Intro: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Stacey Salyer Show, the podcast for property management leaders ready to think bigger about growth. I'm Stacey Salyer and the only acquisition strategist in this industry who sat on all sides of the m and a table. I've been the buyer acquiring a 370 door competitor during COVID using seller financing.
I've been the seller building and exiting a seven figure business. And I've been the corporate evaluator as director of acquisitions, assessing over hundreds of companies nationally. That means I know exactly what you're thinking, what you're missing, and what actually works when it comes to buying and integrating in this space.
On this show, we dig into acquisitions as a real business tool. Not luck, not someday. You'll learn positioning, strategy, numbers, and integration from someone who's actually done it all. Let's go.
Hi, I'm Stacey Salyer. [00:01:00] Welcome to my show, where it's all about buying and selling property management companies. So for a long time, I treated my business like my fourth child. I'm not talking about my current business. I'm talking about my property management business that I started in 2016. And what that looked like at the time was I was a single mom of three children, human children, and somewhere along the line, the business became my fourth child.
So my identity was mom of my three kids and then mom of my company. And I don't recommend it to anybody. Because here's what I didn't realize until I walked through buying somebody else's property management company in early 2020, and I saw my own reflection staring back at me.
I'll tell you the whole story today, and more importantly, I'll tell you what it cost me and what it'll cost you if you don't catch it earlier than I did. So again, welcome to The Stacey Salyer Show, where I talk about buying and selling property management companies. [00:02:00] And again, today is a very personal episode for me.
It's a solo episode where I go back in time, and I share my origin story. And I'm sharing with you today because I hope that this helps anybody listening where it may resonate, We talk a lot about building property management companies as an asset and not a job.
And so sometimes it helps to hear kind of why we might talk about that and how it could relate to maybe where you are today. So let's dive in. So to kind of set up the origin story, again, this was back in 2016. I was a single mom of three kids, and I still have my beautiful three children, uh, two boys and a girl.
And I had set up a property management company for a local home builder back in 2010. So I had worked for him for six years, and things were great. You know, I-- no complaints. You know, I pretty much could do whatever I wanted. But I had always had this vision of opening up my own firm. [00:03:00] I had a name, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do.
You know, all the different tech stacks were coming out because it was 2015, '16. And so I made the huge jump. I quit my full-time job where I was making a great salary had benefits, all the things, but I wasn't able to execute my vision. And so here I am, single mom of three kids. I take the huge leap. I open my company, Leading Edge Property Management, from my living room.
So the great thing about, of course, owning your own business is that you can work whenever you want, which is always kind of the running joke, because when you start your own business, you're usually wearing every hat. So I was working a lot. But I did set it up so I could work around my kids.
I was able to drop them off at school. I was able to pick them up from school. I was able to shuttle them to and from sports. But that, of course, made me, you know, work like all day and all night, right? So I saw the opportunity in my market. I knew that I could build something beautiful, and I had a specific vision.
So I jumped [00:04:00] right in and got started. So In the early years, it was super scrappy. You know, I built it by hand. I mean, anything and everything that had Leading Edge on it. I mean, it was all my vision. It was my touch. It was everything that I wanted for my company and more. And so, you know, when you're in that moment and you just feel like you're super connected to it, right?
So, you know, Google reviews, of course, were a big thing, and they still are. And so, you know, every time I got a five-star review, you know, I would feel amazing and you know, like a proud mother of her business. And then I remember when the first one-star review rolled in, and it was devastating to me because here I was.
I actually called my business my fourth child. So I would say, "Well, I have three kids, but actually really four. But my fourth child is Leading Edge." So it's over here, and I have my three human kids. And so I remember getting that first one star, and I felt "Oh my gosh, somebody just beat up my [00:05:00] child.
How could they? How dare they?" And, you know, here it is, like the emotion is running deep when, you know, you, you're jumping in and that's what, what you have going on. And so I wore that kind of a badge of honor. And, you know, I worked harder than anybody. I knew every single owner. I knew their families.
I knew a lot of the residents. I knew their backgrounds as well. You know, I had all the vendor relationships, and it made me think I was a really good business owner because I was in it, I knew everything, and I knew what worked, and I knew that, you know, I was Leading Edge, and it was my baby. And here's the thing I want to name, because I think maybe some of you are gonna hear yourselves in this. I was building from survival. I was a single mom of three. Now granted, I made the choice to quit my six-figure job for the home builder and go out on my own. But still, I needed it to work, right? I had to make this [00:06:00] work.
I was the one that was providing for my kids and my family. And survival mode looks like dedication on the outside, but really what it is on the inside is your nervous system can't ever set the thing down. It can't regulate, and that's exactly how your business becomes your fourth child instead of your asset.
So, you know, I plugged along, right? 2016 I open up, and, you know, '17 and '18, and I'm, you know, growing. I'm getting doors. I'm, I'm growing my team. You know, I'm starting to delegate. And I was working with my business coach, working on, you know, making the list, right? That we always say like, "Make the list of everything you love to do, make the list of the things you hate to do, and then, you know, give everything you hate to your assistant."
I have other thoughts about that as well. But anyway, so here I am plugging along, and I'm talking to somebody in my market and he says, "Hey, I know somebody down the road that wants to sell his property management company." And you know, I was around 200 doors at this time, and I'm like, [00:07:00] "Oh, that's cool.
You know, that'd be cool to maybe entertain. What a great way to grow." And, you know, he-- turns out he had 370 doors, and I'm like, "Wow, that's a lot of doors. That's kinda crazy." And so here it is, you know, this conversation starts out relationship-driven and you know, everybody knows everybody in my market.
So of course, I said, "Yes, I would love to have a meeting." And I go and I meet with him, and it's just him and a bookkeeper for 370 doors, which is kind of crazy. And I know I've shared this story before, so this part of the story isn't really new. But as I moved through this acquisition, right?
So in the beginning, It didn't even really resonate with me, like what I was doing. I mean, yes, I knew I was buying another person's business. I get that. But I didn't even really think of it as such a big deal, And I knew strategically, like I knew logically, that I had my business and I had to take his and integrate it.
So that I, I [00:08:00] understood, and I had a really good plan, and it did work. But I really didn't think in like terms of like what that would look like. I guess blending, if you will, because, right, I still thought of my company as my, my child, right? I mean, this is still fourth child here, you know, so it's over here.
And my, my child's perfect, of course, you know. And here I am, like looking at this guy's business. I'm like, "Yeah, okay, cool. It's good. I'll, I'll buy it." But I hadn't really thought about it until I started to meet with him, and it was almost like a mirror, right? So I think back to that time, and I think that a lot of things went through my mind, and I learned a lot.
But it wasn't until later as I kind of started to kind of grow up and dissect things and, and really learn about building your business as an asset that I realized that he was put in front of me to mirror me, to show me that "Hey, if you continue down this path of calling Leading Edge your fourth child that's never gonna graduate high school or move [00:09:00] out this is where you're going to be."
I mean, and again, he made great money. He did. I mean, it was, it was a good business. I mean, I'm still very thankful that I was able to, to purchase that. But I'm looking, you know, across this desk at this gentleman who had worked years and years and years, and he was the business. Like literally, he was the property manager.
He knew everything. Like he knew all the people. He knew all the tenants. He had all the relationships. And that was a huge shift in my thinking as I moved on of, you know, here's this mirror staring back at me, like showing me, "Hey, if you continue to go down this path,
Like it's not horrible. Like obviously, he was able to do it, but is this something that you really, really want?" So it was a huge moment of recognition for me and you know, something that I do not take for granted at this point in my life.
And I think the biggest thing that I really learned [00:10:00] and that I really realized about the whole thing is that he thought he was selling me a company, but what he was really doing was selling me a really expensive version of himself. and the reason I could see it so clearly was because I was about to do the same thing if I didn't change something
So if you're still with me, let's talk about really what I learned. I have four things and four costs, four, I guess, personal costs if you continue to run your business like your child or any family member that you wanna call it, and instead of building it like an actual asset, right? So one is you lose optionality.
So just remember, the buyers don't wanna buy you, they wanna buy something that runs without you. And the more fused you are, the less you're worth on an open market.
So number two, you can't see it clearly. And, you know, I guess even myself, like my identity was wrapped up in my company, 'cause [00:11:00] remember, you know, when I got my first one-star Google review, and I was like mortified, and I felt like I had been punched. I felt like my kid had been beat up at lunchtime in school.
You know, every problem in your business feels like it's a problem with you, so you can't really disconnect, right? You can't evaluate anything objectively. You can't make hard calls about the people or the clients or pricing because everything feels too personal to you. And so that's where it's really hard if you continue down the path of not looking at it like an asset.
Number three, of course, is probably pretty obvious. You can't step out. Obviously you can't go on vacation. I mean, if everything's in your head and everything runs through you, you're the person that's on their cell phone the entire time when you're supposed to be, you know, having a good time in Mexico.
And, you know, that's not good for you. It's not good for your family. It's not good for yourself and your own identity. You know, what happens if you, you know, land in the hospital [00:12:00] and, all that hard work can go down the drain. And number four, you can't acquire. Now, of course, people will say, "Well, Stacey, you still bought a business when you, you know, were running it that way."
And that is true. That is true. But I do believe that if I had not been able to shift my mind as quickly as I had, it would've made it a huge problem. Could you imagine where all of a sudden you're now managing a business with over 500 doors and you have to have, you know, more staff and everything, but if you still have to know every little detail about every little thing, or you still feel like you get punched in the gut on a one-star review, and you're still taking everything personal, that is not good for you.
That's not good for your health. It's not good for your team or your family. And so really, the whole acquisition skill set requires ability to see businesses as assets, and you can't see somebody else as clearly if you can't see your own. So [00:13:00] I really thought treating my business like my fourth child made me a more devoted owner, and what it actually did was guarantee that I'd never be able to leave and that nobody else would really want to take it on.
And so again, a lot of you know, you know, kind of the overarching story, right? I bought that in 2020, scaled it, did some di-divesting in that, and then I sold to Pure Property Management at the beginning of basically '22. And, you know, looking back again, I don't think that that would've happened if I had kept on the same trajectory that I was.
You know, the reason Pure was very interested in my company is because I had a very built out processes and systems. It was very detailed on who ran what department. I did not run maintenance. I did not run leasing. Everybody, you know, reported to everybody else, and I got to just get the highlights.
And, you know, in the beginning it was kind of weird. And in the beginning, sometimes, you know, some people [00:14:00] had kinda challenges with it, right? You're gonna have those clients who are, have always talked to you. You know, they just wanna talk to Stacey. And, you know, over time, it's, you know, kind of that process.
You've gotta get them to kind of, to move on because you're not gonna be able to grow yourself if you continue to stay in the same spot. And so as I moved, obviously into Pure, and again, a lot of people know this part of my story, uh, you know, I had the opportunity to become the director of acquisition.
And that was a huge also turning point for me because now here I am on the other side of the table, you know, having the conversations with potential sellers, learning more about their business, learning more about them and their mindset around what they own and who does what. And it was very fascinating.
I learned quite a bit in the couple years that I had the opportunity to do that And, you know, I met some who literally did nothing with the business. They truly... It [00:15:00] was truly an asset, and they would just get very high-level information. But I, I met a quite a few people who it was kind of more like they were in the day-to-day.
They, And when we say that, day-to-day, we really mean you know, they were still kind of the property manager, and they still knew all the clients and the, the residents and everything like that. You know, they had really built a job. Now, it doesn't mean that you can't purchase a company like that, but it does make it harder for a company to purchase a company like that.
Because as you can imagine, the transition between me and the seller who I purchased from, it was, it was quite a bit. You know, I always say, and I kind of joke around about this, that thankfully it did happen during COVID and our shutdown, because I didn't have any other distractions. My, real three children were homeschooling and I'll use the term homeschooling very loosely.
So we had no sports or anything like that. So I did have the time to dedicate that transition. But if it had been any other time, It would've really taken a toll on me in order to do that, because [00:16:00] he, you know, was wrapped up in everything, and everything had to be explained. There wasn't a database where I could just go and, you know, find out the information on the property.
So with all of this, I clearly have become very passionate about teaching people how to grow their acquisition growth engine. And the reason why is because I think that it's important. It's important to talk about. It's important to identify things like this.
It's important for business owners to be honest and say, "Hey, yeah, raise your hand." Yeah, I also was like you, Stacey, and it took, you know, maybe some other sort of thing in your life where you've decided that you wanted to move from, you know, in the business to kind of more on the business and, and not be in the weeds and, you know, live your life a little bit differently.
And I became really passionate about teaching people like, "Hey, you can go out and acquire." The other thing is that when I did my acquisition, I learned quickly, again, like looking back, at the [00:17:00] time, I kind of didn't even think about it. At the time, it was like, "Oh yeah, this is really cool." I'm adding all these doors.
And now it's well, you should have this acquisition engine because a door-by-door growth, of course, is also very hard. Like you're hustling, you're always on the hamster wheel, you're always worrying about churn. Whereas if you build out your acquisition engine on top of the other one, now you have two well-performing engines, and you're more likely to grow a lot faster and get yourself out of the day-to-day, stop the job, and become more of an asset builder.
So here's what I want you to sit with this week, and it's just a question. If you stepped away from your company for six months, what would happen? That's a big question. And I think all of us, probably myself included, would say "Hey, there's some holes in my business. There's probably some spots here or there that I might need to improve upon before I can do that."
And, you know, I think that really tells you, too, kind of [00:18:00] where you land. So if you say, "Oh my gosh, I don't think I could step away for six minutes," well that's, you know, probably a big, challenge. Maybe six days, six weeks. So just think about that and, you know, I think that's the cool thing
Because the answer to that question tells you whether you've built an asset or whether you're building a really expensive version of yourself. And if it's the second one, that's not a moral failing. It's just information, so it means you have work to do before you can do the thing you actually want to do, which is grow your business through acquisition instead of grinding it out one door at a time.
the Slayers Built to Acquire sprint program is something I specifically built for busy property management business owners. In four months, you walk out with a personalized roadmap, the clarity, your buy box, and all the things in between so that you are ready to build your [00:19:00] business like an asset, the one that you really want to own.
So thank you for joining me on my show today. I really appreciate all of you listening. And if you liked this episode, please leave a five-star review. That's how other property management business owners find me, and I will see you next time
Outro: thanks for listening to the Stacey Salyer show. Here's the deal. You can read about acquisitions anywhere, but you can't learn acquisitions from someone who's done it the way I have as a buyer, a seller, and from the corporate side evaluating hundreds of companies. That's why I need you to subscribe and share this with someone in your network who needs to hear it.
And if this episode landed, leave a five star review. It's how more PM owners find the only acquisition expertise in the space that comes from all sides of the table. And while you're at it, grab my Acquisition Readiness checklist on my website at staceysalyer.com. Then when you're ready to move from Growth Thinking to Growth Building, [00:20:00] explore the Built to Acquire program.
Don't leave it on the table. See you on the next episode.
