The 4 Numbers Every PM Should Check Weekly

Most PMs track door count and bank balance. That is like driving by looking at the odometer and gas gauge. You know how far you have gone and how much fuel you have, but you have no idea where you are headed.

Four numbers tell you everything about the health and trajectory of your PM business. Check them weekly. React to trends monthly. Your decision-making will improve immediately.

KPI 1: Revenue Per Unit (RPU)

What it measures: Total monthly PM revenue divided by total units managed.

Why it matters: RPU is the single most important metric in your business. It determines profitability, service quality, growth capacity, and company valuation. A company at $150 RPU and a company at $300 RPU managing the same number of doors are fundamentally different businesses.

Target: $250 to $300 per unit per month. At $300 RPU, a 300-door company produces over $1 million in annual revenue with approximately $250,000 in profit.

How to calculate:

1. Pull total PM revenue for the trailing 30 days
2. Count total units managed
3. Divide revenue by units

What to watch for:

• RPU trending up = fee implementation working
• RPU flat = new fees needed or existing fees not being applied consistently
• RPU declining = losing high-value clients or failing to collect fees

Frequency: Weekly snapshot. Monthly trend analysis.

KPI 2: Owner Churn Rate

What it measures: Doors lost as a percentage of total doors managed, annualized.

Why it matters: Every churned door costs $3,000 to $10,000 to replace (marketing cost, vacancy, onboarding). Churn under 10% is excellent. Above 15% signals systemic problems with communication or service quality.

How to calculate:

1. Count doors lost in the trailing 90 days
2. Multiply by 4 to annualize
3. Divide by average doors managed
4. That is your annualized churn rate

What to watch for:

• Churn from property sales (uncontrollable, typically 40-50% of all churn)
• Churn from communication failures (controllable, fix with automated notifications)
• Churn from fee disputes (may be healthy if low-RPU clients are leaving)
• Churn concentrated in year 1 (onboarding process needs work)
• Churn after year 3 (ongoing communication has gaps)

Frequency: Monthly calculation. Quarterly deep dive by reason.

KPI 3: Cost Per Signed PMA

What it measures: Total marketing and sales cost divided by new PMAs signed.

Why it matters: This number determines whether your growth is profitable or just expensive. If it costs $5,000 to acquire a client worth $200/month ($2,400/year), payback takes over 2 years. If the same client churns in 18 months, you lost money on the acquisition.

Target: Under 20% of estimated client lifetime value. At $300 RPU, 1.5 doors per client, and 10-year average tenure, lifetime value is $54,000. Acceptable cost per PMA: up to $10,800 (though $2,000 to $5,000 is typical).

How to calculate:

1. Total all marketing and sales costs for the trailing 90 days (ad spend, BDM salary/commission, website costs, referral fees, networking costs, your time valued at hourly rate)
2. Count signed PMAs in the same period
3. Divide total cost by PMAs signed

What to watch for:

• Cost per PMA rising = lead quality declining, close rate dropping, or marketing costs increasing
• Cost per PMA falling = process improvements working (speed to lead, better landing pages, improved sales process)
• Large gap between channels = opportunity to reallocate budget

Frequency: Monthly calculation by channel.

KPI 4: Average Days on Market

What it measures: Average number of days from listing a vacancy to a signed lease.

Why it matters: Every vacant day costs the owner money and erodes trust. High days on market may signal overpriced listings, poor marketing, slow showing scheduling, or weak tenant pool.

Target: Under 21 days for properties priced at market rate. Over 30 days requires investigation.

How to calculate:

1. Pull all leases signed in the trailing 90 days
2. For each, count days from listing date to lease signed date
3. Average

What to watch for:

• Days on market increasing = rents above market, showing process slow, or listing quality declining
• Days on market increasing after adding tenant fees = fees may be too high (the market is speaking)
• Days on market varying dramatically by property type or neighborhood = pricing needs localization
• Seasonal patterns = normal. Q4 is typically slower. Adjust expectations accordingly.

Frequency: Weekly snapshot. Monthly trend.

How to Use These Four Numbers Together

These KPIs interact. When one moves, check the others:

RPU increases but churn also increases? You may be losing price-sensitive clients during fee implementation. Check whether the churned clients were low-RPU. If yes, this is healthy. Higher RPU on remaining doors more than offsets the lost doors.

Cost per PMA drops but churn stays the same? Your marketing is getting more efficient. Growth is accelerating on a stable base. This is the ideal scenario.

Days on market increases after fee implementation? Tenant fees may be above market. Test a small reduction and monitor. The free market test applies here.

RPU flat while leads increase? You are adding doors without implementing fees on them. New owners need to sign at your full fee schedule from day one.

The Weekly Review

Every Monday, pull these four numbers. It takes 5 minutes.

If all four are trending in the right direction, keep doing what you are doing. If any is trending wrong, investigate before it becomes a problem.

These four numbers are your dashboard. Everything else is detail. Master these and you will always know whether your PM company is healthy, growing, and headed in the right direction.

Your growth roadmap starts with knowing where you stand today. These numbers tell you exactly that.