Peter Lohmann's Newsletter - Issue #186

Automated Owner Update Emails

All of our property owner clients who own more than handful of units get a monthly update email from our team. It looks about like this (details changed):

I like sending larger owners emails like this where they're getting a cohesive view of their portfolio all in one place, in a consistent format once a month. Of course they could log into their owner portal or call in at any time, but even on their end this data is actually spread across several logins/locations, and I think this is a great summary of the information that they actually need to know on a monthly basis.

To date, these emails have been manually written and it takes quite a while. Data needs to be pulled from several different sources, carefully reviewed, and then the email is put written, reviewed and sent.

We've been looking for ways to give our team their time back recently, and this came up as an item that takes a significant amount of their time every month. I decided to take it on as a little side project to see if I could automate this.

I jumped into Claude Code and told it what I wanted to do, and that I was going to provide it the data sources one by one. We would validate those and then I would provide the email template. Sure enough it got to work right away. It asked for my Buildium API key, which I provided. It needed information on the Buildium API and I was able to download that from the Buildium developer site and give it to Claude. Then it needed a Meld API key, which I was able to get, and with a little bit of wrangling got information on the Meld API docs to it as well.

After explaining a few nuances, like the difference between active and inactive units and how units are delineated in Buildium versus properties, it was able to produce email templates like this at a moment's notice for any number of owners. This entire process of building this little app took me just a couple of hours of tinkering and was very fun.

So the next step is to plug Claude into our shared inbox, and schedule it to generate and send these out once a month, CCing the property managers. And since it's that easy we might as well just go ahead and do it for all of our owners now, not just the big ones. I'm really thrilled about this, and now that my little code base has access to the Buildium and Meld APIs, the sky is really the limit. For example I asked it to reconcile properties and units between Meld and Buildium, and it immediately identified several discrepancies. I was able to inactivate a few units in Buildium and a few in Meld, which will save us on our monthly fees for both.

And of course, I’m barely scratching the surface of what’s possible here. What a time to be in business!

Your Business Should Serve You. Not the Other Way Around.

Many property management owners I talk to are running their business like it's a permanent emergency. Phone ringing at 10 PM? Of course. Stressed marriage? That's entrepreneurship, baby.

Jon and I call BS on that. In this episode, we unpack what we're calling the Flip Flop Ratio: the balance between building your business and actually living your life. We get into why the best operators design their companies around their values (not somebody else's door count), why "suffering is optional" isn't just a cute quote, and the Steve Crossland story that broke everyone's brain at NARPM a few years back. Check it out:

Also available on Apple Podcasts & Spotify

Property Management Companies For Sale This Week

• South Florida PM company scaled from 40 to ~278 doors in Jacksonville, FL (asking $1.2M)

• Another PM company in Pinellas County, FL with 400+ accounts (asking $2M, residential + commercial mix)

• Absentee-run PM business managing 12 properties in San Jose, CA (asking $120k, ~$270k revenue)

• 100-door single-family PM company in Orange County, CA (asking $675k, ~$475k cash flow)

Sponsored by appgentic.ai - Property Management has enough drama. Your tech shouldn't. We’re the "boring" AI Receptionist that just answers the phone, handles tenants 24/7, and never calls in sick. Give your team a break. Get a demo.

Industry News & Events

• ProfitCoach is hosting a Profit Power Hour on Wednesday 4/22 all about The Churn Tax: How Client Turnover Impacts the Value of Your PM Company. Their webinars are always great and churn is a particularly important topic.

• HUD just withdrew some important guidance related to fair housing. Read more from NAA. Meanwhile 16 state Attorneys General sue HUD for fair housing rollbacks they say will increase housing discrimination.

• Did you miss Access Granted? We had over 300 property managers tuning in live for a slew of announcements relevant to the industry. Catch the replay.

Closing Thought

Look at this demo of Quickbooks Killer accounting app, and just imagine when your favorite PM accounting software gains features like this. Chills.

A few quick things before you go…

• Crane applications close on Thursday and will not re-open for 6 months.

• Last week’s issue went to 21,995 readers (53.1% opened, 3.7% clicked)

• The most popular link was about the article on VC-Backed Property Management Companies (155 clicks)

• Property managers: Your professional trade association is NARPM. You need to join if you’re not already a member.

• Did someone forward you this email? Subscribe here.

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.