The PM Trends Report

This issue of Pillow Talk, our weekly newsletter, went out by email on June 4, 2026. Get the next one.

Hey friend,

Welcome to the 42nd weekly edition of Pillow Talk! This is where I share my unfiltered thoughts on life, business, and property management.

This week, I’m breaking down the 2026 PM Trends Report.

You may have seen that the long-anticipated 2026 PM Trends Report is now publicly available. I’ve read it cover to cover and it is great! Peter Lohmann and Jordan Muela deserve all the kudos for putting this together.

Go get your copy here.

The Headliners

Below are the insights that I think are most useful. Some of this info could be used in your business tomorrow. Other bits will get you thinking about where the industry is headed.

Let’s get into it!

1. Archetypes

Jordan and Peter did a very interesting thing by grouping respondents into behavioral segments according to their intentions for the next 12 months. They identified 4 owner archetypes; Expanders, Holders, Repositioners, and Exiters.

When you total up the segments, 52% plan to buy more, and 32% have plans to sell. Which means that even with all the doom and gloom around how tough the market is right now, there’s still a lot of brokerage activity out there PMs are primed to scoop up.

This framework is something I’d incorporate into my onboarding process. It’s super useful for identifying owner goals. Your BDM could ask something like “which of these most closely describes you?” With their answer, you now have a great starting point for understanding your role in their ownership journey and how to leverage it for more revenue.

For example, if they identify as Expanders, Repositioners, or Exiters, you’ll know to enroll them in periodic emails that push your brokerage offering so they know who to go to when they’re ready to make a transaction.

2. Why they own

When asked about their motivations, 42% of respondents said they own rental property to build wealth. 25% cited family/legacy.

The headline here is that the majority of owners have long term goals. They aren’t asleep at the wheel. Wealth building and Family/Legacy make up 67%, and those are both destinations that’ll take 10+ years to reach.

This is great news for PMs because partnering with owners to achieve their goals is a strong play to increase retention and therefore lifetime value. Sitting down with them and asking them what they hope to get out of their rental, and then creating a 10-year plan creates switching costs. Get them bought in on the plan, show them the wealth you can help them build (maybe with Property Analyzer’s Rent vs. Sell Analysis 😉), and a sort of attachment will be formed between their rental’s success and your business.

3. Premium services

This is a big one… Roughly half of respondents said they’re willing to pay their PM extra for several services.

I was delighted to see asset management at the top of the list! 😜

Because it’s tough to scale, asset management used to be a nice value-add that PMs would use to help retain high-value clients. Those owners were getting free access to PM expertise. But thanks to technology, now it’s something you can package up and sell to your entire management portfolio.

You might think that to deliver a premium asset management service offering you have to restructure your company or hire more FTEs. But it’s much simpler than that. You could stand up an offering with 3 deliverables in exchange for maybe 12% rent instead of 10% just as an example:

1. Annual Performance Reviews. Each year, reassess with them that 10-year plan I mentioned above. Give them an annual summary of their rental’s financial performance and everything you’ve handled operationally (leasing, day-to-day management). During the session, update them on market conditions and field their questions on acquisitions, dispositions, and strategy. This session can also double as a deal-flow review where you conduct investment analysis on opportunities that match their criteria.
2. Discounted Real Estate Commission. Offer to reduce your commission when they buy or sell. For example, 2% instead of 3%, which adds up to substantial savings.
3. Negotiated Vendor Discounts. Negotiate preferential terms with vendors on the owner’s behalf, like reduced origination fees from lenders or lower premiums from insurance providers. Might even bundle the discounts into a package.

Some Blanket partners use the platform to do the above plus more. They add a premium service tier where clients get access to strategic reviews, vendor discounts, commission discounts, as well as the marketplace so owners can browse deals, and the Investor Dashboard so they can see real-time rental performance whenever they want.

Bottom Line

The report also mapped 6 characteristics of each owner archetype: PM usage, approval threshold, willingness to pay, resilience, AI comfort, and software.

You can see that Holders (purple line) use PMs way less than Expanders (green line) and Repositioners (yellow line), they’re less willing to pay, less financially resilient, etc.

During the release webinar last week, Peter asked why there is such a big difference between Expanders (green line) and Holders (purple line). Remember, the only behavioral difference between the two is that Expanders plan to buy more property, and Holders don’t. Neither are planning to sell.

Jordan had a solid explanation:

“I take this as just enthusiasm for the category. Folks that are buying are fundamentally more bullish. They’re voting with their dollars. They want to be in it. And if they want to be in it and doing it at scale, they’re more amenable to the types of activities that go along with doing the thing.”

And this is why If I had to sum up the report into one takeaway, it’d be that there are a lot of enthusiastic owners out there who want more from their property manager. If Expanders are bullish, then how much more bullish are Repositioners? And those two segments make up 52% of respondents. These are the owners with long-term goals who have the potential to be your client for 10+ years. They’re the owners willing to pay for premium services.

Bottom line, they’re the owners that are going to be your best and most valuable clients. The question then becomes, can your business rise to their expectations?

Good night 😴

Lior Abramovich
Co-founder, CEO