Its been 10 years since we started RLPMG.

Now we are managing over 600 units of residential rentals throughout central Ohio.

If I had to do it all over again, here are 4 things I'd do differently. #1 Niche down!

I see too many new PM companies offering to manage all property types.

They don't come across experts and their marketing suffers.

Instead, be hyper-focused on a property category and become the best PM company in your area for that property type.

HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT:

Property Management Business in a Box launches today!

For years I’ve dreamed of finding a way to take everything we learned about scaling a property management company from 0 to 700 units, and making it available to the world. So when @MatznerJon approached me with a totally new idea about how to make our playbook available, in a scalable way that aligns incentives, I was instantly intrigued. We've been hard at work for the past couple months getting everything set, and today we are ready!

I use a Household Manager + Notion to claw back loads of free time (and gain leverage) in my personal life, and you can do the same.

What do they do? How do you find them? How much do you pay them? How does Notion help? All answered!

A thread. What is a Household Manager? Easiest to show what they can do:
-Scheduling appointments: medical, vet, kid etc
-Errands (dry cleaning, groceries, dog groomer, gift buying)
-Researching, hiring, meeting, and paying CONTRACTORS and other household help. eg childcare, lawncare

Today I'm back in the office, after 5 weeks away from my business (with no contact).

Did I learn anything during my time off? Yes I did.

Read on for my key takeaways: 1. FOMO is a gift. If we had unlimited time, our decisions would be meaningless. Limited time on earth means our choices and moments have precious meaning. Reminding myself of this helps me stay "in the moment" (present). Learned this by reading the book "Four Thousand Weeks".

A checklist for staying small:
-Do everything yourself, especially sales. Nobody else can do it as well as you can.
-Concern yourself with every cost no matter how small. Especially monthly software expenses.
-Leave email notifications on. Always stop what you're doing & reply. -Take advantage of every opportunity that comes across your plate. Always say yes.
-Work out of your email inbox.
-Disregard mental & physical health. Work long hours, 7 days a week. Forgo sleep.
-Read a LOT of books, blogs & tweets. Don't start anything until you are an expert.

Most real estate investors hate their property manager.

Residential property management, as a product, has not achieved product-market fit.

(My thoughts on why & how to fix, read on) A bunch of guys who are now in their 60s and 70s gave it a go, and I applaud them for a good try. But they failed. It’s time for a new generation of property management company owners to reinvent everything about the product…

To create a service that is beloved.

A follower DM'd me.

"Turned 28 today. Have any advice for a guy who is trying to wrap up his twenties strong?"

Matter of fact, I do. Here's what I told him: Double down on your strengths, delegate away or ignore your weaknesses. Don't worry too much about being well-rounded or a generalist. It's boring and won't bring you outsized success.

We inspect every single unit we manage (all 615 of them) quarterly.

➞Change HVAC filter
➞Check/service all detectors (smoke & CO)
➞Quick inspection for unapproved pets, occupants, tenant damage
➞Quick inspection for req'd maintenance

You'd be AMAZED the stuff we find. First off, we find at least 500 non-functional smoke detectors annually. At least. And probably 250 missing CO detectors. All get remedied same-day.

We use Zapier to automate several parts of our property management business. Looks like 2,388 "zaps" ran last year.

Here's a quick thread of the top 5 Zaps that we use to save time:

1) Automatically post 4 and 5 star Google Business reviews to Slack. 2) Add new clients to a Mailchimp welcome campaign, and also email our New Client Success Coordinator to schedule a followup call after 30 days to find out how we're doing.

The business of property management is attractive:
-negative working capital
-earn $10 for every $100 in rent you collect, plus another $10-$30 in other fees & revenue
-practically zero startup costs / asset-light
-recurring revenue w/ huge customer lifetime value -scale up with your clients
-let others find & finance deals, take risk, sign PGs.
-counter-cyclical
-essentially no A/R; you get paid in full always
-grow by acquisition, grow when clients grow, and grow by adding new clients
-regulated in most states (lowers competition)

How we're using @NotionHQ at our property management business to:

-Document core processes & procedures
-Keep everyone on the same page
-Make new hire onboarding 10x easier
-Clarify roles & responsibilities
-Centralize information

Let's go! For years, information about company policies and procedures was spread out all over the place. Dropbox, email, Slack, printed-out instructions, loom videos etc.

I was tired of always hunting for information, and worried my team was constantly re-inventing the wheel.