If you’ve been in property management longer than a week, you already know this truth: no two days are ever the same. Just when you think you’ve got the day planned out — the calls logged, the inspections scheduled, and the emails (almost) under control — the phone rings.
And that’s when the chaos begins.
It might be a tenant reporting a geyser that’s burst at 7am on a Saturday. Or a landlord who suddenly wants to “pop in” during a lease inspection because they’ve just remembered the curtain rods are sentimental. Or maybe it’s the contractor who swears blind they’ll be there at 9am, only to arrive closer to lunchtime… two days later.
Property Management
Property management is coffee in one hand and chaos in the other. And between those two things lies the real skill of the job: perspective.
Because here’s the thing: chaos itself isn’t the problem. Curveballs are part of the territory. Things break. People forget. Life happens. What makes or breaks the experience — for tenants, landlords, and yes, for your own sanity — is how you respond.
Some practitioners treat every curveball like a catastrophe. They panic, they scramble, they pass on the stress to everyone else in the chain. And suddenly, what was a small bump becomes a full-blown crisis. Others, however, shrug, sip their coffee, and tackle it calmly. Same problem, totally different outcome.
And the difference usually comes down to culture and mindset. If your culture says “we solve problems, we stay professional, and we treat people with respect,” then chaos doesn’t define you — it just tests you. It becomes a chance to prove your value. Tenants remember the agent who answered the call and sorted the issue. Landlords remember the practitioner who kept their asset protected without drama. And everyone remembers the practitioner who lost it completely — for all the wrong reasons.
Property management isn’t glamorous. It’s often thankless. But it’s also one of the most human sides of the property game. You’re dealing with people in their homes, landlords with their investments, and service providers trying to juggle five jobs at once. Things will go wrong. But how you show up in that moment — whether you fuel the fire or calm it — is what sets you apart.
So, when the chaos hits (and it will), take a breath. Take a sip of coffee. Remind yourself: this is part of the job, not a failure of the job. Then roll up your sleeves, find the solution, and remember that today’s chaos is tomorrow’s story — and maybe even tomorrow’s referral.
At the end of the day, coffee keeps you awake, clients keep you busy, and chaos keeps you sharp. The trick is not to avoid the chaos, but to manage it with enough perspective that when you put your head down at night, you can say: “It was messy, but I handled it.”
Because in property management, you don’t get to choose the curveballs. But you do get to choose how you swing at them.
Coffee, Culture and Curveballs 