Peter Lohmann's Podcast
00:04:53 · Matt Luke, Peter Lohmann
[00:04:53] S1: Sure. So I do kinda beef that up a little bit to make it look a little bit like a larger team than it is, but the reality is that other than my wife and my kids who are on there who are more strategic advisers than anything, The rest of the people on the website include my father who owns a commercial construction business. So he helps with any larger projects that we need to to work on. Mhmm. And then I also have two realtors that are independent contractors on the team as well too. Not employees, but they help us with showings. And then if there's any potentials with tenants moving into purchasing a home, then they would take those opportunities as well too. [00:05:33] S0: Okay. Got it. So that's a nice arrangement. It's always nice to have independent contractors versus w two employees. I've actually explored that in a couple areas of our business. We do our... So our showings... Like, we do a lot of self showings, but if we need to do, like, an accompanied showing, we don't send our w two employees to do that. Instead, we have three ish... Like, two to four, we call them leasing contractors, who are paid a flat fee per appointment to attend those and basically unlock the door because it's kind of all they really need to do, and they're not licensed. So we don't even use realtors for that, and we pay... It's, like, 30 or $40, you know, per showing that... Not per person who attends a showing, but, like, per appointment.
00:05:33 · Peter Lohmann, Matt Luke
[00:05:33] S0: Okay. Got it. So that's a nice arrangement. It's always nice to have independent contractors versus w two employees. I've actually explored that in a couple areas of our business. We do our... So our showings... Like, we do a lot of self showings, but if we need to do, like, an accompanied showing, we don't send our w two employees to do that. Instead, we have three ish... Like, two to four, we call them leasing contractors, who are paid a flat fee per appointment to attend those and basically unlock the door because it's kind of all they really need to do, and they're not licensed. So we don't even use realtors for that, and we pay... It's, like, 30 or $40, you know, per showing that... Not per person who attends a showing, but, like, per appointment. [00:06:23] S1: Right. Might... We might be somewhat similar. So we do... One realtor does the showings in the mornings, one in the afternoon, and then the first one takes Saturday mornings as well too, mid mornings. Mhmm. We do show all of our properties up to ninety days before the tenant moves out. So almost every property is rented prior to the previous tenant moving out. [00:06:46] S0: Okay. And is that typical in Sioux Falls? [00:06:49] S1: I don't know if it's typical. As we talk through our conversation here, you might find some things that I kinda challenge the mold or do things a little bit differently. But for my own investment property, paying somebody hourly to do a showing and getting that property rented prior to the previous tenant moving out is worth the investment to me.
00:06:49 · Matt Luke, Peter Lohmann
[00:06:49] S1: I don't know if it's typical. As we talk through our conversation here, you might find some things that I kinda challenge the mold or do things a little bit differently. But for my own investment property, paying somebody hourly to do a showing and getting that property rented prior to the previous tenant moving out is worth the investment to me. [00:07:10] S0: Yeah. And I know that in some areas of the country, that's very common. In other areas, it's not typical at all. How do you handle the current tenant living there? What if they're like, hey. I don't want people coming through my home. Like, this is private. [00:07:23] S1: Right. So we do include it in the lease. It's part of the lease that they sign that they give us permission to show the property before they're out. One of the things that we'll get into as we talk, I assume, is I've built up... And I got this tip from you. I started a Notion knowledge base. [00:07:38] S0: Nice. [00:07:39] S1: And I feverishly, relentlessly answer every question through the knowledge base first and create the answer. If it's not there, put it in our FAQ section on the website. Then I go back, remind the tenant that that knowledge base is available on the website, and then I give them the link to access that. So I've had a few different questions about showing times, can I change it, my baby's taking a nap? And I carefully answer all those in a nice way reminding them why we need to do the showings. And usually those answers make the tenant feel better and help resolve that issue.
00:07:39 · Matt Luke, Peter Lohmann
[00:07:39] S1: And I feverishly, relentlessly answer every question through the knowledge base first and create the answer. If it's not there, put it in our FAQ section on the website. Then I go back, remind the tenant that that knowledge base is available on the website, and then I give them the link to access that. So I've had a few different questions about showing times, can I change it, my baby's taking a nap? And I carefully answer all those in a nice way reminding them why we need to do the showings. And usually those answers make the tenant feel better and help resolve that issue. [00:08:17] S0: Got it. So you have a public notion, which we do as well, that you make available to current tenants. Correct. Like a like a knowledge base. Correct. Yep. Okay. Very cool. And then when you are... So what you're doing is what I... Was what we call preleasing. I don't know if that's, like, a universal industry term, but that's our term for it, which we don't do it anymore because it didn't it didn't work well for us. But you... So you're preleasing, and how much time do you leave from the current tenant moving out until the new tenant moving in? So, like, if the lease ends on July 1, when would the new lease start? [00:08:54] S1: Yep. So the new lease, our goal is the tenth. We try to get the next tenant in ten days after the current tenant moves out.
00:08:54 · Matt Luke, Peter Lohmann
[00:08:54] S1: Yep. So the new lease, our goal is the tenth. We try to get the next tenant in ten days after the current tenant moves out. [00:09:01] S0: That's pretty aggressive. Not the most aggressive I've ever heard. So you're pretty confident with, like, your dad's construction company and everything that you can get that whole turn completed, clean, carpet cleaning, painting, landscaping, everything good to go? [00:09:14] S1: Yeah. So my dad's construction company actually focuses on commercial construction and and new builds. So we have a crew of vendors that we used for the turnovers. And so we send them in, we give them the work order two or three days before the previous tenant's out, and then remind them that it needs to be ready to go for the next tenant by day 10. [00:09:34] S0: Okay. Very cool. Okay. So let's get into some more of the nitty gritty. So you've got 360 doors, no w two employees. What does your tech stack look like? Like, what softwares are you using?
00:09:34 · Peter Lohmann, Matt Luke
[00:09:34] S0: Okay. Very cool. Okay. So let's get into some more of the nitty gritty. So you've got 360 doors, no w two employees. What does your tech stack look like? Like, what softwares are you using? [00:09:48] S1: Yeah. So I I could pull it up on on on my computer here to remind myself because there's quite the list. But first, we're using AppFolio as the hub Mhmm. For the property management. And then, again, through your recommendation that we added LeadSimple about two years ago, and I work very diligently to update and keep those processes very refined, answering questions, resolving things ahead of time, giving people's answers before they even come to our... At my desk. And that particular software has probably saved me, I would imagine, twenty plus hours a week. Wow. Oh, easily. I mean, we have it set up where a move in process. Once the tenant signs the lease, we never actually communicate with the tenant until, I guess, at any point other than through LeadSimple. There's no phone calls. It's all automated texts and emails that answer the questions and help them work through the process. So that software has been amazing. Fantastic. Yeah. Other softwares that I have to bring it up on my computer to remind myself, but we use RingCentral for phone [00:11:01] S0: Yep. [00:11:01] S1: Tree. We use some AI tools for answering phone calls and specifically leasing and maintenance phone calls. ShowMojo is the tool we use for scheduling Mhmm. And coordinating Yep. Showings. And then we also use Property Meld for maintenance coordination.