Building a White-Glove Property Management Business That Wins

Tom Powers (00:00)
I actually put the staff at the top of the hierarchy and I get this. didn’t originate this, although I think I was walking this path a lot in life, but it became really clear to me.

if you put the staff first, then then you have a chance to make the customer insanely happy. And then you have a chance on down the line to whoever the investor was in a way they should be last in line if they want to just truly have a delivery back on their investment. If it’s anything adjacent to hospitality, which

Certainly short-term rental is short-term rental in fact is more in the hospitality industry than it is in the real estate industry in my opinion and so if you think about that though like Yeah, you should put the staff first because you ain’t you don’t have a prayer if you don’t have a good team. That’s excited

Quentin (02:14)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds. And as I always say, I am, I am very, very excited to be with you today. I’m very, excited about the guest that we have. Mr. Tom Powers, man, this guy, you’re talking about high level concierge service. You’re talking about doing things at a high level when it comes to hospitality. Not only that, the guy, you know, he…

He’s making some moves in tech as well, but you know how I like to do. I like to let people talk about what they do for themselves because I can come up with some eloquent words, but they’ve really got the experience. They really know what they’re doing. And I just can’t wait for Mr. Tom to give you his great insight. So Mr. Tom Powers, sir, welcome. How are you doing today?

Tom Powers (02:57)
Man, I’m doing mostly awesome. How about you?

Quentin (03:00)
I’m doing good, man. I didn’t over sell or under deliver with your intro. I was spot on with what you do,

Tom Powers (03:06)
I appreciate it. No, appreciate that. Yeah, I I appreciate that you picked up to on as from some of our other conversations that have a just a real high focus on hospitality. I’m very much in the real estate industry and management industry, but I like to think that I’m primarily coming from a hospitality industry mindset.

Quentin (03:27)
Absolutely. Yeah. You come off to me as someone that want to make sure when somebody come in contact with you, they have the best high quality experience possible that they can have. Right. That’s how you come. But you also come to me as somebody that want to serve the people that make sure that people are comfortable, make sure that people are actually getting exactly what they want. And so I love it, man. Like I said, I’m really excited to have you here. And, you know, of course, you know, people are just getting familiar with you are about to get familiar with you.

And so Mrs. Homme, you don’t mind, tell people what’s your main focus these days and also what markets you’re operating in as well.

Tom Powers (04:01)
Sure. ⁓ So one of my main focuses, I own several rental properties that across the spectrum, some long term, some short term, I mainly focus on short term stuff more and more. I’m developing a few more short term and midterm, like purposely built things at the moment too. But beyond that, I also do high level concierge property management services for people.

And again, that’s primarily when they have a home that’s also an income producing home that can be short term rented. you know, really going past just optimizing an Airbnb listing or something like that to deliver a really white glove experience for the guest interaction. Because we’re also these properties, we have a pretty high quality filter standard. These are nice places. ⁓ They’re

I think they’re actually value priced, but that still is a high price, right? I think it delivers a good value because these are multimillion dollar homes and interesting properties. still, we want that guest to have a total five diamond experience, whatnot. And then from a management perspective, I also think there’s really three pillars to it. There’s the guest, there’s the homeowner, and there’s the staff interacting with this that’s cleaning these places and stuff like that.

And we strive with our organization. We treat all three of those entities like absolute Michelin star level of respect, compensation, direction, clarity, hospitality. And I really stress on including the third pillar of that, which is the staff that helps these things happen are vital parts of it. So it’s almost kind of like a lot of things in life. If you take care of fundamentals and foundation.

Most of the other problems will just iron themselves out. so even if, for example, real quick, in a high end short term rental experience situation, it’s inevitable that some kind of action is going to occur. Some staff member can’t get there. The prior guest, something happened or just stuff goes on in general. A neighborhood loses water for half a day for some reason because somebody ran into a fire hydrant or something like things you can’t control. That guest is going to be

not happy when something like that occurs. But if you have just been over the top with like the other aspects of controllable things that you can do, then you’ve built up enough goodwill to that. You know what? The power this literally happened to me recently. Power went out in this entire community and I managed like seven places in this community. I just, you know, it’s out and once I got the news like now, man, it’s.

probably going to be six or seven o’clock tonight. Like, damn, right? Like, ⁓ man. And I mean, listen, it’s not even about the money at this point. Like, I care. Like, these people, they’re a family with kids or whatever. Like, and you got no water. It’s terrible. But I’ve got contingency plans in place. There’s some local attractions there that I keep tickets and things on hand and some gift cards. Everybody got something to go do for free and everybody got an $80 credit off of their rent to go lunch is on us, right?

Quentin (07:25)
Wow.

Yeah.

Tom Powers (07:50)
And

that just and no one had a problem with it. And we still got all five star reviews on these properties because they and every some of it even said they’re like, no, we can tell you guys are really on top of things and that this must be some kind of mistake that’s out of your control. One lady literally told it to me like that. And that made me feel so good.

Quentin (08:09)
I mean, I love it. Like I pointed to kind of before I can just sense the way you care, right? I love how you talked about, I don’t know if you say three color or three post, but you was talking about the guests, the homeowner and the staff. You know, I’ve never heard somebody mention the staff in the podcast, right? That’s the first, you’re the first person I’m hearing that. And so for me, yeah, go ahead.

Tom Powers (08:32)
Well, no, I’ll be honest with you, really. So you can you can say that I keep all these things in equal places, but that’s not really how the world works. There is hierarchical things, right? And in fact, I actually put the staff at the top of the hierarchy and I get this. didn’t originate this, although I think I was walking this path a lot in life, but it became really clear to me. If you look at Danny Schreier and those guys with like enlightened hospitality and the.

You know, they run the big restaurant groups up in New York. He’s the founder of Shake Shack and like 11 Madison Avenue, all that. He broke it down like that one time of like, you know, if you put the staff first, then then you have a chance to make the customer insanely happy. And then you have a chance on down the line to whoever the investor was in a way they should be last in line if they want to just truly have a delivery back on their investment. If it’s anything adjacent to hospitality, which

Quentin (09:02)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tom Powers (09:25)
Certainly short-term rental is short-term rental in fact is more in the hospitality industry than it is in the real estate industry in my opinion and so if you think about that though like Yeah, you should put the staff first because you ain’t you don’t have a prayer if you don’t have a good team. That’s excited

Quentin (10:15)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, man, you’re spot on. I think I heard Marcus Limonis say, he was talking about how, you know, a business owner, oftentimes they stand up on the mountainside and look down at people and say, hey, you know, you down there, we need this, we need that. He said, no, you need to be having heavier people up on the mountainside with you. That way you can propel them at a high level. And if you get a high level of perspective from them, you can get them moving at a high level, but you gotta value them.

See, you got to see them the same way you see yourself as somebody that’s very integral to what you’re doing. And so I love it, man. I love what you’re saying. And I know in this climate, it’s not always easy to have that perspective. So I would ask you, man, what’s been the key to keeping that machine running smoothly, man, to keep you focused on what you’re doing.

Tom Powers (11:00)
Well…

think you gotta have a North Star mindset of where you’re going, right? And that can be challenging and that certainly changes over life. But even as I, you know, I can see on the next chapter, at least certainly the chapter after that in my life and career, I’ll be angling into a soft retirement and getting very clear with myself on what does that dollar amount, not only does a dollar amount look like,

But also what I want to do, I’m not going to retire and just go play shuffleboard or something, so like as a gearing towards what that kind of ideal, let’s say like last third of my life, which is, you know, your time, your infinitely valuable time. And, you know, just working myself backwards from that. And where do I need to be? And so part of that is I don’t want to deal with overly stressful things.

Quentin (11:30)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tom Powers (11:52)
I don’t want to deal with people who have a cheap mindset about their own life and their own things that they invest in, blah, blah, blah. So when you do that equation in your head, it’s like, okay, yeah, I want to work with, I want to work in the top 5 % of the inventory and the people. And I want to make also, I want to then be to be able to reverberate with that, to be able to

you know, have that occur. I also have to be a top 5 % or whatever mindset person to work with. Right. And I’ve got to build an environment where that can occur and not have to be forced in. You know, I’ve walked into I’ve done a lot of consulting in my time to on several different business verticals, but especially in this management vertical.

Quentin (12:28)
Yeah.

Tom Powers (12:44)
And I’ve walked into scenarios where, these people might be having a ton of revenue rolling through, but you can walk in and just feel the stress. And then you start just digging a little bit deeper and you see the amount of turn this I got, and I can vibe on staff related things all day. I’m like, your number one problem is in the economic conditions. It’s not this. It’s not that. Let’s take a look at your staff turnover over the last 36 months. Here’s your problem.

Quentin (12:51)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Tom Powers (13:09)
So I

Quentin (13:09)
Yeah.

Tom Powers (13:10)
just think that that’s what it is is very, I’ve got a very clear North star and then everything else. That’s just what I have to do.

Quentin (13:17)
Yeah, yeah. Tom, I absolutely love it. Again, you know, just listening to you, you seem like someone who can handle adversity well, right? And so we know within business, whatever business you went, there are times when things get real, right? Maybe things go sideways, a time when you had to pivot fast. You mind sharing with us a story like that?

Tom Powers (13:37)
⁓ I invested into a tech startup that services this industry, services, the short-term real industry, before COVID and got to a minimum viable product phase of things. and was ready to kind of go to the next level and then COVID occurred. and one just for various reasons,

We just essentially ran out of money and I was also still managing properties, which if you might remember when COVID happened, of course, nobody knew what, but like three or four months later, if you were anywhere in the Southeast or anywhere like that, and you were in the short-term rental game, it exploded and which was fantastic in some ways, but the stress level was so it was just a stressful time on planet earth. Let’s just say right in 2020, 2021 and

Quentin (14:15)
Yeah.

Tom Powers (14:26)
I had to make a decision of, and I also came to a realization that we didn’t really have the right people in place and where I thought we could maybe do something with about 500 grand, we really needed, I really got broke it down and had somebody way smarter than me sort of mentoring me and say, dude, you need like $5 million to do what you’re trying to do. And it was a very sobering moment to do that because you got to really check your ego.

But I ended up.

taking that organization and entity and the little bit that we did build and merging it up into another organization that was my competition at the time, but they were further along good people too, right? And they were, they were a couple steps further along down the path to true monetization and like break even point. And they kind of needed what I had. Plus I could help in that organization. So instead of just me trying to force it to happen with me at the helm of it, I was, I relinquished it.

it up underneath somebody else to be the leader of it and to use a sports analogy. We’re talking sports earlier like, you know, punting can actually be a winning strategy, right? It might make you mad if you’re messed up on your gamble and the point spread or whatever. are you punting? know, but punting can win the game. so that’s the long story short is I made a punt and actually now that company is doing very well. And even myself and other investors were all about to be made whole on it.

Quentin (16:19)
Yeah.

Tom Powers (16:30)
And instead of grinding myself into the ground, will say, if you don’t mind me vibing a little bit, this is one of my favorite things I’m starting to tell people. all this stuff as we’ve evolved over the last 10, 15 years, which is social media and this and that. like, I’m a little bit over it with this 10 extra life stuff. This is great. OK. But I’ll be honest with you, most people would be very well for themselves and very happy.

to just 3X their life, okay? And I think people should strive because you can be better than you think you can be in all those things, but all this, you know, the Grant Cardone type stuff or whatever, like, I think enough’s enough. Just relax. Go out on the boat a little bit more. You know what I mean?

Quentin (16:56)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. No, man, that’s, I’m glad I asked you that question. Again, like I said, I like hearing your perspective, man. You’re coming across as someone that genuinely, kids, I love the pun analogy, right? Like punning sometimes puts you in better, what’s the word? I just had to talk about feel, like in better feel position. Exactly, right? And so, I mean, I, yeah.

Tom Powers (17:28)
You feel tradition. Yeah. Well, and what? Hey,

no less vibe on that. Let’s just think about it. Also, punting can be good too, because if you try to do this other play and it doesn’t work, you’re really screwed. So people have to realize it and that there’s nothing cowardice about that. There’s nothing weak about that. You know what I mean? But too many times I think I think we’ve put this this hyper alpha culture stuff.

Quentin (17:41)
Ready screw.

Come on. Yeah. Yeah.

Tom Powers (17:53)
to where, nah, you gotta just double down, you’re just not working hard enough. Like, working hard, for what?

Quentin (17:57)
Yeah, yeah. think,

come on, I think there’s a reason that punting is a play in a playbook. And so sometimes, you know, you gotta exhaust the plays in your playbook. If a play is not working, you gotta go to the next play. And there’s a reason it’s there, it’s a tool. And so you merging and you putting yourself, you know, seeing somebody who’s a little bit ahead of you and merging into that company. Now, because you’re punting, like you said, you’re about to be made whole. Your investors who trusted you are about to be made whole.

And so again, of course, let’s go for it. We can do it coach, let’s go for it. It’s only 25 yards, we can get it.

Tom Powers (18:25)
And some of them were mad at me. Some of them were mad at me.

Quentin (18:35)
But no, man, I know, you know. So again, I thank you for answering that question. That gives me, again, a unique look through your lens. And it just lets me know that this is why you’re in it for the long term, right? You’re just not dabbling. You’re in it for the long term. And I clearly see that. And so let me ask you this. What are you most focused on solving or scaling next? What’s the next real goal, Mr. Tom?

Tom Powers (18:58)
Ultimate goal, part of what we’re building with our technology company is a new marketplace for vacation rental, short-term rental homes to be a competitor with Airbnb and VRBO and the like of that, which is no small feat to try to do anything that could get any kind of market share there. so the part of that platform we built.

Quentin (19:13)
Yeah, yeah. ⁓

Tom Powers (19:19)
It’s called rentals.com. It’s just the word rentals. It’s got a Z at the end of it instead of an S. So just rentals.com with a Z. We’ve built now up to about 140,000 listings on that platform, which is really good. A couple of value props there is we don’t charge any fee at all to the guest to use the platform like Airbnb and Verbo does. We don’t even make it a requirement that people sign up with a and create a new username or profile.

because we’ve built the technology where basically APIs right over into the professional host or property managers direct booking website anyway, which these all exist. And you may know or may not know, here’s a pop quiz for you, for everybody listening to this. Pop quiz, what’s the most expensive app on your smartphone right now?

Just tell me what you think it is.

Quentin (20:06)
most expensive app.

Tom Powers (20:08)
that cost. Yeah, so so you might be able say like Amazon or something like that, but now that’s not really true. Like when you buy something from Amazon, you’re getting a pretty good price on it. And I mean, I think prime is a good deal. Like you’re not, you’re not. I don’t think with Amazon you’re overly paying. You might be spending a lot of money. Okay, now don’t get me wrong. I think I think people have gotten real wild with how they must have spent money on Grubhub and DoorDash and stuff like that. Just like come on, this is expensive.

Quentin (20:09)
Uh-huh.

Yeah, yeah.

Tom Powers (20:34)
I think the most expensive app on most people’s phone is Airbnb. If you look at Airbnb, the average transaction on Airbnb is $2,500. Airbnb charges roughly about 18 % technology fee to use that. So let’s just say it’s something like $180. The average Airbnb transaction is about 20 minutes. I don’t think it’s a great deal to pay $180 to use the internet for 20 minutes. I think if you woke up on the first of the month and you saw your phone bill from AT &T,

Quentin (20:37)
Wow.

Mm.

Tom Powers (21:00)
and you saw $180 clips in there for internet usage at 20 minutes a clip, you throw your phone at the AT &T store. You know what mean? It’s so, and I love Airbnb to some degree too. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve made a lot of money with Airbnb. I think in a lot of ways they’re an innovative company. And I think there’s a lot of great people that work there. I just think that what sadly has happened in our world is

this internet which is a can be a wonderful tool but like any tool can be abused instead of making leveraging technology to more easily connect people and the more streamline things and get it done it seems like in a lot of ways all this been created a lot of money traps. know and gatekeeping type of stuff so that’s what i think now whether that’s me or anybody.

I the hopeful future of technology for heading towards like Terminator or something like that. The hopeful use of technology is that AI and all these things it make it should in a perfect world. It should make things more efficient, less expensive and less barriers to connect people together that want to share and do things. So that’s that’s what we would like like to do with that platform.

Quentin (22:08)
There you go.

I love it. When it comes to building relationships and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you? Because you just sound like to me somebody that value relationships. And so I would love to hear your viewpoints on relationships.

Tom Powers (22:22)
I am. Yeah, I.

One, just again, all this hospitality first type stuff, I genuinely mean it. I I’m wide open. I always give people the time of day and I do even I do some high level consulting, but I always do a first consultation for free and try to genuinely help people with that, not just put them down some sales funnel. I do attend a lot of personal events like a lot of direct face to face events. I think that’s you know.

an easy win especially these days when people are so you know stuck on screens and stuff go to live events and I’ll tell you this so too I still think linkedin is a totally undervalued platform in a lot of ways I still don’t think people are using it to its full degree I’m very bullish on linkedin so from a digital aspect I do think I think you you niche the right way and really get in the right groups linkedin can be phenomenal

Quentin (22:50)
Yeah.

Tom Powers (23:14)
And then that’s what I would tell any younger person or somebody that wants to improve their status in a particular industry. Go to every event and just be a cool, fun, open person. like, love to go, like when I go to a trade show or something, I go to every booth and talk to them just as a real person and try to understand what they’re doing, you know, and sometimes I’m in the market for what they’re doing, but even if I’m not, you know, Hey, tell me what’s going on, you know, and just meet some awesome people.

Quentin (23:41)
Absolutely. Now, man, you can’t fake that. can’t fake relationships. I love the way that you go to these events. You like to connect. I love the way you look out for your investors. You look out for the staff. You look out for the guests. You look out for the homeowner. I mean, it has been just a privilege really talking to you. So before we wrap up, if someone wanted to connect with you, maybe collaborate with you, or learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach out to you,

Tom Powers (24:03)
I this is how open I am. I got a live calendar link. If the time’s open, you can book it. And it’s just really, really simple. Just meet tompowers.com.

Quentin (24:13)
I love it. love it. Mr. Tom, thank you so much for your time, your story and your perspective, sir. We definitely need more people in the space that’s doing it the way you are. And so again, man, I thank you. I thank you for building your business the right way, serving people, making connections and really making a difference. So thank you so much, Absolutely. And listen, if you’re tuning in, you know, like that. Slow this part down. If you like what you heard, you found value in it. And I know you did.

Tom Powers (24:29)
My pleasure.

Quentin (24:40)
Make sure you are subscribed. You do not want to miss out on these amazing conversations, just like the one I had today with Mr. Tom Powers. So again, Mr. Powers, thank you so much. And for those that’s tuning in, we will see you on the next time.