Peter Lohmann's Podcast
00:39:26 · Peter Lohmann, Bri Leichliter
[00:39:26] S1: I [00:39:26] S0: think you're aware I think you're aware of that. So, you know, scrutinizing what I'm spending money on and just cutting out the waste continuously, you know, I wasn't stressed from a financial perspective at any given point. So my main stressors, and I think probably what most property management companies experience is your your people. Dealing with people in any regard, whether that's your clients, your... If you're still dealing with tenant BS and lawsuits and all of that, and your staffing. You know, to me, the... I think the people part is the hardest part of the property management business in any small business, really. So that was kind of my biggest stressor. You know, I knew we probably needed to have some more people, but then I was thinking, well, if I'm gonna sell in the next couple of months, I'm not I'm not bringing in head count at this point because I don't know what would happen. So, you know, I was kind of going back and forth mentally with the people part of it for quite a while. And then as part of the sale, and this is something that everybody should think about if you are thinking about selling, you know, the people aspect is a huge one. Does this... Is the buyer taking all of your staff? Are they taking none of your stuff? You know? So that really at at the end of the, you know, tour closing and then, of course, at the transition point, that was a huge stressor for me was having to handle, you know, the people part of it from a staffing perspective and doing it with integrity.
00:41:03 · Peter Lohmann, S2
[00:41:03] S1: Yeah. That... That's certainly a big consideration I know for a lot of PM business owners is the staff. Right? What's gonna happen with my staff? And I think that actually holds up a lot of folks from selling because they're worried Mhmm. About what's gonna happen to the team. Some of the large acquisition groups are sort of infamous for clearing house after a purchase deal. I know there's one or two others that kinda take the opposite position. They're like, no. In fact, if you don't have a great team in place with a great leader, we don't even wanna buy your business because we're not gonna run it. You're gonna continue to run it or your team's gonna continue to run it. So there are different options out there. I want people to be aware of that. But Yeah. I I certainly agree with you that the most stressful part of business, whether it's operations or during a sale, is is the people. How do we deal with [00:41:53] S2: Mhmm. [00:41:53] S1: All of these humans and their families and their careers, and it's a lot of pressure. Mhmm. So what did it feel like, I guess... I mean, your deal was a little different in that you didn't have that, like, one day where you sign the docs, and then an hour later, the big wire hit. Like, that's... Like, everyone wants to know what that feels like. But tell me a little bit about the feelings you experienced when you did sign the closing docs, when that first wire did hit, and just what was that like?
00:41:53 · Peter Lohmann, Bri Leichliter
[00:41:53] S1: All of these humans and their families and their careers, and it's a lot of pressure. Mhmm. So what did it feel like, I guess... I mean, your deal was a little different in that you didn't have that, like, one day where you sign the docs, and then an hour later, the big wire hit. Like, that's... Like, everyone wants to know what that feels like. But tell me a little bit about the feelings you experienced when you did sign the closing docs, when that first wire did hit, and just what was that like? [00:42:23] S0: Yeah. So when I signed the closing docs, I had no, like, immediate relief or anything of of that sort because I knew I still had a ton of work to do. So I was very realistic in my... What my role is going to be and how much work I had ahead of me. So there was no, like, instant relief. I know there was no instant relief. Like, oh, this is worse actually. It did feel worse for [00:42:51] S1: a in charge.
00:42:53 · Bri Leichliter
[00:42:53] S0: I know. It did feel worse for a second. But... Yeah. So I didn't really feel that relief after... So we have really... If you think we had the closing date, then we have the transition date. And then I had to close out books for the year with... We used OJO bookkeeping for our trust accounting. So, you know, transitioning ledgers, making sure we zeroed out everything because our trust account didn't transfer. So it changed to the buyer's trust account, which you should expect to happen. So as as I started... As I really started to see my day to day workload decrease is when I started to feel something different. I would say not until January. My first wire was January 5. And, you know, it is gratifying seeing it hit your account. Right? But also in parallel to that, I also had a serious workload reduction in that same month. And that's really when I felt, like, some relief that I could... As much as I wanted to take time off, I think we all were realistic that that was not going to happen for me. So, you know, I was immediately into the the next thing, and I transitioned my brokerage sales in November. So I closed down my official brokerage after the new buyer take... Took on the property management services. I closed down my brokerage and joined another small brokerage and got my broker's license in Kentucky all in the last two months of last year while we were finishing up the transition. So I had a lot of of stuff in motion anyway. And then all of that was kind of done, and I was in a new normal in January. And that's when I really started to feel some relief and, like, feel like I had time to do things that I wanted to do. And it's it's progressively, you know, continued on that path, and I don't do things I don't wanna do at this point. So that part is nice.
00:44:59 · Peter Lohmann, Bri Leichliter
[00:44:59] S1: That's great. And we're gonna get into what you're up to now because I wanna hear more about that. Before we do though [00:45:06] S0: Sure. [00:45:06] S1: I know that you ran into, like, some post sale challenges with some of the transitions, some of the workload. Share a little more about that and, like, maybe mix in there anything you would have done differently to help that go a little better.
00:45:22 · Bri Leichliter
[00:45:22] S0: Yeah. So in my contract, I did... We negotiated because we... I did a decent amount of renovating with my clients. Not all property management companies offer that service, so this may not apply to everybody. But I managed some pretty hefty renovations for some of my management clients. And to me, it felt really unfair for me to just be like, okay. I'm done and hand that off to the buyer when they've had no involvement in any of the back history of the property and all of that. It just felt unfair. So we did come to an arrangement that I was going to stay on as project manager for those handful of projects. I think there were six at the time that we were trying to close out because I was in... I was already in it with the owner, you know, having those conversations. And the buyer now has new staff and is trying to, like, deal with normal resident issues and work on their processes and things. So it just made logical sense for me to continue to take that on. So that is a service that I am offering to the buyer and getting paid for. Mhmm. And we're down to the, you know, the last... I think we have two on my end that we're down to. So I still do have some involvement with the buyer's team. But that alone had its own challenges because I'm used to having access to, you know, owners funding and being able to control when I cut a check to a contractor and being able to order materials and, you know, immediately bill for it. And now I'm... I have none of that. I have communication with contractors and communication with the owners. But in terms of how they get paid, when they get paid, does does the owner have money? I don't... I'm now not involved in any of that process. So that was difficult for me when I'm just having control over those relationships. And I did... We did strain some relationships with contractors along the way there because they were used to how I operated with payments. And now the new company has their own process for operating