What happens when a tenant runs their lawsuit through ChatGPT? Adam Willis, CEO of Nestwell Property Management, is finding out. His team is now fielding a wave of AI-generated small claims filings and fair housing complaints, with tenants representing themselves in court.

• 02:40 - Using Self Help Portals
• 11:05 - Shared inbox & Ticketing
• 14:41 - Sponsor - Enterprise Bank & Trust
• 16:05 - Adam’s in-house Real Estate Brokerage
• 22:42 - Maintenance
• 28:19 - Fractional Executives
• 32:30 - Finding talent
• 34:05 - Sponsor - Haven AI
• 35:34 - Creative compensation Plans
• 47:38 - AI empowered tenants
• 56:19 - What Peter is working on right now
• 59:07 - Where are owner/operators susceptible to disruption?
• 01:04:42 - Big Win opportunities

Adam's back for a rare repeat episode. We cover his shift from static

self-help portals to a unified, Delta-style communication experience, why Nestwell runs its own real estate brokerage under one brand, and how a resurrected in-house GC company now handles turns in-house.

We also get into fractional executives, a comp plan he's since walked back, and where he thinks property management is most exposed to AI-driven disruption.

If you're rethinking your comms stack, your comp plan, or curious how another operator is handling AI on both sides of the business, this one's worth a watch.

Learn more and connect with Adam here:

Adam on LinkedIn

Nestwell PM

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Resources for Property Managers & Real Estate Entrepreneurs:

- Crane – Private PM Owner Community → Join a private network of property management owners and operators: https://joincrane.co/

- Free Weekly Newsletter → Property management insights, strategies, and industry updates direct to your inbox: https://peter.beehiiv.com/subscribe

- RL Property Management → Learn more about Peter's company and services in Columbus, Ohio: https://rlpmg.com/

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Disclaimer: The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. I may have consulting agreements with, or financial interests in, companies mentioned in this podcast (more info here: https://www.peterlohmann.com/financial-interest-disclosure). Additionally, some of the links included may be affiliate links, meaning I may earn a commission if you purchase through these links. Always perform your own due diligence before making any financial or business decisions.

BREAKING: Around the time this episode goes live, TurboTenant announced its acquisition of TenantCloud, one of the direct competitors mentioned in this episode. TenantCloud CEO Mark DeHaan called it building "the platform that will help define the next generation of property management." Read more here.

TurboTenant has over a million landlords on its platform, and property managers barely register on their radar. Why? Because they went all-in on the self-managing landlord instead of trying to serve everyone. I sat down with CEO Seamus Nally to find out how they got here.

• 02:54 - Getting a million landlords on TurboTenant
• 09:39 - Handling Zillow
• 13:14 - The source of tension stemming from control between owners and PMs
• 15:59 - Sponsor - Haven AI
• 17:28 - How TurboTenant makes money
• 23:49 - Competitors
• 25:56 - The Autopilot product
• 32:00 - Leaving money on the table
• 33:21 - Sponsor - Enterprise Bank & Trust
• 34:46 - The cost of Autopilot as a service
• 36:47 - Acquiring a competitor
• 42:57 - Navigating the boots-on-the-ground services
• 44:36 - TurboTenant’s financial structure and growth goals
• 52:40 - APIs and MCPs
• 57:09 - Follow along with Seamus

We get into why TurboTenant's core product stays free, how they actually make money, and why 40% of new signups are still undecided about hiring a property manager — some with a signed lease already in hand. Seamus also breaks down Autopilot, their new managed-services product that puts them in a lane a lot like ours.

Learn more and connect with Seamus here:

Seamus on LinkedIn

TurboTenant

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Resources for Property Managers & Real Estate Entrepreneurs

• Crane – Private PM Owner Community → Join a private network of property management owners and operators: https://joincrane.co/

• Free Weekly Newsletter → Property management insights, strategies, and industry updates direct to your inbox: https://peter.beehiiv.com/subscribe

• RL Property Management → Learn more about Peter’s company and services in Columbus, Ohio: https://rlpmg.com/

Disclaimer: The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. I may have consulting agreements with, or financial interests in, companies mentioned in this podcast (more info here: https://www.peterlohmann.com/financial-interest-disclosure ). Additionally, some of the links included may be affiliate links, meaning I may earn a commission if you purchase through these links. Always perform your own due diligence before making any financial or business decisions.

How do you go five years without losing a single client to dissatisfaction? Stephen Glover, owner of Peak Property Management in Richmond, VA (about 1,300 doors), joins me to unpack how he built that reputation and why he fired a 150-unit client on purpose this year.

We discuss:

• (00:01:43) - Stephen’s experience with owner churn
• (00:05:58) - Building a local reputation
• (00:10:23) - The influence of fitness on business success
• (00:17:58) - Sponsor - AppFolio FutureConference
• (00:19:08) - Dealing with things beyond your control
• (00:26:56) - Challenges, milestones and successes
• (00:33:57) - Thoughts on conferences as a method of growth
• (00:35:42) - Sponsor - Enterprise Bank & Trust
• (00:37:07) - The value of masterminds
• (00:41:49) - Finding a great #2
• (00:43:37) - Promoting from within vs. hiring
• (00:44:39) - How Stephen is using AI
• (00:47:51) - Medical office PM
• (00:50:23) - Parting ways with a massive client
• (00:58:21) - How to follow Stephen online

Stephen survived a serious motorcycle accident and spent years training with a Navy SEAL community, which shaped how he leads: extreme ownership, even when his team did nothing wrong. We cover why he turned down 4,000+ units to find the right clients, how his VP of Operations took three years to develop from within, and why he's unwinding a medical-office PM experiment.

We also get into the real tradeoff of letting go of control, and why passive investors beat hands-on ones as long-term clients.

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Learn more & connect with me here:

• ⁠Crane⁠, the private community for property management business owners.
• ⁠My Free PM Newsletter⁠
• ⁠RL Property Management⁠ 

Learn more and connect with Stephen here: 

• Stephen on LinkedIn

The Virginia Investor Podcast:

• Apple Podcasts
• YouTube
• Spotify

Disclaimer: The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. I may have consulting agreements with, or financial interests in, companies mentioned in this podcast (more info here: https://www.peterlohmann.com/financial-interest-disclosure ). Additionally, some of the links included may be affiliate links, meaning I may earn a commission if you purchase through these links. Always perform your own due diligence before making any financial or business decisions.

Subscribe for free weekly Property Management News & updates: https://peter.beehiiv.com/

KKR just made a major change to how it manages its single-family rental portfolio. Here's what happened:

• KKR is ending its asset management relationship with Avenue One and bringing oversight in-house through its subsidiary, My Community Homes (MCH)
• ~10,000 SFR doors are affected across four property managers: Mynd (4,000), Evernest (3,500), North Point (1,500), and Pure Home River (1,000)
• MCH is keeping Mynd on, but cutting Evernest, North Point, and Pure Home River loose — most of the work is shifting to Darwin Homes instead
• The move follows new legislation restricting large investors from buying SFRs, plus a broader trend of institutional owners pulling property management in-house (Blackstone did the same earlier this year)
• North Point expects to lose ~30% of its door count; Evernest and Pure Home River are looking at roughly 15% and 3% hits, respectively

Lesson: don't tether too much of your business to one or two institutional clients.

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Resources for Property Managers & Real Estate Entrepreneurs:

• Crane – Private PM Owner Community → Join a private network of property management owners and operators: https://joincrane.co/
• Free Weekly Newsletter → Property management insights, strategies, and industry updates direct to your inbox: https://peter.beehiiv.com/subscribe
• RL Property Management → Learn more about Peter’s company and services in Columbus, Ohio: https://rlpmg.com/

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Disclaimer: The content of this news video is for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. I may have consulting agreements with, or financial interests in, companies mentioned in this podcast (more info here: https://www.peterlohmann.com/financial-interest-disclosure ). Additionally, some of the links included may be affiliate links, meaning I may earn a commission if you purchase through these links. Always perform your own due diligence before making any financial or business decisions.

Should property managers run everything on one all-in-one PMS, or stack best-in-class point solutions around it? Steven Rea, Chief Innovation Officer at NorthPoint Asset Management (5,000+ doors), just ripped a popular maintenance platform out and rebuilt everything inside AppFolio.

• 00:00 - Intro
• 02:48 - Steven’s background and career
• 06:13 - Migrating maintenance into Appfolio
• 16:09 - Sponsor - Enterprise Bank & Trust
• 17:34 - Software costs
• 20:20 - Maintenance coordination time savings
• 28:47 - Increasing efficiency of maintenance techs
• 32:57 - Sponsor - Haven AI
• 34:26 - Billing Maintenance practices
• 45:50 - Leasing is not about speed
• 01:01:10 - Getting in touch with Steven

We debate the real tradeoffs: training complexity vs. feature depth, data fragmentation vs. simplicity, and whether a few dollars per door for a point solution is actually expensive.

Then a real disagreement: does an owner paying a modest fee deserve institutional-grade pricing on repairs? Steven argues transparency and trust matter even on small savings. Peter argues owners aren't entitled to below-market pricing just because they hired a PM. What do you think?

We also get into incentive alignment: NOI-based fees, leasing fees vs. retention fees, and why client selection might matter more than any formula.

Learn more and connect with Steven here:

• Steven on LinkedIn
• Nortpoint Asset Management

Resources for Property Managers & Real Estate Entrepreneurs

• Crane – Private PM Owner Community → Join a private network of property management owners and operators: https://joincrane.co/
• Free Weekly Newsletter → Property management insights, strategies, and industry updates direct to your inbox: https://peter.beehiiv.com/subscribe
• RL Property Management → Learn more about Peter’s company and services in Columbus, Ohio: https://rlpmg.com/

Disclaimer: The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. I may have consulting agreements with, or financial interests in, companies mentioned in this podcast (more info here: https://www.peterlohmann.com/financial-interest-disclosure ). Additionally, some of the links included may be affiliate links, meaning I may earn a commission if you purchase through these links. Always perform your own due diligence before making any financial or business decisions.

Register for RentEngine’s Q2 2026 Leasing Data & Trends Report Webinar

What's a renter lead actually worth? Alex Stringfellow (CEO and co-founder of RentEngine) puts it at $24–90, and most scattered-site operators still treat them as "free."

Alex originally built RentEngine to lease up their own Miami PM company faster, then sold the company to go all-in on the software.

• 00:00 - Intro
• 01:25 - Alexander’s background and career
• 04:06 - Selling the PM company
• 07:49 - Competing against PE-backed competition
• 13:45 - Launching RentEngine without AI
• 14:52 - Sponsor - AppFolio (FuturesConference)

• 16:17 - Renter Leads
• 21:44 - What E-commerce has done right and how it applies to PM
• 23:35 - Pay-per-lease
• 25:10 - Listing partners
• 30:22 - Sponsor - Enterprise Bank & Trust

• 31:47 - We’re paying twice for leads
• 33:03 - Bypassing Zillow
• 36:31 - Launching an Applications Product
• 42:55 - Pricing products
• 44:58 - RentEngine’s AI product
• 49:21 - RentEngine’s feature release cadence
• 53:15 - Upcoming RentEngine releases!

We get into why text (not showing scheduling) is the real heart of leasing, the seven-minute window you get when someone's scrolling Zillow, and why you're basically paying twice for leads that Zillow buys straight off Google.

We also cover his flat $45-per-listing pricing, building a renter-lead database that could add value when you sell, and how a bootstrapped team ships new features every single week.

If you've ever felt boxed in by the listing platforms, you’ll learn a lot here.

Demo RentEngine

Alexander on LinkedIn

Get the full PM Trends 2026 Report free at https://pmtrends.com/ (no email gate).

Are you leaving money on the table with your current owner clients? Probably. And are you investing enough in AI discoverability? Probably not.

Jordan Muela is back, this time to talk about the 2026 PM Trends Report - based on data from a Harris Poll survey of 500+ landlords covering everything from why they hire (and fire) property managers to what services they'd actually pay extra for.

We discuss:

• (00:01:06) - Welcoming Jordan back to the show
• (00:02:12) - The PM Trends report
• (00:07:18) - How owners can upsell
• (00:15:20) - Sponsor - Haven AI

• (00:16:49) - The Boomer shift of ownership to Millennials and Gen X
• (00:23:32) - Response time expectations
• (00:31:59) - Stress reduction in marketing
• (00:33:46) - Sponsor - Enterprise Bank & Trust

• (00:35:10) - Cash flow as the primary reason to hire a PM
• (00:39:24) - Discounted monthly rents in exchange for on-time payments
• (00:46:40) - Sacrificing cash flow for a better renting experience for tenants
• (00:51:00) - Educating owners and landlords
• (00:55:20) - Finding a PM in the age of AI
• (01:01:46) - Takeaways from running the PM Trends report

We dig into the owner benefit package opportunity: seven services (asset management, tenant damage protection, instant rent payments, lost rent protection, and more) that 41–51% of owners said they'd pay above their base management fee to get. The software constraints are real, the billing paradigm is frustrating, but the demand is clearly there.

We also get into the generational shift happening right now (millennials are 44 percentage points more likely to use professional PM than boomers), what landlords actually expect in terms of response time (spoiler: within 30 minutes, most channels), and how to position PM around stress reduction and cash flow - the two factors that drive hiring decisions by a 2-to-1 margin over time and risk.

Plus: 75% of owners plan to use ChatGPT or similar tools to find their next property manager. Jordan makes the case for what you actually do about that.

--Resources for Property Managers & Real Estate Entrepreneurs• Crane – Private PM Owner Community → Join a private network of property management owners and operators: https://joincrane.co/• Free Weekly Newsletter → Property management insights, strategies, and industry updates direct to your inbox: https://peter.beehiiv.com/subscribe• RL Property Management → Learn more about Peter’s company and services in Columbus, Ohio: https://rlpmg.com/__Disclaimer: The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. I may have consulting agreements with, or financial interests in, companies mentioned in this podcast (more info here: https://www.peterlohmann.com/financial-interest-disclosure ). Additionally, some of the links included may be affiliate links, meaning I may earn a commission if you purchase through these links. Always perform your own due diligence before making any financial or business decisions.

What if the premiums you're paying your insurance company could partially come back to you? That's the premise behind captive insurance, and it's been standard practice in large multifamily for years. SFR is just now catching up.

In this episode, I'm joined by Nicolas Lares, founder of Insur3Tech, a brokerage that places property managers and rental owners into captive insurance structures (essentially co-owned insurance companies where policyholders share in the underwriting profit).

We discuss:

• (00:02:27) - Nicolas's background in insurance
• (00:05:18) - Building an insurance company from scratch
• (00:07:05) - Why carriers left despite profitability
• (00:13:24) - The origin story of insurance
• (00:20:19) - Sponsor - Enterprise Bank & Trust

• (00:15:55) - Are insurance companies unfair?
• (00:21:43) - What is a captive insurance program
• (00:25:31) - How captives work for property managers
• (00:31:34) - Identifying good operators through data
• (00:34:59) - Administering captive programs
• (00:37:45) - Sponsor - Haven AI

• (00:39:14) - Handling disputed claims
• (00:44:22) - What happens in catastrophic events
• (00:46:22) - Captives for scattered site managers
• (00:49:33) - Renters insurance captive profitability
• (00:53:36) - What people should be asking when shopping captives
• (00:58:55) - How captives get started and funded
• (01:02:46) - How InsurTech fits into the market
• (01:05:34) - Closing

Fair warning: I push back on some of the framing. Insurance companies aren't a scam. They run real businesses with real costs. But there may be a better structure for the right operator.

Learn more about Insur3Tech

Nicolas on LinkedIn

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Resources for Property Managers & Real Estate Entrepreneurs

• Crane – Private PM Owner Community → Join a private network of property management owners and operators: https://joincrane.co/

• Free Weekly Newsletter → Property management insights, strategies, and industry updates direct to your inbox: https://peter.beehiiv.com/subscribe

• RL Property Management → Learn more about Peter’s company and services in Columbus, Ohio: https://rlpmg.com/

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Disclaimer: The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. I may have consulting agreements with, or financial interests in, companies mentioned in this podcast (more info here: https://www.peterlohmann.com/financial-interest-disclosure ). Additionally, some of the links included may be affiliate links, meaning I may earn a commission if you purchase through these links. Always perform your own due diligence before making any financial or business decisions.

75–100 doors is where most PM companies hit the wall. And the reason is almost always the same: the owner won't hire fast enough.

In this episode, I'm joined by Nate Tew, CEO and co-founder of Keyrenter Property Management. They’ve got 94 locations and about 14k (yes, thats fourteen THOUSAND) doors under management. We dig into PM franchise models, Nate’s Model 300 framework, and why he's deliberately keeping growth slower than it could be (Keyrenter would be 2-3x its current size if they accepted every applicant).

We discuss:

• (00:01:40) - Nate’s background and career
• (00:07:07) - Taking a Franchisor approach
• (00:16:29) - Sponsor - DoorLoop
• (00:18:05) - Unit Economics
• (00:21:41) - Painful Decisions and turning away potential Franchisees
• (00:25:31) - Early signs of the success of a Franchisee
• (00:28:30) - Intellectual Property
• (00:39:18) - Sponsor - Enterprise Bank & Trust
• (00:40:42) - Breaking out of the discomfort in hiring and training
• (00:49:05) - What the most profitable franchisees are doing differently
• (00:52:05) - Leadership philosophies and plateau points
• (00:58:07) - Contrarian Thinking in PM

Nate breaks down the unit economics behind 23% same-store revenue growth, what separates his most profitable franchisees, and the early signs that tell him a new franchise owner is going to win.

We also get into a contrarian take I mostly agree with: most "bad owner" stories aren't really about the owners.

If you're scaling a PM company (or thinking about the franchise path) this one's well worth your time.

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Resources for Property Managers & Real Estate Entrepreneurs

Crane – Private PM Owner Community → Join a private network of property management owners and operators: https://joincrane.co/

Free Weekly Newsletter → Property management insights, strategies, and industry updates direct to your inbox: https://peter.beehiiv.com/subscribe

RL Property Management → Learn more about Peter’s company and services in Columbus, Ohio: https://rlpmg.com/__Disclaimer: The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. I may have consulting agreements with, or financial interests in, companies mentioned in this podcast (more info here: https://www.peterlohmann.com/financial-interest-disclosure ). Additionally, some of the links included may be affiliate links, meaning I may earn a commission if you purchase through these links. Always perform your own due diligence before making any financial or business decisions.

Dropping a bonus episode in your feed today for fun. I was in Chicago a few weeks back and sat down with Mark Ainley on the Straight Up Chicago Investor Podcast. I'm actually the first PM industry guest he's had on his show.

A few of the topics we hit:

• (1:09) How PLM came together, and why caring about your audience matters more than a marketing background
• (3:45) What actually makes a community work (and why it can't be about you)
• (6:23) The story behind meeting Wolfgang and how Crane went from idea to launch in six months
• (12:53) What property managers are getting wrong about AI — applying the theory of constraints
• (16:29) How I structure my week and calendar to actually work on the hard stuff
• (21:19) The AI disruption nobody in our industry is talking about loudly enough
• (24:14) Why rapport with owners is going to matter more, not less, in an AI world
• (27:31) Why I love being a customer of vendors I want to see win
• (29:22) Why I'm not taking the full month of June off this year — and what that says about the work
• (34:31) Why I keep going live (even when only 5–10 people are watching)
• (40:27) How Lazy Leverage came together with John, and what I've learned from doing zero-prep content
• (48:23) Why newsletters are still the highest-leverage media channel you can build

We covered a lot of ground: how PLM came together, the conversation our industry isn't having loudly enough about AI, why I'm not taking the full month of June off this year (a first in five years), and plenty in between.

Disclaimer: The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. I may have consulting agreements with, or financial interests in, companies mentioned in this podcast. Additionally, some of the links included may be affiliate links, meaning I may earn a commission if you purchase through these links. Always perform your own due diligence before making any financial or business decisions.