Two Trees Digital Marketing
What are referral aggregators actually costing you?
A move-in fee looks like a cost of sale. Priced against what owned demand costs to produce, it usually looks like something else. Put your numbers in and see the spread. Nothing you enter leaves your browser, and no email is required.
Use a single community or a portfolio average, just stay consistent. These defaults are rough industry mid-points, so replace them with yours.
The first number is the one worth arguing about internally.
What you pay aggregators per year
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Aggregator share of move-ins
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Blended cost per move-in
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Total acquisition cost across both channels, divided by all move-ins.
Fee as a share of resident lifetime revenue
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Cost per move-in, side by side
What if you produced some of it yourself?
Aggregator demand is real demand. The question isn't whether to cut it off, it's what share of it you could produce for less.
Scaling owned demand costs more per move-in than your current average, because you're buying less-qualified impressions. Thirty percent is a reasonable planning assumption. Raise it if you're already bidding aggressively.
What this model leaves out. Agency or in-house management costs, creative production, the six to nine months it takes owned channels to reach steady state, and the occupancy risk of pulling back on aggregators before replacement demand exists.
Why it's still worth running. Most operators have never priced the two channels against each other on the same basis. Even with those costs added, the gap is usually wide enough to change where the next budget dollar goes.
Next step
This comparison is only as good as your attribution.
If your owned media move-in count is a guess, the number above is a guess too. We build the closed loop between your CRM and your ad platforms so it stops being a debate. Then we tell you what we'd actually shift, and what we'd leave alone.
Built by Two Trees Digital Marketing. Your numbers never leave this page. Defaults are industry mid-points, not benchmarks.