There’s a dangerous gap between what social media tells landlords and what the law actually stipulates, a PM has warned.
Active Agents principal licensee and principal leasing agent Tara Bradbury has flagged that social media is creating an additional layer of friction between property managers and the clients they serve.
Property managers are increasingly finding themselves in the position of having to correct information that landlords and tenants receive on social media from people who have never worked in the industry.
Speaking to REB director and Managed co-founder Alex Whitlock in The Property Management Excellence (PMX) Podcast, Bradbury said: “The information that is shared, whether it’s a TikTok video or an Instagram post or Facebook post or video or whatever that might be, there’s typically some trust in people that are out there that aren’t educated on what’s actually happening in the industry.”
“They’re getting false information, but this individual’s been following their whole journey, and they believe it to be true.”
Bradbury – who has also been a property management trainer with more than two decades of experience – said the impacts of misinformation on the relationship between property managers and owners are real and significant.
She said they play out in conversations with clients who arrive with convictions that have no basis in legislation or market reality.
“It creates a lot of friction. I feel it puts a lot of friction between the property manager and tenant, or property manager and owner,” Bradbury said.
The solution to this growing issue, Bradbury advised, is for property managers to have the confidence to correct this misinformation in a calm manner rather than dismiss it. She noted that property managers, particularly new entrants to the industry, could internalise the frustration of these conversations as personal failure rather than recognising it as an industry-wide phenomenon.
“Don’t feel as though you’re the problem or take it in a negative way,” Bradbury said.
“Don’t stress that it affects your sleep and stresses you out because someone’s sounding angry or they’ve been abrupt on the phone. It’s probably because they’re just frustrated that they never knew this was something that could happen.”
The best property managers, Bradbury continued, approach these moments by anchoring themselves in what they know rather than what the client believes.
“If you have taken the time to understand legislation, you know what the situation needs to be. Go in with confidence,” she said.
“Because at the end of the day, if you try to dance around the topic of what you’re trying to solve, it’s just going to drag out.”
Bradbury said she does not think the industry has any choice but to get better at this as the volume of unregulated property content continues to grow.
“Ultimately, I don’t think we have any other choice but to do that, progressing forward from 2026 and beyond and what that looks like for property management.”
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