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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Michelle Kesil speaks with Terrell Manning and Brian Orr about their innovative approach to resident retention in luxury apartments through unique events. They discuss the importance of community building, the challenges of property management, and their plans for scaling their business model. The conversation highlights the significance of creating memorable experiences for residents to enhance satisfaction and retention rates.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Brian Orr (00:00)
Right. So so but there’s a huge play on how to get tenants and a lot less of an effort and how to keep tenants. And that was a problem that I had, you know, as an investor and I own, as I mentioned, a few apartments. So when I realized that it was not what I call static amenities, that’s the stuff that gets people there, the fancy pool, you know, the rock wall, the bowling alley, whatever it is to introduce this idea of dynamic amenities. And as I said,Terrell Manning (00:00)
Okay.Brian Orr (00:26)
The marketknows this. There’s a budget already allocated for this, but it’s put on the shoulders of people who are often real estate agents or something to that effect. They understand attracting people. They understand getting leased up. They understand all of that, but they don’t really know or probably care to know what’s a fun, interesting thing to do in December where somebody like Terrell comes up with the idea of a cookie decorating ⁓ event with spiked hot cocoa.
Terrell Manning (00:48)
Okay.Michelle Kesil (02:27)
Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil And today I’m joined by someone I’m looking forward to chatting with, Terrell Manning and Brian Orr, who are creating client experiences and micro events for luxury high rises. So excited to have you guys here today.Terrell Manning (02:37)
youBrian Orr (02:45)
Hey, Michelle, happy to be here.Terrell Manning (02:46)
Thanks for having us.Michelle Kesil (02:47)
Awesome, yeah, think our listeners are going to take something away from how you’re approaching resident retention, so let’s dive in. First off, for those not familiar with you and your world, can you share what your main focus is?Terrell Manning (03:01)
Yeah, sure. So ⁓ our main focus is resident retention and resident occupancy within the apartment space. ⁓ So I’m a chef and caterer by trade. Brian is more so of an investor. And so we put our two minds together and saw an opportunity for us to be able to create something epic. ⁓ And that is simply by hosting one of a kind events.Brian Orr (03:02)
Go ahead, Tyrell.Terrell Manning (03:29)
and luxury apartments. ⁓ Most luxury apartments have a budget for doing events, but typically it falls upon the property manager and the property manager staff to host these events. you know, they’re not event planners, but we are, and we can do it very well. And so we saw a way of ⁓ it being mutually beneficial for the property owner, the property manager, and of course, for us already being in the space to host, you know, thesewildly crazy events that are also successful and they drive retention and ⁓ they maintain occupancy.
Michelle Kesil (04:06)
Awesome! Are you guys doing this nationwide or in certain markets?Terrell Manning (04:10)
So right now we’re just in Florida. We handle a few cities in Florida, primarily Tampa, St. Pete, which is one of the most booming markets in the entire country right now. ⁓ And we’ll expand as we get there, but for now we’re focused on the Tampa, St. Pete market.Michelle Kesil (04:27)
Cool. So yeah, what brought on the idea of creating this?Brian Orr (05:19)
So for ⁓ quickly my backstory for I’ve been an investor for over a decade in real estate and small businesses for way more than that. And ⁓ a parallel world of mine I had in I was a DJ. was an international internationally touring DJ for many, many, years. So event ⁓ event planning, experiential marketing, all of this is my world. Since then, I’ve become a business coach, business consultant.Terrell Manning (05:44)
I have to send you back to like just be another copy. I’ll be working.If you want, can take off for me and just send you know.
Brian Orr (05:49)
And Tyrell actually came to me as a client, as a,you know, he has a personal brand, a huge brand as a chef, published author, TV appearances and all of this. So as our evolution from, from coach and client evolved, we kind of put our heads together and found this opportunity where we mentioned where can we serve people aside from just the standard catering. And that’s how the apartment vertical came to play. Cause I, I know apartments very well.
Terrell Manning (05:55)
Okay.Brian Orr (06:17)
I understand the challenges that owners have and investors have in ⁓ keeping their tenants happy,of course, increasing retention, keeping occupancy low. And I said, there’s a gap here, there’s something missing, and maybe we can take what you’re doing in the event planning and experience creation and applying that in the apartment vertical and solve a lot of problems for property owners and investors.
Terrell Manning (06:24)
youThank you.
Michelle Kesil (06:45)
Can you expand on what typeof problems it solves?
Brian Orr (06:48)
Sure. So like Terrell mentioned earlier, oftentimes, especially in these luxury high rises, your property managers will get some sort of budget, whatever it is, and it’s titled different things from different companies. ⁓ And let’s call it a $20,000 annual budget. So they’re sitting there and they have to allocate how much per month, more for the holidays, less for slow seasons, and so on. And the idea is that this is not a new idea from apartment owners that ⁓ we want to keep our tenants here.Terrell Manning (06:48)
Okay.Brian Orr (07:18)
Right. So so but there’s a huge play on how to get tenants and a lot less of an effort and how to keep tenants. And that was a problem that I had, you know, as an investor and I own, as I mentioned, a few apartments. So when I realized that it was not what I call static amenities, that’s the stuff that gets people there, the fancy pool, you know, the rock wall, the bowling alley, whatever it is to introduce this idea of dynamic amenities. And as I said,Terrell Manning (07:19)
Okay.Brian Orr (07:45)
The marketknows this. There’s a budget already allocated for this, but it’s put on the shoulders of people who are often real estate agents or something to that effect. They understand attracting people. They understand getting leased up. They understand all of that, but they don’t really know or probably care to know what’s a fun, interesting thing to do in December where somebody like Terrell comes up with the idea of a cookie decorating ⁓ event with spiked hot cocoa.
Terrell Manning (08:07)
Okay.Brian Orr (08:13)
And all of a sudden it’s like, wow, that’s really cool. We realize that now our property cares about us. Our managers care about us. The owner cares about us. We want to stick around here. And not only that, Michelle, it’s the free marketing more or less because the tenants in the buildings that we’ve been working with, never ending social media. They’re posting on social media. They’re bringingpeople to the building. They’re loving the building. They have new tenants coming in and they’re staying. I mean, I think it solves a lot of problems.
Terrell Manning (08:42)
Yeah, to kind of just piggyback on that, I mean, when we’ve been at some of these events, and Brian, you can attest to this, we have some of the residents saying that we’re going to stay here for additional two or three years just because our community is hosting events like this. And one of the last events that we did ⁓One of the residents came up to me and said, it’s so cool that I get a chance to meet everybody from my community. So I’m not, I’m from other countries, like, so I’m not from here. don’t know anybody here. said, but bringing everybody together for unique events like this allows me to make friends, meet new people, and then, you know, in turn build a community. And then now they feel, you know, compelled to stay there.
Brian Orr (09:23)
Absolutely. Michelle, probably know better than this, potentially the data, but what does it cost to turn a unit? How many units are you turning every year? And what is the benefit of not having to turn those units and keeping the retention? It’s huge.Michelle Kesil (09:28)
Yep.Yeah, absolutely. Sounds like a fun way to do that.
So what do you guys feel from the events that you’ve curated has been like the aspect that has made the biggest difference in the residences?
Terrell Manning (10:27)
⁓Brian Orr (10:27)
I think it’s the community, right, Tyrell, likeyou’re describing? Like, it’s the residents themselves. So yes, we’re alleviating the pain of the property manager. We’re alleviating some of the stress of them having to become event planners and manage events and ideate events, right? What should we do? ⁓ Even sourcing, we had a yoga event, we bring the yoga instructor in, we bring the DJ in, we bring the staff in, we bring all that stuff in. So they don’t have to do any of that, but.
But the value is in the resident experience. It’s how it’s titled in our category, actually, resident experiences. Because the community element, Terrell spoke very ⁓ specific to that. People come from out of town. They don’t know anybody. We have testimonial after testimonial about, wow, I didn’t know anyone in my building until this. Now I feel so much more at home. I feel this element of community. I want to stick around. I love it here.
Terrell Manning (11:07)
youBrian Orr (11:18)
What do think, T?Terrell Manning (11:19)
Yeah, no, I agree. think the residents ⁓ definitely make the apartment community. ⁓ And you can create, even if you’re not a… ⁓a luxury per se apartment, you can create a luxury experience by having these types of events. you know, when you have a community like this, you know, it breeds retention. ⁓ And so from a property manager standpoint, if I was a property manager, I know that I would love to have, you know, this concept or this idea on how I can, you know, keep all of my apartments occupied and I can keep
residents in my apartments for 5, 10, 15 years.
Brian Orr (12:04)
Michelle, had a prospect the other day that ⁓ we went and did our call with them and they said, ⁓ you know what, this is the perfect timing. We need you. We need you right now. And we’re like, why is that? Like, well, building X, we’re not gonna say the names, but building X is leasing up like crazy. And that’s one of our primary clients is building X. So the neighbors, the neighboring apartments,are feeling the impact that they’re like, we can’t get people in to the way we’re normally attracting clients, tenants, because they’re moving in over here and that’s where we are. So it’s not only that the buildings are feeling it, the neighbors, your competitors to some extent are feeling it, right? The value is there for sure.
Terrell Manning (12:31)
I mean…Michelle Kesil (12:49)
Yeah, awesome. That’s super cool. What are you guys most focused on scaling when it comes to this aspect of the business?Terrell Manning (13:00)
Go ahead, Brian.Brian Orr (13:01)
You want me take that? Okay. So as far as the growth of this business is going to go, we’re going to take over the Tampa and St. Pete market that cause that’s where we are. That’s going to be our primary driver. Once we establish that here, we do have reach out into Orlando and a little further South because I’m familiar with Florida, but Terrell is a cooks, is a phenomenal chef and has other catering type experiences besides just this vertical.Terrell Manning (13:03)
YeahBrian Orr (13:28)
And he’s spread far and wide across Florida. So we’re going to be attacking new markets around Florida. And then the big picture growth plan is to ⁓ license out or create some educational component for how we did this step by step blueprint ⁓ for other people in other cities to be able to kind of take the blueprint and run with it. We’re not going to be able to franchise or license or anything like that. But just just the platform of here’s exactly what we did. Here’s exactly what we said. Here’s what worked. Here’s what didn’t.Terrell Manning (13:31)
Okay. Okay.Brian Orr (13:58)
and then we’ll be able to hopefully share that withpeople in other cities.
Michelle Kesil (14:02)
Yeah, amazing. That sounds like an exciting thing to share with others.Terrell Manning (14:07)
Yeah, for sure.Michelle Kesil (14:08)
So what are the typical events looking like?Terrell Manning (14:12)
⁓ you know. Yeah, I think that’s the beauty of our business is that it doesn’t have to be ⁓ typical. ⁓ You know, one week we’re doing tacos and tequila by the pool with a DJ and then the next week we’re doing friends giving and then the following week we’re doing a Santa brunch. ⁓ So I think that’s the that’s the fun. ⁓ The fun part of our business is that.Brian Orr (14:13)
Anything but typical, right, Tarell?Terrell Manning (14:37)
We don’t have to be mundane. We can have these seasonal type of events. And for the residents, they don’t have to feel like something was just thrown together. Even though the property manager didn’t do anything except for hand us a check and say, take care of my residents. ⁓ The resident feels like the property truly cares about them. ⁓ And we get to do all the hard work. The property manager gets to have a glass of champagne and go home.Brian Orr (15:42)
And with Chef being on board here, ⁓ we do have like premium experiences where he does like cooking classes or ⁓ wine tasting, know, wine tasting. I’m not familiar with all of that stuff. I’ll let him speak on that, but like wine tastings and all of these things. And we’re introducing other fun ideas too. I don’t know if I mentioned it earlier, but like, you know, an acoustic ⁓ artist with, you know, like a whiskey.tasting sort of thing, bringing all of that stuff into your apartment complex. So many fun and unique ideas that most of those come out of his brain. That’s not my world.
Michelle Kesil (16:20)
Yeah, amazing sounds like some fun and exciting experiences you guys curateTerrell Manning (16:25)
Yeah, for sure.Michelle Kesil (16:26)
So is your target audience typically the property manager or who are you connecting with to create this?Brian Orr (16:33)
So we’ve been most directly, sorry, T, go ahead.Terrell Manning (16:34)
I mean, ideally.I’ll get I’ll get I ideally it is it is property owners ⁓ who have multiple properties. ⁓ Secondarily and typically our front door entrance is through through the property manager and we’re able to build a relationship with the property manager. You know, sure sure ourselves trustworthy and build a relationship from there. But ideally.
⁓ Our main connection would be with the property owners and the management group.
Because from there, we’re not talking to just one property, one property manager. From there, we’re talking to five, 10, 15 different properties at once. ⁓ And we’re growing throughout the Bay Area a lot faster than we are just with one property.
Brian Orr (17:21)
Yeah, and we hit it kind of grassroots, Michelle. Our ⁓ sales calls were literally that. We went door to door, pounded the pavement, street marketing, walked in. Hey guys, what are you guys doing for your events? How much trouble is it for you? What if there was a solution to that? And of course we often bring a ⁓ special dish from Chef Terrell, you know, as a complimentary lunch to the property managers. And we’re working up through.Terrell Manning (17:37)
ThankYeah.
Brian Orr (17:48)
in that direction, right? So we start on the ground. ⁓ The people who are making the quick and easy decisions, we break through the door, in effect, put on our first event or second event, and we’ve very quickly been growing through word of mouth. But Tarell is right. The idea is to get entry through the property manager and then up to the ownership group or management company or whoever’s kind of running the multiple properties and determining the budgets.Terrell Manning (18:06)
youyou
Michelle Kesil (18:20)
Awesome. Yeah, that makes sense. Has there been any like obstacle in this creation?Terrell Manning (18:26)
You want that one,Brian Orr (18:26)
Yeah, there’s some obstacle to.So, you know, of course it’s hard for people in any category, in any type of sales element to say, yeah, we’re gonna trust you. And yeah, we’re gonna trust you with our budget. Yeah, we’re gonna trust you with food, with feeding our residents. mean, anytime food’s involved, you know, there’s potential that 50 residents end up with food poisoning, not working with us, but you know, there’s potential, right?
So yeah, there’s a huge trust issue that you have to break down the door. So that’s always an obstacle and I don’t imagine that that will ever stop. And what we’re trying to do is figure out ways to kind of circumvent that obstacle and be able to secure trust a little bit, you know, a little bit easier and smoother and building the trust relationships I think is what conquers all. Now that’s me from the sales side of things, but Terrell, you tell me about some obstacles.
Terrell Manning (19:19)
I mean, you know, I think with any startup, right, there’s going to be, you know, some hiccups and some challenges. I mean, even with businesses, you know, that have been, you know, at it for 35 years, they still run into obstacles and challenges. So we’re not different in that regard.But I think what we’re looking for is ⁓ we’re looking for early adopters. so in building up those early adopters and getting in some more of those people, ⁓ we’re going to develop some fans. And those fans and people who love our work, who love our food and drinks and the experiences that we bring to these communities, they’re going to start to tell the masses. ⁓ And so.
We have a mentality of we’re going to be able to build this from within. But it starts with us going out, you know, talking to 100, 200, 500 different property managers, property owners, and finding those early adopters for our concept. We’re very niche in what we do. If you look up, you know, resident event companies, you probably won’t find many except for us. So, you know, we’re very niche.
in this aspect and not there’s not a lot of people doing what we’re doing right now. ⁓ And so I think because of that, it might take property managers or property owners a while to ⁓ understand exactly everything that we’re doing. We come in, we say that, hey, we can take over your entire budget and all you have to do is just sit down on the couch and watch TV. That doesn’t always resonate, you know, because in their mind, it’s never been done before. So they have to.
Brian Orr (20:53)
Mm-hmm.Terrell Manning (20:58)
fathom this idea. it takes a lot of work on on, you know, Brian and myself, in our parts to really build that dream and tell them about what life could look like as a property owner, when you have, you know, 98 % occupancy, and you know, 100 % retention rates, you know, nope, nope, no promises. No promises. But, butBrian Orr (21:16)
No promises, no promises, Tyrell.Ha ha ha!
Terrell Manning (21:23)
you’re much more likely to have those numbers with our events than you are without.Brian Orr (21:28)
Absolutely.Michelle Kesil (21:28)
Yeah,amazing. Thank you for sharing all of that.
So before we wrap up here, someone wants to reach out, connect, learn more. Where can people find you?
Brian Orr (21:37)
The company is called Bridge and Tide and our website is bridgeandtide.com and our social media, guess Instagram is our primary handle, right? It’s at Bridge and Tide. And yeah, we’d love to speak to more property owners and investors to ⁓ help them grow their businesses in whatever way. Like I said, I speak the language, I am one myself. And even if you’re not in Tampa or St. Pete and we could be of some assistance helping, know, ideate event experiences andTerrell Manning (21:47)
Yep, I bridged and tied.Brian Orr (22:06)
things like that, please feel free to reach out. then, Terrell, you wanna do your, and my primary, my personal social is at TheBrianOwen.Terrell Manning (22:15)
Yep, mine is at Chef Terrell Manning. It’s my personal page. And then all of the other communications can be on the website at bridgeandtide.com or Instagram at bridgeandtide. Brian, while we’re talking about that, you want to explain the name of the company? How it came up with it? Yeah.Brian Orr (22:29)
Sure, I’ll say it quick. Yeah, I’ll tell you quick.as I mentioned, my experience is in branding and strategy and marketing and all of that. Our kitchen’s in Pinellas County. And if you’re familiar with St. Petersburg or Pinellas County, it’s on a peninsula. And the idea is kind of threefold. So on one side is the bridge to Tampa and on the other side is the ocean. So that’s bridge and tide. Tide is about flow. Bridge is about connection.
So I like those words together. And the real subtle thing is Bridge is Brian and Tide is Terrell. So we have B and T there as well. So it’s kind of three levels. So if anybody wants to seek out branding advice, please feel free to give me a call too. I’m assuming you like those ideas. But yeah, there’s a lot of levels to what we’re doing here. We’re trying to set this up. We’re running for the long haul here. This is a great.
Terrell Manning (23:12)
Yeah.Brian Orr (23:23)
It’s a great experience. We’re having great success. Our properties are having great success. So we’re real excited for you, Michelle, and any of your listeners to please feel free to reach out.Michelle Kesil (23:33)
Awesome. Thank you guys for sharing and thank you for your time today.Brian Orr (23:36)
Thank you so
