RPM Experts has gone from zero to 330 doors in just three years. Learn tips from company Founder, Karim Lokas, to help you get started in the property management industry.

Property management was never part of my plan. I was born in Egypt, grew up in Sudan and after moving to the United States at the age of 17, completed my B.S. in electrical engineering, M.S. in biomedical engineering and went into automation engineering.

However, I always eyed something more. Even when I was working as an engineer, I was interested in software and other aspects of robotics and automation. Eventually, I went into project management, marketing, and sales, giving me the skills to thrive in any facet of business.

When COVID hit, I was already semi-retired but saw an opportunity to help my sister-in-law and her husband who had recently arrived from Lebanon to build a new business and source of income for their family. We started from scratch with zero doors when we opened RPM Experts in 2021, but my experience in these other areas helped immensely. By the end of 2021, we were up to 88 doors. We closed 2022 with 181 doors and 2023 with 284 doors.

Currently, RPM Experts manages about 330 doors, after having only been in the business for three years. It’s important to note that our success wasn’t all luck. I developed a plan, a culture, and a method of achieving fast growth in this industry. Here are some tips for starting fast as a new PM.

Learn the Benefits of Franchising

Before all else, we needed to determine the type of property management business we wanted to operate. I knew we could start a new company from the ground up, buy an existing business or buy a franchise.

Ultimately, buying into a franchise was part of our strategy. I knew we could build an innovative team, but I wanted the assistance of experienced professionals. With a franchise, you get leverage, a national presence, best practices, and systems that will help you reach your goals.

If you're in a community of entrepreneurs, all innovating in the same context, it puts you in a powerful position.

Visit us online: https://strategicpm.com/
Find us on social media:
https://www.facebook.com/StrategicPMmag/
https://www.instagram.com/strategicpmmag/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/strategicpm/
https://twitter.com/StrategicPMmag

In the scenic landscape of Ventura County, California, a transformation is taking place in the world of property management. At the forefront of this change is Kenya, a business development manager at Rincon Property Management, whose unconventional path and fresh perspective reshape an industry often perceived as traditional.

Kenya's journey to property management was far from typical. With a solid background in finance and an MBA, he initially found himself managing massive logistics operations for Amazon.

"I ended up luckily getting a management job there. I relocated down and I got to travel a lot while the building was being built. You meet a whole bunch of people who travel to a whole bunch of places there," Kenya recalls.

The experience was intense and demanding. "I was working…maybe 5 to 6 days a week, and I'm like, 'My body hurts,'" he adds, explaining his motivation to seek new opportunities.

When Rincon Property Management approached him, Kenya initially reacted with skepticism. However, the company's vision and culture made a strong impression.

"They really dialed in. They showed me their long-term goal and their vision... It's family-oriented, and they take care of their employees, and that stood out to me." This alignment of values and growth potential convinced Kenya to take a leap into the world of property management.

A Fresh Approach to Property Management

A strong focus on education and long-term relationship building characterizes Kenya's approach to his role at Rincon.

"My biggest thing is trying to understand the product that Rincon offers," he explains. This understanding allows him to effectively communicate the value of professional property management to potential clients.

Kenya emphasizes the importance of educating clients on market realities, property value maximization, and the multifaceted benefits of professional management.

And this educational approach extends beyond turning potential clients into signed clients: Kenya often reaches out to owners of stale listings, offering advice without immediate expectations of gaining their business.

Visit us online: https://strategicpm.com/
Find us on social media:
https://www.facebook.com/StrategicPMmag/
https://www.instagram.com/strategicpmmag/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/strategicpm/
https://twitter.com/StrategicPMmag

In a dynamic, data-drenched property market, it pays to have stats you can rely on. Join us for a chat with Lance Lambert and gain access to a nation of information.

Lance Lambert was a longtime financial and data journalist who worked for Bloomberg and Realtor.com before spending time as Fortune Magazine’s Real Estate editor.

During his stint with Fortune, he authored a data newsletter for Fortune 1000 executives when the pandemic hit, and the housing market got…strange.

He noticed the hunger for accurate housing data and began writing more in that direction, quickly building a large readership. He eventually succumbed to the entrepreneurial bug and left Fortune to start ResiClub in October 2023.

Strategic PM sat down with Lance to discuss how he makes a wealth of industry information comprehensible for real estate stakeholders, and how he views the past, present, and future of the market.

How PMs Can Reap the Benefits of ResiClub

PMs are always chomping at the bit to jump on little trends, but you can't view mini movements of data without context. We must harness that data toward a strategy that will empower us to stand out from the crowd.

This is where Lance’s big and small picture content matters. Inputting your email at ResiClub signs you up for his free list, which includes:

Lance’s reports
Weekly articles
Charts and maps

With a premium annual subscription, ResiClub Pro members receive:

Three additional housing reports per week
Data for 3000 counties and 800 metros
Active inventory
Insurance data, including non-renewal rates, premiums, and forecasts
Forecasts for prices and rents
Access to executives and their insights
Access to Lance’s webinars, including a monthly one where he discusses the housing market
A series of webinars for pro members teaching how to create charts and maps

Pro members even receive Lance’s guidance on building their own local housing market newsletter.

“There's a way to use my content to create a market newsletter that could generate leads for you, whether you're a home builder, a single-family investor, or a real estate agent trying to attract local market attention,” he says.

Best feature of all? Everything Lance presents lets PMs across the country immediately engage and activate it with confidence. Here’s how he does it.

Visit us online: https://strategicpm.com/
Find us on social media:
https://www.facebook.com/StrategicPMmag/
https://www.instagram.com/strategicpmmag/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/strategicpm/
https://twitter.com/StrategicPMmag

Told to Stay Home, She Built a 7-Figure Property Empire Instead

While other kids were sleeping in or watching cartoons, Tiffany Rosenbaum, at just 8 years old, was mowing lawns for property managers before sunrise.
It wasn’t glamorous. It wasn’t inspiring. It was just life—blue-collar, faith-filled, and brutally honest, but it gave her the work ethic she needed to later build one of the fastest-scaling property management companies in Arizona from absolutely nothing.

Tiffany’s story isn’t just about grit. It’s about rebellion—the kind that doesn’t burn out, but burns brighter as it grows.

Visit us online: https://strategicpm.com/
Find us on social media:
https://www.facebook.com/StrategicPMmag/
https://www.instagram.com/strategicpmmag/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/strategicpm/
https://twitter.com/StrategicPMmag

Three industry innovators talk about leveraging social media in the world of PM.

Social media is one of the most powerful tools available to entrepreneurs and startup businesses. The world of property management (PM) is no different. 

Strategic PM sat down with three PM experts to talk about their hacks and strategies to create impressive social media followings. Find out what they do behind the scenes to leverage opportunities social brings to build engagement and lead generation.

Jennifer Ruelens on Maturing Leads with Social

Jennifer Ruelens, broker and owner of One Focus PM in Williamsport, PA, is a 20-year veteran of property management. Jen is a real estate investor, educator, and advocate, and One Focus’s coverage area serves five or six counties in a pretty rural market.

One Focus PM has over 1,000 subscribers on YouTube and also relies heavily on Facebook and LinkedIn. Additionally, the company recently launched a presence on TikTok and Instagram.

Here are a few pro tips Jen has regarding social media marketing:

1. Mature leads with social: Once someone has already heard about a business, social media serves to mature and nurture that connection. Your social presence serves an audience today who is following your company, but also provides a timeline of your activity to a prospect looking to get a quick impression of the business. 
2. Prioritize video: Post a mix of long-form educational content and short-form material that’s punchier and more fun. Video is easily shareable and promotes more engagement than text or image posts.
3. Be consistent: Posting consistently ensures continuous connections and helps your footprint. People go online to see when a business last posted to ensure they’re still relevant and active.
4. Embrace comments: All engagement promotes content. More feedback (of all kinds) = more views. 

Jen says, “You have to realize that all engagement is good engagement. Even commentary that may not agree with your points, are ads for your post.”

Her final tip: Just do it. Videos, for instance, don’t always have to be perfect or take much creation time to be effective. 

Jen and her team continue to focus on organic growth on social media and strategic ways to expand how they are creating and posting videos.

Michel Lautensack Talks Scorecards

There is buzz about KPIs and metrics that a PM company should hit. But they’re all designed for internal numbers and your own growth, as Michael Lautensack from Del Val Realty and PM points out. The bottom line: clients don’t care how much money you make and how much business you’re getting. Those KPIs aren’t relevant to them.

What they do care about: Did you collect my rent this month? How long was the vacancy period between the last two tenants? How quickly did you sell my property? Focus on what owner clients care about. 

Another strong point for Michael and Del Val is their unique and impressive scorecards, which they post about each month on social media. These scorecards let the team know how well they’re doing. 

The scorecard quantifies what PMs are doing. It’s a well-designed template and includes 10 items across departments, rentals, HOAs, sales, and maintenance. The scorecard makes it easy to develop quantifiable numbers for critical touchpoints. Owners can then set goals and benchmarks and figure out what’s reasonable and how to define success.

Del Val is active on LinkedIn and other social media sites. The company has also been focused on more nuanced posts about properties. For instance, instead of just a photo of a front door, they now create a thumbnail with the property’s key selling points, along with a strong headline.

The direct objective isn’t to get the phone to ring. The focus is renting clients’ properties faster. In turn, that leads to referrals and long-term owner clients. Social media helps them reach these goals.

Social media is a cost-effective way to develop trust. People see your name and images again and again. With consistency, you’re always there, positioned as an expert in the industry with a presence and compelling content.

Visit us online: https://strategicpm.com/
Find us on social media:
https://www.facebook.com/StrategicPMmag/
https://www.instagram.com/strategicpmmag/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/strategicpm/
https://twitter.com/StrategicPMmag

Discover a living example of how the beginner’s mind can naturally lend itself to building something truly remarkable.

“Boston,” as the saying goes, “is the one place in America where wealth—and knowledge of how to use it—are apt to coincide.”

Don’t believe it? Meet Casey Howe, head of the Massachusetts-based Howzer Property Management serving South Shore, South Coast, and Cape Cod.

A former software and tech sales leader who oversaw large Fortune 500 sales teams, Casey traveled east from California to start a property management company with no previous experience in the field.

Not only did that prove a wise use of his wealth and existing knowledge of other areas, it’s shaping up to be a resource he can use to help other entrepreneurs in the future.

Strategic PM sat down with Casey to discuss his background in sales leadership, how property management revitalized his core energies, and how he expands his growth strategies to both his personal and professional futures.

Visit us online: https://strategicpm.com/
Find us on social media:
https://www.facebook.com/StrategicPMmag/
https://www.instagram.com/strategicpmmag/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/strategicpm/
https://twitter.com/StrategicPMmag

Property managers can simplify pest control by offering Pest Share as a resident benefit. Strategic PM sat down with Pest Share CEO and Co-Founder, Landon Cooley, and discussed how the software helps residents schedule and receive services easily with no out-of-pocket costs.

Property managers (PMs) and residents have always faced an age-old problem: dealing with pests! Pests persist even after managers hire expensive pest control companies to inspect and treat problems, inconveniencing residents. Managers might feel good about being proactive with a current issue, but ambiguity enters the picture since pest infestations can be sporadic, seasonal, or unpredictable.

When pests arrive, it’s not always clear what the next steps are. To avoid contacting their PMs and explaining the matter, residents often wait until the issue is serious. They may have tried to deal with the problem on their own or simply didn't want to cause a fuss. Either way, the longer they wait, the worse the situation gets. This can lead to a breakdown in communication and mistrust between residents and PMs.

This age-old problem calls for a solution. Strategic PM spoke with Co-Founder and CEO, Landon Cooley of Pest Share, to discover how he and his team have turned this unavoidable problem into a benefit for PMs and residents.

Visit us online: https://strategicpm.com/
Find us on social media:
https://www.facebook.com/StrategicPMmag/
https://www.instagram.com/strategicpmmag/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/strategicpm/
https://twitter.com/StrategicPMmag

Dave Borden, Co-Founder of Rentvine, discusses how he and his partner, Jonathan Ewen, created a software solution built for property managers and what makes it different from its competitors.

Today’s technology advancements mean that property managers (PMs) don’t have to worry about the chaos of paperwork or the clunky processes of the past. Property management software can improve efficiencies across businesses and helps strengthen customer relationships.

Rentvine is a comprehensive software solution built specifically for property management companies. Strategic PM talked to Dave Borden, Co-Founder of Rentvine, about all of its benefits. Let’s check out what he had to say.

Visit us online: https://strategicpm.com/
Find us on social media:
https://www.facebook.com/StrategicPMmag/
https://www.instagram.com/strategicpmmag/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/strategicpm/
https://twitter.com/StrategicPMmag

Google Reviews really do put property managers on the map. Join us for the alchemy behind it all, and learn how putting people and value first pays off.

They say two heads are better than one. It’s hard to argue when those heads belong to Travis Bohling and Brandon Graham, the co-founders of Arizona-based Home Ladder, which has reached 460 doors in just two years.

The guys can credit much of their resounding success to their deep belief in putting people and value first. Strategic PM sat down with them to learn how that looks in practice, where a motivated team makes all the difference, and why two “employees” named Chaos and Disorder aren’t as scary as they sound.

How Home Ladder Breaks the Ice

Introductions are central to success in business. How does Home Ladder shake hands as a PM company?

“We open by saying we're local and know the Valley well,” says Travis. “Property management is our specialty, but real estate investment is our passion. We communicate that we’re going to help people invest in real estate and be successful.”

Despite their large number of doors, Home Ladder is discerning about who they want to work with.

Visit us online: https://strategicpm.com/
Find us on social media:
https://www.facebook.com/StrategicPMmag/
https://www.instagram.com/strategicpmmag/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/strategicpm/
https://twitter.com/StrategicPMmag