From Military to Real Estate: Barron McWright on Managing Rentals the Right Way

Barron McWright (00:00)
over his ownership that’s just a little over 20 years, he would have bought the property and paid for it while it was a rental.

Michelle Kesil (00:09)
Wow, yeah, that’s really powerful.

Barron McWright (00:12)
Yeah.

So no matter what the market did in 2012, it didn’t affect him because he just kept moving forward.

Michelle Kesil (01:52)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Investor Fuel Podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil and today I’m joined by someone I’ve been looking forward to chatting with, McWright, who’s been making serious moves in the property management space. Barron, so glad to have you here with us today. I think our listeners are really going to take something away from how you’re approaching managing residential

properties, so let’s dive in.

Barron McWright (02:24)
Thank you, Michelle. I appreciate it. In a market that’s changing and everybody has an opinion, it’s nice to put your feet on the ground, see what’s going on and check in with different markets.

Michelle Kesil (02:36)
Absolutely. So first off for people who may not be familiar with you and your world, give us the short version. What’s your main focus these days?

Barron McWright (02:49)
So I’m located in North Florida. We focus on residential property management. ⁓ In my market, we have a lot of military, we have lot of just owner occupied properties. And in our market, we’re seeing a lot of those owners shifting into investments.

Michelle Kesil (03:07)
Yeah, can you expand on how that shift is going?

Barron McWright (03:12)
Well, some of it’s unintended. In Florida, we have land. Even though it may be a swamp, we have land. And so we have new construction everywhere. And with builders throwing so much at buyers right now, a lot of homeowners either cannot sell or would rather not sell. Some of them have those amazing interest rates and they would rather just hold on to the property.

And so in renting a property, just like the stock market, you don’t lose any money until you sell it. So if you can hold on to the property, the strategy in residential is the tenant can pay 75, 80 % of your mortgage over the life of the loan if you can be patient. And in that scenario, it is always a positive investment because now you put less money into the property.

Michelle Kesil (04:04)
Hmm, okay, interesting. Yeah, so are most of your clients like newer to this world or they’re longer-term investors?

Barron McWright (04:16)
So most of my customers were the unintended investors. We have three military bases in Jacksonville and there is an abundance of people that even though they know every three years they’re going to get relocated, they still like to buy properties. But for their long-term strategy as a younger officer, how great is it to be able to buy a house while you’re making your way up the ranks, be able to afford the property, and to be able to pay it off while you’re active duty?

One of my best success stories, have a ⁓ video review from one of my customers who bought in 2005 at the peak of a market at that time. He was relocated for duty purposes out of country and he’s never been back to Florida since. But over the life of the loan, he was able to refinance to a 15 year mortgage at some point.

So right now he just hit his 20 year duty marker. So he officially retired from active duty.

His kids are about to graduate college and the house will be paid for in the next year or two. So over his ownership that’s just a little over 20 years, he would have bought the property and paid for it while it was a rental.

Michelle Kesil (06:20)
Wow, yeah, that’s really powerful.

Barron McWright (06:22)
Yeah.

So no matter what the market did in 2012, it didn’t affect him because he just kept moving forward.

Michelle Kesil (06:31)
Yeah, I think that’s something that people need to be conscious of is to just keep moving forward.

Barron McWright (06:39)
Right,

and you know, maintenance comes up, we can’t do anything about that. But you know, as we get to know each other, we get a feel for each other, I can also develop a better understanding of what your goals and your intentions are. So if you are gonna be that long-term person, you know, now we’re looking at life expectancies, where we are in that life, and what would make the most financial sense when things come up.

Michelle Kesil (07:02)
Yeah, absolutely. So what does like your property management services entail?

Barron McWright (07:11)
So for me, ⁓ your property is an investment. And even though people feel a little more connected to a house, it’s an investment just like a stock, just like a mutual fund, just like a bond. And as we build a relationship, I need to earn your trust. That’s most important.

you are trusting me with a big asset. So I have to earn your trust. So as that relationship evolves and gets stronger, you now know that you can trust me to look after your property. I understand your expectations. And now we get into a nice system. We’ve got a nice bit of mechanics that are going on. And when things come up, I want to keep you aware of what’s going on so that that way, you know, you’re not totally in the dark. People like to know what’s going on with their property.

But I also want you to know that I don’t need you to tell me what to do, that you know that I’m handling it the way you would. So when I get a call, something breaks. Maybe it’s an appliance. These come up. I can say, hey, Mr. and Mrs. Owner, I got a call today. This broke. I talked to the appliance repair guy. I got a Samsung refrigerator right now. It’s more than 15 years old. It’s a nice French door refrigerator.

but the appliance guy’s like, it’s probably a free on leak. He’s like, I can go out there and I’m happy to charge you a fee to go out there, but it’s 15 years old. What are the odds that it’s gonna make sense to repair that refrigerator? So now I can go to the owner and again, being timely about it and saying, hey, Mr. Owner, do you want me to send out the repair guy or do you just want me to look at finding a new refrigerator? And that way the owner can make the decision. If the owner’s like, hey, I just spent a bunch of money this month.

Let’s see if we can band-aid that refrigerator and just push that off. I get it, things happen. Or you say, know, Barron, I get it, we got a really good life out of that refrigerator. Let’s just count it and keep moving on. And we can set up a new appliance. You know, same thing with roofing. You know, sometimes we can repair it or sometimes our friendly insurance is gonna come in and say, hey, you’re that 20 year marker. I need a new roof. You know, but I have the vendors, I have the contacts.

so that way we can be efficient, we can use your money well, and again, as we build trust, you’re not always second guessing why we did what we did.

Michelle Kesil (09:39)
Yeah, that’s super valuable. So what has been the key to keeping that machine running smoothly?

Barron McWright (09:49)
I make myself available. ⁓ Some people, you can Google my name and you can find my phone number. ⁓ Some people don’t like that, but you know, my phone, doesn’t, people don’t call me just to call me, but people like knowing they can get a hold of me.

I have a maintenance team. use a service that helps coordinate the process of maintenance, but I’m still involved in the process. But it does allow me to have more time to do other things and they can take care of coordinating the process. That takes a lot of time. ⁓ I have an office assistant that can take care of things in the office. And as she knows me and she understands me, just like I understand the customer, she’s able to take responsibility and take some of those things.

you know, onto her plate so that that way ⁓ I can focus on the customer, I can focus on the property. And I have a team of vendors that are out there. And as they know me and they’re like, hey, Barron, I went into the property today and something didn’t add up. fantastic. That’s great. Now let me see if I can find out what’s going on with that property. ⁓ You know, so when I use the same vendors, they know my expectations. So when they see something, you know, people get pretty for me.

When I come in and I’m doing an inspection, everything is cleaned up. But when the repair guy comes out, oftentimes they don’t. So now we can see things in more of a natural setting. Does it need attention or maybe they’re just not as tidy as we would like them to be? You know, we want to get an understanding of the tenant. And that’s where, you know, even though the tenants not always honest, I want the tenant to know they can call me. If it’s a silly question, they tripped a circuit breaker.

they tripped a receptacle, I encourage them to call me. I have maintenance videos on the website. So if your garbage disposal is humming, that means you jammed something in the disposal. Well, I made a video for that so people can watch the video and see what needs to be done. And we’re not wasting days to get a maintenance person out there to take a look at.

Michelle Kesil (12:30)
Yeah, that is very valuable. Awesome. So let me ask you this. Every operator I know has a moment where things got real. Maybe a deal went sideways or you just had to make a fast pivot. Yeah, would you mind sharing a moment like that for you?

Barron McWright (12:56)
So I’ve managed rentals for about 17 years. So over the years, I’ve had a few things that have come up. ⁓ I had a tenant that fell through the ceiling. That was a fun experience. I also learned a lot that your S corporations and some of those things may not protect you as well as you think it does. ⁓ Insurance is key having good coverage. But that was a fun experience. Apparently, they didn’t realize that sheetrock was not structural.

Michelle Kesil (13:07)
Wow.

Barron McWright (13:24)
So when they put two feet on it, it didn’t quite work out very well. ⁓ I’ve had tenants that were growing marijuana in a closet. So you’d never see it until you did. ⁓ You know, we’ve had evictions, you know, but I do my best to avoid them. There’s no reason to do an eviction if everybody can communicate. But sometimes you get people. I had a gentleman years ago, he was in finance and he’s like, I dare you to evict me.

Well Florida the notice of non-payment at the time was a three-day notice. I’m like don’t do this. Please do not do this. I had them out in 27 days. Now today the CARES Act is in effect if you have a mortgage so we can’t always do a three-day notice but Florida is still a very owner-friendly state. So when you have those things come up you learn from them and that way we can make sure we don’t repeat it. Our leases today have more protection if a tenant were to go in the attic again.

There is some protection there today that wasn’t there previously. I work with an attorney that’s one of the biggest in the state for landlord tenant law so that that way we can keep our owners protected. ⁓ We inspect our properties that move in, move out and during the process. I teach property management classes with the Realtor Board to help understand, but it also teaches me some of the details better. So that way I can give a better experience, but then

We can also make sure that some who are not a property manager aren’t leading owners’ districts.

Michelle Kesil (14:58)
Yeah, that’s really important stuff.

Barron McWright (15:01)
Yes,

yes in property management while people don’t like to know it, there is unlimited liability when you make certain mistakes.

Michelle Kesil (15:10)
Yeah, that’s good to know. I’m sure, yeah. Awesome. So what are you most focused on solving or scaling next?

Barron McWright (15:14)
and that gets expensive.

So for myself, ⁓ I was born in Jacksonville, Florida. I’m very ⁓ vanilla. I’ve lived in Jacksonville, Florida most of my life. ⁓ But as we’re seeing a shifting market, as I get around the state quite a bit, I’m expanding into covering other parts of Florida and getting to become a Florida management company. There’s a lot of, like I said, there’s a lot of realtors out there that are not property managers that do some things very careless and owners may not know.

There’s a lot of things they cannot do. Florida Realtors put out a post in March that there’s no such thing as an attorney approved lease. If we are editing the lease that is considered practicing law. There is only one lease in the state of Florida we can fill in the blanks and that’s not always the best lease to use for our owners protection. But if you don’t know that, you don’t know that. And that’s where, you know, helping teaching, helping the education, but even going into other markets and getting bigger.

You know, we have a lot of people that moved to Florida and then they’re like, this isn’t what I thought it was. It’s not always, you know, Magic Kingdom and Universal Studios. Maybe I don’t want to live in Florida. Maybe Miami wasn’t what I wanted to live at, you know. And so they’ve got these properties and they need someone who’s competent that can help them with their properties. And, you know, that is our targets moving forward as we see a market for resales becoming tougher.

more and more people are gonna have to rent. And they need somebody who can handle the process, who can be their partner, and help them, whether it’s for a couple of years, or whether it’s for the next 20 years. You need that person that you can count on.

Michelle Kesil (17:53)
Yeah, that’s big. I’m sure people really need that support when they don’t fully understand the scope of what they’re getting into. Awesome. So what is the next real goal for you?

Barron McWright (18:02)
Yeah.

Next goal. So I just signed my first property in a new city ⁓ earlier this week. And so it’s a more rural city that I wasn’t planning on going to, but the person reached out and they just weren’t happy with the options in their market. So now it opened up a market I wasn’t looking into, but it’s a good place to start. ⁓ In North Florida, we have Jacksonville Orange Park and St. Augustine, which are kind of the metropolitan of Jacksonville.

But as you go further south, have Palm Coast, we have Daytona, then you get into Orlando and Tampa, then you get into Canaveral where Kennedy Space Center is. For me in North Florida, a lot of those destinations are only two to three hours away. So it’s not overly difficult to start having some different markets. ⁓ My goal would be to centralize in Orlando with a main office in Orlando.

and now much more of the state is easier to access. Now mind you, I can’t do that all by myself. ⁓ So as we’re working with other realtors that maybe aren’t selling right now to get into property management, to have someone that can help them make that transition. And now it’s people that are in different locations that are able to run the process. I’m not a fan of self-showing. There’s a lot of liability that people don’t know in self-showing.

I do not want a person walking into a property unoccupied. That’s just asking for problems. So I want a team that’s big enough to be able to show these properties. I have always shown properties. I like to meet people. And from the start, I want them to see that I’m a person.

Michelle Kesil (19:56)
Yeah, sounds like you’re ready to really grow and build those right relationships with the right people. Amazing.

Barron McWright (20:03)
Yeah.

Michelle Kesil (20:06)
Now I know a lot of people who listen to this are either earlier on in their journey or they’re just looking to level up and I think they’d benefit from hearing this when it comes to building your network and growing more relationships. What has been the biggest difference for you? What has made that difference?

Barron McWright (20:33)
So over the past year, I’ve been a little more active in some of that. I’ve done about 70 videos. I did a name change earlier this year, so I’m going back through some of the videos. So if anybody goes to the website, they’ll see that. But I’ve got about 70 something videos right now on the website. I’m constantly adding more. I’ve got eight or 10 that are in production right now. There’s so many things that come up. We could talk all day.

But nobody wants to listen to an eight hour podcast all at one time. But there’s so many questions. And while there’s a lot of black and white and property management, the funny thing is most of what we do is in the gray because the rules are not always what we get to follow. And sometimes we have to adapt. And so we’re in a changing market. There are things going on. People need to know. And, know, in single family, it’s the long term hold that really brings the reward.

There are plenty of people online that talk about certain metrics and how you can buy a couple of rentals and make a bunch of money. Well, yeah, that’s possible. But what happens when you factor in maintenance and vacancy and a couple other expenses, those margins disappear very quickly. Whereas when you’re looking at it as a long-term hold or you’re looking into a multifamily product versus a single family product, now things change. And those are very important questions. In 2006,

because of what was available, too many people bought beyond their means. And we see what happened from that market. Today, that’s harder to do, but as a market changes, if somebody’s overextending, that can still cause problems. So we want our venture with every one of our customers to be successful. I’m not here to give you a false expectation. I want you to know how the process works. I want you to know what to expect.

I want you to know that I’m going to be honest with you, whether it’s good or bad. I’m going to tell you the truth and we’re going to get through it. But as long as we can talk, as long as we can communicate, there is nothing we cannot overcome in property management. And that’s why I feel communication is so important. Questions are there. I invite questions. I get customers, this is their first rodeo all the time. Go ahead, ask me a question. I promise you’re not going to stump me.

I may have to do some digging to get you an answer, but usually the questions I get are the same questions that everybody asks. So I invite people, look at my website, look at my videos, Google me, send me a message, I don’t mind. You know, we can talk, we can answer your questions, and the goal is if we’re a fit, then let’s work together.

Michelle Kesil (23:21)
Amazing, yeah that is so important. So alright, before we wrap up here, if someone wants to reach out, connect with you, maybe collaborate or learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach you?

Barron McWright (23:38)
So if you want you can Google me Barron McWright ⁓ You’ll find me ⁓ the website is McWright PM calm. That’s McWright property management ⁓ You can find me on LinkedIn. You can find me on Facebook You can find me like said just Google my name. You can find me just about anywhere The YouTube channel is McWright PM I have tons of videos that are on the YouTube page and I always have new stuff coming out

And then of course, those are also listed on the website as well.

Michelle Kesil (24:10)
Perfect. Well, listen, I appreciate your time, story and perspective. We need more people in this space who are doing things in the right way. So thank you for being here. Yeah. And for those of you tuning in, if you got value from this, make sure you’re subscribed. We’ve got more conversations coming with operators just like Barron who are out here building real businesses. We’ll see you all on the next episode.

Barron McWright (24:21)
Thank you for having me.