Successful real estate investors don’t find success alone. Real estate is a relationship business, so eventually, you need someone—an agent, contractor, cleaner, or handyman. At times, your success depends on these people, so you need to build a relationship with them. Once you cultivate a relationship, maintenance becomes the next step, but how do you do that? How do you find the balance between too friendly and impersonal? How do you turn a transactional relationship into a transformational one?
Today’s guests, Evan and Katie Miller, have prioritized relationship building in their business and have seen tremendous success. The advantage of investing as a couple is they balance each other out. Evan enjoys numbers, while Katie enjoys working with people—creating the balance they need to be a well-oiled real estate machine. They have sixteen units across seven properties in Florida, Denver, and Nebraska.
While growing their real estate business, they both work full-time jobs with a baby at home. Katie is the General Manager of BiggerPockets Publishing, which motivated her to invest because she sees the power of real estate every day. Since they still work full-time, they prioritize time management, relationship building, and organization. Evan and Katie hope to hit fifty properties in five years while keeping a full-time job.
Ashley:
This is Real Estate Rookie episode …
Katie:
Two hundred …
Tony:
And seventeen.
Ashley:
Get out of here.
Katie:
And really when you’re working with guests, working with tenants, or working with your cleaners, there’s three things, right? Treat others as you want to be treated. It’s pretty simple. A golden rule to live by irregardless of if you’re paying someone or they’re paying you. Two is just treating them as real humans. They have bad days. I have bad days. The third thing is just leading with honesty. It goes both ways. The more that you are honest with them, they’ll bring it back to…