Owner Occupied with Peter Lohmann

Special guest Marc Cunningham joins us for Season 3, Episode 15 of Owner Occupied.

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Welcome back to Owner Occupied. We're nearing the end of season three and this week, you'll hear a syndicated episode where I was actually the guest instead of the host!

Welcome back to Owner Occupied. We're nearing the end of season three and for the next few weeks, you'll hear syndicated episodes where I was actually the guest instead of the host!

Welcome back to Owner Occupied. We're nearing the end of season three and for the next few weeks, you'll hear syndicated episodes where I was the guest!

Special guest Kristen Lopez joins us for Season 3, Episode 14 of Owner Occupied.

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Special guest Thad Tarkington joins us for Season 3, Episode 13 of Owner Occupied.

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Special guest Kelsey McRichards joins us for Season 3, Episode 12 of Owner Occupied.

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Special guest Adam Willis joins us for Season 3, Episode 11 of Owner Occupied.

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Special guest Mark Ainley joins us for Season 3, Episode 10 of Owner Occupied.

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Special guest Russell Lowery joins us for Season 3, Episode 9 of Owner Occupied.

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Special guest Benton Moss joins us for Season 3, Episode 8 of Owner Occupied.

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Special guest Brad Larsen joins us for Season 3, Episode 7 of Owner Occupied.

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Special guest The Real Estate God joins us for Season 3, Episode 6 of Owner Occupied.

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Special guest Todd Ortscheid joins us for Season 3, Episode 5 of Owner Occupied.

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Special guest Michael Girdley joins us for Season 3, Episode 4 of Owner Occupied.

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Special guest Cat Allday joins us for Season 3, Episode 3 of Owner Occupied.

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Special guest Wolfgang Croskey joins us for Season 3, Episode 2 of Owner Occupied.

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Special guest Nick Huber joins us for Season 3, Episode 1 of Owner Occupied.

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Special Episode of the Owner Occupied podcast with Peter Lohmann & special guest Jon Matzner. In this episode we discuss:

(00:00) - Intro

(01:47) - Jon’s background and career

(03:17) - How are you utilizing Notion in your work?

(06:06) - Expanding the Garage Upgrade business

(11:09) - The 3 parts of value for people entering the world of Property Management

(22:44) - When starting or buying a PM company, what is something that people think is important, that your experience tells you people can skip entirely?

(25:31) - What’s something you’re doing every day now that you wish you had started earlier in your journey?

(28:55) - What channels have led you to building your highest-quality relationships?

(33:36) - What’s something you did radically different from your industry peers that ultimately paid off?

(37:34) - What’s the biggest struggle you’re facing right now?

(40:41) - What’s something you didn’t give enough attention to early on that you had to pay for down the road?

(43:55) - Where people can go to learn more

Learn more about Jon Matzner & how to connect with him here:

Season 2, Episode 12 of the Owner Occupied podcast with Peter Lohmann & special guest Brandon Scholten. In this episode we discuss:

(00:00) - Intro

(01:35) - Brandon’s background and career

(04:43) - Can you share why you chose to go the franchise route and it’s advantages or disadvantages?

(09:35) - What did you get out of learning from Justin Roff-Marshomeone looking to get into Property Management?

(9:35) - What did you get out of learning from Justin Roff-Marsh

(15:47) - Best approaches to replacing employees and hiring for Sales when running a small business

(21:05) - What vendors are you getting a ton of value from right now?

Season 2, Episode 11 of the Owner Occupied podcast with Peter Lohmann & special guest Matt Tringali. In this episode we discuss:

(00:00) - Intro

(01:40) - Matt’s background and career

(03:30) - How many units were you at when you merged with Home Vault?

(04:30) - Door count vs. Profitability in PM

(06:46) - What is Home Vault?

(09:08) - Is it possible to have a single software and same PMA across multiple states for a company?

(11:30) - Can you share any information about the Home Vault exit?

(15:00) - Found Gen Ad read

(16:40) - Where do you turn to when you want to learn more about the industry?

(23:06) - Can you tell the story behind Better Who?

(26:52) - What was the impulse for you to pivot into services?

(34:36) - What is some low hanging fruit for PM’s to improve their business?

(36:16) - Appfolio Stack Ad read

(37:54) - Where did you get the idea to help grow the platforms of PM’s through Better Who?

(40:33) - Is there some result you’d like to see that shows the industry is improving?

(41:15) - What’re your thoughts on customer service in the industry?

(48:03) - What are you most excited about in the industry right now?

(51:22) - How would you advise a small PM business owners to improve their marketing and grow their business?

(57:27) - How can people learn more about you online?

Learn more about Matt Tringali & how to connect with him here:

Season 2, Episode 10 of the Owner Occupied podcast with Peter Lohmann & special guest Ben Sencenbaugh. In this episode we discuss:

(00:00) - Intro

(01:56) - Ben’s background & Career

(06:52) - Ben’s experience working at NASA

(10:26) - Can you discuss the software you’ve built to facilitate property management?

(17:31) - How would you advise someone in PM who’s looking for a low-code or no-code solution?

(18:30) - Do you have any kind of metric to tell you the health of your Podio system?

(23:23) - Elevate & Delegate Ad

(25:03) - Where did you come up with the idea to create an Onboarding Manager role?

(29:45) - How do you handle your customer service aspect of the business?

(32:18) - What is the Squad Model you’ve used to build your PM company?

(35:27) - How do you gauge how well you’re doing in the eyes of your customers?

(40:06) - Why is it so difficult to have a high Direct Labor Efficiency Ratio

(43:47) - Appfolio Stack Ad read

(45:24) - How can we improve this industry for its business owners?

(49:09) - How do you facilitate coaching and teaching in your business?

(51:59) - Do you have any plans on expanding geographically?

(53:42) - Is there anything in the industry that has you excited right now?

(54:36) - What marketing advice would you give to a small Property Management company?

(57:12) - How do you think about churn?

(01:01:38) - How can people learn more about you?

Learn more about Ben Sencenbaugh & how to connect with him here:

Season 2, Episode 9 of the Owner Occupied podcast with Peter Lohmann & special guest Greg Crabtree. In this episode we discuss:

(00:00) - Introduction

(01:35) - Greg’s career and Background

(08:40) - What do you think it is about the Simple Numbers approach that has resonated so much with people in Property Management?

(11:43) - What are some common mistakes you see small business owners making that can be easily fixed?

(16:27) - Why are you a proponent of not playing games to save money on taxes?

(21:16) - Second Nature Ad Read

(23:10) - The importance of having an emergency fund

(25:24) - How does ROIC work in practice? (Return on Invested Capital)

(33:52) - The ‘Black Hole’ between $1mm-$5mm in revenue

(42:16) - Appfolio Ad Read

(43:44) - The Labor Efficiency Ratio

(51:17) - Thoughts on the current labor shortage, inflation, the population crisis, & raising prices

(01:02:46) - When does it make sense to bring your finance function in-house?

(01:06:35) - Where’s the best place for people to learn more about you?

Learn more about Greg Crabtree & how to connect with him here:

Season 2, Episode 8 of the Owner Occupied podcast with Peter Lohmann & special guest Chris Powers. In this episode we discuss:

(01:51) - Chris’ background and career

(03:13) - What’s involved in 3rd party Property Management for Industrial Real Estate?

(05:07) - Do you handle leasing as well?

(08:04) - Making Blue Collar ‘cool’ again

(12:01) - Fort Capital’s focus on Property Management

(13:05) - Providing value to the tenants and owners via PM

(17:07) - Have you ever had issues with tenants living in your properties?

(18:09) - Are you using any specialized software in your business?

(19:46) - Investing in people vs. investing in processes

(24:37) - Ad Read: Second Nature

(26:31) - Developing the LP onboarding experience

(32:06) - How do you think about being able to sell a primarily GP Real Estate business?

(36:36) - Chris’ transition out of the CEO role & his current day to day responsibilities

(46:08) - Ad Read: Appfolio Stack

(47:47) - What were your initial emotions when you stepped away from being CEO?

(51:19) - Why are you so generous with your time?

(01:02:35) - Chris’ previous life as an investor

(01:06:25) - What marketing advice would you give to the owner of a small PM owner?

(01:10:17) - Wrap up

Learn more about Chris Powers & how to connect with him here:

Season 2, Episode 7 of the Owner Occupied podcast with Peter Lohmann & special guest Daniel Craig. In this episode we discuss:

(01:42) - Danny’s background and career

(06:33) - Creating the Benchmark studies

(09:58) - The importance of efficiency in Property Management

(13:06) - Direct Labor Efficiency Ratios & Unit Churn

(21:40) - Profit Coach’s Webinars

(26:42) - Second Nature Ad

(28:35) - Updating the NARPM accounting standards

(35:11) - Mindset & Identity in Property Management

(43:50) - Appfolio Ad

(45:24) - Thoughts moving from the vendor space into owning a Property Management company

(51:43) - Low hanging fruit for small businesses looking to grow their marketing

Learn more about Daniel Craig & how to connect with him here:

Season 2, Bonus Episode of the Owner Occupied podcast with Peter Lohmann & special guest Andy VandenBerg. In this episode we discuss:

(00:00) - Intro

(01:45) - Why Andy wanted to interview Peter

(03:39) - Peter’s relationship with his business partner & hiring a COO

(05:11) - How did the idea for this time off come about and what did you need to do in order to pull it off?

(09:19) - Was there any form of contact during these 5 weeks?

(11:49) - What was the number one thing that needed to be in place for this to happen?

(14:41) - How do you think about putting processes in place that require your judgment?

(19:00) - Do you think it’s relevant for someone other than the owner to take a break like this?

(21:13) - Second Nature Ad

(22:52) - What would you change the next time you take a break like this?

(25:49) - Do you feel like your business was able to thrive while you were gone, or just survive?

(28:03) - How did your employees react when you told them you were taking this break?

(29:51) - Accepting that there would be problems going in & having trust in your team

(33:03) - Andy’s experience with 14 mandatory days off

(34:46) - What was the high level itinerary for the 5 weeks off and what did you hope to achieve?

(40:18) - Did your relationship change with your family during that month?

(40:53) - How would you balance solo time vs. family time if you were to bucket out your time off going forward?

(41:56) - Did you come back to work with a new vision for your relationship with your business?

(48:16) - Thoughts on email and slack batch working

(50:41) - How are you thinking about bucketing out your next time off?

(51:43) - What did your OOO say and did you get any funny responses?

(54:22) - Wrap up & final thoughts

Learn more about Andy VandenBerg & how to connect with him here:

Season 2, Episode 6 of the Owner Occupied podcast with Peter Lohmann & special guest Lisa Wise. In this episode we discuss:

(0:00) - Intro

(01:52) - Lisa’s background & career

(03:34) - Launching Birdwatch as property management for homeowners

(08:44) - What’s your pricing model for a homeowner?

(11:47) - Why did you move into a new market with a new product before your traditional management services?

(15:47) - What’s working for you in marketing?

(20:42) - Second Nature Ad

(22:36) - Lisa’s approach to branding

(28:45) - How would you advise smaller-budget PM companies to brand the way you have?

(32:38) - Do you feel out of place in the industry due to your unique approach?

(39:25) - Lisa’s employee-owned management company

Season 2, Episode 5 of the Owner Occupied podcast with Peter Lohmann & special guest Brandon Laughridge. In this episode we discuss:

(00:00) - Intro

(02:15) - Brandon’s background & Career in Property Management

(08:36) - Setting the stage for the non-traditional turn in Brandon’s career

(17:22) - How does your business look today and how involved are you in the day-to-day?

(19:55) - Brandon’s famous Tweet: Purchasing a business with an SBA loan

(24:53) - Ad: Second Nature 

(26:47) - Tuck-in acquisitions

(28:54) - “What you pay for Property Management doesn’t matter, it’s what you get that matters.”

(36:54) - How do you think about operating your PM businesses at a loss to serve your own investments?

(40:31) - What are your plans for the 3rd party side of the business?

(42:52) - How do you view your involvement in the day-to-day operations?

(52:49) - Ad: Appfolio 

(54:17) - What advice would you give to Property Managers on Syndication?

(01:02:34) - Brandon’s involvement with SMBash

(01:10:37) - What marketing advice would you give to a smaller Property Management owner?

(01:14:150 - How can people keep in touch with you online?

Learn more about Brandon Laughridge & how to connect with him here:

Season 2, Episode 4 of the Owner Occupied podcast with Peter Lohmann & special guest Jeremy Pound. In this episode we discuss:

(00:00) Intro

(01:20) Jeremy’s background and career

(05:26) The importance of narrowing your focus and the Market-Focus Paradox

(10:39) The Woodchip analogy for sales

(18:49) Immersing yourself in the industry and community of your customer

(27:00) How do you view sales in property management relative to other industries?

(31:09) How do you educate customers about the product during the sales process?

(38:35) The Homeless Guy analogy

(44:38) What’s your advice to folks considering hiring salespeople?

(58:44) How can outbound sales be done effectively in Property Management?

(01:14:49) What’s next for Rent Scale and where can people learn more?

Learn more about Jeremy Pound & how to connect with him here:

Season 2, Episode 3 of the Owner Occupied podcast with Peter Lohmann & special guest Matthew Whitaker. In this episode we discuss:

(00:00) Intro

(01:35) Matthew’s background and career

(03:53) Taking a Property Management company to multiple locations

(09:26) How important are your systems and processes in enabling management across multiple markets?

(13:49) How would you approach process issues coming from one of your offices?

(16:53) Matthew’s journey of becoming an effective manager of managers

(24:27) How do you keep churn to a minimum?

(33:50) How do you balance making property owners of new acquisitions feel comfortable when you first bring them in and sticking to Evernest Processes?

(39:37) Thoughts on Resident Benefit Packages

(46:40) What would be your suggestions for an owner of a Property Management company to maximize their exit price?

(52:20) Why did your org decide that a podcast was a beneficial course of action?

(01:00:24) Evernest’s new North Star

(01:02:43) What marketing advice would you give to a small business looking to grow?

(01:06:48) How can people get in touch with you?

Learn more about Matthew Whitaker & how to connect with him here:

Season 2, Episode 2 of the Owner Occupied podcast with Peter Lohmann & special guest Jordan Muela. In this episode we discuss:

(00:00) Intro

(01:24) Jordan’s background & career

(03:15) What is it about Property Management that drew you into the industry?

(06:49) How does one coming from VC get so passionate about SMB?

(10:23) Is there a place for VC in Property Management?

(15:36) Moving closer to the customer and owning outcomes

(24:33) Thoughts on Fees & Customer Surplus

(33:46) Jordan’s Benchmarking Study

(37:43) LeadSimple

(47:10) Being able to adjust your level of involvement in your Property Management business

(52:56) What is the level of centralization in your business due to your own involvement? How do you set salaries with owners who have varying levels of involvement?

(58:55) When you’re evaluating opportunities, what are you looking for to determine the best use

(01:06:03) What’s the best way for a Small Business Owner to grow and market their business?

(01:18:03) Final Thought

Learn more about Jordan Muela & how to connect with him here:

Season 2, Episode 1 of the Owner Occupied podcast with Peter Lohmann & special guest Moses Kagan. In this episode we discuss:

(00:00) Intro

(01:02) - Moses’ background in RE

(02:21) - The value of working with large 3rd party clients for property management & how Moses built his portfolio

(09:07) - The 3rd party management tax

(14:58) - Moses’ unique investing value-add approach

(22:04) - Compensating Leasing Agents

(32:58) - What would be your advice be to small property managers who want to take more ownership over the buildings they manage?

(37:09) - Moses’ sense of duty to family legacy

(46:20) - “Wealth is downstream of values”

(53:58) - The differences between a 3rd party property management & a Real Estate Private Equity company & Moses’ involvement in each aspect within Adaptive

(1:03:36) - How does someone market a smaller Real Estate business in 2022?

Learn more about Moses Kagan & how to connect with here:

Episode 20 of the Owner Occupied podcast with Peter Lohmann. In this episode we discuss:

(00:00) Intro

(01:09) How long did it take you to set up your processes & what was the worst thing that happened when you did not already have a process in place when trying to deal with an issue?  Who is tougher the landlord or the tenants?

(07:25) How has the idea of adding value to every interaction changed your business?

(11:39) Where if at all do you see tech improving the status quo? 

(15:30) Are any of the VC-Backed competitors getting any traction in Columbus and bonus question; What's your favorite Jeni's Ice Cream flavor?

Episode 19 of the Owner Occupied podcast with Peter Lohmann. In this episode we discuss:

(00:00) Intro

(02:38) What processes agreements client betting etc. have allowed him to increase the stickiness of revenue per door of his customer base.

(06:47) How does a property management business increase the multiples on its earnings? 

(12:12) Can you describe your greatest challenges facing on working with tenants and what you have done to mitigate the likelihood of frequency of these occurrences.

(16:25) How do you think about tenant services & how do you prioritize tenant requests?

(19:59) Do you ever feel that your incentives are misaligned with clients?

(25:42) Conclusion

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Episode 18 of the Owner Occupied podcast with Peter Lohmann.  In this episode we discuss:

(00:00) Intro

(02:03) Kevin's Background 

(06:38) Zillow & Airbnb 

(12:02) Things Zillow & Airbnb Can Enforce 

(20:22) Referral Fees, Buyers Broker & Commission

(32:23) A Well Functioning Market Place

(41:00) Real Estate Not Being a Inflation Hedge

(50:33) What is Inflation?

(56:35) Twitter Question for Kevin 

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Episode 17 of the Owner Occupied podcast with Peter Lohmann and Russell Lowery.  In this episode we discuss:

(00:00) Intro

(02:30) Digital Overview

(05:30) Mike's Background

(09:19) Size of 30 Lines

(13:30) How do you approach Marketing a Property? 

(16:34) Painting a Picture 

(18:51) Power of Branding 

(27:40) How do you put together a tactical puzzle for your Clients?

(34:05) Do I need to aggressive market if Zillow is working?

(40:49) Quality of Tenant 

(47:47) What would Mike have done different looking back?

(55:43) Mike's book recommendations 

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Episode 16 of the Owner Occupied podcast with Peter Lohmann and Russell Lowery.  In this episode we discuss:

(00:00) Intro

(03:55) Communication Issues 

(11:54) Fees

(18:39) Vacancies 

(36:58) Large Expensive Repairs

(43:50) Accounting Clarity 

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Episode 15 of the Owner Occupied podcast with Peter Lohmann and Russell Lowery.  In this episode we discuss:

(00:00) Intro

(02:13) Residential Property Management - Third Party 

(09:14) Why is VC Money Interested in Residential Property Management?

(16:41) What the Pain Point for the Owner is 

(20:20) How much Venture Capital Activity is there in my Industry?

(25:17) What is a Master Lease Arrangement?

(30:22) What Buckets are they Fitting in?

(36:32) How do you assess the rent for Property in a Particular Neighborhood?

(43:00) If a tenant calls you at 2am and says "the heater just turned off" and it's 10 degrees, There is no app that will get someone out there with in the hour.

(48:00) Breaking down what Paying Rent Digitally Actually means

(51:50) What it means when you accept a Rent Payment 

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Episode 14 of the Owner Occupied podcast with Peter Lohmann and Russell Lowery.  In this episode we discuss:

(00:00) Intro

(03:28) Developing & Growing Leaders 

(03:58) Scaling & Growing your Company 

(07:04) Adding Value & Reaching Goals

(11:20) Breaking Down adding Value in Relationships

(17:30) How do you sync up Someone's Ambition?

(19:30) Where Individual Approach is Required 

(24:01) Accountability and Performance Issues

(39:34) Bad Employees always find New Ways to be Bad

(44:35) You Can't Fire People

(45:01) How do you Drive Culture?

(52:02) Their are no easy answers

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Episode 13 of the Owner Occupied podcast with Peter Lohmann and Russell Lowery.  In this episode we discuss:

(00:00) Intro

(02:30) When should you hire someone vs using software & automation?

(08:41) Onboarding new clients can be very disruptive

(09:47) Project-based businesses vs ongoing/reactive businesses

(11:20) RL Property Management is hiring for director of maintenance

(15:30) What am I looking for in candidates for this position?

(23:07) Putting myself in the mindset of an employee

(26:39) Russell's preferred interview style

(31:57) How do you set pay range for a position

(36:17) You can always find someone cheaper, but...

(39:56) How to determine employee loading

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Episode 12 of the Owner Occupied podcast with Peter Lohmann and Russell Lowery.  In this episode we discuss:

(00:00) Intro

(01:54) Peter bought a flex office/warehouse for his company

(06:57) Uses for & desirability of warehouse space

(12:54) Revenue opportunities for property management companies

(16:10) When is the right time to explore new business opportunities?

(18:40) Domain-specific knowledge vs generalized business knowledge

(21:39) Owned and Operated podcast - hiring & training operators

(23:00) Russell's experience bringing on a high performer

(25:18) Peter is hiring for a high-level position

Episode 11 of the Owner Occupied podcast with Peter Lohmann and Russell Lowery.  In this episode we discuss: 

(00:00) Intro

(02:46) Twitter, how we started with it & how we use it today

(09:55) Setting notifications as a way to learn about a subject

(13:43) Adding value to other people's tweets

(15:28) Lead gen using twitter - finding prospects

(19:37) Solving problems for Amazon millionaires

(21:49) How to find a platform to go all-in on

(25:22) How Peter uses Facebook & Facebook groups

(31:01) How to be successful with LinkedIn

(32:57) Overview of the platforms & using them together

(35:01) How to tune Twitter & LinkedIn algorithms to your advantage

(38:44) The value of commenting on other people's posts

(39:37) The world wants more of you - feel the "pull"

Episode 10 of the Owner Occupied podcast with Peter Lohmann and Russell Lowery.  In this episode we discuss:

(00:00) Intro

(01:26) The importance of hiring

(06:26) Two book recommendations

(08:04) Finding a business framework that works for you

(11:49) Russell's strategy at his new printing company

(12:36) The Ivy Lee method for selecting todo items

(15:45) Selecting operational todo items vs sales todos

(19:36) Gaining leverage to work on your business

(27:04) Procrastination is a signal you shouldn't do it

(29:25) Russell disagrees with Peter (maybe)

(31:18) How to do transformative work by not working

(36:35) Guilt is the mind-killer

(41:05) Powerful weekly planning for business owners

(45:47) How does the environment affect your mindset?

(50:30) How Peter approaches email & communication overload

Book Recommendations: