Latest / The Academy Presents podcast / How to Run Multifamily Properties from Anywhere with Jason Martins

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How to Run Multifamily Properties from Anywhere with Jason Martins · 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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  place for you. The Academy Presents Real Estate
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  industry experts so that you can save time, avoid
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  costly mistakes, and begin living the life you've
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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. Yeah, so again, I mean,
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  you're talking about efficiency, right? When
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  it comes to work orders and stuff. So our online,
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  remember, I'm doing this from 1500 miles away.
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  So anyone who wants to be an owner operator or
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  bring management in -house into your multifamily
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  company, whatever it is, you can do this too.
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  So, you know, the work orders are all processed
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  and they're all laid out right on the software.
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  So on a day -to -day basis, we just manage those
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  work orders. Go through them, click on them,
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  schedule them, put in the necessary data, the
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  necessary notes, we attach receipts, pictures,
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  everything, and then mark them done and build
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  a client. And that's it. It's all done. That's
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  what the job is. There's no more papers getting
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  lost in the shuffle or, oh, I didn't get that
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  one, or, you know, or where's this, oh, I put
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  it in the wrong, nope. It's all listed right
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  online, right on the software we use. We use
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  a company called Atfolio. I don't know if I mentioned
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  that, but I like Atfolio. So that's the company
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  we use. But everything is listed right down there.
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  And our job is to manage those work orders. And
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  it's so efficient. And when we schedule them,
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  the tenants get notified, right? Also, the owners
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  get notified when we're doing work. So everyone
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  is kept in the loop of what's going on. They
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  can go in there, and they can see what's being
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  done. They can see the notes, what the charge
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  is. when it's scheduled for and there's no more
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  and the maintenance sees all this everybody sees
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  it so it's super efficient it's just really awesome
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  it's just like the technology nowadays is amazing
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  but again i just want to reiterate that with
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  the with the software that we have i mean it
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  makes it so easy to run your properties you just
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  have to have good teams and good people in place
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  but if you have that if you've built that up
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  you can run your business from anywhere. It's
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  amazing on your phone and everything. I mean,
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  the app is right on my phone. So if I'm out of
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  the office, I can I can do the same thing right
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  on my phone. It's really amazing. It's tremendous
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  nowadays. OK, so now I'm backing up again. So
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  at folio, you don't have to spend like tens of
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  thousands of dollars to have that folio. No,
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  no, it's about 250 bucks a month with a minimum
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  number of units. I think it's like 100 units
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  minimum. But it's about 250 bucks a month. And
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  then as you add on more units, it creeps up incrementally.
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  And then AppFolio has add -ons that they can
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  do, different products that they offer to enhance
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  your business. They have a 24 -hour call service
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  for maintenance, so you don't have to take the
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  calls anymore. And you know how much that costs?
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  How much would you think that costs per month
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  for them to do that? $75 a month. Oh, that would
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  be cheap. It's 300 bucks a month. And to me,
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  that's cheap. I'm paying someone to monitor all
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  of my work orders and make phone calls after
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  hours for 300 bucks a month. To me, that's super
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  cheap. I mean, I wish I could get it for $75.
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  Wait, so this person answers the phone? Yeah,
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  they answer the phone. So if a tenant calls in
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  with a work order, or if they make one online,
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  someone at Atfolio will respond to that work
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  order in the middle of the night, or whatever
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  time you want, and schedule your maintenance
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  people, or your vendors, or whatever it is, all
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  for you. And then you wake up in the morning
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  and go, look, oh, yeah, OK, I see a work order
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  came in, and they scheduled this vendor to go
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  take care of it. Oh, that's terrific. And you're
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  done. Oh, wow. OK, no, that's definitely what
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  I was thinking. Yeah, it's amazing. And so, you
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  know, they offer those kinds of products as well.
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  And there's some other things too, like they
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  can build websites for you and things like that,
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  which I've had them do for me. But it's amazing.
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  It's all one stop shop and they're constantly
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  improving their offerings. So if there's other
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  things, you know, the nice thing too is they'll
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  take suggestions. So if you have a suggestion
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  on how you can improve the service, you tell
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  them, then they work on it trying to improve
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  the service for you. It's really terrific. So
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  I love it. When I'm sitting here thinking, I'm
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  like, so $300 for a minimum of a hundred units.
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  Yeah. That's not much of anything at all. Yeah.
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  It's terrific. Is that like $3 a unit? Is my
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  math off? No, it's like $3 a unit. Yeah, it was
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  like, yeah, but, but that's, that's, that's a
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  separate program. Right. So it's about $3 a unit.
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  Right. Yeah. They also have like, It's an add
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  -on. That's an add -on, yeah. But $3 to not have
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  to take that phone call of, I stopped at my toilet.
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  Yeah. All day, every day. Yeah, it's pretty amazing.
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  I will do that all day, every day. Yeah. It's
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  pretty amazing. And that's what I'm saying is
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  the technology is there. So like we said right
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  at the beginning of the conversation is if someone
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  is thinking about bringing management in -house,
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  I totally recommend it. It's so easy nowadays.
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  I would totally recommend it. No, you've definitely
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  changed some of my thoughts about it. Cause like
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  all I could think about was number one, the burning.
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  Those two weeks were horrendous, but then I just
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  think of my grandparents. And it just, it wasn't
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  that long ago that my grandpa was still shuffling
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  door to door. I mean, he was in his seventies
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  and still going door to door. And I was like,
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  never, I'm never going to do that ever. Um, partially
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  because I didn't want my kids to think that that
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  was how real estate worked. Cause it's not, it
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  doesn't have to be that way. and we want to make
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  sure our kids understand that they have flexibility
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  and they have options and you don't have to be
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  painting units or doing drywall or I mean we
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  would go to different appliance repair places
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  and grandma grandpa would buy used appliances
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  and we would buy fridges and then they would
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  have to store them so they had a storage room
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  with all of these appliances in it and it was
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  insane some of them worked some of them didn't
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  But they would take him to this little guy that
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  did small appliance repair or did appliance repair
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  and go and get them fixed. And then they go back
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  into the store room in case someone needed them.
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  And it was insane. Yeah, you know what? How I
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  look at that now is I used to do things like
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  that, too. I would save every little everything
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  I could, every little piece of wood or appliance.
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  Oh, I can use another time. And next thing you
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  know, I was loaded in my garage with junk and
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  things I never use. I forgot where they are.
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  Oh, geez. So now what I tell the team is our
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  warehouse has a name. It's called home Depot.
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  Anytime you want something. Oh, we need, yep.
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  Home Depot. That's our warehouse. That's it.
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  They store everything for us and I don't have
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  to pay, uh, taxes on inventory or anything. So
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  it's terrific. And you know, so, uh, that, that's
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  how we do that stuff. Now, uh, I think. You know,
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  we actually had this conversation just recently
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  about. similar things like, hey, why don't we
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  keep like some little parts in the truck whenever
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  I said, because we're paying for that upfront.
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  We're not charging anyone for those materials.
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  Then we forget how much it costs. And then we
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  forget that we have it or we lost it. Oh, I thought
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  we had nine. No, I guess we only have six. Well,
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  we're the three. I don't know. No, not playing
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  the game. We need something like I even place
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  the order at Home Depot for them online. And
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  when it's ready, they go pick it up. So they
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  don't have to. Our maintenance people don't have
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  to walk around the store looking for the items.
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  I place the order for them. They just go pick
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  it up. That's my warehouse now. That's another
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  little tip. No, that's awesome. Use your local
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  hardware store. Like I said, I mentioned Home
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  Depot. But whatever hardware store, use that
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  as your warehouse. Don't think you're going to
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  outsmart everybody. And I'm going to save this
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  stuff. No, you're never going to use it. And
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  it's going to go to waste. that's my that's a
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  little tip for you. I think back to like my grandparents
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  and I think about when my grandfather passed
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  away and I went through all the properties and
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  I was like getting stuff sold and getting stuff
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  taken care of and I remember finding little things
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  everywhere like there'd be a window unit over
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  here oh here's a here's a fridge but it's only
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  working half of it um like only it only works
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  part of the time or which is weird because if
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  the freezer's not working the whole fridge doesn't
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  work because the fridge works because of the
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  freezer and just all of these things stoves I
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  just found all of these things and I wonder if
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  there's if there's a point where it becomes smarter
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  to use Home Depot and if when you're when you're
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  very small you really don't have a choice because
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  I think my grandma grandpa and they were I mean
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  they were working class also Grandpa was a fireman.
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  Grandma was a librarian. And did they feel like
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  they had to try and find those shortcuts? I don't
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  know. I don't know that they ever tried any other
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  way. Yeah. I mean, it's a bigger conversation,
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  right? So, you know, what, what, what do you,
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  what kind of property are you running? So are
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  you trying to provide an affordable place for
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  working class people to live? then right, then
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  you're probably gonna do some of those things.
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  You're probably gonna save the refrigerator or
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  make the repair or keep your little things, because
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  it serves your goal of trying to provide an affordable
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  place for working class people to live. If you're
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  trying to take a Class C asset to a B minus asset
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  or something like that, you're working with these
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  larger properties, you're trying to get market
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  rents, you're probably not gonna operate that
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  way. you're probably going to put in quality
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  materials. You're going to use them deep as your
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  warehouse. You're having to worry a lot more
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  about efficiency over money savings. You need
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  time savings because you like I think about like
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  with our residential stuff, a grandpa, grandma,
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  grandma, like when someone would move out, it
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  was a huge pain. Because then you have to go
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  in, you have to do the make ready, you have to
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  market it, you have to get somebody new. And
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  even though grandma and grandpa were putting
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  a little sign up in the front that had their
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  number that said call us, we have an apartment
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  for it. It's not really that much different.
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  Because whether you're putting it on Facebook
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  or Craigslist or wherever you're putting it,
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  you still have to take the time to do that. You
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  still have to do the make ready, you still have
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  to do the clean out. There's a lot of costs associated
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  with turnover. And unless you're trying to actively
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  retain a property, we won't want people moving
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  out all the time. Right, right. So if you have
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  quality equipment, quality appliances, you've
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  done a nice job of maintaining the unit, it's
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  comparable to other market units that are getting
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  top dollar. And if that's what you want, if that's
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  what you're looking for, that's your goal, then
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  you're probably going to want to put new appliances
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  and make sure you have good quality flooring
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  that lasts you a long time. Because you're right,
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  you don't want to get beat up on these turnovers.
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  You can't afford to. you're in business, right?
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  It's a totally different animal than dealing
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  with this, like you mentioned, like your grandpa
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  who was trying to give a good, affordable home
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  to people and things like that. It's a totally
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  different business. It's a business is what it
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  is. So it's a totally different animal. Wow.
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  Thank you for being here. And guys, I hope you
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  picked up a lot of great tips because I've never
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  gotten to talk to... to someone that would break
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  all this down for me and I have questions and
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  I mean I have way more questions um because I
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  just all I had in my two weeks of the burning
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  was I can't do this because it's I don't want
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  to call it drama but it's a whole different level
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  of interaction and your heart is going to get
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  involved if you're one of those people that you
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  are empathetic and you wear your heart on your
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  sleeve I would say that onsite may not be for
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  you I'm not saying probably couldn't be for you,
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  but it your heart's going to take a beating if
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  you're the kind of person that gets involved
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  on that level. So, yeah, yeah, I call it an arm's
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  length business, right? Like you need to keep
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  an arm's length distance from your tenants. That's
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  what I call it. You know, certainly. there is
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  a level of empathy when it comes to dealing with
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  tenants, because someone may just have had something
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  happen, but they have the job and they have a
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  plan to get back. So you work with those people,
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  right? So there is a level of empathy, but at
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  the same time, it is a business and you kind
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  of have to follow things by the book a little
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  bit. And you have, like I said earlier, you have
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  to play a little bit of psychologist to be a
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  property manager. So it is not for everybody.
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  So if anybody is thinking about, um, you know,
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  bringing property management, uh, in house, like
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  on your team, make sure you have someone who
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  has a history in it and, um, and it has a, who,
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  I don't want to say your heart, I guess it is
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  a heart, right? Have your, have their heart in
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  their mind into it. And it's something that they
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  enjoy. It has to, it's cause it's not for everybody.
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  So, but if you can do it, if you can pull it
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  off to bring it in house, absolutely. I would,
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  I would a hundred percent recommend it. Awesome.
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  Well, again, just thank you for being here. And
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  guys, again, there's a ton of information on
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  the side if you want to stay over here or there's
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  that stealthy way to get that subscription and
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  get your free VIP upgrade. We would love to have
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  you on the live side. We're having a lot of fun
• 14:43
  there. And Jason, again, thank you. And guys,
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  until next time.