Written by
Emma Collins
Published on
Jan 28, 2026
You finish the day exhausted. You've been busy non-stop since 8am. But when you try to list what you actually accomplished? It's hard to point to anything substantial.
This is the reality for most property managers. Days filled with activity but frustratingly little progress on the work that actually matters.
The first step to fixing it is understanding where your time actually goes. Not where you think it goes — where it really goes.
Why you need a time audit
Most property managers dramatically underestimate time spent on certain tasks and overestimate others. We're bad at remembering interruptions. We forget the 10 minutes here and there that add up to hours.
Without hard data, you can't:
Identify your biggest time drains
Make a case for new tools or processes
Measure whether changes are actually working
Decide what to delegate, automate, or eliminate
A time audit isn't about making yourself feel guilty. It's about getting the information you need to work smarter.
How to run a time audit
You don't need fancy software. A simple approach works:
Track everything for 1-2 weeks. Every time you switch tasks, note what you're doing. Be specific: "maintenance call from tenant" not just "phone call." Include interruptions — they count.
Use broad categories. Don't get too granular or you'll spend more time tracking than working. These categories cover most property management work:
Maintenance coordination
Tenant communication (non-maintenance)
Landlord communication
Compliance admin
Inspections and property visits
Financial/rent admin
Business development and new landlords
Internal meetings and admin
Other
Be honest. Include the time you spend on email that doesn't go anywhere. The calls that could have been avoided. The interruptions that derailed your morning. The data is only useful if it's accurate.
Note the context. Was that maintenance call because a tenant didn't know how to report an issue? Was that landlord call because they hadn't received an update? Context helps you spot the root causes.
What a typical breakdown looks like
Based on industry data and conversations with letting agencies, here's roughly where property manager time goes:
Category | Typical % of time |
|---|---|
Maintenance coordination | 25-35% |
Tenant communication | 15-20% |
Landlord communication | 10-15% |
Compliance admin | 10-15% |
Inspections and property visits | 10-15% |
Financial/rent admin | 5-10% |
Business development | 5-10% |
Other admin | 5-10% |
Your numbers will vary. But if you're like most agencies, maintenance coordination will be at or near the top.
The maintenance coordination black hole
Maintenance deserves special attention because it's usually the single biggest category — and the one with the most room for improvement.
"Maintenance coordination" includes:
Taking initial reports from tenants
Asking follow-up questions to understand what's actually wrong
Deciding on urgency and classification
Finding and briefing contractors
Coordinating access between tenants and tradespeople
Chasing for updates
Keeping landlords informed
Documenting everything
Each individual task seems small. But they add up relentlessly.
Worse, maintenance work is highly interruptive. A tenant calls about a leak and suddenly your focused work on a landlord report is derailed. You handle the call, but it takes 15 minutes to get back into what you were doing. Those context-switching costs don't show up in your time log but they're real.
Maintenance also tends to be reactive. You're responding to whatever comes in rather than working to a plan. That reactive mode is exhausting and inefficient.
Identifying your quick wins
Once you have your data, look for tasks that are:
High frequency, low complexity. Things you do repeatedly that follow a predictable pattern. These are prime candidates for automation. Certificate renewal reminders, rent payment confirmations, standard acknowledgment messages.
Repetitive with minor variations. Same basic task but slightly different each time. These are prime for templates. Contractor briefings, landlord updates, tenant move-in information.
Information-gathering. Time spent extracting information that the other person could have provided upfront. If tenants could tell you what's wrong, share photos, and give their availability without a phone call — how much time would that save?
Coordination between parties. Acting as a relay between tenant, contractor, and landlord. Each message you forward or conversation you relay is time you could save if everyone had visibility of the same information.
Common quick wins
Based on where most agencies find waste, here are changes that typically deliver fast results:
Automated certificate tracking. Gas safety, EICR, EPC — all have expiry dates. Automated reminders 8, 4, and 2 weeks before expiry eliminate the mental overhead of tracking compliance manually.
Templated landlord updates. If you're writing the same type of update repeatedly, template it. Monthly reports, maintenance notifications, inspection summaries — write once, reuse forever.
Conversational maintenance intake. Let tenants report issues through WhatsApp or email, with AI handling the conversation to gather complete information. No phone calls, no back-and-forth emails, no "can you send me a photo?" follow-ups. By the time your team sees the issue, it's fully documented with photos, details, and tenant availability.
Tenant troubleshooting guidance. Many maintenance reports are for issues tenants can resolve themselves: low boiler pressure, tripped electrics, appliances that aren't actually broken. AI can walk tenants through diagnostic steps before you even get involved, resolving issues in minutes instead of days.
Clear triage criteria. A documented framework for classifying emergencies vs routine repairs means faster decisions and less time debating priority. Everyone knows that no hot water in winter is urgent. A stiff window handle can wait.
Reclaiming time for strategic work
The goal isn't just to work fewer hours (though that's nice too). It's to shift the balance from reactive to proactive.
Most property managers operate at roughly 80% reactive, 20% proactive. Constantly responding to whatever lands in their inbox. Never getting ahead.
The target should be closer to 50/50. Half your time responding to immediate needs, half your time on:
Building landlord relationships
Winning new business
Improving processes
Developing your team
Actually thinking about the business
This shift doesn't happen by working harder. It happens by eliminating and automating the low-value reactive work that currently dominates your day.
Making it stick
A time audit is useful, but only if you act on it. Here's how to turn insights into lasting change:
Pick one area to fix first. Don't try to transform everything at once. If maintenance coordination is your biggest drain, start there. Get that under control before moving to the next thing.
Set boundaries. Batch your email into specific times rather than checking constantly. Set callback windows for non-urgent tenant calls. Protect blocks of time for focused work.
Re-audit quarterly. Run another time audit in 3 months. Compare to your baseline. Are things improving? Where are the remaining pain points? Continuous improvement requires continuous measurement.
Share the data. If you're making a case for new tools or additional resource, your time audit data is your evidence. "We spend 35% of our time on maintenance coordination" is more compelling than "we're really busy."
The property managers who get ahead
Every property manager has the same 40-odd hours per week. The ones who progress — who grow their portfolios, build their careers, or scale their agencies — are the ones who escape the admin trap.
They're not working harder. They're spending their hours differently.
A time audit shows you where your hours currently go. What you do with that information is up to you.
Maintenance coordination is the biggest time sink for most agencies. Lanten automates the entire workflow — from tenant intake via WhatsApp to contractor coordination to landlord updates — so your team can focus on work that actually requires human judgment.
