Peter Lohmann's Podcast
00:55:08 · Peter Lohmann, Bri Leichliter
[00:55:08] S1: Well, I really appreciate you being vulnerable there over the last few minutes. I think you're exactly right. It doesn't get talked about enough. You know, of course, at these conferences, everyone puts on their best face literally and figuratively. We talk about unit counts. We talk about how little we have to do in the business. We talk about how profitable things are and, oh my gosh, I have this great new hire and everything. But Mhmm. You get in the smaller circles, whether it's in Crane or just people that you've gotten to know where, like, you're able to text them and just pick up the phone anytime. And then you start getting the real real, and you know... And you learn. The more you do that, the more you understand that there are highs and they're great, but they're more the exception. And everyone experiences the pain and the suffering and the self doubt and the just grind that is this business. And if you feel like you're alone in that, you're literally 0% alone because everyone who's built any kind of business has been through that and continues to deal with that no matter how big they are. The problems just get bigger. [00:56:13] S0: So... Yep. [00:56:15] S1: Yeah. I'm I'm, like, on a mission to help people understand that that's normal, and it's not a personal failing of theirs. It's not a something they did wrong or a wrong hire. It's just... It never goes away. I mean... [00:56:29] S0: Well, yeah. And it's not like an if it's gonna happen, it's a when. Yeah. You know?
00:56:29 · Bri Leichliter, Peter Lohmann
[00:56:29] S0: Well, yeah. And it's not like an if it's gonna happen, it's a when. Yeah. You know? [00:56:34] S1: So we're getting toward the end of the hour here. Kinda zooming out for a second, I want you to answer like two questions. Is, what are you really happy that you did in terms of the whole business sale process? Like, what's one thing you're really happy that that you did it the way you did? And what's one thing that you would do differently next time?
00:56:56 · Bri Leichliter
[00:56:56] S0: So there's... I mean, I feel like I I did fairly well in my negotiations on the sale. I'm actually pretty proud of what I've been able to do there. And the couple of things that kinda stand out to me are I wanted to stay in the business, and I wanted to maintain my relationships with my clients. One of the things that I did not really touch on when we were talking about staff is my mom, I moved her here from Pennsylvania, and I negotiated to guarantee her a job for a year. That was an important personal piece for me. So, you know, I know a lot of people have family in the business that that might be something that they need to think about. And I really think in the grand scheme of the entire process, although there were a lot of things outside of my control, I did everything that I possibly could to facilitate. I didn't take a backseat. I did everything in my power. It didn't go as perfectly as planned, and that's, you know, that's never gonna happen. It's not... There's you can't expect perfection when you're doing something in property management in general. But I do feel like I gave it my all, and I I made myself available and did everything that was in my power to do. Yeah. And there is a point where you just gotta let go and realize it's not. And I really needed to, like, get to that headspace. But really, if I was gonna do anything differently, it just would have been the the implementation of the system changes I would have delayed. That was the biggest thing for me. I think from a staffing perspective and the staff retention, I think that's a huge piece of it. You can't expect everyone to just go start working for someone and have no training as they're getting into it. So that would have been my biggest do different part there.
00:58:46 · Peter Lohmann
[00:58:46] S1: Okay. What's next for you, Bri? What are doing? Well,
00:58:51 · Bri Leichliter
[00:58:51] S0: I I own a farm. So it's... The timing is kind of funny because I bought the farm in August. And my first weekend that I gave myself off, I was sitting on my porch going, oh, I wanna do more of this. And then I'm texting, you know, those those buyers going, hey. Buy my business. So we're doing a lot of things on the farm, infrastructure, things like that. So that's been, you know, a fun personal journey for me. We're still gonna be doing a lot of things there. I just bought a greenhouse that delivered. That's my first expensive thing that I've bought myself in a very, very long time. So doing that. And then, like I said, I transitioned to an independent brokerage. So part of that transition was getting my broker's license in Kentucky. So for those of you who don't know, Cincinnati borders can... Borders the Ohio River, which then goes into Kentucky. So a lot of times, like, from my house, I have to drive into Kentucky to get back into Cincinnati. So it's kind of a natural expansion for a lot of investors and, you know, people live on each side of the river and work on each side of the river. So I'm a principal broker for Kentucky for the Tellis agency, which is the independent broker that I'm with. And then I'm doing, you know, what I negotiated in my contract, which was continuing to help those clients buy and sell. So that's part of where my journey's at, and that's, you know, flexible, of course, because real estate, you have to be available, and a contract comes up when a contract comes up. But I'm also now helping my friend, Brandy, who is in Crane, and she's another broker. I'm actually in Dallas right now at her house. This is her house in the background as we record this. But I am essentially acting as a fractional maintenance manager to... Part time to help her build out her maintenance operations and do some process improvement for her projects and maintenance coordination and with the goal to bring in internal maintenance this year. So, you know, doing some... I don't wanna call it consulting, but I guess that's what it is. You know, I enjoy helping my friends achieve their goals. And I think being around the group of people that I've been in in this industry for the last couple of years, you know, you see the good, bad, and the ugly when you're doing it on a day to day basis.
01:01:21 · Bri Leichliter, Peter Lohmann
But when you find your people, I could have easily gotten out of property management fully and not done property management at all anymore and not stayed in the industry. But I've renewed my NARPM membership. I'm still... I wanna heavily be involved. I still wanna be active. I still... I'm still investing myself. I have my own rental properties still. So, you know, I still wanna stay relevant in the industry. And I'm at the point where I am out of survival mode, and now I'm more into doing things that I enjoy. And I enjoy helping my friends. So we'll see where that goes. [01:01:59] S1: That's awesome. Well, thank you, Bri. This has been really enlightening, and I know a lot of folks have been curious, you know, what is it like to sell a property management company? So you've provided a great window into the real, you know, the reality of it. So for people who wanna follow along sort of with what you're up to or wanna get in touch with you, where can they do that? [01:02:18] S0: Yes. So my email is brie@thetlsagency.com. We can send that out. I... I'm sure you'll [01:02:26] S1: send that out to [01:02:27] S0: the podcast as well. And, also, that's my real estate brokerage side of the business. So if you're if you're looking at, you know, needing some help with with anything or just wanna talk, happy to do that as well. So Peter will give you guys my contact info and [01:02:43] S1: Great. [01:02:43] S0: We can have we can have PM therapy. [01:02:46] S1: That's right. Alright. Thanks again, Bri. This is great. [01:02:50] S0: Thank you.