Case Study: How Montage Tigard Is Turning Happy Moments Into Google Reviews
At Montage Tigard, a newer apartment community in Tigard, Oregon managed by Fore Property Company, our reporting showed that the Google rating was not the problem. The review count was. In August 2026 we handed the on site team a short playbook built from what is producing reviews across the lease ups we report on, and we are now measuring whether it moves the count, the rating and the community's position on the map.
This is an early case study. We know the starting point and what we gave the team. We do not yet know the result, and I will not guess at it.
What was the starting point?
Our August 2026 report showed Montage Tigard at 33 Google reviews with a 4.8 rating. The issue is the count. The communities ranked above it mostly have one thing it does not, which is time. They have been collecting reviews for longer.
That matters for two separate reasons.
- Map position. Where a community shows up in Google Maps comes from three things: how close the renter is, how well the listing matches what they typed, and how established the community looks. Google describes these as distance, relevance and prominence. Review count and rating sit inside the third one. Distance cannot be changed and we already manage the listing, so on a newer building the review base is the part that is still moving.
- What AI says. When a renter asks an assistant which community to pick, it leans on what residents wrote, often almost word for word. A community with eleven reviews gives it very little to say.
It is also the one lever we cannot pull from our side, which is why it kept showing up on the report.
What did we check?
We sit inside the reporting for a lot of lease ups, which means we see the same experiment run in a dozen places at once. So instead of looking only at Montage Tigard, we looked at the pattern across the communities we watch and asked when residents actually write reviews.
The answer was consistent. Nobody writes a review because they got an email. They write one because somebody asked them in a moment when they felt looked after. On a lease up almost every resident is inside their first ninety days, which is the most generous window a community ever gets, and it closes.
We also looked at which reviews keep working after they post. A five star review with no words lifts the average and does nothing else. A review that names a person, a floor plan, an amenity or the neighborhood gets repeated back to the next renter. I wrote more about that in why reviews matter more than ever for apartment leasing.
What did we change?
We changed how we raised it. Rather than another line on a report, we wrote down what is working elsewhere and gave it to the team in a form they could keep, forward and print. None of it was a task list. The team knows its residents better than we do.
The playbook names nine moments when a resident is already happy, each with one sentence staff are welcome to use as is.
| Moment | What we see it do |
|---|---|
| First week after move in | The best window in the whole resident relationship. They just chose this place and still feel good about it. |
| A work order closed | The highest yield ask. Gratitude peaks for about an hour, and the tech should be the one to ask. |
| A package saved | Small problem, big relief, and a topic renters ask about that few reviews mention. |
| Parking sorted | Parking is a common complaint, so a resident happy about it is unusually motivated. |
| First use of an amenity | Catches residents when the building is delivering what it sold. |
| Resident events | The one moment where asking several people at once is natural. |
| A thank you said out loud | Costs nothing. Staff answer the compliment with a question. |
| A tour that became a lease | They know exactly what made the difference, for now. |
| A resident who refers a friend | They already said it out loud. This is the smallest ask on the list. |
It also included three rules that protect the reviews a community already has. Never offer anything for a review. Never screen residents first to decide who gets the link. Never blast the whole building at once, because a pile of reviews from one building in one week looks like exactly what platforms filter out.
And it showed the math with Montage Tigard's own numbers. A small calculator opens at 33 reviews and 4.8, and lets the team add ten new five star reviews to see what a normal month of asking does. The fewer reviews you have, the more each new one is worth. It also shows the downside. One unhappy review in the same batch costs roughly what four happy ones gain, which is the real argument for asking in good moments rather than at random.
What is working so far?
I cannot give you outcome numbers for Montage Tigard yet. What I can say is what is working across the communities we watch: in person asks at moments like these produce reviews, and generic email requests do not.
For a busy lease up, we recommend the smallest version that works. One named person owns it. Two moments, not nine: move in week and closed work orders. Ask once, out loud, in person, with no chasing. Our side covers the rest through LocalLift: a short link and a scan code sized for work order cards, event tables, move in folders and email signatures, a reply to every review in the community's voice (see how to respond to apartment reviews), and the review language fed back into the listing so residents' own words end up where renters search.
What is next?
We are measuring three things on every report: review count and rating against the communities ranked above Montage Tigard, the community's position in Google Maps, and how AI assistants describe it. Our ask to the team was to run two moments with one person for thirty days. After that, the report will show what it did. If it works here the way it has elsewhere, the change should be visible before the quarter is out. If it does not, we will say so in the update to this post. For more on the map side, see how multifamily operators can win in Google Maps.
Frequently asked questions
What was Montage Tigard's starting point on reviews?
Our August 2026 report showed 33 Google reviews at a 4.8 rating. The rating was healthy. The count was the part still catching up to longer established communities nearby.
Did reviews go up after the playbook?
We do not have those numbers yet, so we are not publishing any. Review count and rating are tracked on every LocalLift report, and we will update this case study when there is something real to show.
Is it allowed to offer residents something for a review?
No. We tell every community never to offer a gift card, raffle, rent credit or anything else for a review, never to screen residents first, and never to send one blast to the whole building.
What is the smallest version of this a busy team can run?
One named person owns it, two moments only (move in week and closed work orders), and the ask happens once, out loud, in person. We handle the link, the card, the replies and the counting.
Want to know what your review count is costing you on the map? Request a free visibility plan and we will show you where your community stands today.
