Even though some companies specialize in single-family homes, this list of property management companies is for those that work with apartments. It makes sense that the largest primarily manage apartments, because of the ability to scale that single-family homes just don’t afford. The largest apartment management companies manage over 400,000 units! Could you imagine taking care of that many houses? Remember it’s not just dealing with maintenance and rent collection. It’s also getting the tenants in the first place, repairing damages after they leave, marketing the property, evictions, and much more.

As of January 2016, these were the biggest in the industry.

Greystar Real Estate Partners, LLC.

Managing a little less than 400,000 units in 2015, they’d bumped that number to over 413,000 by January 1st, 2016. Greystar has experienced some explosive growth over the last few years. In 2014 they had less than 220,000 units under their management. Most of their units are regular apartments, although they have some senior, student and military housing as well.

Lincoln Property Company

Lincoln hasn’t experienced the massive growth that Greystar has, but they’ve been steadily climbing. Right now they manage about 165,000 units- most of which are regular market-rate homes. They have a much larger base of military housing than Greystar, boasting over 31,000 units for the military and 5,000 for students.

Pinnacle

Pinnacle has been on the lists of property management companies for a while now, but it’s not doing as well as it used to. It’s still ranked as the third largest, but their current rate of shrinkage won’t let them keep that title for long. Right now they manage about 134,000 units- 50,000 less than what they had a few years ago.

Equity Residential

Equity is another one that has seen a decline over the last few years. Maybe Greystar is taking a lot of their business. Equity differentiates itself because it doesn’t operate much in the mid-west. It’s primarily on the east and west coasts. It currently manages about 109,000 units.

Single Family Home Property Management

If you’re more interested in a list of property management companies that cater to the single-family market, your best bet to find a few local companies is to search for “property management company” in Google or Bing. This will automatically bring up a few in your area, most of whom will probably specialize in single-family homes.