If you’ve been a faithful listener of this show, you will already have heard of Pete Neubig of Empire Industries LLC, a property management company out of Houston, TX. Pete is partners with Steve Rozenberg, my guest on episode three of this podcast. In that episode, we went into great deal about satellite offices and marketing.
While Pete touches briefly on these topics, he spends more time on his areas of expertise. He’s the guy in the background who makes things run and ensures the systems at Empire Industries keep up with the growth.
Pete is also deeply knowledgeable about hiring and employee retention. He’s been using the framework of the DISC personality profile to ensure he hires the right people for the right roles, after realizing the reason he lost certain employees was because their personalities weren’t the right fit for their jobs. He’ll explain this in the interview, as well as offer insight into what personality types you should hire for certain roles within your own property management company.
We then take a deep dive into techniques for dealing with homes that have high days on market. He shares some tips and strategies for how to deal with a situation in which a home you’re trying to rent has high days on market and offers advice on how to get those rented. We cover, for example, the importance of keeping the owner in the loop, and of making the move-in process as simple and hassle-free as possible.
Show Notes
[02:18] - Pete starts things off by telling us that he comes from the investor side and needed to look for a management company himself at one point. He explains how this led to where he is today.
[03:55] - Brad gives listeners some background on Pete and his partner Steve Rosenberg. Brad then elaborates on their roles within the company.
[05:39] - Pete talks more about how the company handles the extreme growth that they’ve had.
[06:39] - The Property Management Mastermind Show was basically Brad and Pete chatting for the last couple years, Brad explains.
[07:19] - Pete brings up some challenges that may help listeners. One of his challenges is losing property managers, often from stress, so he’s been trying to figure out how to help them be stress-free.
[09:53] - Part of the challenge that Empire Industries had as a company was hiring a lot of inexperienced property managers. Pete then talks about the database he’s making for property managers within the company.
[11:16] - Pete discusses how he and Steve brought the concept of scripts in the sales world into the property management world.
[12:12] - Brad and Pete talk about one of Brad’s employees, “Rockstar” Ruby. Pete talks about his experience interviewing Ruby.
[14:16] - We hear more about what Pete has done in terms of opening multiple locations in Houston. They’ve opened six satellite offices at this point, in addition to the main office. Brad then talks about how this is important for showing up on Google.
[17:03] - Pete shares how important the internet has been for getting new leads, comparing it to agent referrals. He then talks about the challenge of keeping systems working with fast growth.
[19:25] - Brad brings up what Pete and Steve are doing in San Antonio today.
[22:00] - Pete mentions the last seminar he went to, which was the 10x Growth Con by Grant Cardone. Brad and Pete then talk about the products they’re developing, as well as why you should send a seven-page, heartfelt letter instead of a one-page letter.
[25:29] - When Pete does his marketing, he makes sure to hit each part of the DISC personality profile to appeal to everybody, not just one personality type.
[26:28] - Pete goes into more depth about the DISC personality profile, and explains how he has applied it to hiring managers.
[28:47] - Pete’s partner Steve is a very high I on the DISC profile, whereas Pete is a DC. Pete describes how this impacts their communication and interactions. He then talks about why a couple of CS portfolio managers have recently quit, and explains why they now hire CDs for that role.
[31:29] - Pete talks about the role of the DISC profile in his hiring process. He also offers suggestions for which personality type to hire for various roles.
[34:35] - We learn about Pete’s strategies for ensuring that days on market for his rentals aren’t getting too high.
[38:05] - Brad offers some techniques he’s heard of, including offering free TVs. Their internal strategy is to send owners a Monday morning update each week. He then dives into another of their strategies: getting more into the cash flow analysis.
[41:57] - Another strategy Brad uses is pointing out to owners how much they lose every month their property is vacant because they’re unwilling to lower the rent.
[42:46] - Pete talks about the strategy of lowering the entry point of how much a renter needs to bring in (for example, by offering two weeks free on the first month’s rent).
[44:07] - Pete explains how much of a detriment red tape can be when you’re renting out a house.
Links and Resources:
National Property Management Network
Steve Rozenberg on the Property Management Mastermind podcast