Peter Lohmann's Newsletter - Issue #108

Best PM Automations, Odevo Manages 1.4M doors

Author

Peter Lohmann
September 06, 2024

An Update on My Company, RL Property Management

If you’re a new reader: I own a residential property management company located in central Ohio. We manage rental homes and apartments on behalf of individual landlords.

Ready for some radical transparency? In no particular order, here’s the current status of our PM business:

General

  • 674 units under management (approaching our all-time high from early 2023). About half of these are SF homes.

  • 50+ valid leads per month.

  • 30% closing rate on those leads; our BDM (salesperson) is crushing it.

  • All-time unit growth under management, 2013 to present:

Churn

  • We're tracking to 22% annual unit churn (ouch). However, this is better than it's been in years (yay). The benchmark is 9.6%

  • Client NPS is 12. Working on this, it should be more like 35. Big problem and likely contributing to churn. Note the NPS range is -100 to +100.

  • Historical churn below:

  • By the way, client churn is seasonal for us, maybe it is for you too:

Profitability

  • We did 18% net profit last year, I'm estimating 13% for this year (many new leadership hires dragging it down, but we'll be golden once we're over 750 units).

  • My goal for 2025 is 25% net profit

  • Note: The profitability “benchmark” (top quartile per the NARPM / ProfitCoach study data) is 32%. One can dream…

Software Stack

  • We love Property Meld.

  • We're testing PlanOmatic which looks awesome.

  • We still like EOS a lot and still have a professional implementor run our quarterlies. He knows the PM biz. Hit reply if you want an intro.

  • We still love Notion (video walkthrough of our setup).

  • We still run on Buildium.

  • We love LeadSimple (note: investor).

  • APM Help does our trust accounting. Love them.

  • ProfitCoach does our corporate accounting. Love them.

  • Still using Airtable to track turns and property/unit data.

Key Hires

  • Found my new VP of Ops (my “Integrator”, for those on EOS), he started Tuesday! So far so good.

  • Our new marketing manager started July 1 and is rocking, thank you to Dylan Scroggins for finding both of these folks for us (I highly recommend him for recruiting execs/leaders).

  • I hired a fractional HR person (people ops) about 6 months ago. Huge win; recommended if you have more than 20 team members.

  • We're leaning even harder into RTMs / global talent (thank you Sagan Passport).

HR / People Operations

  • New benefits go into effect 9/1: increased healthcare premiums paid by company to 75%, added dental, added vision, doubled PTO days.

  • We never stop hiring for maintenance techs. 3 started in the last few weeks. We only have about a 50% success rate with hiring techs…

  • Still on Gusto, still like it a lot. We use it to pay our RTMs (global talent) too.

  • We love Predictive Index (it's like culture index). Pricey though.

Performance Data

  • Median days on market (DOM) is 11

  • Median time-to-turn is 18 days

  • Median repair days (occupied units) is 4.9

  • Tenant NPS is 26. Proud of this.

I hope this helps some folks… I don’t have it all figured out, as you can see. Sharing & learning as I go.

THIS ISSUE IS PRESENTED BY LENDING ONE

Looking for a Trusted Lending Partner?

LendingOne offers loans—ranging from short-term fix & flip to long-term rental financing— designed to help investors grow their portfolios.

I spoke with Josh Heintz, VP of Strategic Partnerships, to learn exactly how LendingOne works with property management companies:

Why LendingOne?

  • Be a Resource: Your investor may be stuck dealing with a local bank or hard money, and doesn’t realize there is a better alternative to funding their investment.

  • Referral Program: Banks and credit unions can’t pay referral fees, but THEY CAN. Earn referral fees per client or deal—choose the option that works for you.

  • Speed and Expertise: They close deals in as little as 10 days, offering rates equal to, or better than traditional banks.

The Best Automations for Property Managers

Curious about automating parts of your property management business?

I’m sharing a few of my favorite automations next week, live on this month’s “Peter & The Wolf” workshop with Wolfgang Croskey. Register here.

Make sure you register even if you can’t make it live — that way you’ll get the recording afterwards.

New Property Management Companies For Sale This Week

  • Here is a property management company for sale in Rhode Island (asking $1.1M)

  • Here is a property management company for sale in Santa Clara County, CA (124 doors, asking $425k)

  • Here is an HOA management company for sale in Sacramento County, CA (asking $4M)

  • Here is a property management company for sale in South Carolina (asking $260k)

  • Here is a property management company for sale in Bay Area, CA (asking $1.1M, 100+ accounts)

  • Here is a property management company for sale in Glen Allen, VA (asking $325k)

Industry News and Events

  • New Colorado bill HB24-1318 requires Colorado real estate investors to pay for property modifications for tenants with disabilities. Marc Cunningham has a great overview here.

  • Property manager attacked with an axe in Minneapolis.

  • Odevo (global PM company with 1.4M units under management, founded in 2018) has raised a bunch of money from “CVC funds”. I don’t know anything about Odevo. It looks like they might be focused on association management?

  • Brent Beshore (fmr podcast guest) is releasing an updated version of his book about preparing to sell your company (or buy one), “The Messy Marketplace". Highly recommended.

  • Got some company or industry news you want to share with me? Read this first.

Closing Thought

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

P.S. Have you checked out Crane, the private community for property management business owners? Join 60+ peers as we achieve time freedom together. Applications re-open next Friday!

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.