Peter Lohmann's Podcast
00:32:03 · S2, Peter Lohmann
[00:32:03] S2: No problem. Can you please describe what's happening with the light fixture, like whether it's flickering, not turning on at all, or if you've noticed any burning smell or sparks? [00:32:11] S1: It just doesn't turn on at all like it was working yesterday. And now when I turn it on, there's no light coming out from it. [00:32:17] S2: Got it. Thank you. So it just stopped working entirely overnight with no flickering smell or sparks. That's helpful to know. Could you please confirm the property address where this issue is happening? [00:32:25] S1: 123 Main Street. [00:32:27] S2: Thank you. So that's 123 Main Street. Correct? [00:32:29] S1: That's correct. [00:32:31] S2: Perfect. I'll note that. Lastly, do you know if this is a ceiling fixture or a lamp plugged into an outlet? [00:32:36] S1: It's a ceiling fixture. [00:32:37] S2: Got it. Thank you. I've logged your maintenance request for the ceiling light fixture not working at 123 Main Street. The maintenance team will review it and schedule service soon. Is there anything else I can help you with today?
00:32:37 · S2, Peter Lohmann
[00:32:37] S2: Got it. Thank you. I've logged your maintenance request for the ceiling light fixture not working at 123 Main Street. The maintenance team will review it and schedule service soon. Is there anything else I can help you with today? [00:32:48] S1: That's all. Thank you. And that's it. Appgentic dot AI's AI receptionist deescalates tense moments and guides callers to resolution while your team focuses on executing. Stop the interruptions and see how it works. Book your demo today at appgentic.ai. Well, that sounds like a great outcome. I've done a couple acquisitions of portfolios and... Locally here in Columbus, and we've experienced pretty high churn when we, you know... For both of those. You know, I'd have to go back and do some analysis to figure out why, but sounds like you had a really good outcome. What made you decide you wanted to sell? I think this is of a high interest to a lot of people is people, you know, we all go through a stressful season or a stressful week, and we just think, you know what? I'm done. This is insane. You know, the employee problems, the owners, the tenants, I'm getting sued. Like, I can't sleep. This isn't... You know, my wife's telling me or my my spouse is telling me that, you know, you're you're... This is crazy. You're stressed out all the time. You're you're not present. And a lot of people have thought, yeah, I should get out. And then some people do and some people don't. So I'm curious from someone who has, what played into this decision?
00:34:02 · Bri Leichliter, Peter Lohmann
[00:34:02] S0: So mine was mostly monetary. Like I said earlier, I knew... I always knew I was gonna sell this thing. So, you know, it wasn't a business that was passed down to me that my family did. I had no, you know, emotional ties in that way where I'm, like, letting go of a legacy. I think that would be extremely difficult to come to that decision. But I was really at the point in the size of my business and the things that I wanted to change that I either needed to hire in that really expensive leadership role, which then I would have to take... You know? I don't have any business debt. I should preface with that. So we ran our business with no debt. We had revolving... Some revolving credit cards for maintenance that we've paid off every week, but outside of that, no business debt. So I'm strictly looking at numbers going, if I had to hire this next hire, which is inevitable I'm gonna have to do if I wanna work my way out of the business, that would cost me x. And I'd either have to go into debt to do it, or I would need to take a pay cut or, you know, lean out my other staff to be able to to do it. Yep. And at that point, I was like, or that is now my sign that maybe I should test the market and see what happens. So my worst case scenario was I hire a leadership position. My best case scenario was I I find a buyer and, you know, I'm doing what I said I was gonna do. [00:35:40] S1: So the pros would call out your BATNA, your best alternative to negotiated agreement, which is [00:35:44] S0: like, hey. [00:35:45] S1: I'll just keep running the business. No big deal.
00:35:45 · Peter Lohmann, Bri Leichliter
[00:35:45] S1: I'll just keep running the business. No big deal. [00:35:47] S0: Yeah. Right. Worst case scenario, I'll keep making money. I mean Yeah. You know? So it was low risk for me. Anyway, I I looked at it. [00:35:56] S1: Okay. Well, yeah, that that makes sense. And I think you came into this pretty clear eyed. And I I I know that about you. You're pretty, you know, rational in how you think things through. And you're like, hey. I I started this business to sell it, and I'm at a point where I'm either going to have to make some major reinvestments into the business and sort of... I think of it as, like, a fork in the road. It's like, you could take the one fork, and it's a long road, and there's not gonna be another rest stop for a 100 miles. Or it's like, this is actually my exit ramp right now. [00:36:30] S0: Right. [00:36:30] S1: And so you made the decision like, hey, now's the right time for me. And in retrospect, I know it's only been a few months, but feels like that was the right decision for you. Any regrets? Or... [00:36:41] S0: No regrets. Okay. No. [00:36:45] S1: Nope. And and the the day to day experience of owning and running this business for you, and this is different for everybody, different for every business, how would you characterize that? Was it fun, easy, hard, stressful, scary? Like, how how did it feel on a day to day basis in, the six months after the sale? Yeah. Before.
00:36:45 · Peter Lohmann, Bri Leichliter
[00:36:45] S1: Nope. And and the the day to day experience of owning and running this business for you, and this is different for everybody, different for every business, how would you characterize that? Was it fun, easy, hard, stressful, scary? Like, how how did it feel on a day to day basis in, the six months after the sale? Yeah. Before. [00:37:07] S0: Before I sold. Yeah. I would say... I mean, obviously, I was still on the day to day. So, yes, there's natural stressors there. The other thing that I kinda wanna circle back to that leads to this question, to the answer to this question, is I didn't lose my first client at all from Churn until the end of twenty twenty four. So I had... [00:37:34] S1: Wow.
00:37:35 · Bri Leichliter
[00:37:35] S0: So... Yeah. I know. So then in 2025, I started seeing more natural churn, you know. Welcome to the party. Some people leaving because, yeah, some people leaving because they wanna change management companies. A lot of people selling. A lot of people getting out of the business. So, you know, when I first started thinking about it, it was kind of the slow season. Then things picked up, and you just are in the thick of it, and you're just doing what you need to do to get through it. And I'm a continuous improvement type of person. So, you know, of course, like, every five minutes, I'm thinking, oh, I could I could make x y z change. But the x y z change required me to not be working in the business to be able to execute that change. And so that goes back to, like, the chicken or the egg. Do I get out of it, or do I bring in this person that can take over for me in a lot of ways so I can do, you know, more work on the business? And that's a very real milestone point in any property management company when you're building it. Right? There's a point where you have to stop being the doer and have everybody else be the doer. And then there's a point where you have to not manage those people, and someone else has to start managing those people. So I do think that it was it was stressful only because I was still in the day to day. I wasn't stressed out about the... Like, some normal business stuff that I think a lot of small business owners, maybe not property management company owners, but a lot of small business owners stress about. I wasn't stressed about revenue and cash flow and all those things. I was never stressed about those, but that was largely in part because I had no business debt. So my money coming out every month was... And I'm the... Probably one of the cheapest person, people on the planet.