Frequently Asked Questions About ORA®
ORA® helps renters understand what it is actually like to live at an apartment community.
Reviews are the raw input. ORA® is the standardized monthly interpretation.
How ORA works
Start here for the core concepts.
What is ORA?
ORA (Overall Resident Assessment) is a tool designed to help renters understand the resident experience at apartment communities. It summarizes real renter reviews into a single monthly-updated score and a set of resident experience signals so you can compare communities using lived experience patterns rather than marketing promises.
How is the ORA Score calculated?
The ORA Score is a weighted composite index derived from verified renter reviews across 13+ review sites and related sources. It is normalized on a 0–100 scale, recalculated monthly, and segmented across operational categories that renters mention most.
Are ORA rankings paid placements?
No. ORA rankings are not influenced by payment or marketing participation. Rankings are structured comparisons based on standardized resident experience signals during a defined period.
Do rankings reflect current performance?
Rankings reference ORA Scores during a specific month or year. Because scores update monthly, a community's current ORA Score may differ from the score recorded during the ranking period.
Should I rely only on a ranking list?
Rankings are one input. ORA recommends also reviewing the community's current ORA Score, strengths and opportunities, and conducting your own visit before making a decision.
What does the ORA Score measure?
It measures consistency of resident experience across operational categories that renters mention most often: maintenance, communication, cleanliness, noise, parking, pests, and others.
How often is the ORA Score updated?
Monthly. Each ORA Score reflects the most recent month of verified renter feedback, weighted to favor recency without ignoring longer-term patterns.
Strengths and opportunities
Understanding the signal categories.
What are strengths?
Strengths are operational categories where verified renter feedback is consistently positive. They highlight what is going well at the community right now.
What are opportunities?
Opportunities are operational categories where verified renter feedback is consistently negative. They highlight patterns worth verifying before signing a lease.
Should opportunities scare me off?
Not automatically. Treat opportunities as the questions to ask on your tour. Parking, noise, and pest categories often reflect neighborhood conditions as much as building operations.
Rankings and city guides
Are ORA rankings paid placements?
No. ORA rankings are not influenced by payment or marketing participation. Rankings are structured comparisons based on standardized resident experience signals during a defined period.
Do rankings reflect current performance?
Rankings reference ORA Scores during a specific month or year. Because scores update monthly, a community's current ORA Score may differ from the score recorded during the ranking period.
Should I rely only on a ranking list?
Rankings are one input. ORA recommends also reviewing the community's current ORA Score, strengths and opportunities, and conducting your own visit before making a decision.
Can a community improve after a ranking period?
Yes. ORA Scores update monthly. A community not included in a past ranking may appear in future lists as its resident experience patterns evolve.