Deep Dive: Proper – Building a Tech-Enabled Operating Model for Residential Property Management

A recent editorial feature titled “Deep Dive: Proper“ examines how technology, centralization, and an acquisition-led strategy are reshaping the economics and service delivery of residential property management. For Alex Samoylovich, Founder and Executive Chairman of Proper, the analysis is less about a conventional roll-up story and more about a new operating model built for consistency, local accountability, and scale.

Read the Full Editorial here.

Proper is positioned as a national residential property management platform designed to unify best-in-class regional operators under a shared culture of service, technology, and operational excellence.

Why Property Management is Entering a New Scale Era

One of the editorial’s core observations is that centralization and automation are beginning to create true economies of scale in property management. Historically, many functions in residential operations were difficult to standardize without compromising responsiveness at the site and market level. As workflows become more systematized and technology reduces manual friction, larger platforms can invest in shared services and tools that smaller operators struggle to fund.

The implication is straightforward: as the cost curve changes, scale becomes more than purchasing power. It becomes an operating advantage tied to process discipline, data infrastructure, and technology-enabled execution.

Proper as an Operating Model, Not Just an M&A Strategy

The editorial frames Proper’s strategy as a deliberate combination of acquisitions and centralized operations. In this view, buying regional managers is not the finish line. The value creation comes from integrating them into a unified operating framework that improves execution, reporting, and service consistency while preserving local expertise.

This model is especially relevant in a fragmented industry where many firms have strong local performance but limited ability to invest in modern systems, specialized talent, and scalable back-office capabilities.

The Founders’ Context: Operations, Technology, and Resident Experience

The piece highlights how Proper reflects the founders’ experience at the intersection of multifamily operations and technology.

Alex Samoylovich is a Chicago-based real estate developer and entrepreneur whose work spans multifamily development, operations, and resident experience technology, including CEDARst Companies. 

Brian Duggan brings an operator background focused on scaling management operations.

The editorial also connects Proper’s technology orientation to Livly, the resident experience and multifamily operations software platform co-founded by Samoylovich and Duggan. Livly is presented as a practical foundation for understanding how modern platforms can centralize workflows, improve consistency, and support portfolio-level visibility.

Central Services, AI, and the Mechanics of Scale

A practical theme in the editorial is how centralized services can shift the economics of management. Instead of treating overhead as a pass-through, scale can support dedicated teams and shared infrastructure across finance, reporting, people operations, and operational support. In parallel, the editorial notes the growing impact of automation and AI on task routing, service workflows, compliance tracking, and back-office efficiency.

The strategic point is not that software replaces property management, but that modern tooling changes the baseline expectations for responsiveness, control, and visibility. For many regional operators, the decision becomes whether to build these capabilities independently or participate in a platform that already has the capital and systems to do so.

The Captive Strategy: Consolidating Owner-Operators and Reducing Concentration Risk

One of the most distinctive elements discussed is Proper’s emphasis on acquiring captive property management companies – management operations embedded within owner-operators, often with significant client and geographic concentration.

The editorial frames this approach as contrarian to classic roll-up rules, which typically avoid concentrated customer bases. Proper’s thesis is that combining multiple captives can reduce concentration risk while unlocking standalone value that historically did not exist when a management company only served its parent owner.

This strategy also addresses a common driver behind self-management: control and reputation. The editorial suggests that owner-operators often choose vertical integration not solely for fee economics, but because they want direct influence over resident experience and onsite execution. Proper’s structure is presented as a way to preserve the owner’s mentality while removing the day-to-day management burden.

Brand Architecture: Preserving Local Identity While Adding Institutional Backing

Another notable point is Proper’s approach to the brand. Many roll-ups push immediate brand consolidation. The editorial argues that in property management, that playbook can create friction – especially when local brands are tied to hiring, retention, and owner-operator identity.

Proper’s model, as described, allows acquired operators to maintain their existing brands where it supports talent retention and local market credibility, while benefiting from shared infrastructure and platform-level standards. This is framed as a practical lever for protecting local expertise while still achieving platform consistency.

Where the Market May be Headed

The editorial closes with a forward-looking question: in a world where technology and centralized services create real cost and capability advantages, what is the durable role of small property management firms?

The analysis suggests that local knowledge remains valuable, but may be insufficient on its own as technology becomes a more decisive driver of operational performance, fraud prevention, collections, renewals, and service delivery. The likely winners are platforms that combine scale with local execution – institutional infrastructure without losing market-level accountability.

Closing Perspective

“Deep Dive: Proper” presents a specific view of where residential property management is going: toward platforms that treat management as an operating system, not simply a people business. For Proper, the thesis is that combining disciplined acquisition strategy, centralized services, and technology-enabled workflows can produce a resident experience that is more consistent, and an owner experience that is more measurable and operationally controlled.

For readers tracking the evolution of multifamily operations, the piece provides a clear framework: technology changes the unit economics, operating model discipline becomes the differentiator, and consolidation increasingly rewards those who can integrate without erasing what makes strong local operators effective.