My PM business grew from $0 revenue to $2 million revenue because of 3 things

1. I stopped being my business’s ‘main character’

Here's a truth that might surprise you: your business actually runs better at 80% of your personal potential to deliver service. That 20% gap? It creates space for something way more valuable than perfection—room for growth, learning, and real partnership with your staff and clients. It opens the door for others to deliver on your promises, and that's how you build a business that scales.

Know what's really holding back your property management business? It's not your systems or staff—it's your need for perfection. Most of us get stuck in an exhausting cycle of heroic intervention, thinking our value comes from our personal ability to perform. Breaking free from this mindset is your first step to real growth.

This takes confidence, but not the kind you might think. Stop focusing on near perfect execution or expecting your team to match your capabilities (they won't). Instead, display transparency and a strong commitment to long-term excellence. Your clients aren't buying perfection; they're investing in partnership. Once you truly believe this, you’ll give your team space to experience the small failures that allow you to build something meaningful together.

Think lean, not complete. Too many of us wait to implement systems until they're perfect. Chasing 100% is economically irrational—the law of diminishing returns makes each step toward perfection cost way more than it's worth. Launch minimal viable processes and improve as you go.

Here's what worked for my team: frame changes as experiments, not solutions. This simple shift can transform resistance into engagement. When your staff helps design and refine processes instead of just executing them, they develop real ownership. Problems surface faster, solutions emerge naturally, and your business grows beyond depending on any one person—especially you.

‘But what if my team’s mistakes harm my clients?’ you might be thinking. First, pat yourself on the back for really caring, not everyone does. Second, decide right now that if your team’s incompetence costs your clients actual money you will reimburse them 100%. It’s tuition for your learning and it brings a powerful immediate focus on the mistakes that matter most, a built-in prioritization mechanism you lose if you keep swooping in or sweeping mistakes under the rug.

Your job isn't to be the hero. It's to create the conditions for lasting success. The best part? You work less, stress less, and things get better AT THE SAME TIME. Pretty cool, right?

2. We 20x’d client value by converting ‘landlords’ into ‘investors’

Want to transform reactive landlords into strategic investors? Here's how we do it:

Most new landlords come in focused on the wrong things—monthly cash flow and maintenance headaches. They view their property as a burden instead of an asset. This mindset is what stops them from building real wealth. Changing that builds tremendous value for you and them.

Start by shifting their focus from daily hassles to the big wealth drivers: Their mortgage gets paid down automatically. Property values compound over decades. Tax advantages cut their real costs. And cash flow grows as rents rise while debt shrinks.

In Phoenix, A 20-year hold strategy typically yields a doubling in property value and rental rate and retires most of the mortgage debt. Selling after 20 years yields at least 10x more wealth than selling after 5 years for a 75% leveraged holding. Why? If you don’t know the answer go study some amortization schedules and run the numbers. This is a decades came not a years game.

We use three key tools to make this transformation happen: Performance tracking software that shows real numbers, annual strategy reviews that dig into their goals, and conversations that elevate them from landlord to asset manager.

Let me share a quick win: We helped a client move from a problematic rental into an emerging market property. Result? Better residents, steady appreciation, and they went on to buy two more properties. They transformed from worried landlord to confident investor.

This shift usually takes 2-5 years. You'll know it's working when they stop sweating the small maintenance costs, focus on long-term appreciation instead of monthly blips, actively engage in wealth-building talks, and start looking to grow their portfolio.

What’s the impact for your PM business? Here's what client lifetime value looks like for us across different scenarios (we operate a full real estate brokerage in addition to offering PM services):

3. We held the high ground with only ‘good profits’ (and lots of them)

Let's talk about a business killer: chasing profits that damage client relationships. Yet that's exactly what most property managers do—their fee structures reward them most when owners hurt the most.

Think about this for a second: Would you hire a business manager who gets their biggest bonus when things go worst for you? But that's the standard PM model. High tenant turnover? Manager gets big leasing fees and tenant move-in fees. Late-paying residents? Manager keeps all the late fees. Lots of maintenance issues? More markup money for the manager.

We saw this problem in the very beginning and we leaned into it. From day 1 we tied our success directly to owner success. That meant charging higher monthly management fees but cutting out the predatory stuff. We split late fees 50/50. No management fees during vacancies. We don’t keep a big chunk of the tenant’s security deposit as a non-refundable fee (paid to PM not the owner) and we kept maintenance markups reasonable and crystal clear.

Did this make getting new clients harder? You bet. It's way easier to lure owners with that sweet $79 monthly fee, then pile on hidden charges later. But here's the reality: Quality property management costs at least $150 per door monthly to deliver right. Instead of hiding from this truth, we got better at branding and sales to attract owners who want real partnerships.

The payoff? Growth built on trust, not tricks. Our profits come from delivering real value, not exploiting pain points. It's not just the right thing to do—it’s smarter too. Increased regulation is knocking on all of our doors and one way to keep it at bay is by policing ourselves. Let’s turn our creativity toward value creation not fee extraction.

So… that’s it! Just 3 things. I’m kidding. There are more than 3 things to building a $2,000,000+ property management business but these 3 made a big difference. Drop me a comment or email answering this question: What has been the single most impactful positive change you made in growing your PM business??