April 3, 2025 • 44 mins
In this episode of Property Management Success, host Tony Cline welcomes Karen Jordan of HBR Rentals for a masterclass in intentional growth, remote team leadership, and process optimization. 🌍💼
Karen shares her journey from solo operator to leading a fully remote team, why community engagement still matters, how she implements accountability across departments, and why a public scorecard became a game-changer for transparency and owner trust.
Whether you’re just starting out or scaling up, Karen’s insights offer powerful takeaways to strengthen your property management business from the inside out! 🏡📈
Join fellow property management entrepreneurs and 6 expert coaches in a small, private high level event at a mansion style venue with a private chef and personally selected attendees to maximize the value you receive while at the event.
Join the waitlist for additional information here: https://ONYXwaitlist.com
Save the dates! July 13th - 16th, 2025
visit pmsuccess.com for more value packed property management related information or to hire Tony as your property management coach.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Property Management Success
Podcast, where we interviewleaders in the industry to
uncover the secrets toprofitability, efficiency and
achieving true freedom, whetherit's your time, money or
lifestyle.
I'm your host, tony Klein, andI'm here to help you build a
wildly successful propertymanagement business.
Let's get to it.
Welcome back to another episodeof the Property Management
(00:22):
Success Podcast.
I'm excited to be joined byKaren Jordan today.
Karen is with HBR Rentals andKaren is a good friend of mine,
karen welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Thank you, thank you.
I'm excited to hang out withyou.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Yeah, I'm excited.
One of my favorite things iswhen we meet up at conferences.
You always address everybody.
Hey, sunshine, and it just kindof brightens up the day.
I love it.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
I did that the other day and I was like, oh, but it's
raining outside, but still,that's what I hope for is
sunshine.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah, bringing the sunshine to wherever you go so.
I love it.
And then the other thing peoplethat are just listening that
can't see.
One of my other favorite thingsto do is see what, what pair of
glasses you have on, becauseyou've always got, uh, some
pretty fashionable designer typeglasses.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
So I always make a joke that I'm like well, I can't
see I might as well make funlike have fun with it.
So yeah I think I'm at like 20something pair now, just just
for fun.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Okay, so did you see what we're going to clip that?
Did you see where I just kindof paused?
What does it say?
Your upload is right now.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
We're just going to keep going because I can clip
that back out, all right.
Well, karen, I wanted to haveyou on early on in the podcast
One of the earlier episodes.
We had one of your people on,ruth, who talked about some of
your policies and processes andand using remote team members
(02:00):
and she was a joy to have on andI've known you for a long time
and I wanted to kind of get adifferent perspective of maybe
the same relationship.
But can we start just sort ofsharing with the audience how
you got into property management, what brought you here, how
long you've been here and just alittle bit about your company?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Sure, sure.
So I think my story is verysimilar to a lot of people.
I didn't ever think I was goingto be in property management.
I was in real estate and mybusiness partner, ron and I
worked together for many, manyyears before that, and as the
foreclosure market was happening, we were getting a lot of
investors who were like, hey, Ineed a property manager.
(02:44):
So we opened the propertymanagement division and this was
back in 2011.
So we've been doing it sincethen and we're here.
Single family homes in theNorthern California area.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
And Ron is still one of your business partners, or
your business partner, correct?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
And Ron is still one of your business partners, or
your business partner, correct?
Speaker 1 (03:22):
He is and with us, just even talking with somebody,
and they talk aboutpartnerships and it seems like
it's either a dumpster fire orit's the best thing ever.
There's not a lot of, eh, it'sokay or right in the middle.
How did you guys decide withyour partnership, how did you
come together and then how didyou decide which one of you
would move over to propertymanagement and focus on that and
(03:45):
which one would stay in sales?
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Well, ron is the broker, so that kind of made it
easy for him just to focus onthe sales side of it, which is
really good for us, right,because we do capture sales in
the property management side ofit as well.
So for him he was like you takethe management side, I'll take
the sales side, and we'll alwayskind of come back together when
we need to.
(04:08):
So that was pretty easy.
But I would say that easy inthe sense that he's always there
to support me, though, andagain with the broker side of it
, like the knowledge, the laws,the logistics of it, but again
also to calm me down sometimeswhere I may be a little bit
fired up.
(04:28):
He kind of lets it reel it backin.
So he's a good counselor aswell.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Yeah, there's a debate that I hear sometimes
about property managementcompanies that don't want to get
into sales.
They don't want to do salesbecause they feel like it will
interfere with theirrelationships with other real
estate agents who they depend onto get referrals.
How has that impacted, or whatis your messaging around that to
(04:58):
be able to provide bothservices and still get those
referrals from those agents?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Well, for the most part, a lot of our referrals
come internally from our agentshere on the sales side, but from
outside, from the town or fromlocal areas.
We've partnered with a lot ofrealtors and they, I think, have
come to trust that we are hereto help them with the management
side.
Even though we have a realestate side, we're not doing the
(05:26):
sale.
Their clients will always goback to them.
So that's been something I'vebeen very, very proud, because
we've had owners who've beenhere like seven years I think,
and we still remember who thatreferring agent was.
So, even though it's been along time, I don't even think
those referring agents are stillremember that, but we do.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
So that's been a really good, uh powerful thing
is that we have that real trustright that we're going to give
their client back when, whenyou're working on bringing in
new properties.
Realtor referrals is is one.
What other method do?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
you guys use to grow your property management
business.
I would say for the, for thebeginning, we've really um, used
um word of mouth and referrals.
So we are in a small ishcommunity, um, and so
participating in local businessnetworking groups, the chambers,
getting involved locally, hasbeen extremely powerful I
(06:29):
participate in anything that hasto do with fundraisers or
school events just to supportthe community, and I think just
getting our name out there hasbeen really good for owners to
hear who we are and that we'renot just about property
management but we're part of thecommunity as well.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
I think that's a big message.
One of the things that we'vebeen working on a lot lately
with some of our clients is howto stand out from the noise and
from a public perspective.
As property managementcompanies, we're all the same
until we're not, until we'vedone something that makes us
rise above the noise.
And some markets are moreflooded with property management
(07:09):
companies than others, and sosome companies maybe have an
easier time differentiatingthemselves in the marketplace.
But I really like the approachyou you take about being
involved and just becoming apart of the community.
You don't have to work I won'tsay you don't have to work hard,
but you don't have to work ashard of separating your property
(07:31):
management company, apart fromthe noise, when you've separated
yourself from the other peoplebecause you've created those
personal relationships withpeople.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Yep, that's been really powerful for us and I
know I could, you know, invest alittle bit more marketing
dollars and get some ads andthings of that sort, but we've
never really had to and it'sbeen.
It's been really powerful forus and I mean I love those
relationships because they justthen continue just to expand,
with somebody else saying hey,did you hear what HBR did and
you should call them.
(08:02):
So it just kind of snowballsfrom there.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Yeah, Well, when, when you guys started the
company, it was you and Ron, andthen eventually you guys
separated in.
He's doing more of the sales,you're doing more of the
property management.
Did you start with a propertymanagement team or were you the
property management division?
Speaker 2 (08:22):
I was all of the things and I laugh.
Now I tell the team.
Once upon a time, Karen went tothe bank and manually deposited
checks to all of the differentbanks, because that's what we
did.
I didn't know about software andI didn't know about ACH wires.
So, yes, I was all of thedepartments by myself, and so,
(08:42):
as we started growing andlearning from NARPUM right,
narpum is the greatest tool thatwe came across with vendors who
were like here, we can help youdo this.
So from there we were able tokind of grow into that.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
As you grew, or as you.
If you were to give advice tosomebody who's trying to grow
their company right now, howwould you go about deciding
where to grow, where to add thatfirst person?
I know you have more than oneperson on your team now, and so
you had to have first hired thatone to get to the size that you
(09:19):
have now.
What would you recommend, aspeople grow, for adding team
members?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
I would say that I was hesitant at first to hire
and who, when should I hire?
And Ron this is the part whereRon and I have been really good
at partnership is because Ronalways kind of plans ahead.
He plans kind of for the future.
So he was like, well, why waituntil you're overloaded?
Prepare for growth.
(09:47):
So hiring that first person wasreally important for me and I
would say, looking back, Ishould have done it sooner,
right, instead of trying to doall the things by myself, having
the support to kind of havethat person next to me to kind
of grow.
So I would say, to kind of havethat person next to me to kind
of grow.
So I would say don't wait.
I don't think there's a magicnumber of 50 doors, 100 doors.
(10:09):
I would say get that person andthat way you kind of grow
together as the company grows.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
And would you have any advice on what you would
have that person do?
Would it just sort of be abackup to everything you do?
Would you start slicing offthings that you do?
How do you go about growingthat team from just a one-off,
one-person department?
Speaker 2 (10:34):
I think the first department that we started with
was maintenance.
We needed to have that oneperson who could really help
kind of take those calls, helpkind of assign the work orders,
do the follow-up.
So maintenance, I would say,was a huge part of us getting
that first person started.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
And then, where did you guys grow from there?
From you, and then one personhow big is your team now, and
are you pod or departmental orportfolio?
Speaker 2 (11:07):
we are departmental and we are about 99.5 remote,
all team members.
So we have seven remote teammembers and the 0.5 is me and
ron, who are still kind of thelocal ones, but everybody else
is international.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
How do you keep a remote team engaged?
I know a lot of companies thathave remote team members, but it
seems like the remote teammembers are sort of an add-on to
their local staff.
You all have taken a differentapproach where you almost are
the add-on to your remote team.
How do you keep everybodyworking together and creating
(11:51):
that culture where you cancommunicate your standards and
expectations?
I'm just really curious abouthow you take people that are
living all over the globe thatreally have very limited
interaction with each other faceto face, and how do you build
out that team?
Speaker 2 (12:10):
So a lot of technology.
We use a lot of tools thatagain help us stay connected.
The first thing I would say weutilize is Slack.
Slack is our main tool that wecommunicate with.
Slack is our main tool that wecommunicate with, and I've
started a culture with every newhire that we have a daily
(12:30):
huddle channel and I told themto treat it as you would if you
walked into an office.
So every morning you say goodmorning to everybody when you
walk into an office.
So every morning you'll see thedaily huddle start blowing up
as everybody comes into theoffice.
So that's been kind of huge andwe've created different
channels.
So there's channels for we callit the HBR mascots, and so we
(12:54):
love to share our pet storiesand pictures of our animals.
And then we have a dailyappreciation Slack channel where
we say thank you for somethingthat happened today.
Or if we get a five-star Googlereview, we have a positivity
Slack channel.
We share that.
Someone just got rave reviewson Google.
So there's a lot of interactionthroughout the day and I told
(13:17):
them it would be just like ifyou were sitting next to me,
right?
If something exciting happened,I would run over and tell you
about it.
So we kind of treat that Slackas kind of our.
I do not participate in dailyhuddles, but Ruth does.
So Ruth runs the daily huddleevery morning.
So every morning they all gettogether and they just do a
(13:39):
quick 10, 15 minute check in,and sometimes it could be just
like hey, just having a goodmorning, just when I baked a
cake over the weekend.
It's daily check in.
So they do that amongstthemselves every every day and
then once a week I jump in onthe all hands on meeting and
that's about 45 minutes and wejust again check in.
(14:01):
We do start every morning and Ithink you know this about me,
tony is we do a gratitudeTuesday and we go around the
room and we ask what everybody'sgrateful for and we start the
meetings that way.
So that's a way that we allkind of stay connected and we
could all kind of listen to eachother's stories of what
(14:21):
everybody's kind of grateful forsomething that's going on in
their lives.
So again, we may not be sittingright next to each other, but
it does feel like we're veryclose because we're constantly
sharing and constantlycommunicating with each other
close because we're constantlysharing and constantly
communicating with each other.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
I love the gratitude part and I know that's just such
a part of who you are.
I want to kind of look at theflip side of that is, when we
have our communication, we havethe gratitude.
How are you holding peopleaccountable for doing the job
that we've hired them to do?
Because being grateful forsomebody showing up or for
(15:06):
things happening, that's reallyfun when things are firing the
way they're supposed to be.
But when things are kind ofgoing off the rails or people
aren't meeting expectations, howdo we even communicate those
expectations and what are youdoing when people are not
meeting those?
Speaker 2 (15:20):
So I do have one-on-ones with each of the
team members.
That is something I dopersonally myself and those are
weekly.
They're no more than 30 minutes.
So we do have those one-on-oneswhere, if I feel that there
needs to be a conversation, wecan absolutely have it at that
time.
But during that all hands-onmeeting we also have an agenda
(15:40):
and because we utilize LeadSimple, we can track our numbers
and processes and completionrates and are we doing the
things we're doing?
And it's not to call them outindividually or to you know, to
embarrass anybody, but we docall out like okay, karen, karen
has a hundred tasks she has notdone so.
(16:03):
During the meeting we kind ofhave that accountability to kind
of hear what, where we're allat and whether those numbers are
improving every week or thosenumbers are dropping and maybe
there's a conversation thatneeds to be had if something is
changing significantly.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
And how do you manage those?
So if you do have somebody thathas a hundred tasks outstanding
, is there a way for you todetermine there are five that
are really important and thatneed to be done?
Is there an urgency level thatyou all track?
The reason I'm asking this isthere's there's tracking
(16:42):
activity and there's trackingprogress and making a difference
, right, and so if we have ahundred tasks but five of them
really move the needle, how dowe train our team to really make
sure we're hitting those fiveNot that all of them aren't
important.
I know that when you design yourprocesses, every step is
(17:04):
important and we need to makesure we're checking those off,
so to speak.
One of the things when peopleintroduce task management
software like Lead Simple orAptly or Mondaycom or Process
Street or any of them, they allhave the same overall challenge
for me is it's hard tocommunicate with the team where
(17:27):
the critical tasks live, and doyou guys run into that?
Have you designed your systemso that that isn't a factor I'm
curious about how you'vestructured it.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Yeah, no, if we get, for example, on our call today,
there was a few tasks that wereoutstanding and the person who
was assigned to it spoke up andsaid hey, I think these tasks
need to be adjusted because thetiming is off on why they're not
being completed.
So that's a great opportunityfor us to be like oh, we didn't
think about that ahead of time,we made this due within a day,
(18:03):
but really it should be threedays.
So reviewing, I guess, yeah,what is critical and what needs
to be tweaked to kind of makesure that they're not failing as
well.
I'm not holding themaccountable for something that's
not even achievable.
So constant, constant tweakingand learning and listening to my
(18:24):
number one thing for the teamis communication.
So if those numbers are beinghit with communication, we're
great.
If, like you said, thenon-critical tasks, maybe we
just need to adjust them alittle bit.
But weekly reviewing those isis really been powerful again
and sharing those numbers witheverybody, so everybody hears
the numbers as well.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
So there's managing the activity and then there's
managing the results or theoutcome.
Do you all implement any sortof scorecard or weekly metrics
that you, that your team, istrying to hit?
Do you have anything like thatthat is rolled out, where people
can say with certainty I'mmeeting expectations or I'm not
meeting expectations?
(19:07):
Do you have anything like that?
Speaker 2 (19:09):
We have.
I have a weekly KPI that I havefor each of the departments
that I review with Ruth on aweekly basis and then in general
, we also have a very publicscorecard that I have recently
started sharing on all my socialmedias and that was really
nervous for me, like justputting those numbers out there,
(19:29):
and those get shared not onlyon social media but it gets sent
to all of our owners as well.
So the team knows how importantthose numbers are for us and to
see the green arrow going upand not the red arrow going down
.
But again, it's always going tobe improvement.
But yes, we do have a lot ofnumbers that we're measuring and
(19:50):
sharing.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Tell us about I've seen your public scorecard and
tell us about the decision thatyou made to share that publicly
and what impact that's had onthe business.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
That was something I was challenged to do last year.
So I hold quarterly owner Zoommeetings with our owners and we
share a lot of data during thosecalls.
But again, it's quarterly.
So how could I continue to showour owners what services we do,
what we're doing for them on amonthly basis?
(20:24):
So we created this scorecardand created just kind of what
are the numbers that are reallyimportant for our clients to see
?
So this is how these are thecriterias we chose.
We know maintenance wasimportant to track.
We knew release renewals wereimportant to track.
Rent money again is going to behuge for owners.
(20:46):
So figuring out what wasimportant for our owners to see
so that they could also see thehard work we put in for them
every month, because I think alot of the times owners they
don't see what we do every day.
So we started doing that inDecember I think is when I
started.
And now the goal is andeverybody gets excited right,
(21:06):
the scorecard is coming out atthe end of the month.
Does it look good?
Last month the entire team wasso excited because we had hit
100% of rent collection for themonth of February.
So I think everybody now getsexcited about the scorecard.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
I think it's genius, because you kind of touched on
it Our clients.
If they don't hear from us,they don't know what we do.
So if we do a really good joband take care of everything and
we don't involve them, theythink we're not doing anything.
And so the only time they hearfrom us is when something goes
wrong or we need money from themto handle a repair or something
(21:45):
like that.
And so for you to be proactivein saying, look, these are the
things that we do, this is theamount of rent we've collected,
this is the amount ofapplications we've processed, or
whatever it is that you'resharing with them, it just shows
that behind the scenes, you areconstantly working.
You know the fire is burning24-7.
(22:06):
And I think that's really smart.
I'd love to check in down theroad and see, you know, how this
has impacted either the trustthat you've built with your
clients, where they're givingyou a little bit more authority
to take action withoutquestioning, just to see the
long-term impact, because I dothink that, as long as those
(22:28):
numbers continue to trend upward, right and not downward, that
that's going to be a great toolfor you and your team.
Yes, all right, I want to switchgears just a little bit.
We touched on it that Ruth wason the podcast on one of the
earlier episodes.
She started out working on yourprocesses with you and I know
(22:50):
that you guys use Lead Simpleand that she had started out
working through building outyour processes.
Tell me a little bit about thebuy-in that you had, or that
your team has, with building outthose processes, because word
on the street is you've got thatpretty dialed in and I want to
(23:10):
just share a little bit aboutbuilding out processes and who's
involved and just the wholething, because I think it can
sound overwhelming when somebodyis looking at I'm I'm so busy I
don't have time to document allof that.
So I hear people talking aboutit, but it's just not for me
because I can't do it.
So I want to have thatconversation with you about what
(23:33):
something like that looks liketo build out.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
When we made the decision to implement with Lead
Simple, we knew that we wereinvesting money and it was going
to take time for us to buildout.
And I wasn't going to do thatone thing that we all do as
property managers when we go toconferences and we buy the new
shiny toy and then it just sitson the shelf.
I was very, very strategic thatthis time we were not going to
(23:59):
play around.
So Lead Simple was going to besomething we were going to use.
We were going to implement itand we're going to try our best
to use all of the strengths thatit comes with.
So when Ruth came on board,that was her main goal.
Her job was to really help theteam document the processes and
figure out how to help them maketheir job easier, and that was
(24:22):
the message we relayed to them.
This is not replacing you, thisis not taking your job away,
this is helping you.
And yes, we did get a littlebit of pushback.
Yes, because they're like well,I don't like it, it doesn't
feel comfortable, and we saidjust give us a minute, just give
us a minute, it will, it will.
So Ruth really helped us kindof get that process going.
(24:44):
But then again, as youmentioned in the beginning, when
we hire team members they growand they really kind of support
all the facets.
And Ruth now has completelygrown out of that and is really
supporting our owners, havingthose daily communications with
owners and because she knows theprocesses, because she knows
(25:06):
behind the scenes what is beingsent out, she's able to then
support those owners.
But that doesn't mean myprocesses went away.
We now have Rob who is helpingdirectly work with the processes
and Rob is involved with notonly helping me onboard the
owner, so he's listening as wellto the conversations and the
(25:27):
things and what is going out andwhen does it go out.
So he's constantly adjustingthe processes to help the team,
to help the owners on board,making that experience for our
owners, our residents, helpful.
And so we take one process aweek and we sit for about two
(25:47):
hours and we go througheverything that happens during
that process.
What does it look like for anowner?
What do they get?
When do they get it?
Does it come out in an hour, ina day?
I mean the very, very detailedsteps to the process we review
on a weekly basis.
But again, having that person bededicated to just that was
(26:11):
extremely, extremely powerful.
And I know that there's a lotof consultants out there to help
and do that, but if you don'thave somebody on your team to
help you, then absolutely, theconsultants are there to support
.
But for us that was a powerful,powerful position.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
In the two-hour meeting that you have about
taking a process and breaking itdown, really evaluating every
step and the customer experienceand all of that.
Who's involved in that meetingand does it change week over
week?
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Yes, so it is not me doing this, because I'm not the
one sending out the email.
So, for example, our residentsuccess manager will join that
meeting because if that process,for example, is the move in
process that we're reviewing, wewant him on the call and we
want to hear his feedback.
So, depending on what processwe're working on, we'll bring in
(27:04):
that team member who directlyis involved with that process,
so that they can give theirfeedback and their request on
the process.
And yes, sometimes we getchallenged by those individuals,
right, and they're like I don'tunderstand why we're doing this
, this doesn't make sense, andwe're like just give it a minute
, just give it a minute and then, literally like a week later,
(27:25):
we get the message Yep, that'spretty awesome, thank you, you
saved me an hour, so I know thatit's working.
I know it's uncomfortable tohave and, yes, it's time
consuming to do two hours a week, but it definitely pays off in
the end.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
I think I want to touch on something that you
brought up on and you brought uptwo sides of this which is you
give them the opportunity toparticipate in the creation or
the modification of the process,and I think that's really smart
because in general,psychologically, people support
what they help create, and so Ithink it's really smart to
(28:05):
involve them, not only for thebuy-in portion, but they're also
the ones that are hearingobjections, hearing complaints
or challenges or running intothings.
So I think it's really smartthere.
But the other thing that yousaid was and you didn't say it
in this way, but basically youhave veto power to say this is
the way we're going to do it.
(28:26):
So you listen to their feedback, you give them the opportunity
to participate, to share theirconcerns, share their ideas, but
then, at the end of the day,you're doing what you believe is
best for the company and thenyou're putting those steps in
the process and I feel like,even when you're not doing what
(28:46):
the team member asks, they doappreciate and respect the fact
that you at least consideredtheir, their opinions and their
input.
And then, knowing that we'redoing what's best for the
company, you've implemented thatthose steps that you think will
will get us where we need to go.
So I think it's um it's notthat we always have to do what
(29:09):
they want, but we should alwaysgive them a voice or opportunity
to participate.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
And honestly, I get vetoed.
Sometimes they're like becauseI become the softy, they're like
I go well, maybe we shouldn'tdo it this time.
And they call me out andthey're like no, karen, it has
to be the same process foreverybody, or you're going to
break it.
So that's also.
I get called out when I thinkthe process I should be nicer on
the process that's also.
(29:34):
I get.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
I get called out when I think the process I should be
nicer on the process Before wejump off of the process thing.
I want to get a little bit ofinsight.
Do you have looking back now?
Do you have anything you couldshare that would help people in
this process of buildingprocesses to avoid mistakes or
pain points?
Was there anything that youlearned that was like, oh man,
(29:57):
if I could avoid that, if Icould go back two years and
avoid that, I would.
What do you have to share onthose kinds of insights?
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Yes, and I would tell you that I'm always going to
learn when I fall down and howto get back up and figure it out
to do it better next time.
But I fell down pretty hardhere recently and it was because
I wasn't doing those two hourmeetings.
I wasn't reviewing theprocesses to make sure that they
(30:27):
were getting done.
I had just kind of set them upon autopilot kind of thing.
I'm like OK, I did it, they'regoing.
I see the emails, the movementsare happening, it's happening.
But I wasn't reviewing them andI wasn't auditing them.
So I would say you absolutelycan't.
Just, it's not magic, right.
(30:47):
There's things that are goingto have to be tweaked and fixed.
So, absolutely as the leader ofthe company, keeping an eye on
those processes to make surethat they are flowing the way
they're supposed to, thecommunication is being done,
it's not being skipped, it's notbeing sent for three days later
.
So I would say that was a hugelearning lesson for me here
(31:09):
recently.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
So what I'm hearing is the takeaway is set it up,
implement it, but it's not a setit and forget it.
It's trust, but verify.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Trust and verify.
I think it's easy for us to doand you know we get busy and we
think everything looks good fromthe outside.
But yeah, trust and verify issomething we have to continue to
do.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
All right, let's talk .
Let's shift gears a little bitand talk about the team that you
have.
So how is your team set up now?
Speaker 2 (31:44):
So we are departmental, so we do have.
Recently we changed over tolive answering all of our phones
.
Before we had a phone tree, sonow we have an actual
receptionist, again remote.
She answers all of our calls,tries to help direct the calls
(32:04):
to the appropriate department Ifshe can't answer the question.
She does help eliminate a lotof the calls to the appropriate
department if she can't answerthe question.
She does help eliminate a lotof the calls for the team
because she could just answer avery simple question.
So that's been really, reallyawesome to kind of help the team
.
We have a resident successmanager and that role is again
dealing with the residentsdirectly onboarding them,
(32:26):
helping them with their move-in,lease renewals, rent collection
.
They're kind of the main go-toperson for the resident.
We have a maintenance team andso again, all of the things
maintenance related.
We do utilize property meld.
So working on workflows andmaking sure the communication
and maintenance is there hasbeen awesome.
(32:50):
We have a project manager andthat role is directly involved
in onboarding new properties,getting them ready for the
market and then as well as themove outs.
So she's responsible for makingsure our properties shine
before they go on the market.
And then Rob is our lead simpleprocess and owner communication
(33:18):
.
So we have Ruth and Rob whodeal directly with owners.
So they both are our ownercommunication.
We split it up between them too.
So Rob primarily helps me withall of our new owners onboarding
and Ruth handles all of ourexisting owners Again, anything
to do with owner communication,it goes directly to them.
(33:39):
I do have a site inspector, sohe's here locally, so he's the
one who's helping us do sitevisits, adding lock boxes,
posting notices if we have to.
So we do have that onepart-time employee.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
And who's doing your business development work?
Speaker 2 (34:02):
That would be Rob.
So, rob, it is between Rob andmyself.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
That would be Rob.
So, rob, it is between Rob andmyself.
Okay, so it's not a dedicatedposition where that's all they
do, but you do have somebodyresponsible for bringing those
new clients on board, and ifhe's doing it, then he not only
brings them on board, but he'sdealing with that new owner
communication as well bringsthem on board, but he's dealing
(34:28):
with that new ownercommunication as well.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Yeah, we really it was getting a little confusing
when we were kind of handingthem off to somebody else
afterwards.
Right, they're like well, whodo I talk to?
So we decided to make it alittle bit a hybrid kind of a
BDM slash owner communication.
So Rob brings them on board,helps them with all of their
things and then continues thatrelationship going forward.
So that's kind of how we'vesplit that up here recently.
So we'll see how that works out, but so far it's been really
(34:53):
good and the owners, they knowwho to call, so it's been really
good for them to reach out toRob directly.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
You said something that I'm curious about about
your team, and you mentionedthat you have somebody that is
solely responsible for liveanswering the phones, and that's
such a complaint that you hearin the industry that nobody ever
answers their phones.
And was this an intentionaldecision in response to hearing
(35:25):
about that in the industry, orwas this a proactive?
We are going to make sure wedon't hear that at our company,
because I think it's kind of abold move to say I'm going to
spend the resources to havesomebody that is just the front
line answering the phones, and Ithink it's needed.
I think we lean more and moreinto tech and AI and all of
(35:48):
these different things.
We've removed ourselves fromthat first impression with a
client, a tenant, a prospect,and so I'm interested to hear a
little bit more about thatdecision that you made.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
I think it was twofold.
We were getting feedback.
We did have a phone tree before.
It was twofold.
(36:21):
We were getting feedback.
We did have a phone tree before, so nobody wanted the industry
report.
The number one thing ownerswant is communication.
That was their thing, so thatwas my number two.
That was like we got to make achange.
So, yes, it was a lot oflessons learned of people not
liking the phone tree.
And now we have another metricthat we measure right how
(36:44):
quickly can we answer the call?
Do we have any missed calls?
Making sure that we'recommunicating with anybody who
engages with us, whether it's anew owner, a current resident,
someone asking questions aboutour company.
They always have that person tohelp them.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
I don't know if this is an inappropriate question to
ask, but it's sort of what I see.
Americans are just sort of likethis, and so do you feel like
the fact that your person isremote and they don't have and
(37:30):
I'm making an assumption here,but I'm assuming they don't have
an English accent or anAmerican accent?
When people are calling, dothey feel like they're calling a
call center?
Have you gotten any feedback?
I think there's a lot of peoplethat are interested in moving
in the direction that you havemoved, but they sort of fear
that I want people to think thatmy whole team lives in America
or that I'm an American company.
(37:50):
I'm a local company, not evenAmerican, but I serve my
community and my people live inmy community.
Have you heard any pushback orfeedback about the fact that
your team doesn't live rightthere in that community?
Speaker 2 (38:08):
No, we haven't.
We live in a very diversecommunity so I think hearing
somebody answer the phone with aslight accent is nothing new to
them, because they may alsohave an accent.
So I think that helps usbecause we are in a little bit
of a diverse market and thosewho do have an issue with that
(38:35):
are quickly removed from ourservices because those are not
people we want to work with.
So I would say very, very lessthan a handful of of of people
have made a complaint or kind ofquestion that, but again,
that's quickly is somebody wedon't want to work with?
Speaker 1 (38:54):
Yeah, Well, that's good to hear, because I think
that that's that can be aconcern, right you?
You want to make sure thatyou're doing everything possible
to serve your clients in a waythat that delivers good value,
but you also want to berespected as a company and you
don't want anybody in yourcompany to be treated or to feel
any sort of way because of whothey are or where they came from
(39:21):
or their personal beliefs.
Right, this is a business andbusiness interactions.
As long as we're providing thatgood quality service, it really
shouldn't matter.
But I don't know that all ofour society is.
Is there yet to agree with that?
Speaker 2 (39:36):
No, I agree with you and um, you know, one of the
core values that we share withall of our owners is equality.
That is one of our core values.
So treating everybody equallyand fairly, regardless of who
they are, is one of the corevalues.
And if they can't meet that,then that's absolutely another
reason they can't work with usshare with us.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
You and I could go on for hours and just talk just
because we're good friends, butwhat is there that I should have
asked you about the company,about the industry?
What is it that you'd like toshare?
And then I hope I'm going tosee you at broker owner in a few
days.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
I think we covered a lot and you're right, I think
we're friends, so this makes itvery easy for us is just to have
a conversation, and I know thathaving your friendship has been
extremely helpful because Iknow that I can lean on you when
I also I get stuck.
And I think that is the powerof our community here in
property management is thateverybody is always so willing
(40:46):
to help one another.
So I think if you're new in theindustry, you're listening to
these podcasts or so muchinformation I would say don't
ever be afraid to reach out andask for help.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
That is true.
I remember when I first got backor got into the industry, you
know, back in 2000, I didn'tknow anybody that even did
property management, and westumbled into property
management because I bought asales brokerage and they just
happened to do this littleproperty management leasing
thing on the side and kind ofgrew that.
(41:19):
And I did that for about 11years and in 2011, I found
NARPUM and I wound up going to alocal regional event that we
had and at that regional event Isat next to these two ladies
and one of them lived about anhour north of us and another one
lived about an hour south of usand they both invited me to
(41:41):
their office for a day and saidjust come, spend the day at our
office and see what we do andhow we work.
And they gave me all kinds offorms and ideas and it was just,
it was great.
So I love when people reallybuy into that.
I really feel like in thisindustry maybe more than others,
just because it is such a hardindustry but you can't out give
(42:03):
in this.
The more you try to give toother people, the more it just
seems like it comes back to youand I truly believe in that
philosophy.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
Yes, yes, agree.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
And yes.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
I'll see you at Broker Owner.
So I get to leave here nice andearly on Sunday morning to get
there.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
Nice, well, I will be there Sunday afternoon so we
can connect then.
Perfect, all right, all right.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
Karen.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
Well, it was a there Sunday afternoon so we can
connect then Perfect.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
All right All right, karen.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
Well, it was a pleasure having you on.
I really appreciate you sharingyour time and your wisdom and
expertise with our audience, andI look forward to seeing you
soon.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
Thanks for tuning in to the Property Management
Success Podcast.
We'll be back with anothervalue-packed episode to help you
level up your propertymanagement game.
If you've got somethingvaluable out of today's episode,
please share it with a friendor colleague, and don't forget
to subscribe and leave a reviewso you never miss out on future
insights and strategies andtactics.
Until next time.
(43:00):
Here's to your success.
Welcome to the Property Management Success
Podcast, where we interviewleaders in the industry to
uncover the secrets toprofitability, efficiency and
achieving true freedom, whetherit's your time, money or
lifestyle.
I'm your host, tony Klein, andI'm here to help you build a
wildly successful propertymanagement business.
Let's get to it.
Welcome back to another episodeof the Property Management
(00:22):
Success Podcast.
I'm excited to be joined byKaren Jordan today.
Karen is with HBR Rentals andKaren is a good friend of mine,
karen welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Thank you, thank you.
I'm excited to hang out withyou.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Yeah, I'm excited.
One of my favorite things iswhen we meet up at conferences.
You always address everybody.
Hey, sunshine, and it just kindof brightens up the day.
I love it.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
I did that the other day and I was like, oh, but it's
raining outside, but still,that's what I hope for is
sunshine.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah, bringing the sunshine to wherever you go so.
I love it.
And then the other thing peoplethat are just listening that
can't see.
One of my other favorite thingsto do is see what, what pair of
glasses you have on, becauseyou've always got, uh, some
pretty fashionable designer typeglasses.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
So I always make a joke that I'm like well, I can't
see I might as well make funlike have fun with it.
So yeah I think I'm at like 20something pair now, just just
for fun.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Okay, so did you see what we're going to clip that?
Did you see where I just kindof paused?
What does it say?
Your upload is right now.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
We're just going to keep going because I can clip
that back out, all right.
Well, karen, I wanted to haveyou on early on in the podcast
One of the earlier episodes.
We had one of your people on,ruth, who talked about some of
your policies and processes andand using remote team members
(02:00):
and she was a joy to have on andI've known you for a long time
and I wanted to kind of get adifferent perspective of maybe
the same relationship.
But can we start just sort ofsharing with the audience how
you got into property management, what brought you here, how
long you've been here and just alittle bit about your company?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Sure, sure.
So I think my story is verysimilar to a lot of people.
I didn't ever think I was goingto be in property management.
I was in real estate and mybusiness partner, ron and I
worked together for many, manyyears before that, and as the
foreclosure market was happening, we were getting a lot of
investors who were like, hey, Ineed a property manager.
(02:44):
So we opened the propertymanagement division and this was
back in 2011.
So we've been doing it sincethen and we're here.
Single family homes in theNorthern California area.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
And Ron is still one of your business partners, or
your business partner, correct?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
And Ron is still one of your business partners, or
your business partner, correct?
Speaker 1 (03:22):
He is and with us, just even talking with somebody,
and they talk aboutpartnerships and it seems like
it's either a dumpster fire orit's the best thing ever.
There's not a lot of, eh, it'sokay or right in the middle.
How did you guys decide withyour partnership, how did you
come together and then how didyou decide which one of you
would move over to propertymanagement and focus on that and
(03:45):
which one would stay in sales?
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Well, ron is the broker, so that kind of made it
easy for him just to focus onthe sales side of it, which is
really good for us, right,because we do capture sales in
the property management side ofit as well.
So for him he was like you takethe management side, I'll take
the sales side, and we'll alwayskind of come back together when
we need to.
(04:08):
So that was pretty easy.
But I would say that easy inthe sense that he's always there
to support me, though, andagain with the broker side of it
, like the knowledge, the laws,the logistics of it, but again
also to calm me down sometimeswhere I may be a little bit
fired up.
(04:28):
He kind of lets it reel it backin.
So he's a good counselor aswell.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Yeah, there's a debate that I hear sometimes
about property managementcompanies that don't want to get
into sales.
They don't want to do salesbecause they feel like it will
interfere with theirrelationships with other real
estate agents who they depend onto get referrals.
How has that impacted, or whatis your messaging around that to
(04:58):
be able to provide bothservices and still get those
referrals from those agents?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Well, for the most part, a lot of our referrals
come internally from our agentshere on the sales side, but from
outside, from the town or fromlocal areas.
We've partnered with a lot ofrealtors and they, I think, have
come to trust that we are hereto help them with the management
side.
Even though we have a realestate side, we're not doing the
(05:26):
sale.
Their clients will always goback to them.
So that's been something I'vebeen very, very proud, because
we've had owners who've beenhere like seven years I think,
and we still remember who thatreferring agent was.
So, even though it's been along time, I don't even think
those referring agents are stillremember that, but we do.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
So that's been a really good, uh powerful thing
is that we have that real trustright that we're going to give
their client back when, whenyou're working on bringing in
new properties.
Realtor referrals is is one.
What other method do?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
you guys use to grow your property management
business.
I would say for the, for thebeginning, we've really um, used
um word of mouth and referrals.
So we are in a small ishcommunity, um, and so
participating in local businessnetworking groups, the chambers,
getting involved locally, hasbeen extremely powerful I
(06:29):
participate in anything that hasto do with fundraisers or
school events just to supportthe community, and I think just
getting our name out there hasbeen really good for owners to
hear who we are and that we'renot just about property
management but we're part of thecommunity as well.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
I think that's a big message.
One of the things that we'vebeen working on a lot lately
with some of our clients is howto stand out from the noise and
from a public perspective.
As property managementcompanies, we're all the same
until we're not, until we'vedone something that makes us
rise above the noise.
And some markets are moreflooded with property management
(07:09):
companies than others, and sosome companies maybe have an
easier time differentiatingthemselves in the marketplace.
But I really like the approachyou you take about being
involved and just becoming apart of the community.
You don't have to work I won'tsay you don't have to work hard,
but you don't have to work ashard of separating your property
(07:31):
management company, apart fromthe noise, when you've separated
yourself from the other peoplebecause you've created those
personal relationships withpeople.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Yep, that's been really powerful for us and I
know I could, you know, invest alittle bit more marketing
dollars and get some ads andthings of that sort, but we've
never really had to and it'sbeen.
It's been really powerful forus and I mean I love those
relationships because they justthen continue just to expand,
with somebody else saying hey,did you hear what HBR did and
you should call them.
(08:02):
So it just kind of snowballsfrom there.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Yeah, Well, when, when you guys started the
company, it was you and Ron, andthen eventually you guys
separated in.
He's doing more of the sales,you're doing more of the
property management.
Did you start with a propertymanagement team or were you the
property management division?
Speaker 2 (08:22):
I was all of the things and I laugh.
Now I tell the team.
Once upon a time, Karen went tothe bank and manually deposited
checks to all of the differentbanks, because that's what we
did.
I didn't know about software andI didn't know about ACH wires.
So, yes, I was all of thedepartments by myself, and so,
(08:42):
as we started growing andlearning from NARPUM right,
narpum is the greatest tool thatwe came across with vendors who
were like here, we can help youdo this.
So from there we were able tokind of grow into that.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
As you grew, or as you.
If you were to give advice tosomebody who's trying to grow
their company right now, howwould you go about deciding
where to grow, where to add thatfirst person?
I know you have more than oneperson on your team now, and so
you had to have first hired thatone to get to the size that you
(09:19):
have now.
What would you recommend, aspeople grow, for adding team
members?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
I would say that I was hesitant at first to hire
and who, when should I hire?
And Ron this is the part whereRon and I have been really good
at partnership is because Ronalways kind of plans ahead.
He plans kind of for the future.
So he was like, well, why waituntil you're overloaded?
Prepare for growth.
(09:47):
So hiring that first person wasreally important for me and I
would say, looking back, Ishould have done it sooner,
right, instead of trying to doall the things by myself, having
the support to kind of havethat person next to me to kind
of grow.
So I would say, to kind of havethat person next to me to kind
of grow.
So I would say don't wait.
I don't think there's a magicnumber of 50 doors, 100 doors.
(10:09):
I would say get that person andthat way you kind of grow
together as the company grows.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
And would you have any advice on what you would
have that person do?
Would it just sort of be abackup to everything you do?
Would you start slicing offthings that you do?
How do you go about growingthat team from just a one-off,
one-person department?
Speaker 2 (10:34):
I think the first department that we started with
was maintenance.
We needed to have that oneperson who could really help
kind of take those calls, helpkind of assign the work orders,
do the follow-up.
So maintenance, I would say,was a huge part of us getting
that first person started.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
And then, where did you guys grow from there?
From you, and then one personhow big is your team now, and
are you pod or departmental orportfolio?
Speaker 2 (11:07):
we are departmental and we are about 99.5 remote,
all team members.
So we have seven remote teammembers and the 0.5 is me and
ron, who are still kind of thelocal ones, but everybody else
is international.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
How do you keep a remote team engaged?
I know a lot of companies thathave remote team members, but it
seems like the remote teammembers are sort of an add-on to
their local staff.
You all have taken a differentapproach where you almost are
the add-on to your remote team.
How do you keep everybodyworking together and creating
(11:51):
that culture where you cancommunicate your standards and
expectations?
I'm just really curious abouthow you take people that are
living all over the globe thatreally have very limited
interaction with each other faceto face, and how do you build
out that team?
Speaker 2 (12:10):
So a lot of technology.
We use a lot of tools thatagain help us stay connected.
The first thing I would say weutilize is Slack.
Slack is our main tool that wecommunicate with.
Slack is our main tool that wecommunicate with, and I've
started a culture with every newhire that we have a daily
(12:30):
huddle channel and I told themto treat it as you would if you
walked into an office.
So every morning you say goodmorning to everybody when you
walk into an office.
So every morning you'll see thedaily huddle start blowing up
as everybody comes into theoffice.
So that's been kind of huge andwe've created different
channels.
So there's channels for we callit the HBR mascots, and so we
(12:54):
love to share our pet storiesand pictures of our animals.
And then we have a dailyappreciation Slack channel where
we say thank you for somethingthat happened today.
Or if we get a five-star Googlereview, we have a positivity
Slack channel.
We share that.
Someone just got rave reviewson Google.
So there's a lot of interactionthroughout the day and I told
(13:17):
them it would be just like ifyou were sitting next to me,
right?
If something exciting happened,I would run over and tell you
about it.
So we kind of treat that Slackas kind of our.
I do not participate in dailyhuddles, but Ruth does.
So Ruth runs the daily huddleevery morning.
So every morning they all gettogether and they just do a
(13:39):
quick 10, 15 minute check in,and sometimes it could be just
like hey, just having a goodmorning, just when I baked a
cake over the weekend.
It's daily check in.
So they do that amongstthemselves every every day and
then once a week I jump in onthe all hands on meeting and
that's about 45 minutes and wejust again check in.
(14:01):
We do start every morning and Ithink you know this about me,
tony is we do a gratitudeTuesday and we go around the
room and we ask what everybody'sgrateful for and we start the
meetings that way.
So that's a way that we allkind of stay connected and we
could all kind of listen to eachother's stories of what
(14:21):
everybody's kind of grateful forsomething that's going on in
their lives.
So again, we may not be sittingright next to each other, but
it does feel like we're veryclose because we're constantly
sharing and constantlycommunicating with each other
close because we're constantlysharing and constantly
communicating with each other.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
I love the gratitude part and I know that's just such
a part of who you are.
I want to kind of look at theflip side of that is, when we
have our communication, we havethe gratitude.
How are you holding peopleaccountable for doing the job
that we've hired them to do?
Because being grateful forsomebody showing up or for
(15:06):
things happening, that's reallyfun when things are firing the
way they're supposed to be.
But when things are kind ofgoing off the rails or people
aren't meeting expectations, howdo we even communicate those
expectations and what are youdoing when people are not
meeting those?
Speaker 2 (15:20):
So I do have one-on-ones with each of the
team members.
That is something I dopersonally myself and those are
weekly.
They're no more than 30 minutes.
So we do have those one-on-oneswhere, if I feel that there
needs to be a conversation, wecan absolutely have it at that
time.
But during that all hands-onmeeting we also have an agenda
(15:40):
and because we utilize LeadSimple, we can track our numbers
and processes and completionrates and are we doing the
things we're doing?
And it's not to call them outindividually or to you know, to
embarrass anybody, but we docall out like okay, karen, karen
has a hundred tasks she has notdone so.
(16:03):
During the meeting we kind ofhave that accountability to kind
of hear what, where we're allat and whether those numbers are
improving every week or thosenumbers are dropping and maybe
there's a conversation thatneeds to be had if something is
changing significantly.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
And how do you manage those?
So if you do have somebody thathas a hundred tasks outstanding
, is there a way for you todetermine there are five that
are really important and thatneed to be done?
Is there an urgency level thatyou all track?
The reason I'm asking this isthere's there's tracking
(16:42):
activity and there's trackingprogress and making a difference
, right, and so if we have ahundred tasks but five of them
really move the needle, how dowe train our team to really make
sure we're hitting those fiveNot that all of them aren't
important.
I know that when you design yourprocesses, every step is
(17:04):
important and we need to makesure we're checking those off,
so to speak.
One of the things when peopleintroduce task management
software like Lead Simple orAptly or Mondaycom or Process
Street or any of them, they allhave the same overall challenge
for me is it's hard tocommunicate with the team where
(17:27):
the critical tasks live, and doyou guys run into that?
Have you designed your systemso that that isn't a factor I'm
curious about how you'vestructured it.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Yeah, no, if we get, for example, on our call today,
there was a few tasks that wereoutstanding and the person who
was assigned to it spoke up andsaid hey, I think these tasks
need to be adjusted because thetiming is off on why they're not
being completed.
So that's a great opportunityfor us to be like oh, we didn't
think about that ahead of time,we made this due within a day,
(18:03):
but really it should be threedays.
So reviewing, I guess, yeah,what is critical and what needs
to be tweaked to kind of makesure that they're not failing as
well.
I'm not holding themaccountable for something that's
not even achievable.
So constant, constant tweakingand learning and listening to my
(18:24):
number one thing for the teamis communication.
So if those numbers are beinghit with communication, we're
great.
If, like you said, thenon-critical tasks, maybe we
just need to adjust them alittle bit.
But weekly reviewing those isis really been powerful again
and sharing those numbers witheverybody, so everybody hears
the numbers as well.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
So there's managing the activity and then there's
managing the results or theoutcome.
Do you all implement any sortof scorecard or weekly metrics
that you, that your team, istrying to hit?
Do you have anything like thatthat is rolled out, where people
can say with certainty I'mmeeting expectations or I'm not
meeting expectations?
(19:07):
Do you have anything like that?
Speaker 2 (19:09):
We have.
I have a weekly KPI that I havefor each of the departments
that I review with Ruth on aweekly basis and then in general
, we also have a very publicscorecard that I have recently
started sharing on all my socialmedias and that was really
nervous for me, like justputting those numbers out there,
(19:29):
and those get shared not onlyon social media but it gets sent
to all of our owners as well.
So the team knows how importantthose numbers are for us and to
see the green arrow going upand not the red arrow going down
.
But again, it's always going tobe improvement.
But yes, we do have a lot ofnumbers that we're measuring and
(19:50):
sharing.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Tell us about I've seen your public scorecard and
tell us about the decision thatyou made to share that publicly
and what impact that's had onthe business.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
That was something I was challenged to do last year.
So I hold quarterly owner Zoommeetings with our owners and we
share a lot of data during thosecalls.
But again, it's quarterly.
So how could I continue to showour owners what services we do,
what we're doing for them on amonthly basis?
(20:24):
So we created this scorecardand created just kind of what
are the numbers that are reallyimportant for our clients to see
?
So this is how these are thecriterias we chose.
We know maintenance wasimportant to track.
We knew release renewals wereimportant to track.
Rent money again is going to behuge for owners.
(20:46):
So figuring out what wasimportant for our owners to see
so that they could also see thehard work we put in for them
every month, because I think alot of the times owners they
don't see what we do every day.
So we started doing that inDecember I think is when I
started.
And now the goal is andeverybody gets excited right,
(21:06):
the scorecard is coming out atthe end of the month.
Does it look good?
Last month the entire team wasso excited because we had hit
100% of rent collection for themonth of February.
So I think everybody now getsexcited about the scorecard.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
I think it's genius, because you kind of touched on
it Our clients.
If they don't hear from us,they don't know what we do.
So if we do a really good joband take care of everything and
we don't involve them, theythink we're not doing anything.
And so the only time they hearfrom us is when something goes
wrong or we need money from themto handle a repair or something
(21:45):
like that.
And so for you to be proactivein saying, look, these are the
things that we do, this is theamount of rent we've collected,
this is the amount ofapplications we've processed, or
whatever it is that you'resharing with them, it just shows
that behind the scenes, you areconstantly working.
You know the fire is burning24-7.
(22:06):
And I think that's really smart.
I'd love to check in down theroad and see, you know, how this
has impacted either the trustthat you've built with your
clients, where they're givingyou a little bit more authority
to take action withoutquestioning, just to see the
long-term impact, because I dothink that, as long as those
(22:28):
numbers continue to trend upward, right and not downward, that
that's going to be a great toolfor you and your team.
Yes, all right, I want to switchgears just a little bit.
We touched on it that Ruth wason the podcast on one of the
earlier episodes.
She started out working on yourprocesses with you and I know
(22:50):
that you guys use Lead Simpleand that she had started out
working through building outyour processes.
Tell me a little bit about thebuy-in that you had, or that
your team has, with building outthose processes, because word
on the street is you've got thatpretty dialed in and I want to
(23:10):
just share a little bit aboutbuilding out processes and who's
involved and just the wholething, because I think it can
sound overwhelming when somebodyis looking at I'm I'm so busy I
don't have time to document allof that.
So I hear people talking aboutit, but it's just not for me
because I can't do it.
So I want to have thatconversation with you about what
(23:33):
something like that looks liketo build out.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
When we made the decision to implement with Lead
Simple, we knew that we wereinvesting money and it was going
to take time for us to buildout.
And I wasn't going to do thatone thing that we all do as
property managers when we go toconferences and we buy the new
shiny toy and then it just sitson the shelf.
I was very, very strategic thatthis time we were not going to
(23:59):
play around.
So Lead Simple was going to besomething we were going to use.
We were going to implement itand we're going to try our best
to use all of the strengths thatit comes with.
So when Ruth came on board,that was her main goal.
Her job was to really help theteam document the processes and
figure out how to help them maketheir job easier, and that was
(24:22):
the message we relayed to them.
This is not replacing you, thisis not taking your job away,
this is helping you.
And yes, we did get a littlebit of pushback.
Yes, because they're like well,I don't like it, it doesn't
feel comfortable, and we saidjust give us a minute, just give
us a minute, it will, it will.
So Ruth really helped us kindof get that process going.
(24:44):
But then again, as youmentioned in the beginning, when
we hire team members they growand they really kind of support
all the facets.
And Ruth now has completelygrown out of that and is really
supporting our owners, havingthose daily communications with
owners and because she knows theprocesses, because she knows
(25:06):
behind the scenes what is beingsent out, she's able to then
support those owners.
But that doesn't mean myprocesses went away.
We now have Rob who is helpingdirectly work with the processes
and Rob is involved with notonly helping me onboard the
owner, so he's listening as wellto the conversations and the
(25:27):
things and what is going out andwhen does it go out.
So he's constantly adjustingthe processes to help the team,
to help the owners on board,making that experience for our
owners, our residents, helpful.
And so we take one process aweek and we sit for about two
(25:47):
hours and we go througheverything that happens during
that process.
What does it look like for anowner?
What do they get?
When do they get it?
Does it come out in an hour, ina day?
I mean the very, very detailedsteps to the process we review
on a weekly basis.
But again, having that person bededicated to just that was
(26:11):
extremely, extremely powerful.
And I know that there's a lotof consultants out there to help
and do that, but if you don'thave somebody on your team to
help you, then absolutely, theconsultants are there to support
.
But for us that was a powerful,powerful position.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
In the two-hour meeting that you have about
taking a process and breaking itdown, really evaluating every
step and the customer experienceand all of that.
Who's involved in that meetingand does it change week over
week?
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Yes, so it is not me doing this, because I'm not the
one sending out the email.
So, for example, our residentsuccess manager will join that
meeting because if that process,for example, is the move in
process that we're reviewing, wewant him on the call and we
want to hear his feedback.
So, depending on what processwe're working on, we'll bring in
(27:04):
that team member who directlyis involved with that process,
so that they can give theirfeedback and their request on
the process.
And yes, sometimes we getchallenged by those individuals,
right, and they're like I don'tunderstand why we're doing this
, this doesn't make sense, andwe're like just give it a minute
, just give it a minute and then, literally like a week later,
(27:25):
we get the message Yep, that'spretty awesome, thank you, you
saved me an hour, so I know thatit's working.
I know it's uncomfortable tohave and, yes, it's time
consuming to do two hours a week, but it definitely pays off in
the end.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
I think I want to touch on something that you
brought up on and you brought uptwo sides of this which is you
give them the opportunity toparticipate in the creation or
the modification of the process,and I think that's really smart
because in general,psychologically, people support
what they help create, and so Ithink it's really smart to
(28:05):
involve them, not only for thebuy-in portion, but they're also
the ones that are hearingobjections, hearing complaints
or challenges or running intothings.
So I think it's really smartthere.
But the other thing that yousaid was and you didn't say it
in this way, but basically youhave veto power to say this is
the way we're going to do it.
(28:26):
So you listen to their feedback, you give them the opportunity
to participate, to share theirconcerns, share their ideas, but
then, at the end of the day,you're doing what you believe is
best for the company and thenyou're putting those steps in
the process and I feel like,even when you're not doing what
(28:46):
the team member asks, they doappreciate and respect the fact
that you at least consideredtheir, their opinions and their
input.
And then, knowing that we'redoing what's best for the
company, you've implemented thatthose steps that you think will
will get us where we need to go.
So I think it's um it's notthat we always have to do what
(29:09):
they want, but we should alwaysgive them a voice or opportunity
to participate.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
And honestly, I get vetoed.
Sometimes they're like becauseI become the softy, they're like
I go well, maybe we shouldn'tdo it this time.
And they call me out andthey're like no, karen, it has
to be the same process foreverybody, or you're going to
break it.
So that's also.
I get called out when I thinkthe process I should be nicer on
the process that's also.
(29:34):
I get.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
I get called out when I think the process I should be
nicer on the process Before wejump off of the process thing.
I want to get a little bit ofinsight.
Do you have looking back now?
Do you have anything you couldshare that would help people in
this process of buildingprocesses to avoid mistakes or
pain points?
Was there anything that youlearned that was like, oh man,
(29:57):
if I could avoid that, if Icould go back two years and
avoid that, I would.
What do you have to share onthose kinds of insights?
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Yes, and I would tell you that I'm always going to
learn when I fall down and howto get back up and figure it out
to do it better next time.
But I fell down pretty hardhere recently and it was because
I wasn't doing those two hourmeetings.
I wasn't reviewing theprocesses to make sure that they
(30:27):
were getting done.
I had just kind of set them upon autopilot kind of thing.
I'm like OK, I did it, they'regoing.
I see the emails, the movementsare happening, it's happening.
But I wasn't reviewing them andI wasn't auditing them.
So I would say you absolutelycan't.
Just, it's not magic, right.
(30:47):
There's things that are goingto have to be tweaked and fixed.
So, absolutely as the leader ofthe company, keeping an eye on
those processes to make surethat they are flowing the way
they're supposed to, thecommunication is being done,
it's not being skipped, it's notbeing sent for three days later
.
So I would say that was a hugelearning lesson for me here
(31:09):
recently.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
So what I'm hearing is the takeaway is set it up,
implement it, but it's not a setit and forget it.
It's trust, but verify.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Trust and verify.
I think it's easy for us to doand you know we get busy and we
think everything looks good fromthe outside.
But yeah, trust and verify issomething we have to continue to
do.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
All right, let's talk .
Let's shift gears a little bitand talk about the team that you
have.
So how is your team set up now?
Speaker 2 (31:44):
So we are departmental, so we do have.
Recently we changed over tolive answering all of our phones
.
Before we had a phone tree, sonow we have an actual
receptionist, again remote.
She answers all of our calls,tries to help direct the calls
(32:04):
to the appropriate department Ifshe can't answer the question.
She does help eliminate a lotof the calls to the appropriate
department if she can't answerthe question.
She does help eliminate a lotof the calls for the team
because she could just answer avery simple question.
So that's been really, reallyawesome to kind of help the team
.
We have a resident successmanager and that role is again
dealing with the residentsdirectly onboarding them,
(32:26):
helping them with their move-in,lease renewals, rent collection
.
They're kind of the main go-toperson for the resident.
We have a maintenance team andso again, all of the things
maintenance related.
We do utilize property meld.
So working on workflows andmaking sure the communication
and maintenance is there hasbeen awesome.
(32:50):
We have a project manager andthat role is directly involved
in onboarding new properties,getting them ready for the
market and then as well as themove outs.
So she's responsible for makingsure our properties shine
before they go on the market.
And then Rob is our lead simpleprocess and owner communication
(33:18):
.
So we have Ruth and Rob whodeal directly with owners.
So they both are our ownercommunication.
We split it up between them too.
So Rob primarily helps me withall of our new owners onboarding
and Ruth handles all of ourexisting owners Again, anything
to do with owner communication,it goes directly to them.
(33:39):
I do have a site inspector, sohe's here locally, so he's the
one who's helping us do sitevisits, adding lock boxes,
posting notices if we have to.
So we do have that onepart-time employee.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
And who's doing your business development work?
Speaker 2 (34:02):
That would be Rob.
So, rob, it is between Rob andmyself.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
That would be Rob.
So, rob, it is between Rob andmyself.
Okay, so it's not a dedicatedposition where that's all they
do, but you do have somebodyresponsible for bringing those
new clients on board, and ifhe's doing it, then he not only
brings them on board, but he'sdealing with that new owner
communication as well bringsthem on board, but he's dealing
(34:28):
with that new ownercommunication as well.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Yeah, we really it was getting a little confusing
when we were kind of handingthem off to somebody else
afterwards.
Right, they're like well, whodo I talk to?
So we decided to make it alittle bit a hybrid kind of a
BDM slash owner communication.
So Rob brings them on board,helps them with all of their
things and then continues thatrelationship going forward.
So that's kind of how we'vesplit that up here recently.
So we'll see how that works out, but so far it's been really
(34:53):
good and the owners, they knowwho to call, so it's been really
good for them to reach out toRob directly.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
You said something that I'm curious about about
your team, and you mentionedthat you have somebody that is
solely responsible for liveanswering the phones, and that's
such a complaint that you hearin the industry that nobody ever
answers their phones.
And was this an intentionaldecision in response to hearing
(35:25):
about that in the industry, orwas this a proactive?
We are going to make sure wedon't hear that at our company,
because I think it's kind of abold move to say I'm going to
spend the resources to havesomebody that is just the front
line answering the phones, and Ithink it's needed.
I think we lean more and moreinto tech and AI and all of
(35:48):
these different things.
We've removed ourselves fromthat first impression with a
client, a tenant, a prospect,and so I'm interested to hear a
little bit more about thatdecision that you made.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
I think it was twofold.
We were getting feedback.
We did have a phone tree before.
It was twofold.
(36:21):
We were getting feedback.
We did have a phone tree before, so nobody wanted the industry
report.
The number one thing ownerswant is communication.
That was their thing, so thatwas my number two.
That was like we got to make achange.
So, yes, it was a lot oflessons learned of people not
liking the phone tree.
And now we have another metricthat we measure right how
(36:44):
quickly can we answer the call?
Do we have any missed calls?
Making sure that we'recommunicating with anybody who
engages with us, whether it's anew owner, a current resident,
someone asking questions aboutour company.
They always have that person tohelp them.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
I don't know if this is an inappropriate question to
ask, but it's sort of what I see.
Americans are just sort of likethis, and so do you feel like
the fact that your person isremote and they don't have and
(37:30):
I'm making an assumption here,but I'm assuming they don't have
an English accent or anAmerican accent?
When people are calling, dothey feel like they're calling a
call center?
Have you gotten any feedback?
I think there's a lot of peoplethat are interested in moving
in the direction that you havemoved, but they sort of fear
that I want people to think thatmy whole team lives in America
or that I'm an American company.
(37:50):
I'm a local company, not evenAmerican, but I serve my
community and my people live inmy community.
Have you heard any pushback orfeedback about the fact that
your team doesn't live rightthere in that community?
Speaker 2 (38:08):
No, we haven't.
We live in a very diversecommunity so I think hearing
somebody answer the phone with aslight accent is nothing new to
them, because they may alsohave an accent.
So I think that helps usbecause we are in a little bit
of a diverse market and thosewho do have an issue with that
(38:35):
are quickly removed from ourservices because those are not
people we want to work with.
So I would say very, very lessthan a handful of of of people
have made a complaint or kind ofquestion that, but again,
that's quickly is somebody wedon't want to work with?
Speaker 1 (38:54):
Yeah, Well, that's good to hear, because I think
that that's that can be aconcern, right you?
You want to make sure thatyou're doing everything possible
to serve your clients in a waythat that delivers good value,
but you also want to berespected as a company and you
don't want anybody in yourcompany to be treated or to feel
any sort of way because of whothey are or where they came from
(39:21):
or their personal beliefs.
Right, this is a business andbusiness interactions.
As long as we're providing thatgood quality service, it really
shouldn't matter.
But I don't know that all ofour society is.
Is there yet to agree with that?
Speaker 2 (39:36):
No, I agree with you and um, you know, one of the
core values that we share withall of our owners is equality.
That is one of our core values.
So treating everybody equallyand fairly, regardless of who
they are, is one of the corevalues.
And if they can't meet that,then that's absolutely another
reason they can't work with usshare with us.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
You and I could go on for hours and just talk just
because we're good friends, butwhat is there that I should have
asked you about the company,about the industry?
What is it that you'd like toshare?
And then I hope I'm going tosee you at broker owner in a few
days.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
I think we covered a lot and you're right, I think
we're friends, so this makes itvery easy for us is just to have
a conversation, and I know thathaving your friendship has been
extremely helpful because Iknow that I can lean on you when
I also I get stuck.
And I think that is the powerof our community here in
property management is thateverybody is always so willing
(40:46):
to help one another.
So I think if you're new in theindustry, you're listening to
these podcasts or so muchinformation I would say don't
ever be afraid to reach out andask for help.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
That is true.
I remember when I first got backor got into the industry, you
know, back in 2000, I didn'tknow anybody that even did
property management, and westumbled into property
management because I bought asales brokerage and they just
happened to do this littleproperty management leasing
thing on the side and kind ofgrew that.
(41:19):
And I did that for about 11years and in 2011, I found
NARPUM and I wound up going to alocal regional event that we
had and at that regional event Isat next to these two ladies
and one of them lived about anhour north of us and another one
lived about an hour south of usand they both invited me to
(41:41):
their office for a day and saidjust come, spend the day at our
office and see what we do andhow we work.
And they gave me all kinds offorms and ideas and it was just,
it was great.
So I love when people reallybuy into that.
I really feel like in thisindustry maybe more than others,
just because it is such a hardindustry but you can't out give
(42:03):
in this.
The more you try to give toother people, the more it just
seems like it comes back to youand I truly believe in that
philosophy.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
Yes, yes, agree.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
And yes.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
I'll see you at Broker Owner.
So I get to leave here nice andearly on Sunday morning to get
there.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
Nice, well, I will be there Sunday afternoon so we
can connect then.
Perfect, all right, all right.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
Karen.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
Well, it was a there Sunday afternoon so we can
connect then Perfect.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
All right All right, karen.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
Well, it was a pleasure having you on.
I really appreciate you sharingyour time and your wisdom and
expertise with our audience, andI look forward to seeing you
soon.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
Thanks for tuning in to the Property Management
Success Podcast.
We'll be back with anothervalue-packed episode to help you
level up your propertymanagement game.
If you've got somethingvaluable out of today's episode,
please share it with a friendor colleague, and don't forget
to subscribe and leave a reviewso you never miss out on future
insights and strategies andtactics.
Until next time.
(43:00):
Here's to your success.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Boysober
Have you ever wondered what life might be like if you stopped worrying about being wanted, and focused on understanding what you actually want? That was the question Hope Woodard asked herself after a string of situationships inspired her to take a break from sex and dating. She went "boysober," a personal concept that sparked a global movement among women looking to prioritize themselves over men. Now, Hope is looking to expand the ways we explore our relationship to relationships. Taking a bold, unfiltered look into modern love, romance, and self-discovery, Boysober will dive into messy stories about dating, sex, love, friendship, and breaking generational patterns—all with humor, vulnerability, and a fresh perspective.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com