Peter Lohmann's Podcast
00:00:00 · Bri Leichliter, Peter Lohmann
[00:00:00] S0: When you sell a business, you only know what you know from the buyer in the couple of meetings that you've had getting to know them in their business. What is reality might be completely different than that. I'm very process oriented. I built all of my processes and instructions out, and that structure for my team was huge. And I'm in a situation where some of what I've put together, a lot of what I built is kind of feels like it's going to waste because those systems are no longer used. That was a little bit soul crushing, to be honest, because I... That was, like, the part of the building. Right? I got to a certain point, I got the outcome that I wanted, and that's great. But I don't want all the hard work I put in along the way to just... I kinda want it to live on. You know what I mean? [00:00:54] S1: Yeah. Know. [00:00:55] S0: I spent all that time doing it. I want it I want to be able to continue to, know, have that available and whatever. So so that that was a difficult part for me. [00:01:15] S1: Welcome back to Peter Lohmann's Podcast. I'm thrilled to introduce my friend, Brianne Leichliter, who goes by Bri. Most people will probably know you as Bri. Welcome to the show. [00:01:27] S0: Thank you.
00:01:27 · Bri Leichliter, Peter Lohmann
[00:01:27] S0: Thank you. [00:01:27] S1: So, Bri, I wanna talk to you about selling your property management company. We call that a hook in the business. So for people who are just tuning in, make sure they stick around. So you sold your property management company at the end of last year, and I had gotten to know you over the last couple years. So I was up to speed on sort of the business and you and how everything was going all along the process. And so I've heard a lot from you about why you sold and how it's been going since then. And I think it makes for a really interesting story. And I know there's a lot of people listening who are thinking about selling their property management company. Even if they're not gonna do it this year, you know, it's nice to hear from folks who have actually done it. They're kind of few and far between and understand what to expect, pitfalls, what to do, what not to do, and things like that. But to kick it off, can you give us a snapshot of your business, you know, as it was going into the sale process just so people sort of understand the context?
00:02:28 · Bri Leichliter, Peter Lohmann
[00:02:28] S0: Yeah. Absolutely. So we actually closed on the sale in October. And at that point, we were around 215 to 220 doors. We had a staff of seven people at the time, and that included some maintenance technicians in there as well and some RTMs. So revenue wise with everything that we were doing, we were about between $7.50 and $800,000 revenue. I was still very heavily active in the business. So, you know, we didn't have a huge number of doors. I was still having everybody reporting to me, still very actively involved in our owner communications, things like that. So I was really very close to, you know, boots on the ground level versus, I mean, in somebody in your position at this point with your size, you've kind of been able to work your way out of that. So that's kind of where I was at the end whenever we'd made the transition. [00:03:28] S1: Got it. And did you all have in house maintenance? [00:03:31] S0: We did. We had just one technician earlier in 2025. We had two. And as you know, and we've talked about many times, just having maintenance technicians and the turnover in that role is pretty high. But when we sold, we had one maintenance technician. [00:03:47] S1: Okay. And then how about brokerage? You guys have in house brokerage?
00:03:47 · Peter Lohmann, Bri Leichliter
[00:03:47] S1: Okay. And then how about brokerage? You guys have in house brokerage? [00:03:50] S0: In house brokerage sales, but I was the only licensed agent. So it was me basically just buying and selling for my existing property management clients. I didn't really do too much outside of that. You know, the occasional one or two deals, friends and family kinda kinda thing or my own investment, but not... I didn't have a lot of agents under me or people in the the brokerage that were licensed. [00:04:14] S1: Yeah. And you're in Cincinnati, Ohio. We should mention that for anyone [00:04:17] S0: who's So not [00:04:19] S1: this is great because this is a very typical setup for a lot of people who are listening. Mhmm. Few 100 doors, maybe a maintenance tech or two, maybe doing some sales in house. And when did you get started with the business? [00:04:34] S0: So I actually started in 2021. That's when I got licensed. My starting point is probably different than some people, but maybe not. I'm actually not from Cincinnati. I'm from a small town in Pennsylvania. And I had moved to Cincinnati to take a job at GE Aerospace. That's what got me there. I moved in September 2019, pre COVID, but really close to COVID. So I was there for a very short amount of time, house hacking myself in Cincinnati, and COVID hit in March 2020. And at that point, no... You yeah. [00:05:14] S1: At this point, you had no property management experience or background?
00:05:14 · Peter Lohmann, Bri Leichliter
[00:05:14] S1: At this point, you had no property management experience or background? [00:05:18] S0: I had my own rental properties. I had a couple. And that was... You know, I wasn't managing hundreds of doors or anything like that. Yep. And I didn't have my real estate license at that point. So I was just working corporate manufacturing, and COVID came around. We started working from home. And, you know, during that time, a lot of my colleagues getting laid off. [00:05:39] S1: Parts from home as as one does. [00:05:40] S0: Exactly. Yeah. I... Well, I worked in supply chain. So I was dealing with delivery of parts, and with COVID, you know, obviously, that came in [00:05:49] S1: my mind. To think about manufacturing a gas turbine engine Something in my house. You know, in your garage or something. [00:05:55] S0: Right. Yes. For sure. So my colleagues were getting laid off, and I thought, you know, I'm new. It it was stressful. I'd moved my whole life from Pennsylvania. So I was very concerned about getting laid off myself. And I was like, well, I have my own rentals. This is at least something that I know. No matter what, people are gonna need housing. It's kind of a, you know, plague proof, I guess, COVID proof, recession proof industry, and it felt relatively safe to me. So I was working from home, starting to get my real estate license, and somehow did not get laid off in 2020. I was licensed in January 2021, had my first real estate sales closing in March 2021 and signed my first management client in April 2021.
00:05:55 · Bri Leichliter, Peter Lohmann
[00:05:55] S0: Right. Yes. For sure. So my colleagues were getting laid off, and I thought, you know, I'm new. It it was stressful. I'd moved my whole life from Pennsylvania. So I was very concerned about getting laid off myself. And I was like, well, I have my own rentals. This is at least something that I know. No matter what, people are gonna need housing. It's kind of a, you know, plague proof, I guess, COVID proof, recession proof industry, and it felt relatively safe to me. So I was working from home, starting to get my real estate license, and somehow did not get laid off in 2020. I was licensed in January 2021, had my first real estate sales closing in March 2021 and signed my first management client in April 2021. [00:06:45] S1: Got it. So you were managing property professionally for about four years total. And that time scaled up from zero to 200, high two hundreds or whatever you said and sold. [00:06:59] S0: So Yes. [00:07:00] S1: Pretty cool little window, but it certainly wasn't like your whole career or anything. Tell me about how you ran the process. Like, I wanna come back to the point where you decided, okay, I'm gonna sell, but let's pretend you've already made that decision. What were the steps that you took to run the sale process? [00:07:21] S0: So to really... Do you mean to get it out there to tell people I was selling or, like, after we were under contract?