How to Make Money with DoorLoop

Presenter:

What's up, everybody? And welcome back to another episode of Loop It In, the DoorLoop podcast, where we pick the brains of experts in property management, real estate and investing. Tech? Wee cover it. Marketing? That too. So whether you want actionable tips, or the insider scoop from top performers in their industries, this is one show you won't want to miss. Be sure to subscribe so you won't miss out on any future episode.

Muhammed:

Welcome back everyone to the Loop It In podcast. My name is Muhammad Abugosh. I'll be your host today. And I'm today joined with Arturo Ache. Welcome, Arturo.

Arturo:

Thank you. Thank you so much. Happy to be here.

Muhammed:

Awesome. So Arturo is going to tell us today about how you can make money and how you can save money with DoorLoop. So Arturo is an expert in this exact subject. He's an account executive, he's a salesperson with years of experience, and I can't think of anyone better who could tell us about today's topic. Arturo, why don't you start by introducing yourself to the audience.

Arturo:

Sure. Well, my name is Arturo again, like Muhammed said before. I am actually an account executive here at DoorLoop. And my job is basically to help people understand and educate them how software can make your life easier and also earn that extra cash.

Muhammed:

Awesome. Sounds great. So yeah, what do you do exactly at DoorLoop? What does the day for you look like?

Arturo:

Yeah, well, my day is full of meetings. And this meetings basically, I'm talking to property managers, sometimes landlords, that they want to match their own properties. And basically what I do is to educate them what the software does and how can it help them pretty much manage the business more efficiently, take less time on those tedious activities, and basically just make more money.

Muhammed:

All right. And how did you get into this field in the first place?

Arturo:

Well, my first experience in sales was doing door-to-door. It was a great experience. Yeah, I was working for AT&T. And I was pretty much helping people get better internet, get better TV services and stuff like that. It was my first time in the sales industry. I learned a lot in that. Yeah.

Muhammed:

Sounds brutal, right? A lot of rejection. You're just knocking on doors.

Arturo:

Oh yeah. It was a great experience. I mean at the end of the day it was very tough, but that's what actually taught me how to handle rejection. I love that you actually mentioned that. That's one of the biggest things in sales, one of the basic things. So yeah, you got to learn how to maintain your focus after you've been rejected a couple times. And it taught me all the basics. And if I had to start all over again from the beginning, I would do it again.

Muhammed:

Very interesting. Yeah, I've heard a lot of successful salespeople that started out in that exact way, right, going from door to door. So that's really interesting. Yeah. I think now we can get into today's topic. So how exactly can property managers make money with DoorLoop?

Arturo:

Well, it comes down a couple things. The first thing is actually by allocating your time on activities that actually make you money and trying to automate those that does it, okay?

Muhammed:

Right.

Arturo:

So that's mainly what the software does. But then there are also ways of actually generating actual revenue from having the software.

Muhammed:

Okay, so one way is to save money. The other way is it can actually help you make more money, right?

Arturo:

Correct.

Muhammed:

All right. And I think before we were talking about something called moneymaking activities. And do you have a few examples of what that is exactly?

Arturo:

Moneymaking activities is basically finding new business, like finding new people for your property management business who wants to give you their properties for you to manage. That is a moneymaking activity. Another moneymaking activity in my opinion is start getting applicants and filling up those vacancies. That's another thing that you should focus time on. Those are literally things that are making revenue.

Muhammed:

Right. And a lot of people are focusing on other types of activities that are just repetitive, like you said.

Arturo:

Exactly, exactly. Like they're focusing on the admin side, which is pretty much doing a lot of paperwork, checking out who's paying rent and those typical things that take a lot of the property manager's time. And in reality, it's not very productive.

Muhammed:

And you're saying you can automate that, but can you trust that to be automated?

Arturo:

A hundred percent.

Muhammed:

Yeah?

Arturo:

It's a hundred percent accurate. It saves you a ton of time, and it's like a computer. It's basic math.

Muhammed:

Awesome. Okay. All right. And let's see. My next question is, how do property managers operate their businesses if they don't have a property management software to help them automate?

Arturo:

Well, I have come across with a lot of people like this that they're managing their properties basically with a huge file cabinet with a bunch of folders.

Muhammed:

I'm sure you've got some great stories there.

Arturo:

I have plenty of great stories. People are going knocking doors to get a check for rent. It's just, people are afraid of change. It's normal. It's basically the nature of being a human. Sometimes you have a way of doing things. It's been working. It might not be the best way of doing it, but that's the way I'm doing it, and I'm not going to change it because it's working.

Muhammed:

Because you trust yourself to do it right, and trying another method seems risky at first.

Arturo:

Seems risky. Yeah, at the end of the day, they have some money on the line, so I understand the concern. However, putting yourself outside your comfort zone, it might take you to bigger things.

Muhammed:

Right. Well, I'd love to hear one of those crazy stories that you mentioned of people that are just kind of doing it on their own.

Arturo:

Sure, sure. I have one. I had a client from Arkansas, and he would have an apartment complex that he was managing. It was about 50 units, if my memory is right.

Muhammed:

Not bad.

Arturo:

Yeah, it was actually a pretty decent sized property management business. And it would have to go and drive to the property, which was about 45 to 55 minutes driving just to collect the checks from each one of the 55 units. So imagine having a building and having to go from top to bottom collecting rent. Maybe someone was not there, maybe someone was working. He told me it was a complete mess. But he was just very, very afraid of changing his method because he's been in that business for let's say five to 10 years. I think that's why he told me, back in the day. So it was a great way of helping him. And once we did it, and once we actually set him up with the software, he still thanks me to this day. Still sends me emails, "Hey, Arturo, this is working amazing. Thank you so much. I can't believe how much time I'm saving." And that's just a great example.

Muhammed:

Oh, yeah. So that's crazy. He has all this free time back now, which before, he would go door to door. And if someone wasn't home, what would happen? Would he have to wait around? Would he come back another day?

Arturo:

He would have to come back another day and knock on those doors that did not answer. So just imagine that business method that he's using right now. And the funny part about this whole story is how he really believed that he was doing.... he was running the business the most efficient way.

Muhammed:

Really?

Arturo:

He was not the type of customer that you just show him the software, and he was convinced from the moment you showed it. It took a long time for him to realize what technology can do.

Muhammed:

So how does he collect rent now?

Arturo:

Oh, right now, he's collecting rent... Because all his tenants are able to log in with their user and password into a mobile app in their phone, and they're able to make payments through there. And he just very calmly checks his statements on the software to see who paid, who did not pay.

Muhammed:

No more driving 50 miles.

Arturo:

No more driving, no more door knocking. It's a whole different game.

Muhammed:

It's amazing. Wow. So what other benefits did this person, for example, find with using a property management software?

Arturo:

Well, one of the things that I recently got on a call with him, he wanted me to go over a feature that he was not able to figure out yet, which is fine. I mean, there's always a learning curve once you get a software.

Muhammed:

Oh, yeah.

Arturo:

And then after a couple of weeks, I would say, you can become an expert and know from A to Z how to use it. So we were on the phone the other day, and he told me one of the things that he appreciates the most is the ability of actually generating more income. He's comparing his books from back in the day when he didn't have a software to right now. And the automatic late fees, the rent reminders is just keeping everybody accountable, paying rent on time. So he really is making more money now that he's using the software.

Muhammed:

That's amazing. So he's getting paid on time. Those who aren't paying on time, they have to pay the late fee. Are there any other ways of generating extra revenue besides the rent itself?

Arturo:

Yes. There is another way of generating actual revenue that is actually setting up application fees. Once you have vacancies and you find the perfect prospect, or you're in the process of finding that perfect prospect to fill your vacancies, you want to make sure we screen those people, right? At the end of the day, that's your property. You want to make sure you put somebody in that property-

Muhammed:

Don't want to get a bad tenant.

Arturo:

Yeah, somebody who can take care of your things. So basically the software allows him to go ahead and run a very complete report on the past rent history that that specific prospect has. And not only that, but it also helps him see if that person maybe has some criminal history or maybe he that specific tenant, maybe he's got bad credit, right?

Muhammed:

Right.

Arturo:

And that has a cost, of course, that report, somebody needs to pay for that. So the software that he has right now, which is DoorLoop, it allows him to actually go ahead and charge more than what that specific report costs. And the gap, or let's say the extra money that he charges, he takes it as profit.

Muhammed:

Okay. So upcharging on it.

Arturo:

Exactly. So for example, let's just pretend the report costs $40. He would charge $75 and the rest would be just for him.

Muhammed:

Right. Because there is some work that he has to do. It's not just paying for the background check itself. He's putting time, he's putting effort into it. So there's a cost to that as well. That's where the upcharge comes from.

Arturo:

Exactly. But then this is something that he was not doing before

Muhammed:

Really?

Arturo:

Exactly.

Muhammed:

Okay. Interesting. So this is all done through the software itself.

Arturo:

It's all done through the same platform.

Muhammed:

Awesome. Okay. So now I'm starting to get the picture of what you're saying, that everything can be done from one place. It's a lot more efficient.

Arturo:

Exactly.

Muhammed:

You're not using multiple softwares and trying to put everything together.

Arturo:

Correct.

Muhammed:

All right. So is that something that's common as well for someone gets property management software that they're dealing with multiple different programs [inaudible 00:12:21] all over the place.

Arturo:

Well, yeah. That's the other type of customer right there. There's two people. There's one that is not technology friendly. And then there's the other type that are very, very tech-savvy and they know how to handle software computers. The business itself has a lot of technology involved, but it's all over the place. And what I mean by that is that, oh, I have a software for e-signatures. Then I have another software with another subscription for a county. And then I have another one maybe to take care of all my files. So then-

Muhammed:

These are all paid.

Arturo:

These are all paid softwares. Of course, they're all paid. And the thing with that is that they don't communicate to each other. So there is no sync between all of those softwares, and there's a lot of manual entries.

Muhammed:

So you get something from one software, you have to download it, upload to the next one.

Arturo:

Lot of lots and lots of manual entry. And again, we go back to what we touched at the beginning, which was non-money making activities, which is that manual entry.

Muhammed:

Downloading files and uploading them and exactly updating things. It's not going to make you any money.

Arturo:

I mean, the business might be making you money, but it could make you more if you stop allocating your time on those administrative things that you could basically [inaudible 00:13:34].

Muhammed:

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. All right, so if there are all these benefits, you can save time, you can save money with property management software, why are people avoiding it? So many people that are using them, but there's a lot that are still doing it the old-fashioned way. So what's stopping?

Arturo:

Again, it could be a couple things. Maybe they're afraid of investing in their business. Some people are just very price conscious. And a property management software is a business expense at the end of the day. You have to spend money to get this advantage, which is actually going to help you make more money, right? That's one thing. Another thing might be that they're not very tech-savvy, so they feel like software is overwhelming and they're just going to not be successful using it. So that's just another thing that I could think of. There's plenty of reason why you wouldn't use the software. Those are the two main things.

Muhammed:

But I think the way that I see it is that if it's a business expense, you have to pay for it, and you decide not to pay for it because you want to save that money, it's going to cost you another areas, right?

Arturo:

Exactly. Exactly. And that's a good way to of putting that. Mo, it seems like you're very tech-savvy, so you can see how a software could benefit you. Not everybody's like you. And I can tell you that from experience, where I speak to eight to 10 property managers or landlords every single day. And I'll say like 35 to 45% of people are just afraid of technology. They just don't trust it because they have never used it before for their business.

Muhammed:

Yeah. I mean, that's a good point. Not everyone is tech-savvy or has experience using software that might be a little more advanced. So can anyone learn it?

Arturo:

Absolutely. Absolutely. That's a great point right there. There were plenty of softwares in the market. Some of them are very overwhelming and very hard to use, even for somebody who is tech-savvy. However, there are some very user-friendly technology systems, for example, DoorLoop. It's very, very easy to use. The whole platform was built basically for people who are not very tech-savvy. And even for those who are tech-savvy, they will actually enjoy the fact that things that you do on four to five steps on another software, in DoorLoop, you can do them in one or two steps.

Muhammed:

Amazing. I think that's a common trend in many softwares. I was looking for a podcast software for this very podcast as well, and I found a few different options. There was one that was very customizable, it looked amazing, but it was so complicated. I just don't have the time to learn it. And then I ended up going with one that was much easier to use. You just drag and drop, you click, you say what you want to do, and it's done.

Arturo:

Exactly. So yeah, this age is turning into very user devoted type of softwares. So that's what we're seeing here. There's plenty of softwares in the market. Again, ease of use is one of the first things that you want to listen to or take a look at when you're doing research and figuring out what you're going to use.

Muhammed:

Right. That makes sense. I mean, we only have so much time in the day, and the more you can save, the better.

Arturo:

And at the end of the day, the software is supposed to take a headache off your plate, not being another headache.

Muhammed:

Wow. Yeah. Makes a lot of sense. Okay, so we talked a lot about the tenant side of things, but what about the owner side of things? Is there any benefits there for a property management software that can help you make money?

Arturo:

Of course. Well, property management businesses, the ones that are very successful and the ones that attract a lot of landlords is because they are very transparent. If I buy a property and I invest an important quantity of money in that property, I want to make sure that the person who's managing that is somebody who is very transparent with me on how much money that property is making, how much money-

Muhammed:

[inaudible 00:17:32].

Arturo:

... you're expensing. Exactly. So at the end of the day, those property management business that actually are successful are the ones that are very transparent. So the software allows you to give your owners a user and password, and they can, at any time on their phones, on their iPads, any device, as long as they have internet, they can go ahead and see how the property's doing, how much money they have been spending on maintenance, and many, many more. So it does bring a lot of benefits for the owner as well.

Muhammed:

That's a lot of peace of mind as an owner, as someone who's invested.

Arturo:

Correct.

Muhammed:

You don't have to sit around, wonder how things are doing, you can actually see it for yourself.

Arturo:

Exactly. Most property managers, what they do is they have a monthly newsletter that they sent to the actual owner. That's all they get, right? So you mailed it

Muhammed:

In real time-

Arturo:

No real time updates, no real time approvals for maintenance objects and things like that. So again, technology is a big friend for property managers and owners as well.

Muhammed:

Hundred percent. It sounds like it solves a lot of problems. So also for the owners, they have the management fees as well, right?

Arturo:

Exactly.

Muhammed:

That are getting paid to the property manager. So how does that work with property management software?

Arturo:

Basically, the software gives you a lot of peace of mind in that specific sense because the software calculates exactly what percentage are you taking from the rent collection. It really depends on the deal that the property manager negotiates with the landlord. But usually what I have seen is that it's between eight to 12% of the rent income. That's what property managers make. Now, there are some other things. For example, I've seen also people, property managers, take 50% of the late fees, really things like that. All of the deals vary a lot. They're not all the same. So it really depends on their negotiation skills. It depends on the landlords, and yep.

Muhammed:

Okay, so if they negotiate well enough, they could end up getting 15% of the late fees, right?

Arturo:

Well, that's one thing, right? That's just an example. It could be something else. Some of the property managers actually pay part of the maintenance as well.

Muhammed:

Really?

Arturo:

So it really depends on the deal that you have with the landlord. That's a very specific case, and I don't see that a lot of times. But just to give you an example how broad the negotiation is.

Muhammed:

Right. Okay. And does the owner see all of this, all the information you can share with him through the owner portal?

Arturo:

Well, that's actually a tricky part, and I don't want any of the landlords here in this podcast to get mad at me.

Muhammed:

Now it's getting interesting.

Arturo:

Yeah, it's getting kind of interesting here. So property managers can actually hide stuff from the owner with the software. Okay? And I'm not talking about illegal activities or just trying to steal money from the landlord. That's not exactly what I'm talking about. But as a property manager, once you sign a contract, the contract is what it is. So as a property manager, I don't have to show you anything else that is not on the contract. So if I can hide it for me to avoid questions about those, I'm going to do it. Does that make sense?

Muhammed:

Yeah, like with the late fees?

Arturo:

For example, let's just pretend that you are a landlord. I am your property manager, and we discussed that 50% of the late fees are going to be part of my cut-

Muhammed:

In the contract.

Arturo:

... as a property manager. It's in the contract. Maybe I don't want to show you how much money we're generating in late fees. Maybe I just want to show you how much income you're generating yourself, deducting my management fees from that.

Muhammed:

Right. Okay. So the property owner is still getting the 50% late fees.

Arturo:

He's getting his cut, he's getting his income statement.

Muhammed:

They're seeing all the information that they need to see.

Arturo:

Correct.

Muhammed:

Okay. I think that could be a benefit as well, like you said. All right, so it seems like there are so many benefits, so many ways to make money. But there must be some downsides, right? Nothing is perfect.

Arturo:

[inaudible 00:21:37].

Muhammed:

So with the property management software, what are the downsides?

Arturo:

Well, the downsides is that you have to spend money on the software. The software has some onboarding cost, usually most of the softwares, they actually charge it for the onboarding process, which could be a little tedious.

Muhammed:

That's like a training?

Arturo:

There's a lot of time. Yeah, training, basically migrating data from other softwares and things like that. It just takes time, right?

Muhammed:

Right.

Arturo:

Another thing is learning how to use the software. Nobody's born knowing how to use specific software. You have to take some time and play around with it. You have to trial and error to get to understand and be an expert into the software. That's why it's very, very important that you find it very user-friendly software so you can easily navigate through it.

Muhammed:

So I guess that makes sense. One of the biggest downsides would be just sort of the starting off costs. You're going to spend a little bit of time learning the software trial and error, but eventually [inaudible 00:22:35].

Arturo:

Onboarding cost, the subscription cost, which usually most of the softwares out there are not desktop anymore. Back in the day, you could just buy the software and have in your computer and that's it. Nowadays, most of the softwares out there are on a subscription-based business model. So you have to incur that payment every month or once a year or however you have to set up with your software.

Muhammed:

Right. Okay. Oh, so in the past you used to just pay for it once.

Arturo:

Exactly. Just like you would pay, for example, Microsoft Office. So you can have Word, Excel, PowerPoint on your computer. Back in the day, you would just pay for the license and it's a one time payment, and then you have it forever. Now things are changing. These software companies are evolving, so they understand that they want to keep a recurring charge to the [inaudible 00:23:23].

Muhammed:

Well, I guess it makes sense because if you're paying every month, the benefit that you're getting is that it's always updating. You're getting new features, right?

Arturo:

Correct.

Muhammed:

Things are getting better.

Arturo:

Of course. No, no, that's a great point that you touched there. The fact that now it's not just pay and that's it. It brings a lot of updates. It brings a necessity for the software company to keeps his current users. So that's why they keep rolling out updates and making the software great for the users.

Muhammed:

And the customers are suggesting new updates. And if it's a good idea, they might roll that out in the next one.

Arturo:

It really depends whether the software company actually listens to what the users are saying. If they do, they're doing business right. They should be releasing new updates to help those user run the business [inaudible 00:24:13].

Muhammed:

That's awesome. All right. So what should the property managers that are making all this money... What should they spend it on? How should they celebrate? I'm just kidding. Trick question. We'll let them decide. But yeah, I think we're pretty much wrapped up. I just ask you if you had any final thoughts or any advice before we close up here.

Arturo:

Any advice? Okay, I do have some advice for people, and this is coming from my experience, again. I talk to property managers are on the fence between going for a software or just keep doing things the [inaudible 00:24:49] way. So my advice is do a lot of research. Okay? Don't just settle with what's online. Go ahead and find people who are actually using software. Ask them how the experience has been. Check reviews from independent websites. Don't just settle for the actual company's website itself. Go ahead and go beyond that. And then again, this is not only on property management, this is life advice. Take a look at people who is doing better than you. What are they doing that it makes them more successful? And that's just a piece of advice right there.

Muhammed:

It's amazing. I love that. You're right, you can apply it to anywhere.

Arturo:

You can apply that to anywhere.

Muhammed:

Awesome. All right. Last question. What are the top things that someone should look for in a property management software when they're doing this research?

Arturo:

Varies. It's going to come down to three or four things. The first thing that we're going to look at is how robust the system is. Okay, is this going to do what I need it to do? The second thing is how cost-effective this is, right? Is it cheap? Is it expensive? I just have to make sure this is feasible for my business. And the third thing, well, it's actually going to come down to four things. The third thing is how easy it is to use. Okay, again, we talked about that. It needs to be a user-friendly software that you're not going to spend years figuring out how it works.

And then the fourth thing, which in my opinion could be the most important one, what type of support does this company brings, right? At the end of the day, the learning curve is always going to be there. It comes down to how these people are going to help you learn. When you have a problem in the software, can you reach out to them? Can you call them? Can you set up a same-day Zoom call? Those are the things that I would say, those four things, think is the four main points that I would advise someone who's actually researching getting a property management software.

Muhammed:

Well, I love those last two tips, like the tip number three, if the software's hard to use, first of all, you're going to spend a lot of time on it. And I've been there before where I've tried to learn new software, and I would just get frustrated and just not want to use it.

Arturo:

Exactly.

Muhammed:

[inaudible 00:27:05] say, "You know what? This is not for me. I'm not smart enough to figure this out."

Arturo:

Hey, we have all been there. I am not saying I'm the most tech-savvy person in the world. I'm just saying, you need to have somebody who holds you by the hand, at least in the beginning stage.

Muhammed:

Right. Yeah. And then the last tip, like you said, make sure that you can reach out to them if you do run into any issues.

Arturo:

Exactly.

Muhammed:

It's guaranteed to happen no matter what.

Arturo:

It's going to happen. It's going to happen.

Muhammed:

Awesome. All right. Thank you so much for joining us. I learned a lot. I'm sure everyone else did as well. Guys, thank you so much for watching. We hope you enjoyed today's podcast. And make sure to stay tuned because we're going to have a lot more coming very soon. Arturo, thank you.

Arturo:

Thank you so much,

Presenter:

guys.And thanks for listening all the way to the end. Don't forget to give us a good rating on whatever platform you're tuning in from. And we'll be back soon with another new episode. We hope to see you there. And until next time. This has been Loop It In.

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