Property Management Done Right: Transparent Costs, Tenant Screening, and Scalable Processes with Fetch PM

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Show Summary

In this conversation, Drew Weinhold discusses the unique challenges and experiences of managing properties in a digital age while working with the Amish community. He emphasizes the importance of teamwork, transparency in financial dealings, and the need for creative marketing strategies. Drew shares insights on common misconceptions in property management, the significance of thorough tenant screening, and the growth trajectory of his company, Fetch.

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
    • Drew Weinhold on Instagram
    • Drew Weinhold’s Website
    • Drew Weinhold’s Phone no.: 717-740-6537
    • Drew Weinhold’s Email: [email protected]

  Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode

  Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

  Drew Weinhold (00:00)
  Yeah, yeah, you know, we’re in Lancaster.

  Pennsylvania, so a lot of our clients are Amish. So it is very different from what you typically would imagine, but it’s a lot of our clients don’t have emails. ⁓ They don’t have cars. They use Uber. It’s a lot of snail mail. So ⁓ they really need us as a resource to be boots on the ground when they’re out farming and they have full-time jobs and they don’t have the time or the resources to communicate with tenants.

  and that sort of thing. that’s big with our clientele.

  Erika (02:11)
  Everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Erika, and today I’m excited to be joined by Drew Weinhold. He’s been making serious moves in property management with the company Fetch Home Management Property Management. Drew, it’s awesome to have you on the show today.

  Drew Weinhold (02:30)
  Yeah, thanks for having me. I’m happy to be here.

  Erika (02:34)
  So, you know, let’s dive in for our listeners who aren’t familiar with your world. Can you tell us more about your journey to real estate and how you got involved with Fetto management?

  Drew Weinhold (02:47)
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. So ⁓ I started as our business development manager about nine months ago back in February with ⁓ shockingly not a lot of real estate experience, but a strong background in business development, client relationships, and marketing initiatives. So that’s kind of how I saw the job. ⁓

  good conversation with my boss during the interview and we had a lot of the same values align and decided just to kind of take a leap of faith and here I am nine months later on on a podcast with you.

  Erika (03:22)
  That’s awesome. yeah, the you know, relationships in real estate are are so important. So, you know, I’m sure that had something to do with why you’re in the position that you’re with today. Can you share more with us, Drew, you know, what Fetch does? How is Fetch Home Management different from other property management companies?

  Drew Weinhold (03:46)
  Yeah, yeah, absolutely. ⁓ I mean, we definitely have ⁓ a strong team environment here. One of our core values is teamwork makes the dream work. we’re a team. ⁓ Every person’s involved in the process, whether you’re a current client or a new ⁓ client. One of my favorite things that we have, what we call our owner onboarding,

  client is we actually have a 10 day, 30 day, 60 day and a 90 day call, which can be a lot, but at each different phases of those, there’s introductions to our team members as a whole. So you definitely kind of get that small company feel and family feel, which is great for a property management company and you’re dealing with rentals, but that’s something that you feel it from our team when you’re in the building or you’re on the phone.

  the same goal and everyone just wants to wants to do a good job and then that’s something I love about ⁓ our culture here.

  Erika (04:49)
  Yeah, yeah, that’s awesome. When, you know, it’s part of the onboarding process and when you’re talking to clients, are there any themes that you guys are, you know, seeing that people really, really need help with and what kind of solutions do you have?

  Drew Weinhold (05:54)
  ⁓ yeah, it’s, it’s identifying pain points, you know, why are they coming to us? Like what’s the why behind it? ⁓ really getting, getting to know what is keeping them up at night. If they have a current property management company that’s not satisfying their needs, like why are they calling us? There’s something that’s going on that, that they’re not getting the service. ⁓ sometimes if it’s with self managers, it’s just, ⁓

  They’re at a point where they just need our level of expertise on how to handle certain situations. And then some are the typical, they just don’t want to put the time into it. And that’s what we’re here for too. So ⁓ we always say it’s a conversation. It’s never, or I should say it’s conversations. It’s listening and understanding them and what they need and what they need from us in order to execute the level of customer service.

  that they’re expecting and making sure that we’re fulfilling why they’re calling. ⁓ yeah, just conversations and communication with anything is huge.

  Erika (07:06)
  Yeah, absolutely. And the company, you’re out in Pennsylvania. So what kind of trends are you seeing when it comes to what your customers need or just the climate of the property management space?

  Drew Weinhold (07:25)
  Yeah, yeah, you know, we’re in Lancaster.

  Pennsylvania, so a lot of our clients are Amish. So it is very different from what you typically would imagine, but it’s a lot of our clients don’t have emails. ⁓ They don’t have cars. They use Uber. It’s a lot of snail mail. So ⁓ they really need us as a resource to be boots on the ground when they’re out farming and they have full-time jobs and they don’t have the time or the resources to communicate with tenants.

  and that sort of thing. that’s big with our clientele.

  And try to think. That’s a big one. I’ll leave it at that for now.

  Erika (08:10)
  Yeah, yeah, okay. So I have to ask, that was working with the Amish in a world that is so digital, how did they find you?

  Drew Weinhold (08:14)
  Yeah, yeah.

  ⁓ A lot of it is referral based. ⁓ they’re trustworthy. They still answer the phone. ⁓ So a lot of them we do get from current ⁓ clients. And then that’s just kind of growing with those relationships that we’re building. Now, is it as fast as far as like referrals that…

  Living in a digital world would want? No. ⁓ But it’s almost like a refreshing thing where you call someone, you leave a voicemail, they will get your call and they will leave your voicemail. So it’s a little different, I mean, from what I’m used to. ⁓ I’m sure my parents know what I’m talking about a lot better, but ⁓ yeah, it’s definitely different. ⁓

  there are certain like newspapers that that the Amish read one’s called the the busy beaver so like that’s a that’s a old school just newspaper-esque way of of outreach and yeah so we have to get a little creative with our marketing strategies there

  Erika (09:32)
  Yeah,

  yeah, and you know, are there any, you know, networking groups or, you know, anything in your area that’s been a game changer when it comes to building relationships outside of that?

  Drew Weinhold (09:46)
  Yeah, so there is one and we haven’t tapped into it a ton, but I just attended one on Wednesday, which was a our county ⁓ Lancaster investors group that it’s run by a single person and we showed up. They have different speakers.

  It’s one day out of the month, so once a month. So we did attend that this past Wednesday for the first time and we ran into a bunch of Amish that some of them were our clients, some were not our clients, some self-managed, some were clients of our competitors. So that was a really good just networking group to be a part of and be in front of.

  Erika (11:02)
  Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So true. I have to ask, you know, this this is the real estate pros podcast and, you know, every real estate pro has a moment where, you know, something goes sideways. You have to totally pivot for a client to make things work. Can you share a story like that at Fetch?

  Drew Weinhold (11:11)
  Right.

  Yeah, man i’d love to have our maintenance supervisor on here because he could probably say which one because he is the one That has to deal with all of it. Yeah, i’m still a little raw with ⁓ the property on boardings and like walkthroughs so I would say the most recent one was I got to ⁓

  Got to a client’s property, he bought it from another Amish client, one of his friends. He never stepped into the property before he purchased it. So we had no idea what we were expecting. We had no idea what we were walking into. ⁓ It smelled so bad. I thought it was like mold and there was some issues of mold. So that was kinda on my radar and… ⁓

  Learned a couple weeks later that it was not mold It was just urine from from dogs that stepped under the ⁓ under the floor. So when you stepped on the the floor Liquid would come up from underneath Yeah, pretty brutal ⁓

  And I thought it was more like that, there’s no way that’s P, but it was. So really we to get the tenants out of there. We have to rip the floor up, let it air out, redo it, remodel. So that was something. it’s just like me walking into that like nine months ago when I started, it would have been like, I’m out of here. now it’s just like, it’s kind of what I think separates our team too. Cause it’s just like, we’re…

  kind of expect that in a way, like kind of expect the unexpected and we just want to fix it. So, ⁓ but yeah, there’s stuff like that, not exactly like that, but that happens more frequently and we kind of just roll with it and get our work orders submitted. We tell the owner exactly what’s happening and how we’re going to fix it in the timeframe and get quotes and get it done, get it ready. So, that’s what we do.

  Erika (13:27)
  Yeah.

  Yep. Got a roll with it. When, you know, when it comes to, you know, working with investors and, you know, they’re, they’re new to this, whether, you know, they haven’t handed off, you know, the management to a company before, or they’re, they’re working with you, what’s like a common misconception that you see that, you know, you want to educate the investors about?

  Drew Weinhold (13:30)
  Yeah.

  ⁓ Finances is big. There’s a lot of hidden finances and maintenance that goes into a rental property, I would say, one, a lot of them think that if they hire us that all their maintenance is taken care of and it’s like free, which is crazy. But that’s kind of what they think. And then just…

  Getting stuff up to code and keeping stuff into code, there’s expenses that go into rental properties and tenants kind of abused rental properties, which you meet people that are warmhearted all the time every day. And at the end of the day, they could still beat up a rental unit and the owner’s gonna have to pay for it and fix it. So it’s just kind of being transparent with those things. ⁓

  One thing we don’t do is we don’t hide any financial charges. We get approval for just about every quote and also review financial statements with our clients so they know exactly where their dollar’s going and why it’s going there with photo proof. But I think sometimes them buying a rental

  investment property they might not know all the expenses that could go into it to to get it up to speed and something as simple as depending on the municipality that they’re in just paying a rental registration fee that could be four hundred dollars in one municipality and zero in another and they have to pay that every year which they weren’t they weren’t expecting when when they bought the property.

  Erika (16:24)
  Yeah, yeah. How do you, you know, streamline or smooth, you know, out that process for your clients?

  Drew Weinhold (16:33)
  A lot of that’s done in our onboarding ⁓ We just kind of ⁓ similar to how I just did it straight up explain it ⁓ What what the expenses are saying? Hey, we will take care of your rental registration and We will let them know what the fees are and what that looks like ⁓

  Yeah, I mean, there’s it’s really just being transparent. We try to get everything up front. So the expectation is is there from the beginning. ⁓ So they know about it up front. It’s a discussion up front and then we get approval. So that way it’s it’s kind of it’s remotely their decision unless it’s code. Then we have to, you know, be in compliance. But but yeah, it’s it’s it’s conversations and

  reviewing quotes and what it’s going to take to get that done. ⁓ Streamlining the finances, we do ask for a reserve fund upfront, which is the owner’s money ⁓ that helps us pay for those expenses so we can keep moving and ⁓

  get those things taken care of. So we set it at a minimum amount and then say when we collect rent for the owner, we replenish that reserve fund. So that helps us keep moving ⁓ as far as processes go.

  Erika (18:01)
  Yeah, yeah. And also with processes, you know, what’s what’s it like for you when it comes to screening tenants?

  Drew Weinhold (18:10)
  So I don’t do a ton of it, so I probably can’t speak the best like property managers or leasing agents, but ⁓ we have everything done online. all tenants have to submit a background check. We check their credit score. ⁓

  We check their income. So if they don’t meet our requirements, then we don’t approve them. So there’s no exceptions around it. It’s very black and white. ⁓ So it being black and white makes it a lot easier in that regard. ⁓ It’s not, well, you…

  whisper down the lane where we placed one tenant and they said we helped them out. It’s just that every tenant we place has the same requirements and those requirements are in place to make sure that we have someone that can afford it, not just the rent, but can afford the rent plus their everyday lives. So if they don’t meet the qualifications, it’s a big reason why we don’t evict a lot of the tenants that we place. ⁓

  So it helps.

  Erika (19:28)
  Well, Drew, let me ask you this. What’s next on the horizon for Fetch?

  Drew Weinhold (19:35)
  ⁓ Growth I would say I think we’re coming into This is the year that we’ve had the most growth in our company I would say in units and indoors and I think a lot of the things that we’re doing we’re doing in in order to scale at a productive level at a customer service level, so You know, we’ve been having a lot of meetings even you know, I’ll give credit

  it

  to our team. Our team works a lot of Saturdays and ⁓ constantly improving. ⁓ Another one of our core values outside of the teamwork makes the dream work is

  Learn today and achieve tomorrow. So essentially what that’s saying for us is if we mess up, it’s okay as long as we learn from it. And even when we are succeeding, we can still get better. So there’s a hunger about our team that wants to keep improving, which is, which is really cool. ⁓ it’s really fun. I think I tell our team, I think they’re a little too hard. Like we’re a little too hard on us ourselves sometimes, but, ⁓ yeah, just kind of getting a plan in place.

  getting all this stuff kind of ironed out for 2025 where are you kind of doing and Implementing some of these things to improve and really hit 2026 Hit it strong and and and see see where we can go

  Erika (21:05)
  Absolutely. Well Drew, before we wrap up, if someone wants to reach out, connect, maybe they need help with the property in your area, what’s the best way for them to reach you?

  Drew Weinhold (21:17)
  ⁓ honestly, email me. ⁓ My email is drew.w at fetchpm.com and then my,

  number is 717-740-6537. You can follow us on Instagram. It’s fairly new, so we would appreciate the followers. It’s fetchhomemanagement is our handle. But yeah, also check out our website, www.fetchpm.com. There’s also a handful of blogs up there on our website that kind of explains our processes. So if you’re a self-manager or an investor, ⁓ there’s a lot of things that we offer on there that is,

  pretty vulnerable on some of our processes so you can kind of read how we handle certain things like owner draws and that sort of thing.

  Erika (22:07)
  So well, Drew, thanks again for being here, sharing your story, your perspective and all that’s going on at Fetch.

  Drew Weinhold (22:14)
  Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me.

  Erika (22:17)
  And for our listeners, if you got value from this episode, make sure that you’re subscribed to the Real Estate Pro Show. We’ve got more conversations coming up with pros like Drew, who are out there building fantastic real estate businesses. We’ll see you on the next episode.