Customer Story
Focus Property Management: Making Every Day Better for Residents and Teams
As one of the Midwest’s fastest-growing property management companies, Focus Property Management depends on AppFolio to scale with confidence. By providing an AI-native foundation that unifies data and drives advanced workflows across operations, AppFolio helps Focus operate smarter while keeping residents at the center of every decision.
Josh Winch
Co-Founder and President
Established: 2019
Location: Kaukauna, WI
Portfolio
Multifamily, Single-Family, Commercial
Previous Solution
Real Page
AppFolio Customer Since
2019
Units Managed
6,900+ Units
Creating Experiences, Not Just Managing Properties
Josh Winch, Co-Founder and President of Focus Property Management, has built the company around a simple yet powerful belief: Every interaction is an opportunity to improve someone’s life. That belief doesn’t just shape how Focus serves their residents but also how their business operates every day.
Before launching Focus, Josh spent a decade in retail leadership, helping improve operational performance, develop talent, and create scalable processes. Those lessons became the foundation for a company built to challenge industry norms:
“We felt that property management is an industry that was underserved. We wanted to be the exception to the norm, to challenge the status quo, and to do things differently. We wanted to create experiences and meaningful interactions for residents.”
Headquartered in Kaukauna, Wisconsin, Focus manages nearly 7,000 units across the Fox Valley region, ranging from single-family homes to apartment communities with more than 600 units. What began in 2019 with four employees and 250 units has grown into a team of more than 150 employees serving over 14,000 residents.
Whether Focus manages a single-family home or a large apartment community, their commitment to the resident experience shows up in every part of the business. Focus operates on a centralized model built around specialized roles, clear accountability, and measurable outcomes. Performance isn’t solely measured by units, revenue, or occupancy; it’s measured by the experiences the team creates and the impact they have on residents’ lives:
“A lot of people get excited about that growth. For me, it’s fun and exciting, but the real fun is in the impact we can have. Every single day we have the opportunity to make someone’s day better.”
“Culture, autonomy, and flexibility are what keep people at Focus. I want people to work when and where it’s best for them, and AppFolio allows us to be more flexible, more available, and more on demand for our residents than ever before.”
Visibility That Creates Better Outcomes
Performance at Focus isn’t defined by a dashboard alone but by whether residents feel cared for, whether team members feel empowered, and whether communities are better because Focus is part of them. That philosophy shows up in their approach to maintenance. While many property managers view work orders as tasks to complete, Focus sees them as opportunities to create meaningful resident experiences:
“If you put in a work order with Focus or you order a package on Amazon, our expectation is that we meet or exceed the delivery of that package. When a resident submits a request, they know exactly what’s happening, when it’s happening, and feel confident it’s going to get done quickly and correctly. It’s not just about fixing something — it’s about communication, transparency, and making sure the resident feels taken care of every step of the way.”
It’s a standard that’s backed by results. Last year, Focus completed 98% of work orders within 48 hours. For Josh, speed isn’t simply an operational metric — it’s a reflection of the experience residents receive.
Behind that performance is a system built on visibility, accountability, and trust. Using AppFolio as a trusted source of data, Focus creates scorecards that give every team member a clear view of how they’re performing and where they can improve.
“One of the biggest things I believe in is that you should know if you’re successful in your role without having to talk to your boss. AppFolio allows us to do that. We build scorecards directly off the data in AppFolio so every team member can see, in real time, how they’re performing, whether that’s response times, work order completion, or resident satisfaction. It’s not subjective, and it’s not a feeling. It’s right there in the numbers. That visibility creates accountability, but it also creates clarity. People know what winning looks like, and they know exactly where they stand without needing constant feedback from a manager.”
For Josh, winning goes beyond occupancy rates or revenue targets. It looks like team members who are energized by their work, residents who are proud to call a Focus community home, and neighborhoods that welcome Focus into their communities:
“When things are performing the way I want, it feels quiet, predictable, and empowering. There’s a rhythm to it where teams know what’s expected, residents are getting what they need without friction, and problems are being solved before they ever become visible. It’s not chaotic or reactive; it’s steady and intentional. That kind of environment gives people confidence in their roles and pride in their work. That’s what drives a great day.”
Reclaiming Time While Improving Retention
With AppFolio, Focus has more time for the work that matters most. One of the clearest examples is their renewal process. Focus’s previous process had multiple steps requiring significant manual effort, from pulling reports and reviewing pricing to preparing notices and managing outreach. What should have been about keeping residents happy turned into an administrative burden.
AppFolio changed that:
“Before Bulk Renewals, we were spending 50 to 60 hours every month combing through renewals, exporting data, analyzing rent increases, generating letters, sending them, and following up. It was a very complex process, but now we’ve been able to cut that time down to about a quarter of what it used to be.”
With Bulk Renewals, Focus is able to streamline and automate this once time-consuming task, reducing it to just 15 to 20 hours per month and unlocking significant gains that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. This kind of impact extends far beyond efficiency. Instead of spending time managing spreadsheets and paperwork, the team can focus on resident engagement, retention strategies, and improving the overall resident experience.
“We can focus that time now on resident experience, engagement, and actually driving our renewal percentage up because we all know in this industry, the best move-out is one that doesn't happen.”
For Focus, this is what performance looks like: using AppFolio to remove friction, create capacity, and give teams more time to focus on the people they serve.
Keeping Rent Payments On Track With 100% Confidence
Some of Focus’s strongest results come from the areas residents never see. Over the past 12 months, 99.51% of rent came in on time. Behind that result is a culture built around visibility, accountability, and engagement, where specialists use AppFolio to spot what needs attention early and have more meaningful conversations with residents about keeping payments on track:
“Our on-time payment performance is so strong because of three things: high visibility, high accountability, and high engagement. With AppFolio, we have real-time insights into what’s happening across our portfolio, allowing our team to act quickly and stay proactive rather than reactive.
It creates a level of accountability because everyone knows where things stand and what needs attention. At the same time, it drives engagement because our team isn’t just checking boxes; they’re actively working with residents to find solutions.
AppFolio unlocks the ability for our delinquency team to spend time on the things that matter most, such as building payment plans and having meaningful conversations, and eliminates them from spending time on the things that don’t matter as much but still need to be done to achieve that result.”
For Josh, those outcomes aren’t just about collecting rent. They’re about giving Focus’s specialized team the time to build realistic payment plans, follow through with residents, and consistently deliver industry-leading results.
Freeing Teams to Do Their Best Work
As Focus grows, AppFolio Realm-X Flows has become another way the team turns routine work into meaningful work:
“What I love about Realm-X Flows is that it’s customizable to our business. It eliminates a lot of the day-to-day work our teams used to focus on and frees them up to create better resident experiences. Looking ahead, the most successful companies are going to grow their unit count without growing their headcount, and Realm-X Flows is designed to do exactly that. It automates the tasks that AI can handle so our people can take on higher-level responsibilities, continue growing, and do more valuable work.”
Automation isn’t about replacing people. It’s about making sure people spend their time where they can create the most value. With AppFolio, automation becomes an investment in people by creating more opportunities for employees to grow, giving residents better experiences, and allowing the business to scale without sacrificing the standards that set it apart.
Confidence at Every Stage
From their early days at 250 units to nearly 7,000 units today, Josh has never viewed AppFolio as just another vendor. Instead, he sees a team that’s invested in solving the same problems, listening to customer feedback, and building tools that evolve alongside the business:
“I believe any successful organization needs three things: great people, great processes, and great tools. I believe Focus and AppFolio both have those, which is what makes our partnership strong. We’re aligned on what’s most important and what’s coming next. AppFolio is solving the same challenges we’re trying to solve internally, and I know that what’s coming will ultimately be better than anything I could build myself.”
As Focus has grown, AppFolio has evolved with the business, continuously delivering the tools, AI, and insights that help the team raise the bar without adding operational complexity:
“Going from 250 units to almost 7,000 doesn’t happen without AppFolio. They listen, they learn, and they adapt. I can trust the data, trust the direction they’re headed, and trust that they’re making meaningful improvements that help move our business forward.”
Focus Property Management: Performance Lives Here
As Focus enters its next phase, Josh’s attention has shifted from rapid growth to strengthening the Focus brand, deepening its reputation, and creating even more meaningful moments for residents. Routine work now happens in the background, trusted data guides every decision, and teams are empowered to focus on people instead of process:
“AppFolio has allowed us to take a lot of the mundane tasks off our team members’ plates so they can actually cultivate those experiences. We can focus on community events, meaningful resident interactions, and continuing to raise the standard for what property management should feel like. AppFolio reinforces our standards because it gives us the data to know what’s possible. It helps us create an environment that’s fair, competitive, and consistently produces high results.”
For Josh, that’s what the future looks like: not simply managing more properties but creating more opportunities to improve people’s lives — one resident, one community, and one experience at a time.
