Why “1,000 Properties” Is the Wrong Growth Goal

It’s the phrase I hear almost every week. "I just want to hit 1,000 properties."

It is usually said with ambition, often with pride, and sometimes with a distinct undercurrent of exhaustion. But while it sounds impressive at a dinner party, it is one of the most dangerous targets in our industry.

Why? Because portfolio size is a vanity metric. On its own, it tells you absolutely nothing about your profitability, your team’s wellbeing, or your long-term sustainability. In fact, chasing raw numbers is often the fastest way to erode all three.

The myth of scale

Hitting four digits feels momentous, but here is the question most business owners don’t pause to ask: 1,000 properties at what margin?

If you are signing twenty new managements a month but watching eight walk out the back door, you don’t have growth. You have leakage. If getting to that magic number requires discounted fees, ignored maintenance, and a team stretched to their breaking point, your "growth" is quietly eating your profit from the inside out.

Scale without profitability isn't success. It’s just complexity.

Better doors, not just more doors

We need to stop obsessing over the volume of work and start looking at the quality of the revenue. Imagine a growth strategy that prioritised net income over door count.

Real, sustainable growth feels different. It looks like a rent roll where fees are aligned with the actual expertise you provide, rather than a race to the bottom. It looks like a stable team that isn’t constantly onboarding replacements because the previous property manager burned out. It is the peace of mind that comes from leaders who understand their numbers, rather than leading from their gut.

This is where "less is more" stops being a catchy slogan and starts being a survival strategy.

Profitability is a deliberate choice

Profitability doesn’t appear just because you worked harder this month. It comes from working deliberately.

It requires the sometimes uncomfortable work of knowing your true cost per property and understanding exactly where your profit leaks are springing from.

If you can’t confidently recite your break-even point or your churn rate, you aren’t running a growth strategy—you are reacting. And as we all know, reaction is expensive, both financially and emotionally.

When profitability is unclear, your team absorbs the pressure. Portfolios balloon, burnout becomes normalised, and you end up spending more time recruiting than leading. High-performing teams aren't built on chaos; they are built on reasonable workloads, clear systems, and leaders who protect profit as fiercely as they protect their people.

Retention is the new acquisition

It costs far more to replace a client than to retain one, yet we often roll out the red carpet for new business while letting existing relationships drift.

Retention isn't passive; it’s strategic. It requires proactive communication, fee reviews that reflect your value, and education around the legislative headaches we solve for them daily.

A rent roll that grows modestly but retains fiercely will always outperform the agency that lists twenty and loses eight. It’s less noise, less stress, and infinitely more profitable.

The final verdict

So, before you pin "1,000 properties" to your vision board, ask yourself a harder question: Do I want more properties, or do I want a more profitable business?

Because the two are rarely the same. True leadership in property management isn’t about how big your rent roll looks on paper; it’s about how well it performs financially and culturally. Design for profit, protect your people, and the right kind of growth will follow.