Q&A with Steve Hart, Co-founder and President of Property Management Inc.

What about Property Management Inc. (PMI) makes it unique within its industry?

First, we’re one of the oldest property management franchise brands in the U.S., and we are growing faster than any of our competitors.  We have more than 260 franchises operating in more than 40 states, Puerto Rico, Malta and Costa Rica.

The biggest thing that makes us unique and stand apart from all the other property management franchises is the fact that our competition only offers residential property management services. What we’ve done is expanded upon that limited service offering and include what we call additional pillars, which are different types of property management. So, not only are our franchisees able to tap into residential property management services through our franchise model; they’re also able to add commercial property management, association management and vacation property management.  And our franchisees connect these 4 pillars with what we call a bridge: real estate sales.  Our franchisees love they are part of the only franchise network that offers four pillars and a bridge.

What have been some of the brand's most important milestones over the past five years?

I would say the biggest milestone has been the buildout of all four pillars mentioned above. When we first started 10 years ago, no other brand offered multiple pillars.  And, as time has gone on, our competitors have remained the same while we’ve continued to add solutions to our franchise. We’re very aggressive when it comes to expansion and technology innovation within our industry. We call ourselves industry leaders, and we back it up — no one is doing what we’re doing in property management.

Another pretty big milestone is that we’ve consistently ranked in Entrepreneur as the number one property management franchise 3 years in a row.

We also very recently achieved a significant milestone — we acquired one of our competitors, Book by Owner. They’re a big vacation rental franchise, so we’re currently in the process of transitioning the Book by Owner franchisees into the Property Management Inc. brand.

What plans does the brand have in the coming years?

First of all, PMI’s goal is to become the largest property management brand in the U.S.  — that’s huge. Our goal is to become a household name. There hasn’t been a brand that’s become that known in our field; no one has really planted a flag in the space. We feel that in the next few years, we’ll reach that status.

What does an ideal franchisee look like?

Because we’re offering such a broad-based foundation in property management, our ideal franchisee is a property manager who wants to expand their business and gain access to more opportunities, better resources, exceptional training and enhanced systems. We have all of those things lined up, from vendors that give us ridiculously low pricing on their products to enhanced training systems to lots of revenue streams property managers can only monetize using the PMI platform.  We’re looking for franchisees who can participate in this business with us — they aren’t trying to recreate the wheel, so instead, they’re eager to join a national brand like PMI and either add more pillars to their businesses, or operate their business using our premier brand.

Why is PMI a good investment?

We are not only the number one property management brand in franchising in our category, but because of the diversity of services that our franchise offers, we provide franchisees a lot of flexibility in growing and expanding their markets. We’re the only one of our kind doing anything like this, and because of that, territories are selling out. And as they sell out, we’ll continue moving toward our goal of becoming a household name. That’s why now is a great time to purchase our franchise.

It’s also a great time to be in our industry and be a property manager. As the real estate market is kind of starting to slow and decline a bit, a lot of realtors and mortgage industry professionals are all starting to get nervous. But the PMI 4 Pillar model allows for our franchisees to diversify their efforts, no matter what the economy is doing, making is very recession-resistant.

 It doesn’t matter if the real estate or stock markets are up or down — the PMI franchise model will excel.