipt they can find later
• Appointment windows that you actually keep
• A named path for accommodations (not a generic inbox)

Skip expensive “community building” until tickets and renewals are on time. A clean hallway and a working door lock outperform a pizza night.

What to review each quarter

• Renewal rate by property and unit type
• Move-out reason (even a one-line note)
• Median hours to first ticket update
• Rework within 30 days

Unitz can put the renewal date, open tickets, and ledger on one resident timeline so day 90 is a filter, not a hunt. To load this cadence on your next 20 expirations, contact us.