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 CO 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: We can just kind of dive in. I [00:01:00] would love for you to introduce yourself but yeah, I know obviously we just jumped in and started chatting about acquisitions and attorney stuff and I am excited to have you on the show.
Monica Gilroy I don't even know how long you've been in the business. I feel like it's been a very long time though.
Monica Gilroy: It has been. Yeah. So I've been a trial attorney for 33 years, which is crazy. But I would say probably for the last 20 I've had a lot of really good involvement in our SFR, single family property management and all things property management world.
Mostly because of our probably mutual friend Robert Locke. Uh, who, uh, introduced me way back to our local Atlanta Nafo chapter, and who over the years has really kept me in play. And it's been a really great addition to my practice, Stacey, because it lets me work with people like you and that's how you and I met.
And I've really, really just enjoyed it. And so probably I would say even these last, maybe even 10 years have been really, really focused on helping national [00:02:00] companies with their national needs. Right. I have a national practice as it relates to property management. I have clients that are really, really big and institutional and really, really small, and I helped them with.
Making things better in , their operations. I help them with documents. I help them with what we're gonna talk about today. Acquisitions, I help them with fair housing and EPA issues. So it's been a really great fun time because I love, love, love this world. I think the people in it are, I.
So entrepreneurial and smart. I just love being around people like that. Just like when I first met you and we clicked, I'm like, oh, I like this lady. So,
Stacey Salyer: oh, I know. Well, the, the feeling is mutual. I know. We got to hang out in, uh, Greenville. I think so.
Monica Gilroy: Greenville. Yes, yes. Yeah, it was wonderful. I loved it so much.
Yes.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah, yeah. No, you're awesome. And of course we've followed each other online for quite some time, so, okay. Well, acquisitions, people love to talk about acquisitions. It's like the sexy subject in property management, I find. Way more so than operations, although they're both very important. Yes. And my focus, like I was telling you, is on acquisitions like [00:03:00] teaching operators to go from operator mindset to acquire mindset.
And instead of, focusing on building door by door, why not go out into your community and find those businesses that, you know, want to exit, whether they're a boomer business or some sort of other business. So let's just kinda dive into what your role would look like in an acquisition.
Maybe when's a good time to, ping you for that and.
Monica Gilroy: Definitely
Stacey Salyer: dive in.
Monica Gilroy: Yeah. I think that there's a real danger to not having an attorney in at the right time. And I think it needs to either start with someone like you who has vast operational experience, or not operational, but you know, experience with an acquisition, right?
Mm-hmm. Because. Again, I'm kind of weird. I'm like a unicorn in this industry. There's not really anyone who does what I do with my type of practice. So I have experience in helping to value what you could get right? But a lot of lawyers don't. Right. And so I think they should be starting with in terms of what is my business worth?
And if you're acquiring. [00:04:00] What should I be paying? Right? What is the price? I think it's really important to have a professional like you involved in that. I have found that in my experience, because I've handled really, really big acquisitions to really, really small and everything in between.
But what I've found is that you should at least reach out to an attorney in the beginning, even if you're gonna work with someone like you, because there's a lot of things I have seen that can go sideways when you're trying to get to like a, a letter of intent state or anything, or not, for example, I had a one a few years ago, they did not have a non-disclosure agreement while the other person was looking at their company and I came in after the fact and I'm like.
People are looking at your books and doing all this highly personal things without a non, without an NDA. I'm like, this is ridiculous. So it's stuff like that that I think, an attorney brings to the table. A lot of just maybe , the pitfalls that could happen, from my perspective, calling us early is really best, really best.
Right.
Stacey Salyer: Okay. [00:05:00] Yeah. Well, and probably using the right documents too. So something that I'm working on teaching like I'm doing a one day event in Las Vegas in January, although this may be. Posted out in the world after the fact. But I'm rolling out a four month program of, working side by side with me as far as hey, from start to finish and like the messy middle.
'cause I think a lot of times when people wanna talk about acquisitions, all they really care about is like the valuation part of it. , They're like hyper fixated on that, but I'm like, well, it's kind of putting the cart before the horse. Because if you don't even have identifying like what market you wanna go in and what kind of business you wanna buy.
It doesn't matter like what it'll cost. Right?
Monica Gilroy: A hundred percent. A hundred percent. And I'm sure you see this too. It's very important to understand that you're not buying in 99% of the times the entire business. Now I've done some of those types of transactions and it's been like, for example I know Texas has some very specific rules about , how you can transfer contracts and [00:06:00] how you can't, but.
Sometimes I, I find you've probably seen this too, people go in not understanding that you do not have to buy the entire a, b, C company. You can just buy the accounts. And that's why, again, getting the lawyer involved early, do you have a assignability language in your property management agreements?
Obviously I think everybody should, because otherwise you're handcuffing yourself when you come time, to sell. Or if you're acquiring. That's potentially right, Stacey, like a driver to the numbers if you're having to wait on owner permission. So it's, I agree with you. I think it's gotta be approached much more holistically.
Almost like planning it out, talking it out. And then when you get to the document stage, there's just so many other things to think about. Again, horror story. True story. Yes. Big, big sale quite a few years ago. Big sale, but came to me. After they had already negotiated anything more just to get a scrivener to write it.
Some of these terms were egregious. I mean, things that I'm like, you can't agree to that, well, it's too late. 'cause they had already [00:07:00] gone that far without either talking to someone like you or talking to someone like me. And for example, there was an employment contract for the principal who was going to be staying afterwards.
It was. Horrible. I mean, luckily we were able to get that renegotiated, but there were some things, there were big holes and gaps in ownership and it really, and ultimately it ended up being a very bad situation for everybody, and it, and literally today, as we sit here, that group. They have split.
Like they are, they're not even involved anymore with each other. And it's all because they just, like you said, cart before the horse, they jumped in too fast. They didn't think about it. Right,
Stacey Salyer: right. Yeah. They don't know what they don't know. Right. So right.
I just recently did a bootcamp online, kind of like the 90 day yeah. Plan, right? The 90 day roadmap to buying, and I kind of use this analogy mostly because I love TJ Maxx, but I, I was like, right? I was like, okay, so if you wanna go shopping in TJ Maxx, you know exactly the process, right? Like you drive up to the parking lot, you park your car, you [00:08:00] get outta your car, you walk into TJ Maxx, usually grab a.
I always grab a cart 'cause I'm gonna find way too much stuff I don't need. I'm gonna buy, the layout of the store, you know exactly where the candles are, like where the sale items are, whatever. Go up to the register, you know how to pay, get out to your car, put it in your trunk. But people don't buy companies like that all the time.
Right. So it's like a huge transaction. Now I think it's an amazing transaction. Like I think that it's a great deal. Especially when you're buying a property management business because it's like you're buying revenue, it's already coming in, but you should be surrounding yourself with the experts because otherwise.
I mean, it's not like a normal everyday thing. Like it's not a TJ Max Absolutely. Transaction.
Monica Gilroy: I love TJ Maxx. Obviously Marshall's on Saturday, actually. It was fabulous, so I had the best time. But yes, no, I agree. And it also, because oftentimes people are, it's like just adding water, to your business.
It's like you're just, you're going from maybe, let's say you're at a hundred and you're acquiring another a hundred. That's a [00:09:00] lot of operational things that need to be discussed. And one of another horror story was they didn't have any discussion about the kind of like the duplication of efforts, right?
So there was no discussion prior to me coming in about what platform were they gonna use, were they gonna go through AppFolio, were they gonna go through Rent Vine? Right. There was no conversations about who's gonna handle the accounting. It was like. All the little check things, checkpoints that maybe you're just so excited to buy, you're just not thinking about.
And it made it so much more complicated at the end of the day. Also it's important to know that, when I handle these things for people, it's not arm breaking amounts of money. like at this point, what I've done for people, I've done these so many times, I'm not really recreating wheels, and I think a lot of lawyers too, it's people get nervous, like the lawyers are gonna cost so much money.
Just, we're just another negotiated part of the process. Maybe each side has their own, maybe one party pays for part of it, but it's just so important because you would never go and buy a house without getting the proper expert advice. So they [00:10:00] need people like you, to help 'em. And I've been watching, I've been following the bootcamp ideas and I think it's brilliant because it really helps people get excited and know what to do, and also give them the tools you're giving them the tools they need, which is fantastic.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. Right. Yeah. Well, and then, partnering with an attorney who has been through it several times not using AI to write contracts.
Monica Gilroy: Oh, no.
Stacey Salyer: Right.
Monica Gilroy: Absolutely. No, I gotta tell you something. There has been an explosion of the use of AI in the legal world, and it is very, very scary. I had a really complicated, real estate litigation case a couple weeks ago, and my client was like, well, I don't know why you're saying we have risk here. And I said, well, because there's really no legal authority to back us up. And she sent me, Stacey, this big list of cases that, well, here's what, whatever it's called, Gronk put together.
Stacey, every single one was fake. Every single one was made up. And I'm like, people have gotta understand that AI is wonderful in many things, but yes, when it comes to legal stuff, absolutely not. Right? [00:11:00] You just, you can't take that risk. Right?
Stacey Salyer: No, no, for sure. Yeah. They should definitely be partnering with somebody who has all the boiler, and I'm assuming you have the boilerplate documents for absolutely.
Particular states or areas. And then, if you haven't worked in that area, you can get them,
Monica Gilroy: yeah, I mean, again, my practice is national because short of the going to eviction court, the laws are pretty uniform in landlord tenant across the United States. We have obviously like in your state, there's some state specific things and there's some, even city by city, obviously California is a beast in and of itself, but when we're talking about the purchasing or selling of a business that's just contracts and there's really not a whole lot of.
Differentials across the country and yeah. And having, starting first with the non-disclosure agreement. Moving to a letter of intent is what I like to see. Then we start, once we get our terms locked in, we start drafting the various documents. The financing is important, right? Some people, some people do owner financing, some people don't.
Some people get loans. Maybe you need a personal [00:12:00] guarantee. So these are things where having that attorney come in, it's just so important to get it papered and yeah, you're completely correct though. I've done. So many over all these years that I have them for big, small, and everything in between.
And that's why I'm saying it's, people shouldn't be thinking, oh, it's gonna cost so much. It really isn't. And it's a really important part of it. It's why you have value too, because again, and I'm a lawyer, but you've lived it, right? So having someone like you as a partner to be like, here's what I experienced.
Watch out for this, then you're giving that practical side and I think it really makes it such a, an easier process for everybody to have. Kind of both of the experiences that we can bring to the table to do it, so.
Stacey Salyer: Oh, for sure. For sure. Yeah. And I think a lot of times what I do is I help people even just get into that mindset of Hey, you can go find them, mm-hmm. But you've gotta treat it like a job. So I, I kind of start in the very, very beginning stages. Definitely the middle I guide 'cause I always. Remind people I'm not a CPA or attorney. So that's, here's the great time to go find your partners to make sure that [00:13:00] you have , that particular guide and , then closing the integration part of it.
Especially if you're buying a business that's totally different, and I use the term business, I usually recommend, again, I'm not an attorney, but I recommend like buying more of the contracts and the actual company. Yes. Just 'cause most of the time people don't need the actual company anyway.
So with that, like with the contracts part of it, if they're not assignable, like within the contract, can people still purchase the contracts? They
Monica Gilroy: can. Yes. I mean, it's just that you're gonna have some extra steps, right? You're going to have to deal with the fact that if the, property management agreements are saying that the owner has to consent to assignment, which in again, Texas, I learned, it's prohibited.
You cannot make things assignable. And I'm like, okay, well, I learned something new. So you're buying, right? Well first of all, if you're selling, if you're getting ready to sell, really look at your property management agreement. Be sure that it's got. It doesn't have prohibitions, or if it does have a plan, because what it's gonna entail is it's going to mean you need to, in my [00:14:00] opinion, disclose that early and upfront that I do need owner approval.
Now, maybe that's not a big deal. Maybe you have, 10 owners who have 10 houses and it's not a big deal. But if you have, 35 individual owners, you're gonna have to get in writing them, agreeing to the assignment. And that's where you have to be careful too, because you wanna be explaining to them.
Usually you're almost having to think about, like you said, the end part. When you're explaining to the owner that I need your permission, you're gonna have to be able thinking about, can I legitimately say to them, the processes won't change. I'm still gonna be around. And it kind of forces you to think about more things.
You absolutely can do it, but as a. Seller, you've gotta really think through that process of, okay, what's this gonna look like? And then as the buyer, you have to really be understanding, well, okay, , there could be some people who say no, and that specific contract may not be assignable. So being sure you have what we call clawback language, valuing the properties or the accounts in some fashion to ensure if an owner doesn't go, you're not buying something that. Was half of what you [00:15:00] thought you were buying. So definitely to your point, you've gotta think it out. You have to think it out. You can't just kind of, yay, I'm gonna do this.
But yeah, and I have it somewhere. We've sold the entire company. But to your point, it's usually because there's a reason either legally, like in Texas or somebody just doesn't have one. Maybe they just don't have a company, so they wanna buy the whole thing.
And then that obviously has other challenges to, looking at structure and also the liability, right? If you buy an entire company, you're buying not just their assets, but their liabilities too. So you've gotta be sure you're thinking through all of that as well.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. So do you give advice to people as far as that goes?
I mean, is there I know there's pros and cons to both, like the contracts versus the stock purchase, right? Do you have a favorite.
Monica Gilroy: I do, I'm with you. I think that it's always better to just buy the contracts. It's clean. It's, especially if you don't have assignability issues, it's clean.
You can carve out very clearly that you're not responsible for anything post-acquisition, or pre-acquisition. It's an easier way [00:16:00] to message to the tenants, to the owners and all of it. And honestly, that's where the money is. Right. It's not, the money isn't in these other places that are there, so Yeah, no, I'm with you.
But I have done some the other way, and again, it's usually been a special circumstance, but no, if someone said, should I buy this whole company? You're like, no, no, no, just buy, buy the contract. Right,
Stacey Salyer: right. I know. Although I will say, so the company that I bought in 2020, in my market, I actually did buy the whole company because, but it was a business that their property management agreements were a page and a half.
Monica Gilroy: There you go.
Stacey Salyer: And they were not assignable and it was just, it was honestly kind of cleaner, even in a weird way to just do it that way. And then, I had negotiated upfront to have the seller like stay on and help me basically transfer them into my business so that, and then I eventually closed down that company.
So it was, but with that, it did take a lot longer. It was a longer process. And I was basically managing two very different companies, like side by side. I had to hire somebody that [00:17:00] could understand how to help me run like the old school business and then help me like learn into the new business.
So yeah, definitely pros and cons, but ended up being,
Monica Gilroy: and, and right, and to your point, again, like sometimes you just have to do it that way, right? There is no, there is no choice. And so it's truly part of the business decision, but just to your point, knowing the pros and cons is critical. You gotta know.
Oh yeah.
Stacey Salyer: Oh yeah, for sure. Well, and even then, I mean, I didn't have necessarily a, a guide at that time. And so there were some things where I was like, oh, yeah, I definitely would not have done that, done it that way. But now I'm trying, that's what I'm doing out here, trying to help people say, Hey, these are the things I would not recommend doing.
So as far as I mean, we kind of talked about like when to involve you and obviously like through the whole process. Where do you see people make like the biggest mistakes?
Monica Gilroy: I think the biggest mistakes are probably in the beginning, where you're not sitting down and [00:18:00] playing the chess game all the way to the end.
I think people get so excited at an opportunity and they're not realizing. The little ni picky things that have to be done. For example, let's say that you're at a stage as a seller, right? And you are wanting to exit, well, maybe you have very loyal, dedicated staff. You better negotiate what's gonna happen to that staff, right?
Because you can't guarantee. Anything once you've sold, right? If you are concerned about your valued employee, you're gonna need to say, part of my sale is that I'm also, you need to give Susie a one year contract at this amount of money. Right? They don't think about the little tiny aspects of it. And that's where people get jammed up.
And then what happens is they get so far down the road. Like the example I talked to you about where then they brought me in and I was like, why did you agree to this? Why did you agree to that? And it was things that they didn't. Even think about [00:19:00] especially, and this is true, especially this is where people can get jammed up if you have partners, right?
I have told some stories about partners I've had in the past and someone asked me recently, if you had one piece of advice, what would your advice be? And I was like, don't have, don't have a partner or at least have controlling and always have controlling interests. Just always be sure. You have that 51%, but that can be really tricky too, that you better be sure if it's you and two other people that own this because a lot of people have that.
They have an operator, but then they have the money people. You better be sure you've talked all of that chess game through with everybody and everybody's on the same page because that's what happened in this one that became extremely, extremely volatile, is there was a real difference between , what the partners were thinking because they just hadn't talked it out.
So you've got to think about it from. All the way to the beginning, and yes, it's so exciting, but you have to go. There's no rush ghost. I love your 90 day. That's, yeah, there's no rush, right? You gotta be sure you've thought everything through. And I think that's what I have [00:20:00] seen repeatedly is people getting pressure sometimes to sell, or also I have some clients who have investors, they have pressure to buy, and so they're maybe not looking as carefully as they should, and that's not good either.
You've thought to just take a breath and Right. Think through the whole process. Yeah.
Stacey Salyer: Yes, yes. Yep. The chess board is very important. Yes. In fact, my friend Pablo Gonzalez, he gave me the, uh, nickname of, uh, queen of the Chess board.
Monica Gilroy: There you go. I love it.
Stacey Salyer: It's so funny. I know that's a, that's funny, but
Monica Gilroy: it makes sense.
But you've, but when I think about all the good things you've done, yeah. I mean, you, you've got to think it through and we get so excited as people, but as business people, it's gotta be like just laser focused on. Every little aspect.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah.
Monica Gilroy: And again, I use the example of the employee, a good one.
Somebody just took it for granted that they would keep that person on the minute the sale happened. They literally sent out the termination notices and the seller was like, oh no. And I'm like, well you didn't [00:21:00] negotiate it.
Stacey Salyer: You didn't. Right, right. Yeah. And I think that's really important.
Kind of what you brought up is removing the motion from what you're doing because it is really exciting. And then, and then those sellers that maybe even haven't moved past the point of like that their business isn't their baby. But they never really built it like an asset, so they're gonna already be like kind of a hot mess, emotional person, in my opinion.
Totally. And so then as the buyer, you've really got to like shelf any emotion that you have. And then yeah, surround yourself with people who can be really objective to say, oh, have you thought about this, this, and this, or. In my experience that is not a great idea. Or, or whatever the case may be.
'cause I've had a couple people come to me as well, like kind of after the fact of, kind of before they're like totally down the road, but they had already agreed to no clawback. And I was like, why would you do that? They're like, oh, , the seller didn't want it. And I'm like, that's a red flag.
Monica Gilroy: Of course they didn't.
Stacey Salyer: [00:22:00] Of course I know. I'm like, of course they didn't,
Monica Gilroy: seller didn't want it. Yeah. And they're not realizing. Yeah. And you're right because it's not overly complicated. But at the same token, you probably haven't done this before as an average property manager or person, right?
You, this is still new to you, and why wouldn't you want to call upon somebody who's done it before and also who has done it successfully and knows where the pitfalls lie? And I think , that's the big thing because I've. And I'm sure you have too. I've just seen some situations that have just gone really downhill.
I had another one about a year ago where they hadn't really accurately firmed up how to quantify the clawback. And that's one piece of advice that I sometimes give is, you've got to, if you're having that clawback language of what's it going to be, especially if you have a staggered payout, right.
They had made some, the clause says something like the clawback number would be the average of something rather than just a number. Right? And that got everybody turned upside down because at the end when I was brought in, it was to try to help figure out, was there a breach of [00:23:00] contract or not.
Because. What was that price? And it was just something as specific as that is a big deal, , and so I came into that situation and, we ended up just negotiating it out. But, we were talking about people, were talking about suing each other and in the event of a breach where they're gonna be attorney's fees, that would have to be paid.
And it's just so important to have literal checklists or use the queen of the chess board to have something that really. Really thinks about all those steps because the, again, it's things that you may not even think about being important that suddenly become really, really important.
Stacey Salyer: Yes, yes.
Absolutely. So, yeah, what any, any other like advice that you can give or anything else you,
Monica Gilroy: yeah, I mean, I think the other thing I would say is, is that if you are, think I'll, I have advice for sellers and advice for buyers. I think if you're thinking of selling, you need to start thinking about it like.
Now, like basically if you're saying, I'm 65 and I wanna retire, I don't know what, or, I'm gonna just. Write a book. I don't wanna do it. Start [00:24:00] thinking about it now and what it would look like, because I think sometimes people get approached with offers and they as sellers, and they haven't thought about what it would look like or what do they want to do.
They haven't thought about, oh, I just signed a five year lease in this building. Well, all right, if you're not gonna do it, what are you gonna do with that five year lease? So, if you are a potential seller listening to this. Think about contacting a Stacey now, right? Think about when would you, I need to bring a lawyer in, right?
But think about what you want from it. Really create, almost as a seller, a wishlist. Not that you're gonna get it, but think about it now. Because what happens is there's a lot of companies that do just approach you. you get all excited 'cause you see the numbers, but you haven't thought about it.
Now, for a buyer, I think it is extremely important not to get a hundred percent hung up on just the financials. Especially if you're a buyer coming in and you don't know what our industry looks like, right? Because there's all sorts [00:25:00] of things that as small business owners. Are paid through the company, our country club bill, or our car note or whatever it might be.
So don't just be looking at the bottom lines because also some people track, for example, what they make through resident benefit packages, or what they make through this. So as a buyer, I want you to go in more open-minded. And also there's value to the reputation, there's value to the company you are buying, buying.
Maybe somebody who's, got a two star rating might be cheaper, but you're buying somebody that's just two star rating, so you're gonna have to think about rebranding as a buyer. That's another cost, as opposed to, Ooh, I am buying a Cadillac brand of company, and I'll be able to just. Maybe operate it with my other one.
You can call it a division of my current company, but really I think people get hung up sometimes just on what the bottom line gross might be, or the bottom line that you can't do it. It has to be much more holistic talking. Having conversations with the owners and the [00:26:00] sellers makes a big difference.
So those would be my two pieces of advice in addition to everybody playing that chess game through.
Stacey Salyer: Right, right, right. So going back to the seller, do you recommend like a year pre-planning, couple year pre-planning?
Monica Gilroy: I think a year. I think a year. Minimum six months and a minimum six months. I have a current client now who came to me and he's like, I've been thinking about it for six months.
I think I'm ready to deploy. And I said, okay. And one of the things I asked him is I said. Do you have already people in mind who you would like to approach? And he had Zi thought about it and he had, it ranged from everything to somebody that he knew really well who didn't have this as part of their business to, a larger institutional player.
But, and he also had who he would never sell to. Right. He said never sell to. And he named off some things and I was like, okay. So, but I would say he, yeah. He probably had started about six months ahead of contacting me, and we've been in the process now for almost three.
So, I mean, it takes a while. Right,
Stacey Salyer: right. Yeah. No, that's a really good point. And I think, that kind of [00:27:00] checklist as far as who you'd wanna sell to, who you wouldn't wanna sell to. Yeah. Thinking about
Monica Gilroy: do
you wanna work, do you wanna keep working?
Right. I don't wanna work. I had one client who, again, people take for granted as the seller that. He was gonna get a contract to be hired. I said, well, have you negotiated a contract? Mm-hmm. Well, no, I just assumed they'd keep me on. I'm like, why? What if they already have you? What if they already have you?
What if they don't need you? So, and, and again, an employment contract is separate from your buyout, from your payout. Right. And that was another problem I saw once is again, I was brought in to try to help after the fact, and it was not clear was this salary that they were getting. Was it a salary or was it part of the purchase price and that, that was a big mess.
Right? That was a big mess.
Stacey Salyer: Right.
Monica Gilroy: And again, then, and then you're paying a lawyer more than you need to because then, it's if you, if you just called me in the beginning, I would say, we could have saved all this hassle now. So,
Stacey Salyer: right.
Monica Gilroy: And same when you're the buyer is, just be very clear.
Well, no, I don't need a senior accounting person because I [00:28:00] have that, or no, I don't need your three PMs because I already have the pm. So you've got to be, it's gotta be a lot of open dialogue. That's why I suggest, you paper things at the end, but you do need to have just. Over breakfast conversations with on both sides to really get a feel for it.
To get it done.
Stacey Salyer: Absolutely. And I think as a buyer too, just being open-minded too, sometimes not every deal is a good deal. Yes. And when you have those conversations, it's better to have those conversations upfront. And if the seller is adamant no, you have to take my three employees, but as a buyer, you're like, I don't need those three employees, and you can't come to an agreement.
Then it's just not the right deal for you. And that's okay. It's not
Monica Gilroy: the right time. That's right. And I, I always have said, this, one of my mentors told me that she always would say contracts are like buses. If you miss one, another one will come along shortly. And that's really true, right?
So if one conversation isn't working out, who's to say you don't go to a meeting or see something online and you're like, wait a minute, here's another opportunity that probably might be even better. [00:29:00] So.
004 Why use an attorney when buying a PMC - Monica Gilroy - Copy-1: It's
Monica Gilroy: good.
Stacey Salyer: Yep. Yeah, no, we talk a lot about that. When I'm helping the, like working with the people that I work with of switching your mindset from like the operator mindset to acquire mindset.
Yes. Because I'm a firm believer as a once you start believing like, oh, I'm an acquirer. I buy businesses. Like when you walk around and you say that out loud, then the opportunities literally like start coming to you. So to your point, if it's not the right deal, if you can't make. It fit into your model of what you wanna buy.
It's okay to walk away. And it's okay because you'll find another one. Or maybe the seller will have a change of heart six months down the road. Maybe they'll
Monica Gilroy: very true.
Stacey Salyer: Be like, I'm, you know what? I really am done and I really actually don't care about my three employees, so go ahead and mind my business.
Monica Gilroy: I'm done. I won't. Yeah, no, you're exactly, I agree. I Your philosophy is a hundred percent correct. A hundred percent. I agree a hundred percent. And again, it's a really. But it's really fun and empowering to be an Enquirer too, because again, being entrepreneurial, I tell my story sometimes, I found myself [00:30:00] sort of accidentally having to have up my own law firm almost 20 years ago.
I never went outta law school as one of those people oh, I'm gonna hang my own shingle and all this. I loved being inside where I was. But , some things happened where I, a bunch of us had to leave the firm we were with at the time, and now I think about . How could I ever go to be not the boss?
How could I, right. How could I handle that now? But , it's, having your own business is really an empowering thing, especially for women. I find that we are such natural leaders and multitaskers that we make excellent CEOs and we make excellent acquirers because , we can see it. , We have people skills and we can really.
Present opportunities for many people. And so yeah, the acquirer mindset is, I like that. Yeah. And you're right, saying it out loud, people will remember that. Yeah. They'll say, wait a minute, Stacey said she was acquiring now. And they re and then they know you. They like you. And that's my other tip.
And I think you'd probably agree. People in business just wanna do business with people they like. It's that simple. There is no secret [00:31:00] sauce. Right. Just if people like you. They wanna work with you.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah.
Monica Gilroy: And then, and then always, of course, make the ask. That's something another longtime, longtime boss of mine always said is that, get to know them, be friends with them, they'll wanna work with you.
But at the same time, then you make your ask, Stacey, I would really love your business. This has been a great lunch hearing about your kids. And it's, that's, it's that simple to me. And that's what, that's what I think. Makes it really exciting to, to have that entrepreneurial opportunity.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah, no, I love that. Yeah, that's a lot about what I teach actually as a relationship building. Because I have closed deals off of cold calls, but they weren't like cold calls, right? So they
Monica Gilroy: were cold.
Stacey Salyer: They were cold, but it wasn't like, Hey, I'm Stacey, I wanna buy your business. That's not how that call went, but you can build relationships off of cold calls.
So that's. Something that I teach people how to do. I love it. Yeah, so it's, it's been a lot of fun so far and I'm looking forward to 2026 and beyond. So yeah, I'll have to have you on again [00:32:00] because I would love to dive deep more into the like women in business and using our feminine, , leadership style , and all of that.
I love
Monica Gilroy: that.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah.
Monica Gilroy: I would also love to come to one of your in-person events. I'd be happy to do that too. That would be fantastic. Because I'd like to see you in person, but I think it's nice sometimes when we have those kind of, I think it's the legal side is great.
But I, there are so many practical things that I cannot talk about, right? Because I haven't lived in the trenches like you. And I love having, uh, collaborations like this because it, we bring so much to the table when we have shared experiences, when we link up people in the industry.
Uh, because again, like there's there are certain things I could not ever speak to that you all know, better than anybody and , it's really neat. But yes, I've been a woman-owned business now for almost 20 years, and I mentor, and I volunteer and I think it's just really important.
I like to help any young people, but I think especially in this industry, we have such. Uh, female-centric ownership. , It's a gift. It's a real gift and it can really help other [00:33:00] women too. So
Stacey Salyer: yeah,
Monica Gilroy: NPA has their wonderful women's Council and I really enjoy with the messages that they send there as well.
It's great. So, no, I'd love to be back. It's fantastic.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah, no, that would be fun to talk about. 'cause I, that's one of my biggest, uh, things that I, I'll be focusing on in the next few years is yeah, continuing to empower our younger, uh, leadership. Our females
Monica Gilroy: definitely
Stacey Salyer: owned businesses and all that, and I would love, I would love to be in a room with mostly women and teaching them how to buy businesses and how to empower themselves in their lives because I'm a firm believer in that. For sure.
Monica Gilroy: Hundred percent my friend. Yes. Yeah, I'm right. I'll be right there with you. Whatever you need. Never had a call on me. I'm always happy to help. I love it.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. No, that's awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on today. I really appreciate having you, Monica Gilroy. And are you doing anything in the new year? Is there anything that you'd like to promote or
Monica Gilroy: I've got a lot going on. I've just recently joined as faculty to PM University and this is an incredible online [00:34:00] based.
Educational program, please go check it out. Pm university.com. And I'm doing a number of things through them, which is exciting. I will be at broker owner for npa and I will be at I'll be at the Capital Summit for npa. I've been doing a lot with them as it relates to trying to get our EPA laws changed, but I probably am speaking tomorrow actually.
I'm. Speaking to the Florida chapter of npa. I'm, gonna be at a lot of national conferences this year. I'll be in Idaho, I'll be in Texas, I'll be in North Carolina, I'll be in Georgia. So just if you enjoy hearing all my silly stories, just, you can literally Google me and you'll find me almost everywhere.
But please do check out PMU. It's really, really. Edge cutting technology. And the content and , the faculty. I'm just one of many. It's extraordinary. our dumble door is Jason Wolf out of Utah.
Stacey Salyer: Yes, yes. I just, I just, he's our,
Monica Gilroy: yes, he is our, our dean of admission.
So that is his baby. But it's, uh, it's [00:35:00] really cool. So I would say definitely people should check that out. It's neat.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. Yeah. I just had a conversation with him. Yes. Yeah. Really? Yeah. Really cool. I love, he's
Monica Gilroy: a nice guy. Yeah, he's
Stacey Salyer: He's a, yeah. Very nice guy. Yeah,
Monica Gilroy: that's,
Stacey Salyer: yep. And it's cool.
Monica Gilroy: PMU is really cool.
Yeah.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. Very cool. Well, awesome. Well, we'll put in the show notes, all the ways that people can contact you and
Monica Gilroy: yes,
Stacey Salyer: again, thank you so much for coming on and your hair looks amazing. Thank you.
Monica Gilroy: Thank you. I appreciate it. And thank you for having me. Your hair looks great too. Oh,
Stacey Salyer: well thank,
Monica Gilroy: have a really nice holiday and I hope I can see you soon in person
Stacey Salyer: again.
Monica Gilroy: Yeah, hopefully I'll see you very soon. But no, thank you for having me. I really enjoyed it.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you.
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, [00:36:00] 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.
