December 2025
Pressure, Partnership, Progress: Property managers turned disruption into innovation in 2025
By Brandi Smith, RE Journals
The story of property management in 2025 can be told through an 800,000 square foot tower where a fitness center was losing $18,000 a month. Ownership wanted higher occupancy, lower expenses and better NOI in a year that demanded new thinking across the industry. For Carrie Szarzynski, Executive Managing Director and Head of Management Services for Hiffman National, the turnaround that followed captured the tone of the year.
“We were able to go in and identify very low hanging fruit,” Szarzynski said. “In this case, there was a fitness center with an operator that could not be billed back through the common area because it required a membership. We brought in a new partner who built relationships with the community and tenants, taking an $18,000 monthly subsidy into a profitable business within about 18 months.”
That win set the tone for a year when protecting NOI required creativity and collaboration. Rising interest rates, maturing loans and broader uncertainty pushed many owners to sell assets or aggressively cut costs. Some firms even brought management in-house for financial or strategic reasons, a shift Szarzynski noted had become rare before 2025.
“We saw things happening that we hadn’t seen happen before, all at the same time,” Szarzynski said. “It wasn’t one market or one product type being impacted. It was across the country, across all product types, all culminating at one point.”
Her team’s experience at Hiffman National usually benefits from diversification across asset types and geographies, but those stabilizers didn’t exist this year. Owners everywhere were scrutinizing expenses and re-evaluating operations. Expectations for service didn’t necessarily rise, she said, because they were already high coming into 2025.
“From 2020 to 2024 we really saw increased service, especially in industrial,” Szarzynski said. “We saw ESG requirements, a reduction in asset managers after COVID, and we had to show up differently providing a higher level of support to both clients and tenants. That hasn’t gone down, but it hasn’t gone up either.”
What did shift was the tone of the partnership. With more assets under financial stress, owners leaned more heavily on management teams for problem-solving and strategic support. One example stands out.
“We had a client with a 74,000 square foot tenant moving out of a 400,000 square foot building,” Szarzynski shared. “They asked us to cut expenses to help increase their bottom line. We went through the budget looking for anything that could be reduced without impacting service or the class of the building and gave over $150,000 of potential cuts. Now they’re looking at putting those dollars back in as we head into 2026 because the building is in a healthier position.”
Amid those pressures, Szarzynski began thinking differently about leadership. A client who had taken management in-house later sought help because the transition wasn’t as simple as expected. Instead of viewing the change as a closed door, she reframed the relationship.
“One client told me they were having a hard time figuring out how to create consistency,” Szarzynski said. “We had just signed an agreement with another group that manages in-house, and we have a consulting agreement with them to provide support and training to their in-house property managers. This forced me to think creatively about how I show up as a leader to help the business grow, even if they aren’t a management client it doesn’t mean we can’t support them and make their lives easier.”
At the same time, she began seeing bright spots. New buyers entered the office market throughout the year, and by Q4, fresh capital started flowing into industrial from smaller firms launched by industry veterans. These emerging players tend to want early, hands-on partnerships with management teams — something Szarzynski views as a promising sign heading into next year.
“We’re seeing a lot of new buyers in office,” she said. “Toward the end of ’25 we also saw new players come out with money to spend on industrial. These are people who were at larger firms and are now starting their own firms. We love those clients because we can partner with them from the moment they start, help them find success and continue to grow with them.”
Taken together, the challenges and emerging opportunities reinforced a conclusion she’s reached repeatedly this year: the industry is not returning to pre-COVID norms. Work patterns, investment strategies and operational expectations have fundamentally shifted.
“I’ve said multiple times it’s never going to go back,” Szarzynski said. “Covid changed everything. It changed the way people work and the way people invest. It doesn’t mean we can’t have a healthy real estate industry, but we have to stop approaching things based on how it was done and start focusing on how it is today.”
Looking ahead, she believes 2026 will be shaped by whether owners begin making moves because timing feels right rather than because debt forces their hand. The election-year burst of activity in January, followed by another market pause, left many hesitant to transact in 2025. A shift in motivation could signal a healthier cycle ahead.
“It’ll be really interesting to see if people start doing things because it’s the right time and not because they have to,” she said. “That’s when we see a healthier market.”
Her priorities for 2026 reflect what the past year required: clarity, fundamentals and a deeper commitment to client partnership.
“We want to help our clients be successful and in order to do that we need to handle the day to day fully so they can focus on bigger things. We will also be there ready to jump in with high-level support when they need it,” Szarzynski said.
She also wants to ground her team in the basics that fueled Hiffman Nationals momentum over the last eight years.
“What really drove our growth has been being the best-in-class provider,” Szarzynski said. “We also need strong relationships and strong training and development at every level, from property assistant to director, everyone needs to know how to add value making their client’s lives easier.”
After a year defined by simultaneous disruptions and emerging opportunities, Szarzynski sees 2025 less as a setback and more as a reset. Those who leaned into creativity and partnership, she said, made it through the year and built the foundation they’ll need to compete in 2026.
