With more people renting today than ever before, your pool of prospects has never been bigger. And, it has never been more diverse.

From younger millennials renting their first apartment homes to the baby boomers making their way back to rental communities and everyone in between (), renters — their motivations, search habits, wants and needs — are more wide-ranging than almost any other group of home shoppers and dwellers.

We recently re-examined the findings of the 2016 Zillow Group Report on Consumer Housing Trends, which provides an in-depth profile of 4,000+ renters, to see what major trends are shaping the industry and what they mean for multifamily marketers.

With leasing season is in full-swing, here are 10 renter truths for you to know, so you can be sure your marketing is aligned with the prospects and personas you’re looking to attract.

Everyone is using online resources to search for their apartment homes

Eighty four percent of the entire renter population uses online resources to search for their next apartment home. That number jumps to 90 percent when you look at just multifamily renters.

Not surprisingly, 90 percent of the entire millennial renter population use online resources. But, what may be a little surprising is that 67 percent of boomers and over half (54 percent) of the silent generation use online resources.

While methods used to access online resources vary by age, make no mistake – every generation of renters is using the internet to search for their next apartment home.

Multifamily Marketer Pro Tip: Make sure all your digital properties and listings are optimized for mobile, so you can give prospects across generations the experience they are looking for. Be familiar with technology preferences during their journey and meet them where they are.

Multifamily renters are using more online resources than other types of renters

While renters in general used 4.5 online resources to assist with their housing search, multifamily renters used 4.7 online resources. Even though that may not seem like a big difference, it is.

Your prospects are using Zillow Group sites, your community websites and search engines to gather the list of properties they want to tour. They are learning about your communities and then checking them out to confirm that what they are seeing on one digital property matches what’s on others. Renters are digitally savvy shoppers and do not want to be victim to a bait and switch.

Multifamily Marketer Pro Tip: Ensure that your marketing messages and visuals are in alignment to give renters the best impression of your community across digital properties and channels.

Renters rent with partners

Over half of renters (55 percent) live with a partner or spouse and four in 10 have children under the age of 18. And, more than four out of five renters (82 percent) are co-shopping for a home with either a romantic partner or roommate-to-be.

Multifamily Marketer Pro Tip: When you’re setting up your marketing for any of your communities, think about how a couple searches and what specific challenges that may pose. Think about ways to make the shopping experience easier for them by making your listings and the information on your website easy to share. The same can be true for roommates!

Rent is overwhelmingly paid in person

Currently, less than a quarter of rent is paid online (24 percent). Millennial renters (27%) and multifamily renters in medium-to-large buildings (32 percent and 38 percent respectively) pay rent online in greater percentages. Of those who pay online, six out 10 pay via a property manager’s website – 83 percent pay this way in large buildings.

But, consumer expectations are changing. Consumers expect intuitive and seamless digital experiences. Plus, the first truly digital generation, age 18 - 22 (sometimes called Generation Z), which is even bigger than the millennials, is starting to rent their first apartments.

They have only ever known a world of tapping, touching and texting. This group of digital natives are going to want to pay rent and sign leases online. By the way, lease signing is another transaction that is currently overwhelmingly done in person (to the tune of 85 percent).

Multifamily Marketer Pro Tip: With busy leasing season underway, right now may not be the best time to change your leasing and payment systems. But, whether you’re fully digital or collecting checks, walk through the experiences you do offer to confirm they are working and are as seamless as possible. And, start planning for the day when digital payments become the norm, not the exception.

Pets are a big deal

One in three renters has a pet. Of those, 47 percent own a cat, 43 percent own a small dog and 37 percent own a large dog. Renters overall site “allows pets” as their third most important priority when searching for the right rental home. This is after such fundamentals as affordability and safety. They view their pets as needs, not nice-to-haves.

Multifamily Marketer Pro Tip: Emphasize search must-haves: affordability, safety and pet-friendliness across all your channels. Tout your pet amenities and be sure to show your prospects that you value them and their furry friends.

Renters are looking at all their housing options

Renters, as a whole, are weighing all their housing options while they search for their next home. More than half of all renters are looking at apartment homes in small or mid-sized communities, while about 30 percent consider larger communities (with 50+ units).

However, only 15 percent of renters actually end up in a large community, and 32 percent move to small to mid-size buildings. As a whole, 48 percent of renters consider single-family homes, and 58 percent of renters consider buying a home instead.

Multifamily Marketer Pro Tip: When doing your competitive analysis, make sure to consider the single-family rental market and the for-sale market in your area in order to determine your value proposition against the entire marketplace.

Hungry for more renter data? Keep your eyes open for the 2017 Zillow Group Consumer Housing Trends Report coming in the fall!