Unfiltered by PropertyManagement.com
00:23:53 · Thomas Perfect
[00:23:53] S0: Well, I I love the follow-up question to that is, you know, why am I not number one, or why didn't you put Uplift in your in your search? Right? And then digging into those layers that it will straight up just tell you what you need to do. Right? It'll tell you. And, I really loved, Brooke Ronner, one of my favorite kick... Takeaways was our keynote speakers. I felt like all all of them knocked it out of the park. I felt like nobody had anything bad to say about the keynotes, and everybody walked away. So, like, Marcus shared in with his AI trust signals report. You know? He he got me. I paid $10 to get my, professional report in and started to look at, okay. Well, what is... What are his agents scanning my website saying about me? Right? And, definitely got some takeaways to to work on. And it's just a really interesting thought process to know what can I do today to make sure that my business is still healthy in three to five years? Right? And it's the people who are like, I should get on that AI train. I should get on that SEO train. I should start my blogs. I should do these things. Well, you just gotta start putting one one foot in front of the other, and you just gotta start doing it. It's
00:25:04 · Dylan Scroggins
[00:25:04] S1: Yeah. And and also to... From your perspective, I know I just asked about what gets you excited about this next year. What what concerns you about property management right now? Right? We got broker owner a year from now. What are some things a year from now that you think people will be talking about wherever a broker owner chooses to be? But what are some things that might be concerning this next year they can be prepared for now?
00:25:27 · Thomas Perfect
[00:25:27] S0: I mean, concerns for the industry, I mean, think that we will see an increase of, you know, cut rate companies that are trying to do things just using AI entirely. You know, for example, like I have a separate business prop defend. We do cybersecurity for property managers. Right? And, I I saw an advertisement recently for essentially an AI company who is saying, we just have an AI agent who's gonna take care of this for you. And I'm like, shoot. Is that is that the future of we're gonna we're gonna trust AI to do our cybersecurity for us also? And then how much control are we giving up? So I think that that biggest threat for us is putting guardrails in our businesses so that we don't just lose control to AI, but also positioning ourselves with our clients to answer it. Again, PM trends report was like, hey, an overwhelming majority. I forget the percentage, but I wanna say it was like 90 something percent expect to be able to reach their property manager anytime of the day or night, most of the time. Right? Like, that's crazy to me. I'm like, I do not wanna be answering my phone at 08:00 at night or at, you know, 4AM when my client that lives in Germany calls. Right? Like, I I don't wanna be doing that. And, but we're seeing that that's the expectation that's coming out. So it's how do I how do I harness it, and how do I put guardrails on it?
00:26:51 · Dylan Scroggins, Thomas Perfect
[00:26:51] S1: That's just such a interesting insight and almost borderline funny that the generation that's been texting their whole life and some of them never even having to call a landline is now wanting to get on the phone with people ASAP. It's almost like this whiplash of being so technology, I guess, induced the last, you know, fifteen years. They're finally like, actually, like, I wanna talk to [00:27:12] S0: some Yeah. Well... And, I mean, I'm guilty of it where I don't have a... You know? If I call a company, can get put straight to a phone tree. You already hate that company. Right? And I freaking... I have a I have a phone tree. Right? I mean, I have a receptionist that's hired a a remote team member that's supposed to answer the phone, but then it's a a phone tree, and it... You know, there's solutions that are out there that can just make that experience so much better for people, and it's just a matter of finding the one that fits for you. [00:27:37] S1: Love that. Well, this has been awesome. We're starting to lay in the plane here, but this is one of our favorite questions, and I think you have a unique perspective on this over the last ten years. Entering, not really knowing probably what you want to do long term, and now you know, become a leader in this space, but off... Also obviously a leader at Uplift. How has being in property management changed you as a person these last ten plus years?
00:28:00 · Thomas Perfect
[00:28:00] S0: I mean, yeah, this is, like, really the only career I've really known. I mean, I don't think being a soccer referee, counts as a real career path, but going through and learning an industry and especially how much communication happens in our industry, communication among staff members, between clients, between tenants, between legislative issues that pop up, being able to really build a brand trust and expertise has been really enlightening and inspiring to me. So I've been really grateful to be able to take that idea of, you know, who we are, you know, for us at Uplift in our... We're uplifting people, properties, and communities. That's our mission statement. It's not just, you know, words on the wall on the sign behind me here. You know? We really take that to heart, and it makes us, you know... I love being able to select people that are gonna be part of my community, and I love being able to provide homes for people who are gonna be great contributors to our community. And I don't mean to say, you know, fair housing violations or anything, but, like, as property managers, we get to choose who are community And essentially when they're being bad community members, bad tenants, we can choose when they leave. So I I take that responsibility really, really, you know, to heart and I care deeply about that.
00:29:15 · Dylan Scroggins
[00:29:15] S1: I love that. I'm speaking actually at an NARPM event in Seattle in a few weeks, and you really shook a chord of what's gonna be my... One of my main topics coming from recruitment and hiring is that I feel like, and this is no way a dig, it's just an observation, that PM owners just do not give themselves enough credit on the narrative surrounding the industry. It's a very positive narrative in regards to what's being provided, like you said, with the housing and a roof on people's head, but also obviously the investment management and what you're doing for the owners as well. But I think your story personally about building a career and life and wealth and all these things, that's a story that I think needs to get shared a lot more is that, hey, we're a property management business, yes. We're actually just a great business that like develop leaders and provides, you know, careers for Donna, who's, I think I pronounced her name right, Don, who's been there ten years, right? It's like, we need to pull in people to PropertyManagement who might be in adjacent industry, home services, construction, etcetera. We need to share with them, like, there's a lot of great opportunities for your career in PropertyManagement, and I feel like that story does just not get shared enough.