Property Managers Are Asking How to Grow, Not How to Automate: Lessons From AppFolio FUTURE

The biggest takeaway from AppFolio's FUTURE conference in San Diego: the software on stage answered how to run a property management company better, while the questions in the hallways were about how to grow one. Operators kept asking the same two things all week: how do I find companies that want to sell, and how do I figure out what I actually want to buy?

What did AppFolio show on stage at FUTURE?

AppFolio showcased Realm X, and I went in with the usual skepticism you bring to any big platform demo. I left impressed. It did not feel like a pile of features bolted on because a competitor had them first. It felt built backward from an actual operator problem, solutions-based instead of feature-stuffed.

That distinction matters. Most PropTech sells you a longer list of things the software can technically do. This felt like it was trying to solve something real. The organization matched the ambition, too: someone to point you in the right direction every few steps and three and a half days that ran without a wasted minute. For a company celebrating 20 years, they are still building like they have something to prove.

What were property managers asking in the hallways?

Here is where it got interesting. In every room, over coffee, in every hallway conversation, I heard the same two questions:

• How do I find the companies that actually want to sell?
• How do I figure out what I actually want to buy?

Same two questions. Different rooms. All week long.

Why is efficiency a different problem than growth?

Nobody cornered me to ask how to automate a maintenance ticket faster. Nobody wanted to talk about dashboard efficiency. The software on stage was answering "how do I run what I already have better." The questions in the hallway were all "how do I get bigger."

That gap is the whole story of this industry right now. Efficiency and growth are two different problems, and most operators have software quietly solving one of them while the other sits wide open. No platform update changes that math. Growth still comes down to finding the right company and knowing exactly what you are looking for before you go hunting.

Then Lenny Kravitz showed up

Wednesday night, a surprisingly intimate venue, and Lenny Kravitz took the stage. Live, a few feet away, genuinely great. Even a software conference knows how to throw a party.

If one of those two questions is the one actually keeping you up at night, you are not behind. You are asking the same thing every serious operator in this industry is asking right now.

What does this mean if you are planning to buy a property management company in 2027?

If buying a property management company is on your radar for 2027, the useful work starts now, and it is not about software. It comes down to the two hallway questions: knowing what you want to buy, and knowing how to find owners who are open to selling. Better tools can make the company you already run smoother. Deciding where you want to grow, and which company gets you there, is a separate decision that is still yours to make.

This is an outlook based on what I heard at the conference, not a forecast or a guarantee about any market.

Where can you learn more or meet me?

• NARPM National, October 13-15. I am on stage Wednesday, October 14. If buying a property management company is on your radar for 2027, book a time to meet with me while I am there.
• Slayer's Built to Acquire. Applications open mid October and the next cohort starts in November. Learn more about Built to Acquire.
• On the podcast. This week on the show: agentic AI, the kind that takes action on your behalf rather than the chatbot kind. Watch the episode.

There were many other takeaways from FUTURE. Look out for some video content and my hot takes.

FAQ

What were the two most common questions at AppFolio FUTURE?

How to find property management companies that want to sell, and how to figure out what you actually want to buy.

Is software the answer to growing a property management company?

Software like Realm X helps you run what you already have more smoothly. Growing bigger is a separate problem that comes down to finding the right company and knowing what you are looking for.

Where can I talk with Stacey about acquiring a property management company?

She will be at NARPM National in October and is open to meetings there. You can also learn about her program at staceysalyer.com/built-to-acquire.