Workshops

Breakout Sessions 1-4

1) Workflow Platforms

Day 2
Tuesday, October 20

1:05 pm – 1:50 pm

Speaker: Blais Case, Rent Bridge
Description: Rent Bridge presents an overview of what every property manager wants and what some would consider the Holy Grail of property management operations – an automated workflow platform. All the available options will be broken down into cost, compatibility, limitations, and user friendliness. This is all very important information when deciding which workflow platform will be best for you and your company. Blais will cover how having an automated workflow platform can reduce labor hours and stress on your staff, as well as how it can allow you to add more doors without having to make more hires. Both of these actions translate into a more profitable property management company.

2) The 6th Annual State of the Property Management Industry Report: Strategies for Success in Today’s Rental Market

Day 2
Tuesday, October 20

1:05 pm – 1:50 pm

Speakers: Chris Litster, Buildium, and Gail Phillips, CAE, CEO NARPM®
Description: This session brings to light new findings from the 6th Annual State of the Property Management Industry Report, which synthesizes insights from thousands of property managers, owners, and renters from across the country. The past year has been particularly turbulent, with the effects of a global pandemic and financial crisis catching businesses by surprise after more than a decade of expansion. Property managers’ ongoing struggles with attracting and retaining residents, growing and marketing their businesses, and expanding their portfolios will grow deeper and more complex in this new environment that’s unlike anything we’ve faced in the past. During this session, Buildium’s CEO, Chris Litster, will join NARPM®’s CEO, Gail Phillips, to reveal the top challenges that we’ll face in the property management industry in 2021 and beyond. They’ll identify where problems and opportunities lie within small businesses and discuss what can be done to resolve property managers’ biggest pain points. This session will combine intensive market research with an analysis of the big-picture trends revealed across six years’ worth of data. In addition, the presentation and report will bring property managers’ own words to the forefront as they describe the impact that the year’s unprecedented changes have had on their businesses. The much-anticipated Industry Report is scheduled for publication in tandem with the NARPM® Annual Convention and has become a staple for NARPM® members and property managers. It will be available for conference attendees, both in print and as a downloadable PDF.

3) The Meaning of (Your Property Manager) Life

Day 2
Tuesday, October 20

1:05 pm – 1:50 pm

Speaker: Scott P. Brady, Progressive Property Management, Inc.
Description: Just as in a small business where there are five stages of existence (1) aspirational, (2) entry, (3) growth, (4) crucible, and (5) exit, there are five stages in the life of a property manager (1) birth, (2) becoming a property manager, (3) growing that business, (4) monetizing your clients, and (5) death. This presentation goes over those stages and is both educational and inspirational.

4) Survive and Thrive with Acquisitions

Day 2
Tuesday, October 20

1:05 pm – 1:50 pm

Speaker: Michael Catalano, Real Estate Connections
Description: In this session, you will learn the top 10 successes and pitfalls of acquisitions.

TED-Style Talk Sessions T1 – T4

T1) Virtual President & CEO – Fasten your Seat Belt and Buckle In – WE Are Going For a Ride

Day 2
Tuesday, October 20

1:55 pm – 2:15 pm

Speaker: Melissa Prandi, MPM® RMP®, PRANDI Property Management, CRMC®
Description: What is it like to be a Virtual President & CEO, while keeping life balance and a positive attitude? What did COVID-19 do to change our businesses? Fasten your seat belt and we’ll talk about what positive things came out of the pandemic. Melissa will show you how to motivate, navigate, and communicate with your team when things are changing so rapidly. Our latest tools are virtual, involving technology, communication, marketing, and gearing up for growing your business when things turn the corner. This will be an interactive class of sharing and best practices.

T2) The 3 Most Important Things I Did in 2020 to Improve My Business

Day 2
Tuesday, October 20

2:20 pm – 2:40 pm

Speaker: Marc Cunningham, RMP®, Grace Property Management & Real Estate
Description: For many PM companies 2020 has been a very challenging year. In this short talk Marc shares the 3 things he did in 2020 to finish strong and to prepare for success in 2021.

T3) Preventing and Identifying Rental Fraud from Impacting your Business

Day 2
Tuesday, October 20

2:45 pm – 3:05 pm

Speaker: Janet Peters, TransUnion
Description: Fraudulent activity is an emerging issue in the rental industry as the proliferation of digital face-to-face interactions has grown. Consumers are increasingly shifting to online applications – and this poses new challenges for property managers. During the screening process, property managers must verify identities and detect potentially fraudulent applicants in a seamless manner without hindering the consumer experience. While companies may believe they already have fraud detection tools in place, fraudulent activity is still typically not identified until after move-in. This session will advise property managers of the red flags to look for during the application process. This ensures potential fraudsters are identified at the time of application rather than during the lease cycle, which could significantly boost the company’s bottom line.

T4) Bullet-Proof Financial Controls and Why Bad Things Happen to Good PMs

Day 2
Tuesday, October 20

3:10 pm – 3:30 pm

Speaker: Daniel Craig, ProfitCoach
Description: Property management is one of the few industries where you, the small business owner, is required to manage hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars of other people’s money. And guess what? Everyone is watching you – The state, your clients, and your employees. And oh yeah, and the virtual assistant (VA) half-way across the world with access to your client’s routing information. What’s the result? Bad things happen to good PMs. But it’s OK, you can stay in control with bullet-proof financial controls. By unpacking the NARPM® Accounting Standards Financial Controls Guide, this practical session will demystify financial controls, and guide you through the key controls you should be implementing and monitoring in your business to protect you from fraud, error, and audit risk – and keep you out of jail.

TED-Style Talk Sessions T5 – T9

T5) Top 10 Business Development Practices

Day 3
Wednesday, October 21

1:05 pm – 1:25 pm

Speaker: Brad Larsen, MPM® RMP®, RentWerx San Antonio and BizDev Mastermind
Description: In this session, you will learn the top 10 best business development practices. Brad will detail the 10 best ways to improve your business development skills in finding sources of leads, interviewing prospective owners, and closing new deals so you can grow your business.

T6) Resident Benefit Packages

Day 3
Wednesday, October 21

1:30 pm – 1:50 pm

Speaker: Todd Ortscheid, GTL Real Estate and Bob Hansen, Second Nature
Description to follow.

T7) Emotional Intelligence Training and the Impact on Business Relationships

Day 3
Wednesday, October 21

1:55 pm – 2:15 pm

Speaker: Stacey McKay, Rental Home Management Services
Description: Stacey McKay, a Real Estate Broker and Trainer with over 30 years experience in real estate and property management, will share the key principles of relational wisdom (RW), going beyond emotional intelligence (EI). As a Certified Relational Wisdom Instructor, she will provide new skill sets that will help management companies, property managers, and their support staff, better understand their clients. This includes owners and tenants, as well as the vendors used in operating their property management business. Most people experienced in business know or have had some training in emotional intelligence. Stacey will go a step beyond, providing new skills sets better designed to focus on the emotions behind EI and how emotional reactions impact relationships at work and home, with practical applications for property management professionals.

T8) Technology PM Pain Points – The Future is Now

Day 3
Wednesday, October 21

2:20 pm – 2:40 pm

Speaker: Jamey King, PointCentral
Description: This session will take property managers on an educational journey through the pain points they are facing with day-to-day operations. It will focus on technology that is available to the industry now, and also, what is coming in the future. Jamey uses a historical approach to grasp the controls that are available but often overlooked. This educational session will provide each attendee with at least one key takeaway to implement in their day-to-day operations.

T9) Processes: Going from Zero to Sixty

Day 3
Wednesday, October 21

2:45 pm – 3:05 pm

Speaker: Chris Berkompas, CTO, LeadSimple Inc.
Description: Many companies are not in a position to prioritize growth, because the processes they have won’t reliably scale. When companies set out to solve this problem, they face the steep learning curve of new software, on top of the work of standardizing and documenting their own processes. Workflow automation is all the rage, but there are a lot of ways to get stuck and stall out. The goal of this presentation is to give attendees a road map for being successful with a process implementation project, by identifying prerequisites, avoiding tar pits, empowering their team, and adopting the right order of operations.

Workshop Sessions 1 – 5

1) How You Can Find Superstar BDMs (Business Development Managers) to Grow Your Business For You

Day 3
Wednesday, October 21

3:10 pm – 3:55 pm

Speaker: Jeremy Pound, CEO, RentScale
Description: Property management company owners love to get clear on exactly what kind of clients they do, and do not, want. What kind of discounts they will, and will not, concede. And which policies are nice to have and which are non-negotiable. Ironically, owners who also like to sell typically have the least amount of discipline in sticking to these standards while “chasing the deal.” When you systematize and document the selling standards, and then remove yourself from the front lines, you start attracting prospects that are looking for systems and standardization rather than “deal making.” This session will show you how to define a comp plan, scorecard, and sales management system that will attract a top performing salesperson for your property management firm. Also, hear from a handful of other NARPM® Members who have used this exact process and ask them how they have made the jump to getting out of selling for their management company.

2) Run In-House Maintenance Profitably

Day 3
Wednesday, October 21

3:10 pm – 3:55 pm

Speaker: Mike Schraepfer, President, Heirloom Property Management
Description: The asset managed by a property manager (PM) is a physical property. This requires PMs to be proficient at maintaining these assets and drives many PMs to bring maintenance services in-house. In-house maintenance presents a fundamental problem: running a maintenance business is completely different than a running a PM business. This session will unpack the fundamental differences and approach “maintenance as a business” with a fresh perspective.

3) EOS – Entrepreneurial Operating System

Day 3
Wednesday, October 21

3:10 pm – 3:55 pm

Speaker: Jeremiah Cundiff, Vice President, PMI Corporate
Description to follow.

4) Systematizing for Success: Running Your Property Management Business on Autopilot

Day 3
Wednesday, October 21

3:10 pm – 3:55 pm

Speaker: Marc Cunningham, RMP®, Grace Property Management & Real Estate
Description: Successful companies don’t rely on people for their success, they rely on systems. Systems are simply detailed documented processes that allow your each part of your business to be run by anyone. Systems will make your property management business consistent, scalable, increase the value of your company, reduce your liability, and let you step away from the daily operations. In this fast moving session we will walk through the step-by-step process of how to create and implement a System Manual specific to each position in your company. System Manuals changed our business, and they can change yours too!

5) SWOT Analysis

Day 3
Wednesday, October 21

3:10 pm – 3:55 pm

Speakers: Scott Brady, Progressive Property Management, Inc.
Description: Successful companies don’t rely on people for their success, they rely on systems. Systems are simply detailed documented processes that allow your each part of your business to be run by anyone. Systems will make your property management business consistent, scalable, increase the value of your company, reduce your liability, and let you step away from the daily operations. In this fast moving session we will walk through the step-by-step process of how to create and implement a System Manual specific to each position in your company. System Manuals changed our business, and they can change yours too!

Panel Pandemonium P1 – P4

P1) Panel Discussion – KPIs: The GPS for your Business

Day 4
Thursday, October 22

1:05 pm – 2:05 pm

Speakers: Anne Lackey, RMP®, Solid Source Property Management, Inc. and Deb Newell, MPM® RMP®, Real-Time Leasing
Description: Post COVID-19, property managers need to manage their teams based on results. Many PMs are still trying to navigate managing a diverse workforce, constituting in-house staff, contractors, and remote team members. Business is forever changed – have you changed with it? Understanding each person’s roles and how to manage expectations and results are going to be the difference in the new economy. Anne Lackey has been managing a diverse team over several businesses and will share her best practices in this session. Brokers will be able to walk away with clear next steps of what a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is and how to implement it in their current team environment. You’ll be shown how KPIs can provide the road map to the success of your business, by tracking your business growth. Everything from financial metrics, marketing, and maintenance. By knowing your profit per door, you’ll see how it will help you gain more business.

P2) Panel Discussion – Artificial Intelligence & Automation

Day 4
Thursday, October 22

1:05 pm – 2:05 pm

Speakers: Kit Garren, MPM® RMP®, Tonsofrentals.com Asheville; Dr. Ethan Bahir, CTO, Diffe.rent, Inc.; Sina Shekou, CEO of Aptly
Description: The capability of artificial intelligence is growing rapidly and providing the residential property manager with opportunities for improved capabilities only dreamed of a few years ago. We will first define artificial intelligence then provide examples and demonstrations of its current uses for the property manager. Don’t replace your team with robots – help them become superhuman! Automation works best when you use it to enrich, not replace, human-to-human experiences. During this session, we will discuss best practices for charting your tenant and owner customer experiences and how to leverage automation in thoughtful ways. The session will provide templates for mapping customer journeys, best practices for implementing them into your existing workflows, and takeaway blueprints for building your own automation regardless of the tools you use.

P3) Panel Discussion – Company Growth Panel

Day 4
Thursday, October 22

1:05 pm – 2:05 pm

Moderator: Taylor Tenney, On Q Property Management
Description: Many property management companies are being solicited to sell their companies by big players with deep pockets that are using scare tactics and/or selling a dream for selling. This could be detrimental to the industry. This session will remind you why you started and how to grow and cash flow. Learn how one company has grown from 0 properties, in 2010, to over 2,000 properties in less than 10 years, by not purchasing a single contract or company. Witness tools and software that automate day-to-day tasks to become more profitable, while providing better service. This session dives deep on marketing with Google, optimizing your landing page, following up, on-boarding, leasing, managing, handling move-outs, and re-marketing.

P4) Panel Discussion – How to Be the Trusted Voice in Your Market Using Social Media

Day 4
Thursday, October 22

1:05 pm – 2:05 pm

Speaker: TBD Description to follow.

Breakout Sessions 1-4

TED-Style Talk Sessions T1 – T4

TED-Style Talk Sessions T5 – T9

Workshop Sessions 1 – 5

Panel Pandemonium P1 – P4

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