25 Years of Key Property Management

Where it started

When I founded Key Property Management (Key PM) 25 years ago, I was a 22-year-old student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Fresh out of real estate school with my Nevada real estate license and property management permit in hand, I was ready to dive in. The country was navigating the aftermath of the dot-com bubble recession, but I saw incredible opportunity right here at home.

Growing up in Las Vegas gave me a unique perspective. This city is a vibrant, diverse melting pot filled with incredible people. In high school, I imagined following in Steve Wynn’s footsteps, developing and operating major resorts along the Strip. My path shifted when a friend pointed out that with my background in hotel management and my natural knack for connecting with people, real estate was a perfect fit. 

At the time, most property management operations were entirely outdated. They relied on paper forms, fax machines, and landlines, and rarely had a website. Seeing the gap, I secured an early domain, built my own website, and taught myself search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click marketing. I built relationships across the local industry and quickly became the go-to property manager in town. Other real estate agents began referring their clients to me with confidence. Little did I know just how dramatically our city—and our business—was about to grow.

A city that changed around us

In 2001, Clark County was home to roughly 1.5 million people. Today the county is home to about 2.47 million, an increase of nearly 65 percent and close to one million new neighbors. Every one of them needed a place to live, and a large share of them rent. Property management in this valley has grown up alongside that story, and so have we.

Today Key Property Management manages more than 1,700 properties, residential and commercial, for investors across the Las Vegas Valley. We are the largest residential single-family property management company in the area, and that did not happen overnight. It happened one owner, one tenant, and one phone call at a time.

Through the challenging times

We have seen our share of ebbs and flows, including the Great Recession, when the Las Vegas Valley was the epicenter of the downturn. In the first quarter of 2009, Las Vegas posted the highest foreclosure rate of any major U.S. city, with roughly one in every 22 homes receiving a foreclosure filing, about seven times the national average. During that time, my team and I helped carry property investors through the tough times. We also worked with new investors who had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to buy cash-flowing properties for pennies on the dollar. Many of those owners are still with us today.

Then came 2020. COVID-19 hit Las Vegas harder than almost anywhere. Our economy runs on tourism, and when the Strip closed in March, the effects reached every household in the valley. By April, Nevada's unemployment rate had climbed to 28.2 percent, up from 4 percent a year earlier, and the Las Vegas area reached 33.5 percent, with roughly 356,000 local workers out of a job. For a property management company, that meant tenants who suddenly could not pay rent and owners who still had mortgages to cover.

We adapted. We moved quickly to virtual communication, online payment adoption went up with residents, and remote ways of showing and leasing homes, so the work of managing our clients' properties kept moving while the world stood still. Our team worked with owners and tenants one conversation at a time to find workable solutions, and we kept the phones answered by real people throughout. We also kept a close eye on the data coming out of that period, and it taught us to plan earlier, communicate more often, and build systems that hold up when circumstances change overnight. The valley recovered, and we came out of it stronger and better prepared.

Community Involvement

Giving back to the city that has supported us for a quarter-century is central to who we are. Over the years, Key Property Management has proudly supported a wide variety of local organizations and charities dedicated to making the Las Vegas Valley a better place to live, work, and grow. From our deep roots with the UNLV Foundation and UNLV Athletics to our partnerships with Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and Grant a Gift Autism Foundation, we remain committed to uplifting our community. Beyond these, we actively partner with numerous other local nonprofits that strengthen neighborhoods, support families in need, and foster a vibrant future for Las Vegas.

Thank you to our team

No company reaches 25 years on the work of one person. To every member of the Key PM team, past and present: thank you. You answered the late-night calls, walked the vacant units, chased the paperwork, calmed the difficult days and celebrated the good ones. You believed in our vision of providing the best possible service to our owners, and you carried it out every day, very often when nobody was watching. Many of you have been with us through the hard years and the busy years, and many of the relationships we have today exist because of the care you showed. Our reputation is yours. I am grateful for every one of you, and I am proud to work alongside you.

The next 25 years

Looking ahead, we see new technology helping us work more efficiently and manage our clients' properties more effectively. Better systems will mean faster maintenance response, clearer owner reporting, quicker leasing, and fewer surprises. We're talking about owner rent guarantee programs, resident benefit packages, and streamlined owner and tenant portals. We will keep investing in the tools that make that possible, and we will keep growing alongside Las Vegas as it adds new neighborhoods, new industries, and new residents.

The thing that will never change is the service itself. When you call Key Property Management, you will speak with a real person who understands your property and your situation and is there to help with everything that comes with leasing and operating an investment property. Technology will make us faster. People will keep making us Key PM.

To our clients

To our owners, tenants, and vendor partners: thank you. You have trusted us with your investments and your homes through both thriving and challenging markets. Many of you have stayed with us for years, referred friends and family, and granted us the opportunity to earn that trust again and again. Over the years, we have even seen former tenants purchase homes, move, and return to us to lease and manage their new properties—or property owners come back to us as they expanded their portfolios or needed a rental for themselves. Those full-circle moments remind us why we do what we do.

We never take your trust for granted. I may have a few more grey hairs today from time and the inevitable stress of property management—and trust me, each one has a specific property address attached to it!—but every single one has been worth it. Everything we build over the next 25 years starts with the high standard you have held us to over the last 25.

Brian Hartsell

Broker/Founder

Key Property Management

Whether you're looking for expert management for your investment property or want to discuss the Las Vegas market, we'd love to connect. Contact our team at Key Property Management to start the conversation.