I love offering listeners fantastic benefits, such as some great discounts for products, with new offers coming all the time! You can see a complete list at propertymanagementmastermind.com. For all of these offers, use the discount code “Brad” to secure your discount.
One more announcement before we get started! Our newest product at Property Management Mastermind is the Business Development Toolkit. In 2017, RentWerx organically grew by over 360 homes. In 2018, we’re on pace to grow another 500 homes. And best of all, we’ve done all of this without going out to meet the people and earn the business one door at a time. Tune in to learn more, or check out the toolkit online! If you aren’t completely satisfied with the product, we’ll give you a 100% refund.
In this episode, Greg Watson and I take a deep dive into the topic of business development and growth. Greg, who hails from a New Zealand town of 90,000 people, is a business development manager in a family business that deals with both realty and property management. He took on sole charge of the company’s property management department and has taken the opportunity to grow it to 750 doors.
Greg is a highly awarded guy (listen in to the episode to learn what the playful working theory is for why he received a lifetime award!). He’s an operator in the business right know who knows how to do it and teach it. He gets excited about helping people on their journey to success, and using innovation and interesting new ways of doing things.
In our conversation, you’ll come to understand why Greg’s company has every staff member working to their strengths. This means that Greg actually hired his own boss, because he’s aware of what he is (and isn’t) good at doing, and doesn’t try to be in charge of the aspects that he’s not good at. He explores the value and challenges of this kind of self-awareness in the episode.
Tune into this episode to learn about some of the differences and similarities between the US and New Zealand property management markets, how Greg sets and works toward growth goals, lead sources and conversion rates, and much more!
Here’s where you can find Greg:
Show Notes
[02:53] - Greg introduces himself briefly, and Brad talks about why he wanted to have Greg on the show.
[03:58] - We learn about how Greg got to where he is now.
[07:35] - Greg talks more about his company, its size, how many doors it handles, its structure, and so on.
[11:26] - There are some things that Greg simply isn’t great at, he points out, and he excels more at ideas and sales.
[14:46] - We shift into the tactical level of business development, with Greg talking about some of the best practices he’s come up with and coolest things he’s seen in the last year or two.
[16:37] - Brad talks about some of his own practices, offering Greg the opportunity to comment on them.
[22:03] - We hear Brad’s points about what Greg just did, including features and benefits and his justification of his services with the price.
[23:53] - Greg and Brad talk about some differences between the US and New Zealand in terms of the property management industry, specifically the penetration rate.
[27:51] - We learn about thing that Greg has found really successful recently in terms of business development.
[32:02] - Greg shares his thoughts on the business strategy that Brad has just been describing.
[33:47] - Brad shifts into talking about keys to growth, and invites Greg to share his own growth goal-setting process and cycle.
[36:32] - Let’s talk about lead sources! What has been working for Greg for lead sources?
[42:56] - Brad draws out what Greg has been saying about offering free market estimates for realtors.
[44:21] - We hear about tracking conversion rates, which Brad tries to do within the first 30 days.
[46:39] - What is Greg’s conversion rate?
[50:41] - Greg offers listeners a valuable resource that has been read over 5,000 times: Earn Thousands More From Your Rented Property.
Links and Resources:
(619) 988-6708 (Allison DiSarro from Seacoast Commerce Bank)
Ben White on the Property Management Mastermind Show
I love offering listeners fantastic benefits, such as some great discounts for products, with new offers coming all the time! You can see a complete list at propertymanagementmastermind.com. For all of these offers, use the discount code “Brad” to secure your discount.
One more announcement before we get started! Our newest product at Property Management Mastermind is the Business Development Toolkit. In 2017, RentWerx organically grew by over 360 homes. In 2018, we’re on pace to grow another 500 homes. And best of all, we’ve done all of this without going out to meet the people and earn the business one door at a time. Tune in to learn more, or check out the toolkit online! If you aren’t completely satisfied with the product, we’ll give you a 100% rebate.
If you’ve listened to this podcast before, you’ve probably heard of Marc Cunningham. He’s a frequent speaker at NARPM conferences, who also travels the country a lot speaking about his property management systems. In today’s episode, I’m delighted to have him as my guest again! We’ll be talking about growth and ancillary business services, such as fee-maxing.
Marc has a real estate property management company in Denver that his dad started in 1978. He’s never wanted to have one of the biggest companies, he explains in our conversation, but rather to be one of the best. Growth comes as a result of what you do.
As Marc will explain today, he believes that the management fee pretty much pays the bills. In addition, you need to have ancillary business services. While this is a common strategy in other industries, it hasn’t yet become as popular as it should be in the property management world. Marc explains how we can bring this idea into the property management space.
You’ll also learn that in the commercial world, it’s standard practice to back-charge everything. This is everything from the cost of stamps to the cost of mileage or gas for visiting the property. Marc shares his insights into how this perspective can be applied to the residential property management world. Similarly, the multi-family world runs businesses with fees and services that aren’t yet common across the property management industry, and that can add valuable additional sources of revenue.
We’ll talk about turning maintenance into a revenue-generating source, and how much of a difference it makes. Marc and I will also dig into fees that you can profit from, such as fees for adding or removing people to the lease, an early-termination flat-fee option, and a monthly rent processing fee. Tune in for information on these and many other strategies you can use to increase your revenue streams within your property management business.
Here’s where you can find Marc:
Grace Property Management & Real Estate
Show Notes
[02:06] - Brad introduces today’s guest, Marc Cunningham.
[03:37] - Marc talks a bit about himself, sharing his background in property management as well as the current status of his company.
[06:44] - It’s hard for a lot of property management companies to achieve profitability, Marc points out, and being good at property management doesn’t necessarily mean you’re good at making money.
[08:38] - Marc touches on some mindset points around the topics he’s been discussing.
[11:47] - Brad adds in a couple points to what Marc has been saying, talking about a podcast he listened to lately.
[14:05] - We learn that Marc does a fair amount of commercial property management, and talks about one of the biggest eye-openers was for him.
[16:08] - Marc flips things around and asks Brad a question: how does maintenance play out for Brad?
[18:22] - We hear about some of the cool ideas for fees and ancillary business services that Marc has seen, as well as the role of sales.
[20:51] - Brad digs into his Investor Pocket Listings Program and explains how it relates to what Marc has been talking about.
[26:07] - Marc talks about compensation for the process of removing or adding people from leases.
[29:49] - One thing that the multi-family industry has brought on lately is a monthly rent processing fee.
[32:06] - Brad shares another strategy and recommendation, then Marc talks about the opportunities involving pets.
[36:54] - Marc points out that it’s important to disclose anything you put in place in your management agreements.
[39:12] - We learn about the upcoming one-day conference that Marc will put on in late August in Denver, Colorado.
[44:20] - Marc talks about the training product he offers on ancillary business services.
Links and Resources:
(619) 988-6708 (Allison DiSarro from Seacoast Commerce Bank)
Grace Property Management & Real Estate
Investor Pocket Listings Program
Ancillary Business Services - 20 New Income Streams for your PM Business by Marc Cunningham
I love offering listeners fantastic benefits, such as some great discounts for products, with new offers coming all the time! You can see a complete list at propertymanagementmastermind.com. For all of these offers, use the discount code “Brad” to secure your discount.
One more announcement before we get started! Our newest product at Property Management Mastermind is the Business Development Toolkit. In 2017, RentWerx organically grew by over 360 homes. In 2018, we’re on pace to grow another 500 homes. And best of all, we’ve done all of this without going out to meet the people and earn the business one door at a time. Tune in to learn more, or check out the toolkit online! If you aren’t completely satisfied with the product, we’ll give you a 100% rebate.
Today, I’ll be joined by Andy Wallace from zInspector. We’ll dive into what zInspector is and what it offers, while also exploring some deep technical stuff. It was a great conversation, and I got a lot out of it! One of the things Andy mentions is Rebrandly, which is really helpful for things like links to videos for inspections and security deposit itemizations. Even if you don’t end up using zInspector, check out Rebrandly to see if it fits your needs.
I’ve known Andy for years and talked to him many times. He’s been in the NARPM community for a long time offering property management inspection software. Andy has been managing a company in some capacity for years, and created zInspector because he had problems with needing to take tens of thousands of photos over a few days.
The program solved Andy’s problems, and those of many other people both inside and outside the property management industry. In fact, right now, about half of Andy’s clients are actually contractors rather than property managers. Pool inspection companies, roofers, and landscapers, for example, have basically the same problems, which zInspector solves.
One of the most significant parts of Andy’s company is that they believe that your data belongs to you, and you should be able to get it out. For example, all of their reports are designed to be easily printable, which is a difficult feature to find among their main competitors. And if you think you’ll never need a printed report, trust me, it’s important for court! You may also need printed reports for loans or proof of income, for example.
Another fantastic feature is that each piece of information (such as each photo) is handled individually, so in the rare case that you may have an error, you’ll only lose one piece of information instead of an entire report. If you’ve ever had the frustration of losing a whole report while using other software, you know just how valuable this feature is. Tune into this value-packed episode to learn the details of all of this, and much more!
Here’s where you can find Andy:
Show Notes
[02:50] - Brad introduces Andy and explains why he’s excited to have him on the show. Andy then gives some of his background and explains that he created zInspector to solve a problem of his own.
[04:26] - How long did Andy manage a company of his own?
[06:39] - We hear where zInspector really fits into a process, with Andy explaining that his background and experience is in single-family home turnovers.
[09:19] - One of the first questions that someone might ask Andy is how this compares to some of the software-provided versions. Andy addresses this question.
[12:35] - Andy walks us through the video side of the inspection report with zInspector.
[15:24] - How does zInspector work when you don’t have wifi access on the site you’re inspecting?
[17:58] - Andy explains how you could include a link to a zInspector report in a security deposit form.
[19:55] - Does Andy have any preferences or recommendations for hardware to use in the field? zInspector works on either Android or iOS, he explains.
[22:18] - Andy elaborates on the 360-degree cameras and videos that you can use with zInspector.
[25:52] - Andy talks us through the big, bottom-line question: how much does it cost?
[27:53] - We learn that Andy syncs all the homes in his inventory into zInspector.
[28:40] - You can try zInspector unlimited for 15 days for free, but it’s free forever for one user and five properties.
[30:49] - Brad shares a story of winning a court case based on dates and timestamps on a YouTube video.
[32:34] - What is Andy offering to listeners who sign up using the discount code “Brad”?
[33:30] - Andy talks about a brand-new feature in zInspector’s 360 tours.
[35:35] - What’s the best way for listeners to reach Andy or learn more about him or zInspector?
Links and Resources:
(619) 988-6708 (Allison DiSarro from Seacoast Commerce Bank)