How Honest Property Managers Build Trust and Scale – With RentFam’s Nick Virovec

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Show Summary

In this episode of the Real Estate Pros Podcast, host Erika interviews Nick Virovec, president of RentFam, about his extensive experience in property management and the unique approach of his company. They discuss the importance of communication, trust, and adaptability in managing properties and relationships with investors. Nick shares success stories, insights into the Cleveland real estate market, and the future goals of RentFam, emphasizing the balance between technology and personal touch in property management.

Resources and Links from this show:

• • • Investor Fuel Real Estate Mastermind
    • Investor Machine Real Estate Lead Generation
    • Mike on Facebook
    • Mike on Instagram
    • Mike on LinkedIn
    • Nick Virovec’s Website
    • Nick Virovec’s Email Address: [email protected]
    • Nick Virovec’s Phone Number: (216) 329-0755

  Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode

  Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

  Nick Virovec (00:00)
  I think it’s by being honest about it. think when ⁓ you are looking at a deal and evaluating with somebody, I think it’s very easy because you want the business to ⁓ maybe try and frame it in a way that people want to hear it. ⁓ I think that ⁓ at the end of the day, especially for these apartment portfolios we’ve taken on, I think they’ve valued honest opinion and

  I feel like that’s one reason we got the business

  Erika (02:02)
  Hey everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I’m your host, Erika, and today I’m excited to have Nick Virovec here with me. He’s the president of RentFam. Nick, it’s awesome to have you here.

  Nick Virovec (02:16)
  Glad to be here. Thanks for having me, Erika.

  Erika (02:18)
  I think our listeners are really going to take something away with ⁓ how you’re making things work in the property management space. So let’s dive on in. First off, for people who may not be familiar with your world, Nick, can you tell us more how you found yourself in real estate and property management?

  Nick Virovec (02:38)
  Yeah, property management’s been my entire career. Again, I was telling you about 20 years now I’ve been doing it. ⁓ Found my way into it by chance. ⁓ Got a job as a leasing consultant in Parma, Ohio at a local community and tried it out. ⁓ Really found a liking to it. There’s so many facets to the business that are fascinating. So after a few years of doing just the leasing sales aspect of it.

  I really tried to immerse myself into and better understand it. And ⁓ it brought me to wanting to possibly manage communities and take on larger roles. And through the years, just taking on more responsibilities as a property manager, portfolio manager, and now with RentFam now as ⁓ president running the company and trying to grow.

  Erika (03:32)
  That’s awesome. Well, tell us more about RentFam and what you guys do in property management that sets you apart from the rest.

  Nick Virovec (03:41)
  Yeah, so we do true third party management. You know, I think our original model was for the owner of the company to manage his rental solely. And we, throughout the process of doing that, ⁓ came to understand that there was huge opportunity in the marketplace for people looking for credible management, viable management, people that I felt they could trust. So we really started to market those services and we’ve been

  heavily doing that for the past 18 months now. And we’ve been able to grow our, we more than doubled our portfolio already in 2025. So yeah, feel really good about that. I think what we do is, is we take a very hands-on personal approach. You know, we’re checking with clients often, being responsive. I think that’s half the battle in property management is, is you’ve got vendors, you have tenants and you have owners and

  Your job is to kind of put all of those things together and make sure that everybody is on the same page or trying to be on the same page with what’s going on at the properties, ⁓ you know, for tenant satisfaction and ultimately owner satisfaction.

  Erika (04:56)
  Have there been any systems or things that you’ve changed with your process over the years that you’ve learned that have made things smoother or win-win for everybody?

  Nick Virovec (05:54)
  Yeah, I think, you know, the larger the company and I’ve worked for larger companies, I think sometimes information slows down or dies at certain levels of hierarchy. So we’ve tried to value empowering our employees to be decision makers. And I think doing that has sped up information. Again, you have tenants, have owners, as I was just saying, that are looking for

  information from us, good or bad, they want the answer. So I think us empowering the people that we have working with us to do that, you know, it gives us an advantage, I feel. And that’s something that ⁓ I’ve watched at each stop that I’ve worked at, ⁓ be it, you know, ⁓ an improvement point or something that needed to be done. And so we’ve really valued that part here. Again, speed, I think, is a lot of

  what helps people try to understand like, do I like who I’m working with? Do I not? We’ve gotten contracts from people where they’ve felt that the current management doesn’t get back to them fast enough or tenants that say nobody ever gets back to me. So we try to value those things ⁓ because again, tenants pay the rent, owners buy the property that is as a service provider. Again, we’re gainfully employed when those two people are happy.

  Erika (07:21)
  Yes, yes. Do you have any success stories or testimonials from, you know, clients who came from a more difficult situation that they, you know, they weren’t happy with what was going on, whether it was a previous company or maybe they were trying to manage it themselves?

  Nick Virovec (07:38)
  Yeah, yeah. And I think there’s probably, I guess, a few types of examples. So, you know, we manage for anybody from one single family home up to apartment portfolios. And so on the smaller side for a single family or duplex operator, we’ve had, you know, multiple people in the past year that have given us the chance. And I think the theme has been similar, again, it’s communication or lack thereof. ⁓ We’ve had

  people that have come with us that have recommended us to their investor network or whoever, you know, whoever they’re talking to about their investments. And so we find that referral as being like, you know, the biggest compliment, if you will. ⁓ And so, you know, we’ve been fortunate enough to have that on the apartment portfolio side, we’ve had a few apartment portfolios come our way from previous management companies. And the

  Second, I guess, portfolio that we’ve taken on in the past year was, again, a word of mouth referral from somebody that was with the first group that we take care of. ⁓ And again, biggest compliment is word of mouth referrals. ⁓ so we take that, we value that. It makes me feel like we’re doing the right things. But yeah, those would be, I guess, the success stories.

  Erika (09:03)
  ⁓ Yeah, that’s great. For our listeners here who are investors and they’ve never worked with a property manager, a property management company, and they’re thinking about it, what do you want them to know?

  Nick Virovec (09:19)
  I’d like that. I think the biggest thing is, is ⁓ if you’re evaluating investment, I think the diligence part of it is huge. ⁓ Making sure that, ⁓ you know, that you’re maybe enlisting the opinion of somebody like a manager that that’s done it. ⁓ I don’t know that everybody has that chance, but if you do, I think that’s important. ⁓ I feel like the buying part of the process is this and the, the life cycle of it or.

  how long you have it is everything else. And that’s where the manager takes a large role in that, right? Where they’re executing the plan, so to speak. so checking with those people about it. And it could be something like a duplex, like who pays what utilities? How is that set up? Things like that that you might overlook because you’re so focused on the income part of it or what the taxes and insurance are that that margin.

  if you have to pay the utilities and unit factor that is something that could swing the deal, you could literally make it or kill it. And so, ⁓ you know, making sure that in the diligence process that you are ⁓ looking at everything and in our ⁓ opinion, enlisting our help, you know, that’s what we’re here to do. We love to be able to provide that feedback.

  Erika (10:39)
  Yeah, know earlier, Nick, when you had ⁓ given us some information before, you were talking about owners who were getting crushed by their margins and starting to question their property managers. How do you come in and help with that situation?

  Nick Virovec (11:35)
  I think it’s by being honest about it. think when ⁓ you are looking at a deal and evaluating with somebody, I think it’s very easy because you want the business to ⁓ maybe try and frame it in a way that people want to hear it. ⁓ I think that ⁓ at the end of the day, especially for these apartment portfolios we’ve taken on, I think they’ve valued honest opinion and

  I feel like that’s one reason we got the business

  most recently with this apartment portfolio was because we leveled with them and said, these costs are going up. These are not things we as the manager can control. The types of things that we can control and that we would love to work with you on, it’s vacancy, it’s ⁓ concessions, it’s ⁓ the delinquency. Those are things where management make a big difference.

  Controlling what we can control and focusing on how we can help that, but ⁓ also just being a fair evaluator and saying, look, your debt service on this, and again, taxes and insurance, that’s not something we can control. Do you still think that it’s a viable investment taking those things into account? And if so, here’s the ⁓ variable costs that we can help with and here’s how we would do it. And then we hop into those things and.

  We’re looking at contract services for the buildings. We’re looking at utility providers, all of those things we’re looking at with them. But I think that the biggest thing is being honest with the investors about that, for better or worse.

  Erika (13:10)
  Yeah, yeah, that makes a lot of sense how important that is. And it’s really fascinating to me that you work with all different types of investors when it comes to what they have, whether it’s a single family home or big multi unit. And I’m sure as you’re analyzing those situations, they’re very different from each other. How does that change with your own management strategy?

  Nick Virovec (13:37)
  Yeah, I think you have to know who you’re talking to. That’s a large part of it. ⁓ So when you are talking to maybe somebody that is self-proclaimed a newer investor, they come in and they’re leaning on you for information. They have a single family or they have a duplex, something like that that they’re looking to. They want to get into passive income. We find a lot of out-of-state investors into the Cleveland market because it’s a low cost of entry.

  cost of living here is relatively lower than in other parts of the country. ⁓ So we have people that go, I’m thinking about Cleveland and the way that they’re looking at their first deal versus somebody on the savvier end ⁓ that’s done it before, the way that they look at investments, it’s fascinating. think ⁓ as you get more into it, they know what metrics they’re looking for and they will

  some people will flat out pose you, do you think you can meet this rate of return or this criteria, meet this metric? And that’s on the savvier side. On the newer side, I think that they deal, it’s more the ideology. And sometimes it’s tougher, right? They think they have underwrote the deal well, and you are viewed as the person that’s supposed to execute that.

  And you get in there and you realize that maybe the strategy that they have is going to be harder to follow through on. And being able to talk to you about that, think the newer investor, think sometimes they, it’s easy for us to be the scapegoat sometimes, I guess is what it is when it doesn’t go that way. ⁓ I think that the savvier investors and the people with the portfolios, they almost look at us more like partners, which I really tend to love that, you know, and

  you know, they look to you for advice, they lean on the advice. For me, that’s where I find a ton of satisfaction in what we do, is you give a line of logic for something, it makes sense, everybody agrees with it, and then we execute the strategy. But I feel like the investors on the larger stuff, they view you more as partners where maybe sometimes on the smaller side, they view you as a means to an end, for lack of a better way of saying it.

  Erika (16:38)
  not playing the long game so much there.

  Nick Virovec (16:42)
  Yeah, you know, be honest about it. Not all of them, you know, but that’s what I think so fascinating is that so like on a single family home, you can and they can be within two streets of each other. The strategy for this investor versus, you know, the guy two streets over there in the same neighborhood, how they view the investment could be completely different. And part of our job is to be adaptable, right? It’s to try to

  Erika (16:47)
  Yeah.

  Nick Virovec (17:10)
  give the investor what they want in the way that they want it, but not, also do that while not ⁓ compromising, you know, maybe your value system or, know, what you think is going to make that, ⁓ you know, particular investment successful.

  Erika (17:28)
  Right, yeah, walking that tightrope there. On a similar note, I’m sure as you know, everyone loves when they can find value add with their multifamily and maybe that’s part of the ⁓ collaboration there. For you, what would you say that there’s one under the radar tweak that you’ve implemented that has ⁓ helped your clients?

  Nick Virovec (17:55)
  And maybe be more specific in what terms.

  Erika (18:00)
  Well, I guess it depends on what you’re able to do in that situation. Now, you said you were third, that you’re operating as a third party so that you’re able to do a lot more, was my understanding.

  Nick Virovec (18:17)
  Yeah.

  Yeah. Yeah. So, ⁓ you know, the term value at investment is kind of like a loaded. It’s a loaded term, if you will. I feel like, you know, in a few years past that the market was full of inventory, at least where we’re at. And ⁓ there were a lot of value at deals almost. I feel like any listing that you see nowadays, it almost has that word in front of it because it’s almost like it’s not worth looking at unless

  it has that, you know, ⁓ ideology behind it. ⁓ I think for us, you know, when we have people come to us and ask us to evaluate something, I think I try to focus more, maybe not so much on the value add part, but like, we look at we talk about fundamentals of the area. ⁓ You know, like so Northeast Ohio is it’s big driver economically is the healthcare industry.

  know, Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals are the two largest employers in Northeast Ohio. And so, you know, it’s a great base. That said, you know, in like 2018 when you had other markets that were appreciating at crazy levels, you know, you look at Cleveland and it might not be as attractive when there’s a correction happening, which could argue is happening right now. Cleveland’s more attractive. I’ve always…

  kind of called us like the slow and steady. We’re always going to like we’re a cashflow market. We’re going to get, you know. We’re going to get appreciation, but not at the level some of those other ones that are maybe more volatile happen. So I’ve always liked to call us like a market that’s good at. We’re predictable, so like when you look at the risk reward pendulum, we kind of like the sweet spot. I think people like predictability in investments, so I like to think of us as that.

  But, you know, our huge thing whenever we talk to anybody is try to be as honest about it as possible. I keep coming back to that theme, but I think that that’s hugely important when you’re, if you’re somebody that’s an investor from California and we’re in Cleveland, trust is everything. So the investor believing that we’re telling them the truth, I think is paramount. That’s what it’s all about. And if all you’re telling them is good news all the time, I would think that you would probably take caution or pause to that.

  Erika (20:45)
  Right, right. being ⁓ honest in the deal is so important. Well, Nick, I know that you have great plans for the future. So can you say what’s next on the horizons?

  Nick Virovec (20:59)
  Yeah. So, I mean, we talk about goals a lot with our team and, you know, we’ve always felt that in Cleveland, Ohio or Northeast Ohio that, you know, there is a huge opportunity in the marketplace for really good, viable, trustworthy third party management. I think I was telling you prior that a lot of ⁓ owner operators in the area do it for themselves in scale, but they do it for themselves. They don’t do it for other people. And I think that

  we can grow our business and our goal is to get to about 5,000 units or not stop or evaluate until we get to that point. So, you know, how are we going to do that? It’s going to be continuing to what we do now. Be honest, be transparent, market our services, continue to do that, get our name out there. Again, you know, being on a podcast like this, hopefully is something that, you know, helps us as we continue to go. And we are very thankful for the opportunity to do that.

  But yeah, that’s our ambition. then scale the operations in a way where there’s a, I was telling you prior, a balance of people and technology. We had talked a little bit about that prior too. I think there’s a huge push happening now to leverage more technology and property management, which I agree with, but I also feel like we’re one of the industries where it very much needs the human touch. And so I think for us, one of our…

  initiatives is going to be balancing that, making sure we do that appropriately. There’s going to be some times where you need the person and you need the people because you’re dealing with tenants and owners. They want to talk to somebody. Sometimes it can’t always be an AI bot or the response that you know was, you know, pre-generated. People want that, you know, individual human touch. And so we feel we’ll be able to grow our business if we ⁓ scale using that as a main focus.

  Erika (22:55)
  Yeah, that’s really exciting and there’s so much opportunity with that technology that is already here, but it’s essential to keep that personal touch because people do need it.

  Nick Virovec (23:08)
  I you see it not only in property management, other industries as well, right? I just there’s such a push to it because obviously can help from a cost perspective, right? I and so I try to look at that as well. I think that the types of processes that can leverage AI and technology are, you know, data driven data preparation type of things. But again, anything where you’re dealing with the customer and it needs.

  the human touch, think we would probably prefer to have a person deal with that because I think the impact on whether it be an owner or tenant is, you know, hopefully a sustainable one where they want to stick with us because they like the service that they receive.

  Erika (23:54)
  back to that honesty there, is so, so important. yep. Well, Nick, this has been great. If someone listening today wants to reach out, connect, maybe they need help with property management in Ohio, what’s the best way for them to reach you?

  Nick Virovec (23:57)
  It’s big thing.

  Yeah, so mean, RentFam.com is our website. That’s probably the best way to do it. ⁓ You know, I believe I’ve provided email and phone number as well, if anybody would ever like to talk about that. But yeah, that’s that’d be the best way to do it. And again, we, know, we’re passionate about what we do. what, you know, Cleveland’s a good market where we’re very ⁓ similar, I would say, to other Midwest markets. So we’ve said, hey, if the rate of return in another city is

  close to Cleveland’s, the thing that may swing somebody to choose us over another market could be your property manager, your operator, somebody that you are hoping to build a relationship and level of trust with. So ⁓ that’s our goal. If we’re anywhere in the neighborhood of a decision, we hopefully can help swing it our way.

  Erika (25:07)
  Yeah, that’s great. Well, again, Nick, I appreciate you being here, sharing your story, your passion. We need more people in this space who get how to adapt depending on the situation and just do their business with integrity.

  Nick Virovec (25:24)
  Yeah, and we talk about that as being one of our core values. You have to do the right thing when people are looking and the honesty and the integrity, it’s everything. It’s huge when you’re delivering a service, right? People have to trust you. So I like that you focus on that too.

  Erika (25:40)
  Yeah. Awesome. For our listeners today, if you got belly from this episode, make sure that you’re subscribed to the Real Estate Pros podcast. We’ve got more conversations lined up with pros like Nick, who are out there building fantastic real estate businesses. We’ll see you on the next episode.