DGS 294: From “Rent Collector” to “Asset Manager”

What if you could retain the doors you manage even when your owners decide to sell? What would that mean for you and your property management business?

In this episode of the #DoorGrowShow, property management growth expert Jason Hull sits down with Lior from Blanket to talk about how property managers can retain doors while also helping investors grow and add more to their portfolios.

You’ll Learn

[02:59] Property Managers Can Become Asset Managers

[11:13] Valuable Lessons Learned from Tough Situations

[25:40] How to Move into More of an Asset Manager Role

[37:25] Reducing Client and Retaining Clients

[47:51] Helping Your Investors Grow Their Portfolios

Quotables

“You have to be very robotic, very technical, and that is one of the most important skills that really allows me to face difficult, you know, decisions in life, especially in business, without taking them personally.”

“When you are rational and you’re not driven by emotions, that actually allows you to be a lot more, you know, empathetic and kind and caring.”

“There are no failures in life. There are only challenges, and every challenge is an opportunity for success.”

”Why be so focused on the failure if you can be focused on the lesson that you’re going to learn, even before you even know it?”

Resources

DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind

DoorGrow Academy

DoorGrow on YouTube

DoorGrowClub

DoorGrowLive

Transcript

[00:00:00] Lior: The combination of these two, this is what allows you to be that ultimate asset manager to your clients. That can help your clients, optimize their portfolio and generate more cash flow, but on the other hand, help them make more money by expanding their portfolio, buying more properties, and growing it.

[00:00:18] Jason: Welcome everybody to the DoorGrow Show. I’m Jason Hull, the founder and CEO of DoorGrow. We are the world’s leading and most comprehensive coaching and consulting firm for long-term residential property management entrepreneurs.

[00:00:31] Jason: For over a decade and a half, we have brought innovative strategies and optimization to the property management industry. At DoorGrow, we have spoken to thousands of property management business owners, coached, consulted, and cleaned up hundreds of businesses, helping them add doors, improve pricing, increase profit, simplify operations, and build and replace teams.

[00:00:52] Jason: We are like Bar Rescue for property managers. In fact, we have cleaned up and rebranded over 300 businesses and we run the leading property management mastermind with more video testimonials and reviews than any other coach or consultant in the industry. At DoorGrow, we believe that good property managers can change the world, and that property management is the ultimate high-trust gateway to real estate deals, relationships, and residual income.

[00:01:17] Jason: At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management business owners and their businesses. We want to transform the industry, eliminate the bs, build awareness, change perception, expand the market, and help the best property management entrepreneurs win. Now let’s get into the show. All right, so today I’m hanging out with Lior.

[00:01:37] Jason: How do you say your last name? Abramovich? 

[00:01:42] Jason: Abramovich. 

[00:01:43] Jason: Abramovich. Man. I butchered that one. All right. So with Blanket, he’s repping it on a t-shirt, if you’re seeing the video version of this. And so, Lior, we’ve had several calls, hanging out and you’re just a really cool guy and we’ve really enjoyed hanging out.

[00:02:01] Jason: Yeah. We’ve really enjoyed hanging out. He’s given me a heart shape with his hand for those listening. But I haven’t had you on the podcast yet, have I? 

[00:02:09] Lior: True. This is the first time. 

[00:02:11] Jason: Yeah. That’s so odd to me. Usually people start by doing the podcast with me and so we’re doing the reverse.

[00:02:17] Jason: And you’re a sponsor at DoorGrow Live, our conference coming up. Thank you. And we’re really excited to have you there. One of our vendors said it’s the only conference he still attends now. That’s it. He’s like, “it’s the one I get the most value from learning, and the other ones just aren’t worth the, you know, paying to go be a vendor there.”

[00:02:36] Jason: And I’m like, okay, cool. So hopefully you get some benefit from doing that as well. So I’m excited Lior to expose people to Blanket because I think it’s very complimentary to our vision and what we do at DoorGrow in helping grow property managers. And I would call it like a client retention platform, but maybe you describe it differently.

[00:02:57] Jason: But before we get into that, why don’t we give some background on you and why don’t you tell everybody how you kind of got into entrepreneurism, then got into property management and give us some backstory. We need the origin story of Lior. 

[00:03:11] Lior: Will do. I’ll try to make it exciting and interesting.

[00:03:13] Jason: Okay. 

[00:03:14] Lior: I started from real estate. I didn’t start from the tech side or from, you know, the startup world. I started as an investor. I bought my first rental property in Atlanta, Georgia when I was about 18 years old. So started quite early with a lot of inspiration from my mom, which is my role model in life for pretty much everything.

[00:03:33] Lior: And at that point in time, I actually was doing that investment from Israel, thousands of miles away. This is where I was born and raised. I actually moved here to the States just about a year, yeah, exactly a year ago. Moved to Miami, Florida. After just, you know, living on the line, flying back and forth almost every month for multiple years, but in that first stage of like my, you know, real estate, I would say career, at that point I also started my active duty service in the Israeli Navy.

[00:04:05] Lior: So I’m a graduate of the Israeli Naval Academy, then served for almost nine years as a naval commander commanding hundreds of soldiers, officers, and combat soldiers in quite intense and interesting situations I would say. That’s a whole topic that we can talk about for hours in another podcast.

[00:04:25] Lior: Yeah. Episode. 

[00:04:26] Jason: Interesting. I didn’t know that about you. 

[00:04:28] Lior: Yeah. That was quite an intense nine years and definitely shaped me as a person and as an entrepreneur as well. Most of what I know, most of what I do, most of what I act upon is pretty much majority, you know, of what I learned and implemented in myself as a person in my qualities, in my values, in my worldviews through that time in the Navy.

[00:04:52] Lior: And, you know, before that, before like that step of buying that first rental property, it’s not like it came from out of nowhere. You know, probably I started as most of our listeners today by reading the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki when I was about 13 years old. Again, my mom gave me that as a birthday gift at 13 years old.

[00:05:14] Lior: And to me it was fascinating, this whole concept that you can, you know, like make money from like a property that you actually took money from the bank to pay for it, and it pays for itself and it makes some extra money. So this whole like very, you know, conceptualized plan was very interesting to me.

[00:05:35] Lior: And I said like, this is something I would like to do at some capacity in my life. Especially because the fact that I was born for a family of immigrants, my entire family came from Ukraine to Israel. So we didn’t have, you know, very good financial you know, let’s say position in life as most immigrants do.

[00:05:54] Lior: And my grandparents don’t have, you know, today also a pension plan that, or that’s how we call it in Israel. And here we call it 401k. So they don’t have that. And to me, real estate was always a way to take care of my loved ones, to take care of my grandparents, to be able to at least give them one rental property that can enable them stable, and I would say secure financial retirement, and just really retire with dignity, retire safely. And that was like the big why behind everything I’m doing. So. Quick, you know, fast forward nine years in the Navy, kept doing real estate throughout that time. Helped a lot of my fellow naval officers to buy properties in the United States.

[00:06:38] Lior: Okay. And then started working for a big investment firm in the United States that was doing build to rent before build to rent was a thing. You know, today, you know, people are talking about build to rent is with this cool name, but back then we just called it new construction you know, for investors.

[00:06:52] Lior: So we were one of the largest operators in the Southeast. We were one of the largest operators, specifically in Georgia and Alabama. And I started there as their head of acquisitions quickly promoted to vice president of business development, overseeing our entire operation from due diligence, meaning land acquisition development, and then, you know, disposition and sales and marketing.

[00:07:14] Lior: So, really had the opportunity to experience every part of the value chain of real estate investments from start to finish, seeing all the good, seeing all the bad, I had, you know, contractors that went bankrupt in the middle of a 300 property community. And I had very good stories as well. But that whole period of time of me working there for almost three years was the best school I ever got to really, you know, operate as an operator and manage an operation of hundreds of millions of dollars because in that time alone, I personally oversaw about $200 million worth of acquisitions and worked directly with over a thousand individual investors, mainly mom and pop investors, like most of you know, the clients of most of our listeners today. And the unique thing about it, and this is where Blanket sort of like starts to form up as an idea, the unique thing about my position in that company was that it had a very interesting model where.

[00:08:16] Lior: All the clients that we sold properties to, which were clients, by the way, all over the world. We worked with buyers from Israel, Canada, Russia, China, Australia, like everywhere. You know, that was one of our, you know, major, I would say efficiencies, which we were working with a lot of foreign investors and we are one of the biggest drivers of that.

[00:08:38] Lior: So we’ve seen pretty much everything in every one of those clients that we actually sell the property to we kept managing the relationship with them instead of the property manager. So think of that company as like an investor relations arm, right? Where you refer that client after we sell a property to a property manager partner that we worked with and we worked with a lot of folks and then that property manager is not talking with that owner.

[00:09:05] Lior: No headaches, no nothing. We are managing that owner. So every time the owner has a question, he sends that to us and if we need, we escalate that to the property manager. If the property manager wants to convey something, he escalates that. So like he gives it to us and we pass it on to the owner. But the whole notion was that we will be their asset manager and this whole thing enabled me to see all the things that work and all the things that don’t work when it comes to owner relationships and how property managers manage their owner relationships, especially with the things that are missing, which is what owners expect and what property managers don’t provide, which leads in many cases to churn.

[00:09:48] Lior: And that churn problem that today is pretty much the same as it has been 10 years ago, which is almost 25 to 30% annually. That’s the average in the industry today in terms of how many properties we’re losing today as property managers. So in that aspect, like you think to yourself, okay, what’s causing that?

[00:10:09] Lior: And that was the question that always led me to ask all my property management partners. Why are you losing so many clients? Like, we know we’re doing an awesome job as your asset manager and you know, but like why is this a big problem in your business today? Yeah, and a lot of it was always due to owner sales or to owner experience, which we were solving a lot for because we were taking care of those owners.

[00:10:33] Lior: So every time they wanted to sell a property, they told us and we were able to sell it inside the other, you know, the network of property owners and clients. And also when they…

[00:10:43] Jason: if somebody wanted to sell property that was a client, you would be able to turn around and sell to one of your other clients so that you continued to keep the property, which is exactly awesome, which is a no brainer.

[00:10:55] Jason: And I’m sure a lot of property managers like say that would be the ideal. That’d be great if I can do the sales, get those commissions, and still be able to keep the property in my portfolio. That would be really great. Exactly. Blanket helps do this, right? 

[00:11:11] Lior: Yeah. We’ll get to Blanket in a second. 

[00:11:13] Jason: I have a question before we continue. You mentioned being in the military and being in the Navy and being Navy commander. I didn’t know this about you. So what do you feel like that did to change you? How do you feel like you would be different if you hadn’t have gone through that? 

[00:11:30] Lior: It will be pretty much everything that I know and everything that I do.

[00:11:33] Lior: But if I were to pick a few, I would say main things that were changed in how I view the world and how I operate, number one is being more rational than emotional, pretty much about everything. My mom even jokes all the time. She says, I’m like a robot, like you know, I’m not driven by emotions at all.

[00:11:54] Lior: And that is one of the things that you have to sort of develop yourself into, when you’re dealing with life threatening, you know, situations, you have to be rational. You have to be very robotic, very technical, and that is one of the most important skills that really allows me to face difficult, you know, decisions in life, especially in business, without taking them personally.

[00:12:16] Lior: And, you know, it’s business. 

[00:12:17] Jason: I love, I love that idea. One of my favorite books lately is this book by a guy named Jerr, this philosopher, and it’s called, The Wall Speaks and it’s all about building a masculine frame. And it’s being less emotional, displaying less emotion, and how that earns you respect and how that makes people around you, especially women, feel safer and everything else.

[00:12:40] Jason: And this is something that just, if you are in very challenging situations. Like war, you know, military, whatever, like you learn this naturally. It’s just, it hardwires it into you and. Yeah, exactly. Over emotionality is going to make a lot more sense. It’s much more rational. So yeah, I think that’s a great principle.

[00:13:03] Lior: I would say even more than that, because probably, you know. The first thing that comes to mind when you hear that is like, oh, I don’t want to be, you know, a cold person or a very, you know, apethetic person, like someone who doesn’t, you know, acknowledge other people’s feelings, et cetera. Sure. I say on the contrary, when you are very rational and you’re not clouded by emotions, you are emotionally available to express emotion, to express care, to express, you know, concern about the other person in front of you, because you’re not all centered in what you are feeling right now because something is, you know, bothering you and you’re like all into that.

[00:13:42] Lior: Instead, you are able to look at the other person in front of you and think how they’re feeling. Think what, you know, what can help them feel better. So like when you are rational and you’re not driven by emotions, that actually allows you to be a lot more, you know, empathetic and kind and caring.

[00:14:00] Lior: Because you’re not centered on what you’re feeling and what you’re experiencing, then you can really be thinking about the other person. 

[00:14:07] Jason: Yeah. I love that. I think in order to reach that space, like it talks about in the wall speaks, we have to get out of this mode of trying to please everybody and trying to please others.

[00:14:17] Jason: And so when we’re so concerned about how everyone feels about us and we’re too concerned about emotion, then we’re trying to please everybody. So I love this idea this first point of rationale over emotion. This is super important in business.

[00:14:31] Jason: And I love the idea that it actually enables you to be a better leader, to be able to take in and take into account other people’s emotions and to see things from their perspective, because that’s a more rational viewpoint than getting overly, you know, steeped in your own emotion and which blinds you to what others are feeling and what others are experiencing.

[00:14:53] Jason: So you said that’s number one. So I’m guessing there’s a number two. 

[00:14:55] Lior: There are, there are a lot. There are a lot more, but we’ll keep to the I would say to the big ones. Yeah. The second thing is this very strong belief. I would say almost religious belief that there are no failures in life.

[00:15:12] Lior: There are only challenges, and every challenge is an opportunity for success. Love it. That whole perspective. Well, it takes time to really live by it, but once you live by it, you don’t have stress, you don’t have, you don’t worry about stuff. On the contrary you’re getting excited about things that don’t work.

[00:15:33] Lior: You’re getting excited about, you know, things that you would normally call failures because you’re excited about what’s on the other end of that. What’s the lesson to be learned and what’s the improvement that you’re going to bring? So instead of. Being concerned about this thing right now, that it’s not working.

[00:15:50] Lior: You are excited, positively about what is going to happen after that because it’s going to make you better. It’s going to make your business better. So like this whole notion of understanding that at the end of every problem, challenge, failure, that some people might call, on the other side of that, there’s always a good side.

[00:16:13] Lior: Like think of it as like a coin, right? Like that’s how I try to see, you know, failures in life. On one side you see the failure, you know, as some people would call it. But on the other side is the lesson, and every failure has that lesson. So why be so focused on the failure if you can be focused on the lesson that you’re going to learn, even before you even know it? But you know there will be something there. You know you will be better. You know your business will be better. So let’s get excited about that. 

[00:16:40] Jason: Yeah, I love this idea so much. I often say I either win or I learn. 

[00:16:46] Lior: Exactly. 

[00:16:47] Jason: There’s the only way you lose is if you quit or you give up. That’s it. Like, so I either win or I learn. And I love this idea that, you know, after every struggle or failure or uncomfortable emotional experience or challenging, you know, thing in life, if we don’t learn from it, then yeah, it’s just trauma. It’s just a problem. But if you learn from it, it becomes the bricks by which you build your character, by which you build a whole new life and a whole new self image. And if you learn from it, you’re destined to not repeat it as well, which is nice. So you learn the lesson. Exactly.

[00:17:23] Jason: And I think, you know, God and the universe keeps giving us the same lessons over and over again, maybe in stronger and stronger fashion until we finally learn the lesson. And I think going along with these two points, which relates heavily is being open and willing to take feedback from others, you know?

[00:17:42] Jason: And so one of the things that I’ve, realized is that feedback a lot of people think is painful, and it can be really uncomfortable, but I’ve noticed that when I go to my mentors and I’m open and vulnerable to getting feedback. Sometimes, you know, it can cut pretty deeply, but it’s good medicine and that’s where I have the most growth and learning.

[00:18:00] Jason: And so I’ve learned to actually love and enjoy the discomfort of feedback. And so I seek it now. Then I collapsing time on my learning. Yeah, and I’m experiencing the discomfort in that and, but I know that there’s benefits to that because now I can see something that I was blind to or I’m experiencing something that I didn’t realize. The reason I hire these mentors is because they’re at a vantage point in some sort of area that they’re ahead of me. And so being willing to get feedback takes somebody that’s willing to be really rational and it takes somebody that’s willing to see that there’s no failure. You are not bad, sick, and wrong because somebody pointed out something that you’re doing that’s bad, sick, and wrong. Like that means now you have an opportunity to change or improve, which is good news.

[00:18:43] Jason: It’s like the best news ever. Yeah. Love this 

[00:18:46] Lior: 100%. 

[00:18:47] Jason: That’s why we get along, Lior. You and I have just been through enough shit to learn some lessons, so. Hell yeah. So cool. Do you have a third one for us? 

[00:18:55] Lior: Yeah, let’s do a quick one. Leading by example. Okay. Is number one. And I’ll actually give a quick story here just to explain how powerful that is.

[00:19:06] Lior: And I think that’s also really important for, you know, all of our listeners for property managers. Because in my first assignment in the Navy as a commander, I was assigned as a chief engineer, meaning I was in charge of the mechanics department. These are all the folks that are working the hardest. Like, think of them as like your maintenance, you know, contractors.

[00:19:26] Lior: These are the folks who are going in fixing plumbing, fixing AC systems and like heating systems, like getting really dirty, you know, and like crawling underneath engines filled with like gasoline and stuff. It’s like the hardest job in, you’re doing the worst, 

[00:19:44] Jason: worst job. It’s like Mike Rowe’s show Dirty Jobs.

[00:19:48] Lior: Yeah. I don’t want to be too explicit and vivid. But you’re dealing with like pipes of like things that you know Sure. We use for other things stuff and who knows. 

[00:19:56] Jason: Yeah. Okay. 

[00:19:57] Lior: Exactly. It’s bad. It’s bad. Yeah. So anyways, so on when I was first assigned as the chief engineer, so the chief engineer in the ship is like the second to the commander.

[00:20:07] Lior: Like if the, something happens to the commander of the ship. I’m taking command. So, you know, you have your respect and your sort of like, honor just with the title, you know? Yeah. It comes with it and you can walk around like, you know, like a peacock. Very proud of yourself and, you know, I’m like, I’m the boss.

[00:20:25] Lior: I’m the big man or whatever. 

[00:20:27] Jason: Yeah. 

[00:20:27] Lior: Or you can do some other things. And for example, what I did on the first day of me getting, you know, onboard the ship and, you know, getting the role and getting command of the ship. So the first thing that I did was like every day we have like an hour at the end of the day that we’re cleaning the entire ship.

[00:20:46] Lior: And part of cleaning the ship is also for the mechanics department. Is getting below the engines that run the ship and cleaning all the oil residue that builds up there. So you have to literally, you know, take a lot of like cloths and sheets and just like, dive into the oil and just push it out.

[00:21:04] Lior: Wow. So like you get out black, like completely black. And normally the ones who are doing it are the youngest, you know, mechanics and the youngest soldiers on the ship because it’s like, you know, it’s a newbie. Don’t have seniority. 

[00:21:16] Jason: And they’re new and you give them the worst job. They get the shit job.

[00:21:19] Lior: Exactly. So what I did, I went and got beneath the engines myself. Yeah. And it, it became a show. All the soldiers came to watch. Oh man, the chief got beneath the engines. He’s crazy. What is he doing? It was a shock, but nobody forgot that. Like my soldiers up until today, were like best friends or like my little brothers, they remember this until today, this little thing that I never done after that again, by the way, I did it once.

[00:21:48] Lior: Yeah. But they never forget it. And that sets so many examples in terms of what I expect from them in terms of ownership, you know, and values and teamwork and not being afraid to take on, you know, jobs that, that are like beneath me or whatever. That was such a powerful message without me even saying a word.

[00:22:08] Lior: Yeah. So think of yourself as a property manager. Like what things you can do like that, that you need to do only once maybe in your life, you know, and show your employees that you’re not afraid to get dirty and do the hard work and really show them that nobody should be feeling that something is beneath them or like it’s not, you know, to their level or whatever.

[00:22:31] Lior: Like if you are doing that, like who am I to, you know, raise any objections of doing something? Like I’m not the company owner and if the company owner is doing that, I better do that. Right? So 

[00:22:44] Jason: yeah, that’s a great story. Great example. I. You know, it’s a great display of leadership. There’s a really good book kind of about this principle called The Motive by Patrick Lencioni.

[00:22:54] Jason: And in he talks about how there’s two types of CEOs and there’s the CEOs that think because of their position, everybody owes them everything. They’re king, they deserve everything. And they end up having organizations that have a lack of ownership, a lack of accountability, and a lot of problems.

[00:23:10] Jason: Because they think they’re superior to everybody else. And then there’s the CEOs that have the right motive and they understand that they have the worst job in the company because their job is to do anything that’s not working and to step in anywhere that there’s a problem and they need to be willing to, like you talked about, get dirty and start, like help out at the bottom if that’s what the business needs to get clarity or to fix things or to figure it out.

[00:23:38] Jason: And so being able to display that is a powerful thing. Like it reminds me the other day, I’m training some setters right now to do some cold calls for us, do some outreach to property managers. because we’re like. The best kept secret in property management. Not all our people have heard of DoorGrow still, and so we’re having them do some outreach and they’re like, oh, it’s really hard.

[00:23:56] Jason: I don’t know how to deal with gatekeepers and all this. And you like the subtext says, Jason, you don’t understand. This is difficult. So I’m like, cool, let me do it right now. And I picked up the phone and they were watching me on Zoom and I’m cold calling and doing it. And the second call I got first was a voicemail.

[00:24:11] Jason: I’m like, here’s how to leave a voicemail to get them to call you back. And then the second call was a receptionist. And I connected with her. I made her laugh. I got info from her about the business owners, what their challenges are. Oh, there’s two business owners. Okay, cool. And I got all this information about how many doors they have, everything about the business because I was nice to the receptionist and treated her like a person.

[00:24:34] Jason: And and she was helping me out. She wouldn’t give me their cell phone numbers, but I got everything else I needed so we could call back. And I’m like, cool. Did you see how that went? And they were like, well, it’s really cool. So yeah, when we’re willing to step in and show them how to do something, it can break some of their preconceived ideas, their perceptions, and so yeah, they see a leader and they’re like, oh, well the leader can do this and the leader can do this well. Be cause if everybody underneath you is like, yeah, but he’s never done this hard stuff, or he hasn’t done this, and they’re like. There’s always that story. Well, he did that worst job, like he was pushing, they’re like, what? Yeah, first day? I mean, it speaks volumes of character and it, yeah, it makes your leadership much easier.

[00:25:19] Jason: That’s kind of the equivalent of people say, if you get thrown in prison, go fight the biggest guy there, or something like this. Right? And that was the most challenging thing that nobody thought you would do, and you went and did it. And so, yeah, you earned respect. And you know, leadership has to be born out of respect.

[00:25:35] Jason: So these are great principles. This was valuable in the podcast alone. So let’s move on to getting into Blanket. And I think this is a game changer. I think every property management business owner should be using Blanket every single one. It’s an absolute no brainer. It helps them retain their clients, well retain the properties.

[00:25:58] Jason: So basically keeping their portfolio, even if the owners are leaving and it gives them access to a network of investors. And there’s just so many benefits. So I’ll let you tell everybody about it because you probably know a little bit more than I do, so. 

[00:26:12] Lior: Sure. Thanks. Sure thing. I’ll actually do I normally have, you know, the whole spiel and the features and what we provide and whatever, but I think if we already started on such a inspiring, I would say, note to the, to this episode.

[00:26:25] Lior: I’ll start with the why. With why we’re doing what we’re doing, because I think it’s important and we, and I think we’re not doing a good job maybe at explaining the why enough in pretty much everywhere we go about, yeah. 

[00:26:36] Jason: People don’t buy what you do. Simon Sinek says they buy why you do it.

[00:26:39] Jason: So, exactly. Let’s into the why behind Blanket. Why does Blanket exist? Yeah. 

[00:26:44] Lior: So the overarching premise is that. Today there is a very big, I would say, failure or gap in the market in our single family rental market. When you look at other asset classes, when you look at commercial, when you look at, you know, multifamily, industrial office, any investors in those asset classes have an investment manager, a professional investment manager.

[00:27:13] Lior: That provides them, you know, quarterly, you know, reports provides them with strategy sessions about their next capital, you know, allocation about their disposition. Yes, they have someone to guide them in a very professional way to their goals and to and to match their needs. The only asset class, the only asset class that does not have the function of an investment manager is single family.

[00:27:40] Lior: Yeah. And that’s especially the asset class that needs it the most because 99% of all single family rental owners are mom and pop investors. Institutional players own, roughly, depending on which source you’re reading, but roughly between one to 2% of all the single family rental properties across the country.

[00:28:02] Lior: The most is owned by mom and pop investors. The people who need that guidance the most. And they don’t have that, which is why they’re making mistakes, which is why they have maybe sometimes, and I bet all the listeners can agree some unrealistic expectations of what a property manager should do. And that creates a big gap that the only one losing or not the only one, but like the two people that are losing from the situation is that mom and pop owner and us, the property manager, because we then lose a lot of clients.

[00:28:36] Lior: And it’s sort of like this identity crisis where we as property managers are perceived as service providers, as rent collectors, as toilet fixers, but we are held accountable as if we’re the investment managers. Like, you know, why am I losing so much money on this property?

[00:28:57] Lior: It’s all you. It’s all about you. You didn’t, you know, collect the rent. You didn’t rent it on time. Yeah. Why it’s vacant. Like with all due respect, you are the one who bought this property. You know, you bought it in this problematic area. You bought a very old property that never replaced the roof, never replaced the ac, and it is a very bad shape in a very bad neighborhood.

[00:29:17] Lior: Like there is a limit to what I can do for you at the end of the day. But the problem is that we as property managers, we’re stuck in this middle where we are held accountable. As if we’re their investment manager, but we’re perceived as just a service provider, which is the most difficult position to be at.

[00:29:34] Lior: Now, how does that connect to our why? When I started doing real estate again, remember that like my personal why my grandparents, right? I wanted to build a real estate portfolio that will allow me to give them at least one property from which they can live off. To act as their pension. Sort of like plan.

[00:29:53] Lior: And as, as more as I grew up in this industry as an operator, as sort of like a property manager without all the headaches of operation, you know, just acting as the owner relationship manager. I understood that if there was a platform, you know, back then when I was just dreaming about it, if there was a platform that will empower the property managers to become investment managers for their clients. I know that my parents and my loved ones can be in good hands because if those property managers that manage my grandparents’ homes can tell them what to do based on, you know, what’s happening with the property, when should they renovate, maybe, when should they sell, when maybe when should they refinance and cash out?

[00:30:40] Lior: Or maybe when should they buy another property or any other question that is sort of like surrounding the investment life cycle or the investment journey, right? I know that their sort of like goal of retiring financially safe can be handled because there is no one else who will take care of that. The agent who maybe, you know, sold them that property, he has no vested interest in the long term.

[00:31:05] Lior: He’s doing a transaction and he’s done. Out. The lender, same thing. He got the origination fees, he secured the loan, he’s out the window and they’re out. Nobody besides the property manager has a long-term vested interest in the wellbeing of the property owner. So for us, this is what motivates our entire team. We understand that if we’ll be able to empower our partners, our property managers into investment managers, we will take care of our loved ones.

[00:31:36] Lior: We will make sure that they will be in good hands and this is the why, because there is a gap that only property managers can fill. And this is that the gap of a missing investment manager for the investors that are the least experienced, that need the guidance the most, this is what we wake up for, this is what we work for.

[00:32:00] Lior: This is everything that, you know, leads in every decision making intersection or like point in our company’s life cycle. Yeah, I love it. 

[00:32:08] Jason: This is why we come to leaders. This is why people come to a property manager. They’re looking for leadership, they’re looking for guidance. And when you’re at that peak of customer satisfaction, customer service, that’s where you are an advice giver, where you’re giving advice, not just like the title of this episode is from Rent Collector to Asset Manager, and the idea is:

[00:32:32] Jason: if you can go from just being somebody that keeps the rent coming to helping them manage the asset, you are already head and shoulders above other management companies. So if you can present yourself as an asset manager, and I’ve had a podcast episode with a client who’s very good at doing this, he is able to assess their property.

[00:32:51] Jason: We have this really cool tool called the ROI calculator. He’ll help show them whether it’s performing properly, what the long-term benefits are. What the tax benefits are, and so he can help them assess the property and they already just view him as an expert instead of wanting to work with any other management company.

[00:33:08] Jason: So a lot of you feel like you’re competing with other management companies because you’re doing cold lead marketing stuff that probably doesn’t work very well. And if you’re doing that, reach out to DoorGrow, we’ll help you fix that problem. But there’s plenty of business out there. There’s no scarcity.

[00:33:20] Jason: But if you do feel like you’re competing with other companies, one way to set yourself head and shoulders above the rest is to no longer be a property manager that just collects rent and coordinates maintenance, but to be an asset or portfolio manager for this investor. So, how does Blanket help with this?

[00:33:37] Lior: I think we nailed it. We are right on point. And I love, 

[00:33:40] Jason: I love it. I mean, everyone needs to realize this is the motivator. This is the reason. Because property managers, if you want to have an easier time closing deals, you want to retain clients, keep clients trusting you, and if clients trust you as an asset manager, they’re way more hands off.

[00:33:56] Jason: They don’t try to manage the manager, they stop trying to micromanage you because they look at you as the advice giver and as the advisor instead of thinking, this is just somebody that works for me that I now need to manage and make sure they’re not stealing from me and they do it my way. 

[00:34:11] Lior: Exactly.

[00:34:11] Lior: So we are really tackling this mission from two angles and the understanding here is that. As you said, if you are acting as a trusted advisor, if you’re acting as an asset manager and your clients appreciate you as one, you will have less churn and you will grow a lot faster. So when we’re thinking about these two, you know, functions of your business, on the one hand churn and on the other hand, growth, these two things always go together in property management.

[00:34:47] Lior: Why? Because if we’re looking at the average, 

[00:34:49] Jason: and let’s explain churn real quick for, because some people, this is a new term for them, they’re like, what does this mean? Churning? So churn means you’re losing business, you’re losing clients, they’re churning out. So this is the rate at which you’re losing clients every year.

[00:35:03] Lior: Exactly. Exactly. It’s how many doors you lost technically, again, no matter what the reason, but like you lost the door, you know that’s churn. So in property management there is a very unique and frustrating thing is that you’ll always have churn. You can never lower to zero. Why? Because life happens. You might have a client that’s super, super happy with what you’re providing.

[00:35:27] Lior: He loves you. He loves the relationship, he loves the service. He’s getting everything from you, but suddenly life happens and he needs the money, he needs to sell that property, unfortunately. It has nothing to do with your performance, it’s just his life. So that property is going to be sold and you’re going to lose that, so you’ll have churn.

[00:35:46] Lior: So in property management there always be churn and it’s something we have to accept. So that means if you can’t, you know, really lower churn to zero, that means you always have to have a growth strategy to offset the doors that you’re still going to lose. Yeah. So growth and churn, and. Or the opposite of churn, which is retention.

[00:36:10] Lior: Okay. Growth and retention and property management have to work together always at all times. On the one hand, if we’re like, imagine a bucket of water and your task is to keep in full and you have a hole at the bottom so it’s leaking. Okay? Yeah. So you always have to work on closing that leak.

[00:36:31] Lior: But you always have to keep pouring more water to keep it at the same level. That’s pretty much the secret. That’s how Blanket is built. We have two packages, one called Retain and the other called Grow. Very simple not too complicated on that front. And each one has various features and various products to help you achieve that goal.

[00:36:53] Lior: So, for example. And by the way the combination of these two, this is what allows you to be that ultimate asset manager to your clients, right? That can help your clients, first of all, optimize their portfolio and generate more cash flow, and forget about a lot of headaches that come with property investing, but on the other hand, help them make more money by expanding their portfolio, buying more properties, and growing it.

[00:37:20] Lior: So the combination of these two packages, that’s what helps you allow, you know, what helps you be an ultimate asset manager. Now, what do each one of those packages do? So the Retain package gives your clients a branded investor dashboard. So it has your logo, it has your face, nobody knows who Blanket is, and that investor dashboard gives your clients real time performance metrics.

[00:37:42] Lior: It allows them to see how their properties are really doing. Through an integration with their property management software and through pulling a lot of data from title companies, public county records, and national data providers that allow them to really see every property related transaction in real time from their mortgage payments, their property taxes, their insurance, their HOA and everything that you’re tracking as well in your property management software.

[00:38:07] Lior: So that way they can see exactly what’s their net cash flow every month. They can see their property’s value and how much it appreciated this month. And they can also see how much equity they have in their homes so that whenever it’s time for them to take the next step, they can quickly press on the cash out button and refinance and extract the equity that they have in those proceeds and buy another property with that.

[00:38:30] Lior: So that’s part of the retained package that is owner facing. All the rest of the features are property manager facing, meaning your team is going to use them. But one thing I forgot to mention on that front, on the sort of like investor dashboard that your clients are getting, we also are doing what we call white labeled email communications.

[00:38:52] Lior: So remember that story of me handling owner communications for property managers? This is where it comes from, and the understanding that your clients are used to a very bad, sort of like foundation of communication, which is I’m either getting an email about me having to pay for something I need to fix right now, and you’re asking, you know, my money, or I’m getting an email with the owner statement, with that accounting view that I can’t really understand and I’m getting just more confused instead of actually getting value from it.

[00:39:24] Lior: Plus, it never shows me the full picture because it only shows me, you know the fees that you’re charging, maintenance and like the rent, I don’t see exactly how my property is doing. So it’s really not a value. So like this is the foundation of the relationship. So if you are not providing your clients with additional positive touch points, how can they appreciate what you’re doing for them?

[00:39:45] Lior: because that’s what they get. It’s like, it’s very the energetic I would say, you know, frequency of, from all these emails and touch points, getting them is negative. Like that’s what they get. So what we’re also doing, we’re doing white labeled email communications as well. Again, it’s your logo, it’s your profile, it’s your name that sends them, for example, a monthly report or update on how much their property is appreciated in value.

[00:40:08] Lior: It sends them, you know, some like tips on how to utilize the platform and how to really be on top of things and always be in control of how your properties are really doing. A lot of these things that are just, yeah, just like, it’s automated. You don’t have to do anything. So like, it just gives them more transparency and feeling of, I’m in control, right?

[00:40:28] Lior: Like I’m in control. I know how things are doing, like, and if there’s something I need to do, 

[00:40:32] Jason: which reduces their anxiety. The number one reason owners are constantly calling you, being interruptive, trying to micromanage you, is because they are anxious. Exactly. If you can reduce their anxiety. By increasing their awareness and their trust in you, it’s a no brainer.

[00:40:47] Jason: It’s going to lower your operational costs dramatically. 

[00:40:51] Lior: Exactly. So that’s on the owner facing side of things. In the retain package, the team facing sort of like tools, they provide you two main things. There are two products within the retain package that your team is going to use. One is our portfolio manager.

[00:41:06] Lior: Think of it as like an asset management dashboard. And the other one is our AI risk manager. So this one, you know, think of it as like your churn, you know, mitigator, and each one of them provides you two aspects of the same owner. The asset management dashboard shows you the health of every owner’s property.

[00:41:29] Lior: The churn manager or the risk manager shows you the risk of every property of churning. So the asset management dashboard will show you. Right. 

[00:41:39] Jason: So the risk of them that like how likely they are to maybe start paying attention to maybe selling it, things like that. 

[00:41:45] Lior: Just leaving, yeah. The risk of them leaving.

[00:41:47] Lior: So, okay, let’s maybe start with that because that’s really, you know, one of the coolest products that we have. So the AI Churn Manager technically shows you the churn risk of every owner. Okay. Pretty much the risk of every owner from leaving you with ai, which takes in a lot of data. A lot of data from the communications with that owner to the property performance of that owner, everything that goes into whatever is related to that owner is taken into account and then it shows you the risk, but it also shows you the client value of that owner, meaning how much revenue this owner is generating your company.

[00:42:25] Lior: Because we’re integrated into a property management software, we know that revenue per unit of every property, so we can tell you how much every owner is worth for you. So the combination of these two elements of the churn risk and the client’s value can really give you the ability to prioritize on whole, on who you are going to focus on first, and then you can really focus on the ones who are at high risk and high value.

[00:42:50] Lior: And now what are you going to do next? Next, what that AI Retention Manager does for you is it also tells you exactly what to do to retain this owner. For example, let’s say you have an owner that has a property that’s currently undergoing a renovation, and he also has a mortgage in place, so he’s losing money every month.

[00:43:10] Lior: He’s stressed. He might be thinking to himself, you know, why did I get into this whole thing? You know, I’m just losing money. I’m taking money outta my pocket every month. It’s painful. So the AI will notice that and tell you something like, Hey, Jason, because A, B, C, D, what he should do is send this owner a link to his performance, which is one of like the features we have in that investor dashboard is like the forward looking performance of this property, right?

[00:43:35] Lior: Send him a link to his performance so he can see that he should hold onto this property and not sell it right, because he’s going to make a lot of money and waive two months of management fees. And again, those fees wouldn’t cover for the losses, right? But it would show the owner how committed you are to his financial wellbeing.

[00:43:54] Lior: So those are the things that the AI can tell you to do based on the retention policy that you will set in the beginning by answering questions that the AI will ask you to understand how you’re thinking, what’s your approach to retention. And lastly, when you’ll see that recommendation, it will also draft you an email or a phone call script with your tone of voice.

[00:44:15] Lior: So all you have to do is like literally hit send or just call them and read the script. So that’s what the ai retention manager does for you. Okay, cool. And the asset management, you know, dashboard, which is that portfolio manager, that shows you just the overall performance of all your properties. And it can show you, for example, which properties are underperforming, meaning which properties are in negative cash flow position, so that you can reach out to these owners and tell them something like, Hey Jason, I see that this property is really not doing well.

[00:44:42] Lior: We tried this, we tried that. We tried this. Why not think of 10 31, exchanging this property. Let’s change it to a better property, one that wouldn’t have all these headaches that we’re going through. Two, it will be able to yield higher cashflow for you because we’ll be able to charge a higher rent, you know, property in a better condition, so less expenses, and three, maybe even this will be a property in a better location, so more appreciation, potential, right? So like three wins for you, Mr. Owner, and to me, two wins because I’m getting the commissions maybe from both sides, right? Plus I’m getting a new door that might have a higher revenue per unit.

[00:45:21] Lior: Or maybe there’s enough faculty or which just more operational 

[00:45:24] Jason: cost. Yeah, just easier to deal with. So like it’s a winner. Also, maybe you could convert all the shitty properties in your portfolio and the easier properties to deal with. 

[00:45:34] Lior: And that’s the thing I always tell to all of our clients, think of this as like your blueprint to building the portfolio of your dreams.

[00:45:42] Lior: Because it shows you which properties are underperforming. It shows you which properties have a high maintenance income ratio. So you can see which owners are really spending a lot of money on maintenance compared to how much money they’re making in rent. And by the way, if, for example, if you have a maintenance division or you’re charging markups on renovation, those properties are an additional revenue stream that you cannot reach out to all those owners and tell them.

[00:46:05] Lior: Hey, Jason, like we’re spending a lot of money on maintenance in the past couple of years. Let’s think about, you know, reinvesting some of that cash flow and, you know, improving the property’s condition, which is, you know, revenue for your company as well. So that what that, you know, asset management dashboard allows you to do is to see which properties are performing well, which properties are performing, you know, bad.

[00:46:25] Lior: And for those that are performing well, you’ll see things like, you know, which owners have a lot of equity trapped in their home? So that maybe when interest rates go down a little, you can reach out to them and say, Jason, like, look at this. Remember you said you want to build, you know, to grow your portfolio?

[00:46:40] Lior: Interest rates have gone down right now and you have like $300,000 in equity. Let’s step into that equity refinance, take the proceeds and buy another property in our area, which we have access to a lot of off market inventory here, which leads us to the grow package now. So that’s the retain 

[00:46:57] Jason: package that grow package.

[00:46:58] Jason: I’ll run through it quickly. I want all of my clients listening to this to be using Blanket like I want they all should be. This just is an absolute no brainer. 

[00:47:08] Lior: Yeah. We definitely, by the way, it’s not like I want to also give a shout out to all of our clients and all the folks that were with us from the start.

[00:47:15] Lior: It’s not like we are, you know, so smart and we had the solution for everything. This is a lot of hard work and sweat. By listening to all of our client’s feedback and what they need the solutions to their like day-to-day problems and needs that they always experience and just never have the opportunity to really do it at scale.

[00:47:33] Lior: Right? So, yeah. Back to the growth package. So that was the retained package, just as a summary. Two owner facing, you know, propositions, which is the investor dashboard and the branded owner communications, and two propositions for your team, which is the asset management dashboard and the AI retention manager. 

[00:47:51] Lior: On the growth package, you also have two owner facing tools. One is the investment property marketplace, which is also white labeled with your logo. And this marketplace technically shows all your clients because it’s closed only to your clients or anybody you invite to it. And we’ll cover that in a second. But your clients who are in that marketplace see all the properties, all the off market properties that are for sale in your area.

[00:48:16] Lior: So that way whenever they decide to buy another property, that will be a property that you’re going to manage for them. So the marketplace. Acts as like this, you know, main tool for number one, capturing owners who want to sell. Remember what we started, we, you know, we want to capture the owners who are selling so we can at least, you know, get that commission or better get that commission and sell it to one of our other clients and retain the management of that unit.

[00:48:41] Lior: But it also allows your clients to buy more properties. Now you’re probably asking, you know, okay, where do those properties come from? So we source inventory on a national level from the largest wholesalers, turnkey providers, home builders for sale by owner feeds, anything that’s off market, we are pretty much sourcing it across the country 

[00:49:03] Jason: Is Blanket using investors that they can list their properties in this as well? 

[00:49:09] Lior: So your clients, whenever they list their property, they will be at the top. They are what we call the exclusive properties category. So they are at the top.

[00:49:17] Lior: We are pushing them always front face and center. They’re the first ones for all your other clients to see, to increase the chances of them buying that from your clients and retaining the management of the unit. So all those properties that we have are all off market and. Yeah. Then this allows you not only to give it to your clients, but you can also invite anybody you want to it.

[00:49:37] Lior: So maybe you have a list of leads that you bought in the past, you know, some cold leads or whatever. Or maybe you have friends and family that are interested in buying a property and working with you, or maybe you’re going to like a BiggerPockets, you know, meetup or conference with investors or whatever.

[00:49:51] Lior: They’re always on the hunt for off market properties. So what you can do, you can invite them to the marketplace as a prospect. So like as a visitor, and once you invite them. And they log in, it appears as a prospect lead that you can then call them and say, Hey, Jason just saw you logged into our marketplace.

[00:50:07] Lior: Hope that you liked it. By the way, if you have other properties in our area, I would love to send you some, you know, special friend, you know, discount for our property management services. And now you have a different conversation that is based on, you know, what your brand can offer them. So that’s the marketplace.

[00:50:24] Lior: And as you can see, the marketplace, technically what it does, it generates you leads, buyer leads, seller leads, prospect leads, et cetera. And what we provide is also sort of like a CRM feature that allows you just to keep track of all those leads, engage with them, or integrate with your existing CRM.

[00:50:40] Lior: So folks might be using different systems we can integrate and push all those leads to your system. And lastly, the last feature that is also used by your team, by your BDM, or by yourself if you’re starting out, is what we call our referral management system. So this system takes in all the agents in your area and pulls in information about them from the MLS and many other sources, and shows you, for every agent in your market, how many transactions they sold in the past two years, how many years in business, what’s the average price of the properties they’re selling, their contact details, their website, everything you need to actually start increasing or expanding your referral network that you have already in Blanket.

[00:51:21] Lior: So what you do then. You could start reaching out to them, sending them emails from the Blanket system. And whenever they respond, you get on a call, you offer them, you know, to partner up and pay them referral fees for any client they’re sending. And then you are giving them also a user in the system. And that’s one of the interesting things. Today, agents are struggling, especially buyer’s agents, which are normally, you know, the younger ones in every brokerage because the listing agents are normally the brokers and the most experienced ones.

[00:51:48] Lior: So like buyers agents are having a hard time today with interest rates and with everything that’s happening. So you can position yourself as their exclusive off market inventory partner, which they can leverage to be winning with their potential clients. So that way whenever you invite them as a partner, you’re giving them access to off market inventory that they can’t find anywhere else.

[00:52:13] Lior: And that way whenever they bring on clients, they’re sending them through the system and with a click of a button directly to you, you get those leads. They get paid through the system with that referral fee that you’ve set and agreed to with them, whether it’s $500, 250, whatever. And the cool thing about it is that it has also automated updates to the agent every time one of the referrals inquired about a property they want to buy or to sell, assuming you promise them, you know, to return that lead back to them when it’s selling. So that way you are making them happy. Those referrals are happy and you are able to really grow, you know, your referral network with everything within your ecosystem.

[00:52:51] Lior: And be that center of the ecosystem, be that asset manager. Nice. So that’s the goal package as well. 

[00:52:57] Jason: That’s super awesome. So cool. This Blanket sounds like an awesome tool. You’ve shown it to me. I think it’s really a brilliant idea. I think every property manager should be using it. It’s a no-brainer.

[00:53:08] Jason: How do people get started with you? How do people get in touch? 

[00:53:12] Lior: So you can either visit our website: Blankethomes.com and just schedule a quick, you know, 15 minute discovery call. You know, just listen to what we can offer so we wouldn’t waste your time. And just understand if it’s the right thing for you.

[00:53:26] Lior: And then you can either just, you know, send me a LinkedIn message, send me a dm, pretty much on every social media platform. I’m not really responding very fast. And we could just get on a call. And I also invite anybody that wants you to just, you know, even if they’re not interested in Blanket, right?

[00:53:41] Lior: Like if you’re thinking to yourself maybe it’s too much for me. Maybe it’s too expensive, I don’t have the bandwidth right now, but you want to brainstorm about, you know, how to be more investor, you know, investment manager mindset as like guided property manager, how to be more of an asset manager.

[00:53:56] Lior: This is my passion, this is what I’ve been doing my entire life. Like, if you want to just brainstorm, shoot me a message. Like I can talk about this for hours, so, you know, I’ll be happy to help anybody that needs that. Even if you’re not a Blanket client, again, you don’t have to be a partner of ours to really just, you know, get inspired and, you know, learn from other people’s mistakes.

[00:54:14] Lior: And we’ve done quite a few. 

[00:54:16] Jason: Awesome Lior, thanks for being a guest here on the DoorGrow Show podcast appreciate you hanging out with us. So, if you are watching this and you felt stuck or stagnant and want to take your property management business to the next level, reach out to us at DoorGrow, also join our free Facebook community.

[00:54:33] Jason: It’s just for property management business owners at doorgrowclub.com. And if you’ve found this even a little bit helpful, don’t forget to subscribe and leave us a review. We’d really appreciate it. Until next time, remember, the slowest path to growth is to do it alone, so let’s grow together. Bye everyone.