Property managers spending entire days writing emails are missing 70 per cent of their message – and losing deals because of it.
That was the warning from respected real estate leader Chris Hanley at PM/ONE 2025, where he urged property managers to stop hiding behind screens and return to what he says is their most powerful tool: conversation.
“I was stunned when I asked this room how much of the day you spend writing emails,” Hanley told the audience.
“It’s too much. There’s not a lot of joy in that. You need to do less of that and more chat.”
Hanley argued that only around 30 per cent of meaning comes through in text. The other 70 per cent – body language, facial expressions and tone – disappears in email.
“All you’re doing by sending emails too much is missing out on the opportunity to solve and move quickly,” he said.
While the instinct might be to write more carefully, Hanley insisted the answer is simpler: pick up the phone.
He told the audience that in his experience, the chances of getting what you want in a negotiation are “70, 80, 90 per cent better if you’re face to face.”
For managers juggling difficult tenants, frustrated landlords and commission negotiations, he argued that margin makes all the difference.
Fear of confrontation
Hanley acknowledged why so many property managers still avoid phone calls.
“When I dig down and I talk to people about why they write emails and why they don’t pick up the phone a lot more, a lot of people tell me the truth.
“And the truth is they don’t like confrontation.”
But conversations, he said, do not have to be confrontational. They can be led by questions.
Hanley pointed to the story of Don Ritchie, who saved 170 lives over two decades at Sydney’s Gap, often by asking a single, simple question: “Is there anything I can do to help you?”
“That same approach – leading with genuine curiosity rather than defensive explanations – transforms property management interactions,” Hanley said.
The mechanics of conversation
Hanley described three elements that make conversations work:
- Tells – facial expressions and body language that reveal emotion.
- Turns – the moments when tension drops and dialogue can move forward.
- Gears – the pace and tone that can accelerate or calm a discussion.
“You always start a conversation easy. You don’t rush it,” he explained.
“If you’ve got someone who’s agro, then you use the speed of your voice to calm them down and to take the heat out of the person on the other end.”
Mastering those techniques, he said, allows property managers to turn difficult conversations into negotiations – and negotiations into agreements.
Competitive edge
With more than five million dwellings across Australia needing management, Hanley believes those who excel at real conversation will gain an unbeatable edge – particularly in an era when AI cannot replicate human nuance.
“AI won’t allow you to successfully manage a difficult tenant,” he said.
“AI won’t negotiate all sorts of things that property managers can and do on a daily basis. AI is not capable of doing that stuff. But you are.”
His prescription is straightforward but requires courage:
- Start each day with a list of people to call rather than email.
- Use the word “we” to show collective strength.
- Ask more questions than you make statements.
- Slow your speech to calm angry clients.
- Send the follow-up email after the conversation.
- Accept responsibility for ensuring your message lands.
“This isn’t about getting rid of tech,” Hanley told the audience.
“It’s about using both your tongue and your thumb effectively. In an industry built on trust and negotiation, the human voice is still the most powerful tool.”
Back to basics
For property managers drowning in email chains, Hanley’s advice was to go paradoxically backward: less typing, more talking.
“In an industry where 90 per cent of a business’s value remains in the rent roll, mastering conversation isn’t just a nice skill – it’s survival,” he said.
And as Hanley reminded the room with a personal story, sometimes the lesson is simplest: “I once heard about a three-year-old who told his grandfather he wanted a story from his mouth, not from an iPad.
Some things just work better when humans talk to humans.”
