Quick summary
It’s surprisingly hard to tell whether your portfolio is healthy. One day it feels fine, the next day everything is on fire.
The problem isn’t your instincts - it’s that most property management teams don’t have simple, reliable signals that show whether work is flowing or piling up.
There are clear indicators you can track to know exactly where you stand.
Why it’s so hard to “feel” the truth of your workload
Portfolios hide problems well.
Your team might have:
- 200 open tasks, but none visibly late
- Approvals sitting unseen in multiple channels
- Jobs technically “in progress” but nobody touching them
- Work bouncing between people without ownership
- Tenants and owners waiting, but you don’t know who’s stuck
When the system has no visibility, you’re flying blind, in a fog of work - you can’t clearly see what’s happening until something blows up.
How to know if your portfolio is actually healthy
1. Track the age of your open work, not just the count
The number of open jobs is misleading. It’s the age of jobs that tells you if you’re behind.
Three signals matter:
- What’s overdue
- What’s approaching overdue
- What’s stalled waiting on someone
If age creeps up, your health is slipping.
2. Watch for slow approvals - they’re the silent killers
Half your workflow delays aren’t you.
They’re waiting on:
- Owner approval
- Tenant confirmation
- Trade availability
If approvals drag, the whole rent roll drags with them. Healthy rent rolls have fast, single-point approvals.
3. Look at how often you’re being chased
Chasing is a signal.
If tenants and owners are sending:
- “Just checking in…”
- “Any update?”
- “Have you seen this?”
…it means your workflows aren’t giving people enough clarity or updates. A rent roll with low chase volume is a healthy one.
4. Check if your recurring workflows follow the same path every time
Predictable workflows = predictable outcomes.
If your repairs, inspections, renewals, or vacates all follow slightly different paths depending on who’s running them, you’ll see inconsistent results like:
- Some jobs finished quickly
- Some jobs stalled
- Some jobs forgotten
- Some jobs suddenly urgent
Standardised workflow lanes fix this problem completely.
5. Look for “invisible work” that never shows up anywhere
The most dangerous workload isn’t what’s on your list - it’s what isn’t.
Invisible work includes:
- Side tasks you do in between “real tasks”
- Manual follow-ups nobody logs
- Fix-ups after errors
- Extra steps taken because the workflow isn’t tight
If invisible work is high, your rent roll is unhealthy even if the numbers look fine.
A better way to think about portfolio health
A portfolio isn’t healthy because people are “busy.”
It’s healthy because work flows predictably, bottlenecks are visible, and nothing quietly slips behind the scenes.
Predictability is the true performance metric.
Quick checklist to see if your portfolio is on track
- Low number of aging or overdue jobs
- Quick, single-point approvals
- Minimal “chasing” from tenants and owners
- Consistent workflow paths for common jobs
- Clear visibility of what’s blocked
- A small amount of invisible work
- A predictable daily and weekly rhythm
Want the full framework?
Download The Method - the system PM teams use to create predictable, high-performing rent rolls.
