NARPM 2.0: Our Industry’s National Association Is Reinventing Itself
For more than 30 years, NARPM has been the national association representing third-party residential property managers. And for most of that time, it’s been quietly stuck.
Membership has hovered just under 6,000 for years. Meanwhile, our industry has exploded. The number of professionally managed single-family rentals has grown dramatically, regulatory pressure has intensified, and the rest of the housing world (NAR, IREM) has built organizations with tens of thousands of members and real influence in Washington.
We’ve been showing up to the fight with a butter knife.
That’s starting to change. The current leadership is rolling out something they’re calling “NARPM 2.0” - a structural overhaul that’s been talked about for a while and is now actually happening. Here’s what’s changing and what they have to get right.
The Real Problem: A Volunteer Organization in a Full-Time Industry
Here’s the thing nobody likes to say out loud about NARPM: volunteers have been doing most of the actual work.
That sounds noble, but the truth is that it slows things down. We all have busy day jobs running PM companies. At the end of the day, there’s no time left for serious volunteer work (at least not the kind that drives real organizational change). So initiatives get planned, momentum builds, then everyone goes back to their day-to-day and nothing ships.
DD Garzón, the current president (and a guest on a recent episode of my podcast), said it plainly: the organization has been moving slowly because volunteers don’t have the bandwidth to execute. Which is exactly right.
The fix in NARPM 2.0 is structural: paid professional staff handle execution, and volunteer leaders focus on vision and strategy. This is how every functional association in the country is run. It’s overdue.
The Two-Year Roadmap
There are four priorities driving the next 24 months. I’ll give you the short version of each, plus my honest read on which ones matter most.
1. Public Awareness & Marketing
For the first time, NARPM is spending real money on outreach beyond its own members - targeting property investors and owners to educate them on why hiring a NARPM-certified manager actually matters.
Part of this is a revamped “Find a Property Manager” tool on the website to connect owners directly with qualified pros (live now).
My take: this is the right move, and it’s also the one most likely to disappoint if it’s done halfway. Marketing to property owners is a long game. It requires consistent spend, clear positioning, and patience. If they treat it like a one-year campaign, it won’t work. If they commit to it as a permanent function of the organization, it could be transformational.
2. Industry Data
NARPM wants to become the trusted source for clean, reliable rental market data, specifically data that reflects professionally managed single-family rentals (not the mush you get when Zillow blends apartments, mom-and-pop self-managed rentals, and SFR portfolios into one number).
This is the one I’m most directly involved in. Jordan Muela and I just presented the 2026 PM Trends Report (which NARPM sponsored) at the recent Conference & Expo, and DD has been clear that work like this is foundational to what NARPM 2.0 is trying to build.
Why does this matter? Because right now, when Congress drafts housing legislation or a reporter writes a story about “rising rents,” nobody is calling NARPM. They’re calling Zillow. They’re calling NAR. They’re pulling from datasets that lump our segment of the market in with everyone else and produce conclusions that make no sense for how we actually operate.
If NARPM owns the data on professionally managed rentals, the conversation changes. That’s the play.
3. Raising Licensing Standards
In most states, anyone with a basic real estate salesperson’s license can manage rental properties. Which is insane when you think about how little of what we do has anything to do with selling houses.
NARPM is pushing for separate property management licensing requirements at the state level, the idea being that managing other people’s rental properties demands its own body of knowledge, distinct from real estate sales.
Part of this effort includes establishing real industry standards. The NARPM Trust Chart of Accounts, which Wolfgang Croskey, Brad Johnson, and I presented at the recent Broker/Owner Conference & Expo, is one piece of that puzzle. Standardized accounting is the kind of unglamorous, behind-the-scenes work that makes the rest of the licensing argument credible.
This is a long-game, state-by-state battle. It won’t be won in two years. But the fact that they’re finally fighting it is what matters.
4. Legal Support for Members
NARPM just launched a free legal hotline that gives members access to expert attorneys on fair housing claims, tenant disputes, and the constant churn of new legislation hitting our industry.
DD called this “huge” as a member benefit, and I agree. If you’ve ever tried to find a competent landlord-tenant attorney on short notice when something is actively on fire, you know what this is worth.
This is the kind of concrete, immediate value that justifies dues all on its own.
My Honest Read
Here’s where I land:
NARPM 2.0 is the right plan. The diagnosis is correct (volunteer-driven execution doesn’t scale), the priorities are well-chosen (data, standards, advocacy, member value), and the funding model is thoughtful.
But (and this is the big but) half-measures create chaos. If they commit to this and follow through, the next decade of our industry looks completely different. If they soft-launch it, miss timelines, and let the staff/volunteer dynamic drift back to where it was, we’ll be having this same conversation in five years with a different acronym.
Two years. Four priorities. One reinvented organization. The ambition is to make NARPM the group Congress calls when it’s drafting housing legislation, and the group journalists quote when they’re writing about the rental market.
That’s the right ambition. Now they have to go all-in.
If you’re a NARPM member, pay attention to what ships over the next 24 months. If you’re not a member, please join today. Not because it’s perfect today, but because the trajectory is finally pointed in the right direction.
-Peter
Financial Interest Disclosure: NARPM has sponsored projects and media that I have been involved with or have an ownership interest in. They comp’d a Press Pass to the 2026 Broker/Owner conference for a reporter covering the event for me. NARPM did not provide any compensation or incentive for this article or the conference coverage beyond that ticket.