Avenues to Property Management Growth: Q & A with Alex Osenenko

The Property Management Show has been on the air for about two years, and each episode inspires a lot of feedback from listeners. There have been some questions along the way as well, so on this episode, host Alex Osenenko is answering some of the specific questions that listeners have submitted. Alex will use his experience and expertise to answer these questions, and you’ll notice they apply to nearly all property managers and small business owners.    Background: Alex Osenenko What makes Alex uniquely positioned to answer these questions? He has spent the last 10 years in the property management industry, and the last six of those years as an entrepreneur and business owner. He has scaled Fourandhalf from being a garage business with 0 employees to a thriving company that currently employs 27 people and continues to grow. In addition to this experience, Alex has talked to thousands of property managers at different stages of their careers. He has spoken to successful business owners, business owners that have failed, and a whole section of professionals in the middle of the spectrum of success. Alex sees the purpose of his professional life clearly: it’s to help small businesses grow. This is his passion, and the podcast serves that purpose. Here are the Questions and Answers he’s chosen for this episode.   Question 1: Struggling with Business Structure   Sam from Longmont, Colorado started his company about four and a half years ago with a few properties he took over from another management company. He got into the business because he was looking for something more stable than just selling real estate. Now, he’s managing 85 properties – most of which are high quality single family homes. As Sam has grown at about 30 percent for the last two years (way to go, Sam!), he’s wondering how to structure his company. When he first began, he was doing everything himself. That included maintenance, accounting, inspections, and showings. Most of you can probably relate to that. Once he got to 40 properties, Sam knew he had to make a change. He hired two people; one to help with maintenance and one to help with showing available rentals. As he continues to grow, Sam wants to know how to adjust to increased business. His question is whether to bring in some extra showing agents or switch to a portfolio structure and bring in an administrative person. Alex has another idea. Answer 1: The Squad Structure According to Alex, Sam is in the perfect position to continue scaling with a squad structure. For Sam, that means having a Property Manager Executive on top, who is responsible for speaking to clients. All client interactions should go through the Property Manager Executive. Below that, there is someone handling maintenance support, rentals and leasing support, and maybe accounting. So as a squad, that structure operates efficiently because there’s a single point of contact for your clients. According to expert Adam Hooley, you should be able to handle between 150 and 300 properties with a properly organized squad. So, Sam’s path is pretty clear. Take the time to spend a day or even half a day reviewing and listening to the Framework of the High Performance Property Management Team with Adam Hooley. Check out that interview, listen to the podcast, and pay attention to the book that he mentions and allows you to download for free. Put the structure together and fill it in with properties. Then, when you’re ready to build that second squad – you already have the framework.   Question 2: Turning Leads Into Business Monty from Florida has owned stock and commodity investment firms for the last 25 years, so he’s comfortable using the phone and cold calling. It’s his favorite tool to generate leads at a low cost per acquisition. Property management is a good fit because he’s been helping investors get better returns for 25 years,