Peter Lohmann's Newsletter - Issue #176

Some Pure HomeRiver Analysis. Wild Memo from HUD. Industry Conference Postponed.

Author

Peter Lohmann
January 30, 2026

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

Property Management at Scale is Really Hard

In case you somehow missed the news last week, Pure Property Management and HomeRiver Group have merged. The new company name is Pure HomeRiver.

Todd Oortscheid had some good coverage last Friday on the PMAssist newsletter, which you should check out if you haven’t already. By the way, did you know that Crane members now have access to the paid version of that newsletter with membership?

Anyway, as I was reading through the press release, I was a little surprised to see the total units under management for the combined entity was only 40,000. Didn't I see some press releases and other data indicating that the combined size should be much larger? I started going back through old emails, press releases, and even pulled up the Top 20 Largest PM lists that I've been compiling for the past couple years. And it turns out… well let me just show you the graph I put together:

Dashed lines speculative. We don’t know the mix of HRG & Pure doors at merger, only the total.

It turns out that according to their own self-reported data and press releases, HRG has experienced a large contraction in total units under management (from 48k to 23k, which is about a 43% reduction) from 2023 to 2025. We have less recent data from Pure (last reported figure was 25k in early 2024). Using the last-available unit counts from both companies (25k and 23k), we would have expected at least 48k units under management even if there was no growth in either company since last reporting. But the actual figure was only 40k. One or both companies lost a significant number of units in the last 1-2 years (as did many if not most property management companies, to be fair).

If you've played around with my Unit Churn Visualizer, you're probably not surprised by this. When you have tens of thousands of units under management, even with industry average churn (not a given), you have to add thousands of doors a year just to stay above water. Take HRG at their peak as an example. At 40k doors, if you’re churning the industry average 19.5% doors annually, you need to add 7,800 doors per year just to maintain your current size. Oof. Let’s imagine they were operating in 40 markets at the time. That means adding 195 doors per market per year, or 16 a month, to stay even. That would be GREAT performance for any PM company. My own company RL Property Management “only” added 187 gross new doors in 2025, and I was pretty happy with that.

The fact is, trying to grow a large multi-market property management company is devilishly difficult. I know a lot of smart people who have attempted it, and it’s just really really challenging. Personally I’ve pretty much thrown this onto my Too-Hard Pile. I want to focus on being the best operator in my local market and dominate it. We have plenty of room to grow without expanding geographically.

Some additional thoughts on this merger:

  • Quoting Todd: “My understanding is that this is a straight merger, not an acquisition, and no cash will be changing hands, so those who have already sold to either original entity and hold stock will not be receiving a payout at this point.” That’s tough news for some, I’m sure.

  • How will the cultures at these two companies mesh? Their new leadership is a mix of execs from both. I get the warm fuzzies when I think about HRG, but PURE has been fairly litigious with sellers post-acquisition. They sued 33rd Company, a PM business they had acquired (coverage here from me back in 2023), and last year sued another seller, Anne McCawley. She filed a counterclaim.

  • The $80M figure mentioned in the press release is debt (not equity).

  • Honestly, I’m rooting for them. There are lots of great people who work there and/or have equity tied up, and someone needs to crack this code (PM at scale). Once the model is proven, we should see a surge in capital entering the space, which will drive up the value of our businesses and make selling even easier. It would also be a shot-in-the-arm for the vendors, partners and point solutions that we all rely on.

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Peter & the Wolf is back! (Feb. 12th @ 3pm ET)

Wolfgang Croskey and I are kicking off the new season with a live, unscripted convo on what 2026 has in store for property management.

We’ll break down the biggest challenges facing property managers in 2026, including regulatory risk, rising labor costs, and the impact of AI on PMs. Plus, we’re diving into where the real opportunities are hiding and how the savviest operators are already adapting.

It’s free, casual, and (as always) unfiltered. Click below to register, and don’t forget to check the box for invites to future webinars.

Property Management Companies For Sale This Week

  • This PM company in Santa Clara County, CA is still available (asking $2.2M)

  • A real estate brokerage and property management company is for sale in Las Vegas, NV (asking $1.5M)

  • This 10-unit multi-family rental property portfolio in Pawhuska, OK is for sale (asking $689k)

  • Here’s a property management portfolio for sale in Delaware County, PA (asking $125k)

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Industry News & Events

  • HUD issued a pretty wild memo about citizenship verification for all tenants in HUD-funded housing (ie, section 8 and other programs).

  • The Elevate Sales Kickoff conference was postponed due to weather. The new date is March 16-18th.

  • Preaching to the choir here, but rent control is really not a good idea.

  • The 2026 NARPM Capitol Summit is coming up Feb 17-19th. More info here. NARPM does good work advocating for property managers with federal legislators & regulators. I just made a sizable donation to their Advocacy Fund. Consider doing the same if you are a property management professional.

  • “Do you have a right to access your own data via API?” Alex Klarfeld tackles this question in a short but fascinating video, drawing a parallel between our industry and car dealerships, of all things, where this question was litigated to the tune of $100M. Alex was the co-founder of Divvy homes.

Closing Thought

A few quick things before you go…

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