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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: welcome everyone [00:01:00] to the Stacey Salyer Show where we talk about buying and selling property management companies and everything in between.
I have with me Candace Farville, one of the halves of, , Pathbuilders.
Kandise Varvil: I'm so, so happy to be here, Stacey, because you are so cool, and I'm so glad that we get to chat acquisitions, AI possibly. That's a spoiler for what we're probably gonna talk about today. And all, again, all things in between, which is a very broad range of topics
Stacey Salyer: It is. It is. I know. I love having the only show though that we're, it's not focused on operations in property management. , Although I know that that's primarily , what you focus on. , However, I think it's really cool to be able to have something out there that talks about buying and selling property management companies, and I like to include the in between because all the in between makes a successful acquisition, , or can break an acquisition.
So
Kandise Varvil: 100%.
Stacey Salyer: Yes. So yeah, let's dive in. , First I would love for you to give a little bit of backstory about your [00:02:00] business. I know you have another half. You have a co-founder, , who I've met. , She's, , also a lovely, amazing person. And, , you guys recently changed your company name and kind
Kandise Varvil: Mm-hmm
Stacey Salyer: pivoted and changed your focus.
So I really wanted to have you on and talk about that, talk about what you guys are planning on doing in 2027. I'm sure we're gonna talk about AI because I'm, like, a super nerd, and that's one of my favorite topics. And of course, we're gonna talk about how that all relates to buying and selling property management companies.
So let's go.
Kandise Varvil: Absolutely. So Kristin and I started, , we were PM Pathbuilders with literally a dream, just hopes for the best. And so the, our company started because , we were reached out to by a business that was like, "Hey, can you help me with my lead simple processes?" , To Kristin, and she's like, "Oh yeah, for sure.
I'd love to." And she immediately calls me and says, "Hey, so I need your help." And so we decided, okay, let's do this. I was leaving for maternity leave from my job as a business [00:03:00] development manager for a company in Marin, and so I was already doing a bunch of sales. I'd worked in property management for about a decade at that point.
And so I was like, "All right, let's try this." So s- Kristin had a very secret mission of me being able to just not return to my other job after my maternity leave ended. So she's like, "We've got one. Let's get as many as we can." So we started the company really by falling into it and saying yes to quite literally everything that landed on our plate.
People were like, "Oh, can you help me with my company team structure?" "Yeah, of course we can." "Can you help me build processes?" "For sure." "Can you write me an SOP?" "Yeah, why not?" So all of a sudden, we're at full capacity, but doing so many different things. And, , Kristin and I both had big life updates earlier this year.
We both welcomed new additions to our family, and in doing so, we were forced to stop and fully reset the business because we were both out, so it wasn't like handing tasks over to the other person. We had to have a full stop. And so when we came back, we're like, "Okay, so [00:04:00] cool. We're so thankful for version one of PM Pathbuilders," but it has been really just painful for us, right?
Just doing all of these things. Most of them we didn't truly love. So we decided to start picking apart all of the things that we truly loved doing within the business, and it left a pretty short list. And that really was why we decided, okay, we need a refresh. PM Pathbuilders is associated with SOP, full ops development.
We were firmly consultants under PM Pathbuilders, but we need this new iteration to do, to really explain what we're doing next, and that's why we switched. Also, we got the domain for the Pathbuilders, and I mean, that's always a, a big factor in a name change. So, we did this full pivot after ripping the company apart and decided, okay, we love building for people.
We really love sitting on with people and making their processes better. But I would... There's quite literally anything I would rather do. I'd rather eat glass than handwrite another standard operating procedure. So I'm like,
Stacey Salyer: My, my, my go-to of like I would [00:05:00] rather is run evictions eight hours a day than do whatever. Like , there's a long list of things I'd rather
Kandise Varvil: M- I'd rather go to evictions court for an unqualified landlord that's morally bankrupt than write another standard operating procedure
Stacey Salyer: that you got so incredibly clear on, what you love to do and what you don't love to do
Kandise Varvil: Oh, and it's, it was a really hard distinction because just because we, , were doing it and we do it well doesn't mean it's what you should be doing. And we realized, okay, our value is in creating really cool stuff. And if AI had existed in the way it exists today, when we started PM Pathbuilders, we wouldn't have had a company.
Because AI can write a better SOP than I ever could by hand, and it does it 10 times faster. AI is able to do a lot of these pieces that we were doing manually, and it was ta- Like, I kid you not, Stacey, I have handwritten at least probably 70, 80,000 pages of SOPs, like typed them on my computer and sent them [00:06:00] to people, and that's not necessary anymore.
So there's also the requirement to pivot what you're doing to meet the needs that people have. And I'm curious, how have you seen AI lend a hand in what y- the work you're doing with clients and helping them with acquisitions? Have you noticed a significant change?
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. Yeah, and I would love to get to that question, but first I want to address that... I want to like sit a moment with what you guys did, like this huge pivot, because I think that business owners have a tendency to shy away from doing things like that., I think that's really brave on and audacious, right?
Because you guys have a successful business, and how long have you been doing this? Is it four years? Five?
Kandise Varvil: Three years. It's so funny, my son just turned three in September, and I was actually in the hospital about to go in for my C-section when we pushed our website live. So he, th- my son shares a birthday with our business
Stacey Salyer: Okay. Wow, that's amazing. Okay, [00:07:00] so three years, you guys are three years in. You've built a great reputation. Your booth at every event is beautiful, and you guys have great swag and super creative. But you were doing what I call the Cheesecake Factory of consulting, you guys ever gone to the Cheesecake Factory, you know, for lunch, dinner, whatever, and it literally their menu is like 10 pages, and it's like chock full all 10 pages.
And you're like, "Wow, I can have sushi, I can have a burger, I can have steak, I can..." And it's , it's actually very overwhelming. I'm sure it's overwhelming for the staff. I don't know, Cheesecake Factory, if you're listening, you should probably pare down your menu, but maybe that's not their thing. But I think in our consulting world, I've seen that where it's like, "Oh my gosh," it's the whole thing of , "Oh, I can totally do that."
You get the call, "Oh, I can do that. I can do that." And now all of a sudden you have this business where you're like, "I don't even like, like this business. I hate doing more than half of it." , Which... And then it's really hard to write offers and make offers. So I think I just wanted to address , that I think it's so [00:08:00] cool that you guys like three years in really were able to like pause and look at that and make that decision.
So I would just like to applaud you guys for doing that.
Kandise Varvil: Thank, thank you so much. It was so scary because I, we really, we, our menu was a textbook, if you were to look at our services. And I, think we have pretty much been at capacity since our sixth month in business. So of course the first six months was like, "Oh, what's gonna happen?
Will we even have,, enough business to continue operating for a month?" But really, we hit a stride around month six, and we've maintained it. But even whenever I'd look at my calendar, it became overwhelming because it was like, "What was I supposed to do for this person?" There was no rhyme or reason to the way that I was running my calls.
It felt overwhelming, and I would still show up prepared, but it was, like, my day and just trying to manage my tasks, incredibly overwhelming. And I know Kristin experienced the same thing. So us being able to, like, , slow down. Now we actually, we know very confidently what our service [00:09:00] offering is. It's such a relief to be able to say, "Okay, this is what I do.
This is what I'm good at." And all these other little pieces we were doing, we have really awesome people we can send you to that can do it better than if we try to spread ourselves so thin. And if I could give any advice to someone who's coming in, especially as consultants, I think really any business you'd need to niche down, right?
You need to know what the thing is that you love and you're an expert at. But especially for consultants, because it's a very ambiguous role to be in, is to get hyper-specific with what you're doing and to take the time to say, "Okay, this is what I love. This is what I wanna do." Sure, absolutely say yes to some things that may be a little outside of your scope if it interests you and you want to do it.
But if you continue saying yes to everything, you're gonna end up in a position where you, at what point do you start saying no? At what point is this a boundary that you no longer wanna cross? And scope creep is insane when you start saying yes to everything because you don't even know your own boundaries, let alone [00:10:00] clients knowing your boundaries, right?
Stacey Salyer: Yes. No, I love that. And I'm, , I'm really glad that we started our, , episode talking about this because I don't think we talk about it enough. And you mentioned the word scary. It is scary. I know, 'cause I did the same. I launched this in 2025, and I kinda did the same, like, " "Oh, I can do whatever."
I mean, Been in the business for over 20 years. , You name it, I've done it, seen it. , But I niched down this year, and it is scary 'cause I basically, , blew up my business and was like, "Oh yeah, well, no, I'm not gonna do that anymore. I'm not gonna do that anymore." , But now, you know, when you're repetitively, putting yourself out there like, you know, "This is what I do, this is what I do, this is what I do," you start to become known for, and it's so much easier.
Yeah. , And then you're truly an expert in something, and I think people really value that a lot more than the whole, like, Cheesecake Factory of consulting, where it's like, "I can do it all." Well, of course you can. Sure. I mean, yeah, you're skilled, you can. [00:11:00] But, , I think it's better to work with people who totally niche down and micro, micro-consult.
I don't know if that's a word. I made it. Yeah.
Kandise Varvil: That's a great word. I think that you need to add a little trademark at the end of that, and micro consultants, uh, unite, you know?
Stacey Salyer: Yes, I know
Kandise Varvil: think of, like, to expand your analogy, you're not gonna say, "Ooh, I'm really craving the best sushi in town. I'm gonna go to Cheesecake Factory." You're gonna find a really good local sushi restaurant, right?
And so I think that there is a perspective of just because you can doesn't mean you should. And also, if you can find... It's okay to work with three or four different people who are complementary in their services. When it comes to services like consulting services, that your job is to help the people you're working with, I've come to notice that, , one, it can be the best, most collaborative group of people in the world.
, I heard someone say that, like, you, it's like you have a bunch of coworkers, right? You're all kind of running together. , But there's also the end of feeling like, oh, I need [00:12:00] to make sure that I'm providing so much value if someone doesn't wanna stop working with me. I've realized getting rid of that and having...
I've really, I joke with my clients where, like, my goal is you graduate from needing me. I want to do such a good job that there's a day you wake up and say, "Oh my gosh, I've learned everything I can from Candace, and I'm ready to do this by myself." That was the most freeing moment within my business of realizing, oh, I don't need to come out and prove my value every day to make them continue working with me.
What I can do is I can give them every single piece that I can to make them successful and hope that they're able to take this information and do it on their own. That completely changed my mentality. Now I'm like, "Oh, heck yeah, I want to make other consultants better. I want everyone to be able to rock out and provide the best value for clients."
And that has been, like, just a breath of fresh air that it's no longer a scarcity game where you're just trying to get as much as you can. It's like, no, if they need me, they're here. If they don't, let them fly away, and someone else who needs me, [00:13:00] I will now have the capacity to help them as much as I possibly can.
Stacey Salyer: Oh my gosh, I love all that. I could spend hours just talking about all that mindset, but we won't today. We'll have-- I'll have you back on. We'll do like a mindset episode.
Kandise Varvil: Oh, I'd love it
Stacey Salyer: I know. So I would love for you to kind of run down like what you guys are focused on. We'll definitely, I would love to talk about AI and how I'm teaching people to use it, , for acquiring and kind of I can dive a little bit deeper into like what I teach in my program.
, But what, is your guys' main focus? Like what are you all doing
Kandise Varvil: we are really dialing in on people creating... And I, and so I can't even avoid AI in this conversation because that's kind of our, right now that's kind of our thing, we are, we're still doing process builds. We work within like LeadSimple, Apty, but we've realized that in our process building, there's so much capability with AI.
So we're really hyper-focusing on creating really cool usable products, helping people learn to vibe code, creating custom dashboards, and [00:14:00] making the products people are using incredibly usable, right? So we'll go in and we've realized, okay, we can do this with the softwares that already have the infrastructure.
What would it look like if someone just wants dashboards built directly into their PM software? So now we're doing some of those additional builds and trying to create like an infrastructure so people are able to have this customized workplace. Teams are actually using processes, but building that on top of what they already have within their tech stack.
We consult with people who are custom building their own softwares, custom building their own landing pages, and help them make it as usable as possible. Mm. So really our focus is creating the infrastructure. Yeah, we'll build processes if that's needed, but if people have these incredible processes but the tool they're using isn't usable for their team, that's where we're coming in and we are creating the, a custom solution that their team can then use and make sure their processes are as efficient as possible.
Stacey Salyer: Okay. So are you finding out there in the property management world, and your focus is [00:15:00] still property management, right?
Kandise Varvil: Yes, absolutely
Stacey Salyer: Okay. So are you finding people are confused about AI? Like, obviously we all know it. I mean, we know AI, we know it, right? We hear about it every day, even on my show. , But I feel like people like get it, but then they don't necessarily get it 'cause I think they think of like chatbot, they're not really thinking agentic, , and I don't even know if I'm reading the right terminology, , or like even how to apply it.
I think that's the big disconnect, at least maybe I see at conferences. , And I, I just see like, vibe coding, like how do you even do that? So are you seeing a lot of questions around all that?
Kandise Varvil: 100%. And , it's really funny because I'm starting to be able to pick people out of a crowd when they talk about their AI use. So if if I'm casually talking to someone and I'm saying, "Hey, so are you using AI?" And they'll say, "Oh yeah, I use it all the time. You know, I've got ChatGPT on my phone."
And I'm like, "Oh, this person is going to ChatGPT and asking about, , their groceries," or they're going to [00:16:00] ChatGPT and saying, "Hey, build me a workout plan." To me, that's level one users, people who are interfacing and using ChatGPT like Google, which is a totally fair way to use ChatGPT, totally fair way to use Claude.
So that's tier one, is I use it, I encounter AI a couple times a day. I'll chat with the Gemini summary of things and I'll ask additional questions. But ChatGPT is a knowledge resource for me, tier one. Then we go up to tier two. Those are people who are starting to use AI to either create for them.
Those are the people going and saying, "Hey, draft me this email template," or, "Hey, can you help me rewrite this post?" That's where we're getting into, "I'm using you as a resource. You're giving me information back I'm implementing," but that really is the extent of it, right? Maybe I'm having you help me create some marketing material or help me develop a plan, but it's really, that's the transactional relationship with AI.
That's tier two. Then we go up to, "Okay, I'm starting to actually use AI in a way that's creating things for me." Maybe I'm having it create visuals for me [00:17:00] or editing posts. This is where you enter the really dangerous zone of people who use AI and feel comfortable enough to use it that they're saying, "Hey, can you make me this really cool image for my social media?"
But they don't use it enough to be able to say, "Oh, this is not something I want to post, and it's very clearly AI generated." So there's a level of, okay, discernment now. It's working for me, but I don't know enough about AI to be like, "Oh, what you've given me is trash, and maybe we should scrap and rebuild."
So tier three, most dangerous tier in my opinion, where you're gonna see a post on LinkedIn and be like, "Ooh, that's an AI post right there." And then we go up to really, like the next tier, which is five, and if I kept going, there'd probably be 100 tiers. So I'm gonna just loop this next tier all together as we're d- we're moving into advanced AI usage.
Those are people who are coming in and they're starting to import data. They're starting to have AI work for them. So these are the ones that get really excited whenever you're talking about, "Okay, have you had AI go in and sort all [00:18:00] your emails yet? Oh, you have to go do this redundant task for taxes.
Have you uploaded the form to your taxes and had it sort and itemize all of your line items?" That's where you start using it more as a support person in your day to day and less of a knowledge base you're interacting with. As it goes to, like, vibe coding, a lot of people s- feel really intimidated by it, and one of the things that I wish I could scream from the rooftops is vibe coding is not hard.
It is just hard to start. The hardest part about vibe coding is knowing how to do it. The second that clicks, anyone, and I mean this, anyone can start vibe coding. Anyone can make their own website. Even if you look at the PM Pathbuilders or, sorry, the Pathbuilders new website, I personally vibe coded that.
And so that's where you get into, like, the door opens, and then all of a sudden the fl-- like, you crack the door, and the breeze blows it wide open. The capabilities are endless, and that's really the point where I see a transitional shift. [00:19:00] It's really hard to get from, , that tier three up to the next tier where you realize, "Oh, this can significantly make my life better."
Stacey Salyer: Right. Okay. So vibe coding is actually doing like building. So like building stuff, not just using it to go into your platforms. So for example, like last night I was working and, , I have two different AI assistants I use. I have one on my phone, Instinct. we text back and forth. We can even do voice memos back and forth, kinda cool.
, And that goes into all of my different platforms. And then Claude. Claude will also go into my platforms. So like I use Kajabi to run my consulting business, and I was like, "Hey, I need to make some changes on my sales page copy. I need you to go into Kajabi, like into this particular sales page, do all this stuff," da, da, da.
And it does it. saves me hours of time.
but vibe coding would be like me going in and basically learning how to write the code, and then, , it could create a whole new website for me. Would that be correct?
Kandise Varvil: Like, theoretically, yes. , the only reason I say theoretically is [00:20:00] because you don't need to learn how to write the code. You just need to learn how to prompt in a way that is giving you the output you want. When people hit a wall and r- get frustrated with what AI's creating them, it's just because they haven't learned how to prompt it in a way that helps them in the highest capacity that it can.
So one example that was something I vibe coded for a client is we went in and, , he had a ton of owner leads. We were getting his owner leads board set up. He had probably 500 owner leads just sitting in his inbox for the past couple years, where he didn't even know the last time he talked to some of them.
So we went on, and we made him an app, and this was completely vibe coded. Took us about an hour. And so we said, "Hey, you're gonna go and pull all of these owner leads from the inbox. You are gonna write a short summary of when's the last time we spoke. Give us a little fire emoji if they've been in our inbox multiple times and still seem interested, and give it an ice emoji if it's someone that has completely ghosted us or there has not been any interaction.
And I want you to pull all these [00:21:00] leads." We were able to code it to connect to his task management software or CRM, and so he was able to just go on in this little app we made and, if anyone's used Tinder here, same kind of mentality. Swipe right adds it to the software. Swipe left removes it from the database so he doesn't have to see them again.
That's where vibe coding can get really fun because we had this problem, so many leads. No one wants to sit through and click through all these leads. He wanted eyes on them. He wanted to make sure he, if he had talked to someone or if he heard something bad about them or had a miserable conversation, they didn't start getting messages from him.
But the, our solution was literally a little Tinder for his phone to swipe right on leads and swipe left. That was just a useful interface that we were able to connect it using APIs to a CRM, so it automatically put them where they needed to go. But that's the... When I think of vibe coding, it's finding the transcendent.
Okay, I can vibe code a website. Great. I can vibe code a dashboard. Great. How do I vibe code things to make my life significantly better and solve problems that [00:22:00] otherwise would be manual and painful or boring?
Stacey Salyer: I love that. I love how you are able to break down and explain it in such easy terminology, 'cause I think that's the big disconnect in our industry is, , again, I'm just popping on and off social media, and so I'm reading things.
, People don't know how to apply it or, like, even how to make their lives easier. Most people think of it as a chatbot., Some people are freaked out. , They're like, "What do you mean you give them access to your stuff?" I'm like, "Whatever, man." Pretty much anybody that wants access to anything, I'm pretty sure you can access anything, and the government probably already is probably listening to this conversation.
Kandise Varvil: got it all.
Stacey Salyer: They've got it all. So,
Kandise Varvil: Google, if you're using Google as your browser, you think they're not looking at your data, right? Like If a product is free, it's because you're paying for it with your data, right? So if we think about any, anywhere we are going, every time you get a pop-up on your phone that says, "Do you wanna track sharing amongst apps?"
That's because one app wants to see what [00:23:00] other apps you're opening. It wants to see if you close Facebook and go straight to Amazon to search a That's the only reason it needs to track what other apps are doing. So there is a level, but I also do not take safety and security lightly in my position because I have the trust of multiple companies, well over 20,000 doors under management with the clients that I'm working with.
I need to make sure that my data is secure because if they're trusting me to do things for them, I don't wanna be the liability piece, right? That is not my business. And so I do also a lot of precautions in place, right? You wanna make sure if you are using a personal Claude account, you do not have training turned on for it to train future models with your data.
That's literally a toggle you can turn on and off in Claude. So there's a level of make sure you're secure, but every single website you're using that has a built-in AI chatbot means they're probably using ChatGPT or Claude with a wrapper, and so it's already getting that data. You might as well go directly to the source.
Stacey Salyer: Right. Definitely. Yeah, and I [00:24:00] obviously take security, , serious as well. Same thing, right? I mean, you know, in my program we talk a lot about, acquiring and then there's a lot of, numbers that are thrown around and data, and never in a million years would I want that to go out there
Kandise Varvil: course, yeah. And I think you make the perfect point of, , as long as you're proactive with what you're being protective of, you don't need to be stressed out about accessing your data, so long as you take the precautions up front and you're not just throwing it in willy-nilly and then sharing a link to someone.
And , there's always that fine line to balance, but , I've had those calls with people where they're like, "I don't want them to see all this data." It's like, "Babe, it's already there. , They're already seeing it through your PM software who just launched an AI agent." , If your concern is, "I don't want it to see it at all," that ship sailed, right?
You need to go back to spreadsheets if that's your concern.
Stacey Salyer: Right, . And probably not use Google, I don't even know what you would use at this point. , That's a whole 'nother
Kandise Varvil: A pen and paper.
You'd use a pen and paper, Stacey?
Stacey Salyer: whiteboards, pen and paper, whiteboards, and just bring it back old school, [00:25:00] 1985. And then, , yeah, and then you become a boomer business and, , while boomers retire, you acquire.
So that, that's also fine too. , So kind of moving into acquisition, I'd be curious , what your opinion is, like what you think, , people should be using AI for when they're acquiring. I mean, certainly within my program I have some different, , prompts, I'm big on the prompts because the prompts is gonna get you what you want, and I think that's probably the number one trick that maybe a lot of people don't realize.
But I actually have AI write the prompts for me, 'cause I'll tell AI, "This is really what... This is the outcome I want. I want you to write the prompt," because that's gonna write the way better prompt than I will ever write the prompt. , And so I have some really cool ones in there to help, , scrape data for, property management companies in their area and that, that kind of thing.
And obviously due diligence , is one. But what do you think? You're AI expert, you're probably in it every day. Obviously you vibe code and do all the cool things. You're a cool viber. [00:26:00] Um, yeah, what do,
Kandise Varvil: all the
Stacey Salyer: think, like what, what do you think people should be using it for?
Kandise Varvil: I mean, if we're talking specifically acquisitions, I could probably go on for six hours. But, so I'm gonna... I'm just gonna put on my, I'm putting on my consultant hat really quick, and I'm gonna say, "Okay, Stacey, we're sitting together and you have this property management company that you wanna purchase."
We're gonna say in this case, you are looking, potentially you wanna do your due diligence, you wanna make sure that there is compatibility within this company. What I would first and foremost do is if you have the ability, audit all of your processes with AI, right? So we wanna make sure that we have alignment no matter where in the process it's entering.
If we're purchasing, let's say a, we'll say a 100 unit portfolio that you want to bring into your business, that is a really good opportunity to have a high level audit of leases and determine where in your process is that we need to make sure they're built in and potentially we're having AI build some bridges for us.
So we know that we have this many people in this company because we had this, this [00:27:00] sweet, adorable old couple who's been managing this portfolio and they're like, "I am done." Maybe they haven't answered a maintenance request call in six months because they're just so burnt out of their business, or they have a bunch of leases that have lapsed.
Now we're gonna work with AI to do a high level audit of this information, have them give us like the high pain points that are at risk with any of these properties. At that point, we can run the audit and say, "Okay, I want you to now make me a comprehensive report for each of these owners."
You're gonna go in, you're going... we're gonna say, "These are the things that have lapsed. These are how we're gonna take care of it. And AI, please do not throw this sweet old couple under the bus. We are just here to provide solutions, not problems," right? So now we can have it pull this report and create kind of an action plan.
"Hey owner, , as we all know, churn is gonna be significantly higher at the first point of acquisitions than any other point in this process because people are like, 'What do you mean? I'm just gonna go hire a different company.' Well, you paid for these doors. We need to do our best to retain them after the point of acquisition."
So maybe we're having them go through and [00:28:00] make this really sweet report for all of the individual owners in this portfolio we acquired that is saying, "Hey, we are this person. Here is our action plan to introduce profitability for your property. So please, please, please don't fire us. We just got your portfolio," right?
So that's one area where I'd have it do a full map of this acquisitions process, making sure that we are giving the owners what they need. I would then have it pull me a comprehensive report that's telling me where in processes do these people need to go. So giving me kind of a bulk maintenance request, bulk for vendors, scheduling and coordinating.
Pull me a comprehensive renewal report that's able to tell me when I need to begin the renewal process for each of these residents that have lapsed, so it's not overwhelming for my team, but also not continuing to be lapsed. So that's just a few ideas I would spitball for thinking about specifically acquisition, using AI as that kind of right hand to help us make sure things aren't falling in the cracks and they're funneling into our procedures perfectly.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. No, I love that. And I think, you know, I [00:29:00] think when people are using it right and they're looking forward, like with that visionary hat on,, it really plays into my premise for 2027 and '28. I believe that people can acquire far faster and far greater in the next couple of years because we have all these great tools.
If you're doing like due diligence by hand, like how you used to write your SOPs by hand, , like 80,000 pages or words or whatever it was, it's gonna take a lot longer. But when you are being able to, , vibe code and, build out some cool AI tools that you can easily, put some stuff into, , then you can get all the information back.
And you also will most likely be able to see it a lot better too. I think that, doing it the old school way, it's hard to see that. In fact, I've had some people on my show they'll do like a sample poll of things, 'cause you should do a sample poll, but you can only poll so many.
You can only look at so many, and then, things are missed because you can't look [00:30:00] at 500 contracts easily or you can't,, easily go in and... I mean, you can go in, but it just takes a lot longer, right, to look at all that
maintenance requests and renewals and all the things.
Kandise Varvil: It's tedious, and , I haven't personally done any property management acquisitions, but I have done a lot of due diligence for multifamily acquisitions. So I've been boots on the ground in the office, especially hostile takeovers. It... Talk about a trip. You go in, they don't even know you're coming, and then it's all of a sudden like, "Hey, we need access to every single lease in your office, and we're about to go through and run through all of the pieces of information," and the team doesn't even know it's coming.
And tedium, like you are going through and you're line by line going through and marking off on leases and making notes of any discrepancies to their ledger. That is one of those things that it can be really simplifies- plied with the use of AI, but also you're able to make sure... There's only so much we can do as human beings who make mistakes.
We're gonna make mistakes. We can't help it. That's just who we are. [00:31:00] So being able to close those gaps and make sure that those mistakes are not having consequences, and we can do double checks, we can make sure that all of our reporting is diligent. Doesn't mean you don't have to go in and manually do things.
If you love paperwork, I don't wanna stop you. But I do think that there's a level of we need to have enough time and make sure that we are thorough with what we're doing. And the truth of the matter is, a lot of times when it is a data set being evaluated, AI is gonna do it better than humans. Now, writing a birthday message to your grandma, probably not gonna do as good as you would do.
Write the message yourself. Everyone, stop having AI write messages to your loved ones. I'm so sorry, that's a whole, whole other sandbox. Write the messages yourself, but have AI go through and review data for you, okay? that's my big stance. No more birthday messages from AI, people.
That's crazy.
Stacey Salyer: or social media posts, especially LinkedIn. Please, if you're on LinkedIn, which I mean I'm on LinkedIn half-heartedly, , just write your own damn post, man. Who cares what the LinkedIn bros [00:32:00] think? And also please don't write a comment on my post using AI. That's really
Kandise Varvil: Isn't that so fun? Also, when the AI misreads the post and you, it's like totally off the mark and you're like, I don't know what AI you're using, but it's obviously the worst one because this had nothing to do with what I actually posted."
Stacey Salyer: Like please take your Temu brand, is it Temu? Temu. Temu
Kandise Varvil: He will
Stacey Salyer: AI back and get it off my LinkedIn page, and also stop sending the pitch slaps using AI for the love. That's all, holy. Like I actually did a post on LinkedIn about this, how this is totally not even related to anything we're really talking about.
But I will tell you for funsies to everybody, I have made a post that I said, "Anyone that sends me a pitch slap..." , 'Cause you know, you'll accept requests from people and then they automatically, they're in your inbox and they're like, "Did you know I..." , Dude, I don't even know you. Like we have not even started dating.
No, I did not really swipe right on you like to have you pitch slap me. But [00:33:00] so I started, , copying and pasting my reply of , "Hey, so glad, glad we connected. Here's the link to my newsletter and podcast. , Please sign up." , Nobody has actually signed up, but , that's what I send back 'cause I, I hate the pitch slaps.
And then if you use AI on top of it, like come on, man. It's not even personalized.
Kandise Varvil: I kid you not, I ha- I received an email and it was so refreshing because it was, it was so short I don't remember exactly what they were selling to me, but I got this email where they basically said, , "Did you grow up and think that you were gonna do blank?" Which was whatever their service it was.
And then it said, "Neither I, neither did I, but here I am," with a smiley face crying emoji, and that was it. I responded and I said, "I do not need this service right now, but if I ever do, you are at the top of my list because this was the most refreshing cold email I've ever got in my life." Super short.
It wasn't a huge AI. I saw... One thing I'm getting a lot, Stacey, and I'm so- we are now going into LinkedIn, just nonsense. If I comment on someone's post on LinkedIn, I will get three [00:34:00] emails in my inbox saying, "Hey, I saw your comment on blank's post. I thought it was really enlightening. Do you wanna talk about blah, blah, blah, blah, blah?"
I... One was a, like a one-word comment I made, and I got three emails about it. I was like, "Okay, this is a problem. This is insane."
Stacey Salyer: Yes, I've been getting the same thing too. , In fact, I get, , emails, like cold emails, and then I'll get the cold DMs. They'll cite a friend of mine on LinkedIn because I've commented or liked or whatever. And, , yeah, stop using your AI for evil, people. This is, , evil. It's annoying.
So anyway
Kandise Varvil: It makes me wanna set my computer on fire and go be a boomer with my papers, maybe in the woods at this
Stacey Salyer: I know, I know. Okay. Well, we'll, we'll bring the conversation back around because I could do a whole episode on how, , the Slayer hates LinkedIn, but she's still there. , And that I
Kandise Varvil: I'll be there with you. We'll fight the good
Stacey Salyer: I know. Maybe I'll bring a few people on and we'll just do a, , we hate LinkedIn, , episode and [00:35:00] talk about why we're actually there.
So, because I
Kandise Varvil: I would love that
Stacey Salyer: Yes. Okay. I will say, I'll close out on the LinkedIn. The positive is I've made some amazing connections. So for all the crappy, pitch slaps that I've gotten, I have made some awesome connections. In fact, I got to meet quite a few in person at NARPM, , National in Las Vegas the last couple of weeks.
So that was really cool. Positive. We'll, , we'll always try and end with a positive.
Kandise Varvil: Love it.
Stacey Salyer: Yes. So going forward with your business, I mean, we're moving into 2027. Obviously we've kind of touched a little bit on like what you guys are doing and, you know, some of the pieces that you're using, , AI for.
Like , what else are you offering in your, , business? I know you guys are running an event in 2027, which I'd love to chat about as well.
Kandise Varvil: Yep, absolutely. So we,, 2027 is gonna be such a fun year for us because this is , our next iteration, so One of our favorite parts about PM Path builders and its initial kind of branding and [00:36:00] everything we built was we just had fun. We had fun making swag.
We had fun creating our booth. I remember the first conference we went to with, where we came with our inflatable chairs and every single person was sitting behind their desk. And people were like, "You can do that?" , That is something that can be done at a booth. And it's so fun because I was, , I was at NARPM Nationals this year, and it was like a breath of fresh air walking through and just seeing such cool booths.
I even saw, I think, three vendors had the same inflatable chairs that we had at our very first booth. And I'm just like, "Yes! I'm so glad people are having fun with their booths and doing things and letting people be comfortable when they sit down and have to talk and learn about your services." So I'm, one thing I'm just so stoked about with this, this upcoming year is being able to do that again.
Now we get to go through and say, "Okay, that was all our previous iteration. What is this new iteration gonna look like?" And , you know there's gonna be some really cool swag that comes out of it and really funny T-shirts. , But of [00:37:00] course, we also have Elevate Sales Kickoff, which is gonna be in January of 2027.
So stoked about this event. This is really the brainchild of Ben Smith and Kristin Lopez, my b- business partner. And man, they put their heart and soul into this conference. So we've got that. And I'm actually gonna be there this year. Last year, it happened two days after I had a baby, so there was no world where I was flying to Nashville.
, this year I get to be there. It's gonna be in Fort Worth, so I'm so stoked about that. And then, , I'm also spearheading the Arizona NARPM conference, which is gonna be in February of next year. So we've got a lot of moving pieces, and I'm just really stoked about all of the people we're gonna see and jumping back into the business after really taking about nine months off to focus on my family this year.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. No, I love that. And I, love all the in-person events, and I know I got to go to Elevate, , I guess it was this year. It just seems like this year I've been to so many different things and it's, , been such a jam-packed year. But that was, I think, in February, right? In Nashville?
Yeah, and [00:38:00] I
Kandise Varvil: it ended up in March. So we had , the first iteration, , which was supposed to be in January, and then we got iced out, and I'm not even gonna go on the rant about the, nonsense with the venue we had, and that's not what this conversation's about. But, , we ended up having to move it to March, and, , lots of chaos happened there.
But this year, of course, we're gonna pivot it back to January, when it was supposed to occur last
year.
Stacey Salyer: Yes. Yeah. , In a little bit warmer state, in theory. It
Kandise Varvil: Yes, thank goodness. Hopefully.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. , But I was really impressed. I really loved the Elevate conference. I got to be on stage, , with a few different gentlemen and, , we were talking about growth and of course I, was hitting on acquisition.
And I just thought it was really fun to be at an event where it's just focused on sales and like training our, biz dev people and, whether you are the owner and you're focused on growth or, , a biz dev manager. , And it was really fun to be able to contribute that, the conversation around acquisition because I think, you know, [00:39:00] forever and ever, , everyone's been taught like to grow door by door.
And absolutely you should have an engine for that because it's super important. , But you should also have the acquisition engine as well. and yeah, and it was really fun to be able to have those conversations with people and for some people it was a light bulb moment where they're like, "Oh, yeah, you're right."
, "I hadn't thought about that." Or they've kind of been on the fence and they, were after a conversation or two were like, "Oh, okay, no, I can see that I could actually do that." , But I thought it was a really cool event, so I'm excited to learn more about what you guys are doing in January 2027.
I'm assuming that you guys have a website for that?
Kandise Varvil: We do, yeah. So it's elevate-sales.co, and it's, , so we are so stoked because really it's that sa- when it comes to sales, it pivots so fast, and I'm sure with your experience, especially related to acquisitions, people are probably like, "I wasn't aware that was something a person could do. What do you mean I can just acquire 100 doors instead of one at a time?"[00:40:00]
So it's really a, it's just a breath of fresh air to be able to come in and sit with people. I know whenever I was doing sales being able to just sit in a room with other people who are struggling in the same area but in different ways and being like, "Oh, that's a problem you have.
Well, this is how I solved it, but here's a problem I have. How did you solve it?" And there's something so refreshing about a mastermind where you're meeting other people where they are and where you are, , that I think it's, when you go to some of the bigger events, , I have to say Nationals this year blew my mind.
It was a really incredible event. But you, there's so many different tiers, and everyone's dealing with such bigger problems that it's hard to find alignment. But when you're just sitting down and saying, "My problem is sales and adding more doors. How do I solve this problem?" You end up with some magic happening within a room where we're all solving this problem together and being able to get people on stage that have found solutions that maybe, again, you wouldn't have thought about, like you, having someone who knows acquisitions that can blow people's mind who [00:41:00] don't realize that this is even an option for their business.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. Well, I think we're taking this conversation back like full circle, uh, , you know, , When you really niche down and when you're able to offer a conference, , or an event that is super niche. Your audience is somebody that wants to learn how to do sales better,, or how to acquire and, , basically grow their business, through sales.
, What a great opportunity to be able to get into that room, , because that is literally everything you're talking about. And I think in property management especially, we're so focused on operations, which makes sense. If you are a hot mess, which obviously you would know because you guys have done a million SOPs, , if you're a hot
Kandise Varvil: I was really hoping, Stacey, you'd say, "If you're a hot w- mess," which you would know, and just left it there. I... That would've been just incredible comedic timing. I please need you to know I was
anticipating. I was like, "Yes, I am in fact a
Stacey Salyer: we, you know, I could have my editor edit, but I would never call you a hot mess. So if you're a dumpster fire... Yeah, [00:42:00] no. ,
Kandise Varvil: Candice would know.
Stacey Salyer: so I mean, you know, what happens behind closed doors, like those are the different conversations. , Which makes sense because it operationally in property management, I mean, we have so many moving parts, but really at the end of the day, if you're not focused on growth, then why have a company?
Like, hello?
Like,
Kandise Varvil: Why spend so much time dialing in those operations if you're not going to... And I do understand. I have a few clients I work with where they do not intend to add a single additional door to their portfolio. Their entire goal is efficiency, but usually that is a different relationship.
If you're a company and you own every single home in your portfolio, and that is kind of your focus, you're not trying to have additional owner leads, okay, I get it. At that point, you have a different focus than people who are just trying to add additional owners to their portfolio. But at the end of the day, for people who are growing by individual owners or by owner portfolio groups, why get your operations in such beautiful, pristine order if [00:43:00] the goal isn't to be able to maximize that and be able to add additional doors?
And are, you're doing a disservice to your community if you work so hard to make your business perfect and you're not allowing owners to know you even exist and join the incredible community you've built, right? So there, there has to be a balance there
Stacey Salyer: Absolutely. Absolutely. And you know, when it comes to acquiring in your market, same thing. You're doing a disservice to your community if you're not focused on acquiring in your market. Because those retiring business owners, why not honor their legacy? Why not take, all their clients and provide another beautiful experience that they can have for another 20 years with your business that you've gotten together and just continue to move on?
Because I talk a lot about this, is that property management really is quite an intimate business and, we're providing housing, we're providing a safe space for everybody to live in our communities, and I think we forget about that because, you know, [00:44:00] again, I mean, I've been in the business forever and, it becomes like a numbers, how much money?
Like, what's the ROI? You know, what's my net margin? Da, da, da. But at the end of the day, like, you're providing a house for a family to live in or, you know, a newly married couple, or, you know, they just had a baby. They just got their first dog, like, whatever. , And it's such an important piece in every single community.
And so you are doing your community a disservice if you're not, you know, working on growing and you're not working on growing yourself as a leader as well. So that's my elevator speech today.
Kandise Varvil: I totally agree, and that's one of the, my favorite things about property management in general, and the reason I love this industry, and I just love it as a whole, is you get to be kind of the cornerstone in someone's life, right? When p- when I think back on the stages of my life, it's tied to houses.
I have the first apartment that I ever had on my own. I had the first apartment that I shared with my husband before we were even married, [00:45:00] and then our first rental house that we lived together in, and that was where we got engaged, and then the first home we purchased. And so you think about these milestones, just because it's a rental does not mean it's not at core to that milestone.
This is such a magical place to be in, and it, we can forget about that because we are getting maintenance calls, and we're dealing with people who are stressed out about finances or stressed out. But what you are providing to people, when they look back when they're, you know, 80 years old and they're talking to , their grandchildren and they're talking about all the places they've lived and been, you will forever be a part of that story with that service you're providing people.
Let's treat it like that. Let's treat it like the magical thing that we're doing is, and give people the experience that shows them that we do not take for granted the fact that we are a core part of their history. But also, like, be proud of yourself, property managers, 'cause you are gonna be in the story all of these people tell throughout their life.
That's not something to scoff at. That's not a small thing.
Stacey Salyer: Yes, I love that. [00:46:00] And one of the many reasons I love you and Kristin, you guys are a breath of fresh air in the property management community and, , I'm so thankful and grateful that you came by today and took the time out of your busy schedule with all the new life that you have in your family and your new business, your upgraded business, and, , yeah.
Thank you so much
Kandise Varvil: And I'm just so thankful you're here. I just love, I love a badass woman, Stacey. I hope I can say, do I need to beep it? I love a bad beep woman in this business. And it's so fun to see just awesome people doing awesome things, and what you're providing is so valuable because again, like acquisitions, even something that I feel super intimidated by, I'm like, "Oh, acquisitions, ee, what do you mean?
You just like buy a business and that's a thing that people do?" So how cool is it that you are a resource to people in this industry that can tell them that this isn't a super scary, crazy thing, and that it's actually attainable for most business owners. So just claps to you[00:47:00]
Stacey Salyer: Ah, well thank you so much. And again, I'm gonna make sure all your contact information and everything about your, , upcoming event in January in Texas is, , in the show notes, and all your contact information so people can reach out to you. And, , thank you again for taking the time. It was awesome as always chatting
Kandise Varvil: Thank you for having me, 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 [00:48:00] 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.
