Peter Lohmann's Newsletter - Issue #112

7 Things I’m Doing Differently vs One Year Ago

In the last year, I’ve changed things up at my property management company a lot.

Here’s why:

I’m not sure how well that image will come across over email, but our “units under management” was basically flat (with some bumps) for 18 months, from early 2022 to late 2023. We were stuck around 600 units. Every time we added some units, we would slide right back down.

So after some soul-searching and talking with a lot of peers, including some awesome Crane members, I set out to turn the ship around and get back to growth. Here’s what we’ve done over the last 12 months:

1. Fired our old BDM (salesperson) and hired a new one. I was very patient and had to “pay up” for this role, but it was so worth it.

2. NEW: Hired a fractional HR person (we call it “People Operations, or POPS for short). This took a lot of admin & HR tasks off the leadership team so they could focus more on people and results. Plus, it’s unexpectedly powerful to have someone at your company dedicated to helping everyone play all-out.

3. NEW: Hired our first marketing manager (fractional). Results were lackluster. She took another job a few months later. Back to the drawing board. (I’m including this because I don’t want you to think everything is easy, clear or straightforward. There are always missteps when you’re making big changes. It’s part of the process. It’s normal.)

4. By the way — I was doubting myself every step along the way here. These new hires were expensive and it was about to get worse… am I doing the right thing?

5. NEW: Engaged a recruiter (had never done this before) to find my new full-time marketing manager. He found me a killer candidate who started Aug 1. Working with a great recruiter is incredibly high-leverage.

6. NEW: Part of the new marketing strategy was to quit messing around with PPC (paid google ads)—we had tried many agencies—and move to a PPL (pay-per-lead) vendor with aligned incentives. No, I’m not sharing who it is right now. This was yet another gamble on another marketing channel… but this one worked. In the last 45 days, we’ve gotten 21 valid leads and already closed 2 of them.

7. NEW: Incentive pay for leadership roles. Never done it before. For a couple recent leadership hires, I adjusted their base compensation and included an incentive bonus for hitting certain key business performance metrics relevant to their area. It’s early to talk about results, but it feels great and aligned.

8. NEW: Unrealistically, obsessively, absurdly focused on hiring the RIGHT leaders for the RIGHT roles. I’ve gotten pushy and downright obnoxious about this. It only took 10 years of occasionally (sometimes frequently) messing it up for me to get clear! I have a defined process for screening & interviewing candidates, and evaluating them against the role we’re hiring for, and I will stick to it no matter what (it’s basically the “Who” method of hiring + Predictive Index + some EOS-style “people analyzer” thrown in). When in doubt - it’s a no.

You might be noticing a theme: PEOPLE.

The longer I’ve been doing this, the more preoccupied with people I have become.

I started in PM coming from a systems engineering job—I’m hard-wired to be focused on systems & process. In the beginning, I thought people wouldn’t matter much as long as you had great processes. WRONG. Especially for leadership roles.

So, what happened after all those changes above?

• We have a set of dynamic, energetic, smart and engaged leaders who are incredibly invigorated about hitting our company goals. I don’t think I could stop them if I tried.

• Our “valid” leads are up 50% in the last 90 days. Yes, 50%.

• We have an awesome outbound lead generation machine spun up by my new marketing manager Andrew, with a great new cold outbound rep (hey Cody!) Last week cold outbound was our #1 lead source and Cody generated 5+ appointments for our BDM. Crane members: I have Andrew joining me for Tuesday’s livestream to discuss this in detail.

• Our employee satisfaction soared to 87% thanks to our great new People Operations leader.

• Our closing rate on valid leads hovers around 30%.

• We’re VERY close to hitting the 700-unit milestone.

Listen, I don’t have it all figured out. We’re going to continue to make mistakes, and there will be setbacks. But at least some of what I’m doing above is better than what I was doing before, so let me know if that was helpful!

THIS ISSUE IS PRESENTED BY RENTVINE

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Property managers looking to scale will appreciate Rentvine’s ability to grow with your business. As your portfolio grows, Rentvine scales effortlessly, letting you handle increased complexity. Robust reporting and financial tools help you track performance and make data-driven decisions.

Ready to take your property management to the next level? Join Rentvine today and discover how easy managing properties can be when you have the right partner by your side.

My 2025 Wishlist for PM Software

My mind is turning toward next year already… and I thought it would be fun to reveal what I’m hoping to see from our PM software partners:

Join me a for a 30-minute workshop where Wolf and I come up with some fun ideas, share what we’re working on, and talk about the direction we’d like to see the industry move. Register here.

New Property Management Companies For Sale This Week

• Here is an property management company for sale in Sacramento, CA (1,800 doors, asking $ 4.5M)

• Here is an property management company for sale in Charlotte, NC (asking $1.3M)

• Here is an property management company for sale in Clark County, NV (250 properties, asking $1.8M)

• Here are some property management accounts for sale in Bay Area, CA (100+ accounts, asking $1.1M)

• Here is an property management company for sale in Chicago, IL (100 units, asking $500k)

Industry News and Events

• In a survey of 1,000 multifamily professionals across the U.S., 22% named dealing with abusive or aggressive tenants as their No. 1 challenge working in property management.

• Illinois has passed a stupid law that includes a bunch of vague “retaliatory” language which will be used to harm property owners and managers (and good tenants also).

• An eviction leads to a gun being pulled on a property manager. Stay safe out there.

• The PM Systems Conference (January) is a great event — and their pricing goes up next week. There’s still time to use discount code PETER. I send team members every year and they come back with great ideas for our PM company.

• Rentvine has announced a 2025 user conference in Tampa, FL.

Closing Thought

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Stats from last week’s issue:

Valid Recipients: 11,946

Open Rate: 62.5%

Clickthrough Rate: 3.5%

Most Popular Link (42 clicks): News article about the FTC settlement with Invitation Homes

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That’s all for this week! Have a great weekend. -Peter

^{Peter Lohmann's Newsletter: Data. Details. Dedication.}

The content of this newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. I may have consulting agreements with, or financial interests in, companies mentioned in this newsletter. Additionally, some of the links included in this newsletter are affiliate links, meaning I may earn a commission if you make a purchase through these links. Always perform your own due diligence before making any financial or business decisions.