The best businesses to buy & automate with AI (Part 4)

This model has massive potential to be radically automated

Ben Kelly
July 24, 2025

This email is Part 4 of a short series covering the best businesses you can buy and scale by automating with AI.

You can read the previous parts here:

Today, I’m revealing the next golden business opportunity for you to disrupt by automating it with AI:

If you've ever rented an apartment, you know how this goes.

You submit a maintenance request and… crickets. Maybe someone gets back to you in a few days. Maybe they don't.

You call the office during business hours, get put on hold, then transferred to someone who doesn't know your situation.

It's a mess.

Most property management companies are still handling everything manually:

So…

Several factors make them perfect targets:

Recurring revenue model: Monthly rent payments create predictable cash flow.

Essential service: People always need housing, especially long-term rentals.

Great multiples: These companies typically sell between 2.5-3.5x cash flow.

Scalable operations: With the right automation, you can manage significantly more properties without proportionally increasing staff.

And the best part?

These businesses handle hundreds of repetitive tasks daily that AI could automate instantly.

1. Automate tenant screening

AI can analyze applicant data, credit reports, and rental history to identify qualified tenants faster and more consistently.

This processes applications 5X faster than manual review, reduces bad tenant placements, and maintains consistent screening standards.

No more spending days reviewing applications or making gut-based decisions.

2. Streamline maintenance coordination

AI chatbots can receive maintenance requests, prioritize them based on urgency, dispatch the right contractors, and follow up automatically.

These systems work 24/7 and reduce response time by over 70% while automatically tracking maintenance history.

Tenants get faster service, contractors get clear work orders, and your staff focuses on growth instead of playing coordinator.

3. Automate financial reporting

AI systems can track rent payments, expenses, and generate detailed owner statements with minimal human oversight.

Reports that used to take days now get produced in minutes with better accuracy and consistency.

This frees up your team for high-value activities like acquiring new properties and building owner relationships.

By implementing these AI systems, you could potentially double the number of properties under management with the same staff size…

And land significantly higher profit margins.

Next Tuesday, I’ll cover the final business type in this series that's perfect for AI automation (and has incredible growth potential).

Before you go…

Every so often, I come across deals and opportunities that I think are worth sharing with subscribers.

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Onward,

— Ben Kelly