Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Renard “Ray” Sims.
Topic: Entrepreneurship, property management, and building generational wealth through real estate.
Ray Sims shares his journey from government employee to entrepreneur, founding a property management company in the Metro DC area. He discusses the challenges of transitioning into business ownership, the structure of his company, and the importance of networking, automation, and community service.
🎯 Purpose of the Interview
- Showcase Ray’s entrepreneurial journey and how he turned a layoff into a business opportunity.
- Educate listeners on property management and real estate investment strategies.
- Inspire aspiring entrepreneurs to take calculated risks and build sustainable businesses.
- Promote financial literacy and generational wealth through real estate.
🔑 Key Takeaways 💼 Entrepreneurship & Transition
- Ray was laid off from a government job and used the opportunity to launch his business.
- He emphasizes the importance of stepping out of your comfort zone.
“I got forced to do it. And I'm kind of glad that that happened to me.”
🏠 Property Management Defined
- Manages real estate portfolios for absentee owners.
- Handles everything from tenant screening to maintenance coordination and invoicing.
“I manage people’s assets… Most of the homeowners don’t even want to know who the tenants are.”
🔍 Tenant Screening Process
- Includes credit checks, employment history, landlord references, and even social media reviews.
“I go on your Facebook page or Instagram page… see how you want to treat that property.”
🧰 Business Structure
- Licensed in DC; structured as an LLC in Maryland.
- Works with a network of trusted vendors (plumbers, electricians, etc.).
- Uses automation and a third-party admin for newsletters and monthly reports.
“I’m really big on automation… I don’t want to have a bank account with \$30,000 on August 1st.”
🤝 Networking & Growth
- Attends real estate events across DC, New York, and Atlanta.
- Uses Instagram and podcasting to build his brand and connect with clients.
“I cannot leave a networking event without connecting with five different people.”
🎙️ Podcast & Branding
- Podcast started organically from a conversation with a landscaper.
- Focuses on real estate and business conversations.
“I call it ‘The Creator’… just conversations with different people in the real estate field.”
📈 Investment Advice
- Recommends duplexes and townhomes as top investment choices.
- Notes that single-family homes are less popular for rentals due to maintenance concerns.
“Duplex, duplex, duplex… it’s an easy way to gain revenue.”
🌍 Vision & Expansion
- Plans to expand beyond DC by learning local regulations and networking.
- Attends Invest Fest in Atlanta for exposure and connections.
“I want to be the face of property management in the DC, Maryland, Virginia area.”
💬 Memorable Quotes
- “All money is not good money.”
- “Life is risky. Like waking up in the morning is risky.”
- “You have to step out of your comfort zone.”
- “I’m proud of you… I’m glad you got laid off.”
#SHMS #STRAW #BEST
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I am Rashaan McDonald, a host is weekly Money
Making Conversation Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this
show provides off for everyone. It's time to start reading
other people's success stories and start living your own now.
If you want to be a guest on my show,
Money Making Conversation Masterclass, please visit our website Moneymakingconversations dot
com and click to be a guest button. If you're
(00:22):
a small business owner, entrepreneur, motivational speaker, influencer or nonprofit
I want you on my show. Now let's get started.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
My guess is Renard Ray Sims.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
He found his own property management company in the metro
DC area, Maryland and Virginia area. He specializes in renting
out your condominiums, apartments, duplexes, homes and investment properties. They
get you the best tenant, maintain the home, handles, maintenance
and invoices for all owners. Now let's learn more about
(00:56):
him and how his company does business. Please welcome to
the Money a Conversations Master Class. Raise Sims.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
How you doing, Ray?
Speaker 3 (01:03):
How you doing? Man? Can't complain? I'm great, man.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Okay, you're in the DC area right now? Correct?
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Correct, I'm in Maryland.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yes, Now are you from born and raised in that area?
Speaker 4 (01:12):
Born and raised in DCPG County all day?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Now, what is PG County?
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Because to my understanding, that's supposed to be the wealthiest
black community in America.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Correct, Correct, The Prince George's County is definitely the wealthiest
African American community county in the country. Right now, they're
actually arguing about it because it's a cond of next
to me called Charles County that's kind of taking it over.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
But I'm still fighting. I'm like, no, it's still PG
County now.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
But but let's go and be real about PG.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
There's a lot of negative comes out of PG when
it comes to crime.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Why how do how does the balance like that?
Speaker 1 (01:46):
How can a black community be that wealthy and still
make headlines with with crime?
Speaker 4 (01:53):
Well, you got to figure the population is crazy here,
Like this is a very big county and the population
is tremendous. So where you go where it's a large population,
and sadly to say a lot of us, it's just
going to be some crime in certain areas, especially like
the lower income areas.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
It's just going to be some crime there.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
But I mean it's not like I tell people all
the time that PG County may PG County may have
some hoods just like anywhere else, but I've been to
hood hoods where PG County won't even compare.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Now I'm talking to Race SAMs owns and created his
own property management company as an entrepreneur. Ray, I have
a lot of entrepreneurs on this show. What inspired you
to be an entrepreneur?
Speaker 3 (02:31):
I don't. I don't like I don't.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
I've been working for the government for a very, very
very long time, and I've always had a hard time
when people told me what to do. I don't like
bossy people. I always and I always knew I wanted
to work for myself. For long time, I didn't know
what I wanted to do, and that didn't come on
to COVID. You know, everybody was stuck in the house,
so everybody just was lingering with those ideas and you
(02:54):
couldn't do nothing because you couldn't leave a house.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
So it just executed those ideas. And that's what I did.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
I took that idea out of my head and start
execute it right now.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
With that being said, a lot of people myself, I
worked a forty out week job, worked at IBM, I
resigned to be an entrepreneur, but make it that step
to do this, It's a lot of fear, a lot
of uncertainty involved. I always talk about it on this show.
Rate was that a simple decision? Do you have a
planning place when you decided become an entrepreneur?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Oh? No, it wasn't. It wasn't.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
It wasn't simple at all, because you know, I'm looking
at it like I'm working for the government. I'm making
this crazy, nice little salary and where my entrepreneur is
not even close to it yet. And technically I didn't
the entrepreneur journey. I wasn't always one hundred percent until recently.
I was a punt of the whole doge layoffs with
(03:47):
the government, Okay, I think, and I think that was
kind of a message for me. It's like, hey, why
are you not doing this? Like why are you taking
so long to do it? That I got forced to
do it. And I'm kind of glad that that happened
to me, because I'm the type of person I'll just
sit on it and just think of about it and
not do anything. And to enforced and I was supposed
to do it, so like I'm good now, so like,
now this is my bread button.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Now I have to grind. I have no choice but
the grind.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Okay, well, let's talk about the grind.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Because Doge showed you light something you probably should have
started two years ago. But you had this safe salary,
which most people do not saying you're happy getting that salary.
But it was safe, it was comfortable. Yeah, because I
always say you get a government job. Basically, some people
say that's a job for life, until Doge came along,
which is a department created by Elon Musk and now
(04:32):
he's out of the out of the good graddal Trump nowadays,
now you forced you to create your own property management company.
What exactly I gave out some notes about property management.
What exactly is property management?
Speaker 4 (04:47):
My definition of property management is an entity that managed
a real estate portfolio. So I manage people. As says
that a lot of people like to get into real estate.
A lot of people like to buy these home and
rent them out, but don't want to really want to
deal with the tenants, don't really want to deal with
the maintenance, or they may move out the country and
they will hire a company like me or any other
(05:07):
property management company to take care of everything so they
don't have to deal with anything but collecting their money
per month. So I deal with everything in between, dealing
with the homeowner and the tenant. Most of the times,
most of the homeowners don't even want to know who
the tennants are.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
So so you do background checks and all that applications.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Talk to the process.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
If I am coming to you, right your company, your
property manager company tell us the procedure.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
So when you come to me, I do a consultation
first because I want to see if you even want
to be a good client. I'm at the point now
where all money is not good money. So it's like
I'm interviewing. I'm interviewing the homeowners too, making sure we
work out the good together.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Like how you going to interview me?
Speaker 4 (05:47):
I'm an interview you too, So I'm not going to
just let service everybody. But once we have that agreement,
once that management agreement is signed, I have my photographer
come out take a photography. I do require all properties
have a full property inspection under me before I even
get started, so I have to take have that taken
care of, and then once we get those photography those pitches,
(06:08):
we start marketing it.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
That marketing. Uh, tendants will start applying.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
So I'll do that background check, that's the credits scheck,
the references their previous employment history, or talk to your
previous landlords. I go on your Facebook page or Instagram page.
You want to see how you are, see how how
you're going to treat that property, because a lot of
people don't really understand that a lot of things that
you do on social media actually reflects how you live. Right.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Well, it's it's good you're saying that because in a sense,
since you you may not own the property, but you
have to manage the property. So why bring in people
who could be headaches for you as the manager?
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Correct?
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Right? So why whatever? People?
Speaker 1 (06:49):
It was a statement if you if you managed it,
why would you bring in idiots?
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Why would you bring in.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
People who are slopping? People will party? All these things
are flags for bass issues, pay potential, pay me the issues,
lifestyle issues which also can jeopardize I'm just talking to
all future property managers out there, people who want to
get in this business.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Is that, like you said, right, all money is not
good money?
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Right?
Speaker 1 (07:14):
And you can get attendant in there who's paying may
pay you a year in France, I'll pay you a
year in event, But what does a person do to
that property when they need that property or at that property?
Is the police being called, is the using as a
party house? All those different things are things you have
to put in perspective when you're doing all this, and
(07:35):
that is something that a lot of people don't take
into consideration.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Correct exactly, that's correct, that's correctly, and even for the homeowners,
there's a lot of things. A lot of homeowners just think, hey,
I have a property management company. I don't have to
do anything that's absolutely wrong. That's still your property. At
the end of the day, we have a lot of
properties that are in newly communities, so you have to
deal with these things called HOA homeowned association. You got
(08:00):
about by their rules to us a home owner. They
need to know that you're renting out that property, so
you even rented out.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
A lot of people like to go around.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
That because they owe HOA and then that kind of
bites them in the butt at the end because when
it's down for a vision of everything, you don't get
a rental license. The HOA company has to sign off
on your rental license. If you don't have the rental license.
You can't evict, you can't do anything in court at all.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
I'm talking to race sounds just getting started. You know
the Metro.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
DC area, Virginia, Maryland. He held his property management. How
did you get started right?
Speaker 3 (08:35):
I started with my own property. I own a house
in Capitol Heights, Maryland.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
It's about five minutes from the Commander's football stadium. I
always knew that I wanted to get a brand new,
like freshly built house, built from the ground up, but
I just never did it. But you know, when we
were seing COVID, we had no.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Choice but to linger on the ideas.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
And that's when everybody's into the race was dropping like
two percent whatever. So I just randomly start driving by
looking at these new communities. Found me a community that
I like. I called my relitary and I say, hey,
what will it take for me to rent my current
house out to buy a new house. He teld me
what to do and we did it, and since then
I got a tenant. To this day, five years later,
(09:16):
she's still my same tenant, no headaches at all. And
I think I think because of my current tendant that
made me want to expand. It was like Hey, I
actually liked this. I actually like serving the community, serving people,
just teaching people what I've learned from just from from
my work and then from me. I just start going
to a bunch of networking events, start meeting people. That's
how That's how I got ahold of a plumber, electrician,
(09:38):
an HVAC technician, everything in the area. That's how I
met the people from the Generational Wealth seminar, just netwrning events.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
So just growing from there.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Well, this is is great because of the fact that
we're talking about business structure. You started out with a
property and then you rented it out to the first
person I want, who's still attendant five years later.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
But you start writing our plumber or electrician.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
You know all these things is part of the maintenance package, right, correct,
that's correct, put together that business. Somebody who's listening, let's
talk about your business structure and all the things you
have to put in place before you become a property
manager or put the shingles up.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Saying you are a property manager.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
Yeah, first I would say, understand whatever area you're in,
understand what the rules are for property management.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
In DC. You have to be licensed. So I end
up getting licensed in DC.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Maryland is not that Maryland doesn't really have too many rules,
so I'm able to just really structure my LLC. But
make sure you have that insurance. Definitely, definitely need to
have insurance and just have all your resources because what
you don't want is have a tenant and they call
you about three o'clock in the morning saying, hey, there's
a leak in the bathroom. I don't want to have
to go on Instagram or the Yellow Pages to look
for a plumb. I'll break out one. I already have
(11:00):
a connection with one, and so when I call him,
he's like, hey, I'm there. And I will also say
always have a backup because that one plumber may be busy,
which is good for them because you want everybody to eat.
You want everybody to eat, so when they're when they're busy,
you got to have a backup because you need to
resolve the issue.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
So right, it's really important, like you should never go
in business that you're in as a property manager with
one electricity, one plumber, one room for because guess what,
they're trying to do business too. They're trying to grow
to their brain. If they're busy, then you trapped. Then
you're starting to call Instagram or go in the phone
(11:37):
books trying to find somebody or or Google somebody that
you don't even know, and the trust factor has to
be involved here.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Correct, that's correct, that's correct.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Now let's talk about networking.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
I met you at an event in the DC area
Generational Wealth.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
How important is networking to your brand?
Speaker 1 (11:56):
And talk to my audience about how networking has growing
your business.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Oh, It's grown my business tremendously. And the funny thing
about networking, I was naturally an introvert, so I'm naturally naturally,
I was never the type of person to go up
and talk to somebody. But like, once I start going
networking events, I just knew that in order for me
to build a business, to build a brand, I have
to start talking to people. End up coming out that shew,
(12:22):
start talking to one of the two people, and then
I start going to every real estate networking.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Event in the DMV.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
So anytime I'm here about real estate networking event in
the DC area, I'm pretty much more than likely ninety
percent a chance I'm.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Going to be there.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
And it's growed my business tremendously because I started meeting
people and we start exchanging Instagrams.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Now my Instagram starting to blow up.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
I started on my own podcasts and I've been having
people on the podcast from networking events.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
And I think it's also good that I went.
Speaker 4 (12:49):
To high school in this area, so a lot of
people from my high school have their own businesses and
we work together a lot as well. And like when
somebody needs something, I'll refer them to somebody to high
school with, Hey, I know a contractor, went to school together,
these good people and just going that community out one thing.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Another thing I do do to really.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
Grow business is when I first started, I went on
Instagram and I typed in real estate investors in DC
and I started following all of them. Didn't care if
they followed me back or not, but somebody's going to
share some good information. And then from there, I'm just
going to linger onto where start talking to them, meet
him at the event or something, and then we just
(13:31):
grow from there.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Awesome, awesome advice. Please don't go anywhere.
Speaker 5 (13:35):
We'll be right back for more Money Making Conversations master Class.
Welcome back to Money Making Conversation Master Class with me
Rashaan McDonald. You're hearing from Renard Ray Sims and nicknamed
Ray and he's a property manager in the Metro DC
area of Maryland and Virginia. He specializes in running out
(13:58):
your condominions, apartments, duplexus homes, and investment properties.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
He gets you a tenant. You hear me clear, he
already said earlier how he's scrutinized. He goes through the
application process background just because even though he doesn't own
the property, he doesn't want to deal with the headache
of a terrible tenant.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
So that's a blessing. He's worried about himself.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
So that means you're gonna get the best available tenant
for your property, maintain the home.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
He already told you. He has the plomba on call.
He's be down.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
He has the electrician, the roof for anybody that is
required to do maintenance, landscape people, all these people is
part of the maintenance package. When you're doing business with
the properties that he managed and then also invoicing for
the owners.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Now that's a.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Trust factor that you're handling that money to get to that.
How do you build that relationship with people who don't
know you, Ray.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I'm just tell him about my work. I get them references.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
And one thing about for the dealing with the money,
I don't collect when the ten it pays the rent,
it doesn't come diregular to me. I have a portal
where when the ten it pays the rent, it will
go directly to the home model themselves.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
So I'm g to the middle.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
I can see the transaction, but it doesn't come to
me at all for a couple of reasons.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
One is a league in DC to do that.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
Number two, I don't want to have a bank account
with thirty thousand dollars on August first, and I have
to do it.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
I just don't extra work I don't want to do.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
And I really really, really big on automation, and that's
just my form of automation.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
I'll be Jason Ray.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
You impressed me from a standpoint of for god, who
just got laid off by Doge. You see pretty organized?
Speaker 4 (15:39):
Yeah, yeah, I'm pretty We'll see. My background was in
project management.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Okay, okay, okay. I wonder what this is coming from. Man,
this guy. It does sound like an amateur.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
It seems like everything's in place, seems like everything's organized,
and you not intimidated.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
By the prospects of his opportunity. So how do you expand?
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Because I asked you before we got on air, did
you have employees or contract to people other than the
maintenance people that you're using for to maintain your properties?
And you said no, I'm a one man operation. So
how does a one man operation work in today's society?
Is technology that good? It enables you to do what
you do?
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Yeah, technology is good. I do.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
I do have an admin person. I wouldn't call her
my employee because she has her own admin business and
so like, I use her services, so I'm paying her
monthly to provide service for me.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
But when you said admin services, what do you mean
when you say she does?
Speaker 3 (16:38):
I do new monthly newsletters.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
She does my newsletter all the information, and I do
every client. Every homeowner gets a monthly report, and pretty
much that's a report called on your property, pretty much
tells you the money coming out, money going there, just
tips about your property, something about your ten is, and
just a recommendation, hey flaw is going to be here soon,
it's time to in your guns side stuff like that.
(17:03):
Most of the time people I don't even pay attention
to it, but that form of communication is really important
to me. Because I'm a really big on communication and
I wanted somebody else to handle that because that's not
my field, that's not my feel to do all those emails.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
I'm changing ring. Are you mad? Did you just start
five years ago?
Speaker 3 (17:19):
Yeah? Yeah, I wish I.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Did, because I'm not gonna lie to you.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Man for a guy who just stepped out here, well
basically forced out of here, forced into this game plan
because of layoffs caused by Eli Moss must be in
the organization.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
You have to call doge.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
You have your act together in a lot of ways
that I would feel comfortable if I had a property
in the area to ask you to manage it. Now,
that's the big picture plan of being able to build
your brain. You talking about a newsletter, You're talking about
going to networking.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
You know you're an open book.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
You want Like you said, it's illegal for you to
colle elect the checks from the rental property, so the
customer is already protected and that's really important. So that's
the structure of your business. You have an admin person,
so if you're interested in doing this, you don't have
to jump out there hire two or three four time people.
You could contract somebody out if you're talking to somebody
(18:18):
who listens to the show, what would you advice? You
would you get them some steps, like three steps they
need to do if they want to start a property
management company.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
First, it's definitely research. You need to research the rules
and regulations toward whatever city county you are in. For example,
whatever goes on in DC is not the same for
PG County and vice versas, like the rules are totally
different and they're right next door to each other. Second advice,
definitely go to those networking events and definitely connect with
(18:49):
various vendors, connect with all of them honestly, and just
have those connections and make friendships and partnerships with them.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
At number three, step out the comfort zone.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
But that's what I had to do with Step about
my comfort zone because talking to people wasn't easy for me.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
But like now it's natural.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
I know you just say it was an introvert. So
again another thing I'm going I don't see it. I
don't see it, but I'm proud of you, my friend.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Real estate man. I always say real estate property. You
know God's not going to create new land. You know
that you can live on of course, you know you
have volcanoes overre in Hawaii. They create new land, not
saying you can live on it. It's like just in
case somebody is holding me to the truth. But why
is real estate so good? If you want to be
an investor.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
It is a great way for generational wealth. It's a
great way to make money.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
It's a great way to have assets to pass it
down to your family members. It's very risky, but life
is risky, like waking up in the morning is risky.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
So anything is risky.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
But I mean it is a great acid to have,
great right off if you're answer to that, and just
something that you could just hand off to your generation
because you never know where resirement's going to be like
in the next twenty thirty years.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Right right, So what's the future for you, Ray Sims,
if you're.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Property manager five years later, mister introvert.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
Yeah, I would like to expand. I will, of course,
of course I'm not leaving the dc PG County area.
But I would like to expand. And how do I
do that? I got to go to other areas in network.
For example, next month is August and I'm going to
invest fast. What I'm going down there for there to
network I can hear that's for any of the speakers
that's going to be there, they might be great, But
I just want to meet people.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
I did that last year.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
I met a bunch of people that invest fast, found
a CPA there who's now we have now a great
working relationship, and I have found clients from Atlanta who
has property here in the DC area and as well
as New York. I go to New York and there's
a networking and been in New York that I go
once a month just to meet people.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Just don't slow down before let's talk about what invests
a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
I know what it is.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
First of all, did you have a booth or you
just going down there as an attendee.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
I'm going down there as an attendee. Now, I was
thinking about the booth this year, so definitely next year.
I mean this year, it's already here now, all.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Right, right?
Speaker 1 (21:03):
So what exactly is Investment INVESTMENTESTIV, which is in Atlanta, Georgia,
founded by Steve Harvey and the guys from Earn.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Your Lad Leisure. Yep.
Speaker 4 (21:14):
It's just a really huge investment festival with thousands of
people just teach you how to invest the different ways
to advance because you don't have to do real estate.
You can do the stock market. It helps you put
your credit repair, everything, accounting, every anything you can really
think of that has investment investing is down there. It's
(21:34):
like the Investing Capital Seminar in general.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
And that happens every August, by the way, ladies jove,
And so if you miss it this year, dex Year
is going to happen a year after that. And it's
well attended and you can't have booths, or you can
just go down as an attendee. And there's a lot
of celebrity uh speakers that attend this event every year,
just just just pouring into you before financial littering, motivational conversations,
(22:02):
and a business structure.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
And that's what this is all about. So you, my
friend Ray, you're going.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Down there, just just just find out your networking technique now,
you know, because here's a guy.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Who did like speaking to people.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Now right, Okay, now he's out there, I got business cards.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
You think about getting the booth. He's slapping hands.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Yeah, So how does tell everybody going to the invest
fast how do you network?
Speaker 3 (22:26):
You know?
Speaker 4 (22:27):
It's funny, So technically every time I go to a
networking event. I have a goal. I cannot leave as
the goal is, I cannot leave this establishment without connecting
with five people. I need to have five different numbers.
Invest Fast is different because there's thousands of people. So
last year I was like, I cannot leave invest fast
without meeting twenty people. I probably met like thirty people,
(22:48):
and I want to expand that this year.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
I think this year, I'm going to do something a
little bit different.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
I'm going to have a customized shirt with a QR
col say hey, let's talk like that, just to connect
with people and have people just and I do my
podcast too, So I'm il Ray, Amazon Palm.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
Dad bought the little microphones.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
I'm gonna have those microphones with me and just start
talking to random people and just recorded.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Let's talk about your podcast, my friend. Now, where can
we find your podcast?
Speaker 3 (23:12):
And right now it's on Apple, Apple Podcasts.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
We're all working on get it to get it get
on into YouTube, but right now it's just on Apple
and Instagram. And the funny thing about the podcast, it
wasn't even an idea, Like I never thought about doing
a podcast. I was just doing some content with my
landscaper and my videographer. We were just talking and my
(23:35):
videographer recorded it and people start liking it, and I
was like, I'm going to start doing this conversation with
different people in the real estate field. So I called
it crip talk, and we just have different conversations with
different people in the real estate fields about just random
business of everyday life.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Wow. Wow, So what is your brand? Right?
Speaker 3 (23:56):
My brand? Oh, that's a tough question.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
You're trying to when you're trying to because the reason
I say that because I'm trying to on this show,
I try to help people get to the next step.
And I always tell people your brand is like any
other call. You know, if you do a car commercial,
they're promoting their brand. Do your serial commercial, they're that
food product. So everybody has a brand that they're promoting.
(24:22):
And so I ask you that question so that can
get you the closer. Like you said, Rashan, I probably
have a T shirt on, a shirt on with a
QR code.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
That QR code is promoting your brand.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
We talk about Hey, I am a property manager. I
do real estate in various areas from duplexus to homes
to apartments, the condominiums or investment properties. So I ask you, now, Ray,
what is your brand?
Speaker 4 (24:53):
My brand, I would say proper property management.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
Influencer.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Okay, and that would be because of the fact that
he used the word Instagram a lot.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
Yeah, I'm really big Instagram.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
And then you're talking about your podcast, so you want
so you want to be basically of the face of
property management in the DC, Maryland, Virginia area. Correct, with
the with the outside possibility of people calling you in
to manage other cities, other states.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
What you knowing the rules are different in those different areas.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, man, that's just for me. That what
that means is I just got to study the rules
in those areas. I got to look those up, some.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Of which may mean that I may have to join
like a.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
Brokerage in that state, like the state of Virginia, you
have to be a part of your brokers to really
do property management where you don't have to do that
in Maryland and Virginia.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
So everywhere is different.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Mhm. Now what that was saying, how we in touch
with you, sir?
Speaker 4 (25:57):
My instagram is at races Please email is admin at
race amasproperties dot com.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
And with that being said, you want to expand your
podcast is it, uh, when often do you drop them?
Speaker 2 (26:13):
Or was it weekly? Monthly?
Speaker 4 (26:15):
Right now we're doing it bi weekly, so why should
drop this coming Friday on Apple?
Speaker 1 (26:21):
And I want to want to close with this statement.
People want to invest in real estate. People you know,
got all these shows on TV about flipping properties. Can
you tell us because I heard you say duplex, Hey
you say condominium, he's the apartments? How you say homes?
From a real estate property manager? Can you tell us
in order the top three real estate investments that people
(26:45):
or everyday people should look at buying so you can
manage I.
Speaker 4 (26:51):
Would say duplex way to duplex plex because there's multiple
units in one building, so you may have four in
one in three and one two in one. And it's
that's an easy way to just gain revenue because you're
getting four rent. Like if it's a four unit building
and you get four rent, if it's three, you getting
(27:11):
three rent a month from there, I would say my
famous one right now in townhomes.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
A lot of people are buying town especially in Baltimore.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
They just buying townhomes and renting them out because it's easy.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Wow, it's pretty cheap.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
I don't have too many single family homes because realistically
a lot of people just not going to un out
the same family home.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
You know, I'm trying to buy a home. People, they
just buying these properties and renting them out.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Doesn't that hurt the everyday person trying to reach the
American dream.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
They can't buy it, they have to rent it?
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (27:48):
Yeah, well, I mean with an interest rate crazy right now,
a lot of people just not interested in the buying
just can't buy or you know, a lot. Buying is
not for everybody, Okay, ownership for everybody. Some people just
don't want to deal with that whole maintenance stuff. They
used to the apartment taking care of everything, and it's
not for everybody.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Okay, cool. Well again, I want to thank you, my friend.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
And when you come down to Atlanta, I don't care
what year you come down to Atlanta. I always know
that I'm based in Atlanta. Love to hear from you,
and also just good luck man. And I would just
tell you your enthusiasm, your your intellect, and I'm glad.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
You got laid off.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Quite frankly, I don't know how you want to take
that when I said, but I think that I feel
that your future is is what you're doing right now.
Sometimes you got to be pushed to get to the
you know your true calling and I feel your true
calling is what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
And good luck, all right.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
I appreciate it so much for being on here.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Man.
Speaker 5 (28:45):
This has been Money Making Conversation Masterclass with me Rashaun McDonald.
Thanks to our guess and our audience. Visit Moneymaking Conversations
dot com to listen or register to be a guest
on my show. Keep leading with your gifts, keep winning,
st
Hi, I am Rashaan McDonald, a host is weekly Money
Making Conversation Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this
show provides off for everyone. It's time to start reading
other people's success stories and start living your own now.
If you want to be a guest on my show,
Money Making Conversation Masterclass, please visit our website Moneymakingconversations dot
com and click to be a guest button. If you're
(00:22):
a small business owner, entrepreneur, motivational speaker, influencer or nonprofit
I want you on my show. Now let's get started.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
My guess is Renard Ray Sims.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
He found his own property management company in the metro
DC area, Maryland and Virginia area. He specializes in renting
out your condominiums, apartments, duplexes, homes and investment properties. They
get you the best tenant, maintain the home, handles, maintenance
and invoices for all owners. Now let's learn more about
(00:56):
him and how his company does business. Please welcome to
the Money a Conversations Master Class. Raise Sims.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
How you doing, Ray?
Speaker 3 (01:03):
How you doing? Man? Can't complain? I'm great, man.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Okay, you're in the DC area right now? Correct?
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Correct, I'm in Maryland.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yes, Now are you from born and raised in that area?
Speaker 4 (01:12):
Born and raised in DCPG County all day?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Now, what is PG County?
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Because to my understanding, that's supposed to be the wealthiest
black community in America.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Correct, Correct, The Prince George's County is definitely the wealthiest
African American community county in the country. Right now, they're
actually arguing about it because it's a cond of next
to me called Charles County that's kind of taking it over.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
But I'm still fighting. I'm like, no, it's still PG
County now.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
But but let's go and be real about PG.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
There's a lot of negative comes out of PG when
it comes to crime.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Why how do how does the balance like that?
Speaker 1 (01:46):
How can a black community be that wealthy and still
make headlines with with crime?
Speaker 4 (01:53):
Well, you got to figure the population is crazy here,
Like this is a very big county and the population
is tremendous. So where you go where it's a large population,
and sadly to say a lot of us, it's just
going to be some crime in certain areas, especially like
the lower income areas.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
It's just going to be some crime there.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
But I mean it's not like I tell people all
the time that PG County may PG County may have
some hoods just like anywhere else, but I've been to
hood hoods where PG County won't even compare.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Now I'm talking to Race SAMs owns and created his
own property management company as an entrepreneur. Ray, I have
a lot of entrepreneurs on this show. What inspired you
to be an entrepreneur?
Speaker 3 (02:31):
I don't. I don't like I don't.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
I've been working for the government for a very, very
very long time, and I've always had a hard time
when people told me what to do. I don't like
bossy people. I always and I always knew I wanted
to work for myself. For long time, I didn't know
what I wanted to do, and that didn't come on
to COVID. You know, everybody was stuck in the house,
so everybody just was lingering with those ideas and you
(02:54):
couldn't do nothing because you couldn't leave a house.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
So it just executed those ideas. And that's what I did.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
I took that idea out of my head and start
execute it right now.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
With that being said, a lot of people myself, I
worked a forty out week job, worked at IBM, I
resigned to be an entrepreneur, but make it that step
to do this, It's a lot of fear, a lot
of uncertainty involved. I always talk about it on this show.
Rate was that a simple decision? Do you have a
planning place when you decided become an entrepreneur?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Oh? No, it wasn't. It wasn't.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
It wasn't simple at all, because you know, I'm looking
at it like I'm working for the government. I'm making
this crazy, nice little salary and where my entrepreneur is
not even close to it yet. And technically I didn't
the entrepreneur journey. I wasn't always one hundred percent until recently.
I was a punt of the whole doge layoffs with
(03:47):
the government, Okay, I think, and I think that was
kind of a message for me. It's like, hey, why
are you not doing this? Like why are you taking
so long to do it? That I got forced to
do it. And I'm kind of glad that that happened
to me, because I'm the type of person I'll just
sit on it and just think of about it and
not do anything. And to enforced and I was supposed
to do it, so like I'm good now, so like,
now this is my bread button.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Now I have to grind. I have no choice but
the grind.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Okay, well, let's talk about the grind.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Because Doge showed you light something you probably should have
started two years ago. But you had this safe salary,
which most people do not saying you're happy getting that salary.
But it was safe, it was comfortable. Yeah, because I
always say you get a government job. Basically, some people
say that's a job for life, until Doge came along,
which is a department created by Elon Musk and now
(04:32):
he's out of the out of the good graddal Trump nowadays,
now you forced you to create your own property management company.
What exactly I gave out some notes about property management.
What exactly is property management?
Speaker 4 (04:47):
My definition of property management is an entity that managed
a real estate portfolio. So I manage people. As says
that a lot of people like to get into real estate.
A lot of people like to buy these home and
rent them out, but don't want to really want to
deal with the tenants, don't really want to deal with
the maintenance, or they may move out the country and
they will hire a company like me or any other
(05:07):
property management company to take care of everything so they
don't have to deal with anything but collecting their money
per month. So I deal with everything in between, dealing
with the homeowner and the tenant. Most of the times,
most of the homeowners don't even want to know who
the tennants are.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
So so you do background checks and all that applications.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Talk to the process.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
If I am coming to you, right your company, your
property manager company tell us the procedure.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
So when you come to me, I do a consultation
first because I want to see if you even want
to be a good client. I'm at the point now
where all money is not good money. So it's like
I'm interviewing. I'm interviewing the homeowners too, making sure we
work out the good together.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Like how you going to interview me?
Speaker 4 (05:47):
I'm an interview you too, So I'm not going to
just let service everybody. But once we have that agreement,
once that management agreement is signed, I have my photographer
come out take a photography. I do require all properties
have a full property inspection under me before I even
get started, so I have to take have that taken
care of, and then once we get those photography those pitches,
(06:08):
we start marketing it.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
That marketing. Uh, tendants will start applying.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
So I'll do that background check, that's the credits scheck,
the references their previous employment history, or talk to your
previous landlords. I go on your Facebook page or Instagram page.
You want to see how you are, see how how
you're going to treat that property, because a lot of
people don't really understand that a lot of things that
you do on social media actually reflects how you live. Right.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Well, it's it's good you're saying that because in a sense,
since you you may not own the property, but you
have to manage the property. So why bring in people
who could be headaches for you as the manager?
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Correct?
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Right? So why whatever? People?
Speaker 1 (06:49):
It was a statement if you if you managed it,
why would you bring in idiots?
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Why would you bring in.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
People who are slopping? People will party? All these things
are flags for bass issues, pay potential, pay me the issues,
lifestyle issues which also can jeopardize I'm just talking to
all future property managers out there, people who want to
get in this business.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Is that, like you said, right, all money is not
good money?
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Right?
Speaker 1 (07:14):
And you can get attendant in there who's paying may
pay you a year in France, I'll pay you a
year in event, But what does a person do to
that property when they need that property or at that property?
Is the police being called, is the using as a
party house? All those different things are things you have
to put in perspective when you're doing all this, and
(07:35):
that is something that a lot of people don't take
into consideration.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Correct exactly, that's correct, that's correctly, and even for the homeowners,
there's a lot of things. A lot of homeowners just think, hey,
I have a property management company. I don't have to
do anything that's absolutely wrong. That's still your property. At
the end of the day, we have a lot of
properties that are in newly communities, so you have to
deal with these things called HOA homeowned association. You got
(08:00):
about by their rules to us a home owner. They
need to know that you're renting out that property, so
you even rented out.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
A lot of people like to go around.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
That because they owe HOA and then that kind of
bites them in the butt at the end because when
it's down for a vision of everything, you don't get
a rental license. The HOA company has to sign off
on your rental license. If you don't have the rental license.
You can't evict, you can't do anything in court at all.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
I'm talking to race sounds just getting started. You know
the Metro.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
DC area, Virginia, Maryland. He held his property management. How
did you get started right?
Speaker 3 (08:35):
I started with my own property. I own a house
in Capitol Heights, Maryland.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
It's about five minutes from the Commander's football stadium. I
always knew that I wanted to get a brand new,
like freshly built house, built from the ground up, but
I just never did it. But you know, when we
were seing COVID, we had no.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Choice but to linger on the ideas.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
And that's when everybody's into the race was dropping like
two percent whatever. So I just randomly start driving by
looking at these new communities. Found me a community that
I like. I called my relitary and I say, hey,
what will it take for me to rent my current
house out to buy a new house. He teld me
what to do and we did it, and since then
I got a tenant. To this day, five years later,
(09:16):
she's still my same tenant, no headaches at all. And
I think I think because of my current tendant that
made me want to expand. It was like Hey, I
actually liked this. I actually like serving the community, serving people,
just teaching people what I've learned from just from from
my work and then from me. I just start going
to a bunch of networking events, start meeting people. That's
how That's how I got ahold of a plumber, electrician,
(09:38):
an HVAC technician, everything in the area. That's how I
met the people from the Generational Wealth seminar, just netwrning events.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
So just growing from there.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Well, this is is great because of the fact that
we're talking about business structure. You started out with a
property and then you rented it out to the first
person I want, who's still attendant five years later.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
But you start writing our plumber or electrician.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
You know all these things is part of the maintenance package, right, correct,
that's correct, put together that business. Somebody who's listening, let's
talk about your business structure and all the things you
have to put in place before you become a property
manager or put the shingles up.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Saying you are a property manager.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
Yeah, first I would say, understand whatever area you're in,
understand what the rules are for property management.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
In DC. You have to be licensed. So I end
up getting licensed in DC.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Maryland is not that Maryland doesn't really have too many rules,
so I'm able to just really structure my LLC. But
make sure you have that insurance. Definitely, definitely need to
have insurance and just have all your resources because what
you don't want is have a tenant and they call
you about three o'clock in the morning saying, hey, there's
a leak in the bathroom. I don't want to have
to go on Instagram or the Yellow Pages to look
for a plumb. I'll break out one. I already have
(11:00):
a connection with one, and so when I call him,
he's like, hey, I'm there. And I will also say
always have a backup because that one plumber may be busy,
which is good for them because you want everybody to eat.
You want everybody to eat, so when they're when they're busy,
you got to have a backup because you need to
resolve the issue.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
So right, it's really important, like you should never go
in business that you're in as a property manager with
one electricity, one plumber, one room for because guess what,
they're trying to do business too. They're trying to grow
to their brain. If they're busy, then you trapped. Then
you're starting to call Instagram or go in the phone
(11:37):
books trying to find somebody or or Google somebody that
you don't even know, and the trust factor has to
be involved here.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Correct, that's correct, that's correct.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Now let's talk about networking.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
I met you at an event in the DC area
Generational Wealth.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
How important is networking to your brand?
Speaker 1 (11:56):
And talk to my audience about how networking has growing
your business.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Oh, It's grown my business tremendously. And the funny thing
about networking, I was naturally an introvert, so I'm naturally naturally,
I was never the type of person to go up
and talk to somebody. But like, once I start going
networking events, I just knew that in order for me
to build a business, to build a brand, I have
to start talking to people. End up coming out that shew,
(12:22):
start talking to one of the two people, and then
I start going to every real estate networking.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Event in the DMV.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
So anytime I'm here about real estate networking event in
the DC area, I'm pretty much more than likely ninety
percent a chance I'm.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Going to be there.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
And it's growed my business tremendously because I started meeting
people and we start exchanging Instagrams.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Now my Instagram starting to blow up.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
I started on my own podcasts and I've been having
people on the podcast from networking events.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
And I think it's also good that I went.
Speaker 4 (12:49):
To high school in this area, so a lot of
people from my high school have their own businesses and
we work together a lot as well. And like when
somebody needs something, I'll refer them to somebody to high
school with, Hey, I know a contractor, went to school together,
these good people and just going that community out one thing.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Another thing I do do to really.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
Grow business is when I first started, I went on
Instagram and I typed in real estate investors in DC
and I started following all of them. Didn't care if
they followed me back or not, but somebody's going to
share some good information. And then from there, I'm just
going to linger onto where start talking to them, meet
him at the event or something, and then we just
(13:31):
grow from there.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Awesome, awesome advice. Please don't go anywhere.
Speaker 5 (13:35):
We'll be right back for more Money Making Conversations master Class.
Welcome back to Money Making Conversation Master Class with me
Rashaan McDonald. You're hearing from Renard Ray Sims and nicknamed
Ray and he's a property manager in the Metro DC
area of Maryland and Virginia. He specializes in running out
(13:58):
your condominions, apartments, duplexus homes, and investment properties.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
He gets you a tenant. You hear me clear, he
already said earlier how he's scrutinized. He goes through the
application process background just because even though he doesn't own
the property, he doesn't want to deal with the headache
of a terrible tenant.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
So that's a blessing. He's worried about himself.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
So that means you're gonna get the best available tenant
for your property, maintain the home.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
He already told you. He has the plomba on call.
He's be down.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
He has the electrician, the roof for anybody that is
required to do maintenance, landscape people, all these people is
part of the maintenance package. When you're doing business with
the properties that he managed and then also invoicing for
the owners.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Now that's a.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Trust factor that you're handling that money to get to that.
How do you build that relationship with people who don't
know you, Ray.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I'm just tell him about my work. I get them references.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
And one thing about for the dealing with the money,
I don't collect when the ten it pays the rent,
it doesn't come diregular to me. I have a portal
where when the ten it pays the rent, it will
go directly to the home model themselves.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
So I'm g to the middle.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
I can see the transaction, but it doesn't come to
me at all for a couple of reasons.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
One is a league in DC to do that.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
Number two, I don't want to have a bank account
with thirty thousand dollars on August first, and I have
to do it.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
I just don't extra work I don't want to do.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
And I really really, really big on automation, and that's
just my form of automation.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
I'll be Jason Ray.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
You impressed me from a standpoint of for god, who
just got laid off by Doge. You see pretty organized?
Speaker 4 (15:39):
Yeah, yeah, I'm pretty We'll see. My background was in
project management.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Okay, okay, okay. I wonder what this is coming from. Man,
this guy. It does sound like an amateur.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
It seems like everything's in place, seems like everything's organized,
and you not intimidated.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
By the prospects of his opportunity. So how do you expand?
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Because I asked you before we got on air, did
you have employees or contract to people other than the
maintenance people that you're using for to maintain your properties?
And you said no, I'm a one man operation. So
how does a one man operation work in today's society?
Is technology that good? It enables you to do what
you do?
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Yeah, technology is good. I do.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
I do have an admin person. I wouldn't call her
my employee because she has her own admin business and
so like, I use her services, so I'm paying her
monthly to provide service for me.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
But when you said admin services, what do you mean
when you say she does?
Speaker 3 (16:38):
I do new monthly newsletters.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
She does my newsletter all the information, and I do
every client. Every homeowner gets a monthly report, and pretty
much that's a report called on your property, pretty much
tells you the money coming out, money going there, just
tips about your property, something about your ten is, and
just a recommendation, hey flaw is going to be here soon,
it's time to in your guns side stuff like that.
(17:03):
Most of the time people I don't even pay attention
to it, but that form of communication is really important
to me. Because I'm a really big on communication and
I wanted somebody else to handle that because that's not
my field, that's not my feel to do all those emails.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
I'm changing ring. Are you mad? Did you just start
five years ago?
Speaker 3 (17:19):
Yeah? Yeah, I wish I.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Did, because I'm not gonna lie to you.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Man for a guy who just stepped out here, well
basically forced out of here, forced into this game plan
because of layoffs caused by Eli Moss must be in
the organization.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
You have to call doge.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
You have your act together in a lot of ways
that I would feel comfortable if I had a property
in the area to ask you to manage it. Now,
that's the big picture plan of being able to build
your brain. You talking about a newsletter, You're talking about
going to networking.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
You know you're an open book.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
You want Like you said, it's illegal for you to
colle elect the checks from the rental property, so the
customer is already protected and that's really important. So that's
the structure of your business. You have an admin person,
so if you're interested in doing this, you don't have
to jump out there hire two or three four time people.
You could contract somebody out if you're talking to somebody
(18:18):
who listens to the show, what would you advice? You
would you get them some steps, like three steps they
need to do if they want to start a property
management company.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
First, it's definitely research. You need to research the rules
and regulations toward whatever city county you are in. For example,
whatever goes on in DC is not the same for
PG County and vice versas, like the rules are totally
different and they're right next door to each other. Second advice,
definitely go to those networking events and definitely connect with
(18:49):
various vendors, connect with all of them honestly, and just
have those connections and make friendships and partnerships with them.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
At number three, step out the comfort zone.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
But that's what I had to do with Step about
my comfort zone because talking to people wasn't easy for me.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
But like now it's natural.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
I know you just say it was an introvert. So
again another thing I'm going I don't see it. I
don't see it, but I'm proud of you, my friend.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Real estate man. I always say real estate property. You
know God's not going to create new land. You know
that you can live on of course, you know you
have volcanoes overre in Hawaii. They create new land, not
saying you can live on it. It's like just in
case somebody is holding me to the truth. But why
is real estate so good? If you want to be
an investor.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
It is a great way for generational wealth. It's a
great way to make money.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
It's a great way to have assets to pass it
down to your family members. It's very risky, but life
is risky, like waking up in the morning is risky.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
So anything is risky.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
But I mean it is a great acid to have,
great right off if you're answer to that, and just
something that you could just hand off to your generation
because you never know where resirement's going to be like
in the next twenty thirty years.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Right right, So what's the future for you, Ray Sims,
if you're.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Property manager five years later, mister introvert.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
Yeah, I would like to expand. I will, of course,
of course I'm not leaving the dc PG County area.
But I would like to expand. And how do I
do that? I got to go to other areas in network.
For example, next month is August and I'm going to
invest fast. What I'm going down there for there to
network I can hear that's for any of the speakers
that's going to be there, they might be great, But
I just want to meet people.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
I did that last year.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
I met a bunch of people that invest fast, found
a CPA there who's now we have now a great
working relationship, and I have found clients from Atlanta who
has property here in the DC area and as well
as New York. I go to New York and there's
a networking and been in New York that I go
once a month just to meet people.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Just don't slow down before let's talk about what invests
a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
I know what it is.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
First of all, did you have a booth or you
just going down there as an attendee.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
I'm going down there as an attendee. Now, I was
thinking about the booth this year, so definitely next year.
I mean this year, it's already here now, all.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Right, right?
Speaker 1 (21:03):
So what exactly is Investment INVESTMENTESTIV, which is in Atlanta, Georgia,
founded by Steve Harvey and the guys from Earn.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Your Lad Leisure. Yep.
Speaker 4 (21:14):
It's just a really huge investment festival with thousands of
people just teach you how to invest the different ways
to advance because you don't have to do real estate.
You can do the stock market. It helps you put
your credit repair, everything, accounting, every anything you can really
think of that has investment investing is down there. It's
(21:34):
like the Investing Capital Seminar in general.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
And that happens every August, by the way, ladies jove,
And so if you miss it this year, dex Year
is going to happen a year after that. And it's
well attended and you can't have booths, or you can
just go down as an attendee. And there's a lot
of celebrity uh speakers that attend this event every year,
just just just pouring into you before financial littering, motivational conversations,
(22:02):
and a business structure.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
And that's what this is all about. So you, my
friend Ray, you're going.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Down there, just just just find out your networking technique now,
you know, because here's a guy.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Who did like speaking to people.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Now right, Okay, now he's out there, I got business cards.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
You think about getting the booth. He's slapping hands.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Yeah, So how does tell everybody going to the invest
fast how do you network?
Speaker 3 (22:26):
You know?
Speaker 4 (22:27):
It's funny, So technically every time I go to a
networking event. I have a goal. I cannot leave as
the goal is, I cannot leave this establishment without connecting
with five people. I need to have five different numbers.
Invest Fast is different because there's thousands of people. So
last year I was like, I cannot leave invest fast
without meeting twenty people. I probably met like thirty people,
(22:48):
and I want to expand that this year.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
I think this year, I'm going to do something a
little bit different.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
I'm going to have a customized shirt with a QR
col say hey, let's talk like that, just to connect
with people and have people just and I do my
podcast too, So I'm il Ray, Amazon Palm.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
Dad bought the little microphones.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
I'm gonna have those microphones with me and just start
talking to random people and just recorded.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Let's talk about your podcast, my friend. Now, where can
we find your podcast?
Speaker 3 (23:12):
And right now it's on Apple, Apple Podcasts.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
We're all working on get it to get it get
on into YouTube, but right now it's just on Apple
and Instagram. And the funny thing about the podcast, it
wasn't even an idea, Like I never thought about doing
a podcast. I was just doing some content with my
landscaper and my videographer. We were just talking and my
(23:35):
videographer recorded it and people start liking it, and I
was like, I'm going to start doing this conversation with
different people in the real estate field. So I called
it crip talk, and we just have different conversations with
different people in the real estate fields about just random
business of everyday life.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Wow. Wow, So what is your brand? Right?
Speaker 3 (23:56):
My brand? Oh, that's a tough question.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
You're trying to when you're trying to because the reason
I say that because I'm trying to on this show,
I try to help people get to the next step.
And I always tell people your brand is like any
other call. You know, if you do a car commercial,
they're promoting their brand. Do your serial commercial, they're that
food product. So everybody has a brand that they're promoting.
(24:22):
And so I ask you that question so that can
get you the closer. Like you said, Rashan, I probably
have a T shirt on, a shirt on with a
QR code.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
That QR code is promoting your brand.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
We talk about Hey, I am a property manager. I
do real estate in various areas from duplexus to homes
to apartments, the condominiums or investment properties. So I ask you, now, Ray,
what is your brand?
Speaker 4 (24:53):
My brand, I would say proper property management.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
Influencer.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Okay, and that would be because of the fact that
he used the word Instagram a lot.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
Yeah, I'm really big Instagram.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
And then you're talking about your podcast, so you want
so you want to be basically of the face of
property management in the DC, Maryland, Virginia area. Correct, with
the with the outside possibility of people calling you in
to manage other cities, other states.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
What you knowing the rules are different in those different areas.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, man, that's just for me. That what
that means is I just got to study the rules
in those areas. I got to look those up, some.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Of which may mean that I may have to join
like a.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
Brokerage in that state, like the state of Virginia, you
have to be a part of your brokers to really
do property management where you don't have to do that
in Maryland and Virginia.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
So everywhere is different.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Mhm. Now what that was saying, how we in touch
with you, sir?
Speaker 4 (25:57):
My instagram is at races Please email is admin at
race amasproperties dot com.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
And with that being said, you want to expand your
podcast is it, uh, when often do you drop them?
Speaker 2 (26:13):
Or was it weekly? Monthly?
Speaker 4 (26:15):
Right now we're doing it bi weekly, so why should
drop this coming Friday on Apple?
Speaker 1 (26:21):
And I want to want to close with this statement.
People want to invest in real estate. People you know,
got all these shows on TV about flipping properties. Can
you tell us because I heard you say duplex, Hey
you say condominium, he's the apartments? How you say homes?
From a real estate property manager? Can you tell us
in order the top three real estate investments that people
(26:45):
or everyday people should look at buying so you can
manage I.
Speaker 4 (26:51):
Would say duplex way to duplex plex because there's multiple
units in one building, so you may have four in
one in three and one two in one. And it's
that's an easy way to just gain revenue because you're
getting four rent. Like if it's a four unit building
and you get four rent, if it's three, you getting
(27:11):
three rent a month from there, I would say my
famous one right now in townhomes.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
A lot of people are buying town especially in Baltimore.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
They just buying townhomes and renting them out because it's easy.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Wow, it's pretty cheap.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
I don't have too many single family homes because realistically
a lot of people just not going to un out
the same family home.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
You know, I'm trying to buy a home. People, they
just buying these properties and renting them out.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Doesn't that hurt the everyday person trying to reach the
American dream.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
They can't buy it, they have to rent it?
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (27:48):
Yeah, well, I mean with an interest rate crazy right now,
a lot of people just not interested in the buying
just can't buy or you know, a lot. Buying is
not for everybody, Okay, ownership for everybody. Some people just
don't want to deal with that whole maintenance stuff. They
used to the apartment taking care of everything, and it's
not for everybody.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Okay, cool. Well again, I want to thank you, my friend.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
And when you come down to Atlanta, I don't care
what year you come down to Atlanta. I always know
that I'm based in Atlanta. Love to hear from you,
and also just good luck man. And I would just
tell you your enthusiasm, your your intellect, and I'm glad.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
You got laid off.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Quite frankly, I don't know how you want to take
that when I said, but I think that I feel
that your future is is what you're doing right now.
Sometimes you got to be pushed to get to the
you know your true calling and I feel your true
calling is what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
And good luck, all right.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
I appreciate it so much for being on here.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Man.
Speaker 5 (28:45):
This has been Money Making Conversation Masterclass with me Rashaun McDonald.
Thanks to our guess and our audience. Visit Moneymaking Conversations
dot com to listen or register to be a guest
on my show. Keep leading with your gifts, keep winning,
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