059: Interview With my Project Manager Nikki True
Nikki True has been my assistant and vital to my business for over 6 years. In this episode of The InvestFourMore Real Estate Podcast I talk to Nikki about her career. Nikki happened into the real estate business, but loves it because of the freedom and money she can make. Nikki started out in the property management business working with my sister.
When my sister started to downsize her business, I hired Nikki to help me. She has been awesome helping with BPOs, expenses, marketing, and much more. Plus she is a licensed agent and sells more houses than most full-time agents! Nikki has become the main person helping me with my flipping business. On the podcast we talk about all of this, and what it is like working with me and advice she has for others in the business.
How did Nikki stumble into the real estate business?
Nikki went to the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley and got a degree in sociology with a minor in Spanish. Nikki graduated, but was not having much luck finding a job that related to her degree at all. She ended up finding a job with a property management company, which happened to be owned by my sister.
Nikki worked in property management, mainly dealing with college rentals that my sister owned and managed. My sister started to downsize her business while Nikki was there and could not give her full-time work. I needed more help in my business and hired Nikki to work part-time for me, while she still worked part-time for my sister. Nikki eventually quit working for my sister to work only with me, got her real estate license, and has been an awesome help with my business the last 6 plus years.
What was Nikki’s impression of property management versus real estate sales?
Property management was Nikki’s first introduction to real estate, and it may not have been the best way to start out. She worked with a lot of college students, and was not much older than many of them. Renting properties to college students can test your patience. Nikki describes how much turnover they had with their rentals because college students would get home sick or mad at their roommates. College kids also like to throw parties and may not know how to take car of a house, so there was a lot of maintenance and vacancies with the properties. Another problem with renting to college students is screening the tenants. Many college students looking to rent a house are coming straight from the dorms. They have no credit, no prior references and it is tough to tell how responsible they are.
Nikki has helped me with some of my rentals and sold many houses as an agent. She is very candid that she likes working with home buyers and sellers much more than working in property management. She also much prefers single family tenants to college students as renters.
What does Nikki do to sell houses as a part-time agent?
Nikki has been a very successful agent, even though she works the business part-time. She routinely sells more houses in our office than most of the full-time agents. We talk about why she has been successful, but here are a few key points she brings up:
- She is not afraid to talk to friends and family
- She lets everyone know she is a Realtor
- She promotes herself on Facebook in a subtle way
- She does some farming in specific neighborhoods
- She has a flexible schedule
It can be tough to make it as a part-time agent, but Nikki has done very well. One huge advantage she has is she can take off work to answer calls or show houses. If you want to be a part-time agent this makes the business much easier.
We also talked about why other full-time agents have a hard time. Many agents will not focus on on a few key ways to generate leads. They are all over the place with marketing and their day-to-day activities. You can’t write a blog, market to landlords, go after commercial real estate, work on high-end listings, and try to get first time buyers your first year in the business. The more you limit your focus, the more successful you will be.
What does Nikki think of flipping houses?
Nikki has helped transform my flipping business this year. I hired a project manager last year, who I thought would take my flips to knew levels. In the end the project manager and I did not work well together. I decided to have my team work on the flips to make sure contractors were getting repairs done quickly. Nikki has done an awesome job on the flips and we talk about why she likes to work on the flip side so much and how to work with contractors. I have 10 flips at the moment and have already sold 9 flips this year with another closing next week. She gives some great advice on how she sees me buy homes.
What are Nikki’s future plans?
Nikki and her husband Brennen are in the process of building a new house. Brennen is a licensed plumber who we use all the time for work on our houses (he is affordable and does a good job). Brennen and Nikki are planning to oversee much of the construction of their new house and Nikki hopes to use this experience to build on her knowledge of contracting. We have joked before about her becoming a general contractor and now she may actually do it!
If you need plumbing work in Northern Colorado, Brennen’s company is True Plumbing, 970-302-2074 or [email protected]