Beyond Rent: Exploring Property Management
00:25:21 · S1
[00:25:21] S1: Yeah. That's great. And and I think that is one of the things when you run a property manager company that is in a select area. Right? You're not trying to manage homes two or three states away. You've stayed very local. Is you're able to not only give back to the community in the ways that you are, but you're able to to understand the impact, right, that they've had on you, that they have on your staff. And you even mentioned earlier about overstaffing and maybe overpaying in in certain scenarios because you want your staff to have a good work life balance and a good career and all of these things. And that takes a lot of intentionality. Right? That's playing the long game. That's understanding that when you give, maybe someday you do get back, and and there's this give and take. So I think that's great. And especially around the... You talked about, like, kind of helping elderly people and using your maintenance staff, and it's such a win win proposition there. Right? Because not only are these people getting help with the things that they need, but you are allowing your your staff to feel good about the work that they do and how they're giving back while being paid to give back. But then you said your your trucks. Right? Your vehicles are going around town, and you're getting this good PR along the way. And I know that wasn't the motivation of that, but there is this opportunity for everyone to win and everyone to get recognized and everyone to feel good about what they're doing. It's such a clever way to take the resources you have and apply it in really smart way.
00:26:53 · Nik Boone
[00:26:53] S2: Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. And it's... We've done a lot of it for many years and a lot of it we never posted and haven't. I've been convinced that now we need to start posting it and kind of showcasing it. So there'll probably be a lot more of that this year. But yeah, I mean, it's just, it's something that I've been gifted this ability to have resources and time and education. You know, when I sit on these boards now, I'm looking at financial documents that I have input that others don't and insights that they don't. And I remember the first couple of times I was like, I thought this was common knowledge and it seems like I'm contributing in a way that I hadn't expected to be able to contribute, which is cool and nice. So yeah, now it's been a really... It's been as rewarding as it has been like helpful. So I think it's been mutually beneficial.
00:27:41 · S1
[00:27:41] S1: Yeah. Well, that's a great takeaway there on its own, this idea that everyone has something to contribute. And sometimes what you think is common knowledge or just normal or maybe not that interesting, others really find valuable and are needed. And everyone has something. Right? Everyone has that something to give, and I think that's important. So, obviously, building a strong reputation in your market helps with your growth. Another thing that's really important to growth is retention. And I love talking about retention because I do think that is a common challenge in the market is retaining units, owners, retaining residents. All of these things are really important to continue that that growth cycle that you have in place. So, how have you approached retention? What has been your history? Are you are you good at retention, or is that something you're still, refining?
00:28:32 · Nik Boone
[00:28:32] S2: We are definitely still refining it. I was talking to somebody else about our percentage, and I can't remember it offhand, but I remember complaining like, This is, you know, we're losing this many doors. And they did a quick like, Here's the percentage of retention you have. And they're like, This is twice as good as industry standard. You're retaining a ton of people. I was like, It does not feel that way. It feels like we're constantly, you know, and I would say most of the time, like I would say 80% or more of the time, it's things that we didn't do wrong. They want to sell their house, they want a family member to move back into their house, they, you know, very, very seldom is it, We don't like your company, we want to go with somebody else. It does happen and that's heavily like, my manager, we have this big oversight of like, What's going on? And most of the time we know well in advance like, Oh yeah, this has been going on. But most of the time it's something where, you know, am I going to convince somebody to not sell their investment? Probably not, you know. So we'll do what we can and make it easy, but yeah, it's, we lose roughly seven units per month, so eighty-eighty five units a year, which is a lot. And we're getting roughly fifteen-twenty units a month. So we're positive month over month and we're growing, but I had to dedicate somebody specifically for cancellations because for a long time I was like, Well they're canceling. They don't need top grade service, they're on their way out the door. And so we've changed that and we've like, you know, from start to finish, even if the relationship is strained, like you're getting top notch all the way until we hand you the keys and you're out the door. And we have had people leave, go to other places, and then come back after their contract ends and say, Hey, we're happy to come back. Like, we totally... We didn't have any other experience. Now we do. Please let us back in. And we're like, Yeah, of course. So.
00:30:46 · S1, Nik Boone
[00:30:46] S1: Yeah. The grass is not always greener. Right? And and and I love that you changed that approach because I do think that's the right approach. Right? Treat people well all the way through the experience. And and I'm sure a lot of it was just bandwidth. Right? If you're gonna focus efforts, you're gonna focus on the growth side, not on the cancellation side. [00:31:01] S2: Right. [00:31:01] S1: But see that return business, I'm sure, is very encouraging to you and your team as you continue to try to grow and scale that business. And it is... It goes back to that reputation piece and and why all of that's important. But, yeah, people talk about retention a lot in this industry, and and I and I do think a lot of it is tied to just how investment properties work. Because you're absolutely right. You could sit down with somebody and say, you know, you shouldn't sell because it is continuing to grow in value every year, but I'm also bringing you this level of profitability, you know, this cash flow. But at the end of the day, if they if they really wanna cash out or whatever life situation is in front of them, yeah, what are you gonna do about it? So treat them well, wish them, thank them for their business, and and move on to the next one.
00:31:48 · Nik Boone, S1
[00:31:48] S2: Yeah, and part of the retention we try to do is when they exit well, we try to be the next person's property manager. And so we do everything we can to keep, not the client, but keep the building, keep the asset, even if it's, you know, a four unit or a duplex or something. On the smaller scale, we're still like the level of service there. And you're absolutely right, it was a bandwidth thing. It wasn't like, you know, Hey, we don't want to help them because we hate them. It's like we have a current owner that's unhappy and needs a resolution and an outgoing owner that's unhappy and needs a resolution. Our time is going to the current owner, you know? It's where they're out the door, but now we have the enough staff that that's that's changed, and that's all good. So [00:32:33] S1: Yeah. No. That's great. The one thing that we really haven't talked about... We talked about it a little bit, kinda hit on it, was this idea of technology and how it's played a role in your success. It's one of the things I'm more passionate about myself. So help me understand your view on technology. We talked to AI, which I view as part of technology, but it's a little bit different. What are some of the other ways that you've used technology through your history to continue to see growth?