RG 221 – How To Manage Your Property Managers: Pro Tips w/ Luke Leins

Luke works in residential properties and he’s responsible for business development. It’s a national wide property management company. Prior to multifamily he oversaw senior living communities, acquisitions and villa projects in Mexico. He made his first dollar buying and selling on eBay and did that until he could legally work and then at 14 he went to work as an eBay buyer. At 17 he used to go around with a minivan buying beer and then selling it back in Boulder Colorado where it was usually very expensive. He’s a life long learn and loves to travel. His favourite trip was to Myanmar and he’s off to Uganda next. While he was travelling he saw people living in poverty who were still much happier than he is which was a learning experience.

Property management is hard, there’s a high churn of staff which is hard so you need to make your staff feel valued. If you’re using a third party management system then always ask ‘who’s looking after my stuff’. As an asset manager you need to get a personal relationship with your manager, don’t just be a blank person in a board room – the more you know the better people will work for you. Luke had to work out how to attract and retain staff so he hired the VP of hiring from Starbucks and they turned everything around and helped attract and keep the $12/hour staff. It’s all about work culture.

Top tips

• Most important habit – gratitude every morning
• Most influential person – dad
• Most important tool – moleskin notebook
• Contact lleins@investres.com or LinkedIn respropsmanagement.com