How to grow your Rent Roll

How do I grow my Property Management firm?

Growing a property management firm can be very difficult for most people. Their always seems to hit a wall, usually around the 300-500 unit range.

I think there are many reasons why most PM’s top out around these numbers.

Here are 2 reasons that I have actually gone through myself.


1. Waiting for the phone to ring ... as it always has

If your lucky, you're pretty well known in your community and have always had a steady stream of people knocking at your door.

You do a good job and have a good reputation.

What happens when properties start to dry up? What happens when the ownership of properties in your market place start to shift? Instead of outside investors buying, its locals that tend to take care of the properties themselves?

What do you do?

You’ve become so accustomed to hearing the phone ring, you’ve forgotten how to make the calls!

You’ve become complacent and lazy.

2. Throwing darts and hope they stick

New business is slow so you start to through around some marketing. You make some changes to your website, you print a few flyers and hope for people to start calling.

The problem is that most PM companies don’t have an actual plan to support their marketing activities. You're really guessing and hoping that it works.

Most times your left with a big bill and not much in new management!


In order for any management company to stay alive and thrive, you have to get out there and meet people. You can only get away with waiting for the phone to ring for so long. It will dry up!

Here are a few tactics to keep in mind when growing your rent roll.

1. Network like a madman

Never forget that Property Management is a people business. You have to get out in front of others. You want to make sure that if anyone thinks of ANYTHING related to rentals, you are top of mind.

Networking for PM’s is grass roots, talking to everyday people in your community. Depending on the type of clientele your looking for, you can strategize this a bit.

For larger apartment complexes, you need to find and connect with the big realtors in town. Properties change hands everyday and you want to be thought of when these transactions happen.

Connect with the bankers and lawyers that deal with these types of transactions. Make sure then know your name.

Stay connected with your vendors. You deal with these people everyday and can be a great source of leads.

Get out to local real estate investor clubs, these are your clients!

Get involved with your local landlord organization if there is one.

Social Media is also a great platform for anyone to establish themselves as an authority and expert in their field.


2. Manage your leads and pipeline

When looking for new business, have a system. Be a pro!

In this day and age, there are tons of tools available to us to solve this problem. There is no reason to not have a system to track and feed your lead process.

Landing a PM contract does not usually happen overnight, there is a sales cycle involved. You have to build a relationship with the property owner. Having a system to keep you on track and to remind your to reach out is critical.

My favorite tool right now is pipedrive.com. Check it out!

3. Be a professional

If you were to look at 100 PM websites, over 70% of the sites would be old and tired looking with stale/boring information.

All of them will look and feel the same.

The reality is that a lot of PM’s become PM’s by accident. They somehow get put in a situation where they are now taking care of a property and then suddenly the word spreads and they get more and more properties.

There is a massive shortage of good PM’s in almost every market place. If you’ve done a good job, you will be rewarded.

Because of this accidental nature of getting into the biz, not much thought is put into the branding of the company. You simply get a name, logo and get to work.

Years later when the dust settles, the idea of branding starts to come into the picture. By this time, you could be playing catch up.

Make branding a priority. Invest the time and money to do it right. I will pay off in the long run.


I believe that Property Management is one of the best businesses out there. There are massive opportunities everywhere. The industry is still playing catch up to the modern world and that is to your advantage.