When I was initially approached about writing a featured blog post, it would’ve been very easy for me to write something related to how property managers can increase their profits as that has been my focus since joining Second Nature in April of 2022. Fast forward through hundreds of conversations with regional PMCs (property management companies), dozens of local NARPM meetings, and a handful of entirely-too-fun retreats and conferences, and here I am, moderating a panel at this year’s NARPM Southern States Conference. And boom, the idea hits me: let’s share the general thoughts and experience of what it looks like preparing to do just that! 

💭 “Preparation is the key to success.” – Alexander Graham Bell

💭 “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin

💭 And in the spirit of Wimbledon around the corner (I’m a big tennis guy)

💭 “One important thing to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.” – Arthur Ashe

We’ve all likely heard something like the quotes and an ace in tennis noted above about how preparation is a good thing. Naturally, I would go on and procrastinate reaching out to each panelist. These had to take place for success to take place though! As meetings got set to learn more about them and their story, I began to envision how the conversation would flow, how I could utilize each person’s gift and share their expertise for the audience’s gain, and most importantly, how I could incorporate humor and be myself. There were many more talk tracks racing through my mind, but all thoughts were simply centered around wanting to do a good job for everybody.

Before diving into how each call went, I simply want to thank the panelists for trusting me with their time. These are business owners and top-tier professionals in the industry! Guilt ran through me for having a relatively “soft” agenda. I just knew that something in our conversation would be the exact nugget I needed, so I simply had to get the conversation started #classicsalesguy. Needless to say, I struck gold with all of them and was super stoked to lead the discussion in Greenville. Thank you again!

Joni Wolfswinkel from Houston, Texas was the first to get on the calendar. She was the only panelist I didn’t really know anything about, but I would learn that she has my favorite “how I started” story. From getting her first rental while in college to growing to over 1,800 homes managed, it was amazing to see her humility. What’s most impressive is how she evolved her business to diversify her portfolio and add other real estate endeavors. With a strategy around the “end game for investors,” I asked her what the keys to her success were. She replied, “Having a high degree of stickiness and being turn-key for everything.” Diving deeper, she shared how she meaningfully connects with owners and does so often. In a world where everyone is busy, setting up best practices to do just this is amazing and it made a lot of sense why her clients continue to trust and grow WITH her. I was fired up talking to her and frankly, I wish I did something similar at that age!

Call number two was with Stacey Salyer from Washington State. To skip past our shared personal interests and hobbies, like Joni, Stacey has a neat story where she “took a meeting” regarding a potential property management opportunity and would soon be applying her retail management skills to the Real Estate world. Liking the flexible schedule and the general “hustle,” she grew and grew. She attributes growth to having learned early that the right foundation (aka the right people) is paramount to having a successful business. This came up often in our conversations and we would discuss how to find, train, and retain quality employees. In fact, this was one of the most important processes she focuses on. The others were move-in/move-out, renewals, and new client onboarding. I needed more time with her to dive deeper into our interests and her current role doing corporate development at Pure Property Management, but I’m happy to call her a friend at this point so I already know that time will come (like at the Hyatt bar)!

Lastly, Ms. Lambert, better known as Maranda Hunnicutt. This lady lives her best life and it was so cool for worlds to collide as I learned I knew one of her employees from high school! She absolutely adores my friend too – again, hire good people y'all! What I found unique about Maranda was the quality of service that she and her team focus on. “Do the right thing” she would tell me. She explained how doing right by her vendors, clients, and residents led to her living her best life having cultivated trust to ultimately make her life easier. She now manages over 700 doors, all in Anderson County. It might as well be a monopoly out there based on how well they deliver their services to their clients and residents. She echoed the sentiment of documenting processes/policies early and leveraging remote team members and better software once capacity is reached as being crucial to her growth. My favorite takeaway was simply that her relationship with the residents was what separates her company from large accounts. Why? Well, I also don’t know, but I plan to find out when I interview her again on Tuesday at 1:30! 😊

So there you have it. What started with “tell me your story” and ended with “best practices for success and making money,” I feel confident that those in attendance at Southern States pulled down some helpful tidbit from at least one if not all of these panelists. And if you were not able to attend or are reading this from the outside corners of the world, hopefully you also picked up on something helpful in a few of my conversation’s highlights.

TLDR: focus on hiring the right people and implement a Resident Benefits Package to make the most money! 💰 🔐

Author: Cory Arnwine, Account Executive from Second Nature