NARPM Review: Is the 2026 Convention Worth It?

By Andreis Bergeron, Head of GTM & Partnerships at Brickwise. I went to all three days.

Yes. If you manage single family or small multifamily portfolios, or you sell to people who do, NARPM is a must go. I would pay the $1,249 and the flight again.

"Definitely worth it. It's a must go for property managers and vendors."

The sessions are the weakest part. The value is in the rooms and the hallways.

NARPM does not publish an attendance number on its convention site. The closest thing is a line on its call for presentations page saying the event usually draws more than 800. Third party listing sites guess anywhere from 500 to 2,000. They conflict and none show their math.

From the floor, it was very crowded. The session rooms were small and most were packed, sometimes with nowhere left to sit. Get to anything you care about early.

NARPM describes attendees as "property management professionals from across the country" and gives no breakdown by role or size.

From my conversations, the typical attendee was a local or regional property manager. Most were fee managers, managing homes for owners rather than owning them. Most ran mostly single family assets, with a few hundred units. Over 1,000 was the exception.

If you run a large institutional multifamily portfolio, this is not your crowd. If you run 100 to 1,000 doors for owners, you will feel at home.

NARPM does not share an attendee list either. Book meetings through people you already know, and use the welcome reception and the exhibit hall opening to meet new ones.

The agenda ran Tuesday to Thursday with about 25 breakouts and four keynotes. Topics included:

• Maintenance operations and profitability
• AI, in six breakout titles out of about 25
• Owner relations and how owners choose a property manager
• Legal compliance and fair housing
• Buying and selling property management companies
• Mid term rentals, HOAs and insurance
• The 2027 State of the Industry survey from Buildium and NARPM

Keynotes included Barbara Corcoran, a HUD Assistant Secretary, a session on the market cycle and a closing relationship keynote. I pulled the agenda from the published schedule before the show, so a few sessions may have moved.

Most sessions were high level and strategic. The AI sessions were the worst of them.

"The worst sessions were the AI ones. They talked at a very high level and did more fear mongering than offering real solutions or best practices."

If you go for education, pick maintenance, operations and benchmark sessions over broad strategy talks. If you go to learn about AI for property management, expect more warnings than playbooks.

The speaker mix falls into a few types:

• A celebrity keynote, Barbara Corcoran
• Government, a HUD Assistant Secretary
• Software vendors, including AppFolio, Buildium and Property Meld
• Operators, including regional property managers debating whether to build or buy AI
• Coaches and consultants
• Research publishers, such as PropertyManagement.com presenting owner search data

The exhibit hall opened Tuesday evening and ran through Thursday afternoon. Booth numbers on the floor plan go up into the 800s. The big PM software companies were all there, along with maintenance, screening, insurance and inspection vendors.

The evening events matter. The Monday welcome party at House of Blues and the Tuesday after party from AppFolio and Second Nature at Tailgate Beach Club are where conversations turn into follow ups. Second Nature's CEO killed the DJ set, and we danced until they unplugged the speakers.

1. The hallway beat the sessions. I had roughly 30 conversations on the floor and booked 14 follow up calls over the next three weeks. Ten were with other vendors and partners, four with property managers.
2. Cold email before the show did nothing. I sent about 65 emails to large institutional operators. Most were not attending. I got zero meetings.
3. Walk the booths. Vendors who ignored my emails for months talked to me in person in five minutes.
4. Book the hotel early. The room block at Mandalay Bay closed September 20, weeks before the show.

Yes. It is your industry's main event, especially if you run single family or small multifamily.

If you manage 100 to 1,000 doors, you will meet peers at your size, and the vendors you buy from are all in one hall. Large institutional operators should probably skip it, since it skews smaller.

For learning, the sessions are the weak part. Pick maintenance and operations sessions, and skip the broad strategy and AI talks if you want something practical.

Yes. It is one of the best rooms I have seen for selling to property managers.

The buyers are there. The typical attendee is a local or regional fee manager running a few hundred units, often single family. They choose the software, maintenance, screening and insurance vendors for their companies.

Expect competition. The trade show was described as sold out, booth numbers run into the 800s, and every major PM software company was there. NARPM shares no attendee list, so the booth, the welcome party and the after parties are how you reach people.

It is also a partner market. Of my 14 follow up calls, ten were with other vendors. Integrations and co marketing deals start here. NARPM does not publish exhibitor pricing, so contact them for current rates.

I went as Brickwise's Head of GTM & Partnerships. Brickwise builds Alice, an AI agent that works on top of the property management system you already run and handles lead to lease, maintenance triage, rent collection and compliance. The observations are mine. Published facts come from narpmconvention.com and the pre show agenda, and attendance estimates come from the sources named above.