How Real Estate Investors Can Cut Property Management and Maintenance Costs

John Daniel (00:00)
Yeah, so just because you operating properties, when you’re handling, for instance, a hundred doors, there’s always problems in those doors. Yeah. So at the end of the day, the team that handles those tickets, we are very strict on response time. This is something that we

take the most seriously. So the response time has to be within no more than 20 minutes to an hour. I would recommend it to any business. the response time, we put some KPIs and reporting tools in our admin to see which agent responds fastest the most.

Quentin Edmonds (02:05)
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds, and I am excited to be here today. I have another fantastic guest. And listen, I love what he’s about.

And him and his team and his business, they are changing the operations around property management. He’s introducing a new platform that combines software and the workforce together. And so I’m excited for us. He’s an investor. He’s the co-founder. I’m excited just for us to peek through his lens and learn from Mr. John Daniel. Mr. John, how you doing today, sir?

John Daniel (02:42)
Good, Quentin. Thank you for having me. Appreciate your time.

Quentin Edmonds (02:45)
Absolutely. No, man. And I listen, I’m glad you said that. I appreciate your time. I think time is our most precious commodity. So I appreciate your time. appreciate you showing up today. And listen, Mr. John, I am the type sir. I like to dive right in. So I would love for you to tell the people what’s your main focus these days. If you don’t mind, give us a little origin story, how you got into the space that you’re in, and then tell what markets you’re operating now, where you are in the world. So, Mr. John, sir, you got the floor, my friend.

John Daniel (03:12)
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. I’m John. I I’m a real estate investor and been so for many years. I normally invest in diverse properties, whether it’s commercial, residential, industrial, self-storage is my main niche with real estate. I also do some developments. I normally buy and hold.

this actual company but platform has been around for many years since 2012. and we normally utilize our operations of rentals and sales and renovations of properties with a combined powerful software and a 24-7 workforce. we have workforce digitally and on site.

on demand and we are nationwide the way we manage to grow very fast through the years is through our resellers partners who are real estate professionals they utilize our product our software and workforce through a subscription base so they subscribe to the platform it could be as

slow as $15 to $35 to $50 a month. And they get access to operate their units, their properties, on a subscription base, just almost as cheap as almost as more affordable than Netflix subscription. So you can operate your complete property. Not only getting you tenants, screening them, operating them 247

handling their renewal, their documents, their bookkeeping of their properties, but also eventually helping them get sell those properties. And this is what this platform is all about. Anything to do with your property, whether it’s renting it out, selling it, and also renovating it, this platform gives you everything you need in one portal. and I came up with it

many years ago where I invested in a remote property and it was a commercial building and I normally invest in a metropolitan area so it’s easier to get new tenants. but when you’re in a remote spot, you have to depend on external agents, which is real estate agents. Yeah.

and when I purchased that property, I purchased it with different services and property managers. And I saw the fees, and I’m like, there’s no way I’m gonna be profitable with this building. And it was a really good deal when I bought it. And the reason why is because the fees to operate this property is a huge property, multi-million dollar property, warehousing, office space, retail space, and to operate it with a property manager,

Definitely one of the reasons why this seller sold it to me. Yeah. but I said, let me change things around. How can I remove this property manager? Fired him immediately. nothing against property managers that are actually using our proftware. but we’re saving them money, but also saving the landlord money. real estate agents.

now the place is ninety percent empty. So I gotta rent it out as soon as possible. But the fees from real estate agents to rent it out was way too high, especially when I have to operate a commercial property, you have insurances, mortgages, different compliances, there’s elevators. there’s also front desk. Now if I’m gonna kinda rent it out and pay

Exuberant amount of commissions. there’s no way I’ll be profitable and I’ll be in a loss at the end of the year. So I had to come up with ways and I was already invested in a call center and I’m still invested in it software that manages back office tasks for different services. And I just basically asked my partner if I can just take the best.

Players from the marketing team, one from the back office operations, and just started this whole company, separate company to get me tenants, operate the actual tenants and handle all the documentation. So we started just Facebook ad Facebook groups, Craigslist. We got the property listed out, rented it out within a month and a half, two months.

And then the back office person operated the tenant twenty-four-seven. I’m talking about surveillance of the property, twenty-four-seven, troubleshooting doors, gates, handling all the agreements. So we grew up from two people, to now we’re nationwide with hundreds of people handling it in five countries, managing all the portfolio properties that we have.

So then I said, I’m assuming a lot of landlords having the same issues and they’re desperate enough to pay those high fees. So I broke down the cost, did some analysis, and I made it into a separate breakoff system of what we currently had and focused it on real estate operations and made it into a subscription model.

Which through the years we managed to lower it to now almost as low as fifteen dollars a month, depending on the different services that people need. So for many years we a lot of resellers, partners nationwide use this like property managers, real estate agents, when they don’t want to deal with the headaches of running their own portfolio, they wanna focus on relationships. Yeah. So we gave them all the tools, the software, the back office support. Now they don’t need to hire

any manpower or any workforce. So we give them those tools and they can focus on establishing relationships and that’s how we managed to grow up to nationwide. But that’s pretty much how I started. That was a long story.

Quentin Edmonds (08:18)
No, man. I love stories, brother. And thank you, man. Thank you for sharing yours, walking us up to where you are, how you got there, how you built this, the thought, the process behind it. I’m gonna dig a little bit into your story a little bit more, man. because Mr. John, I often say destiny has no wasted moments, right? We’re learning from every leg of our journey, from the success.

From the pivots, like from the losses we’re learning from everything. And so I would love to know about your journey, man, within this space, what has this journey revealed to you about yourself? Has it made you more disciplined, more humble? Has increased your tenacity? what is this shift? What is this journey revealed to John about John?

John Daniel (09:46)
think that there’s two types of people where failure creates bitterness. but I chose a different route, it definitely made me more humble, and that’s how bitterness turns into anger turns into you to a bad person, and I don’t feel you can really sustain yourself. and this is one of the reasons why I chose the different route of taking the failure into to humble me.

Yeah. And to help me connect with my team. And this is one of the reasons why we’ve built a team for that lasts for many years. Yeah. in five countries, because of the failures that we’ve endured together. So I’ve learned that the more failures I get, the more connected with my team I am because we’re depending on each other. And this is one of the reasons why we’ve created such a great, unique product that a lot of people enjoy these days.

Quentin Edmonds (10:30)
Yes, sir. Man, I love how you talked about, some people’s failure can turn them turn into bitterness. I often say, Mr. John, that failure is just fertilizer. That’s all it is, right? And if we examine fertilizer, it’s messy, it’s dirty, and actually some failure is just dung, is actually manure, right? So sometimes it can be stinky, right? so sometimes you don’t want to deal with it. However,

If you use it the right way, you plant seeds into that, it can turn things into beautiful greenery. It helps grow fruit. It helps grow trees. literally your failure, it can start off something that you do not like, that you absolutely disgust. But if you allow it to fertilize, it can bring up something that’s way past the bitterness, right?

John Daniel (11:18)
Absolutely. Be you beautiful beautifully said.

Quentin Edmonds (11:21)
yeah, yeah. I appreciate you, man. so let me ask you this, sir. businesses drives on operations and systems, right? So what’s maybe one operational thing you’ve put into place, let’s say the last two years, that’s really helped you be successful?

John Daniel (11:36)
Yeah, so just because you operating properties, when you’re handling, for instance, a hundred doors, there’s always problems in those doors. Yeah. So at the end of the day, the team that handles those tickets, we are very strict on response time. This is something that we

take the most seriously. So the response time has to be within no more than 20 minutes to an hour. I would recommend it to any business. the response time, we put some KPIs and reporting tools in our admin to see which agent responds fastest the most. That and being strict with it is

the most important thing that we have to make our product efficient and the processes work really, really smooth. When you discipline your team to respond promptly to anything, we even with internal messaging, response time is important. It’s respect to the other party, even during a personal relationship. you cannot depend on somebody and you can love live with somebody that you’re texting them when you need them.

And they respond to you the next day. and I I don’t like cut when I buy a product and they respond to me the next day. That’s disrespectful to me. That’s something that’s broken in your system. So if you discipline your team and your processes and make sure you build system and software around that, your product will always, always be perfected and improved.

within time. Because at the end of the day the customer will let if there is delays, something is wrong with your company. Yeah. Yeah. So that’s the way I look at things. So this is the something that we emphasize on response time.

Quentin Edmonds (13:10)
Man, love it, sir. Response time, man. I love everything about the analogy that you laid out. you w living with somebody and you text them we don’t respond to the next day. That’s whack. So

John Daniel (13:21)
you’re breaking up with him immediately.

Quentin Edmonds (13:23)
man. So what’s next for you, Mr. John? what what’s the next real goal? What are you looking to solve at scale next, sir?

John Daniel (14:10)
So right now, because through the years we built our model as a white label platform for real estate professionals and property managers, right now we started in March of twenty twenty six to focus more on the retail customers, our landlords. Okay.

I’m very excited because you now you don’t have to deal with the middleman. You get to know what the customer really experiencing on demand, on site. exactly what they’re going through with their tenants and what they want. so some landlords have the built-in operations that they just want to handle most things of their sales. We give them the tools, obviously.

so I’m excited about that, but I’m also excited about our supplier side, where we have a built-in marketplace that allows our landlords and also our real estate professionals to get the most transparent, most efficient way to get quotes on their services that come from their doors. Yeah. Which means we’re no longer just a platform, a software.

That operates properties, we no longer have the workforce to operate the software for you, but we also a marketplace where you can get the most transparent, most affordable prices for your services that comes out of your doors that you manage. So for instance, every tenant that shoots a video in their portal or a photo.

And it goes to our maintenance coordinators. We know exactly the problem. We have the videos. It goes automatically to about three to five service pros in the area. They get to bid and bid on this product on this pricing, so the prices are always gonna be transparent and affordable. Yeah, and the landlord and our partners get to benefit from it.

So at the end of the day, they get to know that their current maintenance people and contractors are really giving them a higher price because our bidding system allows them to see what the real price is. And they get to easily book the service pro on demand. They complete the order, they upload a proof that they completed the order through the portal.

the tenant confirms it just like they upload a prooflet Amazon delivery. and that’s how the system is built. Through a simple app, simple portal that the tenant, the landlord, the partner gets, and everybody’s talking to together. And the response time of the on demand maintenance order is done very, very quickly.

Quentin Edmonds (16:34)
I love it. I love everything about this. I love what I’m hearing. So I want to get your unique perspective on relationship. particularly around the business world, have you had business relationships that have served you well? How do you build healthy business relationships?

so talk to me a little bit, Mr. John, about relationships from your perspective.

John Daniel (16:51)
I look at business as personal. I whenever I hear somebody that says business is not personal, I don’t believe them. business is personal, personal is business, at least to me. I run I want to run a business relationship with not only my partners, my teammates, my customers, the same way I would run friendship,

I always try to respect people You earn the respect. So the way I don’t focus on what people are gonna give me. I focus on what I give the people. Yeah. And then if I don’t get it in return, that’s something I’m doing something wrong. I don’t look that I don’t look at somebody else and saying that why am I not receiving it?

I always blame myself and I say, if somebody’s not giving me the respect, something is missing. So either I need to cut the relationship off, or maybe it’s not the right relationship. Yeah. but also maybe I’m doing something wrong. Yeah. And that’s how I keep myself in check. And this is one of the reasons why I have longevity with the relationship with the teams around me. but I always look at personal.

I look at business relationship through the lens of my personal relationships. That’s the way I would want to have people respect me and depend on me as somebody that kinda runs a company. I hope I answered the question.

Quentin Edmonds (17:58)
Sir, you definitely answered the question. And I love everything that you said about it, man. I love that perspective. Mr. John, man, I truly appreciate you coming on, dropping some real gems. If someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they get in contact with you, sir?

John Daniel (18:16)
website vekser.com and all the information is there. So my Instagram handle, it’s J Y D Labs. I do have a non profit.

I have John Daniel Foundation, where I help other entrepreneurs from different diverse backgrounds in different countries. So if they want to reach out to me, that’s would be the best way. a lot of real estate professionals, property managers, landlords that are interested in

operating their rentals more efficiently, subscription base, no more share their revenue and profits, Vekser dot com would be the place to be.

Quentin Edmonds (18:51)
Gotcha. Well, sir, man, let me say three things to you sincerely. One, I’m just going to reiterate, thank you for your time. Time is our most budget commodity, so thank you, sir. secondly, man, thank you for what I call the gift of your authenticity, the gift of your integrity, showing up as your real self. I believe when we come as our authentic self, we plant seeds for people, like real seeds. And we never know when those seeds are going to take root and grow. That can happen at any given time. But the seed is there.

So I really believe, man, you planted some real seeds. And lastly, John, thank you for your mindset, man. Thank you for the way you think and bringing that mindset to this platform. I really appreciate you coming on today, sir.

John Daniel (19:27)
Quentin, thank you so much.

Quentin Edmonds (19:29)
Well, listen, y’all heard Mr. John, y’all heard Mr. J D. His information is in the show notes. So please get in contact with him. See how what he’s doing can really, really help you. So reach out. But definitely make sure you’re subscribed here. Cause I promise you, we’re going to continue to bring up amazing people just like the John Daniel. So, sir, I say thank you again for coming on. And everyone else, have an incredible day.