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Intro: 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.
Welcome to The Stacey [00:01:00] Salyer Show, where we talk about buying and selling property management companies and everything in between. , Today, I have a little bit of a different format for my, , weekly episode. And what you're going to hear in a couple of minutes is a recorded live masterclass that I ran online, and I was teaching about the five different parts of the acquisition engine. And so I wanted to come in first and basically kind of, , set the stage for what you're going to hear and, , why I decided to make this an actual podcast episode.
, Well, one, I had a lot of fun creating it. I love going live online, and I think it's a great time to do so. , I had some great participants. I had some people show up and ask some great questions at the end, so be sure and listen to the entire episode because you're going to hear me answer actual personal questions from people, , that were part of the live part of the show.
And, , I would love to get your feedback on it as well. [00:02:00] So, , send me a DM. I'm on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and, Go ahead and comment below if you're watching this on YouTube and ask me your questions. I would love to, , hear from my audience, like, what kind of burning questions you have.
But mostly I just wanted to set the stage because by the time you hear this, it's going to be November, which means we're in the holiday season. , We have November and December left of 2026 before we get into 2027. And if you want to buy a property management company or a book of business in 2027, this is the episode you want to listen to.
So sit back, take away all the distractions, and get ready because I'm going to lay out exactly what you need to build out your acquisition engine for your company so that you can go out and acquire in your market in 2027. So take a listen and hit me up on one of the socials and tell me what you think and ask me your questions. Hello. Hello, everybody. [00:03:00] I am Stacey Salyer, and I am the acquisition strategist in third-party single family property management, and I'm teaching you about the anatomy of an acquisition engine.
Those of you that own property management companies, you've probably gotten your own emails and phone calls from, you know, I call them private equity guys who don't really know - property management, but they know it's a great business to own and run. those of us that have done it though for all the years that we have, know that it's a complicated business, while they're on the phone calling local competitors in your market, you know, they've never taken a call from a tenant at 2:00 a.m. with a clogged toilet or maybe even a house fire or something like that. They couldn't pick out the city, you know, necessarily like , on your map. They don't know like the local events that maybe you've been involved in, that you're hosting or that maybe you're a part of, like if you're in Rotary or Kiwanis.
And so I think a lot of times people have this misconception that, oh, you know, they're [00:04:00] able to go do what they wanna do because they have all this money and they have all these things, but I'm here to tell you that it's really actually not about that. It's really just about the engine that they've created, and that's really what I wanted to share today is how do you actually create your own engine so that you have not only your door-by-door engine, most of us have that in our company, but now we're kind of looking, our-- we've flipped our mindset and we're thinking, "Okay- I can build out an engine for acquiring, and I can go in and learn how to do that.
So we're gonna spend the next probably like, 45 minutes or so together, and I'm just gonna go through what that looks like, what the engine looks like, the five different parts. So I know how this works.
I've been in the m- business for over 20 years in property management. You name it, I've done it. I've probably seen it. I started my own business in my market in 2016, and then I actually acquired a competitor in 2020, right at the start of COVID. So when a lot of people kind of just closed [00:05:00] off, I went out and actually bought a business.
So I put the stats on there. I bought it for 360,000, 370 doors acquired, and then two years later, I actually exited at seven figures. So I'm gonna share a little bit more as we go into this on kind of how that deal structure worked. And then when I sold to Pure Property Management, became the director of acquisitions, worked with the acquisition team and got to do kind of that same thing on a much larger scale on a national level.
So lots of moving parts. So here is what we're gonna review today and number one is why waiting for a deal is the most expensive strategy there is. Number two, the five parts of the engine and what each one costs you when it's missing. Number three, the first time buyers, or the part that a lot of first-time buyers skip and knowing what you're really buying that due diligence part, the messy middles, I like to call it.
And number four, one real deal traced [00:06:00] through all five parts. So I'm gonna kind of talk a little bit about mine and some others that I'm actively acquiring. And then of course, number five at the end, I'm gonna address your questions. So why is waiting for a deal the most expensive strategy? So I actually pulled this stat that from RentScale.
A lot of you guys know RentScale in the market, and this is what they posted out there, that the average monthly leads for your door-by-door owner clients have decreased over the years. So if you're waiting and you're just continuing to grow door by door, which most of us, that's how we were, I guess, raised in the industry.
We think, "Okay, I'll just keep doing door by door, you know, maybe I'll get 40 doors this year or 50 doors this year." That takes a long time to grow. So it is getting slower every year, probably more competitive, versus if you could just go buy the company down the road, then you can grow much faster and quicker so anatomy, [00:07:00] the five parts and one machine.
So number one we're gonna talk about the buy box, deal flow, diligence, structure, and integration. So five key points to actually creating your whole engine. I would say that probably most companies have at least one or two of these maybe kind of, thought about.
But I really like to break them apart into five different pieces and why it makes up your entire engine. Later as we kind of move through, I'll be inviting you in to check out kind of what I do and how I work with clients so I can really work with you side by side to go deep into your business and build out your particular engine.
Because while the engine is the same everybody has kind of different pieces that they really focus on as far as , their strategies and everything. And I'll have some examples of some of the clients that I'm working with in my program right now and talk about that too. So number one, the buy box.
If anybody has been getting my newsletters or they've seen me speak, I talk [00:08:00] about the buy box a lot. So one example that I've used in the past, and it's kind of a silly example but I have a daughter who's 18 now, actually almost 19 tomorrow, and she loved Dora the Explorer when she was growing up.
That was like her favorite show. So I think I have probably a million Dora the Explorer memories in my mind, and Dora always had a map. And so it's like anything in business. If you don't have a roadmap or something that's going to take you to where, you know, from point A to B, it's really easy to get lost, distracted you know, shiny object over here or there.
So this is where we start like inside my program, is we start with the buy box, and it's just really getting clear with yourself as to why you have the goals that you do, what exactly you're looking for, what are you willing to say yes to? What are you willing to say maybe to or no? You know, what's a hard no? And that is different for [00:09:00] everybody. And so it's really important that you kind of get clear with yourself in the very beginning of goals and just really clear. So for example, I got a call - one day from a gentleman, and he was like, "Hey, Stacey, I love your content.
I want to go buy a property management company." I was like, "Oh, that's cool. You know, let me explain to you kind of how you could work with me." And, , my first question was like, "Where, what market are you in and you're looking to buy?" He was like, "Well, I don't know.
I mean, anywhere from New York to Florida to, I don't know, maybe California." I mean, literally, I think he just named the whole United States, minus Hawaii and Alaska And, and I giggled a little bit. I was like, "Okay, well, , do you like what... Tell me more about this.
Do you have offices in all those areas? Do you own a property management company? , What do you have going on?" And long story short, does not own a pro- property management company at this time. Wants to buy one. , Has a s- kind of a specific... he did have a little bit of a buy box worked [00:10:00] out as far as like, needs something, a certain door count with maybe so- a key employee that knows the processes.
But literally was just like, willing to kind of go anywhere. And I was like, "You know, have you thought about, like, how you're gonna - you know, run that company? W- who's gonna be your designated broker? What's the license laws? You know, can you even get funding on that , if you haven't managed in that area?"
And so we actually ended up having a pretty good conversation and, you know, his takeaway was, "Okay, I need to come back. I need to rethink my strategy on the market," and really figure out, like, , where he wants to buy. So again, the buy box is the first part of your engine. So hopefully we're clear on that.
All right. Number two is deal flow. So this is one of the other questions I get asked all the time. In fact, I spoke last week at NARPM National on a panel, and it's always "Well, where do you find the companies for sale?" I truly wish there was, like, a magic answer. Unfortunately, there's not. It's really just boils down to good old-fashioned work.
But if [00:11:00] you've built out your engine and you have all the pieces on the inside as far as, you know, keeping track of people that you've reached out to, the relationship building the different relationships of other people in your market. So kind of thinking outside the box, and I'll talk a little bit more about this when I talk about that one particular transaction I did in my market, is who do you know that knows other business owners, right?
So, rotary clubs, Kiwanis, landlord-tenant law attorneys, CPAs. So just kind of really stepping back and thinking, "Okay, well, where, where could I find maybe a PMC owner that, you know, is willing to talk to me, who could I get introduced to, and just really starting to build those relationships. And the key thing that we have going for us in our markets where we live, manage is that we're there and people know us.
And so kind of looking at yourself as well, your business as far as, , what makes your business desirable to sell to. So kind of putting [00:12:00] yourself in the buyer's shoes a little bit and talking about that as well. , Number two is , the deal flow. So we'll map, , every company in your market.
You know, inside my program I have some really cool like AI prompts that can help scrape data and all that good stuff. But really getting clear on, where the deals are coming from and then with that buy box, like what kind of deals you're looking for So the third part of the engine, of course, is usually the one where everybody loves those different horror stories, right?
So diligence. Now, diligence looks different on every deal, and it just depends on what you're buying, depends on the seller, depends on you as the buyer. There's a couple words that are thrown around is stock purchase versus asset purchase. And so stock is you buy the entire company, which actually I did in COVID.
It's not super popular, but people do it, and there's reasons why. Or the asset purchase is contracts only. So I'm [00:13:00] actively acquiring, and I'm only doing asset purchases at this point in time. But I never use the word never, so who knows? Things could change. But those, you know, again, it goes g- back to that buy box, like I know what I'm looking for so that, that kind of thing.
So people, of course, always love lore. What is the biggest problems, you know, you've caught in diligence? And diligence isn't just about money, and I'll get more into that too, but I will say missing money is definitely one that I've seen. Really being able to dive into people's financials and take a look at, , how are they actually managing those contracts.
, Those of us that have been in the business, we know, for example, like an owner's account shouldn't go negative. But sometimes people don't manage appropriately, and you may find something like that. I have seen where doors didn't actually exist, so they're on a rent roll. Maybe the owner took it back or they sold it, and it has been [00:14:00] not completely closed out of the property management software system.
So I have seen cases like that, like a phantom type door. Of course, there's ways to hopefully head that off. But anything, diligence-wise also goes with the team. So let's say it's a, , 400-door company, you may bring over one or two of the key team members. Are you doing diligence on those team members?
How are you going to do that? What does that look like? Diligence goes beyond just like accounting and contracts and everything. And honestly, diligence of the seller, I think, is one of the most important pieces as well. What does the seller really want? You need to outline it, be really clear making sure that everything's outlined in the contracts and that you're very clear , and everybody's on the same page. So that is the third part of the engine. Number four is structuring the deal. So again, another popular question I [00:15:00] get all the time there's so many ways to structure a deal.
And the cool thing is, there's really no right or wrong way. The cool thing is it's just whatever works for the buyer and whatever works for the seller and getting both the buyer and seller on the same page. For example, when I did my own in my market in during COVID time I put just a little bit of money down.
It was like $25,000 and had the seller finance it. And that worked really well for him. He was a boomer seller. He just wanted a monthly payment. It was extra income. He agreed to stay on and help with the transition and that worked out pretty well. a personal transaction with a business partner this time, and this time we're using the SBA.
We're using an SBA product where we have to put zero down. Obviously, the payment's higher so there's, you know, pros and cons, but there's a lot of different ways you can structure it and a lot of different ways you can get money structuring as far as financing is the big piece. Finding the right lender, but then also [00:16:00] structuring things like your clawback.
What does that look like? What does it look like if doors leave in the first six months or 12 months? Or different pieces of, anything you can structure. You should always structure like, what does the seller's role look like? If they have key employees, what do those roles look like?
Everything like that. So that's part four of the engine. And then number five, I don't think this one's talked about enough but this one's really important, is the integration.
What is your plan on the day of closing? What, , what is the plan with the staff? Do you have plans to add more revenue or, change up programs or, , do different things? You know, and AI, of course, is the big hot topic. You know, do you have plans to pop in some AI and change that up?
So I think integration isn't looked at enough in the engine, so it's something that I'm pretty passionate about. Because if you aren't pre-planning your map for [00:17:00] integration, it can really mess up, what you purchased. It can really mess up, what you currently own. And, you know, I've seen it go really well.
I've seen, challenges. And that is something that, , I'm pretty passionate about teaching and making sure that it's done correctly. Because the last thing you want is to buy something and then have a bunch of clients get upset and not be happy. Because we all know, and those of us that own PMCs know, like when it comes to renewal time, for example, That is one of the times, a big time, where a client may decide to leave because, it's a big change. They're like, "Eh, I don't know. I don't... You know, I haven't really enjoyed this journey. I'm gonna sell my home." Or, "I don't really like you. I'm gonna leave, go to another property management company," or whatever the case may be.
So, that transaction happens between buyer and seller, that's a big change and, or it can be a big change, and so making sure you've got some really good, clear plans. I think for me, it's always making sure that the relationship with the seller, if you're the [00:18:00] buyer, that you're- Really spending time with the seller and getting really clear on like what their transition looks like and how they're gonna help you with that.
All right. So We kind of reviewed the five different pieces of the engine, the buy box, the deal flow, diligence, structure, integration. So I'll just walk you through this particular deal. Once I close on the few that I'm working on this year, then I'll probably...
I'll start talking about those publicly in two thousand twenty-seven. But right now I'll just use this one as an example. So this one actually came to me through a referral from a landlord-tenant law attorney. So now this was the conversation I had with , the attorney. I was on the phone, and I said, "Hey, obviously you do a lot of evictions.
If you know of any clients..." Now, I was thinking actually small-minded at this point, so this is why I'm so passionate about p- teaching people on how to acquire. I was just thinking the door-by-door client. I was like, "Hey, if you know of any clients that are looking to, you know, have a property [00:19:00] manager manage for them because they're tired of dealing with their resident, I would love to be able to work out some sort of referral agreement with you."
He, thankfully, had a bigger conversation in his head. He said, "Actually, I know a guy that I do work for, and he owns a property management company. It's pretty large, and he's actually looking to sell. He wants to get out of the day-to-day. He's been doing it forever. And would you like an introduction?"
Now, I'll be honest. At this point those of you that know my story, you know I was a single mom. I quit a six-figure job. I opened my own company from my living room. You know, I'm, like, hustling, getting the door-by door. I really didn't have money to buy a business, technically. But I was like, "Of course, I'd love an introduction."
I'm not gonna say no to a meeting. And he was like, "Okay, cool." This was in about, I would say October-ish, like late October, early November. so here we are, getting close to the holidays which is why I'm so passionate about talking about this now. And [00:20:00] I got an introduction.
We started a conversation and, I even took my kids on a little vacation for Christmas and, you know, I'm still like, conversating. And we basically kind of came to agreements and stuff over the whole Christmas holiday break, and moved down the road , to purchasing. We were actually supposed to close on April 1st of twenty-twenty, but we all know what happened in March of twenty-twenty, and I was in Washington State, so we shut down.
So we both took a pause, and we ended up closing June 1st of twenty-twenty. But he had three hundred and seventy doors. He was a legit boomer business, all paper. His management agreement was two pages and but I saw a huge opportunity in the potential revenue growth, right? So- I looked at what I could pay for this, I looked at the door count, I looked at the doors, and I saw where I could bring some of the high tech but still high touch to the clients and the residents and move forward.
So I purchased for $360,000 put $25,000 down and asked the seller to finance, which he agreed to [00:21:00] do. With this one, I got a little bit creative because it was a stock purchase because nothing was assignable. His contracts were, you know, like I said, two pages.
I ran both side by side for about, mm, I would say nine months. I hired somebody, I trained her to help me run both, and then we just with the seller's help, had conversations and moved clients over and signed them onto my agreement. Now, this is where it kind of gets really creative, and this is where I really have a lot of fun teaching people about all the different creative things that we did.
So remember it was 370 doors. Not all those doors actually fit my model of business and that's fine. Now, I didn't want to just say no to the whole deal because of that. So I took a look at it and there was about a third, it was about thirty percent, where I was like, , these don't fit my model of business.
It was some of the doors, it was some of the clients. And but [00:22:00] what I did was I took it and I packaged it up and I sold it to another local property management company where that particular business owner was happy to take those on. He didn't care. He, you know, we ran different businesses, and he was fine.
So then I was able to pay down my note even further and then I ended up selling to Pure at the very beginning of 2022 for 7 figures. So that is just one example of kind of a creative way. Obviously there was a lot more details to it, but just always staying open-minded of, hey, maybe you say yes to all of it, maybe you assess it, maybe you divest some of it, maybe you don't.
That relationship with the seller was really important because he had very long-term clients. We're talking like twenty-plus year clients. He was very well-known in our community., Still is. And using that and that relationship and moving that on. So I love to be able to share that story.
I look forward to being able to share more stories in two thousand twenty-seven once we have some other things closed [00:23:00] up. But that's just one example. So here I would love to invite you in and teach you a little bit more about kind of how you can come inside my world, my Slayers Built to Acquire, that is my nickname, and learn more about how you can actually come in and build your engine so that you're ready to have those same conversations.
And I think this time of year it's extra important because as I mentioned, you know, I talked to that particular referral, it was like late October, early November, and that's the time where people get together with their families, right? November, December, we're all doing Thanksgiving, Christmas, whatever else we celebrate, and that's the time of year where people are having those conversations with their family saying, "Hey, you know, I'm ready to retire," or, "You know, I built this business and I've had fun, but it's just not really what I want to do anymore with my life.
I want to maybe sell it." So now is really the time to actually be [00:24:00] getting out there and having those conversations. So making sure that you have that defined buy box, and making sure that you're doing those active seller conversations and that you're networking and getting out there. In my program, I have ways that you can build your own map map out what's in your market.
I've got some really cool AI prompts that can help scrape data. I mean, Claude gets better every single day. We talk a lot about like capital and how you get the money, and I have all the different contacts , and how to do that. , Your buyer identity as far as like you and your goals, it kind of goes back to the buy box.
And then we'll usually end with, "How do we plan an integration for you?" So- In my program I've got obviously quite a few different people. But for example, I've got somebody in South Carolina who just joined. They're already in a seller meeting and with a pretty large company in their market, like ready to move to LOI.
And they felt confident to be able to start that because [00:25:00] of all the different things that we have inside there. , For example, I've got another gentleman in there that's in the Tennessee market, and he was able to get really clear on his buy box and decide that, , for him, he wanted to go after what I call the side hustle realtors.
, They might have 20 doors, 50 doors under management, and he's able to do some kind of creative outreach that, , we talk a lot about inside and, you know, how he can go out and make those contacts in his market as well. And then another company that is working inside my program is, you know, their buy box is, you know, 300-plus doors, and they are very focused on that particular size.
So those are some of the people, like examples of real buyers, like , in my program, like in motion, what that looks like
and I would love to open this up to questions. So I am going to put on my [00:26:00] reading glasses and see what we've got here.
so we've got, "Is there a rule of thumb on how many doors a buyer usually loses the first year? Maybe a percentage of the total." Oh, , Kendall, that is a really good question. - I've had a few different people on my podcast, and some will say that they lose, , 13 to 15%. I will tell you, like, when I've done my deals, I actually didn't lose any. Now, a caveat to that, me saying we, I didn't lose any, there were a few that were sold, , but they were captured under selling under my real estate brokerage. We didn't count that against the seller. That was something put into our contract, so that was part of the clawback.
So I think that it's just really making sure you have that good integration program, and making sure that you know what you're looking for, , and that,, you've got a really good plan for integration. , Okay, let's see here. What subcategories of property management companies see less competition because of door count, property type, under [00:27:00] management?
Aside from the purchase price, how can a small PM buyer stand out from the big acquisition companies? . Okay, so Jim, that is, those are two good questions. , As far as what subcategories, I don't know that there's really necessarily a right or wrong. I always just say there's someone for everybody.
It's just like real estate sales. So probably most of you on this call or on this, , webinar have done some sort of real estate sales or even, , renting the homes, right? There's something for everybody. So for example, though, that kind of just goes back to the buy box. What do you want?
Doesn't really matter what other people want. , Like I know for me, like my business partner and I, our buy box is more the boomer type business. We don't need the seller to really stay on. We have a team. - We're looking for what we call distressed, and I don't mean that in a rude way, but where's their opportunity where we can grow some revenue, , based on the programs that we run and that we know how to run.
, So it just kind [00:28:00] of goes back to your specific buy box. I don't think there's really less competition anywhere, , because there is someone for everybody. , And then aside from purchase price, , I think it goes back to, so aside from purchase price, like how can you stand out? I always recommend to people, like , as a seller, you should be creating your own seller resume, , because that matters.
That's, , and it also, it may matter to your buyer, it may not, but like I've found like the, , again, I use it affectionately, like the boomer seller, , that kind of matters for them, like that relationship sometimes more than the money. , So I, I would say just making sure that you as a seller have yourself out there.
Like who are you and why should somebody sell their company to you? Why should somebody sell their 30-year company to you? Like what do you have to offer? And then just making sure it matches up. , And then what other pain points do you see sellers face that big acquisition companies are unable or unwilling to resolve?
, [00:29:00] That is a good question. So I guess it just depends. , Again, it goes back to everybody's buy box and every big company, , they all have their own buy boxes too, right? So , they're gonna have things that are gonna work for them and then things that won't work for them. , Again, it just really depends on that relationship between the buyer and seller.
So for example, the seller, like of the one I did during COVID, I can't speak to it, but , it may not have been the right fit for a large company, , that was just coming new to that market because they needed a specific type buy box, but it just goes back to the buy box. So I don't think there's really , a, like a right or a wrong.
, And let's see here, what else? Oh, Erica. Hi, Erica. It's so good to see you online. , Is your role primarily training? , Yes. So what I do, Erica, is inside my program, I am teaching everybody how to build out their acquisition engine and have all the tools and resources that you would need in order to go out and acquire in your market.
So that way, , you are [00:30:00] equipped with everything you need and more. And then graduates, alumni of my program have an opportunity to stay on, , inside a, , specific community if that's something that they're interested in doing, so that way they still have access to me. , But I'm really adamant on, buyers creating relationships in their market or whatever market it is that they wanna be in, , so that you're the one, , sourcing your deals and talking to people and building those relationships and then, , knowing how to do all the rest of it as well.
, Assuming that was , your question. Okay, yes. , All right. , Is there a rule of thumb on - how much each door is worth? , So Kendall, that is a very good question, and the answer unfortunately is no. There's no really rule of thumb. , That's where the diligence piece of it really lies as far as, , you've got to look at, , what's the revenue.
, For example, like what's your owner concentration? Okay. So for example, let's say I was looking at a [00:31:00] 200 door company and 100 of those were owned by one LLC. , That to me would be kind of a red flag. I might still explore it, but I'm definitely not gonna pay as much for that as if it was like,, still 200 doors, but maybe 175 owners instead of just that, that mix.
So that can all definitely take a, , plays into, what you're gonna pay or what somebody might be able to sell it for. , Okay. And then what else do we have here? , Paul, let's see here. Ah, yes, , valuation multiple and what approach is commonly being used to determine valuations. , So I wish that there was some sort of, , just normal, like just some easy number for that.
, Unfortunately, there is not. , I know even we get this question all the time. I do, , panels every now and then with, , Jordan, , with Live Oak Bank and, , Patrick Hurley, who is a business broker, [00:32:00] and there's really not a common multiple. I would say though, in my opinion, most property management companies, you're going to want to use the SDE method, , seller discretionary earnings method.
That's something that I teach, , inside my program and teach everybody how to use that. , You can even, as an exercise, use it on your own company, , like inside my program, so that way you can learn a little bit more of like what that looks like, , and , how you would do that. , But unfortunately, there's no like common multiple.
, But that is usually what I recommend. , And then when pricing a small PMC, would their in-house maintenance and brokerage sales departments add significant value? Is it worth looking for sellers without those departments and then building maintenance and sales after purchasing? Oh, , that is a very good question.
So That again, , I will always say goes back to your particular buy box and what you want, what you're looking [00:33:00] for, and what you need. , In my opinion, I think all of those need to be evaluated separately. I would say brokerage income is probably the least valuable. , Maintenance may be valuable, but again, it depends on their numbers and how they're run, and if that's something you even want.
, But again, it really just goes back to you knowing yourself and your goals and your business, , so that you're gonna be able to take a look at everything objectively and, , stay away from shiny object syndrome. , Me personally, in Washington State, I did not have a maintenance company. My business partner and I are not acquiring Washington State, and we will have a maintenance company because it makes more sense in that particular market.
And,, we are not, , buying that piece of it. We're just buying the assets, the, the contracts. , The maintenance company will be run separately. So that's something that , we've done, but again, that went back to our particular goals, , and our vision for our business and what we're doing.
[00:34:00] So hopefully that helps answer the question. , And let's see here. How would you... And then, let's see, Christopher, , "How would you navigate a seller that has PM contracts not assignable language?" , So I always say that it's a great idea to talk to an attorney, , a, a specific contract attorney, , in your market.
, How I did it was by buying the whole stock sale. There's pros and cons, , for sure, and we talk a lot about that inside, , my group program, but that is something that I made the choice. He was adamant about selling it as a stock purchase. two-page owner contracts weren't even close to being assignable, so it was just something that I did.
I rolled the dice. It ended up working out for me. , And I basically ha- I had two different corporations essentially, and I ran them side by side, and then I just moved everybody over , to my company. , So you know, again though, but I do recommend, really working with a, a contract law [00:35:00] attorney that can, make sure that you are set up for success in your market too, because, I'm not an attorney.
But that is something that I did in my experience. , Okay. , And then Paul, , yes, you agree with SCE approach, , back out certain revenue to normalize in order to not overpay. , Ah, Yes, Paul. There's always gonna be those conversations of, what I need to back out. , Late fees I think is one, , that-- Well, actually recently, I've had that conversation with some people, , because it isn't necessarily a consistent revenue.
, And that, that's just something that we looked at. So I would say that would be a good example. But again, it really just depends on like what you're diving into and taking a look at, I would love it if you guys have any other questions, happy to answer them, happy to answer questions about, , what it looks like inside, , my group program.
, But honestly, you can just schedule a quick clarity call with Becca if you have, curiosity about that and what that looks like. , And I would say [00:36:00] that, , as we move into two thousand twenty-seven, it's best to start now, , and get really clear on, your goals, your buy box, and start those conversations now.
Because I would guarantee you that there's somebody in your market between November and December that is ready to, , lock up their door for the last time. I would love to be able to help everybody, , that has,, joined us today and, , watching the replay., I hope that today I was able to go through , the engine and, , share with everybody what that looks like and, , get everybody acquiring , in their market. , let's see here. , "Does my training model include a tuition cost, or do you broker deals and charge a commission?" Oh, that's a really good question, Jim. So my training model is a, it's a flat tuition cost, , for the group program. You come in, I teach you exactly how to build out your acquisition engine and everything in between.
And you have access to me, so when you're having those conversations and getting [00:37:00] started, , you'll be able to run things by me, and I can answer questions on your specific scenarios. , And I do not broker deals at this point in time. , I will have some things rolling out in '27, , where I can do some matchmaking.
In fact, , I do get, , things from time to time that I will reach out to my, , group and share. If that's something that, , somebody's interested in, then they can jump on it as far as sellers go. So thank you again for showing up, and I will talk to you all soon. All right, take care.
And as a side note, if you are listening to this the first week of November, you still have a couple of days where you can reach out to me if you want to join my November cohort. We kick off our cohort, , for November on Monday, November 9th. It is our group kickoff call in order to build out your buy box.
So if you're listening to this and you are thinking, "Oh my gosh, I really want to be part [00:38:00] of Slayers Built to Acquire," and yes, it is Slayer. It's after my nickname. , And you are curious, you're like, "I need help. I've just listened to this entire episode, and I am in. I want to build out my acquisition engine for 2027.
I believe in it," and you're curious about joining our group and really diving in and, , having me teach you and work with you side by side for the next three months, now's your time. You can still book a call in the show notes. Or shoot me an email or a DM on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or YouTube, and i'm happy to schedule a quick call with you or have one of my team members, , schedule a quick call with you to see if Salyer's Built to Acquire group program is right for you, and so that you can learn how to build out your acquisition engine for 2027. Hope to see you on the inside.
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 [00:39:00] 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, explore the Built to Acquire program.
Don't leave it on the table. See you on the next episode.
