Triple Win Property Management Blog

Structuring your Management Fees to Incentivize the Right Outcomes

It’s a fundamental principle of economics that incentives drive behavior. When you pay someone to do something, they’re more likely to do that thing. In property management, your revenue from fees—vendor fees, resident fees, and owner fees—provides that financial incentive, whether you realize it or not. For example, think about a cleaning service where employees are only paid hourly. If they mess up jobs and get called back to fix them, they’re now incentivized to mess up jobs just to guarantee themselves more working hours and therefore more pay. There should be a penalty for callbacks, or they should be paid by the job, and only when it’s done. Property managers often fall into the same trap of incentivizing the wrong behaviors, in part because we encourage each other to do it. We encourage each other to layer on extra fees, even if they’re contrary to the owner’s best interest. Instead, let’s set a fee structure that motivates the types of behaviors we want to see. Show me the fee and I’ll show you the outcome Each and every fee that you charge for your services is incentivizing some kind of behavior, either by your staff, your residents, or your investors. It’s vital to take a deep look at what the potential unintended outcomes are of those fees so that you don’t end up incentivizing the wrong behaviors. For example, when you charge a late fee to residents that effectively doubles, triples, or quadruples your profit for that unit that month, and it goes straight into your own pockets, you’re incentivizing your company to let residents pay late, because it’s more profitable for you. You’re discouraging your team from proactively sending rent reminders and finding ways to get residents to pay on time, even though that’s what’s best for the people you work for: your clients. A small fee to cover labor is one thing, but turning counterproductive behavior into a profit center is another. I’m of the belief that good property managers should be able to maximize their revenues in this industry, but they shouldn’t do it in a way that pits property managers against owners—and both of them against residents. What you charge for, how much you charge, and how you charge it is a highly personal decision, but I stand by the principle that we can design better fee structures that incentivize the right behaviors for our clients. What the traditional property management model gets wrong There are some pretty standard fees that the vast majority of property managers today charge. The problem is, most of these fees are incentivizing the complete wrong behavior. What do I mean by that? Let’s look at some of the most common fee types: High leasing fees and turn fees: They’re designed to reward property managers for finding and signing great residents, but the side effect is that they actually encourage turnover. When you get paid more for finding a new resident, why would you work to retain the existing one? Late fees: Like I said earlier, this actually incentivizes late-paying residents. If you profit significantly from residents paying late, that’s a good thing for your business and you’re now incentivized to allow late payments rather than stamping them out. Again, it’s fine to cover labor costs when you have to chase down late payers, but don’t treat it as a windfall. High markups on maintenance: This incentivizes your team to allow big-ticket items to break, because it means a higher fee for fixing it compared to just performing proper preventative maintenance. It’s antithetical to keeping the property in top condition. With traditional models, property managers actually make the most money when things go worst for the owners. It’s the best for PMs when residents pay late every month, move out every year, and do maximum damage to the property, even though those are all bad things for the investor. It’s a problem of unbalanced incentive structures. Incentivizing the right outcomes There’s a way to build a fee structure that is both profitable for your company and better aligned with outcomes that are good for your clients. And to be clear, I don’t believe the pendulum should swing all the way to the other side, where property managers are charging absolutely no fees and aren’t getting paid fairly for what they’re doing. We should still charge extra money when we do extra work. We should just do it in a way that’s mutually beneficial. What do we actually want to achieve? We have to start by determining exactly what types of things we want to encourage, and only then can we set a fee structure that incentivizes that. We can all agree that real estate investors are best served by quality, on-time-paying residents who treat the properties they rent with great care. We can also agree that we need to cover our costs when we do extra work. But the lion's share of our profits should come from the scenarios that are best for the owners. I believe we should be incentivizing the behaviors that maximize returns for the investors. Think of yourself as an executive When you think about how you earn money, I think it’s helpful to look at executives. VPs and CEOs often have relatively low base salaries, but their potential for performance-based bonuses is huge. Their pay structure incentivizes them to perform well and deliver results that are good for the company. In the case of property management, our decisions and inputs have a material impact on how our clients’ companies succeed. We should be driving profitability for them, and we should be tying our own compensation to that profitability. Taking responsibility isn’t easy One of the reasons that it’s so difficult for property managers to take a hard look at their fee structure is because it requires a level of vulnerability. We have to take responsibility for the system we’ve built and where it’s falling short. Self-policing isn’t easy, but it’s hugely beneficial not only because it’s the right thing to do, but because it’s also good for the industry as a whole. It means we have less need for government regulations, legislation, and oversight. It’s easy for property managers to write off the bad behaviors that they’re incentivizing, and instead just blame it on residents. But the reality is, when we treat residents poorly with high fees, we create an inherently antagonistic relationship. We create residents who respond by leaving, or by treating the property poorly, etc. We share some responsibility for that behavior, and we need to hold ourselves to a higher standard. Proposing a hybrid fee model I would propose that replacing the standard fee-based model with a hybrid plan can better align us as property managers with the goals of our clients, while also improving relationships with residents. In fact, that’s exactly what I’ve done at my company. Start with a blended management fee, with a small percentage fee stacked on top of a flat rate. This basically brings the management fees from your highest rent properties down while also bringing fees from the lowest rent properties up. All of your clients pay closer to average, rather than just forking over a percentage of their rental income. It also raises the monthly management fee for your lowest rent properties, making it easier to manage them profitably. It reduces that temptation to charge excess fees and allows you to instead incentivize the behavior that benefits your owners. Fees that work for everyone Here’s what I think makes for the best fee structure to keep everyone on the same team: High management fees using a hybrid structure Late fees that are split with the property owner Reasonable leasing fees that aren’t high enough to incentivize high turnover No fees when a unit sits empty Little to no markup on maintenance, because to me that’s just part of the job Ultimately, how you charge fees is up to you. I’m not going to sit here and shame or judge anyone. But my goal when I talk about this is to raise our sights and say, “Even if this is a hard thing, we should do it because it’s better in the long run.” This won’t revolutionize your business overnight. It’s a long-term play. But you need to have trust in the process and recognize that having trust builds trust. Interested in delivering services that residents are willing to pay and stay for? Join our upcoming RBP Workshop to learn more about our Resident Benefits Package.

July 17, 2025

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How Service Tiers and Taking on Risk Shaped our Proven Process

Not too long ago, the hot new thing in property management was offering different service tiers, where the more a client paid, the more they got in their management package. I decided to give it a try, and through the process I learned a lot about myself and how I wanted to run my business. The thing is, I didn’t want to build any kind of “less than” tier. In my view, if something is good for clients, it should be included in every plan that I offer. Otherwise, I’m just delivering some clients sub-par services. That got me thinking about how I wanted to build out my different service levels, how I wanted to structure my business, and how to build a proven process that could allow me to step outside of my role as an executor to become more strategic. Assuming risk with a “gold plan” Because I didn’t want to offer a package that I didn’t think lived up to my values and my brand, I ultimately decided not to go with a good/better/best structure. Instead, I kept my standard management package and added what I called a Gold Plan. The Gold Plan was built to offer all the same services as my standard package, but it also came with some pretty hefty guarantees. Basically, if you paid for Gold and you had losses, property damages, or unpaid rent because of a resident, we would cover that expense. The program was completely self-funded and self-insured, so the buck stopped with me. On its face, this seemed like a pretty big risk for my business. Assuming financial responsibility for so many different things was a gamble, and plenty of people told me I was just asking for trouble. But the thing is, I knew my business, and I had the data to back it up. When I took a deep look at my company’s performance, it turned out I was losing less than 1% of receipts to bad debt, so the risk factor was actually very low compared to the additional management fees I was collecting with the Gold Plan. Risk mitigation as a service One of the biggest reasons that I chose to develop the Gold Plan wasn’t just because I felt that we could increase profit margins. Risk mitigation is actually of tremendous value to our investors. By building it into our go-to-market strategy as a defined service, it helped us better communicate that value. Differentiating your property management business is really difficult. Most clients are so detached from the daily workings of property management that they don’t even know what to ask about. We have to do a lot of work just to educate them on what it is that we do, never mind all the value-adding activities they never see. By packaging risk assumption as a unique product, it helped us better articulate our value and present a clearer go-to-market message. Developing a proven process What I didn’t foresee when I built out the Gold Plan and took on some of this risk was how my own role within the company would evolve. As we continued to grow, I had fewer direct touch points with my clients, and things became a little bit less predictable. Working on my business, not in my business It’s a story a lot of property managers can tell you: when you’re small you know every single client, but when you reach a certain level and you hire more staff, you’re less involved in the day-to-day and focused more on business strategy. The problem in my case was that I had built a Gold Plan based on the idea that I could personally oversee the risk levels of all my clients and all of their properties. When I shifted into a more strategic role, that became increasingly difficult. I no longer had eyes on every single interaction or every property inspection. I hired business development managers to bring on new clients, and suddenly I wasn’t intimately involved in every deal that came in. I realized that I needed to design a company that let me keep a handle on risk, and that’s when I developed our proven process. Creating a need for a proven process The proven process started with a few simple questions about making the company more efficient and keeping us out of crisis mode: How do we make sure that properties stay stable? How can we identify risk before it becomes a problem? How can we get properties back on track to a stabilized status? We started by identifying what kinds of things actually indicated “risk”. What behaviors were indicators that there might be a growing problem? Things like: Code violations in a property Resident disputes (with us or with each other) Unpaid or consistently late rent We started flagging every one of those behaviors as soon as it happened so that we could monitor and stabilize those properties. That quickly developed into an hour-long, weekly meeting where my staff reported out any red flags they were seeing, and then the whole property management team discussed ways to address them. I joined that meeting and basically role-played the world’s worst client, pressure testing every solution we proposed until we were confident in our go-forward plan. That one hour a week let me keep my finger on the pulse of every potential problem across our portfolio without having to be deeply involved with every single resident every single day, and allowed me the time and space I needed to make strategic decisions about the business. It also let me see the inner workings of how my team was confronting problems, and gave me more confidence than ever that they were doing the right thing. Moving beyond the Gold Plan Ultimately, after a few years, I made the difficult choice to sunset our Gold Plan. While it was a great program for us, it didn’t come without challenges. When I was acting as a BDM and directly involved in every single deal, I had a natural intuition for which clients I should sell Gold Plan to. Once I hired other BDMs, they didn’t have that same instinct, and, as a result, we started selling Gold Plan to accounts that weren’t a great fit for it. And those accounts started costing me. The Gold Plan was successful while it lasted. I didn’t get wiped out by any disasters, and I did make a profit. But the potential future risk to my business meant that, as a leader, I had to protect myself and my staff, and quit while I was ahead. I’m still looking at ways to relaunch a similar plan, this time supported by a third party insurer. In the meantime, I’m still utilizing the proven process that we developed, and it’s still incredibly effective in helping me manage clients, residents, and staff without having to be constantly in the trenches. If that were the only result to come out of the Gold Plan, it would be 100% worth it. I learned a lot, and I’m glad I took a chance. Final thoughts To me, there are a few lessons that any property manager should take from this experiment. Be deliberate about how you build service packages. You should put very clear, specific thought into how to build service packages that work for your business. Don’t just think about how profitable they’ll be or how well they’ll sell, but consider how they’ll change your team structure, the way you work with your staff, and what will be required of you as a business leader. Make your service levels scalable. As your company grows, your role will continue to evolve. You can’t be directly involved with every client, and you need to trust your team. Make sure you’re offering management packages that allow you to do that. Use service tiers to communicate your value. The various packages that you offer to investors can be a fantastic tool to help show exactly what it is that you do. You don’t want clients wondering what they’re getting in exchange for their management fees. Client education never ends, so embed it into your process. Don’t be afraid to pivot. You should always be thoughtful when you try new things. I had data to justify the Gold Plan. I didn’t just start selling it on a whim. But as things changed, I realized it was no longer right for my company. Don’t be afraid to change things if they’re no longer working. Everyone’s business is different, and every business leader takes their own approach. But with each business decision you make, you should always be on the lookout for ways to improve the processes around it. If you want to hear more about how I approach my company and my property management philosophy, listen to my recent episode of the Triple Win Podcast.

July 3, 2025

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How to Write a Property Management Proposal

Having a strong property management proposal at the ready is key to closing deals and bringing on new clients. But what many property managers don’t consider is that the proposal goes far beyond that. In many ways, it sets the tone for how your whole professional relationship will be conducted. A well-structured, carefully crafted proposal sets clear expectations for your client-to-be, illustrates your company’s professionalism, and builds trust in your ability to execute. That’s why we’ve put together this property management proposal template that you can use to take your pitch to the next level. What is a property management proposal? A property management proposal is a document used in the sales process to outline the key terms of the property management agreement, your management fees, the contract duration, insurance provisions, obligations, termination conditions, and more. It’s a simple, straightforward way to give your potential client all the details they need to make the decision to hire you. A strong proposal document is essential for every property management company looking to expand their portfolio. It’s a key tool in the sales cycle when trying to close deals with new investors, and can also be useful if you’re looking at acquiring or being acquired by another management company. For many single-family property management companies, the proposal also includes information on why clients should hire professional management services in general, rather than trying to self-manage. What to include in a property management proposal A property management proposal should include all of the information that a potential client needs to make an informed decision. That includes information about your company, your team, your policies, and the contractual agreement you’re entering into. Here are some of the key areas you should be sure to include: Cover letter or proposal introduction Your proposal should open with a short, friendly cover letter introducing yourself and your company. This section should summarize the purpose of the proposal and outline its contents, while also highlighting key value that you provide or differentiators for your company. Just like a cover letter you write when applying for a job, this section should highlight why you feel you’re a particularly good fit for this client. We recommend customizing at least part of the cover letter for the specific investor you’re pitching to, highlighting why their company in particular would benefit from your services. About your company This section should highlight the key points about your company, but don’t write too much here. The client isn’t interested in knowing every single detail of your history, but you should convey some key points that will help build trust: Who you are How large your portfolio is today How long you’ve been in business Your mission statement Your company’s core values Meet the team This is your opportunity to call out key staff, especially those that this client will be working closely with. Add headshots to make it feel personal, and include short bios and job titles. Where applicable, include certifications that your team has and the length of their industry experience. Your approach to property management This section is sometimes folded into the section about your company, but it doesn’t hurt to call it out separately, especially if you have a unique process, mindset, or methodology. Write a few sentences about how you manage properties, like your approach to communication, your commitment to transparency, or how you leverage technology. This not only helps differentiate you from your competitors, but also establishes what the client should expect from you moving forward. Scope of services This section gets a little bit more technical, and typically includes a comprehensive list of services that your company will provide: Marketing properties Resident screening Leasing Preventative maintenance Responsive maintenance Rent collection Customer service (including availability hours and whether you have a 24/7 service line) Renters insurance management Make it very clear to the client what you offer (and what you don’t). Budget and pricing breakdown Next you’ll want to outline your expense structure, including whether you charge a flat management fee, a percentage-based fee, or a combination of the two. Include standard fees and optional add-ons that you offer. If you have multiple plan tiers, this is the place to outline them, including a personalized recommendation for the client based on their property or properties. Legal and insurance Now it’s time to get deeper into the details. This section is where you want to outline your approach to compliance and how you stay on top of landlord/tenant laws. Include details on how you mitigate risk and liability, and how that benefits property owners. This is also a great area to highlight your property insurance and renters insurance requirements, with a focus on how you enforce compliance. Property portfolio You always want to tell great customer stories in your proposal. Be sure to showcase two or three properties that you currently manage, especially if they’ve undergone significant transformation or you’ve increased the property value well. Try to curate this section to match the portfolio of the prospective client. For example, if they own a mix of residential and commercial properties, or a mix of multi-family and single-family homes, make sure the proposal is representative of that. You should also include overall statistics about the number of properties you manage, what geographies you serve, and what types of properties they are. Client references or testimonials Be sure to highlight current clients who are happy with you, especially if they’re willing to serve as references. This should go without saying, but always make sure you have explicit permission before listing someone as a reference or having a prospective client contact them. This section can also include testimonial quotes, online reviews, or links to case studies. If you have video case studies, include screenshots with a link to watch the full video. If you’re delivering your proposal as a website or slide deck, you may even be able to embed video clips directly in the proposal. Optional add-ons that can set you apart Remember, the whole purpose of the proposal is to try to close the deal with a new client, so don’t hold back if you have unique value propositions that differentiate you. Include a dedicated section on unique services that investors may not find elsewhere. Sustainability initiatives If your company takes a sustainable approach to property management, be sure to describe it. You may use eco-friendly vendors for maintenance, landscaping, or pest control. You may also offer green upgrades like smart thermostats or clean energy utility providers. Include those here to stand out. Resident benefits packages Resident benefits packages are a great way to stand out. If you offer an RBP like Second Nature’s, outline the various benefits that are included. Be sure to focus on how these add value for the property owner, including increasing resident satisfaction and retention. Make sure that the client understands the impacts of the experience economy and why it’s important to deliver the best possible resident experience as a property manager. Tips for making your property management proposal stand out If your prospective client is doing their due diligence, they’re probably receiving proposals from multiple PMCs. You need a clean, well-constructed proposal that’s going to stand out from the crowd. Use a clean, easy-to-scan layout Use bullet points, white space, and clear headings that can help the reader quickly navigate and understand the content. Where relevant, consider adding imagery, charts, and graphs to highlight key points. Tailor every proposal You want your proposal to be anything but generic. If a client feels that you’re just handing them the same proposal you give to everyone, they’re going to be less than impressed. Make sure that the proposal you’re putting in front of them is customized to their company, property type, and pain points so that they feel personally catered to. Keep it short, but substantial Don’t overwhelm your clients with too much information. Include enough to inform them without becoming burdensome. We typically find four to six pages to be the right length for most property owners to digest. Offer a next step Make sure that your proposal ends with a clear call to action. Depending on where in the sales process you are, this might be to: Schedule a call Sign the agreement Request more information Schedule a time to visit the property You can also follow up on your proposal with a courteous, professional email. Your goal is to keep the conversation going without making the investor feel like you’re demanding a response. Give them an opportunity to ask questions while also reinforcing your value. Make your proposal work harder with Second Nature Remember, a professional, detailed property management proposal will help you win better clients and grow your business. Want to enhance your company’s offering? Second Nature’s Resident Benefits Package can help you deliver more value to owners and residents alike while also growing your business. Join our upcoming RBP Workshop to learn more about RBPs and hear from actual property managers about how they’ve worked with clients to implement new benefits.

July 1, 2025

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Calculating your Max Customer Acquisition Cost as a Property Manager

Sales and marketing is a tough expense to swallow for most small businesses owners. That’s why it’s important to have a target customer acquisition cost (CAC), which will help you keep your go-to-market spending at a level that drives success while still allowing your business to be profitable. It will also give you data-backed confidence in your spending, knowing that it’s driving results. There are some basic economic principles that I think all property management business leaders should be applying in order to calculate their maximum customer acquisition cost. In this article, I’ll walk you through what customer acquisition cost is, how it relates to new present value, why it’s helpful to think of sales and marketing costs in terms of future profits, and how to increase your max CAC to help grow your business. Defining max CAC Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is the total amount of investment it takes to bring a new client under management. It’s a calculation of all of the marketing and sales expenses you need to put out in order to bring each new customer in. CAC is particularly useful in determining the success of your marketing efforts. Your max CAC is the highest amount you can profitably invest in new client acquisition. While CAC is just a measure of what’s currently happening, max CAC is the highest number that you’re able to spend while covering costs and getting a return on capital. If you exceed that max CAC, it’s time to pump the brakes a bit and reevaluate. Do you know your CAC? It’s my strong belief that property management company owners frequently underestimate how much they can profitably spend to acquire new clients. In fact, I suspect that most property managers don’t even know what they are spending to bring in new doors. Most property managers, even if they were willing to be completely open and candid with you, would not have a great sense of how much money they spend to bring in new customers. Many probably have no idea at all. If I had to guess, I suspect most would probably tell you that they just want to spend as little as possible. The most business-savvy might take their total marketing budget and divide it by the number of new contracts they sign each year, just to get a rough estimate. At the end of the day, it’s basically just a gut feeling or, at best, some fuzzy math. I think for many PMs, not having a max CAC stems from not having the data that contributes to it. For example, if you don’t know your lifetime revenue from new clients—and the lifetime margin for each property—how can you possibly calculate the amount of money you can spend to generate that revenue? Understanding net present value in business I’m of the strong opinion that we can and should be using an economic concept called net present value (NPV) to calculate out the maximum amount we should be paying any individual new client. Net present value is a discounted look at what you should be willing to spend to get a return. NPV recognizes a basic truth: a dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow, thanks to inflation. When businesses evaluate investments, they use NPV to compare the value of spending money now against the future returns that spending will generate. For example, a $10,000 contract paid out over the next five years is worth significantly less than a contract where all $10,000 is paid in full up front. That’s because in five years, when the final payment is made, that $2,000 installment will have less buying power. Net present value is the equivalent value today of that $10,000, five-year contract. Max CAC as the net present value of future profits This concept is particularly relevant in property management, where upfront client acquisition costs generate revenue streams that can last for years. Using net present value to understand your maximum CAC is a bit unconventional, but it’s actually very revealing, especially for those property managers who don’t currently have a good sense of their CAC. Basically, your maximum CAC should be the net present value of the revenue from an average account. There are a few things you’ll need to know before trying to calculate NPV, though. First of all, you need to be confident in your churn rate and lifetime value (including value broken out for each year) in order to do these calculations. If you calculate that you can spend $1,000 per client, but then your churn rate increases, suddenly you’ve overpaid for a contract that’s not going to earn back the money. Measuring return on capital Property management is a relatively mature market, and in mature markets, businesses look at profits in terms of return on capital. Just as the property owners we work for have capital that they’re looking for a return on, we as business owners also have capital in our businesses that we should be looking for a return on. As a business owner, you should set a goal for the return on capital of your business. For many businesses, this tends to fall in the 15-20% range. That’s the profit margin you want to achieve, and you’re going to factor that profit in when you start calculating your max CAC. Calculating NPV for property management Once you understand the components of NPV, calculating it actually isn’t too complicated. For a business like property management, it can be pretty straightforward. I think it’s helpful to look at an example to really illustrate the math here. Let’s look at an example Let's say your company generates $1,300 in annual profit per door, and clients typically stay with you for four years (25% churn rate). If you want a 20% return on your investment (your discount rate), you'll calculate the present value of each year's revenue stream as follows: For Year 1: $1,300 ÷ 1.20 = $1,083 For Year 2: $1,300 ÷ 1.44 = $903 For Year 3: $1,300 ÷ 1.728 = $752 For Year 4: $1,300 ÷ 2.074 = $627 The sum of these discounted values ($3,365) represents the maximum you could spend today to acquire a client while still achieving your target 20% return (on the cost of acquisition). That number might strike you as very high, and you wouldn’t be alone. When you actually do the math, max CAC is typically much higher than what most property managers intuitively believe they can spend on client acquisition. Think of this calculation as your "money machine" calibration. Your property management business is your money machine, and you're essentially determining how much you can put into one side of the machine (client acquisition) to get your desired return out the other side (future profits). Understanding your max CAC through NPV analysis transforms marketing from a cost center into a strategic investment vehicle. That’s why it’s so important to do these calculations; it gives you the confidence to invest in sales and marketing, knowing that you’re going to see a return in the future. Growing your max CAC The more profitable your business is, the more you can afford to spend on customer acquisition. The most direct way to increase max CAC, then, is to increase profitability through as many avenues as possible. With tools like Second Nature, and especially their new Group Rate Internet benefit, you can increase profitability, which will in turn have a huge impact on your max CAC. Suddenly you can not only spend more on marketing, but you can beat out your competition and close more deals. This turns into a kind of flywheel effect, whereby more doors yields higher profitability, which yields more room to increase your CAC, which yields more doors. Interested in learning more about how a Resident Benefits Package can help you generate more revenue? Register for an RBP workshop today and hear from real Second Nature customers.

June 26, 2025

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Creating a Property Management Monthly Report to Owner Template

The relationship between property manager and investor can be a delicate one. Property owners want to know what’s going on with their investments, but property managers often work with enough clients that it’s not practical to field phone calls and email from each and every owner asking for details and updates. That’s where having a property management monthly report to owner template comes in. Providing a standardized monthly report to each of your investor clients is vitally important, not only because it saves time you’d otherwise spend answering phone calls, but also because it helps set expectations with clients. By templatizing your reporting, you’ll have more time to put into other areas of your business, while also creating happier, more confident clients. So what exactly needs to be in a monthly owner report? Let’s take a look. Key sections of a property management monthly report to owner template Property owners often have high expectations when they trust you with their assets. Your goal with a monthly report is to provide all the information they need to feel confident in your services and help them be successful in their real estate investment business. Here are some of the key elements you should consider including: Income and expense statement The income and expenses statement is a comprehensive financial report that details total income for the month, as well as monthly expenses. Both income and expenses should be broken out so that the owner can clearly understand the sources of each. For example, income might be broken down into: Rent Services Fees Amenities Expenses may be broken down into: Maintenance Utilities Property taxes Insurance This section of the report should help your owners better understand the cash flow of their property, as well as its profitability. Owner statement The owner statement should summarize owner payouts, property income, and reserve funds. This is different from the income and expense statement because it includes more information on the owner’s overall financial position and their reserve funds. Typically, that means it includes a beginning balance and end balance. It will also compare current reserve funds to any reserve targets that you’ve set with the client. For clients with multiple properties under management, the owner statement typically includes a breakdown for each property, as well as a summary page that consolidates them. Account ledger The account ledger, also sometimes referred to as the rent ledger or income ledger, shows a detailed record of all financial transactions related to the property. This is typically more detailed than the income and expense statement, and provides details for each and every transaction, including: Transaction date Amount of the transaction Category of the transaction Running total of the balance for each property Most property accounting softwares can export account ledger reports in a matter of seconds, making this one of the easier parts of a monthly report to generate. Occupancy and tenant turnover Your occupancy and turnover report should include: Current occupancy rates: the portion of units rented vs the portion vacant Resident turnover: how many leases have ended or been renewed Turnover time: how long it takes to fill a vacant unit Insights into leasing performance and stability Turnovers and occupancy are two of the biggest concerns for owners, who lose out on potential income for every day that a unit sits empty. Use this section to show how well your company handles vacancies and how quickly you can fill them in order to help prove value to your clients. Property description and condition The property description and condition section should highlight any significant changes, issues, or updates. For example, if you’ve recently performed maintenance, this section can highlight whether there have been any continuing problems or whether the issue is fully resolved. You can also include a summary of any recent inspection reports in this section. The goal here is to reinforce the property status and help your clients track the condition of their assets over time. Maintenance and repairs The maintenance and repairs section should highlight any completed work orders, as well as pending maintenance issues, along with a timeline of when they’ll be addressed. This section is particularly useful for helping owners better understand not just the condition of the property, but also the amount of work that goes into keeping it stabilized. Even seemingly small maintenance items should go on this list, because it also helps identify what items are recurring and might need further attention in the future. Monthly property management report best practices Now that you know what kind of information should be included in your monthly report to owners, let’s look at a few best practices you should be following. Use a standardized report format You should always use a standardized template for your reports, both month-to-month and across owners. By standardizing the process, it makes it much easier for your team to quickly assemble reports in a repeatable manner, rather than changing things up every month. Customizing reports for each individual client is one of the fastest ways to create complications and delays, so resist the urge to accommodate every single owner request in their reports. Establish a reporting cadence Make sure that you’re consistent with how often you’re sending these reports to your owners. It will help them better know what to expect, and it will also allow you and your owners to compare reports period over period. Having a fair comparison, rather than comparing apples to oranges, can help identify trends and adjust your behavior accordingly. Many property management companies send out owner reports monthly. If you’re just getting started, you can also consider quarterly or bi-monthly reports, and then work your way up to a monthly cadence as you build that muscle. Illustrate data with charts and graphs No one wants to try to make sense of a report that’s packed full of numbers but no visuals. Visualizing your data, especially occupancy rates, income breakdowns, and expense breakdowns, can help your owners more quickly understand where things stand, even just at a glance. Charts and graphs don’t only help your investors, they also help your staff. When a single property manager is responsible for tens or hundreds of doors, it’s important for them to be able to scan a large number of documents and look for any outliers, red flags, or items that need attention. Common mistakes in property management owner reports Building owner reports can seem pretty straightforward when you have the right tools at hand, but be wary of a few potential pitfalls and mistakes property managers often make. Financial mistakes One of the most consequential mistakes you can make is overlooking financial errors. With so many different tasks to handle, people do make mistakes inputting numbers. Monthly reporting is a great time to take a second look, see if anything doesn’t pass the eye test, and dig deeper to make any necessary corrections. Some key financial errors that are often made in reporting include: Failing to track an expense or income stream properly Failing to account for delayed rent collection Inaccurately recording owner payouts Failing to compare actuals to budgets or forecasts Some of these errors happen during the reporting process and can be quickly corrected, while others happen in your property accounting software and will need to be addressed there before you run reports. Communication and documentation issues The other major area where we see a lot of property managers slip up is in documenting and communicating data clearly. For many, owner reports are disorganized, unclear, vague, or difficult to read. For example, property condition, which is less cut and dry than something like a balance sheet, needs to be described clearly and specifically so that owners know exactly what is going on. Don’t describe the condition of a home as “aging,” “dated,” or “dingy.” Instead, be very specific about what items need to be updated, like carpeting, fixtures, or appliances. Outline clear recommendations like maintenance, cleaning, or updates. Reports also need to be comprehensive, meaning that they need to include as much available data as possible. Omitting data, even if unintentionally, can paint an inaccurate picture of the situation with a property, which can in turn create panic or tension with an owner. Finally, don’t forget to listen to and incorporate owner feedback where possible. As we outlined earlier, trying to customize reports for each individual owner can be a slippery slope that ends up taking up far too much time. That said, there are ways to collect feedback from multiple owners and incorporate the most popular suggestions in your template. Survey owners on how useful they find their reports and what you can add or remove to make them more effective. When you do make changes, make them for all owners, not just those who spoke up in their survey responses. Save more time with Second Nature If you’re looking to streamline your operations and save time, templated reporting isn’t the only way. Second Nature’s Resident Benefits Package can also save property management companies time and overhead by automating administrative tasks like pest control and renters insurance tracking Ready to learn how? Join our next RBP Workshop to hear from real property managers.

June 24, 2025

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Property Management Marketing Automation: The 2025 Playbook

Time is a precious commodity in property management. With so many things to juggle, putting a focus on marketing and sales can feel nearly impossible. But neglecting your client acquisition strategy can cost you valuable opportunities. Property management marketing automation can help ramp up your communications with prospective clients and residents without overwhelming your already busy team. Making time for consistent, high-quality marketing efforts is essential for growth, as well as increased profitability. By automating marketing, you can connect with more investors and residents in less time with less effort. You can supercharge your go-to-market investments and see better returns more quickly. This post will cover what marketing automation is, why it’s beneficial for property management companies, and how you can start automating your marketing. What is property management marketing automation? Property management marketing automation is the process of using technology and software tools to manage marketing communications, lead nurturing, ads, social media, and other repetitive marketing tasks. It helps create more efficient processes, but also more personalized results. There are nearly endless ways that modern marketing automation can help, but here are a few examples: Social media marketing: You can create automatic workflows that post new listings to your social media channels as soon as they go live. You can also use automation to automatically post to your social pages whenever you receive a 5-star review from a customer. Or, if you just want more regular content, you can pre-write posts and use a scheduling tool to publish them later. Email communications: You can also pre-schedule email notifications or follow-ups, and even build entire email sequences to sell your services to prospective clients. Automation tools also let you customize these emails with the recipient’s name, company name, or property address without any added work. Surveys: You can automate when surveys are sent out based on other customer or prospect activities. For example, you can ask for feedback after a sales call, or after a move-in or move-out. You can also create automations that send requests for reviews to those who fill out the survey positively, helping to capture more glowing feedback. Lead qualification: Marketing automation tools allow you to qualify inbound leads based on the information the prospect puts into a form. For example, you can qualify or disqualify them based on the number or types of units they own, the ZIP code of their properties, or other criteria that’s important to you as part of your target client profile. How exactly you put automation to use depends on your marketing strategy and who you’re trying to connect with, but there are tools and techniques for every business. 5 key benefits of property management marketing automation The benefit of effective marketing is fairly simple: you get more opportunities to grow your portfolio. But marketing automation goes beyond that. Let’s take a look at how automating your go-to-market strategy can provide a variety of benefits. 1. More time to focus on high-impact activities Part of developing as a property management leader is getting your mind out of checklist mode and into strategy mode. When you start automating routine tasks in any part of your business, you start to give yourself the time necessary to focus on those strategic activities, In order to become more efficient, all small businesses need to embrace automation. For example, automating email communications to prospects can save you significant time on business development, which you can then spend upgrading systems or automating other functions. Keeping up with day-to-day marketing also frequently involves task switching. You may have to post on social media, email a couple of prospects, respond to a Google Review, and record a marketing video, all over the course of one day. That task switching is inefficient; if you can write all your social posts for the week in a single sitting and then schedule them out with automation software, you’ll save a lot of time. 2. Generate (and qualify) more leads Ultimately, acquiring leads is the primary goal of marketing. It’s how you expand your business and grow your portfolio. Automation can accelerate that process. Using webforms connected to an automation program, you can capture and qualify new leads instantly. When a potential client fills out the form, you immediately have key information about them, their business, and their portfolio, and you can use automated rules to determine whether they might be a good fit. If they are, you can enroll them in an email sequence that provides them more information about your company and encourages them to schedule a call with you. If they’re not, the automation tool can automatically send them a polite email stating that you don’t feel it’s a good match. Qualifying (and disqualifying) leads can help you focus on the highest-value prospects, rather than spending your time on leads that won’t be profitable for you. Advanced automation strategies can also use lead scoring, which weighs different attributes and behaviors to determine whether someone’s likely to become a customer. Segmentation is also key. For example, you can set up different communications for companies that own single-family homes and those who own multi-family buildings, with customized messaging for each portfolio type. 3. Maintain your brand presence Automation also provides more consistency in your marketing efforts, which can present a more trustworthy brand across all channels. For example, if you’re only posting intermittently on LinkedIn, some prospects may see that as less professional. With automation tools, you can post more regularly and give a more consistent appearance. Consistency is particularly important for property managers because, in many ways, it’s a core tenant of the job. Investors want to know that they can count on you to be consistently responsive and proactive in managing their assets. And, in a world where many property owners see management services as very commoditized, a strong brand presence can help you differentiate your business. In areas with a lot of management competition, this can be the difference between winning and losing a deal. 4. Personalize communications for stronger relationships While it may sound counterintuitive, automation can also help your communications feel more personal and help you build more meaningful relationships. Think about some of the marketing communications you receive on a daily basis. Maybe you get emails from a clothing store with recommendations of items you’d like based on your previous purchases. Maybe it’s a take-out restaurant texting you to let you know your favorite dish is discounted this week. Marketing automation can help you reach the same level of personalization. Modern marketing tools can help you tailor communications based on resident or investor preferences and their past behaviours, which can lead to higher engagement with your content and increase the likelihood of getting a positive response. 5. Gain invaluable data-driven insights Most marketing automation platforms also provide detailed analytics and reporting, not just automation. That means that property managers can leverage robust data to make better decisions and get more value from their marketing efforts. For example, if you have data that shows one email nurture program gets more opens and clicks than another, you can divert more leads to the high-performing option, and prioritize revising the low-performing cadence. If you know that it typically takes a prospect a month from the time they first visit your website to the time they request a meeting, you can better estimate your future pipeline based on web traffic. In the era of big data, being able to see objectively how your marketing investments are performing is essential. 5 ways to automate property management marketing tasks (with recommended tools) Because there are so many different tools available that execute so many different tasks, the possibilities for marketing automation are virtually endless. Let’s look at a few ways to properly automate your tasks and set you up for go-to-market success. 1. Lead generation and nurturing Lead generation and nurturing is the process of gaining someone’s initial interest in your services, and then providing them with valuable content and information that helps convince them to work with you. There are plenty of marketing automation platforms designed for just about any type of small business. However, there are also lead generation and nurture functions in many property management accounting softwares, like Buildium, AppFolio, and Rentvine. These are particularly advantageous because they integrate directly with the rest of your daily operations and don’t require adding a whole additional tool to your tech stack. There are also automation tools designed specifically for the property management industry, like LeadSimple. LeadSimple integrates with the most common property accounting software tools and includes tools like AI-powered communications. 2. Email marketing Email marketing can be as simple as sending a single message to a handful of contacts, or as detailed as a multi-touch email sequence based on interactions across your website, emails, and social media channels. Some of the most common use cases for property managers are lease renewal notifications and new resident welcome messages, but email marketing can do a whole lot more. For example, you can set automated emails so that when someone watches a video on your website, they receive an email the next day with recommended follow-up content. This can keep them engaged and aware of your company while also providing value, rather than just asking for a sales call. There are plenty of popular email automation tools out there—MailChip, ActiveCampaign, and Klaviyo are among the most popular—so we recommend shopping around. For smaller property management companies, it may make sense to be budget-conscious. For larger companies, you may be able to take advantage of some of the more advanced features, so opting for a more enterprise-oriented tool could be worthwhile. 3. Social media marketing Most property managers already realize the importance and power of social media, but many are still posting manually without an overarching strategy. Modern social media tools can help you schedule out your posts, and some can even provide recommendations for the best days and times to publish new content to maximize engagement. Automation tools can also syndicate content across multiple platforms, like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, all with just one button click. Some of the most commonly used social media tools include Buffer, Hootsuite, and Sprout Social, which all offer similar feature sets. We also recommend pairing them with Canva, a simple web-based tool for creating graphics, images, and short videos for social media. We use Canva here at Second Nature, and it offers built in templates for all different social media platforms to make sure your images are the right size and resolution for each channel. You might also like: Property Management Companies that are Winning on Social Media 4. Reputation management Reputation management is a critical but often overlooked piece of the marketing equation for small businesses. Especially in people-focused businesses like property management, your reputation can be make or break when trying to connect with new clients. Reputation management is the process of curating the way that you’re talked about on the internet, in person, and at industry events. It’s how your audience thinks and talks about you to others. Reputation management tools are focused primarily on managing, responding to, and collecting customer reviews across various websites like Google Business, Facebook, and Yelp. Birdeye and Reputation.com are two of the most popular reputation management tools, both of which offer AI-powered tools to flag negative reviews and determine the tone and intent behind them, as well as craft recommended responses to those reviews. 5. Property listing syndication Property listing syndication is the process of sharing new vacant properties across multiple channels, all with the click of a single button. For example, you may choose to post all of your listings across Zillow, Trulia, and Homes.com. A syndication tool can do this automatically as soon as you publish a vacancy. Many property accounting softwares include basic syndication functionality. If you’re looking for more advanced options, tools like ShowingHero and Tenant Turner help automate the process of listing vacant properties, scheduling showings, and managing communications with prospective residents across several different sites. Grow your property management business with Second Nature Just as marketing automation frees up more time for you to focus on high-impact, strategic activities, outsourcing resident benefits can also create room for growth. In particular, outsourcing the management of renters insurance, pest control, and air filters can minimize service calls and maximize flexibility for your team. For more information on building a Resident Benefits Package that can give you the flexibility to get strategic, request a demo today.

June 19, 2025

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A PM’s Guide to Real Estate Investment Networking

Networking can feel a bit daunting, especially if you think it means wearing a nametag and chatting with strangers over bad appetizers. But the truth is, networking isn’t just about going to mixers. You can build and strengthen your professional network in one-on-one Zooms, referral groups, or even entirely online through social media. It’s all about building relationships, sharing your knowledge, and learning from others—in whatever way actually works for you. A strong network can have a massive impact on your business growth and your reputation. It gives you access to other people’s knowledge, resources, and experience, which is invaluable—especially in property management. In this article, I’ll walk you through how I approach networking and the real, bottom-line benefits of getting in front of other PMs, investors, and real estate pros. The importance of real estate investment networking as a PM Property management is a wild ride. You’re solving weird problems every day, juggling personalities, and trying to keep properties performing. Doing that in a vacuum? Brutal. Connecting with other PMs and investors gives you solutions and support when you need it. This business is built on relationships. You’re constantly talking with residents, investors, vendors, even municipal officials—the list never ends. Every connection you build is a chance to grow. People do business with those they know, like, and trust. That trust comes from showing up, staying in touch, and adding value before you ask for anything in return. Networking helps you meet potential clients, sure. But it also keeps your name in circulation and your reputation strong. How to master real estate investment networking as a PM Some forms of networking might feel uncomfortable at first, but you won’t know what works for you until you try it. Eventually, you’ll find your rhythm, and enjoy it. Thanks to technology, there’s a flavor of networking for everyone. Here are some of my go-to tips for effective networking: 1. Build your online reputation Even though I’m a face-to-face kind of person, I’ve put serious energy into building my brand online. That’s one of the big reasons I created Hold It with PM Jen. Online networking isn’t about blasting random LinkedIn connections or shouting into the void. It’s about real interaction—commenting, sharing, reacting. Be human. Tell stories. Let people see who you are. Post regularly: You don’t need to be groundbreaking. Just share your take on trends, recent experiences, or industry news. Make sure you’re adding value. Don’t show up to the potluck with paper plates. Bring something good. Be consistent: Keep your tone and message aligned. Don’t chase controversy for clicks. Engage: Comment, react, say congrats. You can even disagree—just keep it respectful. That’s how community grows. Try engaging publicly and following it up with a connection request or direct message. This is a great way to build a connection with someone you want to know. 2. Cultivate authentic, long-term relationships Whether it’s online or in-person, relationships need follow-up. I love grabbing coffee or lunch with new connections (and yes, I pick up the tab). A $25 lunch can turn into a years-long referral source. That’s a solid return. Not ready for lunch? Invite them to a local event or meetup. Even better—make it easy with a Calendly link. That will allow you to quickly and easily establish a call or zoom with a new contact and allow you to build that relationship. Make it easy to get to know you! That kind of effort stands out and fosters trust. 3. Give before you get Most people come to networking wondering what they’ll get out of it. Flip that. Ask what you can give. That mindset changes everything. Share insights, connect people, recommend a book or podcast—just be helpful. One of the best moves you can make? Introduce folks who can help each other. You just became valuable to both of them. And hey—people love to talk about themselves. Ask questions. Let them share. It’s how you break past the boring surface stuff and get to the good conversations. If you are able to help, this gives you something to follow up about. You can call them and ask how the referral went, or did your contact follow up with them? That kind of concern and attention is what people are looking for in people they work with. 4. Track your contacts and interactions Confession: I’m not great at this one. But it matters. Follow-up is everything, and your CRM (or even a basic spreadsheet) can help you keep track. Set reminders to check in with folks, especially the ones who don’t live on social media. Life gets busy, but your network is like a garden. You must water it, weed it, and tend to it or it will die. It won’t take long either. Ever left a town or industry? How long did it take before you didn’t speak to most of the people there? Staying visible to your network means staying relevant. 5. Track your progress and refine your strategy Don’t just network blindly—track what’s working. Set simple KPIs. How many leads came from referrals? How many new connections turned into real clients? How much revenue did they bring in? When you know what’s effective, you can double down on it and cut what’s not. When you get more efficient at networking, and stay consistent, the strength of the network grows exponentially. Where to network with real estate investors as a PM To connect with investors, you have to think like one. Where are they hanging out? What are they trying to learn? oin real estate associations and groups: I’m a huge NARPM fan. Their conferences, webinars, and resources are gold. If there’s a local chapter, get involved. If not, join the At Large Chapter. I have found amazing networking through service to this organization. Write an article for the website, serve on a committee, or attend an event if it’s within your budget. It’s a great place to meet other property managers and learn from them. Even if you don’t have an active real estate association in your area, you can still find industry events to attend. There are plenty across the country. Some of them focus more on professional development and learning, while others are designed to help you meet vendors and solution providers. Almost all of them will include some kind of dedicated networking time, so they can serve multiple purposes. Not every area is buzzing with activity. I’m in rural Pennsylvania, so I started my own real estate investor group. I booked speakers and mailed invites. You can also travel to bigger markets nearby to expand your circle. I’ll often travel to events in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, just to meet a wider variety of people. Get involved in your community: Not all investors spend their free time at real estate events. Many are just regular people running businesses and raising a family. Go where they go—Chamber events, fundraisers, entrepreneurial groups. Be visible, be helpful, and you’ll be remembered. I try to stay very involved in my community, especially things like Chamber of Commerce events. Small business development groups and entrepreneurial networking groups are both extremely valuable, in part because many members are also real estate investors. You can also look at more charitable work. I combine philanthropy with networking events, have worked with The Junior Leagues, and served on fundraiser events committees. Even if the people you meet there aren’t real estate investors (yet!), they may know someone who is. When you are working together with others, you build a great relationship that will be there for years. Make networking part of your everyday life Networking doesn’t have to be a single, defined thing that only happens in certain places. If you make it part of your everyday life, it starts to feel a lot less intimidating. I already mentioned how making connections on LinkedIn can change the game, but the same applies in real life. Whether you make a friend at the gym or you bump into someone at the grocery store, they’re a potential connection. Plus, when you’re already networking every day, it makes it a whole lot easier to get up on stage in a speaking slot, or to volunteer to help with an event or organization. You just have to flex that muscle until it feels natural. Providing value is the key to networking success No matter where or how you meet someone—online or off—lead with value. Ask what you can give, not what you can take. When you are able to provide value, do it well and follow through. Your actions speak louder than your words and you want your actions to let others know who you are and how you move through the world. Cultivate your reputation with generous and good work. Lead with what you can give, not what you can get, and you’ll start to form authentic, lasting connections. Your network is your net worth. Invest accordingly. If you’re looking to offer more value to your clients, consider Second Nature’s Resident Benefits Package. Request a demo today

June 12, 2025

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Property Management Guide for Foreign Investors

A property management guide for foreign investors should do more than explain the basics—it should help you navigate the U.S. market with clarity and confidence. Whether you're new to U.S. real estate or expanding your portfolio, managing property from abroad requires a firm grasp of legal compliance, maintenance, insurance, and tenant communication. This guide covers everything from legal and tax compliance to maintenance, renters insurance, and choosing the right property management model. You'll learn how to manage your investment effectively from abroad, no matter your experience level. Why U.S. real estate is attractive for foreign investors The United States real estate market stands out for its economic stability, transparent legal system, and strong rental demand. Foreign investors are drawn to the US for several reasons: Economic stability and growth potential The United States has one of the world’s largest and most resilient economies, marked by steady growth, low inflation, and a strong labor market. This macroeconomic stability makes U.S. real estate a compelling option for foreign investors seeking consistent returns and long-term value. High-growth metro areas such as Austin, Miami, and Charlotte offer especially strong potential, driven by population growth and business development. For international buyers, these trends create opportunities in appreciating markets with relatively low risk. Transparent legal system The U.S. offers a clear and enforceable legal framework for property ownership. Federal and state laws protect investor rights, and the process for property transfers, title registration, and lease enforcement is well-structured. This transparency reduces legal uncertainty, giving foreign investors confidence that their assets are secure and their contracts will be honored. Diverse property options The U.S. real estate market offers a range of investment types to suit different goals and budgets. From single-family homes in the suburbs to multi-family buildings in urban centers, and even vacation rentals or commercial properties, investors can tailor their strategy to match their income objectives—whether that’s stable long-term tenants, short-term rental income, or value-add renovations. Strong rental demand Rental demand in the United States remains high due to a growing population, rising home prices, and changing lifestyle preferences. Key states, including Texas, Florida, and Georgia, see particularly strong demand where vacancy rates are low and rental income is steady. The shift toward remote work has also expanded demand into non-urban markets, creating new opportunities for investors looking outside traditional city centers. Favorable financing opportunities Many U.S. lenders offer mortgage products tailored to foreign nationals, often without requiring a U.S. credit history. These loans typically come with competitive interest rates and reasonable down payment requirements. This access to financing allows foreign investors to leverage their capital, scale portfolios efficiently, and preserve liquidity for other investments. These factors create an environment where international investors can find both security and opportunity. Getting started If you are new to U.S. real estate, these foundational steps will prepare you for a smoother investment process. Identify your investment goals Clarify what you want from the property: steady income, long-term appreciation, or short-term rental returns. Your objective will shape your property choice, management approach, and level of involvement. Research U.S. real estate markets Some cities offer stronger rental yields; others promise better long-term value. Look for areas with population growth, job creation, and housing demand that align with your financial goals. Choose an ownership structure Decide whether to buy as an individual or through a legal entity like an LLC. This affects taxes, liability, and estate planning. Work with a real estate attorney for the best structure. Set up U.S. banking access A U.S. bank account streamlines rent collection, expenses, and tax payments. Some banks offer remote account setup; others may require a local contact. Legal and tax compliance for foreign investors Foreign buyers must comply with both federal and state regulations, which can vary significantly and aren't always intuitive. Proper planning helps avoid delays, penalties, and lost income. FIRPTA and federal tax obligations The Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act (FIRPTA) requires up to 15% of a property's sale price to be withheld when a nonresident sells U.S. real estate. This covers potential capital gains tax and must be reported to the IRS. Without advance planning, FIRPTA can delay or reduce sale proceeds. State-specific rules and property taxes States have their own laws for lease terms, eviction timelines, and property taxes. These often differ from federal rules and vary across states, requiring localized knowledge for compliance. Common pitfalls and penalties Foreign investors must file annual tax documents even with minimal property activity. Missing filings or mishandling FIRPTA rules can result in penalties or transaction delays, especially during sales or refinancing. Plan ahead and get expert help Work with professionals who specialize in cross-border real estate. Experienced legal and tax advisors help you stay compliant and avoid costly surprises. Renters insurance compliance: protecting your investment Renters insurance is a key risk management tool for foreign landlords managing properties remotely. While most U.S. states don’t require it by law, many landlords include it in lease agreements to protect both the residents’ belongings and the property itself. This coverage can help mitigate losses from fire, theft, water damage, and other unexpected events. Requiring renters insurance reduces liability, minimizes disputes, and ensures residents have coverage when needed. For international investors unable to respond quickly to on-site incidents, this added protection is especially important. Unique challenges for international investors Managing renters insurance compliance from abroad comes with added complexity. Common challenges include: Enforcing lease requirements remotely Without a physical presence, it can be difficult to confirm whether residents have secured renters insurance before move-in or are maintaining coverage throughout the lease term. Tracking policy renewals and coverage gaps Manually monitoring insurance expiration dates or lapses in coverage is time-consuming, especially across multiple properties and residents in different time zones. Navigating varying state-level regulations Insurance requirements and landlord-tenant laws differ by state, making it harder for international investors to ensure compliance across jurisdictions. Without clear systems in place, these issues can increase liability, lead to uncovered losses, and reduce visibility into resident compliance. Making renters insurance enforcement easy from abroad Foreign investors can take several practical steps to manage renters insurance effectively: Include insurance as a lease condition for all residents Make renters insurance a non-negotiable requirement in every lease agreement. This sets clear expectations upfront and helps ensure consistent protection across all units. Request digital proof of coverage before move-in Require residents to submit documentation confirming their policy is active before they receive keys. This creates a clean paper trail and closes gaps before they become liabilities. Use property management software to automate reminders and track active policies Property management platforms can automatically send renewal reminders, flag lapses in coverage, and store policy documents in one place. This reduces manual work and improves visibility. Automating these processes not only reduces risk but also saves time and ensures consistency across your portfolio. Maintenance management: handling repairs from abroad Managing property maintenance remotely can be challenging due to time zone differences, language barriers, and unfamiliarity with local vendors. However, with the right systems, you can ensure your property remains in top condition: Establish a local support network A reliable property manager or maintenance coordinator can act as your local representative. They handle day-to-day issues, coordinate repairs, and have trusted vendor relationships, ensuring tasks are completed quickly and properly. Use technology to stay informed Property management platforms let you approve and track maintenance requests remotely. Residents can report issues through mobile apps, and some platforms provide photo or video updates so you can verify progress without being on-site. Set clear protocols Document your maintenance preferences—such as what counts as an emergency, cost thresholds for approvals, and preferred vendors. Share this with your team to avoid delays and confusion when issues arise. Understand local conditions Familiarize yourself with common property issues in the area, as well as weather patterns and local building codes. This helps you prioritize preventative maintenance and avoid costly repairs later. Keep communication open Maintain regular contact with your property manager and ensure residents can reach someone at all times. Messaging apps and video calls help bridge time zone gaps and keep everyone aligned. With solid systems and local support, you can manage repairs confidently, without needing to be there in person. Choosing the right property manager Selecting a trustworthy property manager is one of the most important decisions for foreign investors. With limited ability to be on-site, your property manager becomes the primary point of contact for residents, vendors, and compliance issues. The right partner will not only maintain your property but also act as a local representative—ensuring lease terms are enforced, repairs are handled promptly, and legal requirements are met. Look for someone with experience serving international clients, a reliable process for remote communication, and a strong compliance track record. Questions to ask a property manager: How do you communicate with overseas clients? What is your experience with compliance for foreign investors? Can you provide references from other international clients? How do you manage rent collection and maintenance remotely? What technology platforms do you use for property oversight? Property management models: which is right for you? Foreign investors have multiple options when it comes to managing their rental properties. Choosing the right model depends on your budget, time availability, and comfort with local operations. Full-service management This is the most hands-off option. A local property manager handles leasing, maintenance, resident communication, and legal compliance. It’s ideal if you want minimal involvement and consistent oversight, but it comes at a higher cost. À la carte With this model, you outsource specific tasks—like rent collection, repairs, or tenant screening—while managing the rest yourself. It offers flexibility and cost control, but requires a deeper understanding of the local rental process. Self-management with remote tools Use digital platforms to automate everything from tenant communication to maintenance tracking. It’s cost-effective and gives you full control, but it works best if you have trusted local vendors and are comfortable handling issues across time zones. How Second Nature adds value for foreign investors Second Nature offers tools and services to help international property owners manage rentals with less friction and greater visibility. From automating key tasks to improving resident retention, these solutions make remote property management simpler and more reliable. Built-in compliance tracking Stay ahead of renters insurance requirements with a fully-managed insurance program that automatically enrolls residents in a lease-compliant policy if they don’t already have coverage. Tenant experience tools Provide consistent communication and added conveniences that help keep residents happy and reduce turnover. Ready to simplify how you manage U.S. properties from abroad? Schedule a free demo to see how it works in action.

June 10, 2025

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When to Coach and When to Cut: Working with New Investors

When you’re growing a property management business, a universal challenge is figuring out what kinds of clients are the right fit. Bring on the wrong ones, and you burn through your team, churn accounts, and lose money. Bring on the right ones, and everything runs smoother—and becomes more profitable. If only it were as simple as good versus bad. The truth is, even the best-fit clients usually require some leadership to get there. One of the most valuable skills I’ve developed is knowing when to coach a client and when to cut them loose. I’ve built a company that runs like a well-oiled machine, and I can’t afford to jam it up with the wrong clients or properties. If you put the wrong materials into a great machine, you don’t get great results. You get breakdowns. To me, clients and properties are the raw materials. And my job is to make sure we’re only putting in the right ones. I evaluate two factors: trust and vision alignment. Trust is the line in the sand Clients must trust my team and our proven process. That’s not negotiable. Without trust, we can’t do our job. I don’t expect blind faith. I lay out the plan, explain the process, and give data-backed pricing. If a client still can’t trust our expertise, especially when their buddy “who owns rentals” is their go-to instead, then that’s a no-go. If they don’t trust the vision I’ve outlined to stabilize and grow their investment, it’s better for both of us to walk away early. Vision alignment matters The other dealbreaker is a lack of vision alignment. I’m clear about the kinds of clients I want: long-term, buy-and-hold investors. If someone wants to flip properties or sell every few years, that’s a totally different mindset. It’s not what our machine is built for. I also need clients to see their investment as a business that operates stabilized property. I define a stabilized property as one that “attracts and retains qualified tenants at market rent with no deferred maintenance.” That takes resources. If a client isn’t willing or able to fund that stabilization, they’re not aligned with our vision. It’s not that every client buys into the full plan on day one. But it gives us a shared goal to start from. And in those early discussions, I’m trying to determine: are they optimizing the plan for their situation, or rejecting it altogether? That tells me whether they’re in or out, and how much coaching they need to be successful. What if they’re not a perfect fit? Most clients aren’t perfect right away. That’s okay. They don’t need to be. They just need to bring the right ingredients, and be open to the process. That’s where coaching comes in. I front-load expectations. Before a client even has a chance to get emotional about something, I’ve already addressed it. I explain their role, the process, what they can expect from us, and what we’ll expect from them. If you wait for a client to raise a concern, you’ve already ceded authority. I call this showing leadership in your advisory role. Set the tone early. Show leadership. Be the coach. Managing emotions without becoming a therapist It’s totally normal for clients to be emotionally attached to a property—especially if they’ve lived in it or inherited it. But property management isn’t therapy. I don’t try to fix their emotional hang-ups. I do try to relate. “I get it. My grandfather built a house too.” That simple moment of connection might help them take the next step toward being a landlord. But if they can’t grow into the investor mindset? That’s a cut. Now, if you also do real estate sales, maybe a sentimental landlord is still a potential listing for you. But I don’t sell houses, and I’m not interested in working with someone who’s just emotionally attached to a rental. The team comes first My emphasis on trust and vision alignment isn’t just about me. It’s about protecting my team. I could probably tolerate working with just about anyone. But I’ve seen how the wrong client damages team morale. And at this point in my business, I have the confidence to defend my people and hold clients to our standards. Every time I defend my team, I show them they can trust my leadership. That builds loyalty. Looking ahead: a growing need for coaching Now is the time to sharpen your “coach or cut” instincts. The wave of new clients is coming—and they won’t all be investor pros. With the generational wealth transfer in full swing, we’re seeing more accidental landlords inheriting properties. Many of them are emotionally attached and financially unprepared. They’ll need coaching. At the same time, high interest rates mean fewer owners have cash on hand for repairs or improvements. Deferred maintenance is about to become your new reality. Coaching is already part of the job. But going forward, it will become essential to how we lead, protect our teams, and deliver results. So get good at reading the signs. Don’t be afraid to decide: coach or cut. Your team and growth depend on it.

June 5, 2025

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How to Find Real Estate Investors for Your PM Business

Growing your portfolio size remains one of the most effective ways to make your business more profitable and continue to scale. But many property managers are left asking how to find real estate investors to manage for in the first place. First off, let’s be clear about what we mean when we say “investors.” Real estate investors are owners of rental properties who are looking to make those properties profitable, and who are potential clients for property management companies. Many PMs differentiate investors from accidental landlords, and define investors as property owners who are deliberately looking to build wealth through real estate. Finding investors is essential for growing your property management business, but it’s not an easy task. In this post, we’ll dive into how to find investors and get them excited about becoming your client. 8 Ways to find real estate investors for your property management business Let’s take a look at how to grow your business without burning out. Here are eight ways that you can find new investors to add to your portfolio. 1. Leverage your existing network for referrals Your network is a fantastic place to find referrals, even among those who aren’t real estate or property management professionals. The unique thing about real estate investing is that people in all kinds of different professions participate in it. Someone can be a full-time accountant, or carpenter, or photographer, and own investment properties. Of course, you want to be sure to network with people in the real estate industry, too. Work on connecting with current clients, real estate agents, lenders, and other industry professionals. Build a strong rapport, and focus on genuine, long-term relationships where you can provide value, not just pursue transactions. Once you have a strong relationship in place, you can ask about potential referrals for real estate investors who might be looking for management services. You should also consider developing your sales skills, especially around consultative sales methods. These techniques focus on uncovering investor needs and demonstrating how your services address them. Ultimately, they’re all designed to help you close deals faster. One example is the Tie Down approach, which focuses on getting into a rhythm of consistent agreement from your prospective client. There are plenty of other sales methods that are worth researching, too. Find a couple that work well for you, and put them into practice. 2. Attend real estate associations and events In a post-Covid world where virtual connections seem more common than in-person meetings, don’t underestimate the value of genuine face time. Get out of the office and attend an industry event or tradeshow where you can find like-minded people and potential clients. NARPM hosts several national and regional events each year, but you should also consider opportunities like PM Systems, NRHC, and IMN, among others. In-person networking is effective because you can meet so many people at once, make a more meaningful first impression, and then follow up with people after the event to pursue further discussions. Just make sure you bring your business cards! One of the other nice things about trade shows is that people attending are likely looking to network as well, and possibly even looking for solutions. That takes a lot of the pressure off and creates a safe environment to approach conversations with a business-focused mindset. That said, you should always take the approach of wanting to have genuine conversations, asking people about themselves, and listening to what they have to say. You just might learn a thing or two. 3. Deep-dive local networking (beyond real estate events) You should also consider getting out to local events that aren’t specific to real estate. There are plenty of options here; think about Chamber of Commerce meetings, Toastmasters, Rotary Club, BNI, and local charities or fundraisers. These are all great networking opportunities, and you can often find professionals there who might be interested in real estate investment. There are also opportunities in your day-to-day life, whether it’s at the gym, at a golf club, or even a co-working space where you might work a couple of days per week. One of the reasons these situations can be so beneficial is specifically because they’re not real estate-focused. You may be the only property management professional there, giving you the insider opportunity to build relationships without having to compete. If you’re going to go this route, make sure you have a solid elevator pitch prepared, especially one that focuses on how you’re different from your competitors. You should also have a clear plan to follow up after meetings, and make sure to actively participate in group discussions to make yourself stand out. 4. Optimize your business’s local listings Real estate is a local business, so make sure that you’re maximizing your local visibility. Local SEO is essential for property managers, so make sure you’re optimizing your website for your location. Real estate investors are likely to be searching for “property managers in my area” or similar terms, and search engines will produce local results first. You want to be high in the search rankings so that you can capture the attention of your prospects. You should also be optimizing your local business listings across platforms like Google My Business and Yelp. Make sure that the information there is up to date, and that there are clear, easy to use links to your website, along with a phone number that can connect prospective clients with your office. You should also be sure to include a list of services that you offer, a comprehensive business description, and accurate business hours. There’s nothing more frustrating than calling up a business only to find out they’re closed. Reviews are more important than ever, and are often one of the first things potential customers look for when researching your business. Make sure that you’re responding to reviews and addressing anything that’s inaccurate so that your listings paint a fair picture of your brand. 5. Engage with your potential investors online Online groups and social media platforms are also a great way to meet and get to know potential investors. There are plenty of property management groups across LinkedIn and Facebook, many of which include property owners. There are also property management-focused groups like BiggerPockets, which can also be valuable. You can use these groups as a way to build credibility by posting and sharing high quality content. Give advice, share insights, and answer questions to show that you know what you’re doing and are a trustworthy member of the community. Contribute in conversations, and make sure you’re authentic and sincere in your interactions. Before you jump in, make sure that your profile is polished and professional. You don’t want to start messaging people in industry groups if your profile shows an unprofessional version of yourself. 6. Partner with real estate agents and firms Real estate agents and brokerages are another fantastic way to build a steady stream of referrals. Property managers and Realtors can form a mutually beneficial relationship, providing each other leads. When a Realtor sells a property to an investor, they can recommend the property manager’s services. When a PM has a resident who’s looking to buy a home, they can give the real estate agent a referral. It’s important to be clear about everyone’s role in a partnership like this. Will you be sharing market insights and advice, or is it purely a lead-based program? How often will you be exchanging leads? Is there a minimum threshold, or a cost if one person doesn’t hold up their end of the bargain? Set these rules at the outset to avoid potential bad blood later on. An agreement with a real estate agent can also help attract investor clients outside of the referral program, because it means you can better serve them through the full lifecycle. If they’re a dedicated investor with plans to purchase more properties, your relationship with a Realtor can be valuable to them. 7. Run ads Of course, advertising is always a great option for finding new clients. We recommend using major sites like Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn, all of which allow you to target your ads to specific geographic areas. That way you aren’t paying to show ads to people halfway across the country who you aren’t able to serve anyway. You can also target people based on their job title or interest, so you can really home in on potential clients and maximize your return on investment. You can also use dedicated advertising sites like All Property Management, a tool specifically designed to match investors with property managers. There are plenty of industry-specific sites where you can advertise your company and try to find new investors. 8. Partner with REIT fund managers Finally, our eighth tip is to partner with Real Estate Investment Trust managers. Many of these funds have large portfolios of properties, and partner with property managers in order to manage and maintain the value of those assets. If you do choose to pitch REITs, make sure you’re emphasizing operational efficiency, resident retention, and cost savings. These are investment-focused clients, so make sure you’re equally focused on financials and return on investment. One of the biggest advantages of working with REITs is that they’re also consistently trying to grow their own portfolios, which means a steady stream of new business for you. How to communicate the value of your property management services Once you’ve identified some new leads, it’s important to actually be able to pitch your services effectively. This requires adept communication and the ability to explain not just why a professional property manager is helpful, but how you’re different from other PMCs. Your goal is to be able to discuss each investor’s fears, anxieties, and pain points, and put them at ease. An Investor Benefits Package is extremely helpful in easing those concerns and making an investor feel both comfortable and valued. Showcase your expertise and market knowledge Start by positioning yourself as a knowledgeable expert. Investors want to know that you bring legal, financial, marketing, and maintenance skills that will help them maximize the value of their properties. Don’t just speak about these areas in the abstract, either. Make sure to tell specific success stories from real clients that have measurable outcomes. You can also include positive client feedback, which will help build trust and social proof. Emphasize how you ensure compliance and reduce risk One of the biggest concerns for many real estate investors is compliance. Landlord-tenant laws and fair housing regulations can get complicated, especially if the property is in a city or county that has additional restrictions. It’s a key reason why investors may look to hire a PM. Show how your business’s processes help mitigate those risks, and point to similar properties that face similar restrictions. Tell the story of how you’ve maintained compliance with local laws. It’s also helpful to walk through your inspection processes, and how they intersect with compliance. An Investor Benefit Package can also help here, especially if it includes things like insurance, rent guarantees, or eviction protections. These go a long way in reducing investors’ legal and financial risks, which can be a huge selling point. Highlight your tenant screening and placement processes PMs need to have rigorous screening procedures to secure quality tenants for investors. One of the benefits of hiring a PMC is that they can often handle resident applications more efficiently than an investor could on their own, so make sure to emphasize this point in your sales process. An Investor Benefits Package can support top-quality screening services and protections in the event of resident default. An IBP can help minimize resident issues across the board, bringing more consistent income to investors. Explain how you handle financial management and reporting Many investors are concerned with one thing first and foremost: money. They want to know that they’ll be receiving regular checks on time, and that you’re handling the finances responsibly. Make sure that your pitch covers rent collection, lease terms, and reporting so that investors know they’re in good hands. Put particular emphasis on when and how you report out financial updates. Show sample reports and let investors know what they can expect each month, quarter, or year. Demonstrate the investor’s cost savings and improved ROI Similarly, you’ll want to be sure you’re proving your ROI in your investor pitch. Show the investor why outsourcing property management not only makes their lives easier, but also reduces overhead and leverages economies of scale. Again, be sure to point out any cost savings opportunities that differentiate you from your competition, and consider telling real stories of how you maximized return on investment for existing clients. Explain how you facilitate scalability and growth The next key topic to make sure you’re covering is growth. You need to emphasize to the client that a good professional property manager can not just keep their asset stable, but actually help increase its value and allow the investor to add to their portfolio. By selecting a property manager who also takes an asset management mindset, investors can add properties to their portfolios effectively, and with no increase in workload. Secure more investors with Second Nature’s RBP In order to successfully bring more investors onboard, you need to be proactive, persistent, and authentic in your outreach. Make sure you’re not only proving the value of property management itself, but also setting yourself apart from the pack. A Resident Benefits Package can help you secure new investors by creating a Triple Win for them, their residents, and your company. Schedule a time to meet with our team and see how an RBP can help you grow your portfolio. Book a demo

June 3, 2025

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Why Investor Education is my Go-to-Market Strategy

Investor education is a key part of being a property manager, but it often goes overlooked. But what exactly is investor education, how can it help you, your business, and the industry overall, and why have I chosen to make it the crux of my go-to-market strategy? In the property management world, people love to talk about SEO, lead gen tactics, and ad spend. That’s fine. But for me, none of that matters if I’m not helping my future clients get smarter about real estate investing. Luckily, when I help them become better investors, they become better clients and refer like crazy. That’s why investor education is the backbone of my go-to-market strategy—and has been for years. In this article I’ll cover just that, and give you tips on how to improve your investor education efforts. What is investor education? We can teach property owners what steps they need to take to be successful, what’s expected of them throughout the buy and hold process, and how we, as property managers, help them. The truth is, most rental property owners are used to being treated like landlords, not investors. It’s about helping rental property owners shift their mindset—from "landlord mode" to "long-term investor." Most owners have never had anyone sit down and explain how return on equity works, what market factors really impact rent, or why emotional decision-making can ruin a portfolio. I believe that if we want better outcomes for investors and property managers, we need to close that knowledge gap. As educators, we should be teaching them the ins and outs of the business beyond just rent collection. An educated client makes better decisions, respects the process, and is ultimately more profitable—for everyone. Your company’s process is part of the education Investor education content doesn’t only focus on how to be a good investor. It should also include your specific requirements, expectations, and abilities as a property manager. When an investor is engaging with your content, looking for information, they are starting to know, like and trust you. It is natural they will want to know more about your company and how you do things. At the top of the funnel, when an investor is just beginning to look for a manager, that’s your time to teach them the benefit of hiring a professional. Then, as they engage with you more, educate them on what you, specifically, can do to help them. What are the services that you provide? How is what you do different from what they’ll get with other property management companies? This should also include your philosophy on management and how you think about things differently. It’s an opportunity to bring a fresh perspective. Finally, you should teach them about what they’re going to have to do in order to be successful with you. That can include everything from access expectations to financial requirements, but it should also focus on trust, communications, and service level. What kinds of things will you require complete control over? How often do you expect your clients to check in with you? Who would their point of contact be? Educating potential clients on these things will save you a lot of time and pain down the road. Education takes many forms The sky is the limit when it comes to options for educating investors. Social media posts, blogs, videos, podcasts, and webinars are some of the most popular. Building momentum with a podcast or live meetup group can take some time, but it can pay dividends in the long run because you are creating more than content. You’re building a relationship with investors and a community for them to learn in. When you’re generous with valuable education, you might find you get access to spaces and people that haven’t been open to you before. Videos, blogs and social media are great because they’re evergreen. They stay up forever, and are working when you aren’t. A prospect can watch five of your videos at 3:00 AM, and by the time you speak to them the next day, they are ready to sign! Think of all the ways you like to learn and keep up to date with the industry. Those are all the same channels you can use to reach more investors and begin educating them. Why I chose to invest in investor education I’m no longer running any pay-per-click ads, search ads, or display ads for my property management company. I’ve funneled all of my sales and marketing budget into Hold It with PM Jen, a series of educational materials that help investors grow, while also positioning me as the leader in the buy and hold space. I run live events, host a podcast, seek out speaking engagements, and provide a complete playbook for investors for my market. This was a very deliberate choice, even though it felt like a risk at first. Over time, it’s proven incredibly effective, and it’s helped me get very specific about my niche. I’m able to cater specifically to investors in North Central Pennsylvania who want to buy and hold real estate, not make money from flips or quick sales. My educational content helps me differentiate from other property managers in the area. That differentiation also comes from the specific topics I write and speak about, and trying to shift the focus from “what can I do for you?” to “what are the challenges you’re facing?” I think there’s a fundamental misalignment between the things property managers are writing about and the things property owners are looking for. Investors aren’t Google searching for the ins and outs of professional management. Instead they’re searching things like “how do I make more money from my rental property,” “how much can I charge for a security deposit,” and “what do I do when a tenant says there’s mold?” These are the types of education that investors are looking for, so I want to be there to provide it. Not only does this build credibility, it pre-qualifies prospects. When they reach out, they already know how we work, what we expect, and—most importantly—why we do what we do. It’s a smoother path to a better fit. A rising tide lifts all ships There’s one other reason that I think investor education is so important, and that’s that I firmly believe it just makes the industry better. They say that a rising tide lifts all boats, and if I want to think of myself as a leader in property management, I need to be doing work that pushes the whole industry forward, not just my own business. I believe that education is one of the best ways to do that. Sometimes, when I meet a potential client, it’s immediately clear to me that we aren’t a great fit for each other. You can’t always work with a client, because it’s not what’s best for your company or your team. But even when I know they’re not someone I’m going to work with, I still want to help them. In those cases, I try to point them in the right direction. I’ll give them a framework to improve the property, suggest vendors, or even refer them to someone who’s a better fit. Because if they grow into a better investor, we all win. I want that person to keep searching and to find another property manager that they can be successful with. You can’t always work with a client, because it’s not what’s best for your company or your team. But you can still educate them and help them develop as an investor. Final thoughts Whether you’re running a big shop or just getting started, education is one of the most powerful tools you have. It creates better clients, smoother operations, and deeper trust. If you want to stand out in a crowded market, stop shouting about what you do and start teaching people how to do it better. That’s the future of property management, and it’s where I’m putting my focus. Want to learn more about how I approach educating and onboarding clients? Register for my webinar with Second Nature and Blanket. Register Now

May 15, 2025

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