a lot easier for the owner or the tenant to access their information and not have to get on the phone for a clarification. It’s more self-guided, so they don’t have to rely on the human element. You’ve said you want to revolutionize the customer experience. How will you do that? This industry is so fragmented. We’re the largest in the country, and we only make up probably 0.2 percent of market share, so it’s very insignificant in the grand scheme of things. But what we’re trying to do is be more uniform in our approach. We’re looking at being much more consistent on how each of our offices executes, so there’s calibration of service delivery. We’re going to be pushing toward trying to be a world-class data organi- zation to measure, monitor and track everything to really calibrate and refine how service is delivered and, in turn, deliver superior results to the customer. Technology has played a huge role. If you look even 10 years ago at lead generation, there was so much done by networking referrals with Realtors. Now finding tenants has gone online. Technology allows you to do remote showings without a leasing agent pres- ent. There are so many different things creating flexibility and the freedom to access greater amounts of territory without having to have a physical pres- ence. There’s always going to be a need, but it’s helping to streamline a lot of the more cumbersome things. To the customer, if they’re able to use their credit card, scan into a lock box and access a property, they can do it off- hours. It’s more convenient for them, so they’re not having to sneak out during their lunch break and coordinate with their spouse to go see this home. We’ve seen things like that help reduce the cycle time when it comes to placing a How has technology changed your industry?
tenant in a vacant property. And there’s definitely safeguard measures with ap- propriate levels of insurance to protect against unwanted situations. What economic or industry issues should landlords be tracking this year? As you’ve seen home values and rents continue to rise, one thing we get con- cerned with is will home prices and rental rates grow faster than wages? Are we going to get to a point where that will correct? Most indications are that would occur. Additionally, we’re looking at the supply-demand equation. We’ve become more of a nation of renters. Back in 2006, it was a little over 69 percent for homeownership rates, and today it’s 63.2 or 63.3 percent. You have new construction not recovering as quickly, so will they be able to ramp up quickly enough to create enough new housing to keep pace with this demand? Be- cause household formations are on the rise, so it’s a great place to be, from an investor standpoint. You’ve just got to be really dialed in to how that plays into your local mar- ket. In markets like Denver that are at all-time highs, is that sustainable? Is there eventually going to be some sort of correction? They’re investing heav- ily into lots of multifamily complex- es in metro Denver that’ll help add supply there. There’s so many things at a local micro level that come into play even though I’m talking more on macro trends. Millennials obviously are in every- thing you read about changing behav- ior—and home ownership rates for 20- to 34-year-olds has dramatically dropped. But if you look over the last five years, the fastest growing segment in new renters is over 50. Those individuals are probably used What demographic trends are you keep- ing an eye on?
ABOUTTHE COMPANY NAME: Property Management Business Solutions, LLC, franchisor of Real Property Management
CEO: Lukas Krause
HEADQUARTERS: Salt Lake City, Utah WEB: www.realpropertymgt. com, www.propertymanage- mentfranchise.com ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT: More than $8 billion FRANCHISE SYSTEM EMPLOYS: More than 2,000 people LOCATIONS IN U.S. AND CANADA: 280
FOUNDED: 2005
AWARDS:
2016 Think Realty Award of Distinction: Franchisor of the Year
2016 Entrepreneur Magazine’s Franchise 500. Ranked No. 1 in Property Management Category
2015 Housing Wire’s Rising Stars - Lukas Krause, COO Real
Property Management
2014 Forbes Magazine Top 10 Franchises ($0- $150,000 investment) 2013 Inc. Magazine’s Top 100 Real Estate Companies. Ranked 29th.
thinkrealty . com / mag | 79
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