Property Management for Real Estate Investors: How to Protect Your Rental Profits | Ashley Herring

Ashley Herring (00:00)
when it’s a good process, you can be more proactive. So that’s making sure that you set the client up for things that they’re interested in doing, or you you say, Hey, let’s do an AC maintenance or let’s do a dryer vent cleaning, let’s do a lot of preventative things so that our team on the back end isn’t responding and reacted.

reacting to all of these major issues and you’re not having to pay extra, you know, on those late night emergency calls or, you know, that that’s what’ll kill you know, between vacancy and overcharging on maintenance and and lost, you know, percentage on maintenance, that can kill a rental.

Joseph Crooms (02:10)
Welcome to Investor Fuel Real Estate Pros Podcast. I’m your host, Joseph Crooms and I am here today with Miss Ashley Herring. someone I’ve been looking forward to chatting with. And she I’m gonna I love to have my guests explain what niche a real estate that they’re in. And so I’ll give it over to her. And but before we do that, Ashley, say hello to everyone.

Ashley Herring (02:38)
Hey.

Joseph Crooms (02:39)
All right, good. So so first of all, for people who may not be familiar with your world, give us the short version. What’s your main focus these days?

Ashley Herring (02:49)
Great. Well thanks for having me, Joseph. My main focus these days are tenants, toilets, and turnover. I am in the the the world of property management here in Central Florida.

Joseph Crooms (03:01)
Okay. And what is the name of your business?

Ashley Herring (03:03)
Remi Emerson Residential.

Joseph Crooms (03:05)
And how long have you been operating? How long have you been a residential property manager?

Ashley Herring (03:11)
I have been on the business development side for around four years, but I have been in property management since ten years since 2016 as a working in operations and on the sales side.

Joseph Crooms (03:23)
Okay. let me ask you this. you already told me you market are are you just in Florida? That’s it is is that just the area that you’re marketing or have you been looking to branch into other areas?

Ashley Herring (03:34)
Not yet. We’re we’re just right here in Central Florida. So there’s you know, a couple counties that we cover and it’s a pretty wide, you know, range all the way from Disney to, you know, past Disney to the airport and out to the beach. So it’s a pretty wide range. Maybe one day we’ll be nationwide or in another market. Who knows?

Joseph Crooms (03:53)
Okay, so let’s talk about this. Let’s talk about your industry, especially I happen to know a little bit about Florida. so property management, wow, it it can really be important, but how do you solicit your business?

Ashley Herring (04:06)
That’s great. We solicit our business via realtor relationships as well as other relationships within the community. So one thing that has done really well for me is just nurturing relationships because it’s easy to build the relationship and building a relationship with someone who is gonna refer business to you, but you never know who owns a property. So anybody can be our client and anybody can be.

some sort of a connection piece to our next client. So we solicit a lot through, you know, social media, through being in the community. And we really try to meet our clients and our our leads face to face too, to build that relationship.

Joseph Crooms (04:47)
So you’ve been into this four years basically in sales. So how long have you been on this part of the business that you’re operating in now?

Ashley Herring (04:54)
I’ve actually been on this side of the business for four years. And funny enough, I never thought that I would like sales. I’m an introvert. I was not interested in sales whatsoever, but operations taught me all the tools that I needed to know. And then the great thing about being in the industry is you’re building relationships with people who are already doing it. And once you build that trust, you

you that’s where you find partnerships and that’s where a lot of my deals have come from is from partnerships, whether it’s you know me personally investing or connecting people to to be to be have an investment partnership there.

Joseph Crooms (05:35)
So you talked about your personal investments. What would you say your book of business is on a volume basis in the last year for property management, but when you also had the opportunity to invest, what would you say your personal book of business is?

Ashley Herring (05:52)
Well, it’s been a tough market out here. I’m just gonna be honest. I still have some homes and one of them is not performing that great out here in Osceola County. So it’s about it’s about an hour, 45 minutes from the Orlando Airport, which is a great location to have a rental property due to you know, having a major hub there. another one is in a smaller town and it’s performing great and it has since you know eight years now.

So we I have another one that we had a fiveplex that we sold off last year that did really well. but I personally have not been in any deals recently. but we’re looking, we’re always looking to somehow some have some sort of partnership. But in Central Florida but between the taxes and the interest rate, it’s been a challenge for sure.

Joseph Crooms (06:42)
Actually, man, actually s also s on the on the side of property management, what do you say your your your book of business is like?

Ashley Herring (06:48)
We have a great client base. I think the the key to successful property management is really having a great process and having communication, especially in this industry where, you know, margins are thin, like I mentioned earlier. So they want to make sure that there’s a there is communication, there’s partnership, they they understand that we feel their pain. And if they have questions, we’re not overcharging for, you know, an AC repair or

We’re placing the right tenant, you know, things like that. So I think that what’s really helped us be successful is communication that’s not through a computer. I know that sounds crazy, but it’s true. It’s really that simple.

Joseph Crooms (07:31)
So you like how much is it commercial, how much versus residential?

Ashley Herring (07:35)
Great. Yeah. We only do we only do residential. So we don’t have any multifamily just yet, but we’re looking to grow. We mostly have townhomes, condos, and single families here in Central Florida.

Joseph Crooms (07:48)
Do you work with HOAs?

Ashley Herring (07:50)
We do not work with HOAs. That is a whole nother beast. No, we sure don’t.

Joseph Crooms (07:55)
So are you looking to break into that market or you know, so how how many residential homes do you have on

Ashley Herring (08:02)
We’ve got about a hundred and fifty. We’ve got about a hundred which is small. A lot of management companies have a lot more than that. So we’re we’re what you call a boutique property management company.

Joseph Crooms (08:12)
What’s been the key to keeping your machine running smoothly?

Ashley Herring (08:16)
I’d say the key has been staying involved in what’s going on in the market. Because as a as a property management company, I think people just think that we collect rent, we fix things, and then we send money to the owners, and that’s it. There’s nothing else. But that’s not true. We’re involved with helping our current owners find other deals. We’re involved with helping them understand whether or not they should sell in a year based on how their margins are and

And how maintenance is going and how the market is. we understand you know, creative financing. We partner with other companies that educate us so that we can listen out. So when an owner tells us what’s going on or what their goals are, we know, hey, let me put you in touch with so and so. You guys can have a conversation and see if it’s a good fit. So I think that you have to do that in order to be a value add and to set yourself apart from.

the competitors ’cause like I said, with the realtors and then of course the other property management companies, there’s a lot of competition and we gotta show them why we are better than the rest.

Joseph Crooms (10:09)
Let’s talk about that that unique niche that you mentioned. that’s new to my ears. how has that been working for you guys?

Ashley Herring (10:17)
It’s been great. We hold CE classes for realtors. So we educate them on what they can do if a client has an expired listing or if someone comes to them and they say, you know, I’m interested in turning this into an investment property because I wanna I’m moving or I’m thinking about selling it. And a lot of realtors they don’t specialize in that. And it’s just like how you kind of need a team, you need an attorney, you need a good CPA, you need, you know, you need a team to help you.

manage your rental portfolio and we’re just a piece to that puzzle. So we really educate the realtors and let them know, you know, let us do a cash flow summary for your client. Let us have a conversation together to help them understand if it’s even if it’s even something that they should entertain.

Joseph Crooms (11:05)
Wow, so your company has become a go to place or organically. Would you say that?

Ashley Herring (11:11)
Yeah, because when we when we’re on social media and we’re doing all these things, it’s not just about you know the basics that everybody knows. that’s easy. You just like I said, you you just knock on the door and give them a call and say, Hey, where’s your rent? That’s it. it’s it’s way more than that. We, you know, we met with a client recently that had, you know, several properties, and you know, that’s where we talked about, okay, well, here’s the rents now.

You know, what are your goals? How much do you want to invest and save up for reserves? And what does that look like in five years? Let’s let’s talk about that. Again, it’s not just, yes, hire us. We’ll take care of you and we’ll take care of your client. It’s way bigger than that.

Joseph Crooms (11:52)
So actually when someone when you introduce the investment, how do you guys capitalize off of that? I mean, I’m pretty sure that you have to turn over to someone else, but how does that translate into to c money for you guys?

Ashley Herring (12:08)
Well, obviously we want them to be a client. So if we’re working with local realtors, typically they’re gonna be selling and and work working with clients that are buying and selling here in locally in Central Florida. And so of course we’d like for them to use us as a management company. But if not, we understand, you know, we’re not a fit for everyone and we can’t expect that to be the case. We’re gonna get no’s and that’s fine, but at least they’ll know that are

transparent, we know what we’re talking about. We are there to help and be resourceful or provide resources to them. And sometimes a client might say, you know, I’m maybe I want to self-manage or can you just find me a renter? And we don’t offer that service. So it’s totally fine, but at least we build that trust. So that way down the road, they can either refer us, which they do, or when they buy another property or or

Hopefully this never happens, but when the DIY self managing goes, you know, awry, they’re gonna call us because they trust us.

Joseph Crooms (13:12)
Hmm. So actually you know, the I always mention this. There’s a time in your business that things just don’t go the way that you planned. Would you mind sharing one of those moments with us in your industry?

Ashley Herring (13:26)
goodness, yeah. I think mostly it’s when you place a renter that doesn’t do what you had hoped they were gonna do based on their screening, right? And it’s gonna happen. It and it’s inevitable. Everybody’s gonna have an eviction at some or every property management company is gonna have an eviction at some point, but you really have to know the process. And so, you know, we’ve had evictions where

They’ve done significant damage to the property. But I think the important thing in any industry is you are willing to grow and willing to learn, willing to own the mistakes and be fair with it and make the corrective action. So if that does happen, then that’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna, you know, take action quickly. But in the meantime, you know, we have to stay current with the laws and educate ourselves and it and attend training and things like that. But we’ve

Definitely had I’ve seen a lot of evictions unfortunately and it’s just the nature of the industry. But the the best thing that you can do is quickly recover it and handhold the client and communicate with them and let them know, look, this stinks. I’m sorry that this happened, but we’re here to help.

Joseph Crooms (14:39)
So you the eyes and ears also. So what happens when a person you see that they’re they’re not taking care of the the the property? What is your respon what do you feel your responsibility to your client?

Ashley Herring (15:31)
Yeah, that’s a great question. That’s that’s one of you know, we one of our core values is to protect the asset. You know, we we have to protect the asset. And, you know, another one is is be compassionate to everybody. So there’s that fine balance of, you know, laying a firm hand, but also being compassionate depending on what it is. So, you know, again, it goes back to communication. I’m a huge advocate for overcommunicating. And and what that means is, you know, making sure that we’re visiting the property on a regular basis.

So that we can set the right expectation and correct it right away. And then also, you know, working with vendors that you that you trust and that will come back to you and say, hey, listen, you know, I know there wasn’t on the work order, you said there was no dog, but there was a dog. And instead of just saying, I don’t want to deal with it, the tenant pays on time, you know, what some self-managing landlords would do, don’t want to, you know, ruffle any feathers. That’s not the right thing to do. So you go in and you take corrective action. But

You know, there is a process you have to follow with it. And there’s been there’s been a lot of situations like that. I used to work in multifamily and and that’s really where you see a lot of, you know, challenges and things that are going on in the apartment are not outlined in the lease. And so you gotta correct it.

Joseph Crooms (16:46)
So I s when you deal with the lease, do you guide the the landlord or are you sort of like a a liaison between the tenant and the landlord? Do you find yourself being in a liaison position?

Ashley Herring (16:59)
So the way that we operate is we are we try to do everything for our clients. And what that means is we, you know, a lot of our clients aren’t even local. And so some of them haven’t even seen the property. So we have to be the eyes and the ears and the person, the the go the go to for the tenant. So if the tenant has a maintenance issue, an emergency, whatever it is, they come to us.

So we don’t involve the owner client for anything unless there’s major repairs or they want to have, you know, a conversation about what’s going on or maybe some potential renovations. But we are we do everything from from start to finish. So we’re out there marketing the property, we’re pushing it out to all social media sites and rental sites, we’re we’re qualifying that renter and and making making sure that they understand the terms of the lease and we’re managing it for 12 months or more.

Joseph Crooms (17:55)
Are you part of the upper management team?

Ashley Herring (17:57)
I’m a business development director, so I guess I don’t know what what that is. We’re a small team, so you know, we’ve only got five of us. So I would say we all have a special role in the in the company.

Joseph Crooms (18:09)
And how many workers do you have though? Because you you got a hundred hundred and something property so how how do you divide that or how many what’s the what’s the number of workers that you have?

Ashley Herring (18:18)
Yeah, so we’ve we’ve got five people and it’s great. And again, I think it goes back to making sure that you have a great process. And then when it’s a good process, you can be more proactive. So that’s making sure that you set the client up for things that they’re interested in doing, or you you say, Hey, let’s do an AC maintenance or let’s do a dryer vent cleaning, let’s do a lot of preventative things so that our team on the back end isn’t responding and reacted.

reacting to all of these major issues and you’re not having to pay extra, you know, on those late night emergency calls or, you know, that that’s what’ll kill you know, between vacancy and overcharging on maintenance and and lost, you know, percentage on maintenance, that can kill a rental. So I think it’s staying in front of things is what’s been really helpful with our small team. But I don’t think that that’s too bad. I mean

We used to manage a five team, we used to manage four hundred and thirty units and they were spread out all over Central Florida. So I I think it’s it’s I think we still have room to grow with our our five team members.

Joseph Crooms (19:26)
Let’s let’s hone in on that a little bit more because we’re running out of time. But this is very interesting. So the property manager, help me help me tell me when I’m wrong. So the property manager, you may have quite a few property managers, am I correct, or teams on the various properties, right? But your team is unique because you’re marketing. Help me out here now. You’re marketing rentals,

Rental management. Is that is is that how you market yourself?

Ashley Herring (19:57)
what do you mean? So we’re we’re marketing a service to to to find a tenant and then run the show while the tenant is in place.

Joseph Crooms (20:07)
Okay, so so but to to show because you told me how many apartment but you don’t actually have on your your board or for your business actually people on each site. Is that

Ashley Herring (20:21)
No, no. So prior to the company that I’m at. So in the past, I worked for a company where we did we manage multifamily. And so I think what you’re asking is, did we have an on-site manager? No, we did not. Most of those were between about five to forty, fifty units, and you don’t need an on-site manager, at least in this market. And I think it depends too, but for the ones that we managed,

We didn’t need an on-site. Now you do have to have someone that frequents the property, of course, and vendors and things like that. But as far as an on-site manager, no, we didn’t have any of that.

Joseph Crooms (21:00)
So you use the term vendor, so actually they’re vendors that you solicit to to sort of work for you. Is that is that correct?

Ashley Herring (21:07)
Yeah, so if you’ve got the landscaper out there, you know, they’ll usually tell you, you know, hey, there’s a there’s a phone line down or there’s a light out or there’s, you know, things like that that help us be the eyes and ears of the property so that we can address it. So yeah, absolutely. And that all goes back to you know, building relationships. So if we pay that vendor on time and we treat that vendor with respect and we give that vendor more business and you know, refer them out.

then of course they’re gonna take care of us in return. And that’s how I I I think karma is you know, makes the world go round. As long as you’re doing good and and you you’re helping other people and you’re being authentic, then I think it comes back to you in both professionally and as a business.

Joseph Crooms (21:52)
Thank you, Ashley, for sharing that with me. So ’cause I got a clear understanding of that of what you do. And because it’s actually property managing companies, but your unique niche is we are working with the investor, he’s our client, and they but they can be smaller pieces of property. And we have vendors that we are in relationship with that s sort of keep us going. Is that is

Am I doing all right?

Ashley Herring (22:20)
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yep. We we again it goes back to making sure that we have a good team for our client, you know, a great vendor that doesn’t overcharge and does quality work, a resource if they want to purchase more properties, whether that’s creative financing or really great realtor. Yeah, we try to be the whole kit and caboodle, maybe not in-house, but at least we’ve got the resources.

Joseph Crooms (22:45)
I really enjoyed this conversation. Tell me who’s on your team.

Ashley Herring (22:48)
yeah, we yeah, we’ve got five people. So we’ve got Brian, Shelly, Samantha, myself, and Nairi.

Joseph Crooms (22:55)
And what are their positions?

Ashley Herring (22:56)
We’ve got operations, property manager, broker, owner communications, and maintenance, and then me.

Joseph Crooms (23:05)
And you the sales and you the sales you’re the sales guru.

Ashley Herring (23:08)
I’m the face of the community of the of the business in the community.

Joseph Crooms (23:12)
Thank you so much for sharing it, Ashley. All right. So that’s the kind of stuff people don’t talk about enough. And honestly, so what separates the folks who just dabble from the ones who stay in the game long term? This question, then we’re gonna tell people how to get in touch with you. What what are you thinking about? What are you solving or scaling next? What’s the next real goal for you guys?

Ashley Herring (23:32)
Yeah, we actually just had a meeting about this. Our next goal is to put together something to get more in touch with our investor clients. So whether that is outside of Central Florida or in Central Florida, and we’re gonna do that through creating this program with four realtors so that we can help with lead generation for them and putting them in in front of investor clients through a couple of platforms that we are putting together.

And really just some value add features for them because it again it goes back to partnerships. Realtors are such a great referral partner for us. And we have to be able to show them that they need us. And if we can show them there’s other opportunity out there, other than someone just listing their home or you know, a new home purchase, there’s this whole world of investor clients.

then not only are we educating them, but we’re going to be maybe help facilitate or at least introduce some new potential clients, which will eventually lead to sales.

Joseph Crooms (24:38)
Now, so depending on how you’re you’re you play the game, the next move can create chaos depending how you play it. So now I know a lot of people are listening are are early in their journey and looking to level up. I think that they’ll benefit from hearing this. When it comes to building relationships and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference to you?

Ashley Herring (25:00)
the biggest difference has been that it’s in a good way. It it’s gone upstream. And I think that people just think when it comes to building relationships, it’s you know, saying a comment on social media. But I think people need to take it a step further, especially in this day and age. You know, if there’s a birthday, you know, I’m gonna send a birthday card. If there’s a new brokerage that one of my

my partners have opened, I’m gonna send them a card saying, Congratulations. If there’s an open house, I’m gonna swing by and, you know, just wish them luck or ask for, you know, hey, I’ll sponsor this or or or let’s go have Z on it. But I think that that has been a pivotal piece in my relationships is making sure that I’m not just saying, hey, call me when you need me. It’s I care about you and let’s have coffee, let’s have lunch.

Whether or not you’re in real estate or not, but I want people to know that I care, we care, and we’re here for any questions, all things rentals.

Joseph Crooms (26:02)
You know, Ashley, I I I feel your sincerity. I and thank you for sharing that. and I I can tell this is what’s making a big difference in your business. Okay, so before we wrap up, tell us how can we get in touch with you, Ashley?

Ashley Herring (26:18)
Yeah, of course. Well, again, the company is Remi Emerson Residential. And I mean, I can shout out my my cell phone number. we’re on social media. and my email is [email protected]. So it’s R-E-M-I-E-M-E-R-S-O-N. And my you could find me on social media everywhere. I mean, I have red hair. It’s really hard to miss me. If you put in Ashley Herring, property manager Orlando, I’m sure I’m gonna pop up.

Thank you for having me.

Joseph Crooms (26:48)
Yep. Actually somebody was looking for a pen and they couldn’t find it and they just found it. So give it to one more time.

Ashley Herring (26:53)
Sure. Okay. Ashley Herring, H-E-R-R-I-N-G with Remi Emerson Residential. And again, we are in Central Florida. We are a property management company. And my cell phone is (407) 620-0675 Call me, text me, email me, and I’ll see what I can do to help you or your client.

Joseph Crooms (27:15)
Perfect. Well, listen, I appreciate your time, Ashley, your story, your perspective, your philosophy, and your warmth, your your human sincerity. I love the word care about you and you and you implied it into your business. we need more people in this space who are doing it the right way. Thanks again for being here, Ashley.

Ashley Herring (27:34)
Thanks, Joseph.

Joseph Crooms (27:36)
So, for those of you tuning in, I know you got some value from this. Make sure you subscribe. make sure that you get in touch with Ashley.

and we got some more conversations coming with operators just like Ashley Herring, who is out there doing real business, helping real people, helping businesses unite and helping communities. So we’ll see you at the next episode. Of Investor Fuel Real Estate Pros Podcast. Ashley tell everybody we talk to him soon.

Ashley Herring (28:06)
Bye