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00:00:01
Experts in Our Departments
9 Plays8 days ago
In this episode, Jenni and Irelynn take a deep dive into how McKenna is structured and why it matters. They break down the key differences between portfolio and department-style property management companies, explaining the pros and cons of each model. Learn why McKenna follows a departmental approach, how it benefits owners and tenants, and what it means for the team behind the scenes. If you’ve ever wondered what goes into running a well-oiled property management company, this episode is for you! Tune in, subscribe, and let's keep it real!
https://www.mckennapropertymanagement.com/
702-434-(HOME)
Jenni McKenna (Broker/Owner) B.29819/ PM.163810
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Transcript
Introduction to McKenna's Unique Approach
00:00:20
Irelynn Zurflueh
Hi, everyone. Welcome back to Thoughts for Rent. Realtors keeping it real. I am Ireland. And as you know, by now, this is Jenny. How are you doing today? I'm doing great. I think we should talk today about why McKenna Property Management foundationally is a little different than all the other property management companies. What do you think?
00:00:39
Irelynn Zurflueh
I think that would be fun. Let's keep it real Ireland and just let's open up that curtain. You know, like and the Wizard of Oz, when you open up the curtain, and you actually see everything back there. We are going to open that curtain and we are going to talk about how we developed it, why we developed it, why people told me it wasn't going to work.
00:00:58
Irelynn Zurflueh
And then what we are today. Okay.
Journey of Ireland at McKenna
00:01:02
Irelynn Zurflueh
So you came on board about five years ago. Yes. And you started as director of first impressions. Yes. So let's walk, let's start right from there.
00:01:11
Irelynn Zurflueh
Okay. Well, a director of first impressions, receptionist, front desk, secretary, those are just common words for what I did. And it was mainly just taking that first phone call, answering some of the basic questions,
00:01:27
Irelynn Zurflueh
If people needed more attention or were able to tell me who they need to speak to, getting it over to them. And then some admin work behind the scenes of dealing with files and dealing with hard copies and stuff like that.
00:01:41
Irelynn Zurflueh
So I started off there.
The Value of Personal Interaction
00:01:43
Irelynn Zurflueh
and um But that what's interesting is it's a live person that answers our phone. Yeah. I think that's important. When I – our last podcast, we talked about customer service. I really think that because of technology, so many businesses have said, oh you know what? I don't need a live person answering my phone because everything can be push the button.
00:02:03
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah. And I don't know, maybe I'm old school about it, but if I'm calling up a company and some live person is picking up the phone, I'm going to feel like I'm getting listened to more so than just pushing the button and then leaving a message. Yeah.
00:02:17
Irelynn Zurflueh
I think the biggest thing for me, because i'd we all deal with the robots and we all deal with the different options. A lot of times, some people, whether it's an owner or an agent or even a renter, don't actually know who they need to speak to. So if we just had Click here to speak to so-and-so or click here to speak to this person.
00:02:36
Irelynn Zurflueh
Nine times out of ten, they might end up going to the wrong person. So I like that we have a front desk because that front desk person just has a little bit more knowledge. She can look up your file. She can ask you a little bit more questions.
00:02:48
Irelynn Zurflueh
And then you can go to the right person the first time around. And that's the
Traditional vs. McKenna's Portfolio Management
00:02:53
Irelynn Zurflueh
segue of what makes us different compared to what other property management companies do.
00:02:59
Irelynn Zurflueh
So everybody's got some form of a front desk, whether it be a robot, whether it be a person, and then you call up. Now, traditional property management companies have what are called portfolios. So we'll use Ireland as an example.
00:03:12
Irelynn Zurflueh
Ireland works for ABC Management Company, and John Smith wants to have this company manage his property. His last name is Smith, starts with an S, just so happens that's the part of the alphabet that Ireland manages.
00:03:29
Irelynn Zurflueh
So they have no rhyme or reason other than the alphabet. Or zip code maybe, or like parts of the city or something that. Could be. Could be zip code. It could be the name of the street that is part of the alphabet.
00:03:40
Irelynn Zurflueh
However, they decide to divvy it up. Ireland now has John Smith's file. And then Ireland handles everything in property management world for John Smith's property.
00:03:54
Irelynn Zurflueh
I think that's
Specialization in Property Management
00:03:55
Irelynn Zurflueh
crazy because let's just name a few things that you need to be specialist in to really be an asset for your client. I mean, you, most companies have their own accounting departments. So rent collection, the fact that you would be put in charge of that rather than having an accountant do that would be kind of crazy.
00:04:15
Irelynn Zurflueh
um repairs of any kind, just knowing which vendors to work with, lease renewals. There's an importance to looking at the comps and knowing what the market value is for those renewals.
00:04:28
Irelynn Zurflueh
So those are kind of the big things I think of. But can you imagine one person having to coordinate all of that? It'd be a lot. Which makes me question how many...
00:04:40
Irelynn Zurflueh
properties they'd be able to take on before they reach a limit or before they hit a max. So what I've been told and, and through all the masterminds that I've been involved in for years, they say a superstar, an absolute superstar is around 175 to 200 properties.
00:04:56
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah. And then after that, they've got to get an assistant or they got to divvy it up. Now, you could probably solve that problem, get an assistant and then take on more properties. But this is the thing I want to know about.
00:05:08
Irelynn Zurflueh
What if all of a sudden Ireland decides to leave the company and all those little special things that she knew about John Smith's file, the vendor he likes, the lease renewal he likes to do, the fact that he always wants to do 3% increases, whatever it is, just went poof.
00:05:26
Irelynn Zurflueh
Nobody knows it. So what I did, Ireland, is when i decided to to open a property management company, I looked at it from my perspective as an investor. And what's the number one thing I care about in my investment property?
00:05:41
Irelynn Zurflueh
Making money. yeah I mean, I didn't buy this property to live in. I'm not using the dishwasher or the driveway or the garage or whatever. I don't even live there. I want this property to make me money.
00:05:54
Irelynn Zurflueh
And I believe the way you make money for an owner is efficiency. So what we did is we took every one of those little areas of property management from the very beginning, which is vetting applications, marketing, um lease renewals, repairs, ah getting the property in rent ready condition.
00:06:16
Irelynn Zurflueh
All of those are departments at McKenna Property Management. And I like to say, and you've heard me say it, we are... We are not a jack of all trades. We are a master of one.
00:06:28
Irelynn Zurflueh
So everyone that is a department head is seriously a specialist. So give them a, let's talk about leasing, for instance. Give me a little idea on why a department as far as leasing is so much better for an owner when it comes to his property.
00:06:49
Irelynn Zurflueh
I think that in general repetition is, is successful for anything. i think it's what, 10,000 hours or something to become a master. That's correct. And so when you maybe only have to look at an application once every four days because you're doing everything or your properties, you don't deal with the vacancies as often.
00:07:14
Irelynn Zurflueh
You're just not seeing the apps come through. And there's a lot that you learn even just through somebody's finances or their credit score. There's fraudulent apps that use the same company name or use the same kind of paycheck.
00:07:30
Irelynn Zurflueh
And that's the kind of thing that you wouldn't be able to pick up on unless you were looking at apps every single day. So we have someone in the office that is the only one that runs apps unless they are getting covered.
00:07:42
Irelynn Zurflueh
And they've actually found a couple fraudulent companies where like three or four apps would come in over the course of three months But because they were seeing apps every single day, they remembered it and they pulled that memory and then they found out that it was fraudulent.
00:07:58
Irelynn Zurflueh
So I think that's a benefit is you just get in the repetition. You start to notice the niches of that thing. Same with the contract. We have a specific person drafting up all of our lease contracts.
00:08:10
Irelynn Zurflueh
So you're seeing that contract every single day. And that's a chunky contract. It's about 14 to 16 pages. But that person has seen it so many times and has been asked questions about it so many times that they could probably...
00:08:24
Irelynn Zurflueh
tell you every single section of the lease. Well, and that's and going right back to what's the most important thing to an investor, making money on that investment. So if you end up letting a fraudulent app enter a property and then you have to evict them in a couple of months because they never paid their rent money out the window,
00:08:45
Irelynn Zurflueh
If you end up with a resident who has questions about the lease, isn't it great that they get to talk to somebody that knows that lease inside and out? Every clause.
00:08:57
Irelynn Zurflueh
I mean, basically can give it to you by memory. You know, what part of the lease talks about maintenance, you know, and they can just go right to that clause. Section 26. There you go. So point taken.
00:09:09
Irelynn Zurflueh
And then I also think that when it comes to maintenance and repair, that is where you can save your owner's money. Now, of course, right now, I'm going to be honest, every maintenance company has upped their rates.
00:09:23
Irelynn Zurflueh
We wish that it was back five years ago when we could do a water heater for $795. But... but Things have gone up, but I think every one of my owners know that we are constantly on top of each and every handyman that we send out to a job.
00:09:41
Irelynn Zurflueh
And we make sure that they're not just trying to make money off of McKenna property management, that they understand that if they are fair with their prices and they're good at what they do, they're going to get a continued flow of business. And for that, give us that discount.
Vendor Relationships and Cost Efficiency
00:09:57
Irelynn Zurflueh
I think it's, I love the fact that we have one specific person overseeing the repairs department be because they can maintain also a really good relationship with the vendors. And they're talking those vendors every single day.
00:10:09
Irelynn Zurflueh
So instead of that vendor having to maybe speak to 10 people and not knowing where to go, they're starting to remember our staff's names and creating that relationship and And every single time a vendor talks to the person in repairs, they're learning something because that vendor's reviewing a diagnosis or explaining something to them.
00:10:29
Irelynn Zurflueh
And so there's knowledge that's being taken from the vendor to this one person rather than maybe the vendor talking to someone they shouldn't be talking to and that information getting lost in the sauce.
00:10:39
Irelynn Zurflueh
And in a portfolio setup, which is the one that we used with the John Smith as the example, there might be three or four people that are handling different files.
00:10:50
Irelynn Zurflueh
And that vendor doesn't really know who to talk to. Yeah. or doesn't, or different personalities. So Ireland's got one personality, but somebody else on the team has one that's very blunt and just get it done. And I don't want to talk about it.
00:11:05
Irelynn Zurflueh
And the poor vendor doesn't really get to develop relationships. And I think relationships are money makers for our owners. Would you agree? I agree. And we use, we use a third party licensed insured vendors. So um With that, we also kind of get to see what the market of vendors is. And we have one specific person and in their department checking every single invoice as well.
00:11:33
Irelynn Zurflueh
So that person, again, is repetitively seeing the cost of a garbage disposal, the cost of a water heater, the cost of a paint job, the cost of a carpet clean. And then they can sit there and if there's a big price difference between vendor A or vendor B, that's going to ring $100.
00:11:50
Irelynn Zurflueh
a bells in their mind to look into it or to reach out rather than maybe someone who doesn't get the chance to see the different invoices day in and day out. They might get a garbage disposal once every six months. And are you going to remember what that garbage disposal was six months ago?
00:12:06
Irelynn Zurflueh
But at McKenna Property Management, it is weekly. I mean, you just, you're going to know exactly what those costs are from the different vendors that we use and then know which vendor is the best to call out for a garbage disposal.
00:12:18
Irelynn Zurflueh
yeah Yeah. The other one that I think is really big too is when it comes to getting the property in rent ready condition. So this is when a resident moves out
Skepticism and Success of Departmental Approach
00:12:29
Irelynn Zurflueh
and then the property is left however it's left. And let's be honest, most of the time it's not in rent ready condition.
00:12:35
Irelynn Zurflueh
There's got to be a janitorial, maybe some touch up paint, you know, whatever. It's just what property management is. We have a person, a department that does nothing but that.
00:12:47
Irelynn Zurflueh
So keys come in. She sends out the field agent, field agent does does all the documentation, and then she starts attacking that property immediately so that she can try and get it back on the market in 14 days.
00:13:02
Irelynn Zurflueh
Because again, if a property is off the market, is the owner making any money? no No. So if the scenario that we were talking about with a portfolio, what if that person ended up, you know, having to do everything in property management, A to Z, and then that month they ended up with like 10 move outs.
00:13:21
Irelynn Zurflueh
Do you think they're going to be equipped to be able to get those properties up on the market quickly? Yeah. On top of rent collection, on top of vacancy based repairs, yeah on top of lease renewals.
00:13:32
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah. And owner statements and everything else. No, I don't think someone could do 10 closeouts. No. With everything else. That's the jack of all trades and a specialist of none, right? So when we first opened up McKenna Property Management, I was told by many people and people that I i really respected, they said, never going to work, not going to work, too many hands in the cookie jar.
00:13:54
Irelynn Zurflueh
And I do think that you have to be
Conclusion and Contact Information
00:13:57
Irelynn Zurflueh
aware of making sure that you you know every department knows exactly what their job is and they got to get it. really, really good at that job and efficient at that job.
00:14:08
Irelynn Zurflueh
But once that happens, which the learning curve is very quick because you're just very specific, the benefits to the owners are huge. However,
00:14:19
Irelynn Zurflueh
I really second guessed myself in the beginning for like two years. I, ate from 2005 to 2007, I was wondering, is this idea of what I created going to work?
00:14:31
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah. But now we're in 2025 and I, I can't think of an, anybody's thinking about opening up a property management company. Do not do the portfolio because you're going to end up getting a ceiling.
00:14:44
Irelynn Zurflueh
That's the other thing that's great. You don't really have a ceiling. Yeah. Yeah. And there's always going to be some owners who prefer one person on speed dial to call. But that's also the great thing about whenever someone's new to us, we make it very clear that we're department-based. We support that belief.
00:15:04
Irelynn Zurflueh
We love that we're department-based because we give better service. So if they're not willing to be convinced, we understand different strokes for different folks. But usually if they onboard with us after they...
00:15:18
Irelynn Zurflueh
are there for about a month, they realize they can call at the front desk, literally just give a brief description of what they need, and the front desk will take them exactly who they need to go to. And then they get an answer quickly because, again, that individual is only handling that part, that specialized part of property management.
00:15:40
Irelynn Zurflueh
Well, I think we did pretty good to, you know, dissecting out why we are departmentalized and not portfolio based. Is there any other little tidbits you want to kind of share with our community?
00:15:51
Irelynn Zurflueh
No, I mean, I've always, joined the team department based. I know there are some people who've gone from portfolio to a department who kind of have bounced around. So I really like it. I can't imagine Being portfolio based, I think department is the way to go.
00:16:08
Irelynn Zurflueh
Perfect. Well, I sure liked talking to you today. It's always always nice having Ireland on our podcast. What can um our listeners do if they like what they're hearing and they want to hear more of it? ah subscribe, tune in. We're always here keeping it real for you guys.
00:16:24
Irelynn Zurflueh
And if any subscriber ah is looking for investments or they're looking for a place to rent, then you guys can just go to our website, McKennaPropertyManagement.com or call us and our front desk will get you exactly the right person.
00:16:37
Irelynn Zurflueh
Absolutely. All right. Well, I think that's it for us today. We'll be back.