Peter Lohmann's Newsletter - Issue #169

FTC Writes Letter to Property Managers. Utah PM Steals $100k.

Author

Peter Lohmann
December 12, 2025

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

The Hardest Operational Problem in Property Management

Who should do what at your company?

This is one of the most challenging problems for a growing property management company to solve. It's something that I have struggled with many times during the growth of my 700-door management company.

Whether you're organized as departmental, portfolio, pod, or some hybrid, you end up needing to deal with this problem (and worse, it never fully goes away). Each time you grow by 10%, capacity problems resurface, and you have to figure out how to redistribute tasks among your team members.

I call this problem Role Design. What I mean by role design is how the tasks at your company are distributed to various roles. This is independent of team member performance. For the sake of this article, assume all team members are smart, hard-working, know how to do what needs done, and in alignment with your company values.

Symptoms of poor role design (or just that your company has outgrown what previously worked fine):

  • Overloaded team members

  • Nobody can remember who is supposed to do what

  • Important tasks (that everyone agrees are important) aren’t getting done on time

  • Difficult or impossible to give everyone a number

  • Lots of blame game happening

  • A nagging sensation that you’re overstaffed relative to door count (low DLER)

EOS has a lot to say about this, mostly in the context of the Accountability Chart, but I’m going to share some practical suggestions that have really helped me crack this nut:

  1. Define roles as narrowly as possible. You want to set up Specialist roles, not Generalists, as best you can (and yes, this applies across all organization types). You want as few tasks per role as possible, and you want them to be highly related to one another. Example: Leasing Agent handles new listings, incoming renter inquiries, showings, and tenant screening.

  2. Roles should be set at 85% capacity by default. During an average week, an average employee should be able to complete all their work correctly and on-time, but still have 15% of their week open/free. This is important for two reasons: first, it allows some extra capacity for unit growth, and second, it gives some slack to account for the busy season or the sudden onboarding of multiple properties. You really want to cultivate a pit-crew mentality.

  3. Segment inside/outside tasks. Ideally, you want team members fully in-office (remote is fine, just like literally inside a building) or fully outside the office (eg, maintenance tech). If you try to give someone tasks that include inside work and outside work, they’re going to lose at least an hour or two PER DAY transitioning and driving to/from their workplace. And they are going to feel scattered.

  4. Set up the role for accountability. You want to be able to give the person in that role one or two numbers that they (and only they) are accountable for. These numbers shouldn’t just be arbitrary - they should tie in to your larger business goals or KPIs. If you create “mish-mash” roles where the person is doing a little bit of everything, then they are accountable for nothing. That is not good for you or them.

I hope you find these helpful. Let me know if you have any other suggestions!

THIS ISSUE IS PRESENTED BY CALLRAIL

If you’re not tracking where your leads are coming from, you’re guessing.
That’s the problem CallRail was built to solve.

It gives you crystal-clear attribution for every inbound call so you can stop arguing about lead sources and just pull the report. You’ll see which channels drive qualified prospects (and which are wasting your budget). It’s the kind of tool that upgrades your whole leasing system, from duct tape and guesswork to data and repeatability.

Their AI even analyzes calls to surface coaching moments and script tweaks without sitting through hours of recordings.

And when someone calls after hours? A 24/7 AI assistant picks up, so you’re not losing leads just because your team is offline.

Over 220,000 businesses are using CallRail. You can try it for free.

The Pet Compliance Gap Nobody Talks About

Most PM operators (myself included) think their pet policy is “good enough.” After talking with Jennifer Stoops, I’m rethinking that.

After scaling Park Avenue Properties to 3,600+ doors (and getting acquired by PURE), she’s now serving as SVP of Global Industry Relations at PetScreening. She’s seen how unreported pets, murky processes, and inconsistent enforcement quietly drain NOI long before you notice the pattern.

We also got into pods vs. the portfolio model (and why one of them breaks at scale), some surprising M&A lessons, vendor risk, breed restrictions, and yes, the reason her office has 30 dogs running around at any given moment. Check it out:

(You can also listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify)

New Property Management Companies For Sale This Week

This section is sponsored by RentEngine. Since switching earlier this year, our average days on market dropped by 9 days (and we’re saving money). RentEngine handles all lead follow-up (even after hours), coordinates self-showings and agent showings, and syncs with our PMS. My team loves it. Book a demo here.

Industry News & Events

Closing Thought

A few quick things before you go…

PeterBot

Chat with PeterBot, my AI clone (try the audio). It’s trained on almost everything I’ve ever written or said, and can help you talk through your most challenging PM questions and problems. Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Over 100 property managers have used this in the last couple months(!) Many are returning weekly to ask me their hardest property management questions.

Software I’m using to scale my 700+ door property management company:

Note: These are affiliate links, but I’ve been recommending all these companies long before any financial arrangements came into place.

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.