Some apartment renters don't mind paying as much as $447 extra a month if they get the satisfaction they want from a sense of community.

Westlake Village, CA-based goods and service rater J.D. Power and Associates, earlier this year, conducted it's first Apartment Resident Satisfaction Study and Novato, CA-based RealFacts.com checked its database against the findings to discover renters will pay from $37 to $447 above average rents for the right kind of satisfaction.

J.D. Power took renters' pulses in four communities: Denver, CO; Las Vegas, NV; Orlando, FL; and San Jose (Silicon Valley), CA, to determine what satisfies them most about large apartment management companies.

The rating company measured apartment resident satisfaction six ways: amenities; condition of unit at move-in; rent/value; safety/security; sense of community; and service staff. It also asked renters in each of the four cities to rate management companies in terms of overall satisfaction.

Sense of community was the most important factor in determining resident satisfaction with apartment management companies, and residents who associate a strong sense of community with their apartment complex are considerably more satisfied than those who do not.

"Satisfying residents isn't necessarily about providing resort-like amenities, but rather about offering a lifestyle and a sense of home that resonates with tenants and creates feelings of pride, connection and identity," said Michael Drago, a senior account manager for real estate and construction studies at J.D. Power.

When renters chose management companies based on overall satisfaction, the top rated companies were shown to collect rents higher than the market average.

Novato, CA-based rental market monitor RealFacts checked the rents of those top-rated apartment management companies against the market average and found:

• In Las Vegas, top rated Houston, TX-based Camden Property Trust collects average rents of $994, $37 more than the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) average of $957.

• In Denver, renters were most satisfied with Foster City, CA-based Legacy Partners, which collects an average $1,087 in monthly rents, compared to the $1,029 MSA average -- a $58 difference.

• Renters in Orlando gave the nod to Orland-based ZOM Residential Services which came in with an average $1,101 rent, $110 more than the MSA's $991 average.

• In Silicon Valley, where the cost of living is among the highest on the planet, renters choose Irvine, CA-based Irvine Company Apartment Communities as the most satisfying management company. It collects an average $2,328 a month in rents, a whopping $447 more than the MSA average of $1,881 a month.

"So we see that good management can indeed rewards the managers. When you multiply the increased rent per unit times an average size (apartment complex) of 200 to 300 units, and then multiply that figure by 12 months in a year, the additional income could easily add up to more than a million dollars a year -- a powerful incentive to be a good manager of rental property," said Caroline S. Latham, CEO of RealFacts.

Published: December 19, 2007

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.