Property Management Is Broken: How Multifamily Investors Can Protect Their Assets

Benjamin Inman (00:00)
You have death, you have taxes, and you have market cycles. You will not get away from them. The market cycle is turning. It will continue to turn. We’re all affected by it. You cannot stop it. It is continuously moving. So we’ve developed a software program. It’s not about timing the market. it’s about recognizing patterns. and there is a history of patterns that goes back to the late 1800s that we can walk you through. And the system is designed to take all these things into consideration.

Dylan Silver (02:01)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today we’re joined by Benjamin Inman, founder and owner-operator of Inman Equities, a multifamily investment firm focused on value add apartment communities across the Southeast. Benjamin, thanks for joining us today. It hasn’t been the smoothest path for many multifamily operators over the last several years. ⁓ and so, in order for folks to have staying power in this space.

Benjamin Inman (02:15)
Thanks for having me.

Dylan Silver (02:30)
What are the skills that they need to have to exist longer than just ideal ⁓ market conditions?

Benjamin Inman (02:39)
That’s a a great question. And and so I’m gonna unpack that answer in a couple of different ways. So I think it comes down to ultimately to having the right team, right? Not not only the right team ⁓ in-house, but the right team as it consists of your lender, ⁓ your your equity partner, your property management company, ⁓ you know, the h the entire team, your asset management team, et cetera. ⁓ and I think that a lot of that has to do with

Most people at at ⁓ at some of these multifamily conferences that you’ll go to, you know, they’ll they’ll be out there shaking hands, trying to raise equity, trying to find a co GP to sign on a deal for them, ⁓ and really just willing being willing to jump in bed with anybody and the first person that they meet that’s willing to say yes. and because I have been guilty of that at at at times as well, because you just want to get a deal done and get it closed.

⁓ I have done that and it’s come back to burn me in many ways. And a lot of it has to do with misaligned interest. Not misaligned interest at the time that the partnership or the the decision was made, but the partnership and the and the decision that was made becomes the wrong one as the market shifts and you move into a different phase of a market cycle, you then realize that hey, this partner was good for that phase, but this is not the right partner for this phase. ⁓ a lot of it’s all hindsight.

⁓ so a lot of the skills that you need to be successful come down to to knowing the market cycle, knowing where you are in the market cycle and being able to read those signals so you’re able to be proactive instead of reactive. And when I say you, I mean you as in your entire team.

Dylan Silver (04:20)
What makes someone a bad partner if a market cycle changes?

Benjamin Inman (04:25)
Yeah. So look, I mean, you you go back to say two thousand twelve to to through twenty nineteen, pause for COVID and then jump back into the picture for twenty one and twenty two, right? Those are the good times. Anybody can, you know, can can cover up mistakes during the good times. ⁓ it seems like that doesn’t matter what property you you buy, it ends up cash flowing, ends up making money on an exit, right? So you can take full cycle, you know, once or twice during that period of time, and you’re made to look like a hero in front of

you know, your investment partners. ⁓ but you know what what can shift is you let it go from the from the good times, right, into twenty four twenty five, right? When things really started coming unwound for many people, the reality is that the signals that were pointing to that change were revealing themselves six, twelve to twenty four months ahead of time. But once those once though the reality took place in twenty four twenty five

And you started seeing a lot of supply that hit the market. Stop living on an island and join the number one mastermind in America for professional real estate investors. Investor fuel is a community of hundreds of the nation’s top investors working together to build stronger businesses and better lives. In addition to the amazing community of real estate investors acting as a board of advisors for one another.

You start seeing vacant. Is impacted, rent starting to decline. It comes down to supply and demand issues, comes down to you know employment and inflation, et cetera. But if the right partner in the good times is not necessarily the right partner in the times of challenge, right? Because some of those partners, they don’t know they may not know how to act when when you have to shift on the fly, ⁓ especially as you go through 24, 25, you look at people that have lost assets. What do you do? Right. And and that’s why I say the right partner.

partner has to be planned for, not only in the good times, but also as you navigate into challenging times, especially as the phase of a market cycle changes, you have to be prepared and understand that the partner today that’s good for you may not be the partner that’s good for you in the next phase.

Dylan Silver (07:02)
You know, I think what you’re mentioning here is, you know, inevitably not every single deal is a winner. And there’s some ⁓ element of this where you can have the best ⁓ intentions and the the best underwriting going in, but you just can’t predict COVID, right? And you can’t see some of these events happening. So you may have, you know, a great opportunity to partner with someone who’s brings a lot of cash to the table, but how are they going to navigate the

people challenges of when things are not going right and what are they going to be like as a partner. And will they be, you know, shoulder to shoulder with you navigating through that, or will they delegate that entirely to you and leave you holding the bag?

Pivoting here, you know, there’s a lot of folks who seemingly got in w ⁓ riding the wave of, you know, twenty fourteen, let’s say, to twenty nineteen and seeing all of that success and saying, I can do this myself, and in many cases they realize this is a lot harder than I thought this would be. If you’re getting into, you know, multifamily syndication today, value add opportunities.

Is this something where you can go in fresh, or do you really, really need to be partnering with someone with experience if you’re about to do this now?

Benjamin Inman (08:24)
I would absolutely hands down, only partner with someone that’s more experienced than you. Cause otherwise you’re in a situation where the blind lead is leading the blind. And when I say a partner that’s more experienced, I’m saying a partner that has been through one, if not two, cycles. ⁓ because if you’re meeting with someone at a at a conference or maybe you met them online or maybe through a personal introduction where they haven’t been through a cycle, ⁓ they don’t know what they’re up against. ⁓ and neither do you. So how are you going to

handle that situation when the times come around because if you think that you know you’re closing on a property that it’s going to somehow magically operate itself and you say, the management company’s going to handle this. Management industry is not what it was back in the 80s and 90s. The management industry has gone from a career path for for most people employed at a management company to to a job. It’s a job mentality. And you can think some DI some ⁓ some DEI ⁓ you

Issues because of some on on some of those things, but not all, because there are some people that get promoted from within that shouldn’t be promoted from within. Because someone is good at a let’s just say someone’s a rock star leasing agent, it doesn’t mean that they’re going to be a rock star ⁓ property management ⁓ assistant manager or even a property manager. And likewise, someone that’s a great property manager, it doesn’t mean that they’re gonna be a rock star regional. ⁓ and I have seen people get promoted from within, which in theory I’m not opposed to, but they have to be ready.

And able to fulfill that seat that they’re that they’re now been appointed to. ⁓ so a lot of it comes down to having the right partners in place that have been through enough cycles that they know more than you do. Because if you’re gonna rely on a management company, you’re gonna be setting yourself up for serious failure. Because most management companies today, and I’m open to be challenged on this, they they are very reactionary based and not proactive when it comes to management.

Dylan Silver (10:52)
You know, it’s so tricky dealing with property managers and then property managers who, you know, are underperforming, especially today, because you’re battling not just, you know, keeping your current tenants happy and work orders that that come up, but you’re also battling vacancies, right? And so when folks, frankly, you know, when renters have options.

If they’re going to you and you know, you’re saying, well, this room will be available, but it’ll be available next week and we have to review your application and there’s a hundred dollar fee here, and then you go and you show up and no one helps you, and you have this experience a couple of times, it almost becomes like, you know, who is not the worst? And so the the overall culture of of property management, I don’t think is in the healthiest space because people are at this point accustomed to ⁓ you know

Lackluster service when it comes to dealing with property managers. And that’s just as a tenant, right? So if you’re an investor and you’re purchasing a property, you know, that relationship between the investor and the property manager is so critical because effectively they are the ones who are going to be managing a large part of your success after acquisition.

Benjamin Inman (12:09)
That’s right. Hundred percent.

Dylan Silver (12:12)
What what has been your approach when it comes to keeping property managers in place versus bringing in a new team after making an acquisition?

Benjamin Inman (12:21)
Yeah. So it’s a great question because we we’ve been through this a couple of different times. So, you know, we we made a ⁓ had a management company. ⁓ I I really wish I could give some names out, but but but but I won’t I won’t do that here. But this management company on the surface was very ⁓ qualified. They managed over a hundred fifty thousand, close to two hundred thousand units nationwide. and they they were very bad at staffing. They just couldn’t get staffing in place.

And they were not great at at accounting. ⁓ the the staffing that they tried to put in place would end up being a t a temp agency who is meant to be temp, right? Three months, ⁓ four months maybe, ⁓ however long it takes to find someone to fill a specific role that you’re searching for. ⁓ but what we found is this particular company, they were just so bad at it that what was meant to be a temp ended up being a six-month period to nine month period.

⁓ and you know, you’re paying inflated prices when you’re paying for a temp agency. So ultimately over over over you know quite some time, hoping that things, you know, will would would kind of fall in place with them, keeping an eye on them, but also being mindful of the fact that we may need to make a change because you know, when you make a property management change, it’s not just I’m gonna make a change and in in thirty days, sixty sixty days we’ll have someone new in here. I mean, it it’s a like a nine month process. It’s almost like, you know, ha ha having having a baby, right? Where

You know, there’s the process. Okay, you’re gonna go through the process of conceiving, then you got then you got all the preparation that that occurs, and then you then then the child comes, then you’re even more preparation. ⁓ that you just have to get your hand wrapped around it because no one gives you a manual. ⁓ and the same thing applies here where you make a decision, okay, we need to make a management change. You go through, you know, 30 days, 45 days of interviewing different management companies in a in that cover your region.

⁓ you make a selection, your your team goes through their process. If you have partners at the table or or you know, JV equity partners, maybe they want to go through that process of of also interviewing the same management companies that you have your list narrowed down to. ⁓ and then you make then you then you then you make a decision who you want to go with. You put them on the sideline b preparing behind the scenes, you give notice to your current property management company now that that’s 90 days already, right?

Then they are going to stay in in picture for the next 30 days during the transition period. Even though they tell you they’re going to stay focused, they will lose their focus. So you’re going to lose operations right there. they will definitely suffer. You’re going to have tenants that are going to suffer, et cetera. You’re going make a change. And we made a change. This particular company we fired that managed our stuff in in Florida. we changed to another company ⁓ who also managed over 150,000 units. They passed our sniff test. They passed our

GP a co-GP partner SNF test and their team, their family office team, they passed the SNF test of the JB equity partners. So they passed everybody’s SNF test. Got in place. What happened? They were even worse. They were slightly better at staffing, but they were worse at accounting. And so you end up having these properties at the at between 23, 24, 25, when you had all this macroeconomic ⁓ headwinds coming at you full force. Then you’re faced with these other challenges

From management changes ⁓ that did not help the situation. ⁓ so there there are it’s it’s a process when you change management companies. ⁓ and and we have since changed again to what I would call the largest management company ⁓ in the country. ⁓ to be quite honest, they’re no better. ⁓ and and I just find that a lot of it is very reaction based. ⁓ nothing is very proactive.

⁓ everything is, hey, we we need this or we need that, or we need to offer this concession or that concession, or we need to reduce rents here or there. A lot of it comes down to laziness and the management company’s inability for ⁓ effectively training their leasing team to be salespeople, right? Because you mentioned that you know, on the leasing side, I’ll touch on that for a second because ⁓ you could have inbound leads come in.

But you have to be able to convert those leads. You got to convert those leads to tours. You need to convert the tours to leases, right? Or or to applications and then to leases. ⁓ but a lot of it has to be the the thresholds that even those companies put in place are not even being met. And their answer is, well, we need to beef up marketing. And we’re dealing with that situation right now on on one property where their answer is we need more marketing. And my pushback is.

We don’t need more marketing. We have all the traffic that we need. We probably have more than anybody in the cop set. The challenge is no one is there closing the people that are walking in the door. You’re treating it like a like you know, like like a I tell them that you need to treat it like a like a car salesman. You when they come in, you don’t let leave until they lease a unit, right? Because if you think they’re gonna come back, chances are they’re not. ⁓ you gotta strike while the iron’s hot, and if they’re in

the building, you need to lease them because if they walk out the door, the chances of them coming back are pretty much nonexistent.

Dylan Silver (18:21)
You know, you touched on two really key points. The first is that when someone is walking through your door, that’s your best prospect, right? And so that’s a high priority action that needs to take place. And I see it from both sides. I see it, you know, myself, I’m an apartment locator in Texas, so I work with tenants and properties. And I see the the most it’s it’s i it really pretty disappointing.

The most laxadaisical attitude to people who are showing up to properties. I don’t care if you’re a B class property, an A-class property, whatever class you are, that person should be treated almost like I’m you mentioned a car dealership, like I’m walking into a car dealership, like I’m walking into a restaurant. There needs to be some level of predictive hospitality that takes place in order to guide this person through the process, not just open a door, but really like, hey, if you want to move in here.

This is the date that this is going to be available. This is the paperwork that we’re going to need. Hey, what do you have on your phone? These are the documents that we need. Can you get this to us right now? We can get this process rolling. And oftentimes, it’s almost like the property managers don’t even know how to get this person through the door. It’ll be like, wait, you work here and you’re you’re not sure exactly what documents that I need. And you you also mentioned this idea of.

They’re then basically saying, you know, we need more marketing. And I think it goes back to again this idea of predictive hospitality. If you’re getting people who are coming to you, they’re hand they’re raising their hand, you know, how many of those people are actually receiving a phone call? You know, what’s the percentage of those? It should be a hundred percent. There should be multiple phone calls. There should be a text in there too. You know, if I’m looking for apartments.

You can bet that I there’s not just one apartment that I’m reaching out to, but there might only be one apartment that reaches back out to me, right? And so I think this element when we talk about where you’re living, right? If you’re physically living there and there’s people on the property, there should be that element, I’ll say it again, you know, that predictive hospitality, not just reactionary, right? It’s gotta be predictive.

Benjamin Inman (20:35)
And and and you’re right, because here’s the you put yourself in the tenant’s place, right? That you’re you’re shopping for a deal, and you may never realize this would be something that you d in your subconscious you’re not even aware of that you’re you’re searching for an apartment, ⁓ and then they’re not many of them are just not being reached out to enough. B email, phone call, text message, whatever, even even snail mail if you had to. ⁓ but that lack of follow up that sets

⁓ a an an expectation in the back of that prospective tenant’s mind that hey if I move into this place because this you know ⁓ property A they’re following with me a lot right they really want my business property B and C have only reached out once or twice they’re almost like they don’t even care. So if I w what that means to me is if I move in, if I if I if I go with B or C, when I move in

And if I have a maintenance request or an issue with my billing, ⁓ are they gonna be on top of getting back to me with an answer? Are they gonna be on top of my issue? Are they gonna solve my problem? Cla you know, clas building A or property A over here, because their follow up is so good that the expectation is okay, if I move in here and I have an issue, they’re gonna do whatever they can to resolve the to resolve that issue quickly.

So it does set that tone in the back of someone’s mind, whether they know it or not, it it’s definitely there. ⁓ but so it sets that tone there and it also sets the tone on the on the side of the leasing agent where there’s just not a lot of follow up. And it doesn’t take that much work to especially with you know, with with AI, I mean y yeah, having the automated follow up with email and text messages one thing, but people also want to hear a voice.

⁓ and know that they have that human touch point and really rolling out the red carpet and treating them like a celebrity when they walk in the door because you want them to feel welcome. ⁓ and there’s so many different so many different things that could could could be done. Even going back to the basics, like having free popcorn, like the silly stuff that really makes a big impact that the next, you know, property down the street may not number one, they’re not calling them back. Number two, they could really care less if they even walked in the door or not.

⁓ so that’s what you’re dealing with today, ⁓ in in the industry industry wide, where you have people, ⁓ you know, management companies hiring leasing agents, some of which have never leased anything. ⁓ may it could be most most of them it it it it’s a new career path for them. ⁓ bringing them in during a down cycle is the worst time in history to bring someone in to train them on leasing units. If you’re gonna train someone fresh in the industry, you need to bring them in in the good times.

Let them get trained up so when the good in the in the bad times happen, they understand the ebbs and flows and how to talk to people and and the parameters that they have to work within because if the sky is falling and you have someone that’s coming in off the street with no multifamily experience, and if you think that not all people are good salespeople, it’s just the reality. You know, you can teach the strategies, but you can’t t you can’t teach the personality. They either have it or they don’t have it. So in my opinion, in today

i if if you were to say, Who are you staffing today on the leasing team? I’m going to be willing to to pay up, to pay higher for a more experienced leasing agent because I want people to get the wow factor when they walk in the property.

Dylan Silver (24:08)
You know, property management as a whole seems to be a relatively tough business model to ⁓ capitalize on. And I’ve I’ve spoken to many people who say, you know, if I were to start a property management company, I’m not sure how profitable it would be. But when we talk about potentially, you know, the vertical integration of developers and property managers, that’s where I can start to see the alignment.

Because of all of these issues, right? If you don’t have skin in the game and your whole business model is, well, so they need a property manager, they don’t have one, you know, we’re the biggest name. How long is that gonna work for? And so while property management, you know, as an island may not be, you know, the the biggest cash flow heavy opportunity, when it comes to managing one’s own properties, I’ve seen ⁓ a few more

Fund managers and syndicators start to delve into property management for others and for themselves, really just so that they can control these issues. What’s your thoughts on, you know, that vertical integration that may be in the waters in in this space?

Benjamin Inman (25:18)
I I think it’s a very key ⁓ thing to consider for for a couple of different reasons. Number one, the properties that we are invested in ⁓ as a co GP and and even as an LPN ⁓ that, you know, with or with you know a particular family office, ⁓ they, you know, part of the r the requirement with them is is if we invest together, then you know, our family office is required to to handle the property management. Those have been the best performing properties, right?

The third party services are are the ones that have been the ones that have suffered the most. ⁓ and a lot of that has to do for two reasons. Number one, you know, you you mentioned that, you know, talking to some different people that didn’t know how profitable it’d be. Well, the the point is you get you you need to make it profitable, right? You can’t you can be a loss leader or you c you can be the low cost provider in a market, charge two and a half percent. Yeah, your your margin could probably be pretty thin. But guess what? If you go out and hire someone that’s charging

⁓ you know a 2.5% management fee, chances are you’re gonna get a very bland cookie cutter, lackluster performance out of that management company. When realistically, you know, hindsight being 2020, you should be willing to pay up for a good management company, knowing that you’re gonna you should get a better quality management company out of that. Now the lenders, you know, have also created that problem, right? Because in their budgets, they’ll like they’ll budget for two and a half or two point seven five. So they’re forcing

you know, syndicators or operators to really go with these low cost providers when they really need to beef up their budget and and and start, you know, underwriting to a three or three and a quarter percent. Cause you’re gonna get you should get better performance out of that because the property management companies are now incentivized ⁓ to to to operate at that level. Now when you get to the size of like, let’s just say a gray star, right? The biggest in the in the world, I think at this point.

They can get away with two and a half to two point seven five because they have their systems in process. They have so much scale in the picture that they could really maximize their profitability even even on a on a on a smaller ⁓ management fee. But if you have someone that’s well under ⁓ no one really no one’s close to their size, but if you have anybody else that’s smaller than Gray Star, which everybody everybody else under Gray Star is, you

They shouldn’t be charging so so little and the men and the lenders have to come off of their underwriting requirements and have to understand that this problem that they’ve seen on many of their assets across the portfolio, they’re actually creating a lot of those problems by forcing sponsors and operators to go with really bottom of the barrel management companies. Now

Dylan Silver (27:58)
I when dealing with lenders, is that something that they’re open to negotiating on? Or is is this industry standard, this two and a half percent, and there’s just no wiggle room there?

Benjamin Inman (28:10)
⁓ it it has been industry standard. Now will that change, you know, now or in the future? I I I would like for it too. ⁓ I I think it it the industry deserves it, to be quite honest. ⁓ so you know, it it’s gonna take someone I mean look it look at it when someone’s underwriting a deal, especially like in in the times where they’re trying to maximize cash flow. You know, your sponsors when they put together their shiny packages that they send to, you know, investors to raise capital, they wanna maximize the cash flow they can show on paper.

And they can show more cash flow than two point five percent management fee versus a a three or three and a quarter, right? So every every little little little bip moves the needle. ⁓ so you’re gonna it’s gonna be an industry effort. ⁓ but I do think right now that the industry should adjust its standards on management fees.

Dylan Silver (28:58)
You know, some of this too, ⁓ and I think it’s ⁓ it’s unfortunate, but I I think it’s the reality is that there’s a lot of people that are renters by necessity, right? And when, you know, the the cost to, you know, find a new place and rents are going up, generally speaking, you know, in certain markets they are going down, right? I’m I’m in the greater Austin, Texas market and rents have gone down. But when you’re looking at the the cost for housing over time and affordable housing and over, you know

several years period it keeps going up. Renters are beginning to become demoralized about the process and thought of homeownership. So in in effect, this has this idea that there’s a lot of people who maybe previously might have considered owning a home or owning a some kind of home on land and are now renting. And so because of this, at least

There’s some level of this sentiment of hey, they’re provided housing and that’s the extent of the service that they get.

Benjamin Inman (29:57)
Yeah. So if you go back to you know seven, nine leading up to to the crash, ⁓ you know, they people rele they they they reduced their standards, right? They they allow people to get you know loans, no doc loans, which is really there’s there there’s a there’s a lesson here. And the lesson is it helped people to get into a home, right? Now those people that

that did get into those homes, it’s almost like if you were to bring in a tenant into your into your property, let’s just say you don’t require a security deposit, you provide concessions and you lower their rent payment by, you know, $200 a month over a blended concession, whatever that concession is that you give them, do you think they’re gonna take care of that home? They’re not gonna take care of it. And the same thing if you were to go give them a brand new car and give them no responsibility for that car, it’s gonna come back with scratches and dents and dings all over it. It needs to be washed.

And they’re not gonna take care of it. So, you know, back in in 07, 09 or 08, 09, when they were giving these the people these housing, they meant well, right? But the people that got the housing that couldn’t afford the housing are the ones that they they lost them. They lost them because they it’s a it’s a mindset. And they they weren’t prepared for the responsibility that came along with that because with home ownership.

also comes the expenses that go along with that. You your property taxes, your insurance, your your your maintenance costs. ⁓ even if you mow your grass, you have fuel costs. ⁓ you know, there there’s so much that goes into home ownership. Then you have to worry about the, you know, if if a storm comes through and your insurance laps, then now you have shingles off. Well now you see a blue tarp on the roof that ends up staying there for two years. ⁓ or a HVAC system goes out and they don’t have four thousand dollars sitting on the sideline.

To repair or replace that HVAC system. And so that ends up, you know, giving the property back to the bank. So you have a segment of society that will always be renters, ⁓ either because of affordability issue, right? Because some people that that that that that would do well with homeownership, they either don’t make enough money ⁓ and that they don’t have enough left over after the at the end of the month, after paying their their rent that

they they can’t afford to set aside any any additional money. ⁓ now the a lot of those people are are taught that that that issue is someone else’s fault, not their own. Now, we all you know have options in life. You know, you could you could start a side hustle. There are different ways that you could get a leg up. And there have been many programs from the governor that have come along the way ⁓ to where they they help give people that leg up. But once again, the people that have gotten that leg up, a majority of them, not all,

But the majority of them have ended up losing those houses. So I d I do think it comes down to ⁓ a a mindset. ⁓ I I wish it worked that way. I mean, just like anybody else, like I want everybody to to do well in life. ⁓ I don’t want to see anybody struggle and it breaks my heart to see people that struggle because I I know what it’s like. ⁓ and when I see, you know, homeless people out there or hear about, you know, families potentially losing their home and like, yeah, that that that hits you in a spot. But I think there’s a d a deeper issue.

that that is is driving that. ⁓ and it’s and it’s gonna be different for everybody, so it’s unfair to put everybody in one lump one lump scenario. But but

Dylan Silver (33:29)
It’s complex, right? And and some of those safe ⁓ guards that were put in place, you know, like the Dodd Frank Act, for instance, after the global housing crash, you know, have eliminated some of those issues. We still see lots of foreclosures. I forget what the exact statistic is. I someone on the show told me that it’s thirty thousand foreclosures a month. That seems like a tremendous amount, but I know if I go to the local foreclosure auction, there’s, you know, potentially hundreds of foreclosures every month at

one county in Texas. So, you know, you look at, well, what can we do? And, you know, I think it’s challenging because you also have the ever increasing cost of the land that these homes are built on. So, you know, it’s tougher to find truly affordable housing just period. And so people are doing things. I’ve talked to a a a a modular and mobile home ⁓ business owner here in Texas on the show.

You know, they’re doing like land home packages where that’s becoming more and more common. People are buying a tiny home or a modular home and then putting it on, you know, land. And maybe the the modular home of the tiny home isn’t itself all that valuable over time, but the land is. And so when you affix it to the land, it becomes real property. There’s all types of different solution sets that I think people could have to this issue. But along with that, you know, it comes the fact that, hey,

People are saying as renters longer and longer. I forget what the exact statistic is, but it’s something like, you know, P the average home buyer age isn’t 38 or 40, right? And so, you know, what do we do in all these circumstances? I don’t think there’s one solution, but it’s certainly been interesting ⁓ talking about it. Speaking of which, Ben, we are coming up on time here. ⁓ any new projects that you’re working on, and then also anything you’d like to mention directly to our audience.

Benjamin Inman (35:20)
Mm yeah, so there are a few things we we’re we’re working on. So, you know, talking about the whole, you know, management company ⁓ and you know, pivoting and you know, vertical integration, all this stuff. So so we have ⁓ built a an in-house management division that we’re in the process of rolling out as a third party service. Now along with that is, you know, I never wanted to start a management company that is just another management company, right? The the the world doesn’t need another management company.

the the world needs a solution to a problem. And so ⁓ some of this one of the solutions that that that we have as a management company is being a very cycle forward based ⁓ company. Now what does that mean? Well that means that we’ve got to have a secret sauce or an edge ⁓ that the next company doesn’t have. And so we created that. And I created that w with with which initially began as is building out a a an internal dashboard to use.

which has now morphed into its own software product ⁓ that I’ve now paused the property management ⁓ division because going with going with this software build out that we’re ⁓ gearing up to launch here is meant to be used by any management company, any owner operator, ⁓ any any ⁓ LP investor, any syndicator, any asset management company, et cetera, to help them

better navigate the ebbs and flows that go along with a with the market cycle, which is itself a complex conversation. So what we’ve done is we’ve really stripped it out and I wouldn’t say dumbed it down, but we formalized it into a series of of of ⁓ frameworks that we’ve created in-house that that that give us that has given us this IP ⁓ that we model it through ⁓

the these all these different indic ⁓ economic indicators, we run it through our framework to really help a management company, owner, operator, syndicator, etc., get better at timing their ⁓ management practices, their ⁓ you know, any any type of strategies they want to put in place. We help them to get better at the timing because it’s one thing to say, okay, the the interest rate is

is staying still or the interest rate is dropping or falling. Well, we have a a a a platform and a program that we’ve created that can actually help you know in advance where the treasury is likely to go. ⁓ and that has to do with monitoring different, you know, leading and trailing indicators, which we formalized and really helps you peel back the onion, so to speak, and to see the different layers according to how far advanced do you want to see the changes that are inevitable because

A few things in life are are are are you can get away from. You have death, you have taxes, and you have market cycles. You will not get away from them. The market cycle is turning. It will continue to turn. We’re all affected by it. You cannot stop it. It is continuously moving. So we’ve developed a software program. It’s not about timing the market. it’s about recognizing patterns. ⁓ and there is a history of patterns that goes back to the late 1800s that we can walk you through and the system is designed.

⁓ to take all these things to consideration, which we don’t really have time on this podcast to get into, but to answer your question, we’ve created a solution ⁓ for the industry to help operators, management companies, asset management companies, et cetera, and investors to be better operators, to be better asset managers, better property managers, better investors so they know what they’re getting into and to be able to help monitor shifts in the at the macro down to the local level.

And how it’s going to affect the outcome at the at the at the ground level. ⁓ so we put together a this company that we’re launching next week called Cignal System. It’s Cignal with a C, cignalsystem.com, ⁓ to where we have ⁓ a free ⁓ subscription and we have a paid subscription. It really depends on how how deep you want to go with it. But the system is designed to be ⁓ a helpmate to anyone that’s considering

acquisitions, operations, dispositions, because all the gurus that are out there and you know who they are, there’s you know a ton of They’ll teach you how to to operate or how to how to buy your first property, but they’re not teaching how to operate, right? And so it comes down to ⁓ it takes sixty days to to buy apartment complex. It takes thirty times more of your time to operate that asset after closing.

And so that’s where all this came from. ⁓ so we’ve developed this this SaaS software program, software as a service ⁓ that we’re making available to to the industry that is our answer to a problem. ⁓ and it is a very big problem in the industry, ⁓ you know, that from syndicators to management companies, asset management, et cetera. So to answer your question, that that that’s kind of like what what I would end with is

Visit cignalsystem.com. You’ll you’ll you’ll land on the website, sign up, it’s a free, you can sign up for a free account, and you’ll get some not some knowledge for these different indicators that we all pull. ⁓ and and we have this on one platform that is designed to help improve your cash flow, maximize your returns, and help you to be a better ⁓ success in this industry. All right.

Dylan Silver (41:02)
Hey, Ben, thanks so much for your time here.

Benjamin Inman (41:06)
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