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.
Stacey Salyer: Well, welcome back my [00:01:00] friends to the Stacey Salyer Show, where we talk about buying and selling property management companies, and I am Stacey. And today I have a guest on my show.
We met a little over a year ago in the beautiful Colorado Springs resort, The Broadmoor, actually. We were there for NARPM Broker/Owner, and we became fast and furious friends much like I do in property management. So, I'd love to introduce my guest today, Chapin Hemphill, from Key Renter Boise, and we are gonna be talking about lots of great things from buying and selling to, of course, AI, and
Chapin Hemphill: What?
Stacey Salyer: things, I know, right, all things in between.
So Chapin, take it away. Tell us a little bit about you.
Chapin Hemphill: Absolutely. I'm Chapin Hemphill. I have been in property management for a very long time. Fell into it accidentally in California. I was in Hollywood, California. And started off as a assistant manager and rose quickly in the ranks of the [00:02:00] multifamily industry. And so I was managing apartment complexes and then managing the managers, and then managing the managers of the managers, you know, up, up, up the way.
And
Stacey Salyer: Working the ladder
Chapin Hemphill: after about 18 years of that, I ended up at Greystar in Northern California, and that was my last corporate stop. I was never built for corporate America. I am too transparent and have no filter, and that does not work in corporate America. I ran into...
Stacey Salyer: why, that's why we're fast and furious friends.
Chapin Hemphill: I was l- yeah, exactly. I was...
I, I called the principal's office, but I, I, I knew HR pretty well
Stacey Salyer: All right. All right. Are you also Gen X? Are we the, around the same age?
Chapin Hemphill: Yeah. 55.
Stacey Salyer: Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. I'm 51. Okay. Yeah. So, and we're, we're just built different. We just don't have filters. We didn't need them growing up 'cause nobody knew what we were doing and nobody cared, so.
Chapin Hemphill: We, we had nirvana, right?
Stacey Salyer: Yeah, we did. Yep.
Chapin Hemphill: So, [00:03:00] left abruptly from, from Greystar in Northern California and went on a exploratory mission of what I was gonna do n- next. I looked at a lot of different companies outside of property management 'cause I just wanted to test that, make sure I was chasing what I wanted.
But ultimately, I found KeyRenter. I found KeyRenter when they were in a small office that had... I don't know what was in there before, but it smelled like monkeys. And it was the early, early, early, early, I think it was the fifth or sixth franchisee. So I started KeyRenter Silicon Valley. I built that solo and I mean, I had a, a remote assistant and that was about it.
We got through COVID, but right before COVID hit, I decided to sell it and leave California. So put it up for sale, COVID hit,
Stacey Salyer: us back a little bit. Do you... So about what year did you join KeyRenter?
Chapin Hemphill: I signed my agreement at the end of 2015
Stacey Salyer: Okay, 2015. Okay, and they, they were [00:04:00] pretty new. So Nate and Aaron had started 'cause I know Nate really well.
Chapin Hemphill: So at the time it was me, Brandon Scolton Jonathan Semsprott in Austin, a couple people who aren't, who are no longer with the franchise Jim Elfine, and a couple others and me, and that was it. That was the franchise. It was wild. Yeah
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. That's cool though, to be like on the ground and help build it, I'm assuming
Chapin Hemphill: It was scary because like I said, it was, I was... I mean, I was talking to 10 other very established franchises, and, and there, and then there was this new guy. But I went out there and I met Aaron and Nate
Stacey Salyer: Mm-hmm.
Chapin Hemphill: and got to know them as people, and that was it. My decision was made because they are two of the most outstanding people I've ever met.
And I wanted, I was looking for something different, and I thou- you know, I thought rolling the dice on this maybe franchise with a couple of great guys is definitely doing something [00:05:00] different. I'm all in. So,
Stacey Salyer: I love that. I love
that.
Chapin Hemphill: it's been awesome ever since. I mean, I've opened three offices with the franchise, so that should say something.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah, yeah. So before we like get into that part, tell me why you decided to go the franchise route. Because for people listening I would say, I mean, I've been in the business for a long time too, right? And 99% of PMCs are independents, right? Compare- compared to like real estate sales. I would say real estate sales is probably heavier on the franchise side which I actually owned a franchise on the real estate sales side, so I, I get that.
But why did you decide to go franchise in property management?
Chapin Hemphill: That's a great... I, I get that question a lot. It kind of changes through my experience with them, but I made the decision at first because I was coming from very, very high-level property management. My last client was Goldman Sachs. I knew what really good property management took.
It wasn't, you can't just walk into the [00:06:00] city, file a business license, get your real estate license, and you're ready to go. This is a business that requires a whole lot of subsets and processes working really, really well, and so a franchise partner appealed to me because I didn't want to do some of the stuff.
there's too many moving parts. So when I joined, that was the decision. Now it's kind of like why ruin a great thing? I've had three great experiences with this franchise.
Stacey Salyer: Okay
Chapin Hemphill: why throw that away? So I don't know. It's just I'm a creature of habit.
I know what works. You know, if my odds of success go up 40% because I'm working with these guys, I mean, it's kind of a no-brainer for me.
Stacey Salyer: Okay, so in the very beginning it was kind of like, I mean, you knew, I mean, you came from property management, but you came from multifamily, is that correct? Okay. Multifamily is very different than that single family, you know, right? Third party. Very. So yeah. And I, I, I think they both have their pros and cons.
[00:07:00] I've actually never worked in multifamily like that. You know, I've met a lot of people that have, but, you know, single family, you know, it's different because you've... Every single house is different and every single client's different. But you kind of basically got like a good business in the box essentially.
Like you've got some good support so you were able to just go in and focus on growing your business. Is that accurate?
Chapin Hemphill: Yes, there's that. Now, in the early days, I was more helping them than they were
Stacey Salyer: That's true.
Chapin Hemphill: But that, that's fun. I like that. That's made the experience better for me. I felt like I was contributing to something bigger than me, which I was, and I love that. Now, in today's franchise, we've got these mastermind groups.
Some of the other franchisees are some of the best, smartest people I've ever met, and we've... You know, we're friends. We talk a lot. We talk strategy. And I, I could go on and on and on about the hidden benefits of having that group of people [00:08:00] behind you. And it's just, I don't, I wouldn't wanna do it any other way right now.
Now, does that mean that's, this is the way forever? I don't know. But I like what's happening
Stacey Salyer: Yeah, that's really cool. I like that. So kind of like that really built-in community. Like you walk in and you've got that, that built-in community. I know like I had that on my real estate sales side. I knew, you know, there was always a resource wherever, you know, around the US I could call. Somebody else was doing something different and you're like, "Oh, I wanna learn how to do that," and pick up the phone and 20 minutes later you've got this whole mastermind basically talk and you're like, "Great."
Chapin Hemphill: I just feel like I've got this, this advisory group that is gonna be s- completely honest with me, you know? There's no BS. No- nobody holds anything back because we all... That's why we get together, and it's, it's, it's great.
Stacey Salyer: That's so cool. Cool. So, so you open Silicon Valley, which is probably a really great market, I'm assuming high rents,
Chapin Hemphill: Hirent, very competitive.
Stacey Salyer: very competitive. [00:09:00] Okay.
Chapin Hemphill: so it wasn't easy. That was a challenging five years. my wife ended up being diagnosed with cancer one year into it, and so she was in the hos-- She beat it. She's the strongest woman I've ever known. She beat it, so we're a happy family. But I had a two-year-old, she was in the hospital for the year, and I'm trying to build a startup.
It was very, very challenging,
Stacey Salyer: Wow
Chapin Hemphill: but I made it. experience almost killed me. I, I mean, just to be honest, like I worked so hard there was no option for failure, so I was like the hardest working version of myself, and I don't think I could ever work that hard again. I don't think it's possible.
So through that exper-- It was a phenomenal experience. I learned so much, but I also learned how to set up the next ones so that it wasn't like that, right? And all the lessons along the way. This is the best this is the closest I've gotten to If I could go back in time with all the information that I have in my mind today, I would do things differently.
And that's the cool thing about [00:10:00] starting these offices is you can do that
Stacey Salyer: Right, right. I think though there's a huge amount of value in going through things like that, like building from that survivorship mode. You know, you're in survival mode,
Chapin Hemphill: Yeah. No one can ever take that away from you. That is, to me, the, w- the greatest accomplishment was getting through those five years of my life. Everything else ... I mean, I'm, I'm doing some phenomenal things now, but that was like I went to war and I came out alive, right?
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. Yeah. And it, it made you a different person. I mean, you were able to move forward into new identity and, and now I'm assuming probably help mentor others and, you know, maybe even recognize like, "Hey, you might be kind of slipping into this type of mode. Here's how you could do something different so that you don't have to live that life," I'm assuming.
Maybe there's a little
Chapin Hemphill: Yeah, I've become a really good coach. I, I do, I do coach and I do consulting as well. The consulting, same thing. Look, I've... I know [00:11:00] how hard it is. I, I know what it took to do this solo, to get through it to do a successful sale. I feel like I've got some, some good intel that I can provide to people, and yeah, I love doing that.
I love giving that back
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. Okay. So you started Silicon Valley. You, I mean, that was very tough five years. Then you put it up for sale. How, how did that work? Like I, I know my listeners would love to hear kind of like what was that transaction like? Did you use a business broker? What, what happened with
Chapin Hemphill: Yeah. Well, I did call some business brokers in the beginning. I saw pretty quickly what they wanted to charge me. probably to a detriment. I said, "I can do this myself."
Stacey Salyer: I, I've never said that. I've never said that, no.
Chapin Hemphill: which is like all the people that we're trying to convince, "Don't manage your own property," you know, and then I go ahead and try to manage my own sale.
B- and it took a- it took about a year. I did it on BizBuySell. I put it up for [00:12:00] sale, and then a week later, March 16th hit, and I was pretty freaked out. It was quiet for about three weeks. And then as things started to settle and we saw who the essential businesses were, property managers are essential business California had all these state rent control things happening, and now COVID hit.
My, the demand for me exploded. And so during COVID, we crushed it. And I started getting BizBuySell inquiries, like 15 a day. It was insane. And so I came up with a system to filter through them because a lot of them were just tire kickers, like
Stacey Salyer: Mm-hmm.
Chapin Hemphill: n- w- yeah, totally not real, right? but okay, so I started talking to some real people.
I actually worked with you know who coached me through this was Mike Catalano.
Stacey Salyer: Oh, yeah. Awesome. Yeah, 'cause he's in that area. Yeah, and he, well, they founded Pure in 2020.
Chapin Hemphill: Yeah. So, and this was right during when they were launching [00:13:00] Pure. So He's in Silicon Valley, and so I kinda knew him, and I sat down with him for lunch, and I'm like, "Hey, I'm trying to sell my business."
And he ended up just kinda coaching me through it.
Stacey Salyer: I love that.
Chapin Hemphill: He ended up presenting an offer that I did not accept. And I'm so sorry, Michael, but it just wasn't the best offer. I love you, bro.
Stacey Salyer: That's okay. Yeah. I mean, that, that's just business.
Chapin Hemphill: And his offer was to, you know, for Pure to purchase it and me to join that team, and I, I didn't wanna work for anyone. That was what it came down to. I wanted to get out. I took a year off, hung out with my five-year-old son, started the consulting. Just kind of took it easy, 'cause remember, I had the h- hardest five years of my life, so I needed a year off.
And so that's what I did. I took the cash offer, took a year off. By the way, in 2019, I also started KeyRENTER New England. I co-founded it with my partner over there. So I-- that was my second office, and then in '22, about a year and a half after [00:14:00] getting here in Idaho, we launched KeyRENTER Boise.
Stacey Salyer: Okay. So you sell Silicon Valley, that was 2020 or was it
'21?
Chapin Hemphill: closed in the, in February of '21, yeah
Stacey Salyer: Okay. February '21. And then you opened New England in '19? Was that... No. Yes. Okay. So overlap. Yeah, you were working crazy. And then when you say New England, like what area? Like what
Chapin Hemphill: Manchester, New Hampshire. Yeah. Yeah
Stacey Salyer: Okay. Okay. And and you opened that one with a business
Chapin Hemphill: Yeah. Sad to say, I've actually never seen a property in that portfolio.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. You've never, have you even been there?
Chapin Hemphill: not during the ownership of the company. I have been to New England, but
Stacey Salyer: That's why. I love that. You're like a true entrepreneur. You're like, "Oh, sight unseen."
Chapin Hemphill: mean, I, I I, my partner is somebody I worked with for a long time. I totally trust her, and what I was providing, I didn't need to be there. I was providing processes [00:15:00] and the accounting oversight and, you know, just sort of like CEO kind of level stuff, and I, I just didn't need to, to be there, so
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. No, that makes sense. I mean, you're not gonna be doing move in and move outs at that
Chapin Hemphill: I am not.
Stacey Salyer: No. Okay, cool. And so now do you still own that one?
Chapin Hemphill: I do. actually went through the process of, of looking at selling that. we got an offer. We got actually a couple offers, and then it just the one offer that we accepted fell through. And, so Megan and I my partner and I decided, "You know what? Let's just try to build this more and see if we can sell it for more."
So it was kinda like cool. We went through the process. She understood how challenging it is to sell a business.
Stacey Salyer: Right
Chapin Hemphill: And she was like, " I wanna put this on pause." I'm like, "I get it. Let's build this and sell it for more." So that's what we're doing.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. No, that's cool. I think like 'cause when I was working with Pure, I mean, 'cause I did sell to Pure very, very end of '21. And I did M&A for them. You know, a lot... We had a lot of people kinda go through that process [00:16:00] and, and it was almost like a education for some people and, you know, you know, I mean, you, it sounds like you got an offer.
Didn't pull the trigger on that one. But it is, it is kinda cool, like when you can kinda see "Oh, well, if I, you know, do build up, you know, I might be able to sell for more." But it depends too on, on all the
Chapin Hemphill: Yeah, to- totally. It's a risk. I mean, you know, the New England could fall into the ocean next year. I don't... Anything could happen.
Stacey Salyer: I don't know, California will probably fall into the ocean before New England. But anyway okay, cool. So you guys have... Do you mind sharing, like, how many doors you have in that, in
Chapin Hemphill: In New England? Yeah, I, I think we're at 110
Stacey Salyer: Okay, 110. Okay, cool. And then she mostly runs like day-to-day. You're kind of just like on the back end it sounds like maybe advisory type role.
Okay, cool. And so now the goal has changed with that one. Keep it, build it, go from there. Unless, you know, somebody is listening to the show and they call and make you an [00:17:00] amazing offer,
Chapin Hemphill: Yeah, who knows? Well, it's a, it's, it was a business that was established by me, so you know, it's, it's okay.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. Yeah. That's great. And, and it's under the KeyRenter brand, which
Chapin Hemphill: Yeah, and there's always, you know, I, I joke about that first thing, but no, that's the other thing about a franchise is they're also making sure that these businesses are staying compliant and they're good businesses, right? They're meeting certain metrics. There's accountability. If you're not bringing on doors fast enough, you, you know, you're talking to the marketing team.
They're there to really provide some, some lift.
Stacey Salyer: No, that's cool. Okay. So you then, you get out of California, you move to Idaho, I'm assuming. When, what year did you move to Idaho?
Chapin Hemphill: 2020
Stacey Salyer: 2020. Okay. Okay. So you were kind of managing California remotely?
Chapin Hemphill: Yeah. I mean, I got the offer on October 31. So we started the closing process, and I literally... We put our house up for sale that same [00:18:00] day. It, that sold in eight days. So then we flew to Idaho, found a house, put an offer, got secured so we weren't homeless, got a house that we still live in today. We love this house.
And it was just like a wi- it was so fun and crazy and we had money, we had money to play with. We knew we were gonna sell this house and the business, and so it was, it was a good time.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. No, it sounds like it. And Boise's a beautiful
Chapin Hemphill: I love it. We lo- we absolutely love it here. Yeah
Stacey Salyer: yeah, outdoor stuff and all the things. Okay, cool. So what year then did you open Key Renter Boise?
Chapin Hemphill: 2022
Stacey Salyer: Okay, 2022. Okay, cool. And so it sounds like Key Renter... Well, I guess you still had New England, so you mean you were still had a, an office branch.
It sounds like they're pretty easy to work with as far as "Hey, I'm gonna do this
adventure."
Chapin Hemphill: an OG. I know you know, I know everyone. I've, Yeah, they made it easy.
Stacey Salyer: Okay, cool. Okay. So you open, you open that [00:19:00] office, and is this just you or do you have a business partner there
Chapin Hemphill: I have a business partner, Kyle. Yeah, that's been-- So this has been a whole different venture. We started with Award Chest. That's a very different experience, actually starting with money. I so Key renter Silicon Valley was so strapped I convinced my wife to open nine credit cards and cash them all out.
We got 100K in cash that way, and that's how we started it. It was such a risk and that was another reason why it was not allowed to fail, period, 'cause that would have ruined my wife's... I mean, it just was not... I didn't even want to think about it. So, yeah. Well, the first thing I did was pay all that off when I got that big check, and that was a great moment.
But listen, I would never recommend you do that to start a business, but it's what I did, and it's just so risky at 20% interest the whole time. It just-- But it worked. It worked out for me
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. And so tell me why you chose to [00:20:00] do that. Was it like, I mean, 'cause you can get SBA loans and that kind of thing. Is that, was it just
Chapin Hemphill: I didn't have... I, I left corporate abruptly. Stephanie had cancer. She didn't have any inc- or she, she lost her income because of the cancer. She never really regained. She had a business, and it was a physical therapy business. You can't take a year off and expect to come back.
Stacey Salyer: Mm-hmm.
Chapin Hemphill: That was not an option.
it was like during the ti- Remember, it was COVID, so people weren't... Like, giving money away was high risk, so that's what we did.
Stacey Salyer: Right. Yeah. Yeah. So you definitely bet on yourself and
Chapin Hemphill: what, no, this was pre-COVID, so. But it just was hard, yeah you know, we didn't have, we didn't have much, so
Stacey Salyer: Yeah, yeah. I find though that the people like that, like the stories like that when you bet on yourself you will, you will win. You will succeed, right? Like it's you know, and it... And I love that you're sharing this story. Thank you so much for sharing that part of it. Because I think a lot of times people will [00:21:00] look at like current day success and they're like, "Oh, you know, that guy has it easy."
Like whatever, right? so I think it's so important. I love it when people come on my show and share kind of the, the details and I didn't know that part of your story. That's huge.
Nine credit
Chapin Hemphill: I don't really, I don't really share that too often. I just, I do but it is an important piece of the story 'cause it made it that much more challenging. It was as if, you know, what else can we throw at this guy? The universe says, "Let's make this extra challenging." So, but I, you know, for whatever reason, I'm very much a things happen because they're supposed to.
And I look back and especially since she beat it, it was quite an experience. We all grew a lot. And so we started Boise with, you know, I'd sold the house, sold the business. We had-- I had a partner who contributed money, so we started with a a war chest. And so from day one, we had a BDM 'cause we were pushing sales, right?
It [00:22:00] was all about getting to a door count that the business could sustain itself as quickly as we could. So that was a very different plan than Silicon Valley or New England. And it was very expensive at first. We had four salaried employees day one.
Stacey Salyer: Oof
Chapin Hemphill: And so, but we got today, after four years, we're at 450 doors
Stacey Salyer: Wow. And then what year did you start again?
Chapin Hemphill: 2022
Stacey Salyer: Okay, so from '22 to '26, you went from zero to 450
doors, and mostly organically, I think.
Chapin Hemphill: Mostly, again, we had two small acquisitions.
Stacey Salyer: Okay
Chapin Hemphill: yeah, we can talk, we can talk more about that. I, I definitely learned a lot during, during those. One was 60 some doors and one was like 17 doors. So that was, yeah, that helped. And those were early, so that helped our, like morale. And we got to-- So we actually, we got to 100 doors in five months or
Stacey Salyer: Wow, that's really impressive.
Chapin Hemphill: part of that was an [00:23:00] acquisition.
Stacey Salyer: Okay. Okay.
But
Chapin Hemphill: we were feeling good. You know, we're like, "Okay, this is progress." And and although I wouldn't do the deals the same way, the deals have been... I mean, we've made like 5X on the deal on both of them, so they worked out. But- Right ... you know.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah, I, I don't think anybody, I mean, including myself, has ever said, "Oh, I would go back and do it the exact same way." But I'm always thankful and grateful for what, what had transpired. That's the
way I-
Chapin Hemphill: you get, you have one or two under your belt that's such, that's such wisdom that you've garnered. So that's the way I see it
Stacey Salyer: Yeah, 100%. so you started with four salary employees, zero doors, but then you did, you know, a couple very, you know, small acquisitions, but mostly door-by-door growth, and now you're at 450 doors. And do you, do you mind sharing about how much was in your war chest? Like how much you had set aside to
Chapin Hemphill: no, I don't mind. It was like three... 350K.
Stacey Salyer: Okay. Okay. Yeah, I mean, that's a good amount. [00:24:00] Yeah.
Chapin Hemphill: like, crazy. It wasn't half a million or a million bucks. It was actually a pretty reasonable amount for a franchise. So one thing I learned in the multifamily world and working as an asset manager is performas, waterfalls, IRR projection, like, all that super high-level financial stuff I learned pretty well. So the performas that I put together for these businesses were, as I look back, really good. They were really... 'Cause I spent a lot of time researching exact costs. I had algorithms to build the stuff out. And so I, I looked at my performa a lot and I was like, "Okay, you know, I need to pull some levers."
This, And, you know, your fees change, right? They evolve as your property management grows, and things change. And so I would ch- pull the levers on this thing, and it really... So my, my advice would be you start with a, with a really good plan. And we, we called every single property manager in, in [00:25:00] Boise, in Treasure Valley, so we knew what,
Stacey Salyer: your
competition
Chapin Hemphill: learned from that.
We called 64 property managers in Treasure Valley, okay? I think that's everyone.
Stacey Salyer: Wow. Impressive
Chapin Hemphill: We actually reached two. Two.
Stacey Salyer: Two, like in person
Chapin Hemphill: We actually made c-contact with two. So we would... My t- my team called. They were expected to do a follow-up call two days later, and a final one five days later if they never heard back. They only heard back-- Well, no one picked up.
So in terms of picking up on the first call, zero. Returning our call after the first call, two. Returning our call after that third call was, like, one more.
Stacey Salyer: Seriously?
Chapin Hemphill: And I was like, "Guys, we are, we are in heaven. Our mission [00:26:00] is to pick up the phone. We will get to 400 doors in four years if we just pick up the phone before two rings."
And that was, that is our... Somewhere is my banner that RentScale did for me, and it's all about we answer the phone. That's our dif- differentiator. Yes, we've got some, like my business partner is really good with relationships and, making those connections that lead to many, many doors.
He's very, very good at that. But he answers the phone. That's really what we've done. And
Stacey Salyer: you guys are live answering, like a real human. You're not doing the AI answering
Chapin Hemphill: We do the AI for overflow, but that's if four people, different people can't answer the phone. Yeah.
Stacey Salyer: Sure. That's fair. Okay. That's cool. And are you guys answering seven days a week?
Chapin Hemphill: Not live, no. No. And I, in the beginning, we used to have a call center. Not, not ever gonna do one again because of where we are and with technology, As much as people don't want to t- talk to AI, they don't make the [00:27:00] mistakes that humans make
Stacey Salyer: Right. Right. For sure.
Chapin Hemphill: And, and I'll give you an example. If I call and test the call center, "Hello, Key Runter Boys, how can I help you?" you don't even know how to pronounce the name of the company. That's a problem, people
Stacey Salyer: That is a problem. That is a problem.
Chapin Hemphill: So Call centers don't work. and it's like saying people in this situation, people aren't good enough
Stacey Salyer: Right. Right. Right. At least, yeah. I mean, you're a local team obviously, and then,
you know, overflow AI that you, you've trained. Wow. So I guess that would be, I mean, that's a huge mic drop moment here. I mean, 64 for you to even, number one, do that research. I mean, I'll admit I've never done that research in my market.
Now, now I'm going to.
Chapin Hemphill: I guess I've, what I've learned from the first two franchises is the research and the pro forma and just understanding the market is so important before you get started. You just, you, [00:28:00] you have no direction if you don't do that stuff. And I know it's hard, and, and I know it's confusing.
You should, honestly, if you're thinking about, out there thinking about starting a property management company, you need to talk to someone like Stacey who can help you build out a pro forma or somebody else, because it is essential. It's like going in blind, and you've...
Stacey Salyer: Right.
Chapin Hemphill: It's a problem
Stacey Salyer: Yep. Yep. Yeah, and then, you know, really knowing, yeah, building your roadmap for sure. Which sounds like, I mean, you did a great job building that roadmap. And then,
Chapin Hemphill: I-
didn't want to lose. I, I was like, what can, what else can I do to ensure that I'm gonna win doing this? And I just kept think- okay, well, what is everyone in the market doing? I g- I need to know. So I called everyone.
Stacey Salyer: You're not answering their phone. So Boise, Idaho,
Chapin Hemphill: know.
Stacey Salyer: you're not answering your phone. And you know, it's weird because we hear that across the United States though. I used to hear that when I had Leading Edge, you know, in my market. People would be like, "Oh, you're the only one that answered my call."
Chapin Hemphill: Well, no, so listen, I get it. I It doesn't [00:29:00] mean that people are bad necessarily. Could mean they're bad. But when I was a solopreneur and I was talking to a resident that was freaking out on me because I wasn't allowing them to move in their illegal cat, owners are calling,
Stacey Salyer: Right.
Chapin Hemphill: but I'm on the phone.
the lesson for me is you cannot grow fast if you're a solopreneur. It's not possible.
Stacey Salyer: It's true
Chapin Hemphill: if you want to take care of every, all of the you know, all the stakeholders in your business, if you wanna take care of them, you can't grow fast. So that's why we started Boise with...
I, I started Boise with a sales department. Like there were more people in sales than operations when we started
Stacey Salyer: Very cool. I, yeah, and I think that is a huge differentiator for you 'cause I would say 99, 99% of PMC owners start very operational based, and they stay very operational based. I mean, and I've, I've talked about this quite a bit in writing and on my show. [00:30:00] You know, you go to a conference, what is there?
Operations. I mean, there's not a lot about growth. I mean, a little bit not a lot about acquiring not a lot about marketing. It's all operations. But really, you know, operations is important of course, but if you're not focused on sales, I mean, you're not gonna grow
Chapin Hemphill: There's, they're equally important. As my business partner likes to say, "Hey, I can bring in as many properties as you want, but if my partner's not taking care of them, they're gonna go right out the door." So it's, it's t- a total partnership. Absolutely. And that, you know, it's kind of, it's, it's how we're partnered.
He's all sales, and so my, my opinion is that sales also includes leasing. This is like people facing stuff to close contracts is that department, right? So leasing and new owner sales he oversees, and it's going so well
Stacey Salyer: That is really cool. And then you're kind of like the engine, [00:31:00] like the- Yeah ... the, the operations, the map, like all that kind of good stuff. That's really cool. That's really, that's great that you guys have that cool partnership, and I think that's where partnerships really work pretty well, so that's good.
So as far as I mean, you've done ... It sounds like you've done a lot of buying and selling. Do you have any words of wisdom or things that you would share? Just hot takes, like really quick of if you were to go back, maybe what you would do different for either buying or selling?
Chapin Hemphill: You mean acquisitions?
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Chapin Hemphill: Yes. I think the number one thing that I would do different in every situation is to really understand what the properties are that we're buying. Go to every single one. Every single one.
Stacey Salyer: Okay
Chapin Hemphill: Look at every single one of them if, you know, if you can, and talk to every owner. Somehow you gotta talk to the owners before the acquisition happens
Stacey Salyer: [00:32:00] Okay Yep.
Chapin Hemphill: 'Cause you gotta get a sense of what, what's gonna churn out, you know? So our thing was like, we don't want a... A couple owners said, "We don't want it to work with a big national company." And I had to explain that's not at all what we are. We're, we're a small local business that, that has a franchise partner that helps us with back end stuff, you know?
And I think that helped one of them, but the other one was like, "No, I don't wanna, I don't wanna work with you," just because of that. You know, before even trying. So, I just would like... I think it's important to get a, a handle, get ahead of that, a handle on what, on what level that's gonna happen. And I don't know.
I don't know. In our deals, we kind of like did the deal and then told all the owners because we didn't want to... I don't know. I think it was like we, we were just hoping that would go okay, right? And I don't think you do that in the
Stacey Salyer: No? Yeah, I don't know. I, I, it's pretty common to, to not talk tell them before just because you know, usually the seller doesn't want [00:33:00] that because then it could
blow up
Chapin Hemphill: why?
If he's got such an awesome business, what's the problem with
that?
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. Well, yeah, that is true, but, you know, people don't like change, so I guess,
Chapin Hemphill: Right. Right. And if they don't like change, I don't wanna be paying for that
Stacey Salyer: Right. Yes. Did you do a
callback?
Chapin Hemphill: it. I'm buying this contract, and if you don't like change, then I need to know that. that's just what I'm saying is as the buyer, you open yourself up for a lot of, lot of risk if
Stacey Salyer: You do. There is
definitely, there is definitely risk. Did you do a clawback on any, any of those?
Chapin Hemphill: I did
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. Okay. Did you have a high churn rate?
Chapin Hemphill: The clawback covered what we did. Now, it wasn't super high. there were a lot more that fell off after the, the churn period, which was fine. Some of it we were like, "We don't wanna work with this person." And that's the other thing
Stacey Salyer: Mm-hmm.
Chapin Hemphill: is I don't wanna... You know, one, one of our owners, we still have him, but he's got the worst properties in our portfolio at this point because [00:34:00] back then we were taking anything.
Stacey Salyer: Right
Chapin Hemphill: He's a nice guy and he's got 22 properties and like, or units. He's got a bunch of fourplexes and, I don't know. I mean, I would never sign him today because of the quality of his turns and the quality-- therefore the quality of the residents and how much time we're spending on this deal and the small fees we're getting 'cause the rents are low.
It's just like a drag. But he came with that deal, and he was the biggest owner, and we're just not there yet where we're gonna say... He also sends the-- my, my biggest pet peeve, he also sends in his own handyman to do everything
Stacey Salyer: Oh, okay. Yeah, which is
Chapin Hemphill: And which we're, we, which we're not allowing with other owners, but this guy's grandfathered in and so
Stacey Salyer: Right. Yeah. Well, yeah, you'll get to a point where you'll make a decision on that,
Chapin Hemphill: Yeah. I mean, again, great guy, but I don't know if his portfolio fits ours anymore. That's all
Stacey Salyer: Yes. Yeah, I think we all have that. I [00:35:00] know I had some owners that were like what I classified as an A owner, but you know, C-minus properties. And, you know, and I would keep them because I really enjoyed working with the client, and it wasn't... You know, they were good to work with. But when I did finally release them, I realized, "Ah, should've done that earlier."
You know? We always do that, right? Yeah, for sure. So before we wrap up, I know I would love to hit on a little bit of like the consulting you're doing, 'cause you mentioned AI before we jumped on. And I would love to, you know, maybe talk a little bit about that, like what you're doing and maybe how you're incorporating it into your business and what, what stuff are you nerding out
on?
Like...
Chapin Hemphill: I'm nerding out big time. I I have dec- I, I made a decision a long time ago to really figure out how to bring all of the logins into one place, right? 'Cause we talk about that a lot. You know, all these logins we have. And so that's something that goes back years. With AI arriving and everything we can do [00:36:00] now with vibe coding we're there.
And so I've been going nuts. What I'm doing is I'm using Notion to hold all of our data, 'cause it's a database, and all of our written information, 'cause it's also a text-based database. And it is the brain of our operation. It has all of our policies, all of our processes really clearly explained, and all the stuff that people have been talking about, right?
The... What, what people aren't really... I mean, t- people are talking about that being your source of knowledge, and I, I totally agree it is. The database side is mind-blowing, okay? example, I have imported with API token all of my AppFolio information. I now have all of my AppFolio data in my database.
And my team can go to our portal and say anything. "What is... When is so-and-so moving out? What is... Give me a [00:37:00] renewal plan for this person." And it's, it's live data from AppFolio. Same thing with LeadSimple, live data. So we're doing a lot of our process oversight in this portal, but the data is still in LeadSimple for now.
Stacey Salyer: okay
Chapin Hemphill: What else? Boom. We use Boom for screening. We know what's going on with screening. My team can now make a decision on screening with the click of a button based on all the information that's coming in. It This is a great example. It helps them make a decision without going to Kyle or me.
"Hey, can I approve this person? They're conditional." The-- We built out a matrix that answers that for them. And they are more confident. They get things done faster. They feel empowered. It's awesome. And so what I'm working on, and I've solved our key problem. We've had, "How do we track keys?"
This has been a problem forever.
I solved it. I solved it with AI and [00:38:00] and an app. So
Stacey Salyer: the physical keys? Yeah. well you could probably sell that. Sell the- Like on the internet, 'cause that is like one of the, the biggest problems is the keys. Okay. You saw... And now is that all-- So is everything housed in Notion? Is that like what you're considering your portal?
Chapin Hemphill: so you can go into Notion and say, "What is the Kwikset key cut for 123 Main Street?" And then it'll tell you, and then our field team all has a large keyring of the Kwikset keys, and they can just go open the door. So that is they don't have to run back to the office. They don't have to figure out what database am I looking in.
The key with, with all this is you're not actually sending your team to go look in the database or in the Notion. But don't have them ever go into pages. It's all just a search. What is the deal with this?
Stacey Salyer: And they're searching, they're searching in Notion
Chapin Hemphill: Yeah, they-- So we also have custom built out agents in Notion that they can ask for spit lake.
We have an angry owner agent. Just plop the email in. It's gonna [00:39:00] get, 'cause Notion can also read all history of emails, like it can connect so that it has the full scope of the situation and then can formulate a response. Again, for my remote teams in the Philippines, this is a game changer. This guy is yelling me, I don't even know what to say.
Well, just here's the angry owner response agent. Plop the email in and set, hit say go, it'll give you something to work with. Now, that's different than plopping it in the ChatGPT because I put all kinds of guardrails and instructions and specifics in this agent, and it's not looking anywhere in the internet.
It's only looking in our small little universe, and so the responses are excellent, you know, and
Stacey Salyer: Yeah.
Chapin Hemphill: It's instructed never to say, "I hope your day is going well." That's bullshit, you know?
Stacey Salyer: Email finds you
Chapin Hemphill: Just get to the point and, and nicely, you know, answer this guy's [00:40:00] question. So though that is what I'm doing, it is act- it is changing the game.
We're trying to get to we're trying to get to a point where we're, we've got a one maintenance coordinator per six hundred, seven hundred, eight hundred doors with Vendoroo. that is evolving really well. Like I'm, I'm really enjoying working with them. I'm just leaning heavily into AI.
I spend at least half of my day vibe coding and trying to figure out solutions. Right now for my team, I'm working on an app they can just walk through and talk about the blue tape on the wall, and it's gonna spit out an estimate for the owner with pricing already. Like you don't have to mention how much things cost.
It's pulling from the Home Depot current price for a...
Stacey Salyer: Hmm
Chapin Hemphill: You know, he's describing the, bathroom vanity he needs to replace, and it goes, prices it at Home Depot like automatically. So pretty wild time-saving stuff. It's all about reducing time in the field or time working on [00:41:00] something.
Stacey Salyer: Right. Yeah, and being efficient also, you know, I mean, what you're describing sounds like to me your team is probably happier because nothing is worse. 'Cause I remember when I had Leading Edge, I mean, we had way too many platforms probably, and, you know, it's so hard to train somebody. You're like, "Oh, well, you know, you log on to Buildium.
Oh, but then you gotta go into Tenant Turner for this. Oh, and then you gotta go into monday.com." And, you know, back then it was like, you know, I'd try and have everything run through Monday as much as I could. But you know, when you can have it run through one source of truth... And again, I think that's important for everyone to understand you're not having your team go to Claude or ChatGPT.
It's going to Notion, which you have trained. Those are trained employees, essentially.
Chapin Hemphill: it is the only source of truth
Stacey Salyer: yeah. Yeah, Angry Owner agent is trained on your expectations, your, your voice, your, you know, your companies, right? Your everything. That's a game changer. That's huge, and that's probably gonna make [00:42:00] your team feel so much better, too.
Show up to work every day and maybe not be as stressed out, hopefully.
Chapin Hemphill: That's the idea. And we're growing so quickly, like team... And our Filipinos, I love them, but they will, they will be the last person to tell you that they're, drowning. And so there's been a lot of "Okay, you can't do all this anymore. You were doing this when we were at 100 doors.
We're at 450. You can't do all of it anymore." And so we're going through that, separating. We're going through delegation worksheets. "Okay, this is now what you do, this is now what you do." It's all about refining and clearly defining the guardrails and who owns what tasks and, just going all in with EOS and, and AI and the ability to just have it all work together.
It's pretty incredible time. Yeah.
Stacey Salyer: No, I love that. Well, I'm sure you and I could talk for hours. I'll have to have you back on the show just to talk about the AI piece of it because I really wanted to kind of hit on the, you know, your buying and selling, I mean, and [00:43:00] moving around the US and doing all the cool things you're doing, especially with Key Renter.
But I think it'd be really cool to have you back on and maybe have you go more in detail
if you're up for that just because I, I know that that would be a huge benefit to my audience. But yeah, so before we part ways, Like, where can people find you Are you doing consulting for the AI
type stuff?
Chapin Hemphill: what I'm doing, I, I am but what I'm doing is I'm and we're, I'm actually presenting my platform pretty soon, next week, to a group of people. So I'm, trying to build a platform, a template that I can sell and, and then update regularly with my brain updates and make sure everyone's got the latest and greatest.
So that is what I'm working on with Embark, is to provide that. So yeah, and it's a side project 'cause I have a property management company that comes first.
Stacey Salyer: Right. Yeah. But that's cool. It's needed. There's a lot of people out there that could definitely use
Chapin Hemphill: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. [00:44:00] And there's a lot of people in our franchise that are asking for it, so I'm kinda trying to get there. It's
Stacey Salyer: Yeah, I love that. And are you speaking at all? Are you presenting anything around that in particular?
Chapin Hemphill: I'm doing... No, I'm doing, well, I'm doing a webinar for the franchise and, and things like that, but I'm not publicly speaking.
Stacey Salyer: Okay. Well, maybe you should. You know? Maybe. I don't know. I think it'd be pretty valuable if that, if that's something you're into. Awesome. Well, thank you so
Chapin Hemphill: Maybe you can coach me on, on putting that together.
Stacey Salyer: Okay, I will. I'll help you. Yeah, I think, I think you should submit to speak for some places in '27 if that's, if that's your vibe.
Just 'cause I think what you're sharing is really cool, so
Chapin Hemphill: Thank you
Stacey Salyer: Yeah, you're welcome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on today. I'll make sure all your contact info is in the show notes, and,
Chapin Hemphill: Yeah, I mean, if you want, the best place to find me is probably LinkedIn, and it's just /chapinhempill. So
Stacey Salyer: Perfect. Perfect. And yeah, if anyone has questions about Keyrenter, what it's like to [00:45:00] buy into a franchise, and, you know, if you're curious about that or you know, what you're gonna be offering your platform or anything else, then go onto LinkedIn and find Chapin. You will enjoy speaking with him Cool.
Well, thank you so much for coming on today, and we will see you next time
Chapin Hemphill: Thank you, Stacey
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 [00:46:00] Building, explore the Built to Acquire program.
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