Is AI the New Frontier in Real Estate? A Deep Dive with Nate Tew

[00:00:00] Real Estate Property Investors. I have the opportunity today to interview Nate,

[00:00:04] to the CEO of KeyRentor Property Management, which is a national property management company

[00:00:09] with franchises all over the country. And Nate has a unique perspective on what's going

[00:00:14] on in the investment real estate space because he's got such a high level view with all

[00:00:21] of his franchisees and all their tenants nationally and all their business owners

[00:00:25] and property owners nationally. We have an in-depth discussion about what's going on now,

[00:00:30] what the future holds for investment real estate. And we spend a little time at the

[00:00:34] end really diving into AI and how AI, how they're using it to advance the property

[00:00:40] management business, how to deliver a better customer experience and what Nate thinks

[00:00:45] is the uses for AI and the future and how transformative it's going to be for investors.

[00:00:51] Stay tuned.

[00:00:54] Welcome to The Brick and Mortar Money Show, the podcast dedicated to helping business

[00:00:59] owners and professionals achieve wealth, autonomy and control through commercial property

[00:01:05] ownership. Join us as we unlock the power of real estate to transform your business

[00:01:10] and investment strategies. Whether you're seeking to expand, invest or gain more

[00:01:15] freedom in your entrepreneurial journey, this is your destination for insightful stories,

[00:01:22] expert advice and actionable strategies. Welcome.

[00:01:26] Hey, welcome listeners today. I have the distinct honor and privilege of having a

[00:01:32] return guest on the show today. Nate too has become a great friend. He's got a

[00:01:38] super successful business based out of Utah, one of my favorite places in the earth. Love

[00:01:43] to go ski out there. Key, the key renter franchise, key renter property management

[00:01:50] is the actual business. And they franchise that model. And I've got Nate to the CEO

[00:01:56] of that organization on. So Nate, welcome to the show today.

[00:02:00] Paul, it's great to be here with you again. Appreciate you having me on.

[00:02:03] Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I know first time we spent some time together, we focused

[00:02:09] a little bit more on sort of your evolution and the idea of moving from a

[00:02:14] business to a franchise and then now franchising the model out and some of the

[00:02:18] thoughts and processes and successes there. And fast forward now, I'd really

[00:02:24] want to focus on sort of your key area of business expertise outside of growing

[00:02:30] businesses and franchises. And that is, you know, property management,

[00:02:35] investment, real estate. You know, we have a lot of listeners that are typical

[00:02:40] listeners, a business owner or like a high performing professional that's

[00:02:44] spinning off cash and they're looking to invest it in real estate. And they're

[00:02:48] doing a lot of that. And so I want to, I want to hear from you, a guy who's

[00:02:53] not only on the leading edge, you're not just a property manager, but you

[00:02:58] have, you have property manager franchise owners throughout the nation

[00:03:03] that you get feedback and, you know, back and forth and information from.

[00:03:06] So you have a really unique perspective, I think, in the space. I really just

[00:03:10] kind of want to start out with that. And then hopefully if we have time, dive

[00:03:15] into, you know, the theme that everybody's talking about today is AI and

[00:03:19] how, how the AI magic silver bullet is impacting, you know, your business

[00:03:24] and the feedback you're getting. And if it truly is just, if you can just

[00:03:28] form the right prompt, you know, you sit back in the, and the money just

[00:03:32] rolls in or there's, there's more to it than, than maybe all the hype

[00:03:36] that's out there. So, so welcome today, Nate. And man, if you just want

[00:03:40] to kind of dump, jump into the rental market, what you're seeing, love to

[00:03:43] hear your perspective on that.

[00:03:46] Yeah, absolutely. And again, you know, it's great to be here and I hope

[00:03:50] that what I have to share adds some value to your listeners and, and

[00:03:54] certainly great to be on. And I, you know, when we think about, and

[00:03:58] we talk about the rental market today, it's, it's kind of a story

[00:04:02] that you got to go back right now about four years to really understand

[00:04:07] how we got today. And when we look back, you know, 2020, 2022, we saw just

[00:04:14] significant growth in both home and rent prices, right? There's a lot of

[00:04:19] demand almost, almost turned into some degree. I'm sure you saw this

[00:04:23] almost some panic and pandemonium in different parts of the country

[00:04:27] as they're looking to take advantage of low interest rates. And I think

[00:04:31] that the way that that impacted the rental market was also just a drive

[00:04:38] in demand overall, we've had a housing shortage for, for a long

[00:04:44] time, but through this period, in fact, in 2019, the, the shortage

[00:04:49] was estimated about 3.8 million homes today were closer to 6 million

[00:04:54] homes. So we've got demand there even still, but through this rent

[00:04:59] increase and price increase, we just saw just, man, just an interesting

[00:05:05] time in the market over the last, you know, again, more 2020 through

[00:05:09] 2022. But then things started to change, right? We started to see

[00:05:15] interest rates increasing, especially last year. And the impact that

[00:05:21] that's had on people's ability to afford homes to buy really changed.

[00:05:28] And and it started to make it so a lot of people that would have bought or

[00:05:32] wanted to buy, started shifting into choosing to rent or not being able

[00:05:38] to buy. There is some generational, I think, nuances to what's

[00:05:46] happening to right? I think there's a lot of people that are, you

[00:05:50] know, that necessarily they wouldn't necessarily be disqualified from

[00:05:55] buying, but they're choosing to rent because they've seen some of the

[00:05:59] challenges that people have faced through foreclosures and the, you

[00:06:03] know, 2009, 2010 timeframe, or even just the burden now that a lot

[00:06:09] of people are saying of homeownership having to deal with

[00:06:11] maintenance and all those sort of things. And it's kind of

[00:06:14] interesting, Paul, we have, we have residents that are renting

[00:06:19] homes from us in different parts of the country. They choose to

[00:06:23] rent, but they actually own rental properties themselves. And so

[00:06:26] they're kind of clients and renters, but they just say, you

[00:06:29] know what, we want the property manager to take care of our

[00:06:31] repairs. And then we just want our property manager on the other

[00:06:35] side to take care of repairs that, you know, the rents paying

[00:06:37] for kind of an interesting demographic and, and a scenario

[00:06:42] that we have happening right now. But as we fast forward to today,

[00:06:48] after a lot of markets through that timeframe experienced 10 to 30%

[00:06:54] rent increases annually today, that's slowing down a lot. And

[00:06:59] I think it's slowed down for a number of reasons. One, it's

[00:07:03] becoming a little bit more affordable for people to buy.

[00:07:06] It's becoming more of the new norm that interest rates are 6, 7%,

[00:07:12] you know, and today we are looking at the rates and

[00:07:14] they're about 6.8% for fixed rate mortgage in different parts.

[00:07:19] You may have some insight on that, I'm sure. But it's a

[00:07:25] little bit easier for people to, to, to stomach buying a

[00:07:30] house. And so we're seeing a surge in, in a rise and an

[00:07:34] increase in home sales. So that's helping to level things

[00:07:39] out a little bit more. Also, a lot of people are moving

[00:07:41] out of more of the metro areas into suburbs. And so we're

[00:07:45] seeing apartment values really taking, I wouldn't say it died,

[00:07:50] but they're softening a lot faster than they are in

[00:07:54] single family homes. We're seeing that some areas that

[00:07:58] really increase quickly in 2021, 2022 are starting to,

[00:08:05] the rents are starting to go down. For example, Austin,

[00:08:08] Chicago, Denver, Miami, some of these areas where rents really

[00:08:13] increased a lot. And we actually called that increase. It's

[00:08:17] kind of, we call it the rent premium timeframe, you know,

[00:08:20] that 2021 through early 2023, you know, people are getting,

[00:08:26] these investors were getting a rent premium and, and

[00:08:28] unfortunately, a lot of them thought that that was the new

[00:08:30] normal that they'd be getting these high rent renewal rates,

[00:08:35] but it just wasn't the case. And so now we're getting back to

[00:08:38] more reality where rents are starting to go down in these

[00:08:42] areas. And we have to be on the forefront with our clients

[00:08:45] and investors, helping them understand that you know what,

[00:08:49] this, this was a bonus. And now we got to get them back

[00:08:53] down to where we can, we can have days on market still

[00:08:57] stayed at a reasonable level. A lot of, a lot of renters

[00:09:00] are saying, you know, they're putting their hands up

[00:09:02] in the air saying, you know, we're done with these sort

[00:09:05] of rent increases. And so they're choosing not to rent.

[00:09:08] And so we're seeing days on market increase, which is

[00:09:11] forcing rents down in some of these areas. But the

[00:09:14] interesting thing too, Paul, is that the softening in the

[00:09:19] decline and multifamily is just far outpacing single

[00:09:25] family in our business. We focus on single family

[00:09:27] rentals, you know, one interesting kind of thing

[00:09:30] there's, there's about 80 million single family homes,

[00:09:35] you know, owner occupied, renter occupied in the

[00:09:38] country. About 28 million of those are rentals. 91%

[00:09:44] of those rentals are, are owned by individuals. Okay,

[00:09:49] just people like you and me, simple LLCs. These are

[00:09:53] not the large corporations, conglomerates, ticks that

[00:09:57] are owning these, these rentals 91%. When we think

[00:10:02] about these rentals, so we choose to focus on that what

[00:10:05] we call the big blue ocean, single family rentals and

[00:10:09] the rental rates for single family continues to be strong

[00:10:13] and actually increasing overall. But it's more

[00:10:17] normal sort of increase in rents that we're seeing

[00:10:20] nationwide more like two and a half to 5% in most areas

[00:10:24] over the last 18 months, rather than, you know, again,

[00:10:27] five to 35 and in a lot of areas. And so we're seeing

[00:10:33] that single family rentals is strong, our investors are

[00:10:36] loving it. I think that they're they're validated

[00:10:40] from for choosing single family for the most part

[00:10:43] over over multifamily. And it's a great time to buy

[00:10:48] because you know, again, there's more homes going on

[00:10:51] the market, we're seeing a little bit more supply than

[00:10:53] we were in the past. And we're seeing that rates are

[00:10:56] a little bit more reasonable and a lot of people that

[00:10:58] are selling or able to sell with an a loan that

[00:11:05] can be assumed at a low rate. So we're seeing that

[00:11:09] some of those are being assumed. But then also

[00:11:12] we're having a lot of people that are converting

[00:11:14] their homes into rentals that normally would have

[00:11:16] been sold just because they got their their money

[00:11:19] into you know, they got their equity really high

[00:11:22] from the increases over the last few years. And

[00:11:25] they want to keep that low interest rate and so a

[00:11:27] lot more inventory coming in a lot more renter

[00:11:30] demand from what's been happening. And it's an

[00:11:33] interesting time. I'll I'll keep it there. See if

[00:11:35] you have any follow up questions for me.

[00:11:38] Yeah, well, I mean, it's it's it's not

[00:11:41] completely surprising, right? That the these

[00:11:44] these big metro areas that like Austin, Chicago,

[00:11:49] Denver, Miami, you talk about Phoenix is probably

[00:11:51] another one that that just I mean, they just ride

[00:11:54] this roller coaster. And it seems like not only

[00:11:57] rental rates, but you know, housing values and

[00:12:00] things like that. I mean, they're they're the

[00:12:01] first ones to, you know, jump for joy when

[00:12:05] the markets are going up. But they're the first

[00:12:07] ones to, you know, be all depressed when it

[00:12:10] turns the other way because the swings are so

[00:12:11] wide in those areas and pretty unrealistic.

[00:12:15] Someone someone said, there's there's a guy. I

[00:12:20] think his name is Jason Hartman. He's a big

[00:12:22] advocate for buying rentals. And he calls it

[00:12:26] the I think it's I'm paraphrasing. It's the

[00:12:30] sort of the boring everywhere else the the

[00:12:33] rest of the boring country where it doesn't

[00:12:36] it doesn't go too high or too low. It's just

[00:12:38] kind of steady steady growth and it's kind of

[00:12:41] nice. It's kind of nice though since we went

[00:12:43] through that that ride of the early, you know,

[00:12:47] 2020 21 to 22. And then sort of a regression

[00:12:51] back to the mean and some normalcy here

[00:12:53] because I think 23 seemed like it was a

[00:12:55] little crazy still people adjusting. You know,

[00:12:59] it sounds like to me what you're telling me

[00:13:00] is that people have sort of adjusted to the

[00:13:04] fact that okay, we might buy if it makes

[00:13:08] sense because rates aren't there. They're more

[00:13:10] normal than they you know, last two or three

[00:13:14] years wasn't normal, you know, 23% wasn't

[00:13:16] normal. But 67% is kind of the expect you

[00:13:19] know expectation. What I want to talk about

[00:13:22] as we alluded to a little bit in the

[00:13:23] opening is the idea of technology and AI and

[00:13:28] how how AI is you know, the buzzword

[00:13:31] everywhere obviously the magic bullet and you

[00:13:34] know, we you and I both around the block

[00:13:36] long enough in business to know that there

[00:13:37] is no one single magic bullet in business,

[00:13:40] right? And so a lot of a lot of hype out

[00:13:43] there. A lot a lot of 22 year olds that

[00:13:46] are promoting you know how to get rich quick

[00:13:48] and make millions with AI that still live

[00:13:50] in mom and dad's basement. So what I want

[00:13:53] to know is from you in your unique

[00:13:57] perspective, how is or how do you think

[00:14:00] AI is going to impact the property management

[00:14:04] world, the investor world and then as

[00:14:09] specific as you'd like to get how how are

[00:14:12] you guys approaching AI and maybe using

[00:14:15] it or strategizing around it to advance

[00:14:19] your business?

[00:14:21] Yeah, fun topic. And I think it's

[00:14:23] interesting, Paul, like you said,

[00:14:24] buzzword. I mean, it seems like every

[00:14:26] conference I've been going to, you

[00:14:29] know, whether it's a franchise focus

[00:14:30] conference or industry real estate,

[00:14:33] there's always one or two sessions on AI

[00:14:35] and there's always some expert or

[00:14:37] there's a panel of people talking about.

[00:14:40] And and they're always the most

[00:14:42] packed sessions, right? And I think

[00:14:45] it's because people we want to solve

[00:14:49] problems that we have in our

[00:14:51] businesses. We want to have we want

[00:14:52] to solve problems for people faster,

[00:14:55] easier. We want time. And I think I

[00:14:59] think when we think about implementing

[00:15:03] and using AI in our businesses or in

[00:15:05] our lives, even we do need to focus

[00:15:08] on the problems. What are we trying

[00:15:09] to solve? Because I think sometimes

[00:15:11] there's there's too much emphasis on

[00:15:15] just doing it to do it and have AI

[00:15:17] and try to use it for whatever,

[00:15:20] whatever we can. But we got to

[00:15:22] remember why we're using it and what

[00:15:25] we're really trying to solve with it.

[00:15:27] And sometimes it does make sense to

[00:15:30] have some experts, you know,

[00:15:33] help us identify some some things

[00:15:36] that could solve for us because we

[00:15:37] may not even know. Right.

[00:15:39] So I've learned a lot by going

[00:15:41] and attending some of those

[00:15:42] sessions and just things I just

[00:15:43] never even thought we could use

[00:15:46] AI for. We can.

[00:15:47] The other thing I want to mention

[00:15:48] is that I really feel like

[00:15:52] this period of time right now

[00:15:54] is the quiet before the storm

[00:15:57] in AI. I think that there's

[00:16:00] since the release and launch of

[00:16:02] OpenAI, chat, GPT, some of these

[00:16:05] systems that have come out just

[00:16:06] over the last 12, 18 months.

[00:16:09] I think there's a lot of

[00:16:11] tech companies and groups that are

[00:16:14] they're developing right now

[00:16:16] and they're just waiting to

[00:16:17] launch. We're starting to see some

[00:16:18] launch in different things.

[00:16:20] I mean, I mean, you know,

[00:16:22] discord mid journey, some of those

[00:16:25] platforms, even some video AI

[00:16:27] platforms are starting to get

[00:16:28] released. But I think there's

[00:16:30] some significant

[00:16:34] innovations and

[00:16:37] new new business

[00:16:40] ways of ways of living, ways of

[00:16:42] ways of thinking, ways of

[00:16:44] approaching life and business.

[00:16:46] And that will be coming out of

[00:16:48] this over the next, I don't

[00:16:50] know, 12, 24,

[00:16:52] you know, 48 months.

[00:16:54] Give it, you know, next several

[00:16:55] years. It'll be really exciting

[00:16:58] to see what we can do and

[00:17:00] what we're able to accomplish

[00:17:02] with with AI.

[00:17:04] Of course, I was even at a

[00:17:07] roundtable a couple of months

[00:17:08] ago at one of our conferences

[00:17:10] where we had

[00:17:13] one of the there was about

[00:17:15] seven or eight of us. And one

[00:17:17] of the guys was a tech guy

[00:17:19] and and he's kind of a

[00:17:20] skeptic and he's he's

[00:17:22] a little bit of a doomsdayer.

[00:17:24] And and I think he

[00:17:26] has some valid points just in

[00:17:27] terms of how far

[00:17:29] are we going to take AI?

[00:17:31] Is it going to become

[00:17:33] one of these, you

[00:17:35] know, self-learning models that

[00:17:37] realizes they don't need humans?

[00:17:40] I I have a hard time seeing

[00:17:42] that. But gosh,

[00:17:44] if we continue down this path

[00:17:46] and we don't have safeguards

[00:17:47] and things like that,

[00:17:49] it'll be interesting, is all

[00:17:50] I'm saying. I I'm not saying

[00:17:52] that to try to

[00:17:54] spread doomsday or philosophy.

[00:17:56] It's just it's a fun time

[00:17:58] in business. It's a fun time

[00:17:59] in life. And we've got

[00:18:01] to be smart about it.

[00:18:02] We've got to think about the

[00:18:04] problems that we're trying to

[00:18:05] solve. And so that's what

[00:18:06] I've done with our team

[00:18:08] and our franchisees.

[00:18:09] We've tried to look and

[00:18:10] identify what are some

[00:18:12] of the main pain points that

[00:18:13] we have?

[00:18:15] One of those is time, right?

[00:18:17] We want to accomplish more

[00:18:18] with less.

[00:18:20] And so we have used and we've

[00:18:21] implemented into

[00:18:24] our SOPs, into our standard

[00:18:26] processes, some elements

[00:18:28] of open AI and chat

[00:18:30] GPT. We also use it for

[00:18:32] data analysis.

[00:18:35] It's one thing that we've

[00:18:36] really enjoyed with chat

[00:18:38] GPT 4.0 is being

[00:18:40] able to have

[00:18:43] it evaluate and

[00:18:45] analyze spreadsheets for us

[00:18:46] and tell us what are the

[00:18:48] trends here? What should I be

[00:18:49] looking for? What does this

[00:18:50] mean?

[00:18:51] It's amazing how intuitive it

[00:18:53] can give insight to

[00:18:54] different things as well as

[00:18:56] reading PDFs.

[00:18:57] You know, we have is a

[00:18:59] franchise and FDD franchise

[00:19:01] agreements and their long

[00:19:02] lengthy documents that you

[00:19:03] can have it, you know,

[00:19:05] go through and point out

[00:19:06] some things or hey, where's

[00:19:08] this found or what?

[00:19:09] What do I need to, you

[00:19:10] know, find some of the

[00:19:13] the inconsistencies and it

[00:19:14] will do a lot of those

[00:19:15] sort of things that normally

[00:19:16] would take hours of

[00:19:20] you know, labor time to go

[00:19:22] through and do those

[00:19:23] sort of things.

[00:19:25] Of course, there's image

[00:19:28] creation through Dolly with

[00:19:30] which is a plug in for

[00:19:32] chat GPT and Discord

[00:19:33] can do really impressive

[00:19:36] images that for

[00:19:38] those that are, you know,

[00:19:39] launching ad campaigns

[00:19:41] and you want to have

[00:19:42] copyright free images

[00:19:44] that look and you got to

[00:19:46] be you got to know how to

[00:19:47] use it too, right?

[00:19:48] You've got to be able to

[00:19:49] put in the right prompts

[00:19:50] such as photo realistic,

[00:19:53] you know, images, you

[00:19:55] know, 4K use some of these

[00:19:56] terminology to give it

[00:19:57] the right inputs to

[00:19:59] give you the right output.

[00:20:01] But those sort of things

[00:20:02] our marketing teams are

[00:20:02] using to create

[00:20:04] content, you know,

[00:20:06] written professional

[00:20:08] writing that normally

[00:20:10] you'd have an ad agency

[00:20:11] right for you can be

[00:20:13] done through these systems.

[00:20:15] And as long as you're

[00:20:16] giving it the right inputs

[00:20:17] and give you incredible

[00:20:19] outputs, we also use it

[00:20:22] on the customer facing side.

[00:20:25] So the other thing that

[00:20:26] I think is a has been

[00:20:27] a problem for us

[00:20:29] that we've been trying

[00:20:30] to solve through AI

[00:20:32] is giving information

[00:20:34] to the right people quickly.

[00:20:37] So we think about

[00:20:39] our customers

[00:20:40] and our clients that are

[00:20:42] that are wanting information.

[00:20:43] We talk about the public.

[00:20:45] We talk about franchise

[00:20:47] owners and talking

[00:20:48] about team members.

[00:20:49] They all need information,

[00:20:50] for example, how do I do this?

[00:20:53] You know, a franchise owner

[00:20:55] might, you know,

[00:20:56] how do I handle this situation?

[00:20:59] Well, we've got SOPs,

[00:21:01] we've got manuals,

[00:21:02] we've got this sort of stuff.

[00:21:04] But one things

[00:21:05] were one of the things

[00:21:06] we're working on is

[00:21:06] getting that all into

[00:21:08] a database that can be

[00:21:10] used by AI to find

[00:21:14] those sort of solutions

[00:21:16] or areas of handbooks

[00:21:18] and manuals and provide it

[00:21:19] instantly with relevant videos,

[00:21:22] with relevant links

[00:21:24] to team members,

[00:21:25] to franchise owners.

[00:21:26] We're not quite there yet,

[00:21:28] but it's something

[00:21:28] that we're working on.

[00:21:30] Now, on our our websites,

[00:21:32] customer facing websites,

[00:21:33] we have our chat bot

[00:21:36] that's actually dialed in

[00:21:38] with OpenAI.

[00:21:40] And so when someone's

[00:21:41] chatting there,

[00:21:41] they can ask any question

[00:21:43] relevant to our websites

[00:21:45] and the content.

[00:21:46] And we have some guardrails

[00:21:48] that it knows the brand,

[00:21:50] it knows the website,

[00:21:51] it knows the information

[00:21:53] it can it can answer questions on

[00:21:56] and will give pricing.

[00:21:57] It will schedule appointments

[00:21:59] that will do all these things

[00:22:01] when people want it right.

[00:22:02] They want to know

[00:22:04] how much can my house rent for?

[00:22:06] Well, they can ask that

[00:22:07] right on our website

[00:22:09] and it will give them rent quotes.

[00:22:11] We'll give them highs

[00:22:12] and lows and averages

[00:22:13] and comps and those sort of things

[00:22:15] that people don't want

[00:22:16] to have to wait, you know,

[00:22:18] 24, 48 hours for someone

[00:22:20] to get back to them.

[00:22:22] They want it then

[00:22:22] they're thinking about it.

[00:22:23] And that's sort of

[00:22:25] giving people information now.

[00:22:27] That's that's check in boxes

[00:22:29] for them that hopefully.

[00:22:31] You know, will will turn them

[00:22:33] into an engaged client, right?

[00:22:37] And someone that says,

[00:22:39] OK, this is this is really cool.

[00:22:41] Let me continue forward

[00:22:42] and have those conversations.

[00:22:43] And we're seeing those kind of results.

[00:22:45] So I think getting information.

[00:22:50] Now in a now

[00:22:52] based society that we live in

[00:22:55] is something that I can do for us

[00:22:57] because usually it takes

[00:22:59] a long time to find information,

[00:23:02] wait for people to connect

[00:23:04] and all that sort of thing.

[00:23:04] We can skip past

[00:23:07] all of that with the eye,

[00:23:07] which is really exciting.

[00:23:10] That that is fascinating

[00:23:11] and those examples.

[00:23:14] I love your perspective on

[00:23:17] being very specific on what

[00:23:19] what are our pain points right now?

[00:23:22] I mean, where are we struggling

[00:23:23] instead of trying to like

[00:23:24] throw AI at the wall

[00:23:26] and see what sticks it's like,

[00:23:28] OK, we've got we struggle.

[00:23:31] Here's our constraints X, Y and Z.

[00:23:33] We look at, you know,

[00:23:34] consistent issues

[00:23:35] that keep coming up, right?

[00:23:37] And how can we how can we use this tool,

[00:23:39] which I agree is can be magnificent

[00:23:42] if it's deployed correctly

[00:23:44] to solve some of the things.

[00:23:45] So so here's a question for you.

[00:23:47] If if if you can,

[00:23:50] if you can use AI effectively

[00:23:52] to sort of grease those wheels

[00:23:54] and improve your efficiency

[00:23:56] and the customer experience

[00:23:57] in this case with website

[00:23:59] because gosh,

[00:23:59] who wouldn't want to go

[00:24:00] on a Sunday afternoon

[00:24:01] and plug in how much my house is going to

[00:24:03] could have rent for

[00:24:05] and know instead of having to wait

[00:24:07] till Monday, you know,

[00:24:07] for that information.

[00:24:09] And it's amazing.

[00:24:09] But but what what

[00:24:11] from a business standpoint?

[00:24:14] What won't what don't

[00:24:15] you think it'll do?

[00:24:16] I mean, what are the limitations

[00:24:18] in terms of

[00:24:20] because we add value, right?

[00:24:22] I'm I'm I'm not one of those.

[00:24:24] I'm not one of those doomsdayers

[00:24:26] that thinks it's going

[00:24:27] to take over the world

[00:24:28] because I think, you know,

[00:24:30] we're given out,

[00:24:31] we're given a spirit

[00:24:32] and a soul that has creativity.

[00:24:35] And I'm not saying that AI

[00:24:37] can't develop creativity,

[00:24:38] can't learn,

[00:24:39] but not to the level

[00:24:40] that we have as humans.

[00:24:41] So what what is the

[00:24:43] what is the piece that

[00:24:45] that that it's going

[00:24:47] to become more important?

[00:24:48] I think I guess I'll say

[00:24:49] as technology develops

[00:24:51] and automates

[00:24:52] and improves some of these

[00:24:54] some of the dumb things

[00:24:55] that we had to do before

[00:24:56] that were just, you know,

[00:24:58] you got to do right.

[00:24:59] But

[00:25:00] yeah, that's the what's exactly

[00:25:02] where are we going to go?

[00:25:03] What's left for us, right?

[00:25:04] How can we take advantage of this

[00:25:06] and capitalize on it?

[00:25:09] Well, you know,

[00:25:10] one of the things that we're

[00:25:12] we're seeing is that

[00:25:15] you know, even our even

[00:25:16] our property management software

[00:25:18] is they're starting to

[00:25:20] to layer in more AI

[00:25:22] to help make it easier

[00:25:23] for the person on the other end

[00:25:25] to see and get the information

[00:25:28] even like our tenants

[00:25:30] that submit work orders online

[00:25:31] if they have a repair they need.

[00:25:33] They'll submit that

[00:25:35] and the AI will instantly

[00:25:36] give recommendations of,

[00:25:38] hey, did you already try,

[00:25:40] you know, flipping the switch here,

[00:25:42] turning off the breaker

[00:25:43] or changing the batteries

[00:25:45] in the thermostat?

[00:25:46] You know, so AI is helping to,

[00:25:49] you know, reduce the

[00:25:50] the amount of interaction

[00:25:52] and time required.

[00:25:54] But I think that there's still

[00:25:56] from a consumer standpoint

[00:25:58] for normal people

[00:25:59] and business owners like us,

[00:26:01] you've got to have a person

[00:26:02] that's putting in the inputs

[00:26:05] into the AI,

[00:26:07] you know, generative AI system.

[00:26:09] Now, you can create integrations

[00:26:11] that the input into this system

[00:26:13] will come from this software

[00:26:15] when this is when

[00:26:16] when this triggers it.

[00:26:18] But there's still someone

[00:26:19] that needs to be monitoring it,

[00:26:21] overseeing it.

[00:26:23] But the big thing is like people

[00:26:26] people want to work with people, right?

[00:26:28] And in property management,

[00:26:30] our business and real estate businesses,

[00:26:33] it's a relationship driven business.

[00:26:36] Now we can leverage AI

[00:26:39] to make our jobs easier

[00:26:42] to make it so we don't have

[00:26:43] to spend two hours

[00:26:44] doing something that now

[00:26:45] we can do in 30 seconds.

[00:26:49] But at the end of the day,

[00:26:51] we're you know, in fact,

[00:26:52] there are companies in our industry

[00:26:54] that are centralizing

[00:26:55] more of their operations.

[00:26:57] They're automating

[00:26:57] more of their operations

[00:26:59] and they're struggling

[00:27:00] to retain clients

[00:27:01] because they're

[00:27:02] they're getting rid of people

[00:27:04] and and the investors,

[00:27:06] the owners want to be

[00:27:07] working with people

[00:27:08] to a large degree

[00:27:10] when it comes to important investments

[00:27:13] and important advice

[00:27:14] they're trying to to get.

[00:27:16] And I think that's something that

[00:27:18] will never be replaced.

[00:27:20] Now, I say never, but

[00:27:22] I mean, you think about

[00:27:24] you know what

[00:27:25] Elon Musk is doing with AI

[00:27:26] and what even Tesla

[00:27:28] and self automating cars,

[00:27:30] self driving cars

[00:27:32] and those things

[00:27:33] that really don't need people.

[00:27:35] In fact, I I saw my first

[00:27:37] I don't know if you've seen this, Paul,

[00:27:38] but in Phoenix,

[00:27:40] they have kind of like an Uber.

[00:27:42] It's a taxi system

[00:27:44] and there's no driver in the car.

[00:27:45] Have you seen that?

[00:27:47] No, I have not.

[00:27:48] There's no

[00:27:50] driver in the car.

[00:27:51] So you you order

[00:27:53] your taxi right on your phone.

[00:27:55] The car pulls up,

[00:27:57] it's got 100 cameras

[00:27:58] all around it, right?

[00:27:59] For spatial awareness

[00:28:01] and everything like that.

[00:28:02] And you get in the backseat,

[00:28:04] there's no person driving the car

[00:28:07] and they are

[00:28:09] they are accurate.

[00:28:11] They are safe.

[00:28:13] You know,

[00:28:14] it's an incredible experience

[00:28:17] and they're not allowed

[00:28:19] on the freeways yet.

[00:28:21] You know, that's something that

[00:28:22] you know, the city is

[00:28:24] is not allowing at this point.

[00:28:26] But you think about the future

[00:28:27] and where we could go with that, right?

[00:28:30] So if there can be self driving cars

[00:28:33] that remove the requirement

[00:28:35] for a human being

[00:28:37] to be in the car driving it,

[00:28:39] then what else could we do right?

[00:28:42] Or is there going to be

[00:28:43] self cleaning homes?

[00:28:45] Is there going to be,

[00:28:46] you know, lawnmowers?

[00:28:47] In fact, I've already seen some of this

[00:28:49] where the lawnmower,

[00:28:51] kind of like a Roomba vacuum,

[00:28:52] will just start mowing your grass.

[00:28:54] Right? Yeah.

[00:28:55] But at the end of the day,

[00:28:57] there's people that are

[00:28:58] pointing those in the right direction

[00:29:01] and they're leveraging that

[00:29:03] to save them time

[00:29:04] or make things easier for them.

[00:29:05] And I think people still

[00:29:07] will want to work with people

[00:29:08] when it comes to making

[00:29:09] business decisions

[00:29:11] and knowing that there is integrity

[00:29:13] and transparency

[00:29:15] that's backing

[00:29:17] that sort of technology.

[00:29:19] No, that's a good point.

[00:29:21] Integrity and there's somebody

[00:29:24] that you can look in the eyeballs on.

[00:29:26] I mean, we're not talking about

[00:29:27] buying a hamburger, right?

[00:29:28] We're talking about,

[00:29:30] you know, somebody to manage

[00:29:31] your investments

[00:29:32] and handle your clients.

[00:29:34] And, you know, this is

[00:29:35] this is much more important.

[00:29:37] I mean, I ranted,

[00:29:38] I don't know, a couple of weeks ago

[00:29:40] on about how,

[00:29:42] you know, when I go to the grocery store,

[00:29:44] I always want to go

[00:29:45] where there's somebody

[00:29:46] that's going to physically check me out.

[00:29:48] I really refuse to use the self-checkout,

[00:29:51] you know,

[00:29:52] because I want the human experience.

[00:29:54] And I just, you know,

[00:29:56] now I don't want to stand

[00:29:57] in a bunch of lines,

[00:29:58] but ironically,

[00:29:59] where I go,

[00:30:00] there's hardly ever any lines

[00:30:01] because all the everyone's

[00:30:03] gone to the self-checkout.

[00:30:04] And I and there's

[00:30:05] there's a young teenager

[00:30:07] standing behind the counter

[00:30:09] just on her phone.

[00:30:10] And so my wife

[00:30:11] and I'll roll over that line

[00:30:12] and we have some pleasant conversation.

[00:30:14] And, you know, it's like

[00:30:16] I love that.

[00:30:17] But so what?

[00:30:18] So I think that,

[00:30:20] I mean, along we're talking about

[00:30:22] by bringing in automation

[00:30:24] and eliminating

[00:30:27] a lot of the mundane

[00:30:28] and more mundane activities,

[00:30:30] maybe it maybe

[00:30:31] native, it's going to free us up

[00:30:33] to maybe not go down

[00:30:35] to 10 and 20 hour work weeks per se.

[00:30:37] But maybe it's going to

[00:30:38] allow us the opportunity to

[00:30:41] to do higher level tasks, right?

[00:30:43] To be more creative,

[00:30:44] to be more thinking,

[00:30:45] to be more

[00:30:46] you were created to be creative, right?

[00:30:48] And if you're

[00:30:49] I say this all the time, the business,

[00:30:50] if you're if you're in

[00:30:51] if you're in the business,

[00:30:53] you're not working on the business.

[00:30:54] And if you're in the business,

[00:30:55] yours operational.

[00:30:56] But if you're if

[00:30:57] but if you can work on the business

[00:30:59] now, you could do something great

[00:31:00] because you can grow this thing and

[00:31:02] and and a dream

[00:31:04] about where you want it to go

[00:31:05] and and whatnot.

[00:31:06] And so maybe it'll just unleash

[00:31:09] a whole new wave,

[00:31:10] maybe a renaissance, right?

[00:31:12] Of creativity for

[00:31:13] for people that choose to embrace it.

[00:31:16] Absolutely one.

[00:31:17] And I think it allows us

[00:31:19] to do some of the things

[00:31:22] that continue to move us forward

[00:31:24] and make progress where

[00:31:26] where oftentimes we wouldn't

[00:31:27] have the time, for example,

[00:31:29] you know, we're working on

[00:31:30] and building out in

[00:31:32] a lot of it is AI driven,

[00:31:34] you know, a system that finds

[00:31:36] and evaluates off market deals

[00:31:39] and properties for our investors

[00:31:40] and plugs it into a marketplace

[00:31:42] that investors can look at

[00:31:44] and they can start shopping

[00:31:45] for their properties within our system.

[00:31:48] Well, without the technology,

[00:31:50] without some of the AI

[00:31:52] that does a lot of the back end work,

[00:31:54] we wouldn't have this right.

[00:31:56] We'd be stuck.

[00:31:57] We you know, it would require people

[00:31:59] to do a lot of that work.

[00:32:01] And and because of it

[00:32:02] being so cost prohibitive,

[00:32:04] we just wouldn't have a program like that.

[00:32:06] So it allows us to do more

[00:32:08] to solve other problems,

[00:32:10] which for us has been door acquisition,

[00:32:12] you know, growing portfolios for people.

[00:32:15] Right? We want to solve for that.

[00:32:17] And so I think it allows us to think

[00:32:19] bigger and different

[00:32:21] and higher levels, you said, Paul.

[00:32:24] Yeah, yeah, well, that's exciting.

[00:32:27] Well, Nate, this has been great, man.

[00:32:28] I know I've I've

[00:32:30] cornered your time

[00:32:32] quite a bit today.

[00:32:33] I know you've got other things

[00:32:34] on the agenda than

[00:32:35] than sharing your wisdom experiences.

[00:32:37] But I think this is truly

[00:32:38] helpful just to perspective

[00:32:39] what's going on in that space,

[00:32:42] how AI how you guys are using AI

[00:32:44] and sort of the future.

[00:32:45] And I think it sounds like to me

[00:32:47] that you're pretty optimistic

[00:32:48] about where things are

[00:32:49] and where we're going

[00:32:50] in the opportunity ahead.

[00:32:53] It's a good time to be alive, Paul.

[00:32:55] I think, you know, there's

[00:32:57] there's a lot of opportunity

[00:32:58] around us in our industry

[00:33:00] and real estate.

[00:33:01] There's good things happening.

[00:33:03] Property management rent

[00:33:04] owning rentals has always been

[00:33:06] tried and true.

[00:33:07] And property management

[00:33:08] is not business that just focuses on

[00:33:11] on a need, right?

[00:33:13] Which is second to water, air, food.

[00:33:17] People need to have a place to live.

[00:33:19] And I think real estate

[00:33:20] is just a wonderful place

[00:33:21] to invest and have a business based on.

[00:33:25] And so the future is bright.

[00:33:27] It'll be interesting

[00:33:28] to take a ride with you someday

[00:33:30] in a self-driving car.

[00:33:31] Paul, I have to do that.

[00:33:33] And I really enjoyed

[00:33:34] being with you today.

[00:33:35] Appreciate you having me on.

[00:33:36] Yeah, absolutely, Nate.

[00:33:38] Me too.

[00:33:39] Thanks for taking your time

[00:33:40] and sharing and

[00:33:43] having an amazing rest of your day today.

[00:33:45] Thank you.

[00:33:45] All right. You too, my friend.

[00:33:47] Hey, gang, just winded down here today.

[00:33:48] Thanks for listening to the show.

[00:33:50] And as always, if you need capital

[00:33:52] to grow your business,

[00:33:54] you're looking to purchase

[00:33:57] commercial real estate or build

[00:33:59] build a building or invest

[00:34:00] in commercial real estate

[00:34:01] or looking to to acquire a business

[00:34:03] or a competitor or just need

[00:34:05] growth capital.

[00:34:06] We'd love to talk to you.

[00:34:07] We fund businesses all day long.

[00:34:08] Our mission is to help

[00:34:10] entrepreneurs win and to fund

[00:34:12] their businesses and fund their dreams

[00:34:14] so that they can make an impact

[00:34:15] in their community.

[00:34:17] Reach out to me today.

[00:34:17] Go to our website, click the button

[00:34:19] to schedule a 20 minute conversation.

[00:34:21] Discovery call.

[00:34:22] We'll have a quick conversation.

[00:34:24] See if there's a need,

[00:34:24] see if there's a fit

[00:34:25] and we can take it from there.

[00:34:27] The website is VPC

[00:34:30] Victor Paul Charlie dot capital.

[00:34:34] That's VPC dot capital.

[00:34:37] All right.

[00:34:38] There's no dot com on that.

[00:34:39] It's VPC dot capital.

[00:34:41] As always, keep crushing it

[00:34:43] and hope to see you soon around here.

[00:34:45] Take care.