Where property management companies find new property owner clients

This guide is for property management companies in Canada and the US looking for more owners to manage for. New owner clients come from a handful of places: referrals from the owners you already have, realtors, local search, investor groups, other professionals, and sometimes another company’s portfolio. Each brings a different kind of owner and takes a different amount of time to pay off, so the first step is finding out which ones already work for you.

Start with your last twelve owners

List the last twelve owners who signed with you and, next to each, how they first heard about you. If you don’t know for some, call and ask. Here’s what that list might look like for a company with around 200 doors. The numbers are illustrative.

Source	Owners
Referred by another owner	4
Referred by a realtor	3
Found us by searching online	2
Met at an investor meetup	1
Referred by their accountant	1
Don’t know	1

Here, eight of twelve owners were introduced by someone who already trusted the company, another owner, a realtor or their accountant, so making referrals easier would likely do more than buying ads. Your list will look different, and it’s yours that should decide where you spend time.

Going forward, ask every new owner how they found you and keep the answer on their file. I recommend a CRM built for property managers for this, like Fundus by Tuze, which records how each owner found you from the moment they get in touch, so next year’s count is already done.

Here’s what each source involves.

Owners who already work with you

Referrals from current owners tend to be the warmest introductions, because the new owner hears about you from someone they trust, who has seen your work. They come at particular moments: just after a vacancy filled fast or a problem handled well. How property managers can get referrals from the owners they work with goes through when and how to ask.

This source takes looking after current owners well and asking at the right times, and it can bring new owners within weeks of starting to ask.

Realtors

Agents who sell homes to investors meet new owners before anyone else does, often while the buyer is still deciding whether the numbers work. An agent who trusts you will introduce their buyer to you, because a well-managed rental makes their client happy and brings them back for the next purchase.

The way in is being useful. Answer an agent’s question about what a home would rent for quickly and honestly, even when it’s not the answer their buyer hoped for. Look after the first client they send, and tell the agent how it’s going. If you’d like to pay referral fees, check your province’s or state’s real estate rules first, since many limit who can be paid for a referral.

It can take six months or more before introductions come regularly, but once they do, a good agent relationship can last for years.

Local search and reviews

Owners who don’t know anyone to ask search for a property manager in their city, read reviews and contact two or three companies. Your Google Business Profile, your reviews and a website that clearly says which areas and types of homes you manage all count here.

Owners reading reviews look for ones from other owners, so ask happy owners for one at the same moments you’d ask for a referral. Reply to every review, including the bad ones, calmly and briefly. And when an owner does contact you, reply quickly, because they’re likely contacting others the same day. How property managers win new landlord clients covers what happens from that first reply.

This takes months to build, then brings inquiries steadily without much ongoing work.

Investor groups and meetups

Local real estate investor groups, meetups and online communities are full of people who own rentals or are about to. Showing up regularly and helping, by answering questions about rents, rules and tenants without pitching, builds the kind of reputation that turns into introductions.

This source tends to bring owners with several homes, or plans for more, which makes each one worth more. Expect six months to a year of showing up before it pays off.

Accountants, lawyers and mortgage brokers

People who own rentals talk to accountants at tax time, lawyers when something goes wrong and mortgage brokers when they buy. Each of them gets asked, sooner or later, whether they know a good property manager. A short introduction, a clear one page on who you help, and looking after the first person they send are usually enough to become their answer.

It’s slow to start, but each one can send owners for years.

Directories and introductions

Some directories list any company that pays. Others introduce owners only to managers they’ve chosen. Tuze does this through Find a property manager, which introduces owners to managers who run on Tuze. Introductions from a service that has vetted you tend to arrive warmer than a cold listing, because the owner already has a reason to trust you.

Buying another company’s doors

When a smaller manager retires or leaves the business, their owners need somewhere to go. Buying a portfolio, or agreeing to take over a retiring manager’s owners, can add dozens of doors at once. It takes money, careful review of each owner’s agreement and properties, and a lot of attention in the first months, because owners who didn’t choose you are the easiest to lose.

Where to put your time

Look back at your list. Spend more time on the sources that already bring owners, and pick one new source to try for a year rather than five at once. Most of these work through trust built over time, so they reward showing up regularly.