How Blake Faulkner joined the family business & rebuilt it for the future

A hyper-scaling regional portfolio working in the past

When Blake Faulkner joined his family's real estate business in Ohio, he came ready with an opportunity to supercharge operations with new technology and strategy. FIRCO is a family owned and operated real estate company that acquires, develops, and manages its own investment residential properties. With 300+ units ranging from RV Parks, single family homes, extended stay residential hotels, apartment buildings, and more, Blake sought to tackle an inefficiency in FIRCO’s workflow.

“Most of our data was siloed into manual processes that had performed exceptionally well for decades, positioning FIRCO LLC as one of the top players in our region. However, in my return, I saw the way the industry was moving to more efficient AI-enabled processes.”

As workforce and office locations continued to scale with new acquisitions — including two new extended stay properties — FIRCO needed one centralized location for staff to access tenant information on the fly and less time searching.

One platform to run it all

Blake led the transition to DoorLoop Premium, bringing the entire business into the one platform designed to handle their complexity without adding friction. 

That flexibility was key too. Instead of forcing their business into software built for a single use case, DoorLoop allowed them to run everything — from single-family homes to RV parks and condos — without needing multiple systems.

Core workflows were streamlined across the entire operation. Maintenance requests are now tracked and assigned. Rent collection moved online reducing manual work for staff. Plus, all tenant, lease, and financial data is now instantly accessible to Blake's team. 

“Everyone in our company now has access to information as soon as they need it — that’s huge."

From bottleneck to growth blueprint

It didn’t take long for them to see benefits across every part of the business. They began completing tenant requests in half the time. By adding online applications to the operation, FIRCO dramatically increased the volume of incoming applicants—and boosted its bottom line through application fees.

"Our DoorLoop subscription has paid for itself just with an increase in rental applications.”

The business is now set up to scale past their manual limitations. New properties and units can be added instantly, and workflows can expand alongside the portfolio. They even reduced their reliance on cash payments by 30%. For Blake, the biggest difference still comes down to clarity and control. 

“It’s the simplicity [DoorLoop gives] tenants to apply and pay their rent, and the accessibility it gives our team.”

In a sprawling owner-operated real estate business, that simplicity isn’t just convenient; it’s what makes hyper-scaled growth possible for FIRCO.