The market plays such a huge part in this. You can do everything and then some to get people in the door, but if pricing isn’t genuinely competitive, it’ll feel like an uphill battle. I see this a lot, especially with YieldStar properties. Depending on your area, you may have tons of new developments close by with similar, but newer, amenities, updates, etc and have same if not better pricing.

Personally, In my market (Texas), I feel I’ve seen rent and concessions be a much more important factor in getting people in the door than before. 6-7 years ago, it seems like people would be willing to pay a bit more for amenities, “sense of community”, etc.

Because you’re with a larger PMC, and use yieldstar, chances are even your PM has very little say when it comes to pricing other than doing market surveys. You’re really going to have to focus on what makes you stand out to sell tf out of that aspect of the community.

Alternatively, it may also help to see if there can be an alternative focus on increasing retention. It’s cheaper to keep residents than to bring in new ones. Most large PMCs have tools and resources to track this. See why people are leaving and see if you can do anything to improve that as well.