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Marriage, Management, and Mayhem
8 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’re covering what it is like to work with your spouse and how Max and Jenni has succeeded in doing so for almost 20 years!
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
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Website: McKennaPropertyManagement.com
Phone: 702-434-HOME (4663)
Owner/Broker: Jenni McKenna B.29819
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Transcript
Introduction: Marriage & Real Estate
00:00:19
Irelynn Zurflueh
Hey kids, welcome back to Thoughts for Rent, Realtors Keeping It Real. I'm Mack Zerflew and this is Jenny McKenna. And today we're going to talk about marriage management and mayhem.
00:00:32
Irelynn Zurflueh
You know why? Oh, I froze there for a second because you scared me. We're going to talk about marriage, the two of us being married and both working in real estate and both working in the same company and how that can possibly work.
00:00:45
Irelynn Zurflueh
And let's not forget that when I started in real estate, I worked with my dad. So I've gone dad. I've gone husband. i have two of my kids that work in the company. Right. But you work for your dad with your dad and now you work with me. So that's definitely a step up. So you're doing good now.
00:00:59
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah. Just hope he doesn't watch this podcast. Not really. Not really. does he know just Does he know how to get on a podcast? I think he does. No, but seriously, folks, today we're going to talk about how Jenny and I navigate our marriage and our relationship and our friendship and a partnership together in business, ah working together as realtors in a property management company and a sales company. That's what we're going to talk about.
00:01:24
Irelynn Zurflueh
Buckle up.
Balancing Professional & Personal Life
00:01:26
Irelynn Zurflueh
It's going to be a wild ride. It's going to be wild. One of the things that I always think is crazy about our life is our professional life never ends.
00:01:35
Irelynn Zurflueh
So when we're having dinner, we're usually talking about either goals that we want for the company or we're talking about the problems that we've had at the company. It becomes a lot. So how do we how do we get through that? How how come we're still married after 33 years? Because I'm a very patient man.
00:01:51
Irelynn Zurflueh
Oh, bullpucky. I don't think that's the case. We must say, you are more apt to talk about work, about things that are bugging you, about the company, staff, all that stuff, more so than I am.
00:02:04
Irelynn Zurflueh
I think, like we used to always have a lesson in church. We weren used to go in and say, when you come home from work, just touch the tree in your front yard. And that's where you leave all your troubles, then walk into the house.
00:02:17
Irelynn Zurflueh
and when you leave the next morning, you can touch that tree again and start thinking about work. I don't think you've touched the tree lately. Well, I am going to do TO. Time out. is that No, I want to go technical. Technical foul? Technical foul.
00:02:30
Irelynn Zurflueh
Because you, so many times you go to dinner and you are saying things that have that are going wrong with the escrow or an inspection that went wrong.
00:02:42
Irelynn Zurflueh
And the thing that frustrates me is you bring it up as a question and I want to help you and I give you my advice and then you're like, no, that's not the way we're going handle it.
00:02:52
Irelynn Zurflueh
You seem very fired up right now, Jenny. going to call it technical on you. Let's keep it real here. Let's keep it. Let's keep it. with Thoughts for real. Or thoughts for rent. Oh, is it really? Thoughts for real? Keep it real. ah Yes. Well, obviously, both of us talk about work.
00:03:06
Irelynn Zurflueh
Obviously, it can get frustrating. What I think we do good is that we'll talk about it. But then when either one of us gets a little fed up with listening to it at home will step away. We'll say, I'm going to, I think we should stop talking about
The Demands of Real Estate
00:03:22
Irelynn Zurflueh
work for now. Let's take a little break off of that.
00:03:24
Irelynn Zurflueh
So having the ability to turn that switch off is very important, but you can't get away from real estate. Real estate is a 24 seven job. You know, everybody on sales, I'm on sales. You own a property management company.
00:03:36
Irelynn Zurflueh
So it's a little different. However, on sales, it's a 24-7 job. People get into real estate because they say, i want to write my own schedule. I'm going to make my own schedule. I'm going be my own boss. Well, guess what? You can be your own boss, but when your customers need you, when your clients need you, you got to be there for them. So we'll be sitting around the house watching a ah TV show at 930, and I might get a and the message on my phone that I got to go draw up a document. So at 945, in my office at home, I'm drawing up a document.
00:04:08
Irelynn Zurflueh
Same thing can happen to you in your company. I think that because I came from a background of real estate before I got into property management, when that occurs, I never get upset about that. There might be other marriages. You mean when i go off and do that? Yeah. When you go off and say, oh, I got to write a contract before we go to bed or, you know, or, you know, a counter offer or whatever. That to me is great. I'm excited about that. That's not a problem. I'm always okay with,
00:04:33
Irelynn Zurflueh
with you doing that because I think i know about that in the past. You sure you're not also okay with it because get some time away from me for a little bit? because that could be possible Could be, could be, but you know, I'll even stop a really good show that we're watching. And wait, yeah. And wait, and I don't complain about it. You have to give me kudos for that.
00:04:49
Irelynn Zurflueh
This isn't a competition. You understand this. Today's podcast is not a competition. We have no scoreboard. We just have a nice mural behind us. yeah Not a scoreboard. No. Today we had fun Friday and I was an absolute loser on what we were doing. i did not get anything right. So this is a competition. It's bled over into a competition. So here we go. yes That could be one of the successful things.
00:05:11
Irelynn Zurflueh
One of the things that helps us be successful in our relationship and our marriage is that you're very competitive. And while I like to be right and I'll argue a point or I'll try to get my two bits in there, I'm nowhere near as competitive as you are.
00:05:24
Irelynn Zurflueh
So i think if you had two people ask and so are you good i got a thing on but i'm naty I think if you had two people as competitive and and also passionate and feisty and fiery as you, then we may have a problem.
Crisis Management & Teamwork
00:05:41
Irelynn Zurflueh
I agree. Two people that are the same, and think it's difficult yeah in a relationship. No, I agree with you. and And Max is right. If you are in a situation where you are living with the person that you're working with, and that's happened a lot, especially because people are doing remote working, they're actually in the same house.
00:05:57
Irelynn Zurflueh
I like when I am getting fired up and I like to say just really passionate about what I believe. I like how you just come over to me And you hug me sometimes and just say, okay, you need to calm down. We can take care of this tomorrow. nothing Nobody's on the operation table. Nobody's dying tonight.
00:06:17
Irelynn Zurflueh
Let's just take a breath. And you will stop me from continuing that conversation that of whatever happened that day. We have to remember, real estate is very important to a lot of people. On my side, it's the largest investment they make might make.
00:06:30
Irelynn Zurflueh
On your side, you're managing their big investments. So it's very important. and And it's not brain surgery. So we just got sometimes you got There are times where, you know, I do have a team that takes care of the after hours phones, but when there is a true, true emergency, we've had fires at properties. We've had floods at properties.
00:06:51
Irelynn Zurflueh
Police raids. We've had police raids. That's true. Well, we should talk about a little bit about that. But yeah, we've had a lot over the course of these 20 years. I know that i step in because you have to. Sometimes you just oh you have to. for sure I mean, at two o'clock in the morning, when we went down to meet the squad, the police squad,
00:07:09
Irelynn Zurflueh
um Yeah, it was a late Saturday night. It became a late Saturday night date night for us. We sat in our car about just across the street from this rental that had some issues going on, some criminal issues. Yeah. And we got to sit in our car and watch all the SWAT teams, the canines, the surveillance, everything pull up.
00:07:27
Irelynn Zurflueh
So it was exciting, but it was also- Four, four and a half hours just sitting there. Something else we did together. Yes. So there you go. We can always, we'll always have that house to remember it. We will always have that. We'll have the flood that happened where somebody just decided to take the kitchen faucet off and Couldn't understand why water wasn't stopping everywhere. if Right. And not only their property, but the property down below as You about late nights.
00:07:51
Irelynn Zurflueh
You know, this company started 20 years ago, if you can believe that. Correct. Craziness. The property management company. Correct. You guys, ah you and your father were in business long before that. But early days when you were managing and and growing the company, you'd come home to our house.
00:08:07
Irelynn Zurflueh
ah for a couple years I was a stay-at-home dad before I got into real estate but you'd come home we'd have some dinner with the kids you you tuck them in do some family stuff and then you I'd say three out of five days of the week you'd go back to the office because we only lived about a mile away and you'd be there till 2 a.m 3 a.m I'd be like when when's my wife coming home you have to though and but based on that effort now you've grown to you know one of the biggest, if not the biggest, property management company in Las Vegas. So you got to do it.
00:08:37
Irelynn Zurflueh
You got to do it. And you know what? I would not have been able to do it if I didn't have the support of you. So that also goes into when you have a very good, solid marriage and you're on a good foundation, then you can ask for...
00:08:51
Irelynn Zurflueh
the leniency when you are doing something like building a company, because I don't care who you are. ah company is not going to be built overnight. It's just like I always say, Rome wasn't built in one day. yeah you said that you came up with that. who yeah i've heard that Oh, you, oh sorry. I guess I should take credit for that. I could get into trouble for that.
00:09:11
Irelynn Zurflueh
But Rome wasn't built in a day, and there is no company that I know of that I've been affiliated with that grows fast. You have to put your sacrifice. You have to put your time in. You have to be passionate about it.
00:09:23
Irelynn Zurflueh
And sometimes those things do probably aggravate your partner, but as long as your partner will give some grace on it for a short period of time, then you will have the benefits of what that is yeah. yeah that. Give grace. Yeah,
Maintaining a Healthy Working Marriage
00:09:37
Irelynn Zurflueh
give them grace.
00:09:38
Irelynn Zurflueh
give Well, that's true for any relationship, not two people that are working together in real estate. You got to be able to give. if you're if you're If you're a spouse and you refuse, you just put up a wall and say, I'm doing it my way and I don't care what you want. i that's That's bound to fail.
00:09:54
Irelynn Zurflueh
But I do know, and I'm not putting my mom and dad on the spot here. Maybe I am a little Sounds like you're about to put your mom and dad on the spot. I know that when we would go out together, my mom, my dad,
00:10:05
Irelynn Zurflueh
my dad being my, the official partner of, and the the mentor the mentor and the founder yeah founder of the McKenna team, real estate team. He's the man. that He's the man. yeah We would go out to dinner and dad and i would start talking about real estate.
00:10:19
Irelynn Zurflueh
And I, I don't really remember you getting too frustrated with it, but I do remember my mom being frustrated. Sure. My mom would be like, why don't you guys just talk about this at the office? And in my mind, I'm like, we don't have time to talk about this at the office. Yeah.
00:10:33
Irelynn Zurflueh
We're out doing stuff nonstop, email, looking at property, communicating on the phone. And so when we, when I used to get dad for an hour at dinner, that was sacred time for me.
00:10:44
Irelynn Zurflueh
So it is nice that yeah i remember you were open. I remember Sunday dinners at your folks house. After dinner, we'd sit around the table for a long time and you guys will talk about business. All the time. We did. And I think I got a lot of rolling eyes. I didn't mind it. You know i didn't mind it.
00:10:58
Irelynn Zurflueh
Why? Because usually if you're talking about business, you had a lot of business and you were getting paid for it. Then you had a good outlook for that. go. Yeah. So, yeah, I do think that it can cause a lot of problems if you're not careful about making sure that you give that other person some grace. You also have some boundaries.
00:11:14
Irelynn Zurflueh
ah The other person that is passionate needs to understand when the wall is being put up or the boundary is being acknowledged. They can't get upset about it. They need to just breathe and say, look, I get it. We'll, we'll talk about this again tomorrow. And you know what?
00:11:29
Irelynn Zurflueh
Tomorrow, it may not be as big of a deal. It's a big deal when it's happening. When the AC is out on a rental, it's 117 degrees outside. And that individual has tracked me down and is calling me every 15 minutes.
00:11:44
Irelynn Zurflueh
It, it, it, it becomes like, over-encompassing. But the next day, it's not that big of a deal. It brings us back to the Napoleon, who was a world leader. You've heard of Napoleon? I do.
00:11:57
Irelynn Zurflueh
Short little French Yes. He would get letters out in the ah from the battlefield at this headquarters. And mail would only come every couple weeks because, you know, they didn't have, it wasn't that fast.
00:12:08
Irelynn Zurflueh
but he'd get med get mail and he'd get a letter it would say, hey, I got this problem. I got this guy's misbehaving. I got this, I get that. He'd just put the letter aside and say, if I don't hear anything back from about this in two more weeks, then it will have been handled.
00:12:21
Irelynn Zurflueh
So sometimes you have to be able to go, let's just take a breath and let's see what happens. Let's see if this thing will resolve itself. So I have a question. Do you think it's a good idea that husband and wives get into business together?
00:12:35
Irelynn Zurflueh
No. No. I don't think so. Why? I think, I think you and I have made it work and we are, we, you know, we've made it work, but I bet if you did some averages, i bet in many cases it doesn't work.
00:12:50
Irelynn Zurflueh
Wow. Okay. Interesting. I'm surprised that you said that. Let me ask you, Jenny, do you think husbands and wives should go into business together? I do. And the reason I say yes to that is because you're growing something together.
00:13:03
Irelynn Zurflueh
So the pains are the same. the the achievements are celebrated together. For instance, if you didn't have the mindset of real estate um and you didn't know escrows and inspections and all that kind of jazz, when I would come home and talk about real estate, you would probably only grasp 10, 15% of what I'm talking about.
00:13:23
Irelynn Zurflueh
sure But when we talk about it now, you're a hundred percent in. When you talk to me, I'm a hundred percent in. So I feel like Done right, it it can be a huge benefit. It can make life interesting, more interesting. Because I assume if we're in two different careers or if I'm a stay-at-home father and you come home for your career, I probably would like to talk about what I did all day. And you probably would like to talk about what you did all day. There could be some conflict there.
00:13:50
Irelynn Zurflueh
And there's also some people come home and don't want to talk about anything at all. They just want to chill. yeah That's not our house, just to be clear. No. To be clear. I usually get home before Jenny.
00:14:01
Irelynn Zurflueh
Usually as she's on her way home, she'll call. Well, not usually, maybe often. She'll call while she's on the drive home and we'll start talking about the problems she had at work or the issues she had with staff.
00:14:12
Irelynn Zurflueh
And I'll give her some of the things that I had problems with. And we'll talk and talk and talk. and and And then I'll hear the garage door open and I'll go, okay, I see you're home now.
00:14:23
Irelynn Zurflueh
Shall we continue this in person? And then we'll hang up. And then it continues. That really is the truth. He's telling the truth. I think it's a little better lately. I think maybe it's a little little better lately, I think.
00:14:34
Irelynn Zurflueh
Maybe there's not as many problems that are going on. Knock on wood. There we go. um Let me ask this question then. We've got your view on husband and wife being involved in a business together.
Involving Children in the Business
00:14:45
Irelynn Zurflueh
What about your children? We have two children that work with McKenna Property Management. do you think about that?
00:14:54
Irelynn Zurflueh
I think that if you have a business that is successful and has opportunities for your children and it's something they want to do, I think you should include your children.
00:15:06
Irelynn Zurflueh
You know, it goes back to the old Johnson and Sons or or Sanford and Sons. That's a TV show. But people would bring their their kids into the business. Now, we know of scenarios where kids don't want to be involved in the business. correct And that's fine.
00:15:19
Irelynn Zurflueh
Our oldest daughter is not involved in the business. Our middle daughter and our... son both are so I think if the opportunity is there I feel like you really should involve family because as much as you could say oh it could be conflict we might not get along there's a there's a certain bond that you have with your family you know I mean you you could pick me but you couldn't pick your kids correct so there's a certain bond there and and I think that's pretty special and if that can translate over the workplace then great do you think it's a good idea
00:15:52
Irelynn Zurflueh
I think that's harder with your children than it is with the husband or a father. I think it's been harder to navigate the children aspect working in the company than it was bringing on the husband and working with my dad. And that could just be an individual situation.
00:16:08
Irelynn Zurflueh
Those individuals and created that. you know It could be that somebody in your exact position might say, it's been easier and been been more comfortable working with my children than it was working with my father. You just never know because people are people and they're different.
00:16:21
Irelynn Zurflueh
True. I would say that um when somebody is thinking about bringing on one of their children into the company, I think you've got a really set boundaries, more so than even in a marriage. Boundaries?
00:16:35
Irelynn Zurflueh
Boundaries. What kind of boundaries? I don't think it's a good idea to spend mom and daughter or mom and son time talking about work.
00:16:47
Irelynn Zurflueh
We're in a marriage. I'm totally okay with that. Right. I've got the technical foul here. No. Wait, you think it's a bad idea to talk about work outside of the workplace? With your children. But you... Because I'll tell you why. But you do that. Oh.
00:17:01
Irelynn Zurflueh
I've been working on it. Okay. I've been working on it. it Because I'll tell you, and I'll tell you from my experience. I believe that there is a relationship that needs to grow with your children that is about their hobbies, about their loves and their passion.
00:17:16
Irelynn Zurflueh
And sometimes when they only want to talk to you because you're their boss, right? um And you're talking about work, you're not you're eliminating ah whole aspect of their life.
00:17:28
Irelynn Zurflueh
And I feel like I've made that mistake. And so that's what I'm working on. So for anyone that's listening, if you're thinking about bringing a child on, I would really recommend, that you set up a time once a week maybe to sit down an hour and just have that conversation about work.
00:17:46
Irelynn Zurflueh
And then when you go out to dinner at a family event, really work on not bringing up work. Now, if there was a funny experience. was going say, it's so hard because we have so many things that we laugh about.
00:17:58
Irelynn Zurflueh
And I'm okay with that. At the end of the you know? Yeah, like if if there's an experience, for instance, um somebody sent in a video and said, my fridge isn't big enough, and they put their head in the fridge and and then showed you that, look, I'm hitting my head on the top of the fridge. And that'll be a funny antidote that the people that are not within the business, the spouses, the friends, they can enjoy that. Yes.
00:18:19
Irelynn Zurflueh
But if you're sitting at a table and you and, you know, your son are talking about how the field agents are doing. Right. The other people are going be like, well But I've had the tendency to do that because in my brain, nothing ever shuts off when it comes to property management or real estate. I'm always thinking, or anything what can I do next? How can I make it better? What problem was there that I need to solve? And let's solve it now. So my recommendation would be is don't make that mistake that I made try not to yeah and try and make sure that you have those boundaries with your kids. Your kids are your kids.
00:18:54
Irelynn Zurflueh
When they walk through the door, they're an employee or a team member. And try and keep that as separated as possible. Sage advice. You're wise beyond your years. But it's weird that you and I as husband and wife can work.
00:19:07
Irelynn Zurflueh
I thought you said it was a good idea to work with your wife. Yeah, that's what saying. Like how you and I can make it work where we can talk about work all the time and never feel like that's ah a negative thing. then you bring a child in and then it becomes sort of negative. It doesn't have Again, it's individuals, just how it works out. I mean, i sometimes i want to just look at you and go, okay, let's just stop.
00:19:29
Irelynn Zurflueh
And I have before. You know I have done that. Yes. Because like you have... said, you're very passionate and the leg switch never goes off. So, you know, I appreciate that sometimes I can say, Hey, I don't want to talk about that anymore.
00:19:43
Irelynn Zurflueh
Let's just move on. You know what I mean? But I also think we're in a very lucky situation because we're in an industry where there's a lot of fun stuff that happens, a lot of successes, you know, if I close an escrow or I get a house under contract, those are things that I can share with you and you're going to share my joy, partly because you've you've you've had it before.
00:20:04
Irelynn Zurflueh
You know, if if you were just stay-at-home mom, a homemaker, and I come and said, hey, I sold a house today, you would not you wouldn't get anywhere near the joy you do had you not been involved in the industry. Correct. So I think that – That understanding really been important.
00:20:17
Irelynn Zurflueh
but important And that goes the other way. When a escrow falls out, I understand how that feels as well. Or if you're not, if you haven't really lived or walked in those shoes, you don't, you're kind of like, oh okay. Well, Max, you lost an escrow move on.
00:20:31
Irelynn Zurflueh
But i get goll get it. on i Yeah. I get it that you need to take a couple of days and understand all that work that went in that you're not going to see anything come out of it. So I think it goes both ways, the achievements and then also understanding Sometimes, you know, that failing forward that you need to do once in a while. Yeah, no I agree.
00:20:49
Irelynn Zurflueh
And I think we got to laugh. You got a smile. You got to be happy about stuff. You know, if if the if all you ever do is go home to your spouse, whether you're working with them or not, and all you ever do is complaining and talking about the negative.
00:21:03
Irelynn Zurflueh
That's going to be very tiresome. So bring in funny moments, happy moments, laughter, something a staff member did that was unbelievable. Make sure you bring both sides of the coin into the conversation.
00:21:15
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yep. Spice it up is what I like to say. Both sides of the coin. I like it. Yeah, both sides of the coin. Rome wasn't built. it We're nailing all these little spice it up.
Benefits of Working with a Spouse
00:21:24
Irelynn Zurflueh
You know, summary though, Jenny, because we're about to the end of our episode.
00:21:29
Irelynn Zurflueh
You initially asked me, do you think a husband and wife should work together? And I was like, yeah but, and I think it's, if you can make it work, it can be pretty cool because you and I will go on vacation.
00:21:42
Irelynn Zurflueh
I got to send people go on vacation and they don't have their work environment to talk about with their spouse. I bet the conversation can kind of dry, kind of slow down a little bit. You and I can, we, it's hard for us to go,
00:21:53
Irelynn Zurflueh
Two minutes without talking about either our life, our children. And we have that added topic of our work and our industry that we share. I think it really creates a fun environment. So I'm changing my answer. wow Work with your spouse if you can make it work.
00:22:08
Irelynn Zurflueh
I like it. I like that a lot. Well, um let's end this. If you guys have listened to this and you like what you're hearing or you found it to be interesting, please make sure you hit the subscribe button and share this episode with somebody. Maybe somebody who's thinking about getting into business together with their children or their spouse.
00:22:26
Irelynn Zurflueh
And don't forget, love is always the answer. That is true. And that's Realtors Keeping It Real. Thoughts for Rent. I'm Max Zerfloo. I'm Jenny McKenna. You guys have a great time. We'll see you on the next episode.
00:22:40
Irelynn Zurflueh
Bye-bye.