Book Recommendations for Property Management Business Owners
I’m often asked for book suggestions, so I figured I would collect a list of my top books in one place. Let me caveat this list by stating I’ve never read a book specifically about how to be a property manager or how to grow a property management business. I don’t know that I’ve ever found one worth reading. So the books below are more general in nature, although still very applicable. They certainly helped me immensely.
Start With One of These Two Books
Now, I can’t go any further without recommending you read one of two excellent books that are relevant to every small business owner:
If your business does under 1 million in revenue per year, and you haven’t read The E-Myth by Michael Gerber, drop everything and order it now.
If your business does over 1 million in revenue, order Traction by Gino Wickman and read it as soon as possible. While you wait, take the Organizational Checkup to find out where you stand.
Nine Books for Property Management Company Owners
OK without those preliminaries out of the way, let’s jump into the rest of my book recommendations. Note: these are Amazon affiliate links.
No Man’s Land (Strategy). My favorite to recommend. Filled with quotes that are pure gold, such as “Deciding what promises to make to which customers is strategic planning in its essence.” All about how to cross the chasm from small business to big company.
Work The System by Sam Carpenter (Operations). Author is a bit unusual and the specifics are kind of dated, but the content is pure gold. Learn how to scale a service-based business effectively. All about building systems & processes (literally my favorite topic).
Who by Geoff Smart (Hiring). Probably the most recommended book on hiring of all time. It simplifies the famous “Topgrading” method. We use this process for all key hires. Very practical & easy to start using immediately. Worksheets available online for free.
Vivid Vision by Cameron Herold (For the Visionary). If you are an EOS “Visionary”, you’ll love this book. It describes a method of putting on paper the beautiful vision you have in your head of where your company is headed. Then you have something to share with the rest of your team & clients.
Simple Numbers by Greg Crabtree (Finance). If you only buy 1 book from this list, buy this one. Plain English tips on how to run a profitable growing business. Especially relevant for service-based companies. Greg Crabtree was a consultant on the famous PM Profitability Study conducted by ProfitCoach.
The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes (Sales & more). Huge range of general business advice delivered in a witty and fun to read way. Chet Holmes was massively successful and I refer back to this book often.
They Ask, You Answer by Marcus Sheridan (Marketing). The go-to reference for content marketing. Our company’s marketing strategy is basically ripped directly from this book.
The 4 Disciplines of Execution by Chris McChesney (Organizational Change). How to drive difficult changes successfully through your company. We used the techniques described in this book to drive our Google Business score from 2.7 to 4.2 over a period of about 6 months.
We Secret Shopped You by Mike & Dylan O’Neil. The authors contacted over 3,000 US-based property management companies to evaluate their sales process. This book reveals:
-Hard statistics on the massive problems with the current state of property management sales follow-up.
-Real world examples of mistakes actual companies (maybe even yours) are making and where you should start in fixing them.
-The sobering future of property management marketing and sales, and how you can prepare your company to survive what’s ahead.
Other Property Management Content
I have an article on my top 5 property management podcasts - check it out here!