Peter Lohmann's Newsletter - Issue #121

Welcome to Slow Season

Thanksgiving to New Year’s is not only the slowest time of year for leasing, but it impacts new owner lead flow as well. We pulled 6 years of data at my property management company and averaged them out to see just how seasonal owner leads are. If you’re thinking these numbers seem low, you’re right; that’s why we hired a marketing person this year! Our current lead volume is about 4x higher than this. Anyway, here’s the data:

Look at the ~50% dropoff in the winter months—yikes.

I was curious if RentScale’s data would show something similar, since they work with so many property management companies across the country. Crunching their historical numbers for average lead flow per BDM over, it looks like this:

Interestingly, RentScale’s data shows strong seasonality too, but with a huge pop in April for some reason. They also don’t see as much of a slowdown in December as we do.

So, what to do? At my company RL Property Management, we’re investing heavily in outbound marketing to supplement our organic and paid inbound lead flow:

• We have a dedicated BDR (cold caller) who spends all day every day calling on landlords to see if they would be interested in learning more about property management.

• We do direct mail (a quarterly newsletter + regular postcards) to a list of 800+ real estate investors

• We’re constantly updating and adding to our lists to keep our pipeline full.

Some weeks, outbound efforts are the #1 source of leads for our BDM (closer). If you’re not spinning up some type of outbound campaign already, I strongly urge you to consider it.

If you want to hear me talk about this at length, check out the latest issue of This Week in PM, where Jeremy Pound and Jen Merritt interview me about all the above and more:

Business Conference Culture Needs to Change

My friend Cecilia Hagan posted something intensely personal and vulnerable on LinkedIn shortly after an industry conference last week:

Here’s the deal. A very small number of men are making women feel extremely uncomfortable at industry conferences, with behavior that is creepy, alarming, and even borders on harassment/assault.

This has been an issue at the last 3 conferences I’ve attended, and that’s just the people I personally know. That tells me it’s happening way more frequently, and it tells me that these “men” seem to have gotten the idea that nobody is going to say anything or call them out on it. Let’s end that now.

Event Organizers: Please speak loudly and plainly about this issue, with a zero-tolerance policy regardless if it happens during the conference or at an afterparty.

Men: Obviously, don’t act like this. But for the 99.8% of you who would never do that—I’m calling on you (myself included) to speak up and take action if you witness this. This behavior needs to be stamped out aggressively. The conference organizers can’t police every event.

We need to create and maintain an environment that is professional and welcoming to everyone. Let’s keep conferences fun, light, and educational for all.

New Property Management Companies For Sale This Week

• Here is a property management company for sale in Bend, OR (asking $2.3M, 600 units)

• Here is a commercial management company for sale in Houston, TX (asking $1.2M)

• Here is a association management company for sale in Collier County, FL (asking $120k)

• Here is a property management company for sale in Polk County, FL (asking $399k, 35 units)

Industry News & Events

• The DOJ has ended its criminal investigation into RealPage’s revenue management software, but their civil investigation continues, as do several other lawsuits.

• My business partner Adam Rich, P.E. has launched a no-fluff newsletter aimed at helping homeowners save time & money. Extremely high-quality content from a licensed engineer. Anyone who owns a home should subscribe.

• Catch this great writeup on the PM Trends Report over at prop.text, an excellent publication.

• HoldCo Conference 2025 is coming up—this year it’s slopeside in Sundance, Utah. This is a fantastic event for anyone who owns multiple companies. Your ticket includes EVERYTHING (lodging, skiing, etc). Use code LOHMANN to save $1k.

Closing Thought

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

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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.