6 research-backed property management growth strategies for 2026

With 2026 approaching fast, now’s the time to finalize your growth strategy for the year ahead. Growing your property management business takes fresh ideas and smart planning—especially as the industry continues to evolve.

That’s why we pulled out the top growth tactics from the latest State of the Property Management Industry Report, which surveyed over 1,000 property managers from across the U.S.

This guide distills those findings into practical steps you can take to strengthen your operations and position your business for success.

Growth Outlook for the Property Management Industry in 2026

According to the report, 75% of property managers plan to expand their portfolios in 2026, though just 55% reported growth over the last year. This suggests that while growth remains a top priority, execution can be a challenge.

Here are the strategies property managers say have made the biggest impact on their growth—and can do the same for you in 2026.

1. Use AI for Everyday Tasks to Accelerate Growth

Artificial intelligence isn’t just making property management more efficient—it’s becoming a key driver of business growth. The number of property management companies using AI has tripled from 20% to 58% in just one year (and growing fast). By automating routine work and surfacing insights faster, AI is freeing up time for managers to focus on winning new clients, retaining top owners, and improving profitability.

AI is powering growth across the industry by enabling companies to:

• Do more with the same team. By automating tasks such as rent reminders, maintenance routing, and owner communications, AI lets your current staff manage more doors without additional headcount.
• Respond faster and retain more clients. AI-assisted communication tools help deliver timely, personalized responses that strengthen owner and resident relationships—two of the biggest contributors to retention and referrals.
• Turn data into decisions. AI-powered reporting tools highlight trends such as rising maintenance costs or underperforming properties, helping you take action to protect margins and uncover new revenue opportunities.
• Enhance marketing and lead generation. Managers are using AI to write listings, optimize advertising copy, and identify high-potential prospects faster.

2. Automate Workflows (Without Sacrificing Personal Touch)

Your portfolio can only grow as large as your team can handle. That’s why it’s essential to put scalable systems in place. For example, property management software like Buildium lets you automate repetitive tasks like rent collection and maintenance requests so you can dedicate more time to strengthening relationships with owners and tenants.

Here’s how to strike the right balance between automation and human connection:

• Automate the busywork. This includes routine tasks like rent reminders, maintenance tracking, and financial reporting. That way, you free up time for higher-value tasks.
• Centralize communication. Adopt a single platform for owner and tenant messaging so updates stay organized, timely, and easy to track. This helps prevent anyone from falling through the cracks.
• Keep outreach personal for onboarding, renewals, and conflict resolution. Use these moments to build trust, strengthen relationships, and show clients and tenants they’re more than just a ticket in your system.

3. Shed Bad-Fit Clients

Sometimes you need to forgo accepting new clients or offload old ones to make room for the best clients. This can be a hard approach to adopt, especially as a small property manager eager to take on as many clients as possible. However, if you’re stretched thin dealing with challenging clients, you won’t have the bandwidth to take on the ones that will grow your business most.

“We have prioritized ‘the right clients’ over new doors,” Dave Gorham, Chief Executive Officer & Jeannie Connors, Chief Operating Officer at Realty Solutions told us. “Quality over quantity. This has been a two-year path with us shedding clients that were not a match, slowing down our prospecting and onboarding process, to identify those ‘right clients’ so they stay longer.”

Here’s how to make sure you consistently prioritize quality clients:

• Vet prospective clients. Before signing a new client, ask them about their portfolio size and type, their long-term goals, and what they expect from a property manager. That way, you can see upfront if they’d be a good fit.
• Regularly evaluate your client list. Once per quarter, identify clients who require a disproportionate amount of your resources and offboard those who don’t align, freeing up your capacity for growth.
• Nurture your best clients. Keep your best clients happy by soliciting their feedback and helping them grow. This helps you retain them and their portfolio for the long term.

4. Focus on Your Strengths

Instead of only offering services that seem to be in high demand, lean into those where your team has a natural edge. For example, focus on managing single-family homes or underserved HOA portfolios if that’s where your strengths lie. In short, leverage your competitive advantages.

Here’s how to double down on your strengths to fuel sustainable growth:

• Identify your niche. Analyze your existing portfolio to pinpoint where you deliver the best results, whether that’s in short-term rentals, multifamily, HOAs, etc.
• Streamline your core services. Invest in tools and processes that enhance your strongest service areas instead of spreading resources thin across less profitable ones.
• Market your expertise. Use your strengths as a selling point by highlighting success stories, client testimonials, and metrics that show your results in your specialty area.

5. Leverage Referrals

Many investors are hesitant to expand their portfolios when faced with economic uncertainty, rising property costs, and higher interest rates. As a third-party property manager, this can make it hard to grow your business. If clients come to you wanting to sell a property, you can tap your existing client network to match them with a buyer you already work with.

That’s been the case with Jeannie Connors, Chief Operating Officer at Realty Solutions:

“If we can [sell properties] to our other clients, we can show them the value of a certain property, and then we retain management,” she says. “It’s really a win-win for everyone, because we can show them the financial stability of a property from a trustworthy source.”

As Connors alludes to, this type of matchmaking can benefit both the seller—since you can line up a buyer with minimal hassle—and the buyer. You can use your management records and expertise with the property to reassure the buyer, pointing to the quality of the tenants, recent renovations, and other details.

According to our survey, encouraging clients to provide referrals was the most successful growth tactic in 2025:

Here’s how to turn your client network into a consistent growth engine:

• Build a referral pipeline. Maintain a list of investors and partners who may be interested in buying new properties and actively connect them when opportunities arise.
• Reward referrals. Offer incentives such as service discounts or small bonuses to clients who refer new property owners or investors to your management company.
• Share success stories. Highlight past referral wins in your client communications to show how collaboration within your network can benefit everyone involved.

6. Monitor KPIs to Boost Retention

Finally, growing your property management business won’t do you much good if you can’t lock in your gains. To ensure you retain a stable client base, you should set and monitor key performance metrics (KPIs) tied to property performance.

For example, tenant response times, maintenance ticket resolution speed, and satisfaction scores all reflect your service quality. If any of these dip too low, you risk losing tenants, and your owner clients may try to outsource their property management to someone else.

Here’s how to boost retention and long-term growth with data:

• Identify your most impactful metrics. Focus on KPIs that directly influence owner and tenant satisfaction, such as response times, occupancy rates, and lease renewal rates.
• Set up dashboards to track KPIs. Use property management software like Buildium to visualize your performance trends and catch issues before they impact client retention.
• Regularly review and adjust. Hold monthly or quarterly performance reviews with your team to celebrate wins, address gaps, and refine processes for continued improvement.

Start 2026 Off Strong with Property Management Software Built for Growth

Property management growth doesn’t happen by chance. It’s the result of the right strategy, tools, and execution. That’s where property management software makes all the difference. The right platform helps you attract new clients, streamline operations, and uncover opportunities to boost revenue from one connected system.

Investing in software is a substantial investment, so you’ll want tangible benefits to point to before committing to any one platform. Here are some of the most common ways that property management companies grow their business and where software fits into the equation for each:

• Actively recruiting new clients: Customer relationship management (CRM) software can help you market to owners, capture leads, and automatically follow up with them.
• Encouraging current clients to acquire new properties: An integrated owner portal makes it easy to share investment opportunities and business performance insights with clients so they can make more informed decisions about expanding their portfolios.
• Acquiring other companies’ or investors’ portfolios: Import tools and API features simplify onboarding new properties, tenants, and owner accounts after an acquisition.
• Raising rents and resident-paid fees: Dynamic rent analysis tools can provide market insights and online rent collection software helps you streamline payments.
• Making value-add property updates: Work order and budgeting tools let you schedule, track, and manage capital improvements in real time, while financial reporting and analytics tools help monitor ROI on updates.
• Leveraging technology to drive greater efficiency: Purpose-built property management tech such as Buildium lets you oversee your operations from a central dashboard and automate manual processes. That way, you can do more with less effort.

How to Put Your 2026 Growth Strategy Into Action

Building a stronger, more profitable property management business starts with knowing where to focus your time and resources. When backed by research, clear goals, and the right technology, growth becomes possible and predictable.

With the insights from Buildium’s 2026 State of the Property Management Industry Report, property managers can use data-driven strategies to attract clients, retain talent, and operate more efficiently than ever before.

Key takeaways:

• Identify and prioritize the clients, markets, and services that drive the most sustainable growth.
• Strengthen your foundation with clear processes, automation, and consistent KPI tracking.
• Leverage AI and technology to free up time for higher-value relationships and revenue opportunities.
• Focus on retention of owners, residents, and staff as the most cost-effective growth strategy.
• Revisit your goals quarterly to measure progress and adjust based on market trends.

If you’re ready to bring your 2026 growth plan to life, start with the tools designed to help you execute it. Buildium’s all-in-one platform helps you automate workflows, track performance, and deliver service that scales. Try it with a free, no-risk 14-day trial or schedule a demo.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the key trends in property management expected to impact growth strategies in 2026?

Key trends include a focus on client retention, specialization in niche property types and services, adoption of automation and property management software, and leveraging client networks for referrals. Additionally, data-driven decision-making and performance monitoring are becoming essential for scaling operations efficiently.

How can digital technology be leveraged to enhance property management growth in 2026?

Digital tools like Buildium can automate routine tasks like rent collection, maintenance tracking, and reporting, freeing up your team to focus on high-value activities. Technology also enables better communication, data insights through dashboards, and streamlined onboarding, all of which help scale your business while maintaining service quality.

How can property managers attract and retain tenants in a competitive market in 2026?

Retention starts with exceptional service: fast response times, well-maintained properties, and clear communication. Offering modern amenities, leveraging digital tools for convenience, and creating strong tenant engagement programs can help you attract and retain quality tenants, even in competitive rental markets.

What’s the best way to find new property management clients?

The most effective approach combines online lead generation platforms such as All Property Management with local networking and targeted outreach. Using CRM software can also help you track and follow up with leads.

How do I convince my current clients to buy more properties?

Provide clients with data-driven performance reports, market trends, and off-market investment opportunities. Highlight how your management services make it easier to scale without additional stress.

What should I look for when acquiring another property management company?

Focus on portfolio quality, client satisfaction, robust operational systems, and how the business aligns with your existing processes. A software platform with import and API tools can simplify integration post-acquisition.