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Scaling Smarter, Not Harder with Janet Fields · The Academy Presents podcast

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Did you know that 90 % of the world's millionaires
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invest in real estate? Well, I'm Angel with the
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Academy Presents Real Estate Investing Rocks,
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and I'm here to help you if you want to go for
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your piece of that pie. Are you new? Are you
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new to this and you just don't know where to
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start? It's okay. Are you someone that has invested
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but you feel stuck, you feel like you've lost
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momentum, you don't know where to really head
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from here? Are you a seasoned real estate investor
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who is doing great, but maybe you just want to
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hone a few skills here and there? This is the
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Investing Rocks podcast will connect you with
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dreamed of all through real estate investing.
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You're already taking the first step. just by
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joining us here today. Hey guys, thank you so
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much for being here and for being a part of this
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summit. It's just awesome. I said it like every
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single time I think I get on here that these
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are my six favorite days of the year and I'm
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super glad that you're a part of it and I am
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super glad that we get to hear from Janet Fields
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because she and I have been chatting a little
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bit here before we started recording and I think
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this is going to be truly amazing because I already
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heard stuff that I'm like That would be really
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awesome. So I'm super excited to hear what she
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has to share with us. And Janet, I'm going to
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kind of toss it over to you and let you tell
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us a little bit about your background and what
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you can bring to us today. Yes. Well, I'm Janet
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Field, CEO of Oak Trust Properties down in Charleston,
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South Carolina. I pretty much was born into the
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business, grew up around real estate, just through
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osmosis. I learned a lot about business when
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I didn't even know I was learning about it. I
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bought my first book of business in 2014, worked
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alongside my father doing a DBA. As his company,
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eventually we did another acquisition and then
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we joined forces, brought all the businesses
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together and recently I actually just bought
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him out. So now I'm just one big sole company
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owner. I have about a dozen people who work for
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me and we manage about 600 properties. I have
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many other businesses I'd like to get started
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in the next three to five years and they're all
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feed off of real estate. And I'm super pumped
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about that. Yeah, no. And when I think about
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other things that we've done, like when we decided
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we were going to start doing summits, I called
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a friend of mine and he was like, oh yeah, it's
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just coordinating people. And thank God I was
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dumb enough to believe him. It was not just coordinating
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people. But if he hadn't made me think it was
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easier than it is, we wouldn't be on number six.
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Yeah. So I've been having this conversation with
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several people here lately and it's like, what's
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the actual success rate in some of these educational
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programs? What is the actual success rate in
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people's ability to scale? What's the actual
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success rate in people being able to take down
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their first deal? And you start looking at those
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things. And if you actually shared with people
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what the true success rates were, people probably
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would never get into those programs because they're
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not, it's not super high. And so like there's
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a group of us that are like, why not be for real
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about it? Why not say not everybody can do this?
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Why not be upfront and honest about those things
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instead of saying, Oh yeah, anybody can do this.
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I mean, I guess anybody can do this, but not
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everybody can do this. I think it's, um, how
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many kicks in the teeth can you take? Um, I really
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feel like that has to do with it. What is it?
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Rich dad, poor dad, somebody else says, um, you
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know, hurry up and fail fast, fail 10 times,
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so you'll on the 11th, you'll be successful.
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Like, that's what it is, is it's the trial and
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error and how much shit can you take before you
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give up? A lot of people are afraid to try the
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first time, but somebody who's like risk -averse
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or like totally okay with risk, they're like,
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yeah, I'm gonna do all this, it's no big deal,
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let's go. And everybody else is like, what? And
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you're like, well, I'm investing in it, I'm supporting,
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let's go. And they're like, okay, crazy, let's
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go. And then you just... You know, make your
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way. And that's pretty much how I've gone through
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the site so far. It's been a really fun ride.
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After the last three weeks, I would never, ever,
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ever want to do property management, ever. It
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was hard. It is. Doing it over time, I'm sure
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it gets easier. It's like anything else. But
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that experience I had with it... Not fun. The
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fires that come up are hard to deal with when
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they come up and they seem to come up in multiples.
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So all at the same time. And then when you get
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into really tricky conversations and all your
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like the back of your head is like litigation,
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litigation, litigation. And you're like, Oh God,
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do I need to get the lawyer in on this one? Or
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do I have it for like the first, you know, internet
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exchanges? Yeah, but every every one of those
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interactions you're like adding to your library
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of knowledge and it helps you get through the
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rest and you can share with your team it's I
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Learn a lot and with the mass amount of numbers
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we have we learned so quickly so Are you in one
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area of the US in one city of the US? Are you
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in multiple places? I am in Charleston, South
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Carolina, and a really small footprint. And before
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2020, I had decided that if a property was more
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than 20 minutes drive time per Google Maps, we're
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not going there. That's 20 minutes from our office.
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And I want to do that because logistically, it
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was expensive to have property managers who would
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pay at a certain rate to spend their time in
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the car. And if they had to drive to like four
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properties a day, single family homes, that could
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be four hours. So now we're looking at half their
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salary almost, you know. So logistically that
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didn't make sense. Enters virtual assistants
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and splitting to field workers and desk workers.
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We became a lot more efficient that way and looking
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at salaries was different, all that. But yeah,
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I was strategic about my footprint because of
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logistics, single -family homes. Now if I had
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all multifamily, I wouldn't probably consider
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that as much. because we'd probably have an on
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-site person but we don't even have but maybe
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two or three properties in one neighborhood sometimes
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so it's and then everything's on different schedules
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so location was important I do want to scale
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to other places but I have a family so I want
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to keep within two hour time zones from my home
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now I hear that like my father -in -law had 70
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units they still do he's not with us anymore
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but there's still 70 units residential multifamily
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and they're all within like three streets of
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one another and so he was able to work out a
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deal with a property management company where
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he was treated more like a multifamily whereas
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you know residential is usually well for us industry
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standards 10 well he was able to negotiate negotiate
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like three four or five percent which was more
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like a multifamily because everything was close
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together yeah And it saved everybody time and
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money. It was so efficient. And when you think
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about the footprint and logistics, I'm having
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to think about that now with hiring, with remote
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hires, when you're hiring in different countries.
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I've learned that when I hire in the Philippines
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and Mexico, not only am I working with different
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time zones, and they're all happy to work on
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our timetable. But when I want to have people
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Come together all as one big group and do an
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event or a photo shoot or whatever It gets more
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complicated. So if I could have a condensed population
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in one city and then you know cities I'm taking
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from it's harder to find the right person, but
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it does make it more cost -effective with taxes
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and easier to manage with Just everything so
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if you're strategic about those things and trying
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to like create constraints around everything
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in the beginning It makes scaling a lot easier
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Wow. Well, and I mean, what is it? Stephen Covey
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that says that, you know, start with the, with
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the end in mind. Yeah. And you've done that.
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I mean, you're thinking about where you want
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to end up at. You don't want to end up in a situation
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where you're driving all over the place and you
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don't get to spend time with your family. And
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so that's, that's super smart. Taking a long
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time. I hear you. No, and it's. I mean, it's
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just tough sometimes. And even though like you're
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in single family and people are like, well, why
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are we listening to this? It's the same thing.
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Because with you being so, with all your properties
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being so close together, that's like having 600
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doors in a whole family. And you're still having
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to manage all those pieces and you're still having
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to manage all the maintenance calls, all the
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HVAC stuff, all the plumbing stuff. I mean, you're
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managing everything just like it was one or two
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apartment complexes in the same proximity, like
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in close proximity to one another. Yes, yes.
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And we treat them all the same. And I think in
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some aspects, it's a little more tricky because
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we have the one -to -one ratio between client
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and resident. So there's a lot of mediation involved.
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Oh, wow. Yeah. I mean, we have six singles and
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we're hands off. Let's say we're hands off. We
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have property management teams and we still have
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to fill the phone calls of, Hey, the roof is
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leaking. How do you want us to handle it? Yeah.
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Um, so it's, it's a different kind of passive
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than multifamily. Passive is multifamily. Passive
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is straight up mailbox money. You just, Oh, I
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got a deposit today with single family and residential
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multi, you are more involved. Um, so that was
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when we kind of got into both of those, that's,
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that was where I realized that there is a, there's
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a whole array of what passive is. They're mailbox
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money, passive and passive, but you still got
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to feel anything over $300. Yeah. And I almost
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feel like, um, investors when they're starting
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off and they're starting to build a portfolio,
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they want to self manage because for one, they're
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curious. They want to know where their dollars
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are going and how it functions. And, um, because
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you bought your own property, you feel like you
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should manage it, right? but you don't have to
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i had no desire to do that oh my gosh that's
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so good but i but i grew up in my husband and
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i both grew up in families that invested in residential
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real estate so you already kind of you my grandparents
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self -managed and i was like i'm not gonna be
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i'm not gonna be 60 years old 65 years old shuffling
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from door to door to go collect rents yeah and
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being on call 24 7 that's the biggest thing is
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like your brain never gets a break um yeah it
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just it's tough It's tough being on call all
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the time. So people self -managing, I feel like
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they think that's naturally the next step, but
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it's really not because if you only have a small
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amount of properties and you're just doing it
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as a hobby on the side, it's distracting you
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from the other things. of where your power lies.
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Like, where's your highest contribution? I'm
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constantly asking myself that, and I'm constantly
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asking my team that. Like, should you be doing
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that? Isn't that your highest contribution? What
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could you be doing? Who does this better? Who
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can do this more efficiently? Like, it's always
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who can do it better, who can do it more efficiently?
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Is this right for you? And I think the question
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for us was, you know, we can own a house and
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we can rent it out to people, but are we gonna
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provide the best experience for them? Probably
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not. Because what do we know? We know one plumber,
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two plumbers. The property manager probably knows
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10. Yeah. If the first three guys don't answer
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the phone, they got seven more people to call.
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And you can say yes, I have 20 properties and
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I know a plumber. But if you only have 20 properties,
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how often are you using that plumber? And how
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quickly are they going to pick up the phone for
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you? We have a lot of small people handyman's
12:18
and vendors where we're 60 to 80 percent of their
12:21
income So they come and pick stuff for us and
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when it doesn't go right they pick up the phone
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and come back and correct it And we already know
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their pricing so we don't have to do the back
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and forth So it's beneficial to us and the client
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and the residents everybody gets served quicker
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I know it's one of the one of the things that's
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been kind of neat about being so close to our
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multifamily is we know a lot of people, but the
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people that we know and the people that, um,
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the plumbers, the electricians, all that, they're
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residential. And so like, I can give you names,
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but they're predominantly residential. And I
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don't know if the insurance works the same to
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go commercial. I don't know if they're comfortable
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with that, but it's still additional people that
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can be called in an emergency. Yeah. So it's
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been, it's been cool. And that was kind of one
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of the other things I learned as you know, my
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world was burning down around me was that I don't
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have to be at the property involved. I can share
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the people I know with our regional and between
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the two of us. Holy night. We can get some stuff
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done because we know tons of people that can
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get stuff done. Yes. And I would almost say you
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being on site is not your highest contribution.
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Like, what are you doing there? Are you being
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a babysitter? Are you just taking pictures? Are
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you just a hand with the camera? Like, is there
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a cheaper hand with a camera somewhere? Or worse
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than that, I might start talking to somebody
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and get them off the job. Because I like to talk.
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Same. And so, you know, is it detrimental? And
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it is sitting back and thinking, what are my
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skills? Yeah. What am I best suited for? what
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does somebody else need to be doing? Yeah defining
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that is key. Yeah so do you have any tricks for
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that one? Well so as we speak my assistant is
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going through all of our resumes and building
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out a basically an excel sheet of all of our
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people doing their personality index, doing their
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skills, doing their licensing, doing their their
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wants, what they enjoy and what they don't enjoy.
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per work. So we have that on hand whenever we
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have big changes. We have, okay, it's like we
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need to do some shifts of labor because somebody
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turned in their two weeks. Like how do we change
14:41
here? Are we going to ramp up a vendor who supports
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our work orders that come in or is this person
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in -house? Like how can we do this? We literally
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just had somebody turn in their two weeks for
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a different job opportunity and now we're having
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to shift. So what we're going to do is we have
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somebody handle our uh emergency lines afterwards
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and we can just ramp them up to 24 hour answer
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calls and that person can shift into supporting
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a property manager so knowing where everybody's
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strengths and weaknesses lie um helps you make
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better decisions yeah so as you're talking about
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that i'm like looking it up because i remember
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somebody else talking about this and there's
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this thing called the clifton strengths online
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talent assessment yeah i want to say that's the
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way it's got like 16 like 16 markers markers
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and yeah we use we use culture index Um, that
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one's been pretty interesting. I just bought
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into that one this year and before that I did
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predictive index, which was pretty cool. And,
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um, it's pretty creepy how accurate it is about
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how people act, how people react and how people,
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um, function on it. What was the culture one
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called? Culture index. It's an extremely popular
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one with business. It's one of the ones. I'm
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on my computer. That's cool. They say this one
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is more scientific than the other ones. Like
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disc and stuff, they say not as this, but who
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knows who they are. Well, but I mean, like with
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disc, I know I'm like high I, high D. And then
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this one is C. And it's, but I mean, like it's
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really, most people are a combination of I and
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D or a combination of S and C. You don't see
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a lot of cross. So there's really like, I guess
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for predominant personality types maybe six if
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you think about the mixtures maybe eight with
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the crisscross but there's more than eight main
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personality types out there. yeah this one has
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like 26 and it's like six lines sliding scale
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and each one makes like a four point eight. But
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it's pretty cool it's been an eye opener whenever.
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my team took it. And then I sat back in the office
16:45
and started kind of watching Kylie interact.
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And I was like, Oh my gosh, I understand this
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person now. Now they don't make you crazy. Now
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I can put them in a box and now I can move forward
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with them much better. Oh, wow. Yeah. No, I had
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somebody a few weeks ago said, Hey, do you know
17:00
this person? Like, Oh, they make me crazy. Um,
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but when I interact with that person one -on
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-one, it's like talking to somebody completely
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different. Yeah. if we're in groups with people
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that set this particular person off and put them
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on the defense or on a different kind of personality
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bend, I don't know. You just don't match. Um,
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we did, when we were doing the culture index,
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there was actually like cheat sheets. It says,
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okay, when you do this person, this person gets
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together. Um, this person should listen because
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this person likes to talk thing out things out
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and person who talks things out You need to make
17:34
sure to make a freaking appointment before you
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drop by don't just drop by because they don't
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like that And i was like, oh my gosh, how do
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they know what I do? How do they know I just
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go park myself in their office and have an impromptu
17:44
meeting? Before last I no lie sat in the brain
17:50
the branch manager of the bank that we used for
17:52
two hours Because I needed it fixed. There was
17:57
nothing he could do But I needed it fixed. And
18:00
that's just funny because it's like, Oh, and
18:04
expect something to happen. It's like, this person
18:06
was not prepared for you. Like they have no idea
18:09
where you're coming from. They had other plans
18:10
and they're, you're like, and then all of a sudden
18:13
I'm like, that's a really unique last name why
18:16
do I know that last name he's like well my mom
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was the attendance clerk at xyz elementary school
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i'm like that's it because that's where my son
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went for his special education program and so
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then i'm relating to the guy now the guy realizes
18:28
i'm i know his mom like very well for five years
18:30
and he's like well crap now i gotta help this
18:32
lady out and you're like yeah nothing he could
18:36
do so i just wound up stressing him out i was
18:38
stressed out and it could have turned out much
18:41
differently if Yeah, you guys had each other's
18:45
personality assessment. Or not so much that,
18:48
but if you understand yourself better. Yes. And
18:52
you understand that not everybody works the same
18:54
way you do, but in the heat of the moment, you're
18:56
not always going to think that clearly. Yeah.
19:01
And all these actions that I think are great
19:04
and needed, these check -ins that are non -productive,
19:08
after I saw that, I was like, oh my gosh, why
19:11
am I wasting everybody's time? and I just completely
19:13
stopped and now we have productive meetings with
19:16
notes in a level 10.