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Adam Willis

President - Nestwell Property Management & Triple Win Mentor - Second Nature

Adam Willis is the President and Principal Broker of Nestwell Property Management, serving Utah's Salt Lake Valley. He has over twenty years of leadership and real estate experience, and has spoken at multiple NARPM conferences and other industry events. Adam is a Second Nature Triple Win Mentor.

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Measuring the Impact of Resident Experience Beyond the Warm and Fuzzies

Measuring the business value of your investment in resident experience can often feel difficult. A lot of the time, property managers just feel whether or not it’s working. There’s a different tone to the conversations you have with residents when they’re happier. Your team all feel it in their day-to-day work. And for some of us, that’s a huge part of why we put so much emphasis on resident experience. It makes us feel good, it makes them feel good, and it makes our team feel good. But sometimes you also want to know how it’s impacting the bottom line. Especially when you’re in a growth stage, you can’t always afford to shovel money into resident perks, gifting programs, and other resident experiences if you can’t prove that it’s actually successful and impacting the bottom line. That’s why, at Nestwell, we track several KPIs related to resident experience, and why I’m going to outline them here. 1. Customer Satisfaction Customer sentiment, CSAT, or customer NPS (“Net Promoter Score”) are generally designed to measure the same thing: how happy your residents are with your company. This is one of the most important metrics for us, because it’s an indicator of how well we’ve been doing our jobs, and a predictor of how likely those residents are to stay with us, take better care of their properties, and leave us positive reviews. We ask for resident satisfaction via our call system and email ticketing tool. When a ticket is resolved, the resident is asked on a simple 1-5 score how happy they are with the experience. For tickets that have been open for a long time or require a lot of back and forth, we also ask them to provide feedback privately, which is often more nuanced than a simple number. Finally, we use a tool that processes our support call recordings and analyzes the resident’s sentiment throughout the conversation. It can identify, based on their tone and language, whether they’re frustrated, sad, happy, etc. We can then take all of this data and analyze it quickly across different lines, whether that’s property type, team member they worked with, or reason for the call. That gives us a much more detailed look at what we’re doing well and where we might be falling short in the resident experience. 2. Lease renewal rate Lease renewal rate is a core KPI that most property managers are probably already tracking, in part because it helps forecast future vacancies and how busy your leasing team will be at a given time. But we also like to keep tabs on it because it’s a reflection of how happy our residents are with us. In addition, we’re looking at why some residents choose not to renew and categorizing that into two categories of what we can control and can’t influence. Knowledge is power and understanding the difference is critical to improving resident satisfaction and retention. Many non-renewals stem from factors outside a property manager’s influence — life events, job relocations, home purchases, or financial hardship. These circumstances are inevitable and shouldn’t be viewed as failures. Recognizing them for what they are helps teams focus their energy where it truly makes a difference, rather than chasing outcomes that can’t be changed. On the other hand, controllable factors are opportunities for growth. Responsiveness to maintenance requests, clear communication, consistent policies, and fair renewal pricing all directly impact a resident’s decision to stay. When property managers consistently deliver high-quality service and proactively address preventable issues, they reduce turnover, strengthen trust, and protect profitability. The key is to track both categories separately—own what’s within your control and learn from what isn’t. Finally, we’re considering the length of renewals and whether residents renew repeatedly. Someone who opts for a two year renewal is probably pretty happy with us as PMs, and if they’re renewing year after year, that’s also a good sign. 3. Early exits (and their reasons) Conversely, we’re looking deeply at residents who opt to break their lease early. If they’re willing to pay an early termination fee just to get away from us, that’s a very bad sign. But, just like with those who opt not to renew, there could be extenuating life circumstances that have nothing to do with us. To help parse the two, we’ve started conducting exit interviews with residents who choose to terminate a lease early, asking what’s driving their decision and whether there’s something we could have done to give them a better experience. These have been hugely informative and led to some important discussions within our team. 4. Google reviews and online reputation Online reviews are another hot topic within property management, and something that most companies are keeping tabs on. At Nestwell, we talk about our reviews internally every single week, flagging any negative comments and celebrating the positive ones. Reviews are so important to us that we’ve tasked our frontline team members with asking for a certain number of feedback requests each week after all resident interactions. The thing about online reviews is that they can quickly create pile-ons. When a resident leaves a negative review and another resident sees it, they feel inspired and empowered to leave their negative comments, too. But I believe that the same thing happens in a positive direction. When residents see others leaving positive reviews, they’re encouraged to do the same, and suddenly you have a series of ten or twelve new reviews in a few days. There’s been a lot of discussion around reputation management software and different tools that can manage your Google reviews for you. We do use a simple tool that analyzes sentiment in reviews, flags trends, and notifies us of changes, but we don’t like to use a lot of the automation features that are available. Our philosophy is, this is a people-first business, so we want real human interaction rather than a bot that has stock replies for positive or negative feedback. Don’t underestimate the power of Google reviews. They can really create a flywheel effect: we take care of our team, our team delivers a great resident experience, the residents leave great feedback, and that helps new residents find us, kickstarting the whole process again. 5. Participation in our homebuying program I previously outlined our Evernest homebuying program and why we chose to implement it. One ancillary benefit of the program is that it serves as a great barometer for how well we’re doing with our residents. Ideally, we want residents who are ready to buy a property—some of those who are choosing not to renew or opting to terminate their lease early—to think of us first. We want them to come to us and say, “Hey, you’ve been so good to me as property managers that now I want to work with you when I buy my first house.” On the other hand, if they’re choosing to forego a potential discount on their house just so that they don’t have to work with us, that’s a pretty big alarm that we need to be doing things differently. Final thoughts Measuring resident experience can be tricky, but even if you don’t have a homebuying program set up, or you don’t have intricate reputation management software, there are still meaningful touch points in your business that can serve as a reflection of your performance. It might take some creativity and digging, but it’s absolutely worth it to be able to show the value of your resident experience efforts. But don’t overlook the intangible benefits; the feeling that phone calls are easier, your team is more inspired, and your residents are happier.

Calendar icon November 13, 2025

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The Why and the How of Nestwell’s Homebuying Assistance Program

At Nestwell, we believe firmly in the power of real estate to create not just individual financial wellbeing, but generational wealth. That’s one of the core reasons that we’ve developed Evernest, our homebuying program for residents who are looking to make the jump into ownership. We offer a credit to residents who use one of our real estate agents to purchase their home, and in doing so we’re helping to build a stronger path to financial wellness, happier residents, and a true triple win experience. Why offer a homebuying program? At Nestwell, we truly believe that anyone can be a homebuyer. Unfortunately, for many renters, there’s a belief that homeownership will simply never be for them. There’s a persistent narrative that they’ll be renting forever, never able to take the next step. We don’t want that to be the truth, and we don’t believe it to be the truth. We primarily manage A and B class housing, so if our residents are consistently paying rent on time, they’re probably a lot closer to homeownership than they might realize. That’s why we want to plant the seed of home ownership to break any limiting beliefs and provide an option for our most qualified residents. How it works When we designed our program, we decided not to build a system where residents earn credits with each month’s rent payment. Instead, we looked at the financials behind the program. As a property management company, we make consistent income from each rent check, but as a real estate company, we also receive compensation when people buy homes with us. So we wanted to focus on that sale rather than maximizing rent payments. In return, we’re willing to give a portion of those earnings back to the resident. We give a portion of our real estate commission back to the residents as a credit, and, packaged with credits from the preferred lenders we work with, residents can save up to $6000. We’re taking the long game approach, looking to earn those sales rather than keep qualified buyers in leases just so that they can “earn” credits with us. We consider the whole homebuying program to be a part of our resident benefits package, and it’s open to all of our residents, so long as they’re in good standing. For those residents who might not be as close to purchasing due to credit, we have a credit boosting program and also partner with credit repair companies to help residents overcome any financial or credit hurdles. Integrated into our entire process Our homebuying program isn’t something we bury deep in a resident handbook. Instead, it’s something we want to promote as much as possible, and make sure that residents truly understand it. We educate residents at every step of the resident lifecycle. When we show homes to applicants, we talk to them about the Evernest program. When they sign a lease, not only do we include the addendum, but we reemphasize how the program works. When we move them in, we give them more content that spells out the opportunities of the program, and link them to resources where they can learn more. Next, after about 90 days, our real estate agents divvy up our list of newer residents and reach out to touch base with them and ask about their experience with us so far. If they get a positive response, they introduce themselves as a real estate agent and let the resident know that they’re available when it comes time to purchase a home. In many cases, our leasing agents are also real estate agents, so they serve as a consistent point of contact from the very beginning. We emphasize the program again during quarterly walkthroughs, asking residents whether they like their home, neighborhood, and if they’re hoping to stay long-term to put down roots. Then, with about 90 days left before their lease is up, we evaluate whether they’re going to be a serious candidate for the program. Our goal is to identify the best candidates and really engage with them in one-on-one conversations, rather than casting a net that’s too wide. Benefits across the business Nestwell has seen plenty of benefits from our homebuying program, and not just on the financial side. Whether it’s operational improvement, resident satisfaction, controlling the lease renewal workloads, or reputation, it’s been a boon all around. Creating more lead time to fill vacancies Our goal is never to encourage good residents to break their leases. With that said, especially during periods where the market is hot, if someone wants to buy a home and they find one that’s right for them, they’re going to break that lease anyway. We might as well get ahead of it, be in control of the narrative, and know what’s coming. If the property management arm of our business is properly communicating with the real estate arm, we have more notice, we can help control when that resident vacates, giving us more lead time to prepare for a turn, market that property, and get it filled sooner. We can keep costs lower for both the resident, the investor, and ourselves, and create a triple win in the process. Improving resident satisfaction Providing up to $6,000 in homebuying credit is obviously going to help your residents feel a bit better about you. Even if they don’t end up using it, just knowing it's there can help shape their perception of you. But one thing we didn’t expect is how much the program has helped us manage the residents who don’t like us. We’ll occasionally get complaints from residents about property evaluations, maintenance, or lease obligations that they feel are burdensome. Now, we have the opportunity to take that pain and reframe it. Our response isn’t something like, “Too bad, this is what you signed up for when you signed your lease.” Instead, we can say, “hey, it sounds like you would be a whole lot happier as a homeowner. Let’s see how we can make that happen.” Building an investor pipeline With other residents, the program gives us the opportunity to turn them into real estate investors. Sure, that first home might be their primary residence for a while, but down the line they may decide to turn it into an investment property. We’ve had former residents come back to us years later with a small portfolio of properties that they need help managing, and they’ve said things like, “I remember when I was a resident, and you did regular walkthroughs every quarter. It was obnoxious at first, but you were fair about what you withheld from my security deposit. You had a great real estate team. Now, as a homeowner, I understand the reasons for all of that, and I need someone like you who will treat my residents well and behave professionally.” They remember our management style and their experience as a resident so well that they trust us to manage their new investment. Expanding our company Finally, our homebuying program helps us build a stronger reputation not just as great property managers, but as real estate agents who are easy to work with and go the extra mile. We want to make it known that we’re not just property managers, so creating a pipeline of clients for the real estate portion of our business is extremely valuable. Final thoughts Creating a homebuying program can feel like an overwhelming proposition. The good news is, there’s no single right way to do it. We built a program that was right for Nestwell, but plenty of companies have taken their own approach and seen similar success. Here’s my biggest advice if you decide to take the leap: Educate your residents: Make sure your residents know about and understand the program. Don’t bury it deep in some corner of your website; make sure people can actually make sense of—and make use of—the program. Focus on the resident experience: One of the biggest benefits of a homebuying program is how much it improves resident satisfaction. Don’t undercut that by nickel and diming them, making them jump through unnecessary hoops, or creating a bait and switch situation. Put yourself in their shoes, walk through what that homebuying experience actually looks like, and optimize it to make it as delightful as possible. Measure success across the whole business: Especially if you’re investing a lot of time and money into a homebuyer program, make sure you’re not just looking at a singular ROI metric. Take a broader view of how the program is impacting your business, whether it’s brand building, referrals, an increase in applications, or something else entirely. Remember, you can always start small, expand the program, and make changes along the way. Talk to your residents, hear them out, and do what you can to deliver the best experience possible.

Calendar icon November 11, 2025

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Why Recognizing Residents as the Lifeblood of your Business Drives Success

It’s still unfortunately common for property managers to see their relationships with residents as adversarial. After all, there seems to be a constant stream of residents submitting maintenance requests, calling in with complaints, and paying their rent late, right? They’re taking up our time and preventing us from doing important work, aren’t they? Sure, it can sometimes feel that way, but at Nestwell, we want to recenter the conversation on residents as the lifeblood of our business. By recognizing residents as the key to our success, we can develop better relationships, keep our team, our residents and our investors happier, and deliver better business results. Without residents, what do we have? The truth is, without residents, property managers don’t really have a role to play. The way I see it, all property management activities start with someone showing interest in and renting a property. Only once we have residents in place can we start collecting rent, earning our fees, and generating value for our clients. The first of every month, when rent is paid, is a new heartbeat. It injects more life into our businesses. Without those residents, the whole thing collapses. Most property managers recognize that when it comes to the leasing process, but they don’t often carry that same mindset through the full lease term. As a profession, we tend to invest a ton of time in getting the home rented, but we don’t continue that investment through the full resident experience. We have to change our mindset and recognize that residents are important every day, not just the days that they cut us a check. The high-maintenance subset doesn’t represent all residents A lot of the bad reputation residents get comes from a very small—but very loud—minority of residents. Maybe 5% of residents cause a whole lot of pain and headaches for our teams. They pay late, or they fail to report big maintenance issues, or they keep unregistered pets. But the other 95% are great residents who do their best to pay on time and follow the rules. Unfortunately, because we mainly interact with that difficult 5%, we start to feel like that’s what all residents are like. We have to actively keep in mind that most residents are great, and they deserve our support and appreciation. At Nestwell, we believe that even that 5% deserves appreciation. We try to make a focused effort to see things from their perspective, to understand that they’re people with a lot going on in their lives, just like us. Changing language changes behavior That mindset shift isn’t easy, but it starts with the way that we talk about residents. For starters, we use the term “resident” instead of saying “tenant.” These are real people with families, emotions, and needs, so we try to humanize them with language. Even in contracts, wherever we’re legally allowed to, we’re switching to “residents.” All of our help articles use that term. We’re trying to make it the standard as much as possible. Beyond just specific words, we’re changing how we talk about our residents in general. Property management is a tough job, so it’s completely natural to want to vent to your teammates. We want to commiserate, we want validation that we aren’t the only ones going through it. The problem is, ranting and complaining about residents sets a negative tone, and that gradually becomes the default around the office. The negativity carries over to the next interaction with a resident who maybe didn’t do anything wrong at all, and it starts to form a cycle. You lose the ability to separate out the good residents from those few negative residents. That’s why we never want to set a dynamic on our team where it’s okay to speak ill of residents. Instead, we want to be positive and upbeat. Approaching property management with positivity and joy might seem like a difficult proposition, but it really does go a long way. It encourages professionalism, pulls residents into the same mentality, and makes tough conversations a little bit easier. Ultimately, a positive attitude drives better resident experiences. Be a solution seeker One of our core values at Nestwell is to be solution seekers. When a problem arises—which tends to happen most days in property management—our job is to solve it. We start by separating the core issue at hand from the emotions of the person reporting it. We assume positive intent, and that the resident coming to us with a problem is trying to do the right thing. We try to get at the root of the issue, rather than getting defensive or biting back. That mindset is essential to keeping positive relationships with our residents. Providing value creates value in return I recently read the Arbinger Institute’s Leadership and Self-Perception, and one of the key takeaways is that humans are naturally myopic. Instead of looking at the bigger picture, we focus on what we ourselves need. But in order to be a leader, we need to learn how to get outside of our own little boxes. We need to see what others need and we need to express compassion. There’s tremendous value in doing our jobs well, having that compassion, and being good to people instead of just begrudgingly checking boxes. We can humanize our residents by understanding them and helping them, and that has value in and of itself. And if you aren’t fully bought in on this altruistic approach, remember that when you help others, they’re more likely to help you. When you create a better resident experience, you’re more likely to get lease renewals and positive Google reviews. When you create a positive environment in your office, your team members will be happier and more motivated. Empathy, engagement, and understanding are just good business.

Calendar icon October 16, 2025

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