Property Management Tips Every Landlord Needs to Know

Jeremy Porter (00:00)
The biggest expense I always ask when I’m presenting or in front of an audience, I say, do you know what the biggest expenses for real estate? Right? Do think it’s the repairs? Do you think it’s the property management? What do you think it is? And they’re like, and they’ll say repairs or something like that. And I’m like, vacancy. That’s right. Vacancy.

Michelle Kesil (01:52)
Hey everybody, welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil. Today I’m joined by someone I’m looking forward to chatting with, Jeremy Porter of Cani Property Management in Florida. So excited to have you here today, Jeremy.

Jeremy Porter (02:10)
All right. Well, thank you so much, Michelle. I appreciate being here.

Michelle Kesil (02:14)
Absolutely. Let’s dive in. First off, for those not familiar with you and your work yet, can you share what your main focus is?

Jeremy Porter (02:23)
Sure, so we are Cani Property Management, which stands for constant and never ending improvement. And that’s how we run our business, that’s how we live our life. So we focus, our primary focus is property management and all types of property management, short term, midterm, long term. So leasing and property management, that’s 99 % of what we do.

Michelle Kesil (02:54)
Awesome. And so you’re operating in central Florida. What markets exactly do you serve?

Jeremy Porter (03:02)
We cover all of central Florida, middle central Florida. Well, that’s the middle, right? Central Florida. So we cover coast to coast. We go all the way to Daytona, to Melbourne, all the way over to St. Pete, like a little rectangle across the state. That’s what we do.

Michelle Kesil (03:23)
And what do you feel are some of the main keys that have allowed your business to grow and run successfully?

Jeremy Porter (03:33)
The main keys that help our business grow and run successfully is, I would say number one is ⁓ communication. We communicate with the tenants, we communicate with the owners. Seems pretty simple, but sometimes the simple stuff gets lost.

So, yeah.

Michelle Kesil (03:56)
Can you expand on what that process looks like?

Jeremy Porter (04:01)
sure. So we utilize a property management software that helps keep everything organized together. Our rental payments, our ⁓ tenant communication, owner communication, text messages, emails, all the things go into the system. so hypothetically, if a tenant puts in a repair request, so the system immediately notifies them that, we’ve received your request. We’re looking at dispatching a vendor right away.

⁓ vendor gets notified and do you accept this work order? And a lot of our categories have two to sometimes four deep of vendors. So let’s say it’s an emergency plumbing repair, the water heater is leaking and flooding the interior of the house. So we immediately then email the owner and say, hey, we got this work order from the tenant. We’re going to get things figured out, see if there’s a way to fix it. If not, we’re going to replace it.

We’ll let you know about replacement costs and this and that and the other thing as it comes available. But right now we just have this information. That’s it.

So a lot of times the owner will say, oh, thank you so much for letting us know. Please keep us up to date with what’s going on. Vendor gets out there. They call us up. They say, hey, it’s going to be a total replacement. It’s leaking from the bottom or seam or something like that. It’s $1,500. Can you get approval? Yep. We call up the owner, text them or whatever, whatever their preference is.

And we say, hey, you we got this water heater approval, water heater replacement, $1,500 is what we need to approve. They say, yes, we go ahead and notify the vendor. Vendor gets it done. Most of the time in that case, same day, if not the next day, if they’re able to contain it. But most water heaters that’s leaking like that, that’s causing damage to the property, we’re able to get done same day.

Michelle Kesil (06:44)
Yeah, amazing. And how do you find the investors and landlords that you end up working and partnering with?

Jeremy Porter (06:55)
We find our investors and landlords and all the people we end up working for and a lot of accidental ⁓ landlords. ⁓ Some people who have purchased properties maybe when the market was a little bit higher and they’re kind of stuck being a landlord. All over really. ⁓ We network a lot and go to a lot of different events and sit down with realtors and mortgage loan officers. ⁓ They’re a really good referral source for us.

We’re just there providing good service. Sometimes ⁓ it’s a referral from a current client that we have or a past client that we have. ⁓ We even have really good reviews on Google, 4.7 stars. Most property management companies have somewhere between a two and a three. ⁓ So some people find us on Google and say, why are your reviews so wonderful? Don’t you give the tenants late notices and evict them and stuff like that? And I’m like, ⁓ yeah.

but we try to do it with integrity and honesty and not make them feel less than and break them and whatnot. I’m not saying other companies do that. I’m going down a weird track here. So how do we find those people? Mostly networking to answer your question, but it’s been from past clients from, I’ve been in the real estate industry for 20 years now. So sometimes it’s just.

a person that I’ve worked with before in the past and they’re like, hey, Jeremy, we know you, we like you. We understand you do property management. So can we send you a referral? Like, yeah, absolutely. That’s what we do. So a lot of referrals to answer a question.

Michelle Kesil (08:38)
Yeah, amazing. And would you say most of your client base are active investors or what’s the demographic?

Jeremy Porter (08:51)
I would say it’s anything from active investors who own multiple units to the accidental landlord, right? The person that bought a home in maybe 2022 or 2023 and got transferred for work and they’re a little upside down in the property right now. They can’t afford to sell it. They don’t want to bring money to the closing table. So they’re turning into an investment property.

so that they’re, yeah, so they don’t have to bring money into closing. That’s pretty much it. They’re not always positive cash flowing, but there’s other financial incentives of renting your property, like the deductions you can deduct for 27 and a half years. So it’s a nice little write-off for them. you know, again, they don’t have to take that huge financial loss by bringing money into closing to sell it right now.

Michelle Kesil (09:44)
Yeah, definitely. And are you actively looking for tenants for the landlords or are they finding the tenants and you manage them?

Jeremy Porter (09:55)
No, that’s service we do provide. actually have a very great,

could be better, very, very great leasing process, it, but it could be, ⁓ could be better, could be exceptional. ⁓ So again, through our software, we do advertise the property. I’m also real estate broker. So I put the property on the MLS as well. So other realtors can see it and show it and it’s on Zillow and realtor and Redfin and all.

Real estate websites that you can name. also ⁓ chop it up, make slideshows out of it, reels and stuff like that. We put it on social media as well. So it goes on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, ⁓ TikTok, all the things, all the talks. we do virtual staging, we do a full length video tour. just, you know, we do everything we can to make that property because

The biggest expense I always ask when I’m presenting or in front of an audience, I say, do you know what the biggest expenses for real estate? Right? Do think it’s the repairs? Do you think it’s the property management? What do you think it is? And they’re like, and they’ll say repairs or something like that. And I’m like, vacancy. That’s right. Vacancy.

So the longer that property sits and it’s so sad, like I, there was this one recently that we got.

It was nothing. I mean, it’s a nice property. Don’t get me wrong. But it was a side by side duplex and both sides had gone and rented the other property management company. said, hey, we’re going to hire somebody that’s that’s more local because you’re in. You’re based out of Orlando, even though you go coast to coast. And this one is an orange city. So it’s just right around the corner. So they’re going to do a better job because they’re closer is what they thought. And after six months, they had not successfully rented it at all.

As a test, I had called them up and said I was a client. I wanted to see the property. And they came back almost like it was already rented. And they’re like, but we have others available. And I’m like, did they, did they get it rented? And I went back to the investor and I was like, Hey, I think, I think they got it rented. No, it’s still a bit, there’s been no showings. There’s been nothing. I’m like, then I talked to her team because it’s not, whatever they’re doing is not working. So long story short, six months later,

We got the property and I think we leased up the first side, the right hand side within seven to 10 days and the other side I think within 15 days. So we got both units rented in less than 30 days. But think about the cost that they had to go through to keep those vacant for six months. It’s just baffling to me. that’s something we take great pride in is getting our properties leased, our presentation of the property, how it looks.

how quickly we move it when it’s priced appropriately, and that sort of thing.

Michelle Kesil (13:30)
Yeah, I can imagine how much that would really affect the investor as well as the space itself. So that’s awesome. You guys are able to sort that.

what have been some of the biggest obstacles and challenges that you have had to overcome.

Jeremy Porter (13:54)
Eh-eh.

There’s been a lot over the past 20 years, as you can imagine. ⁓ I think the biggest thing that bothers me is when an owner gets mad at us for doing the job. For example, the water heater. It was a Saturday, you know.

Do I really want to be coordinating a plumber and getting somebody out there on a Saturday? I want to enjoy my Saturday, right? ⁓ But this is the job I signed up for. This is what I do. And plumber tells me, hey, it’s leaking from the seam. There’s nothing we can do. We have to replace the water heater. I said, great, please go ahead. And this is inside the house. This is not in the garage. So it’s actively causing damage to the property. we can either, number one, shut off the water completely so they have no working.

water source because I think they tried it on the water heater and it didn’t shut off. So they had to shut off the water completely to the whole house. And we’re scrambling and I’m saying to the pond, he’s like, well, I can get here on Monday and replace it like I need it done today. can’t these people have to have,

know, working water today. We can’t we can’t put it off till Monday. And he’s like, all right, well, you know, because you send me a lot of business, I’ll do it for you. You know, so

And then, you know, I get all this done. And we had immediately messaged the owner as soon as the work order came through, said, we’re getting somebody out there, da da da da da. And then I said, hey, you know, just wanted to let you know, it’s the scene, we got to replace it, it’s gonna be X amount, he’s working on it now. And they called me up and they were like, you better not have done anything. And I’m like, excuse me?

They’re like, we never authorized anything. I’m like, yeah, this is part of our management agreement. It says that I have the right as your representative, as your property manager to get this taken care of on your behalf. This is actively causing damage to the property. The alternative is we shut off the water, then they have no working water. And then the house is considered uninhabitable. Nobody can live in the house. We can’t charge rent for the house. And at the end of the day, it’s going to be a replacement. Regardless, there is no fixing this. It’s leaking from a seam.

And then ⁓ that was the younger of the two partners and the older partner had called me maybe 10 minutes later or something like that. And he said, thank you so much for doing a great job. You reacted to this quickly and you know, but the younger partner was kind of like, like scolding me. And I’m like, I’m doing this to help you. Like why you mad? I can’t control the, when stuff breaks, I can only control how we react and how quickly we get it done.

So I would say that’s the biggest challenge when just, you know, the tenants mad at you and the owners mad at you. And you’re like, you guys realize I’m here to help. I didn’t cause the plumbing issue. I didn’t cause the amount of the cost. I’m just coordinating it and getting it done for you. So that would be, I think the biggest frustration is when you do your job.

you do it to your best of your abilities and nobody appreciates it. And it doesn’t always happen, but it happens more frequently in property management ⁓ than I’ve ever seen in any other industry.

Michelle Kesil (18:03)
Yeah, absolutely. That’s pretty difficult when you’re trying to help someone, but yeah, that’s awesome that you’re able to get responsive and support the tenant as well.

What are you most focused on solving or scaling to next?

Jeremy Porter (18:25)
There’s a lot of, ⁓ you know, I feel like everybody’s talking about it, right? AI, AI, AI. So there’s a lot of new technology coming out, new things, new things that can be done, right? As we grow in scale, obviously, you know, the staffing needs to go up. We need to hire more people to take this maintenance call, to deal with this leasing question and whatnot. So

We’ve tried to integrate some AI into our leasing process. And so far that was a nightmare, ⁓ sadly, through our property management software. And for all the time it took to set up and everything like that, it was just like, my gosh, it made our process so much more manual than it was. And since that time, we’ve stopped from doing that. ⁓ But just…

incorporating as much AI that we can to where it’s still a good interaction with the individual, with the customer, and that being the tenant or the owner. We want both to have a great experience. ⁓ Keeping security in place and everything like that because we do self-directed showings, but we have a smart lockbox system.

that checks their ID that uses facial recognition to check their ID to their face and ⁓ uses their GPS location as well to show that they’re in front of the house before we release that code and provide that key, that access, right? Because if they’re a scammer, they could go and make copies of that key. They can go and rent that house, put it on Craigslist, put it on…

Facebook Marketplace or something like that. And then you get a scammer moving into your property or somebody, the scammer connected and moved them into the property. It happens a lot within the leasing world because they don’t know necessarily who I am or who the representative of the company is, or they could just be playing one of my leasing agents with Can I, property management and say that they’re

An actual representative and most of the general public doesn’t know that they can go to D F P R and check and make sure they’re licensed person or call the company and actually verify and whatnot. So it’s so we’re trying to grow and scale and add as much. Automation or AI features as we can. But also in a way that still makes it a pleasure to deal with our company. And not lose that. ⁓

that positive experience that people are having.

So yeah.

Michelle Kesil (21:31)
Amazing. Yeah, I feel many business owners are using AI to their advantage, but yeah, definitely wanting to keep that relationship base and not take over as important as well.

Awesome. Well, before we begin wrapping up here, if someone wants to reach out, connect, learn more about what you’re up to, where can people find you and connect with you?

Jeremy Porter (21:59)
Ooh, that’s a mighty fine question. ⁓ Our website would probably be the, ⁓ I mean, all over really. We’re on YouTube, we’re on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, but our web address that I can remember off the top of my head right now is www.cani, like cani, pm.com.

So C-A-N-I-P as in Paul, Mary as in management.com is our website (www.canipm.com). ⁓ And then you can email us through there, connect on there, find links to our social media on there as well. ⁓

And yeah, there we go.

Michelle Kesil (22:47)
Perfect. Well, appreciate your time and your story. Thank you for being here.

Jeremy Porter (22:52)
All right, you’re very welcome. And thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

Michelle Kesil (22:57)
Of course. And for those tuning in, if you got value, make sure you’ve subscribed. We’ve got more conversations with operators like Jeremy who are building real businesses and we’ll see you on our next episode.