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 Property Management Mastermind. For all of these offers, use the discount code “Brad” to secure your discount. Be sure to grab a seat for our Pulling Back the Curtain Conference in August in Denver, Colorado. Find out more information on our website.
Matt Spahn is a native born Texan. He started out in law school and took every class available for estate planning, which is very rare for a law student. Matt holds 2 degrees from Texas A&M University; one in English and his second degree a double major of Political Science and history. He earned his doctorate of jurisprudence from Baylor Law School. He has created trusts for his clients for 27 years. Matt is the only lawyer in the United States who has been vetted and approved by Dave Ramsey.
He is a member of the 2005 Leadership Lab class of the North San Antonio Chamber and has been named the Outstanding Attorney for Estate Planning by the San Antonio Business Journal in 2011 and four-time Five Star Wealth Manager award winner.
Matt and I first met over 15 years ago when I worked in real estate sales and sold him his home.
We’ll learn today state planning, using property trust and how these apply to property management space. We will also explore why having an estate plan for your family and business is a better safeguard than just having a will. What are the benefits and why an estate plan carries over and outlasts your beneficiaries and the importance of this key detail.
Show Notes
[03:34] Brad welcomes listeners to the show and introduces Matt.
[09:13] Matt talks about the wealth boom in Texas and how this affected his business and how he has helped a few lottery winners.
[09:53] Common issues people deal with when estate planning.
[11:15] What happens when you don’t plan your estate.
[13:22] What would happen to your business if you are incapacitated or pass away without an estate plan?
[15:22] Probate alternative if you don’t have a will in place: and what happens with probate.
[18:31] How a trust makes these situations seamless and smooth and the four strengths of a trust.
[20:22] Trusts create a sequential transfer of assets, but a will does not.
[22:22] How a trust protects your family and has a safety net for where your money can and cannot be placed.
[25:02] We never think “It’s going to happen to us.”
[26:36] Your plan needs to survive you and your beneficiaries.
[27:45] What you should consider for your estate planning.
[29:45] LLC and corporation versus a trust for estate planning regarding liabilities.
[32:46] What can I do to protect the rental properties, investment properties and homes in my LLC or real estate company?
Links and Resources:
Property Management Mastermind
Property Management Mastermind Group on Facebook
(619) 988-6708 (Allison DiSarro from Seacoast Commerce Bank)
(918) 728 8992 (Derek Scott with Insurance Management Group)
Guest Information:
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. Also, don’t miss our Pulling Back the Curtain Conference in August in Denver, Colorado. You can learn about that on the site, too!
Lisa Fore from San Diego joins me today to talk about the management side of short-term rentals. An expert in this space, Lisa has been managing around 120 short-term rental single-family homes for years. In fact, her grandmother started the company, so Lisa is as familiar as it gets with this field. If you’re interested in learning anything more about short-term rentals, this is absolutely the episode for you!
We’ll learn today about how Lisa handles the short-term management side of her company, including how many staff members are dedicated to this aspect. She points out that short-term rentals are similar to hotels in terms of how you need to think of them, rather than being like long-term rentals. (Even if this means rushing a potato-peeler over to a rental property on a moment’s notice.)
An important topic we’ll dig into is how to get started in the short-term rental space. If you’re a traditional property manager and haven’t yet dipped your toes into this area, Lisa’s insights into what to look for and how to proceed will be absolutely invaluable. You’ll also hear about various other topics including the necessary mindset shift for short-term rentals, what lessons Lisa has learned from her experiences, and much more.
Show Notes
[02:07] - Brad welcomes listeners to the show and introduces Lisa Fore, today’s guest.
[03:23] - Lisa gives listeners some background into who she is and how she got started in property management.
[04:48] - We hear more about the short-term management side of Lisa’s company. Lisa also digs into the difference in mindset that you need to manage short-term rentals.
[09:37] - What advice would Lisa give someone who wants to start from scratch in the short-term rental space? How do you furnish a short-term rental?
[12:36] - Lisa talks us through some of the small things that you need to provide in a short-term rental.
[14:29] - If someone calls Lisa up complaining that they’re missing a potato peeler, will someone run a potato peeler over there?
[15:53] - We learn about some of the challenges in implementing the short-term rental mindset in a corporate setting.
[16:56] - Lisa addresses whether she has a management agreement with the property owners of these rentals.
[18:51] - Does Lisa’s management company help owners with the licensing process? What are some of the insurance considerations to keep in mind?
[21:53] - Lisa talks about whether she uses a separate platform for short-term rentals and accounting.
[25:35] - Brad takes a moment to chat about casting a bigger net, which he and Lisa talked about before the episode.
[29:17] - We hear about one of the biggest lessons that Lisa has learned over the course of her career, as well as whether she ever gets blamed for missing furniture.
[32:18] - Lisa shares a funny story about something that happened in her short-term rental company.
[35:43] - Is the industry a money-maker for most of the owners who Lisa works with? How many nights per month are most rentals occupied?
[38:35] - Lisa talks about renting to locals, and potential issues with neighbors, parties, noise, and so on.
[43:01] - How can someone reach out to Lisa to learn more or get her help with getting a short-term rental business going?
Links and Resources:
Property Management Mastermind
Property Management Mastermind Group on Facebook
(619) 988-6708 (Allison DiSarro from Seacoast Commerce Bank)
(918) 728 8992 (Derek Scott with Insurance Management Group)
(760) 525-9134 (Lisa’s phone number)
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.
Paul Kanowski and Matt Tandy both come from property management companies in California. Today, they’re both on the show to chat about stopping the scammers, specifically what we’re seeing in the self-assisted and unaccompanied showing systems that’s causing scammers to target these vacant homes.
Paul has about 180 homes, and Matt has about 300. Both of them have been seeing a rise in scams recently, and they expect the trend to spread outside of California and into the rest of the country. So even if you haven’t yet experienced the scams we’ll be talking about, get prepared ahead of the game by tuning into this episode.
As you’ll learn today, the scam that happened to Paul was elaborate and involved several people getting duped. The one that happened to Matt is similar in some ways, and involves scammers who have no conscience whatsoever, as he discovered when he posed as an old man. And don’t think that this scam is limited to self-showings; nothing is stopping someone from kicking in the back door and running a scam that way.
Pricing is your biggest deterrent. The longer a home sits vacant, the more likely it is that it’ll end up with break-ins or scams. If you’re looking to get price adjustments from your owners for homes that have been sitting this long, try pointing this important fact out to them! Tune into this episode to learn other important methods to avoid (or at least minimize) scams.
Show Notes
[02:07] - Welcome to the show! Today we have not one, but two guests: Paul Kanowski and Matt Tandy.
[03:32] - Paul takes a moment to introduce himself and explain that he and Matt have been experiencing scams in different ways.
[04:18] - We hear Matt’s introduction to who he is and where he works.
[05:04] - Brad, Paul, and Matt mention which vendors they use.
[06:06] - Paul digs into the topic of today’s episode by describing the complex scam that he’s seen in self-showing homes.
[10:17] - We hear a clarification that the payment sent to the scammer was a bank wire.
[11:56] - Paul describes the notification letter that he places in his self-showing homes to explain to people that they’re getting scammed.
[12:51] - The scam that Matt has seen has been different in some ways, he explains.
[17:46] - Because the rental scams are under the dollar amount that the federal government will investigate, the scammers can keep doing this, Matt explains.
[18:41] - How were the scammers changing Matt’s locks in the middle of the night?
[21:41] - These scams aren’t limited to people using a particular showing system, Matt explains.
[22:40] - Paul shares another story about a scam that he has experienced.
[24:35] - We hear Matt’s theory on how people get involved in these scams, as well as a surprising fact: they’ve had less problems since using self-showing systems than before.
[27:30] - Brad takes a moment to talk about the self-showing system as a whole.
[28:51] - Self-showing rents quicker, Paul points out, which reduces the opportunity for scams.
[31:15] - We learn about how the self-showing system can save money for property managers.
[34:04] - Paul takes some time to comment on the safety aspect of showings, pointing out that there are crazy people out there.
[38:31] - What do Paul and Matt think of the strategy of watermarking photos as a deterrent to scammers? Both guests answer, then Matt talks about the camera system that he likes to use on vacant properties.
[44:32] - As cameras become more affordable, we’ll see more managers and owners looking to use them, Brad points out.
[45:25] - Would a credit card sign up at the beginning of an unaccompanied vacant home showing have any sort of effect?
[47:27] - Are there any other prevention methods that we should talk about in today’s conversation?
[50:54] - Paul loves self-showing, he explains, and would make all of his houses self-showing if he could.
Links and Resources:
Property Management Mastermind
Property Management Mastermind Group on Facebook
(619) 988-6708 (Allison DiSarro from Seacoast Commerce Bank)
(918) 728 8992 (Derek Scott with Insurance Management Group)