Peter Lohmann describes a pod model where a property manager and assistant share inboxes and co-sign emails, so either can cover if the other is out. Assistants learn on the job and move into full PM roles, creating redundancy and a clear path up instead of one person handling everything.
Pods for us was really a game changer because it allowed us to have two people. They had their own personal inboxes, but they shared an inbox that was a team inbox where residents and our homeowners were all sending everything into the same inbox. And so you had a property manager and a property manager assistant, which that was what we called it internally. To the outside world, it was a resident relations manager and a client relationship manager. And the emails had both of their signatures on it. And so there was redundancy there. And so if somebody was out, there was two people on that team. So the other person knew how to do the other's job. And it was great too because it allowed for upward scale. If a property manager assistant ultimately wanted to become a property manager, they were learning while working in this, in the pod arrangement.
