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Meet Our Team Member Elissa
10 Plays1 month ago
🎧 Welcome to Thoughts For Rent — the podcast where real estate gets real (and local)!
Hosted by Jenni McKenna, a Las Vegas born and raised seasoned broker, and Owner of McKenna Property Management, this show is your inside look at what’s really happening in the Vegas property management and real estate world. With over 20 years of experience herself - Jenni brings not just knowledge, but heart to the conversation.
Whether we’re talking market trends, property tips, community happenings, or just the everyday quirks of Vegas living, this podcast is all about keeping you in the know.
💬 Real talk. Local stories. Professional insight – provided from a company who has their boots on the ground and hearts in the community.
In this episode, we are meeting one of our team Members Elissa. We talk about her role in the company and her day to day day tasks with us!
McKenna Property Management, proudly managing Las Vegas homes since 2005 (and loving every minute of it).
Hit subscribe and comment down below to join the conversation! 💛
✨ Stay connected with us!
Instagram: @mckennapropertymanagement
Facebook: McKenna Property Management
TikTok: @TheMcKennaTeam
Website: McKennaPropertyManagement.com
Phone: 702-434-HOME (4663)
Owner/Broker: Jenni McKenna B.29819
#ThoughtsForRent #McKennaTeam #LasVegasRealEstate #JenniMcKenna #PropertyManagement #MarketTrends #PropertyTips #Community
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Transcript
Introduction to Nevada's Real Estate Scene
00:00:20
Irelynn Zurflueh
Hi everyone, welcome back to Realtors Keeping It Real. um Just so everyone knows, I looked up this stat today. There are 20,000 licensed realtors in Nevada and then there are over 3,000 licensed property managers in Nevada.
Meet Alisa: From Florida to Nevada
00:00:38
Irelynn Zurflueh
But today we're talking to one of my favorites and that's Alisa. Hi. Alisa works with us at McKenna And she is a licensed realtor and she is um also a property manager.
00:00:53
Irelynn Zurflueh
And she's been with us for three years three years now. So she works with me in the leasing department. She hasn't always worked there though. So give us a little bit of a like timeline of what you've done since you've been at McKenna.
00:01:09
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah, so when I first started here, i was director of first impressions. And then when a position opened up to kind of change and go a little bit more towards leasing, i definitely jumped at that. And i ended up being special projects assistant, which is assistant to Ireland.
00:01:29
Irelynn Zurflueh
And um I just kind of helped out with a little bit of repairs and a little bit of leasing. And then now I'm the leasing coordinator. So um now I just...
00:01:40
Irelynn Zurflueh
really focus on leasing. So when you first got here, were you ever thinking that you were going to like fully dive into real estate and getting licensed and doing applications or because I she came from a paper company. Right. I used to work at a newspaper, so it was wasn't anything that I ever thought that I would eventually do. I never thought that I would be a realtor or a property manager. i was always interested in um like becoming an investor, being one of like a property manager's clients.
00:02:12
Irelynn Zurflueh
So when the position opened up here, it was just a good fit. And yeah. Do you feel like since you've started working here that you've gotten like the nitty gritty inside scoop of what it looks like to be an investor and property manager? Like, do you feel like you've learned a bunch and like? Yeah, definitely. I've learned a lot. there's there And then there's still so much to learn, but it's It's definitely an experience every day here. I know that Max, like every other week, will go to a Elisa and be like, are you ready to buy house yet? Are you ready to buy a house yet? It's in the works. It's in the works.
00:02:46
Irelynn Zurflueh
Because you, i love um I love her story of how she came to Nevada because you originally were in Florida. did you have property in Florida as well or were you renting in Florida? I did not. So I was a renter in Florida.
00:03:01
Irelynn Zurflueh
My husband, he moved from Australia, and he was a homeowner in Australia. And then when he moved to Florida, we decided to kind of take it on the road, just sell everything. And our goal was to end up in California, but ah we stopped in Vegas, and we loved it here. So um we stopped here and purchased a ah home, and yeah, the rest is history.
00:03:27
Irelynn Zurflueh
you Now that you've purchased your first home in Nevada, are you – wanting like purchase a second home in a different area and like rent out the first one or do you like kind of where you're living and like that's that's definitely the plan so um there was like a five-year goal set when I first started working here. So it's definitely still in the works.
00:03:49
Irelynn Zurflueh
um Right now I own a home in like kind of North Las Vegas and I'm looking in Henderson right now to for a second home. Just an
The Rewards and Challenges of Leasing
00:03:59
Irelynn Zurflueh
easier drive tool single to single day. Definitely because the drive is intense with traffic, biggest traffic.
00:04:06
Irelynn Zurflueh
So what would you say is your like favorite thing that you do day to day or even like once a week? like What's your favorite part about the job? My favorite part would probably be um approving the applicants who've been searching for ah home for a while and just kind of sharing in that little moment of celebration and easing their minds and yeah just approving them and getting them into their new home.
00:04:36
Irelynn Zurflueh
I remember I took a call, i think maybe You were in the room on speaker. I can't remember if you know this or not, but I remember I took a call where I was giving somebody an approval and she was actually visiting her mother's grave at the time. So she like got the call right after she was done visiting with her mother. And then when she got the approval, she just like started breaking down crying. And she was like, oh my gosh, this is such a sign. And I think she's still in one of our properties. So yeah, I've had, yeah I've had some of those moments where it's like, it's really, it just feels really good. Yeah.
00:05:10
Irelynn Zurflueh
Before you were doing um leasing, you were actually doing kind of more like repair stuff yeah and like home warranties and things of that nature. We actually just um had a podcast where Jenny and i talked to the absolute trash on home warranty and talking about how little we don't like it So you were doing home warranty stuff for about a year maybe. About a year.
00:05:34
Irelynn Zurflueh
Would you agree with Jenny and I if you were to say – Your thoughts on home warranty? Oh, yeah, absolutely. And as a homeowner myself, they're the worst. They're essentially a scam. They will try anything and everything under their power to deny your claim. So it's just really not worth it in the long run when you can find a trusted vendor to do the same job quicker and likely cheaper.
00:05:59
Irelynn Zurflueh
so So you've tried. you have do you currently still have the home warranty or did you let it? Oh, no. fireer yeah I actually had an issue with my roof and they denied it. They kept denying the claim.
00:06:11
Irelynn Zurflueh
So, um yeah, i ended up using one of our vendors from McKenna and got rid of the home warranty because it just doesn't make sense. Yeah, just not into it.
00:06:24
Irelynn Zurflueh
Do you ever... um do you ever wish that you were more involved in like sales or like with what Emily and Max do in the McKenna team? Or do you feel like you dig like property management?
00:06:37
Irelynn Zurflueh
Definitely not sales. I don't, I'm not, i don't think I'm cut out for that. um i like the day to day of the leasing part, the like creating lease agreements and um processing applications and all of that. But um I think my interest was originally more just being a
Alisa's Path in Real Estate Licensing
00:06:58
Irelynn Zurflueh
client. So being ah a homeowner and renting out my own properties, not so much selling them or buying, like yeah helping other people buy them, which is intimidating to me. Yeah.
00:07:10
Irelynn Zurflueh
So you've taken, she's a super big rock star and she's taken both the real estate exam and the property management permit exam. So that's why she's licensed in both.
00:07:21
Irelynn Zurflueh
What would you say was... harder? Would you say that you struggled more with the real estate exam or with the property management exam? Well, I mean, based on results, definitely the property management exam. um I passed the real estate exam the first try, but the property management, it took me two tries. So I did fail the first one and then went back to the same week and ended up passing it. So she wasn't telling anyone that she was taking the test. So she just kept asking for i was Time off for appointments. And then I was like, okay, have fun at the dentist or wherever you're going. But she was actually going to take her property management test. And then when she came back with her past form, nobody knew that she was even doing it. So she likes to be stealthy like that.
00:08:04
Irelynn Zurflueh
yeah When you first joined in with being the director of first impressions and kind of being at the front desk, um did you ever think that in three years time you'd be holding two licenses and be working in like the applications department?
00:08:19
Irelynn Zurflueh
I mean, i guess I never like thought of that when I was first starting working here. But it was always a wish, a dream. So I mean, it worked out.
00:08:31
Irelynn Zurflueh
You set a goal and you get to accomplish it here. Nice. What do you think is like your biggest lesson learned or biggest piece of advice that you would give to like someone who wants to become an investor, maybe something they don't know, or maybe something you learned that was behind the scenes that you hadn't even thought of?
00:08:49
Irelynn Zurflueh
Oh, wow.
00:08:53
Irelynn Zurflueh
I'm not even sure. There's so much that ah you need to know um regarding, like, tenants and and what's, um like, legal and what what you can...
00:09:08
Irelynn Zurflueh
Just all the NRS laws and all the... Yeah, what you can and can't do and you' your time limits. like the Sometimes you only have legally 48 hours to get something fixed for them. or um Yeah, I'm not sure.
00:09:24
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah, I think
Advice for Potential Investors
00:09:25
Irelynn Zurflueh
the 48 hours we talk about a lot on the podcast, especially because we were just talking about home warranties and we were talking about how they don't honor those 48 hours at all.
00:09:34
Irelynn Zurflueh
um i think something that I kind of learned is that There's also a law that kind of stipulates that you are supposed to make a really concentrated effort to fix unhabitable items within 14 days.
00:09:46
Irelynn Zurflueh
And I always thought that it was like, okay, well, if it's a habitable item, you got to act fast, you got to do everything. And then if it's a non-habitable item, you can kind of take a little bit more time, maybe get more estimates.
00:09:58
Irelynn Zurflueh
Um, And something that I learned was like, no, you actually do have to show that you're making a concentrated effort to even address the unhabitable items. Yeah. Which is very – it's something that I felt like I learned is like when I was studying for my tests is I was like, oh, I didn't realize that.
00:10:15
Irelynn Zurflueh
But – I asked you what your favorite thing about the job was. Would you be willing to share your least favorite thing? Can it be shared or does have to stay secret? No, not at all. um So, I mean, every every job has its challenges for sure. But I think one of the the most but consistent annoying things that happens is when an applicant applies and their application is incomplete.
00:10:45
Irelynn Zurflueh
So it's creating delays that could be avoided. I promise that there's not a question on the application that we don't want to know the answer to. So definitely just answer all the questions, um upload all the files even more than you think you need to. So incomplete applications definitely causing delays in my position.
00:11:08
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah. We talked about that a little bit before we gave tips and tricks and secrets to success when it came to people wanting to apply to properties. And one of the first things we said is fill everything out. Don't leave anything blank. Give more information than you think you have to because over explain, over explain.
00:11:26
Irelynn Zurflueh
We do not mind. um
Culture and Success at McKenna
00:11:30
Irelynn Zurflueh
I know that you had said earlier that you mentioned when you come to McKenna and you set a goal, gets accomplished.
00:11:37
Irelynn Zurflueh
So we've also talked on here before about how we love doing goals and it's kind of part of the company culture and it's kind of part of doing all of that. So has there been a moment or a time at McKenna where you set a goal and then you were able to accomplish it through either something that we were doing in office or through like an in-office accountability buddy?
00:11:58
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah. I mean, we have those um like monthly goals right now that we're all working as like a team to accomplish. I think this month is the And the no spend September month. So I actually have been doing pretty well at that. So I've been bringing my lunch every day. I've not.
00:12:15
Irelynn Zurflueh
I've been completely horrible at no spend September. So I'm proud of you for accomplishing that. um Just like little things like that or even like the real estate stuff.
00:12:28
Irelynn Zurflueh
license or PM license. So those were goals. And with the help of all of my teammates here, like definitely would not have been able to do it without them. So.
00:12:39
Irelynn Zurflueh
Nice. That's awesome. And yeah, you're coming up on almost two years being licensed or have you pastured two years already? um No, almost two years on real estate and almost one year on PM.
00:12:54
Irelynn Zurflueh
That's awesome. yeah That's super cool. When I was looking up the numbers for the stats on how many people were licensed, I actually found my name on the list and I was like, gave myself a little pile on the back.
00:13:06
Irelynn Zurflueh
But um I love that. I think that it's really cool that you've accomplished not only two licenses, but you're accomplishing the monthly goals. I know right now there's, you're part of ah a book club for super fans, which is a book that we've talked about on here before. One that Jenny really loves.
00:13:24
Irelynn Zurflueh
Um, how's that How's that going with reading super fans? Are you feeling like you're getting a lot out of it? Are excited for your book club meeting?
00:13:34
Irelynn Zurflueh
oh no. What was that pause for? It's a good book. It's an easy read. It's clear. It's concise.
00:13:46
Irelynn Zurflueh
Do I agree with everything in it? Not exactly. um Do I think a lot of it pertains to me in my life or my position?
00:13:57
Irelynn Zurflueh
No. So ah it's it's an interesting book. and It's easy to read. Yeah. I do think, though, that at least when it comes – the whole concept of the book is creating super fans within your company, and so you have people who just love and adore – the business that you provide and that's how you recommendations.
00:14:19
Irelynn Zurflueh
And I do think that at least for you and applications and in leasing, when you get to call those people and give them the good news that they've been approved, I definitely think that kind of helps build just a little bit that gets them a little bit closer to being a super fan. So it may not apply to everything that you do, but I do think at least when you give those calls and you give the really good news, I'm sure that people,
00:14:43
Irelynn Zurflueh
People are remembering your name and loving your name because you gave them that good news. And that probably helps with the super fans. Hopefully, yeah.
Alisa's Love for the Outdoors and Travel
00:14:52
Irelynn Zurflueh
so going outside of work, because I've already asked you so many questions about the job.
00:14:57
Irelynn Zurflueh
What are some things you like to do to pass the time? Like, what are some hobbies? ah You came from Florida and traveled all over and ended up in Vegas. So what was it that drew you to Nevada? I love it because i'm a I'm a native. But I always like to hear from people who moved here what kept them.
00:15:14
Irelynn Zurflueh
So coming from Florida, um i had actually never seen snow before. i hadn't even seen a mountain before. So coming to Nevada, it was just, it's beautiful here. It really is. And um we love being outdoors. So there's a lot to do here. There's plenty of hikes to go on. We love hiking, good um going just to the lake or paddle boarding or really anything outdoors.
00:15:41
Irelynn Zurflueh
involving my dog or my husband. So um when we moved from Florida, we were in a camper. So we did like a little bit of the road life for, I think it was about eight months.
00:15:54
Irelynn Zurflueh
And then we settled here and just love it. So you're not too big of a hater with with the heat? No, no, I love the heat. You don't mind. I don't like the cold actually. Would you prefer like Florida humidity heat or do you like the dry heat that Vegas has?
00:16:11
Irelynn Zurflueh
Actually, the humidity. Really? I would prefer the humidity. My skin is so dry out here. I need lotion every day. That's awesome. I am not an outdoorsy type at all, so I feel like I have to completely live off of Elisa's like Instagram feed and everything that she posts because she's doing all these hikes.
00:16:30
Irelynn Zurflueh
I'm sure my dog my dogs are very jealous of her dog because they just stay at home all day. um But no, that's awesome. I think it's really cool to see when people – I don't know how many states you traveled then when you were doing the cross-country thing, but the fact that you guys landed in Nevada and have actually really seemed to enjoy it. I think Nevada kind of gets a little bit of hate in regards of like, oh, it's just a vacation. You don't want to settle down. It's too hot or there's nothing to do or this, that, and whatever. And I think I always like hearing from other people because I feel like they disprove it.
00:17:05
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah, no, it's a great state. and Nothing bad to say. What were some of the other – do you have, like, any other top fives or, like, top twos when you were traveling around that you really enjoyed?
00:17:18
Irelynn Zurflueh
Like a different state? Yeah. um We stopped in Colorado for a while, um and it was really nice. They have a lot of mountains there, too. I'm a sucker for, like, hiking up a mountain.
00:17:31
Irelynn Zurflueh
um So, yeah, probably Colorado or – we went to ozark national forest and it's really nice over there so um yeah just a little bit of everything really super cool i've actually never been to ozark so maybe i have to add it to my list it's cool there's some waterfalls there that you can jump off of so i definitely need to do that well i'll ask you one final question then i won't take up by any more of your time she was very nervous and i kind of almost forced her to do this because she thinks i Force her into everything that she has to do. I'm here with my own for you.
00:18:06
Irelynn Zurflueh
Thank you for confirming that. um But just one final question. with kind of you were talking about you have your five-year goal, which is to maybe potentially become an investor and have different land and maybe even work with McKenna as an owner, which would be super cool.
00:18:22
Irelynn Zurflueh
um What do you have anything else wrapped into that five-year goal? Any additional licenses? Any additional things? Do you want to finish the super fan book and finish reading it?
00:18:36
Irelynn Zurflueh
um No other like big goals other than just buying more doors. Like we're we're looking into duplexes or like quads or something that we can get multiple doors at once and vacations, just vacationing. Like I want to go out of the country for a while, so No really other goals than that. I know. She's very adventurous. She went to Japan last year, and I was so jealous.
Office Festivities and Future Plans
00:19:07
Irelynn Zurflueh
And I think she actually made Max so jealous um that she went to Japan, that that's actually how he planned his Japan trip. And then in about a month, she's going on a cruise too, which I'm also super jealous about.
00:19:19
Irelynn Zurflueh
Oh, and she is co-hosting the Boo Bash, which we've talked about on here before. so she loves... Halloween. i think she's a sucker for it It's my favorite holiday. One of her first costumes that she came in when we did Halloween here at the office was, Duloc? No, no, that's where he's from. yeah the prince from Shrek. I'm trying to remember the name. Lord Farquaad.
00:19:45
Irelynn Zurflueh
She came and dressed as Lord Farquaad and she had this huge cardboard head, the mascot from that scene. and I remember walking in and I was like, who is in that costume? And it was Elisa. And I was like, okay, yeah, she's definitely a big Halloween person. I'm trying to remember what your other costumes have been. was a llama. Yeah.
00:20:04
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yes. Emperor's New Groove when he was cosplaying as a woman. I was a lady llama. um And then the second year I was the Farquaad. And then I think the first year I was just a pig in a blanket.
00:20:20
Irelynn Zurflueh
So it wasn't anything Very creative though. would never have thought of that. Are you going to give us any hints or... guesses as to what you're going as this year for our boo bash no hints um maybe okay one of our days is a tv day so i'm thinking of my character from the office so okay that's a little hint i guess okay well i think it's going to be super successful this year it's our second year doing the boo bash it's el elisa's first year co-hosting
00:20:53
Irelynn Zurflueh
They have some really cool ideas. They're doing a whole spirit week and then they're doing a whole sweet trail. So it's definitely been so much fun having you on the team. The last three years have been amazing. She's definitely accomplished so much with us. So I just wanted to get her on here and be brag about her and just say that out of all the 20,000 licensed people out there, she definitely is in my top timee my top five favorite licensed people. So thank you so much for being with us. Thank you for having me. Feel free to ask ah Elisa any questions that you have if you want to know any more about her, any more about her job. And then maybe if we're going have questions, she'll come back.
00:21:31
Irelynn Zurflueh
I might have to force her to come back again. And if you like kind of hearing from people in the office and hearing from Jenny and Max and just kind of seeing what it's like to work in a property management company in the different departments, then subscribe below.
00:21:44
Irelynn Zurflueh
and we'll see you guys next week. Bye.