How did one property manager hit hard by the recession bounce back to grow more than 500% in 5 years? Matthew Whitaker shares the story of how gkhouses redefined success, thanks to an aggressive growth strategy and smart hiring decisions.

2. The 5-Year Plan:
A Property Manager’s Secret to
Rapid Growth
Featuring Matthew Whitaker of gkhouses
Sponsored by AppFolio Property Manager

4. 2016 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential.

6. Disclaimers:
We don’t have original thoughts.
Everything we do has been developed
by learning from the books we read
and the people we meet in the industry
We aren’t perfect, if this presentation
comes across as us having it all
figured out, then I messed something
up

7. How We’ve
Grown
1.Sales and Marketing
2.Acquisition

9. 1. Sales and Marketing

10. Realities of today’s market for rentals
1. Great real estate sales market
2. High number of renters - 36.6% in 2016 according to Pew Research
3. 17 million rental homes in the United States

11. Conclusion: Due to churn, you need to
grow your business through sales &
marketing, just to stay at even.

12. Sales and Marketing
Full time sales person devoted to handling inbound leads and following up with
past leads
Full time Director of Marketing who is focused on lead generation
SEM
SEO
Content Marketing
The 2017 way to market is hard work and discipline

13. 2. Acquisition

14. 40 houses - Birmingham
Local Birmingham attorney/real estate
broker who managed 40 houses
Wife was doing most of the work and
got pregnant with first child
Bolt-on acquisition

15. 200 houses - Nashville
>25 years in the business - wanted to
retire - had no exit plan - only child
hated the business
Platform acquisition

16. 500 houses - Chattanooga
17 years in the business
Had a desire to get out of the stresses
of managing the business and wanted
to teach in the management industry
and volunteer with local MLS Board
Platform acquisition

17. Where We Are And Where We’re Headed

18. Lessons learned . . . technology as a backbone
1. Running one system
2. Automation allows us to do more with fewer people
3. Deploy workers wherever the work is needed
4. Onboard new hires quickly

19. What Does It
Take To Grow?
1. People
2. Money

20. 1. People - Being Prepared For Your Team

25. 1. People - Interviewing Through “The Grinder”

26. Phone Interview
1. What are your career goals?
2. What are you good at professionally?
3. What are you not good at or not interested in doing professionally?
4. Who were your last 5 bosses and how will they each rate your performance
on a 1-10 scale when we talk to them?

27. Face to Face Interview
1. What were you hired to do?
2. What accomplishments are you most proud of?
3. What were some low points during that job?
4. Who were the people you worked with?
a. Boss?
b. What will they say is your biggest strength?
c. What will they say is an area for improvement?
5. Why did you leave that job?

28. Culture
1. Have you ever had to handle a situation that required you to be
dishonest in order to protect the team? If not, how would you
handle the situation? (Integrity)
2. How do you decide or know when your day is over? (Disciplined
Hard Work)
3. Given the chance to make change, what would be your first
approach to implement the new way of doing something? (Team)
4. If you saw a teammate struggling in an area that was and/or even
wasn’t your expertise, how would you handle the situation?
(Team & Entrepreneurial Spirit)
5. How would you handle a situation where you saw an employee
not embracing a core value? (Excellence)

29. References
1. In what context did you work with the person?
2. What were the person’s biggest strengths?
3. What were the person’s biggest areas for improvement back
then?
4. How would you rate his/her overall performance in that job on a
1-10 scale? What about his or her performance causes you to
give that rating?
5. The person mentioned that he/she struggled with ____________
in that job. Can you tell me more about that?

30. 1. People - Building Culture

31. Building Culture
1. 25k Club
2. 1-2-1’s
3. Team events
4. Happiness Survey
5. Best books on culture creation:

32. 2. Money - Fuel To Grow

33. Types of money for growing fast
Bootstrap - self funded from cash flow
Bank loans - traditional, sba
Private funds I - friends and family
Private funds II - private equity
Seller financing

34. Questions?