Special Crossover Episode: Winnipeg We Want You!

Welcome to Canada's Property Management Podcast, your number one resource for investing, managing, and maximizing the value of your real estate assets. And now here's your hosts, Carla Browne and Adrian Schulz, Canada's rental property experts.

Adrian Schulz (00:19):

In today's episode, we're talking about property management business opportunity in Winnipeg, Manitoba. And I'm joined today by the President of Real Property Management here in Canada, Carla Browne. Welcome, Carla.

Carla Browne (00:37):

Thanks, Adrian. I'm really excited to be here today speaking to you about this opportunity in Winnipeg specifically, something that we have not talked about in all of the conversations that we've had before,

Adrian Schulz (00:48):

And we're doing something fun. This specific episode is going to be published both on Canada's Property Management Podcast and on I love Winnipeg Real Estate Podcast. So let's start at the beginning. Carla, who are you?

Carla Browne (01:06):

Who am I? How far back do you want me to go?

Adrian Schulz (01:09):

Relative to the job, if you don't mind, because we know that Frank may or may not have time to listen to this episode.

Carla Browne (01:16):

Right. So, Adrian, you mentioned, I'm the President of Real Property Management Canada. I'm also a franchisee within the system. I've had an office here in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan since about 2013, and then really just saw so much opportunity in this property management field across Canada that I got really excited and then joined the national brand as well. So my role with RPM Canada is really to grow the brand and show people who are interested in property management or are investors with an interest in maybe looking at managing other people's properties how we can do that effectively in a way that we're able to maximize our investors, what they're taking away from the property, and also providing very safe and clean homes, obviously, to residents across Canada.

Adrian Schulz (02:04):

What can you tell us about Real Property Management?

Carla Browne (02:08):

Real Property Management franchise organization, we are in most major centers across Canada and we provide property management services for small to medium size investors and work with trying to, I guess, get investors to understand that this is a very profitable business, it is a very scalable business, and it is not one that we just focus on, as I say, fixing taps and fixing toilets. There's more to it than that. We deploy a lot of technology, as you're aware of, Adrian, in our systems and processes to make this a very, as I said, scalable and a business that I think most people should be very, very proud to own. And I'm very, very passionate about professionalizing the industry. I think the industry has a bad rap across Canada and there are some very strong property management companies and business owners that understand how this all works in real estate investing. I came from the real estate side and the Century 21 side originally, so the power of real estate investing is something that's always been very near and dear to my heart.

Adrian Schulz (03:12):

What's the difference between starting a property management business on your own independently versus becoming a Real Property Management franchisee?

Carla Browne (03:25):

Well, first of all, when you're a franchisee, you're in business for yourself but never by yourself. That's the famous franchisee type of saying, So you are building upon other people's expertise in the industry, but the primary difference between starting it on your own and joining what we have is you are going to be able to take advantage of all of the proven property management systems, workflows, automation, programming that we've already tested, vetted, and put out there that we know works. We see a lot of repetitive tasks in the property management industry and we can alleviate a lot of those with the technology that we've put in place.

(04:02):

And I always call it high touch, which leaves you then opportunity for high human connection, which we are a people business, we're not just managing properties, we're working with people all day long, and we've got to up that service level, improve the communication, and we can do that through the systems that we currently have. But what I want to make known throughout this podcast is we do not have a presence in Winnipeg. And why is that, Adrian? Why is that, that nobody in Winnipeg understands that this is such a fantastic opportunity to be part of an organization such as this?

Adrian Schulz (04:39):

Well, I'm not sure what the reason is and, I mean, that's why we're having this discussion. I think the number one question that comes to people's mind is, what or who makes an ideal Real Property Management franchisee?

Carla Browne (04:55):

So there's a couple different areas that I think make an ideal franchisee. We see a lot of real estate companies who have recognized that the times that we're in right now that house sales are going to be affected or are being affected, and maybe it's time to diversify what their programming is in their company and maybe they want to open up a division. And that division could be with Real Property Management, obviously. So that is, I guess, an ideal client for us, somebody who already has the, I guess, ability to be talking to investors every day, lots of synergies between real estate and property management, obviously. And I would even question that a lot of property management companies in Winnipeg maybe are already tied to a real estate office where a real estate office is doing it off the side of their desk on either paper, an Excel spreadsheet, and we can definitely help them with that, can we?

(05:46):

So there might already be some that are already doing it and this might be a great reason to reach out and have a conversation about it. Also, investors, we see more and more investors coming to us. The issue in a province like Manitoba is that you do have to be licensed. It is a licensed activity under the Real Estate Act and you have to have a brokerage or you're going to have to be tied to a brokerage, so you're going to need a broker. And to get a license is the easy part, but you have to be licensed for two years before you can actually broker. So there's a couple steps there, but that's who we see, obviously, coming to us because they've got a strong interest in there. If they've got a strong interest, they should start talking to other people in the real estate industry and see if there's someone out there that might want to join forces with them that already has the ability to broker.

Adrian Schulz (06:28):

So I'm a Winnipeger and I'm not sure what it's like in other provinces, but I think we're called Wholesale City. So with that in mind, can you enlighten us to, what is the cost to start a Real Property Management franchise and how does that compare perhaps to if you went at it at your own or on your own? Are those costs going to be much higher or much lower? What can you tell us about costs?

Carla Browne (06:58):

If you went in on your own, you probably would not integrate everything that we have integrated into the package, so you're not really comparing apples to apples. We have somebody on staff that actually goes through the process and does the discovery call and can answer some of those initial questions. So I'm not going to get into exact pricing of what our franchise costs, but I will tell you that we're very low to entry and for, I would say, less than $50,000 to $60,000, you can buy the franchise and get into this system, because you're going to be leaving some income. So I always have a buffer there for some income that you're going to be leaving in order to get into it.

(07:37):

But we're definitely labeled as an under $50,000 business startup from start to finish because you buy the franchise, you still have a few other costs, like any other business. You buy another franchise, you could be paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to start a business, whether that's a franchise system or not, to be quite honest. So you can get proven systems, proven technology, the experience of a team that's already vetted a lot of these things, been in the field and doing this for under $50,000, which is a pretty low cost to start a business nowadays.

Adrian Schulz (08:11):

What are the next steps to pursuing this opportunity for a property management franchise here in Winnipeg?

Carla Browne (08:18):

You can reach out to us. You can visit our website, realpm.ca. You're going to learn a lot about our company. So I always point people there first, and then on the top right hand side of that page, there's going to be a big red button that has franchise opportunities. So if you click in there, you're going to have a form that you can easily fill out, and then someone from our office can be in touch with you.

Adrian Schulz (08:39):

And just to cross promote the two different podcasts, you can listen to more property management related episodes at realpm.ca, and you can listen to more Winnipeg real estate related podcasts at ilovewinnipegrealestate.ca. Thanks for listening.

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