Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Building an AI-Native Property Management Company
How can property managers implement Artificial Intelligence (AI) to make their companies more successful and efficient?
The last time you joined us on The Property Management Show, we heard how Ping Hsu from Spotted Properties almost lost his business, but then transformed his role from being a property manager to a trusted advisor in the minds of his owners.
In this episode, we’re shifting the conversation to how he has also built an AI-native property management company in the process.
| Ping Hsu – Bio Ping Hsu is the owner of Spotted Properties, an 800-unit property management company in Hamilton, Ontario, and founder of Acel Cortex Solutions (https://acelcortex.ai/), where he builds AI agents that run the back-end operations of property management businesses — from accounting to maintenance coordination. Using this system, Ping now runs Spotted Properties with a team of just three people while pushing the company’s profitability from under 20% to over 32%. He’s now helping other property management companies put the same AI-driven approach to work in their own operations. | Marie Tepman – Bio Marie Tepman is Director of Marketing at Fourandhalf, a full-service digital marketing agency that helps residential property management companies attract more property owner leads — covering everything from websites, SEO, and paid ads to content marketing, online reputation management, lead nurturing, marketing strategy/consulting, and AI-driven search. With over a decade in owner-focused marketing, she’s spoken at industry conferences and written extensively on marketing for property managers. She’s also co-host of The Property Management Show — the longest-running podcast in the industry. Outside of work, she’s a mom of two and an enthusiastic home cook for her toughest food critics. |
How Can AI Be Effectively Implemented in a Property Management Company?
Using AI to take phone calls did not work for Ping and his team. But what he did realize is that the time-consuming data transfers and paperwork did not need to be done by a team member.
A Property Management System (PMS) cannot be contained in a single software. You have likely noticed this in your own operations. Ping says he uses several different platforms for several different things:
- DocuSign. With all of his student leases, DocuSign can help collect electronic signatures on a lease agreement from six or seven tenants.
- Google Calendar. This is where meetings and schedules are kept.
- QBO. Company financials are easily organized here.
AI was built to coordinate the transfer of data, settling into accounting and administrative functions.
Can You Trust AI with Your Company’s Money?
Ping said that was a scary thought in the beginning. They started by implementing the AI tool Claude to run the administrative functions. But, it would never make decisions for the company. Decisions come from humans. But now, AI can be instructed to do any number of things without a human team member logging into whichever platform manages that part of the business.
What does this do for the organization?
- Saves time.
- Bumps up efficiency.
Before handing over any of the accounting, Ping ran a lot of tests. He was also willing to make a lot of mistakes.
What Does This AI Agent Actually Look Like in Practice for a Property Management Company?
Take a look at Ping’s screen, and you’ll see a pretty well-organized work flow. Here’s what the maintenance process looks like.
- It begins with a dashboard.
- A tenant makes a maintenance request.
- A diagnosis of the problem is made.
- A vendor is selected and assigned.
- The work is scheduled
- If the owner wants multiple quotes to approve, those are provided.
- Tenants confirm the work is done.
- The invoice comes in and it’s turned into a bill.
- The invoice is paid.
- The cost shows up on the owner’s rental statement.
These AI-driven work flows are available for maintenance, accounting, and leasing, and Ping says the amount of work his team has to do has been reduced. With what they have now, 55% of their work has been reduced with the AI they’re using. And, he’s still working on making it even more effective.
There is no longer a human team member needed to participate in each step.
How much time is actually saved?
Ping says that in the past, he could not ask his team for any help on Thursdays because Thursdays were when invoices were processed. They were manually combining several tasks and charges were being added and everything was being coordinated. It took a full day. Now, the team members are basically checking the statements once, and a virtual assistant is making sure no invoices were missed. They spend two hours a week on invoices.
Two hours instead of a full work day.
His chatbots have also turned several hours of work into a single click when information needs to be collected and shared with tenants or owners. Emails in the company’s own tone have been created and sent.
Instead of logging into multiple software systems, a team member simply enters an AI chat and provides instructions.
Should You Plug AI Into Your Existing Business Model…or Build Something New?
Maybe you’ll see a way to plug AI into your existing property management business model.
Or, you’ll want an AI-native business model where you re-do your standard operating procedures and organizational chart and operations.
- Ping doesn’t want to compete with big property management software systems.
- He wanted to create something that solved his specific operational challenges.
- Appfolio wasn’t easy enough to use, and Buildium was still providing friction even though he’s been using it for 10 years.
- But: Google Calendar is easy to use, so he keeps that around as part of his operations.
It’s about creating your own solutions.
Ping also sees it as top-down. He has to use the AI solution first. He has to demonstrate that it saves time to bring his team members on board.
How does he test it and how does he bring it to his team? It helps that Ping is also an engineer. So, he will:
- Conduct 20 tests.
- Show the team that from those 20 tests, he has received consistent results.
- Build out a process that makes sense for the entire team.
- Demonstrate the ROI: time saved, life is easier.
Something as simple as sending a Notice of Entry can be made even simpler. With AI, a property manager can speak the instruction right into their phone about entering a property for maintenance next Tuesday. No one has to get out a laptop or log into a system.
Ping knows his team is on board because they’re asking for new features.
How Long Will it Take to Move to an AI-Native Standard of Operations?
Six months, for Ping and his team.
In November of 2025, they got started and team members were still falling back on the old procedures. By April 2026, they were thinking of new features that might give them more time and flexibility.
Ping has managed to run his business with three full-time team members who are committed to the company and its growth. He believes is exactly what all the property management owners need at the current moment, because:
- The work is not always that attractive. It’s hard work.
- Team members are happier when they’re not overwhelmed.
- The margins are less precarious, making success more attainable.
- The property management business itself becomes a lot more sellable.
What Do the Margins Look Like After AI Implementation?
The margins are fluctuating.
Previously, Ping said he struggled to break 20 percent. A lot of experts will say that 25 percent is a healthy margin, but Ping kept missing the 20 percent mark with his property management company.
Now? He’s at 32 percent.
It fluctuates, but on average, it’s around 32 percent.
Ping says it’s as simple as cutting the payroll.
How and When Do You Cut That Payroll?
As soon as AI began to streamline the workflow, employees will see their own work decrease. Either they’ll have nothing to do, or they’ll find a way to adapt and produce a different type of value.
- Ping was clear about the direction from the beginning, and was willing to help departing staff find their next opportunity.
- He began with the employees who were willing to share the tasks that they really hated doing.
- Those are the things he automated.
Accounting is an example. With over 800 doors to manage, a finance manager was essential. A virtual assistant was also employed. As AI workflows made accounting more efficient, the VA was removed first and then the finance manager was replaced with a part-time person spending eight to ten hours every two weeks producing reports.
There is no room for people in the middle. The team he has assembled serves as the final approvers for any of the work created by AI agents.
With maintenance, the tenant requests and vendor assignments are handled by AI agents and then when it’s time to communicate with a vendor, the property manager steps in so the vendor can ask specific questions and get authoritative direction. That’s the part Ping is working on now; providing the vendors with what they need to remove that step of having to coordinate.
How Comfortable Can We Be with AI?
Ping always has a human loop in every decision. For example, if a faucet needs to be fixed, which vendor is selected? There are many different kinds of plumbers.
In order to trust AI, we have to trust that it’s always going to make the correct decision. So in the plumber example, AI will select the plumber and provide the reasoning behind that selection, then ask for human approval. Instead of looking for plumbers, the human property manager will simply approve or not approve the one the AI selected.
Comfort comes with test environments, and Ping has several:
- His own team provides his proof of concept at Spotted Properties.
- The software they use provides the necessary integration opportunities.
What about marketing? Can sales and marketing be AI-native?
Ping says his answer is simple: do you know what you’re doing when it comes to sales and marketing?
Because he would prefer to delegate that. Property managers don’t need additional work.
His advice: use AI tools to streamline the operations and reduce overhead cost, but remember that marketing directly affects sales.
What’s the Investment Required to Build an AI Agent?
AI tokens aren’t cheap.
And the technology requires subscriptions.
Ping says he’s a lot more “techy” than most property management companies, and that helps. His token spend is about 200 or 250. That includes all the testing that he’s doing.
The vision is to demonstrate the help this has provided for Spotted Properties so that other property management companies can do the same thing.
What kind of response has Ping had?
- So far, he’s just gathering data for the other property management companies who are interested in this. What he’s built so far for Spotted Properties has been created specifically for their operations and their pain points.
- They’re offering some level of service on these AI agent tools, but he’s focused on making sure it works exactly right for his company, first.
- At the same time, Ping is confident that this is the direction that the industry is moving. The companies who leverage AI agents and are able to make their staff and their payroll more lean will have more money to invest in sales and marketing.
- That means the companies who don’t lean into this kind of technology will find themselves at a competitive disadvantage.
Wondering what kinds of coding tools Ping is using?
He uses a Claude code to create the specific services he needs and sometimes ChatGPT. Sometimes there’s hard coding involved because there are so many details and so much to know.
What Should a Property Manager Do Now if an AI-Native Company is the Future?
The first step, according to Ping, is identifying the biggest pain points in the company.
- Look at your organizational chart.
- Identify who is doing repetitive work and who are the bottlenecks.
- Who is doing work that an AI agent can do?
- Solve that problem.
Ping is almost certain that the accounting process is where you’ll want to start. This is what his conversations with property managers have shown him. Too many invoices and too many checkpoints.
AI is pretty affordable right now. It’s a good time to play around with it and see what it can do.
Check out Ping’s AI company Acel Cortex Solutions, and he’ll be happy to tell you more about it. And if you have any questions about your property management marketing, contact us at Fourandhalf. We’ll see you next time.
