Peter Lohmann's Newsletter - Issue #147

DOJ Goes After Greystar, Hawaii PM Company For Sale

Author

Peter Lohmann
June 27, 2025

A no-fluff weekly publication for the property management industry.

Reflections on Taking A Month Away From My Business

I’m 26 days into my annual 4-week Crane Break, where I fully step away from my property management company (no calls, no Slack, no emails, no communication at all except for a true emergency). This is my fourth consecutive year taking off the entire month of June.

So far, I haven’t heard word one from the company. I have no idea what’s going on there. We could have hired people, fired people, gained a ton of doors, lost a ton of doors — dunno. I’ll find out on Tuesday when I debrief with my VP of Ops.

Here’s some of what I’m noticing this year:

  1. Tasks expand to fill the time allotted to them. If I’m not extremely diligent, all the little household and administrative life chores somehow manage to fill entire days, when I’m obviously able to fit them into the margins during the rest of the year.

  2. I really miss being connected to what’s going on in the broader PM community (I deleted LinkedIn for the month).

  3. When I was in my 20s, I had a dream of retiring young and living off “passive income.” Each year that goes by, that sounds less and less appealing to me. I find real meaning in the work that I do now, and wouldn’t be very interested in retiring anytime soon. Taking 4 weeks away really confirms that for me.

  4. Traveling during my time off is a mixed bag. Obviously it’s fun and exciting to travel, but it can also be pretty stressful and disruptive, especially with young kids (whether I take them along or not). I really value the quiet, calm, sit-around-and-do-nothing days that I get, and it never feels like I get enough of those. I don’t want 365 of them of a year, but I wouldn’t mind an extra dozen or two.

  5. Seeing other people take time off in this way (fully disconnected), inspired by hearing me talk about it, has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my professional life. I’m on a mission (via Crane) to deliver time freedom for PM business owners & operators.

Just a few days left until I’m back in the saddle, can’t wait to reconnect with everyone! I’m off to spend my last few days of freedom at our inaugural Crane retreat in Colorado. No newsletter next week (July 4th holiday).

And for everyone asking, yes I did survive the rim-to-rim Grand Canyon hike earlier this month! Here are a couple photos:

Somewhere near the top of the South Kaibab trail.

This was the sharpest, brightest rainbow I’ve ever seen.

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New Property Management Companies For Sale This Week

  • Here is a property management portfolio for sale in Stratford, CT (asking $110k)

  • Here is a property management company for sale in Atlantic County, NJ (asking $2.1M, 130 doors)

  • Here is an association management company for sale in Ridgefield Park, NJ (asking $3.5M)

  • Here is a property management company for sale in Honolulu, HI (asking $750k).

Would you like to know how much property management companies actually sell for? Check out the 2025 Property Management M&A Report, backed by data from 89 actual M&A transactions.

Industry News & Events

  • The PM Systems Conference is running a 4th of July special — take $200 off the early-bird rate (insane deal tbh) using code FREEDOM-PETERL. See you there!

  • The DOJ has ordered Greystar to pay a $1.4M fine for unlawfully charging service members fees (sounds like lease termination fees). Reading between the lines, it sounds like their software system automatically applied the fees (I suspect anyone who questioned them got the fees removed). I don’t love the idea that companies are harshly punished for their computer systems applying charges to accounts in error, when there are no actual damages. I’ve seen this come up in a lot of contexts around PM. Common sense should prevail in these situations. Companies need to be allowed an opportunity to correct charges or communications which any rational person could see was a mistake.

  • NYC rents are up 15% since they banned broker fees (I discussed this a few weeks ago).

  • States Gone Wild:

Closing Thought

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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. *Affiliate link.