Help me make my PM team's lives easier!

[Maranda Tucker]

We are a small team.  3 Admin, 2 property managers, Maintenance Manager, and myself in Biz development. Over the past 5 years, certain softwares have been introduced because of past pain points and we now find ourselves working with too many software systems/tools. We all feel it may be time to re-evaluate, condense, simplify....

That being said, if you are managing 300+ properties as a company, would you be willing to share what your "tool belt" looks like? It may even warrant a phone call. I would love any thoughts you can offer!

[Scott Trench]

I'll be interested to follow this. It seems there are very few PMs who can scale materially past the 300 unit mark. 

REI Nation is one of the few that have this down, and I believe that their system of controlling EVERYTHING about the process may be a key. They actually purchase the property, I imagine that they stick to very specific criteria and locations with long-term operational efficiency as primary considerations. Then, they repair the property. I imagine that they use very consistent materials, paint, appliances, etc. and the same contractors for many of those projects. Then they sell the property, with a tenant they've placed, to investors, and collect a management fee. This seems to be a win/win, we've seen many happy investors, we know @Chris Clothier well, and they've built a phenomenal business.

I suspect that careful, long-term planning is the key to success here, and will be crucial to your ability to scale beyond a few hundred units, which seems to be an upper bound for many PMs. 

I know of no other company that has achieved similar scale to REI Nation, at least none who have managed to stick around for any comparable length of time. If you can figure it out, you will be a pioneer in an uncrowded space.