Sandy Ferrera:

So drawing back on my experience, I think that most property investors have a plan. My plan was if I buy 10 rental properties and I pay them off I’m going to get X number in return and yay, I’m going to live off of that. Then you realize that maybe 10 isn’t enough so then you say, “Okay, well I’m going to buy a 100 rental properties and I’m going to pay them off and I’m going to get X number of return.”

Well, the problem is once you get past 10 – anybody can manage 10 rental properties – a 100 gets a little bit more difficult. And then you have factors like insurance and real estate taxes and normal maintenance, and you realize the number that you thought you were going to get from that property is smaller. But then you get into this business and you say, “Okay, if I manage a 100 rental properties I can get X. I don’t have the real estate taxes, I don’t have the insurance. I don’t have the maintenance and upkeep.” Now, if I manage a 1,000 of those properties my X becomes an XYZ, it’s a grand slam.

And I think that that’s what’s so appealing to investors, is they realize that, “Yes, we’re still investors,” I still investment property, I will always own investment property, I mean it’s just in my DNA. But I think we realize as investors the need for good, professional management and we also recognize the financial rewards that can be had if you’re that individual.

I’ll add something too on the investors. I think one of the reasons why this business appeals to investors as well is because they understand all of the dynamics that go into it. It’s not easy, okay? A good property manager is going to make it look easy. And for us I call it the perfect storm or a property management ballet because we make it look effortless. It’s not effortless. If it were effortless everybody could do it. But we have the tools, we have the training, we have the ability to really do this on a much larger scale. And it’s, as I said, not for everybody. For me, I love it and I probably always will. But it is a business that’s set up for high volume, it is a business set up not for turnover, and naturally you have a natural ebb and flow – I mean you have death, divorce, the occasional foreclosure. But for the most part when you gather these investors they’re here longterm. They’re looking for a longterm solution. And if you do a good job they stay with you.