Editor's Note
A ten minute test this week, using the tools your owners have already started using on you. What it turns up is usually cheap to fix.
Ask an AI about your own company
Three in four small landlords now say they plan to use AI when they go looking for a property manager. The number comes from the 2026 PM Trends Report - Harris Poll, 500 US owners with one to ten units, fielded December 2025. Given how much AI use has moved since then, treat it as a floor.
Owners are asking a machine before they ask a neighbour. You can see what it tells them in about ten minutes.
The test
Open ChatGPT and Perplexity. If Google shows an AI answer in your market, check that too.
Who are the best property management companies in [your city]?
I own two rental houses in [your city] and don't want to manage them myself. Who should I call?
Is [your company name] a good property management company?
[Your company] or [a competitor] - which is better for someone with three units?
Run each twice. Answers move between sessions and locations, so a single result tells you almost nothing.
Reading what comes back
Nothing comes up. There is nothing quotable about you in public. Your site describes services in words that would fit any company in the state, so there is nothing for a model to pull out.
Your name appears in a list of five, and the line beside it would fit any of them. This is the usual result.
The details are wrong. A market you pulled out of two years ago, or a number that rings an old office. Somewhere a stale page or directory listing is doing the talking.
What moves the result
Give these systems something they can lift:
Name the cities and neighbourhoods you cover. "The greater metro area" gives a model nothing to work with
Say what you charge, or at least how the structure works
Spell out the portfolio sizes you take on, and the ones you send elsewhere
Put your NARPM or association membership somewhere crawlable
Ask satisfied owners to write a sentence or two in their review. That is the part a model can quote
Your Google Business Profile costs nothing to fix and gets cited more than most company websites.
When to skip this entirely
If you are at capacity and turning owners away, skip all of it. Same if your pipeline runs on referral and the growth rate suits you. It matters when you want owners who do not know you yet.
The full report is free at pmtrends.com, no email required.
Did You Know?
In the same survey, 74% of small landlords said they are comfortable with a property manager using AI for day to day work. The fear of an owner finding out and objecting does not have much behind it. Those owners are running the same tools on you.
Until next week,
Tomas