A missed leasing call rarely shows up in a report, because the renter who hung up simply rents somewhere else. You can still put a price on it with three published figures and your own call log.
How many leasing calls go unanswered?
More than half, in the published data. Digible, an apartment marketing agency, analyzed 170,825 calls to multifamily properties over one quarter and found that 60.8% went unanswered, in a report published in November 2024 (Digible).
Timing makes it harder. In RentEngine’s first-quarter 2026 data, 53% of leads arrived after business hours and 48% of showings were scheduled after hours (RentEngine, Q1 2026). If your phone system keeps a call log, your own unanswered share beats any benchmark.
What is one rental inquiry worth?
About one twenty-second of a lease, at the median. RentEngine counted a median of 22 leads per leased property in the first quarter of 2026, up from 16 in the last quarter of 2025, across thousands of scattered-site properties (RentEngine, Q1 2026).
The ratio depends on the property: a median of 23 leads for single-family homes, 24 for duplexes and triplexes, 16 for small multifamily and 15 for condos (RentEngine, Q1 2026). If you track leads and signed leases, use your own ratio.
What does a vacant day cost?
Monthly rent divided by 30.4, the average number of days in a month. On Zumper’s September 2026 national medians, that is about $50 a day for a one-bedroom and $63 for a two-bedroom (Zumper).
Vacancies last weeks, not days. In RentEngine’s data, average days on market held at 32 in the first quarter of 2026, and the median fell below 30 in the second quarter (RentEngine, Q1 2026, RentEngine, Q2 2026).
| Unit | Median monthly rent (Zumper, September 2026) | One vacant day | 32 vacant days |
|---|---|---|---|
| One-bedroom | $1,518 | $1,518 ÷ 30.4 = $49.93 | 32 × $49.93 = $1,598 |
| Two-bedroom | $1,903 | $1,903 ÷ 30.4 = $62.60 | 32 × $62.60 = $2,003 |
Use your own asking rent in place of the median. The formula stays the same.
How do you price your own missed calls?
Multiply your weekly calls by the unanswered share and by the share of those callers who never come back, then divide by the inquiries it takes to sign a lease. The never-come-back share is yours to fill in from your own call log.
Here is the arithmetic for a hypothetical 30-call week:
- Unanswered calls a year: 30 × 52 × 60.8% = 948.
- Callers who never come back: 948 × your share. Count missed numbers that never called, texted or emailed again.
- Leases’ worth of inquiries lost: step 2 ÷ 22, the RentEngine median.
- Rent at risk: step 3 × the extra vacant days each lost lease causes, also your assumption, × $49.93 for a median one-bedroom.
For example, if one lost lease pushes a move-in back by a week, it costs 7 × $49.93 = $350 on a median one-bedroom. If it pushes the move-in back a full month, it costs the whole $1,518.
The free missed-call calculator runs this arithmetic over a year. It counts each lost lease at one month of rent, a rough stand-in for the extra vacancy, and its starting value for the never-call-back share is an assumption, not a published figure, so replace it with your own.
Does calling back the next morning fix it?
Sometimes, but delay costs showings. In RentEngine’s Q1 2026 data, showings scheduled within 24 hours were completed more than 60% of the time, and completion fell below 20% once the lead time stretched past a week (RentEngine, Q1 2026). In the second quarter, showings scheduled more than four days out rarely happened at all (RentEngine, Q2 2026).
Practitioners describe the same pattern. In a 2026 BiggerPockets forum thread, one property manager traced a listing with strong inquiries but few showings to an average reply time of almost a day (BiggerPockets).
What should you track each week?
Three numbers: leasing calls, unanswered calls, and missed callers who never came back by any channel. Add your own leads per signed lease and your asking rent, and you can price missed calls with your data instead of benchmarks.
Track them by listing as well as in total. A listing that draws many calls but few showings is the first place to test a faster answer.