Guide · Apartment websites
Apartment website checklist: what a community site needs
By Val Fierro, Founder & Principal Consultant · Updated
An apartment community website needs, at minimum: floor plans with pricing, current availability, a way to apply online, a way to schedule a tour, real photos, amenities, location and neighborhood information, pet and parking policies, tap-to-call contact details, links for current residents, and an Equal Housing Opportunity statement with an accessibility commitment. Everything else builds on those.
Below is the full checklist we build every community site against, grouped by what each item does for the renter. Score your current site as you go; the gaps in the first two groups are the ones costing you tours this week.
The checklist
Everything an apartment website needs
01Help renters decide
Floor plans with pricing
Bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage, a drawing, and a price or range for every plan.
Current availability
Units you can actually lease, ideally pulled from your property management software so it updates itself.
Real photos
Units, common areas, and the building exterior, current and sized for phones. Label any renderings as renderings.
Amenities, specifically
The features that set the property apart, photographed, instead of a long generic list.
Location and neighborhood
Address, map, and what's nearby with travel times. Describe the place, not the people you picture living there.
Policies and fees
Pets, parking, utilities, and application fees, answered before the renter has to ask.
02Make it easy to act
Apply online
A link into your existing online application from every floor plan and every availability listing.
Schedule a tour
Self-scheduling or a short request form that routes straight to the leasing team.
Tap-to-call and office hours
A phone number that dials on tap, with hours and the office address near it.
A short, routed contact form
Only the fields the leasing team needs, delivered to someone who answers, and tracked.
03Serve current residents
Pay rent
A direct link to the resident portal, visible from the home page.
Maintenance requests
The request link plus the after-hours emergency number, stated plainly.
Resident information
Move-in details, trash and parking rules, and the other answers residents otherwise call the office for.
04Build trust
Real reviews
Linked from or pulled in from the review profiles residents already use. Never written by the property.
Who manages the property
The management company, with a way to reach it.
Specials with their terms
Conditions and end dates stated plainly, and removed the day they end.
Facts that match everywhere
The same pricing, policies, and contact details on the website, the listing sites, and your business profiles.
05Stay fair housing and accessibility ready
Equal Housing Opportunity logo and statement
HUD publishes the official logo and requires it (or the slogan or statement) in all advertising for projects in FHA programs.
Fair housing conscious copy
No language indicating a preference or limitation based on a protected characteristic.
An accessibility statement
Your commitment, the standard you target, and how someone can get help if something doesn't work for them.
Text alternatives for images
Including floor plan drawings, with the unit details also written out as text.
Captions on video
Accurate, synchronized captions on video tours and walkthroughs.
Readable contrast
Enough contrast between text and background for people with limited vision or color blindness.
Labeled, keyboard-friendly forms
Labels, keyboard access, and clear instructions on the application, tour, and contact forms.
06Get found
A unique title and description per page
Written for the search someone would actually type, including the community name and city.
Structured data
Schema.org markup that matches the visible page, including the ApartmentComplex type for the community.
Fast on a mid-range phone
Server-rendered pages, right-sized images, and nothing above the fold waiting on an animation.
A machine-readable summary
An llms.txt file stating the property facts plainly for AI tools that read one.
Analytics and lead tracking
Visitors, top pages, and inquiries in one place, so you can see what the site produced this month.
Using the checklist
How to prioritize what's missing
Fix the "make it easy to act" group first. A renter who has already decided and can't find the application is the most expensive gap on any property site, and it's usually the cheapest to close.
The fair housing and accessibility group comes next, because it's about people who currently can't use the site at all, and about exposure you'd rather not carry. Our fair housing and accessibility guide covers where each item comes from.
The rest is steady improvement. If the list is long, it's often a sign the site needs rebuilding rather than patching; the website cost guide explains what drives that decision. Or skip the scoring and have us run the list for you: the free website review uses this checklist.
Common questions
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most important page on an apartment website?
The floor plans and availability page. It answers the two questions that decide whether a renter keeps going (what can I get, and what does it cost) and it's where applying and touring should start. If that page is slow, stale, or says "call for pricing", everything else works harder.
Should an apartment website show rent prices?
In most cases, yes, or at least a range. Renters use price to decide whether to spend any more time on a property, and a site that hides it sends them back to the listing sites that show it. Where pricing changes daily, a range with live availability is a good middle ground.
Do apartment websites need the Equal Housing Opportunity logo?
HUD's affirmative fair housing marketing rule requires the logo, slogan, or statement in all advertising for projects in FHA programs, and HUD publishes the official graphics. Outside those programs it's a simple, visible way to state your policy. Ask your attorney what applies to your property.
What schema markup should an apartment website use?
Schema.org has an ApartmentComplex type for the community, with properties such as tour booking page, pet policy, and available units. Pair it with BreadcrumbList on every page and FAQPage where there's a visible FAQ, and keep every value identical to what the page shows.
Sources
- Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, “24 CFR § 200.620, Affirmative fair housing marketing requirements”. www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/24/200.620
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, “Equal Housing Opportunity graphics”. www.hud.gov/contactus/hudgraphics
- U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, “Guidance on Web Accessibility and the ADA” (March 18, 2022). www.ada.gov/resources/web-guidance/
- Schema.org, “ApartmentComplex”. schema.org/ApartmentComplex
Sources checked September 2026. Market figures are third-party ranges, not VSF prices.
Keep reading
More for property teams
Want us to run the checklist on your site?
Send us the address. We'll score your current site against this list and tell you, plainly, what we'd fix first and whether it needs a rebuild.
Prefer to talk? Call (920) 521-8820. Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM Central.