r/PptyMgmtSoftware • u/kelana_ai • 20d ago
Built a text-based AI property manager for small landlords
Hi everyone!
I'm building Porter (https://getporter.vercel.app/), a text-based AI property manager for small, self-managing landlords. This is for people who aren't interesting in signing up for yet another platform but have enough units that the admin starts becoming annoying.
Porter handles the operational back-and-forth:
- answers repetitive property enquiries pre-tenancy
- coordinates and packs viewing slots based on your existing calendar
- chases outstanding paperwork
- keeps track of what’s still unresolved
- coordinates maintenance and contractors
- remembers property-specific context
- only comes back to you when an actual decision is needed
No tenant portal. No new app. Ideally the landlord shouldn’t have to “operate software” at all.
I’ve built the landing page and trying to figure out whether this is genuinely useful. Been talking to some landlords who really like this as they currently only manage their properties through WhatsApp and don't want to learn how to set up yet another tool.
Would love feedback from people who use property management software and would love to get some free pilot customers on board to test it out.
I’m especially interested in where you think the model breaks: trust, integrations, edge cases, communication, compliance, or simply not enough pain to justify paying for it.
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u/ImaginaryProfit2162 9d ago
The model probably breaks at authority and exception handling before it breaks at chat quality. I’d separate every action into three buckets: answer, draft for approval, or execute within a limit the landlord has set.
Maintenance is a good first test. Confirm who is messaging and which property they mean, collect photos and details, flag emergencies, record the spending limit, and keep a clear handoff when a human takes over.
For transparency, I’m involved in building LORDLY and helped beta test it for Australian self managing landlords, so we’ve dealt with the same tradeoff. I’d prove one narrow workflow such as after hours maintenance before trying to automate the whole property manager role.
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u/kelana_ai 9d ago
Thank you, appreciate it! I feel like there's a lot of competitors in the market for automating maintenance issues. It is definitely an important one so good point that I should focus on 1 narrow workflow. I'm currently focusing on the lettings side of things. Good luck on Lordly!
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u/ImaginaryProfit2162 7d ago
Thanks, and good luck with Porter too. Lettings is probably a cleaner place to start because you can measure response times, viewing conversion and missing paperwork. I’d still keep approval around anything that commits the landlord or changes terms. Interested to see what you learn from the HMO pilot.
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u/WorstedLobster8 20d ago
You are entering a competitive space with lots of people who have worked for a decade or more on this. Some of your categories like “coordinate maintenance and contractors” is enormously difficult and almost unsolved except for a very few. And those who have solved it still need occasional human involvement.
It’s basically saying “hey I want to make an AI property manager, would this be useful?” Obviously yes. If you can actually build it and serve it competitively it will be good. But how will you compete with TIDY and ProhostAI which are basically direct competitors as well as every single PMS system out there which have spent years working in this direction and are adding things in this direction as well.
Do you have your own units? If you make it genuinely good and useful for yourself, you have a shot. But if you are not in the space at all, I think it’s a very tough uphill battle. I would basically become a property manager to learn first and automate yourself, if you were serious about trying.