More Doors. Less Admin.
Same Team.
James von der Lieth has helped 50+ property management firms automate their accounting, renter communications, and back-office workflows — so their teams can focus on growing revenue instead of doing admin work.
No pitch deck. No obligation. Just 30 minutes to map your automation opportunities.
Sound familiar?
If you run a property management company and any of these feel true, you're leaving money on the table every single month.
"Owner statements go out late — every month."
Your accounting is manual, your owners are frustrated, and your team is burned out reconciling numbers instead of closing new doors.
"We're too busy to onboard new properties."
Growth creates chaos when your back office can't keep up. Every new unit adds more manual work instead of more margin.
"Renter communications fall through the cracks."
Missed check-in messages, late maintenance responses, and inconsistent renter experiences are hurting your reviews and repeat bookings.
"Our team is buried in admin, not generating revenue."
Your best people are copy-pasting data and sending reminder emails instead of building owner relationships and sourcing new properties.
"We tried software, but it didn't stick."
Point solutions pile up. Data lives in silos. Your team works around the tools instead of through them.
"I don't know where to even start with AI."
The landscape is overwhelming. ChatGPT, Zapier, N8N — everyone's talking about it, but no one shows you how it maps to property management.
What We Build Together
Every engagement is customized to your property management stack. Here's what a typical automation build looks like.
Accounting & Owner Reporting Automation
Zapier / N8N + your PMS
Owner statements out by the 10th — without anyone touching a spreadsheet.
We map your current month-end workflow, identify every manual step, and replace it with an automated pipeline that pulls data from your PMS, formats statements, and delivers them on schedule.
Renter Communication Workflows
N8N + AI (Claude / GPT-4) + PMS
Automated, on-brand renter messaging from booking confirmation through checkout.
Pre-arrival instructions, check-in codes, mid-stay check-ins, and review requests — all triggered automatically based on reservation events, with smart escalation for edge cases.
AI Personal Assistant for Your Ops Team
Claude / GPT-4 + custom knowledge base
Your team gets answers in seconds — trained on your SOPs, pricing rules, and vendor contacts.
A private, company-specific AI assistant your coordinators and VAs can query for anything: maintenance escalation protocols, owner communication templates, pricing rules, vendor contacts, and more.
Maintenance & Vendor Coordination
N8N + Slack / email + PMS
Maintenance requests automatically triaged, assigned, and tracked with owner notifications.
Incoming requests are categorized by urgency, routed to the right vendor, and tracked to resolution — all without a coordinator manually touching each ticket.
Owner Onboarding Automation
Zapier / N8N + DocuSign + CRM
New owners live in under 48 hours — with zero manual follow-up from your team.
From contract signing to first listing, the entire onboarding sequence runs automatically: document collection, welcome emails, listing setup checklists, and calendar reminders for key milestones.
Automation Audit & Roadmap
Advisory engagement
A prioritized 90-day automation roadmap specific to your business with clear ROI estimates.
Ideal for operators who want a clear plan before committing to implementation. Delivered as a documented report plus a 60-minute walkthrough call covering what to build first, what tools to use, and what the payback period looks like.
Powered by tools you already know
From Chaos to Automated — In 3 Steps
A focused, no-fluff process that gets you results in weeks, not months.
Ops Audit
Week 1We map every manual workflow in your current operation: accounting, communications, maintenance, onboarding. We identify your highest-ROI automation opportunities and build a prioritized plan.
Build & Integrate
Weeks 2–6We build your automation pipelines in N8N or Zapier, connect them to your existing PMS and tools, and test them against real scenarios before anything goes live.
Launch & Hand Off
Week 6+Your team gets documented SOPs, short Loom walkthroughs, and 30 days of async support. You own everything — no vendor lock-in, no ongoing dependency on us.
Most clients see their first automation live within 2 weeks of kickoff. The Audit alone typically surfaces 5–10 hours/week of recoverable time.
James von der Lieth
AI Operations Consultant · Austin, TX
Built by an Operator,
Not a Theorist.
James von der Lieth has spent the last decade at the intersection of real estate operations and software automation. He founded Cleardesk, a cloud bookkeeping firm for SMBs, which was acquired by Ceterus — where he served as Founding Product Manager, launching an automation platform through three VC funding rounds with triple-digit revenue growth.
He's been a Senior PM at Guideline (part of the growth team that scaled from $25M to $125M ARR before its acquisition by Gusto), and Head of Product at American Operator, where he shipped product using Cursor, v0, Lovable, Framer, and Claude.
Since 2019, James has worked directly with 50+ property management companies as a Real Estate Operations Automation Consultant — and he still operates his own short-term rental properties remotely, rated 4.93 stars on Airbnb.
He's not selling you software. He's showing you how to build the same systems he uses himself.
What Property Managers Are Saying
Real results from real operators.
The principles laid out in this course have helped automate our accounting system. We get all of our owner statements and financials completed by the 10th of the month like clockwork! I would highly recommend this system to any property management company who is tired of wasting time doing accounting.
Cody Powell
Partner, J Powell Property Management
James's accounting system was very helpful. He provided valuable feedback on many aspects of my VR business and I would highly recommend him!
Aaron M.
VRM Entrepreneur
We have used James for consulting many times since we opened our office. He has always been very knowledgeable about anything we have needed. Will continue to use him in the future.
Cindy Keene
First Choice Property Management
Common Questions
Everything you need to know before we talk.
Do I need technical staff to implement these automations? +
No. Most of our clients have zero engineering staff. We handle the build entirely, document everything in plain English, and record walkthrough videos so your team can maintain it going forward.
Which property management systems do you work with? +
We've worked with AppFolio, Buildium, Hostfully, Guesty, OwnerRez, Lodgify, Propertyware, and many others. If your PMS has an API or Zapier/N8N integration, we can connect it.
How long does a typical project take? +
Most automation builds take 4–6 weeks from audit to launch. The Automation Audit & Roadmap is a standalone 1-week engagement.
What does this cost? +
Engagements are scoped after the strategy call, based on complexity. Most first builds range from $3,000–$8,000. The Automation Audit is a flat fee. Book a call to get a custom estimate for your specific workflows.
Will I be locked into specific software? +
Never. Everything we build uses tools you own or can cancel independently. We document the logic so you're not dependent on us to keep things running after we hand off.
Do you offer ongoing support? +
Yes. After the initial build, we offer monthly retainers for workflow maintenance, iteration, and new automation builds as your portfolio grows.
Ready to Reclaim Your
Team's Time?
Book a free 30-minute strategy call. We'll look at your current workflows, identify your top automation opportunities, and give you a clear next step — whether you work with us or not.
Spots are limited. James takes a small number of new clients each quarter.