How Auben Realty Acquired an Atlanta Property Management Company

Speaker 1 (00:05): Welcome to Real Estate Rewind. I’m your host, Tyson Schutze. Today I am joined by Aaron Isley, who is in the studio with me today. Welcome, Aaron. Speaker 2 (00:14): Hey, Tyson. Thanks for having me today. I’m excited to be here. Speaker 1 (00:18): Thank you, Aaron, for being here. And I’m also joined by Royce Munn, who founded a property management company in Atlanta, Georgia called Peachtree. Royce has now relocated himself and his business activity to Jacksonville, Florida. But today we’re going to learn about what originally got Royce into real estate and property management, and ultimately why he decided that it made sense to sell his property management to Auburn Realty. So thank you for joining us today, Royce. Speaker 3 (00:50): Thank you, Tyson. Glad to be here. Speaker 1 (00:53): So Royce, in the pre-episode conversation, you were talking a little bit about your origins in North Georgia. So you were originally born and raised in North Georgia, and I believe went to school at the University of Georgia. Can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you ultimately decided to get into real estate? Speaker 3 (01:11): Yeah. So yeah, I went to Georgia. I transferred to Kennesaw State in Atlanta, played rugby there for a little while, and graduated with a finance degree in 2008. And everybody with a finance degree in 2008 after the crash, they were just running around trying to find a job. So it was really tough for me. I interviewed at a couple different places, nothing worked. So I ended up moving to Jacksonville, Florida, where we had some family down there. Started a couple small businesses in the real estate world, got my real estate license, then got my broker’s license. Didn’t do too much with the licensing. I had an inspections company. I had a 3D Matterport company where we were a service provider for Matterport, and just kind of got really exposed to the real estate world and kind of bouncing around a little bit with my ideas and my jobs. (02:07)And eventually my mother got diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. And my stepdad passed away. And so we had a house up in Canton, Georgia where I had to figure out something to do with it. And I didn’t really want to sell it because I’m trying to understand real estate. So I’m like, “All right, we can make this cash flow.” So I called to, I mean, I probably called the 10 to 15 different management companies and nobody wanted to meet me. Nobody had the time. I was single family property owner. And so just one property that they didn’t really want to waste their time with me. And Canton is still outside of Atlanta enough to where nobody really wants to drive. There wasn’t a lot going on. I was getting excuse after excuse of why they couldn’t meet me there at the property. So I got kind of tired of it. (02:54)And I told my wife, I said, “Hey, let’s just start a property management company in Georgia. I’ve got my Florida license so I can reciprocate to Georgia,” which was tough, but it’s a whole nother issue. And my first property was my mom. So we were managing it. We got a renter in there pretty quickly who was great. They actually eventually bought the house years later. And we were single family management. We had properties in Canton and Cumming in Atlanta. We were pretty spread out, but we were doing pretty good. And we eventually got in with an investor out of New Jersey who had, I think, a thousand properties in Atlanta, probably a couple thousand to 10,000 in New Jersey and Northeast. Speaker 1 (03:37): Wow. Speaker 3 (03:37): So they knew what they were doing. We negotiated the contract for about a year and they eventually gave us about 500 units. I flew up to New Jersey, talked to them. That was December. And they signed the contract on January 13th, which is when my son was born. I was in the delivery room. My wife was like, “What are you doing?” I’m like, “Just focus on you. I’m looking at this. I’m getting emails. I’m sending contracts.” And I had a lady that I was working with, and I called her. I said, “Hey, I know your background’s in multifamily. I need some help.This is going to happen tomorrow.” And she was like, “Done. I’ll help you out.” I was like, “Just go to the property. They’re sending their people in. I just need you to meet them and talk with them. The contract’s signed. We’re good. (04:23)We just got to show them that we can handle this.” The next day, I got a call from the security guard. And again, I’m brand new to multifamily. It’s Atlanta, so I’m pretty. I know Atlanta. The security guard tells me, “Hey, there’s about 15 blacked out SUVs lined up at the parking lot right now.” I was like, “Okay.” I said, “Here we go.” They said they have a warrant. They don’t even care. They’re just letting us know that they’re about to knock a door down and they’re going inside. Speaker 1 (04:52): Welcome to property management, right? Speaker 3 (04:54): Right. And so that was day two. And I’m still in the hospital with my son. So that was kind of the trajectory of property management and the stories that I have, they’re wild. But then property management, it’s tough. I found myself really working the day-to-day a lot more than I felt like I should be. If you’re not growing the business, you just kind of become your own employee. And the wear down, I mean, it’s been years since we started. We’ve gotten bigger, we’ve contracted, we’ve just kind of gone through all the different cycles. And eventually with the travel to Atlanta, just the dynamic of Atlanta politics and properties and code and everything, I was just kind of getting a little exhausted. Speaker 1 (05:46): It’s a lot. It’s easy to get exhausted, right? It is. Oh, absolutely. Especially, I think the part that nobody tells you is there’s these no man’s land in terms of your size where you can be big enough to be very profitable, but not completely big enough to bring in all the support and the resources and assistance you need. And it’s easy to be stuck in that phase for years. Absolutely. I can relate. Speaker 3 (06:14): Yeah. I mean, Speaker 1 (06:14): I didn’t Speaker 3 (06:15): Have HR. I didn’t have. I was Speaker 1 (06:17): Doing Speaker 3 (06:17): Payroll. I was doing HR. Speaker 1 (06:19): You’re the HR, you’re the payroll. Speaker 3 (06:20): I was everything. Correct. Because I just wasn’t quite big enough to really backfill those positions because I still was too much in the day-to-day. We weren’t expanding as quickly as I wanted to. (06:33)And I was really focused on the employees, making sure they had what they needed. They were getting to where they needed to go. And it’s a lot. So eventually I decided, hey, look, let’s just kind of look at the idea of selling the company. What is it worth? What is the process? I even got a certificate from Columbia University on M&A because I just kind of wanted to learn the background of it all as I went through the process. So kind of helping me. I mean, you have a business degree, you think you know everything about business and you don’t know anything about business. So I went through that and eventually I met Alex with Aubin and we had talked and I was kind of looking at some other companies and what they had to offer and what they wanted and what their projections and their future plans were for my clients, my tenants. (07:35)And that was very important because at the end of the day, I did build this and I don’t care about the name of it. I don’t care about any of that. I care about the people that I Speaker 1 (07:44): Employ, Speaker 3 (07:45): The tenants that have paid their money to live in the properties that I manage, making sure that I’ve gone through everything to make sure that they are secure, they’re safe, they’re happy. And just wanted to make sure that that was taken care of and handled. Everybody had a spot to go to. Speaker 1 (08:05): It’s interesting. You start in somewhat of a transactional relationship with these owners and residents, but they become like family. I mean, they’re investing their time, their resources, their money into the most important investment they have, both the residents and the owners of the properties. And you’re in the middle of both. Exactly. Which is tough. Which is no small feat, but it’s even as you have the struggles with the owners or tenants that have been less desirable, shall we say, you have these bonds with those ones that become so thick over time. And I completely can relate to those resident owners that feel like family at a certain point. And you get to that point where the concept of transferring or selling, you want to make sure that Susan is taken care of and Bob’s family’s properties are going to be okay. Speaker 3 (09:13): Right. It gets really scary because you’ve put in a lot of time and effort and you have to get to the owners and they need to trust your decision making as well. Sure. (09:22)So you’ve trusted me with your property and everything up to this point. Now trust me in handing this off to somebody who’s going to help you grow and get to where you want to go. Because to be honest with you, when I first started, I get these properties in Atlanta and I come in and I’m like, “All right, I’m going to change the properties. I’m going to change South Atlanta. I’m going to change poverty. I’m going to do all these things because I got the opportunity. I’m going to do it.” And you kind of get to the point where like, “All right, you aren’t really going to change the economics of the area. You’re not going to change the politics of the area. Let’s change the daily lives of the tenants. Let’s make sure that they’re happy because we’re a steward of the buildings really at this point. (10:13)The properties were built in the ’70s. They’ve gone through the ups and downs of everything else, all of Atlanta and the south side especially. So you’re not going to change the macroeconomics of the areas, (10:25)But you can really change the lives and the people while you’re there, while you’re on property. So let’s make the best of that. Because at the end of the day, these properties are going to go to somebody else, whether it’s management, whether it’s ownership, because they’re going to outlast all of us. And it’s just making sure you’re doing the best you can with that while you have it and making sure the owners understand that, hey, we’re not slumlords. We really want to take care of this. We really want to make it better for everybody. I know you guys do too. Let’s find the budget. Let’s find the money and let’s make this work. Speaker 1 (11:00): It’s a very. I’m sorry to interrupt there. That’s very aligned with Auburn and some of the parallels of our background are incredible, but we have a model of improving people, property and places, which is just based on what you. It’s our mission. It’s more than a model. It’s our mission as to why we exist is ensuring that the residences that we provide are a home and are interwoven into the community. That sounds like that was in your business plan from day one. Speaker 3 (11:33): Yep. And I met with Alex, met with Dawn, and the conversations were like that. I felt like I could trust both of them to facilitate the transaction, to introduce them to the owners. I wasn’t worried that there’d be any sort of dynamic conflict. I felt like if the owners have trusted me this long, they would trust me in my decision to, “Hey, look, I’m going to hand this off to Aubin. They can carry it further than I can by myself.” Yes, they’re a little bit of a bigger company and unit, but they’re still the mom and pop feel, the personal touch of, “Hey, pick up the phone. We’ll talk to you. We’ll figure out this problem.” Or, “Hey, shoot me an email. I’m going to get you an answer as quickly as I can.” Because they’re used to that. For the longest time, my owners, all the different ones that I have, they can just call me or they can text me. (12:24)And that’s good on paperwork. And Speaker 1 (12:26): They’ll call and they will text, right? Speaker 3 (12:28): Yeah. Some owners in the past, I had to kind of look, “Hey, I need you to just email me right now because you’re calling me and I can’t answer it, but I’ll get to you.” Speaker 1 (12:39): They condition us and we can try to condition them, right? Correct. (12:44)I had those owners that the cell phone is over and over again. I was like, “I’m always willing and available to talk, but the more time that I’m talking to you, the less time I’m able to execute on the objectives that you’ve assigned me to do for the property.” I think one of the things, Royce, and I want to hear the other parts of the story, but I think one of the things that’s very interesting about your journey is, and I’ve been fortunate enough to talk to a number of people that have started around when you did, and I started around when you did. I started flipping homes in 2006 and then ended up with a handful of homes that I couldn’t sell and was trying to lease out. And I had communicated with basically every brokerage in town about managing them. And they only wanted to manage the home long enough to turn it into a sales listing. (13:41)The concept of, like you said earlier, “Hey, I want this thing to cash flow. I want this to be an investment.” It was like that was the speaking Greek to these other brokerages that I talked to. They would only look at it as, “Well, we’re just going to manage it long enough to sell it.” I was like, (14:03)”Well, I’m open to selling it, but I also believe it’s an intentional investment property and I want to hold onto it.” So it’s fascinating though, how many people I’ve talked to around the country that started around that time with just a handful of properties or their properties or their relative’s properties. And I guess you have to be a wired a certain way to say, “Hey, why don’t I just go ahead and start this or try this?” Speaker 3 (14:32): Right. And it’s Speaker 1 (14:33): A different way. Sounds like that’s how you’re wired. Speaker 3 (14:36): Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think the status quo is always the problem. You have to be the one thinking outside the box of different asset classes, different cashflow ideas, whatever it may be. You can’t just kind of go with like, “Hey, this is an easy path. Let’s do it.” When I was getting my broker’s license in 2009, 2010, there was basically nobody in my class. And the guy was telling me that, “Hey, 2006 and seven, this class was full. There’s a hundred people in there getting their broker’s license.” And I was like, “Yeah, these cycles kind of weed out a lot of different players in the game. And it’s kind of like the people that are left after the factor really know what they’re doing, really kind of looking outside, different ideas.” And so I felt like that was kind of a good timing kind of on the other end of the crash as kind of the next wave came back Speaker 1 (15:31): Up. Speaker 3 (15:32): But it just required people of thinking differently because if you’re all doing the same thing and nobody’s really out there kind of blazing a trail, then it’s eventually going to catch up and everybody’s just going to go back down. Speaker 1 (15:45): Yeah. It’s a great time. Gain market share though. 100%. Like you communicated is we had our most initial dynamic growth in 2010, 11, 12 when the market was awful for traditional home sales. But it was great for investors looking to build and expand their portfolio. So they get a Speaker 3 (16:09): Similar Speaker 1 (16:09): Background. Speaker 3 (16:10): And even right now, if you’re buying cash, there’s definitely tons of deals out there right now. As long as you’re not financing it, I mean, you’re going to find a lot of different good deals out there. Speaker 1 (16:20): Yeah. I recently spoke at a NARPAM conference, the National Association of Residential Property Managers. And part of what I was speaking on was the market cycles. Like you were referencing earlier, how there’s a predictable pattern up and down. And I said, look, it’s a buyer’s market right now in most of the markets. If you’re discerning in terms of what you’re looking for, it’s a great time to buy. It’s an absolutely fantastic time to buy. So you made this move from single family into multifamily really quick into – Speaker 3 (16:52): Overnight. Speaker 1 (16:57): Again, there’s some parallels to that. My initial moves weren’t as dramatic to yours. I went from five to 50 homes. I didn’t go from 50 to 500. Talk to me about what that was like going from 50 to 500 overnight with a small staff. I mean, how did you figure out how to execute on those properties and be able to operate at that? But how did you also convince these owners to trust and earn their trust through that at this point? Speaker 3 (17:35): I used AppFolio, not a shout out to them, but I mean, that saved me overnight. I had always used it with single family and we kind of made it into a multifamily application. But I mean, that was honestly what kept us alive. (17:52)Callie was my accountant/operations/maintenance. I mean, so I’ve known her for a long time. And I called her up one day because I knew she had just left another property management company. I said, “Hey, look, are you looking for some contract work?” She’s like, “Yeah, I could do some stuff.” So she was kind of helping me with the single family aspect and run it through the accounts and the reports and everything. And I called her when I was up in New Jersey and I said, “Hey, I need you full-time. It’s probably going to be 60, 70 hours a week and you start tomorrow.” And she said, “I’m in.” And so she and I basically built this whole thing out. When the investors got it, we didn’t have a lot of information. There wasn’t a lot of leases and ledgers and it wasn’t very clean. And we put it all together very, very quickly. (18:45)We had the property manager on site. We got some maintenance guys to come in and really just kind of worked it from the ground up. And that was how I really learned multifamily management. Speaker 1 (18:58): An incredible way to learn the business. I had similar stories with the single family, but I love how you also said Callie was accountant/maintenance/operations. It’s like there’s a slash behind everybody. For everything. Speaker 3 (19:15): Absolutely. And when I was on property, I would help the guys picking up trash because I wanted everybody to know, look, there’s no job that I’m going to ask you to do that I won’t do myself. I’m here to help you guys. I’m rolling up my sleeves. We’re going to get through this. Speaker 1 (19:31): And if Speaker 3 (19:32): I ask you to do something, understand that it’s not like, hey, you go do it. It’s, Hey, I’ve done it. I’m helping you. Let’s do this together. Or I got to go do this thing over here, but I’m not asking you to do it because I don’t want to do it. I’m just saying, hey, we’re all in this together. Let’s build something. And a lot of them bought into it and we created a really good team. And on the owner’s side, it was a lot of conversations. I flew up there and talked to them. They’re very busy on their own end and what they’re building. And they said, look, we just want to be able to trust you. We don’t want to have to call you all the time and ask you all these questions. We just want to trust you to handle it. If there’s issues, we’re just going to tell you, hey, handle this. (20:15)And that’s what we’re paying you. And I said, okay, that’s no problem. So (20:21)They wanted the mom and pop feel because they were mom and pop. They didn’t really want to go after any of the big companies and say, hey, we’re just a number on the ledger. We want to feel like we’re partnering with you. And that’s what it was. And they would send down their team sometimes and we’d all hang out and really got to know each other. There’s a lot of people on their team that they’re definitely family. One of them was in the hospital not too long ago and I was calling him just checking on him, just saying, Hey man, want to make sure you’re good. We don’t have to talk about work. We don’t have talk about anything, but we just want to make sure that you guys are okay. So I mean, it’s really been an interesting journey for sure. It doesn’t really seem real that it’s kind of coming to an end either, but I’m still involved helping out the Aubin team, making sure that everything runs very smoothly and everybody’s on the same page. (21:11)But it was definitely trial by fire and figuring out the problems on the fly and just hearing the wildest stories most days or the wildest problems most days.Because when you have that many units, at our peak, we were probably 1500 units and you’re just going to find crazy stories. And that’s just (21:32)The way it is. And the crazy became normal, which was odd for me. And I would tell people these stories and they’re like, “That was your day?” And I’m like, “I have a Tuesday.” Speaker 1 (21:44): Just an average Tuesday. Speaker 3 (21:46): Right. But yeah, the crossover between Auburn and Peach Day, it’s very similar. The similar feels. We use same operating systems. So for me, that was very important to make sure that the owners themselves don’t see any crazy changes. We’re not going to send you some other report that you’re not used to reading. Everything pretty much stays the same. You’re just going to see a different company logo at the top than before. Speaker 1 (22:21): There’s enough crazy in this business without us creating any. Speaker 3 (22:26): Right. Again, it’s been smooth, very smooth. I mean, there’s always going to be bumps in the roads with transactions like this, but Aubin and Don and Alex especially have really, really, really worked hard to make sure that this was a very smooth process. I mean, there were times where I had to call Don and like, “Hey man, X, Y, Z happened.” And he’s like, “Okay, that’s fine.” And I’m thinking to myself, “The deal’s blown up. Everything’s over. I don’t know how I got to this point.” And he’s like, “Nah, we’ll figure it out.” And I’m like, “Man – Speaker 1 (23:02): Don has that quality.” Speaker 3 (23:04): He is the most calming force and voice when I am freaking out and I’m like, “That was fun, but this is over.” And Don’s like, “Nah, man, don’t worry about it.” Speaker 1 (23:16): Everything is simple Speaker 2 (23:18): To Don. Yeah. Donald is the president of Auburn, and I’ve worked with him closely for many years. And everything is always. It’s simple, Aaron. It’s simple. We can get this done. But he is a very calming and reassuring voice during any situation. And especially in this business, with as crazy as it is, you need that person to help talk you off the ledge sometimes. Speaker 3 (23:44): No, absolutely. And he just has a way of just making you feel like, “Don’t worry about it. We’re going to find the solution. The solution exists.” And I think that’s definitely attributed to his time in property management. I Speaker 1 (23:59): Mean, Speaker 3 (24:00): How many problems have you come across or have I come across where I’m like, “There’s no way out of this.” And eventually we look back on it and we’re like, “Man, that was creative. We got out of it. We survived and we moved on from it.” And it’s just having that continual mentality of not letting it just kind of grow too big to where you can’t find a solution. I mean, you’re going to solve every problem. Speaker 1 (24:25): You’re absolutely right, Royce. And I think one of the interesting things for me is being able to be around these other professionals like we have at Auburn or individuals like you, there’s so many parallels to the different journeys, but there’s also no substitute for just that time in the saddle. That experience of the experience that you’ve had, the experience that we’ve had, the experience that Don has had, and being able to share that with our owners, with our residents. It’s funny to think about that sort of reality. At the same token, my other parts of my journey were nearly identical to yours as well as when I started, I had a really large investor based out of Chattanooga whose trust in me far exceeded my experience and my knowledge. Sure, sure. But at the end of the day, he just wanted to trust that somebody was going to act in his best interest. (25:23)It sounds very similar to yours, right? Correct. He wanted to know that I was going to work tirelessly to sort of ensure that his investments were formed. It didn’t matter to him that I was way above my skis on everything consistently. But it’s that experience and that firsthand operation and focus of those assets. It’s so informative of once you’ve seen some of those problems, you become very conditioned as to how to deal with them next time around. And it does become in some way, oh, it’s just another Tuesday. I can remember calling my investor, one of my early investors and saying, “Yeah, another car went through your house again.” It’s the again part. (26:16)And he’s like, “Okay, Tyson, I know you fixed it last time. You’ll fix it again.” It’s like, “Luckily, nobody was injured. We’ve got the insurance agent out there. We’ll have it handled.” But it was the again part that it’s like, when you get that call the first time, you’re just kind of paralyzed almost by the reality of it. But then you immediately realize, okay, we got to solve this. And it’s amazing. I think when you have people like yourself or Don that have been around it, it does become another Tuesday. But it’s also enjoyable to be able to solve those problems that are very real and significant for owners and residents in the communities that we operate in. Speaker 3 (27:00): Absolutely. I mean, the same situation you were saying to me, just having that investor kind of believe in you and see that you can solve the problems for them and saying, “Here, here’s my portfolio or here’s what I got. Go deal with it. And we just trust you to make the best decisions.” At the back of their minds, they probably understood that I probably didn’t know everything I needed to know to handle the job, but they knew enough about me that they trusted me to make those decisions. And I’m calling code for the first time. I’m like, “Am I going to jail or do I just fix this and then we’re okay?” Because when the code enforcement walks in, they’re going to tell you, “Hey, we can send you to jail for these things.” I’m like, “This is a company.” And they’re like, “Nope, your name’s on it. (27:44)You’re going to jail if you don’t show up and fix all this.” So I’m like – Speaker 1 (27:47): Fear of God and jail. It’s just a learning curve, right? Yeah. Speaker 3 (27:50): It’s just a learning curve. Now I’m like, “All right, we’re good with code. I’m not worried when they walk in.” And it was just different things like that that were just kind of like they knew that I’d figure it out. They trusted me that, “Hey, you’ll get it fixed.” I probably didn’t believe in myself as much as they did on some of those things. And then after a few different items, I’m like, “Hey, I can do this. We can do this.” It’s just talking to people. It’s just relationships. Start meeting with people and you can get anything done at the end Speaker 1 (28:21): Of the Speaker 3 (28:21): Day. And I really feel like we accomplished a very big amount and really helped out a lot of people at the end of the day. And eventually I just got to the point where I’m like, “It’s time for somebody else to do it. A fresh set of eyes. Let them understand the same problems that they’ve probably dealt with in their own portfolios or their own management profiles, and they can continue to solve these problems.” And I’ve always told Don this entire experience, “Hey, look, five years down the road, if you have something, just call me. I’m not beyond anything. I want to help you guys out. I want to help out the owners. I want to help out everybody involved. So I’m always going to be here to assist and help where I can.” But with the experience level of everybody at the Auburn team, they’re not going to need me much longer. (29:12)It’s just kind of introducing everybody to the players and then they’re going to be like, “Hey, we got this. We can handle this. This is nothing Speaker 1 (29:20): New.” It feels good to be not needed in some of these cases when you’ve been in the opposite end of the spectrum. It’s weird. Speaker 3 (29:29): I mean, I look at my phone five, 10 times a minute and I’m like, “Am I missing something? Where are my emails? Why is it not blowing up right now?” And it’s kind of like this kind of calming experience with my family where I’m like, “All right, I can kind of detach myself from the phone and enjoy the moments that I haven’t done in the past.” Speaker 2 (29:51): So Royce, it sounds like you have a very entrepreneurial spirit. What’s next for you with all of your newfound time and energy The low stress levels. Speaker 3 (30:02): Well, there’s no rest for me. I mean, I’m always busy. I have taken a little bit of time with the family and I’ll probably continue out the summer with them until school starts and everything. But I don’t actually know. I’m looking at different options. Part of me doesn’t necessarily want to start another company. It’s tough and I’ve seen it. There’s definitely attractiveness is kind of being a cog in the system sometimes. Speaker 1 (30:37): I Speaker 3 (30:38): Kind of think that it might be right for me and my family to just kind of find private equity or a small company where I can really insert what I’ve learned in my own growth, but not have to worry about insurance, not have to worry about payroll and just kind of taking it back a little bit. Speaker 1 (30:59): It’s a heavy weight. And I think also it’s like you don’t. I mean, if your story, my story, many other entrepreneurs, others, you don’t even realize what you’re getting into until you’re already knee deep in the middle of it. And it’s heavy. I can’t remember. It was one of the really large technology companies and the founder was talking about, he had grown it into this multi-billion dollar company and asked him, “Would you do it over again?” He’s like, “I’m not sure.” I’ve honestly asked myself. Speaker 3 (31:35): Right. I’ve asked myself that. I’ve had a couple people ask me that and I’m like, “If I had to do it all over again, maybe.” I mean, it was fun. It was exciting. I learned a lot, but I feel like I kind of did it a little bit backwards. I started my company before I ever actually worked for a company. My first business was out of college and I was just kind of contracting with management companies. So I mean, having a boss and them like, “Hey, you need to be at work and you need to answer my phone and my email.” It doesn’t sound great, but I’m kind of like, “Hey, look, that sounds okay to me because I’ve been on the other side of it and I’ve also worked 24 hours in a day. I mean, I’ve had sleepless nights just getting stuff done because that’s what it is. (32:23)That’s what it takes to be an entrepreneur. And I enjoy it and I just want to find maybe a couple business partners. Maybe that’s what I really need. I just don’t want to have to shoulder the whole thing by myself anymore. Speaker 1 (32:38): It’s interesting, Royce, that you say that because I think that was some of the decisions that I had to make at sort of Auben was I went through some of these same questions was like, I either have to stay where we are and have this sort of high level of dependence of the organization on me and my time and many hats of HR, marketing, or there’s no other option than growing to a certain point that you can bring in the other team members and talent. And I think one of the interesting things that we discussed part of this call is this is my first time speaking with you. (33:25)Which I think is incredible testament to the team that we have of – Absolutely. And I would just also add, that wasn’t always the case. I mean, there are a lot smaller transactions at many points in Auburn that if I was a knee deep in every step, and I think that’s the part of the challenge of the entrepreneurship is you get to these phases where you have to make really difficult decisions. And I know you didn’t make this decision lately and we don’t take the decision and the trust that you are bestowing on us lately, but you have to make the decision of, is this in my best interest to sort of continue this in this format? And I think we’ve at all been asked some of the same questions and realized we have to get to a certain size in order to deliver on the value proposition that we want to do without burning our people. (34:30)Not just me, but many of the other team members that we have, we got to have a deep bench to be able to do this. And I think that’s one of the hardest parts about property management because the growth can be incredible, lumpy in a positive way. But then you can get to that point where it’s like, man, we need to close these doors and just – Speaker 3 (34:56): Yeah, Speaker 1 (34:56): Absolutely. (34:57)Keep going here. So it’s interesting. It’s interesting to think about. It’s interesting to hear. I really appreciate you being as candid as you’ve been about your journey. Absolutely. Because I think it’s one that a lot of investors go through, even with smaller unit counts from 100 to 300, 500 to a thousand. There are these journeys that can be really difficult on entrepreneurs and managers that got in and maybe are really good at one function or really enjoy one function. Maybe they’re good at a couple functions, but I know maybe this relates to you. It definitely resonated for me. There were functions that I was okay at, but I absolutely hated doing, but there was nobody else to do. Speaker 3 (35:41): Correct. Absolutely. I mean, that’s the issue with scaling. I mean, I pretty much shoestring the entire business. I had a couple people talk about investing, working with me, and I was like, “No, I think I want to continue to do it on my own. I don’t want to bring in a lot of noise.” At the time, I though I was making necessarily the right decision, but eventually you do kind of cap out if you’re not bringing in the right team, if you don’t have the right players on board. And I’d kind of gone through some regionals that were supposed to kind of grow the business and they just weren’t able to really gain any traction on building. So it would kind of fall to me again to grow the business myself. But it’s really tough. And people like to kind of glamorize the entrepreneurial journey and it is not pretty. (36:35)I don’t wish it on my worst enemy some days because it’s just tough and you have to make all these decisions. And most people, they hear about the good stuff. I mean, how many companies have gone bankrupt and they’ve lost a lot of things because they tried this journey and it just turned sideways. Half the time it’s probably out of their control. Market forces will force businesses out. So I mean, I’m very thankful to Aubin for this whole entire road with the connections that we’ve made and going through this entire process because it’s a thing where can I continue to grow it or continue to fight or continue to do it? Maybe, but if your heart’s not a thousand percent in it, I’ve got a small family here in Jacksonville. I’ve got other things. And this opportunity came through and I’m like, “This makes total sense to go with Aubin, Don and the team. (37:36)Tyson in the background. I hadn’t met him yet, but I knew he was always there making sure that things were going to run smoothly.” But this whole process, the ups and downs and all arounds, I couldn’t speak more highly of Aubin on any level. I mean, it’s just been great through and through. I mean, it’s been tough. It’s been hard and things are tough and harder or everybody would do it. So I mean, I think that’s okay. But getting kind of through the end of it and everybody committed to the same objective, everybody pushing forward, calls with Alex late at night like, “Hey man, I just need to talk this through or where are you guys at? Do you have all my paperwork? You have everything you need.” And then calls with Don on like, “Hey, do you have all the due diligence? Do you have any questions on any of my stuff?” And they’re talking to me about, “Yeah, we’re good. (38:32)We’re pushing through.” So I mean, it’s been a lot. It’s stressful as always. I mean, stressful on Don and your side as well because y’all are trying to figure out, is this a good thing to invest in? And I’m trying to figure out, is this a good thing to leave my clients and tenants with? And when it’s really symbiotic like it has been, it’s going to work out. And it did. And so I’m very excited for Aubin, for everybody that’s been involved and kind of seeing what my next chapter is. Speaker 1 (39:07): Cool. Well, I know we’ve got about five more minutes here. Royce, if you were giving advice to an entrepreneur or somebody getting into real estate, starting their journey, it’s easy to armchair quarterback, I think. Sure. But I think I always enjoy. It sounds like one of the things that is also a parallel between us is you spent very little time working for others before you went and created your own business. What do you think if somebody came to you and said, “Hey, Royce, I want to get into property management and I want to go start my company.” What would your advice be to somebody just starting out at this point? Speaker 3 (39:49): Right. I don’t consider myself that old. I mean, I just turned 40, so I mean, maybe I am old to the new crew coming through in real estate, but it’s the commitment. I mean, you have to absolutely believe in what you’re doing. You don’t necessarily have to know what you’re doing. You have to believe in yourself and your idea and your plan and surround yourself by the right people. I mean, I never pretend to be the smartest person in the room. When I go into meetings with property managers or maintenance guys, I’m not going in there pretending that I know everything and I know the whole situation. I’m there to learn and then we’re going to figure it out on ourselves. So you definitely have to be honest with yourself and open with your team on believing in what you guys are trying to accomplish. (40:40)Property management and real estate is a beast. I mean, there’s a lot of players in the game. You just have to figure out what kind of differentiates yourself from everybody else in the business. What can you deliver? Is it that personal touch? Is it you’re really good at sales? Are you really good at leasing? What is it that you’re good at? And I just kind of found that I was really good at handling people and managing problems. I mean, I just became a problem solver and I got very good at problem solving. And that’s what I tell everybody is that’s what I bring to the table with whatever my next move is, is I can pretty much solve just about anything because that’s the business, that’s what property managers do. That’s what real estate is. You just have to find the solution, whether it’s good, bad, or ugly. (41:29)You just have to get to something because indecision is a decision. If you’re not doing anything, you have made a decision not to do anything. So you have to decide on what you’re going to do. And if it doesn’t work, then it doesn’t work. But it’s believing in yourself. You don’t have to have all the experience in the world to be successful. You just have to be committed to it and understand that you have to kind of weigh the family business dynamic and figure out what’s best for you. And that can be a struggle at times. I went through it. I’ve got three kids and it’s tough because your business becomes a child. You are dealing with it twenty four seven, you’re nurturing it, you’re disciplining it. You’re doing a lot to your business to make sure that it succeeds. And then you kind of have to shave off some time for everything else in your life. Speaker 1 (42:27): Yeah. And I think that you spoke to that perfectly, Royce. And I think that commitment, the challenge is I think it’s hard to realize how big that commitment is until you’re knee deep in it. Yeah, absolutely. It’s not like there’s some, here’s what you’re getting into. It’s like you step and then you step and then it’s like, oh my God. There’s no off in this. I think the other thing that you said that I love is one of my original mentors in Augusta, a guy named Don, different Don than the one that works for me, but he used to wear a button. I don’t know if he still does, but it says I love problems. And the reason was he believed that everything in real estate was just a problem. And he was a house flipper primarily. But he always said that he would get so many people coming and asking about that button. (43:22)And it gave him the opportunity to explain what he does. But it’s really, it’s what it is. I mean, it is problem solving and it is problem solving. The other part that I think they don’t tell you, it is problem solving with boatloads of emotion surrounding it. I mean, from the resident and the owners, this is not problem solving in a vacuum. (43:44)It’s 3D Speaker 3 (43:44): Problem Speaker 1 (43:44): Solving. (43:46)This is 3D problem solving. This is hostage crisis level solving at points. It is high on the spectrum. And it can be very rewarding though too. And I think that I just want to thank you for your time on today, but then the time that you spent getting to know Auburn and making sure that it was a good fit. We’d love to stay in touch and love to figure out if there’s anything that we can do to help on the next chapter. Sure. The last thing was, I think you originally connected with Auburn maybe a while ago, but then you reconnected in Jacksonville, which I think is very interesting. It was a very random sort of recurrence. Talk about how you sort of reconnected with Auburn and Jacksonville, Speaker 3 (44:43): Where you’re based out. So I was at a golf course here in town at the beach, and my buddy and I were at the turn and we just walked in and they had a table with a bunch of business cards that I always just kind of peruse through at any business because I’m just seeing what’s out in there. And I just happened to see an Auburn business card. I was like, “I didn’t know they were in Jacksonville.” And it just kind of started in my head and like everything else, it was just kind of a virus up there that I didn’t really let go. And I was like, “Wait, maybe they’re interested. Maybe they want to talk or let’s just see what they’re kind of doing now.” And I just shot an email out to Alex and Don and they’re like, “Absolutely, let’s talk. Let’s call tomorrow. (45:23)Let’s go. Let’s move this thing.” I’m like, “Okay.” Because I mean, coming to the conclusion of making the sale is very tough. You talk yourself out of it, you talk yourself into it, you’re like, “What if the owners don’t like X, Y, Z? What if the buyers don’t like the owners? (45:42)What can go wrong?” And it’s easier to kind of keep the status quo than to really kind of push it and see what happens. And eventually get to the point where like, let’s just push it and see how this goes. And Aubin has made it. They’ve been a blessing for sure to me and my family and to the families of my employees and the tenants. So five star review for sure. Speaker 1 (46:11): You don’t give many of those as a property manager. I’ve got zero. Because those are hard to come by in property management. The people are not going online to sing your praises generally. Speaker 3 (46:26): No. And that’s the beauty of reviews. It’s always those 1% where things just went awry that they’re going to go out there and sing because they don’t want to talk about the conclusion where you Speaker 1 (46:37): Fixed it. One thing we like to conclude on, and I know Aaron will want your feedback on this, is we’re always curious as what you would do in the places that you’ve called home. And I guess for Atlanta or Jacksonville, if you had 48 hours coming to town, what would you do? And secondly, for Aaron and for me, where would you eat? What are the not to miss places in Atlanta or Jacksonville that we should go to? So Speaker 3 (47:07): I live at the beach here in Jacksonville. And I mean, the staple here is Taco Loop. I’m a big golfer and we do TPC every year at Sawgrass. So I mean, if there’s ever a time to come to Jacksonville, it’s during TPC. It’s when. My wife and I call it our Super Bowl. I mean, before we had kids, everybody would come to our house. We would go three or four days. I know Rory talks about Taco Lu when he’s in town. Taco Lu, huh? Speaker 1 (47:37): I got Speaker 3 (47:38): To check that out. Taco Lou is the spot. The other one up the street is called Valley Smoke. It’s barbecue. It’s in Ponte Vedra and it’s fantastic. That’s where we would go after TPC. We’d have a night at dinner at Valley Smoke, and then the next day we’d go to Taco Lu. Speaker 1 (47:56): It’s a good double header. Yeah, Speaker 3 (47:58): Absolutely. I mean, Jacksonville, it’s very segmented. I was on a plane yesterday. I was talking to a guy, we never go downtown. Downtown Jacksonville is really trying to be something and there’s a lot of money being put in it, but you just have to find ideas to get people down there. And it’s tough. But Jack’s Beach, we love it out here. There’s a lot of good restaurants coming and there’s always stuff to do. I mean, there’s a little municipal golf course up the street that we love and going out to the beach is great. The festivals. And I mean, ultimately, if you’re coming to Jacksonville, make sure it’s in March for TPC. That’s the deal. Speaker 1 (48:38): I haven’t made it there, but I went to the Women’s Pro Am, or the women’s event right before, the week before, I guess, Sawgrass, which was really cool. I mean, and that whole Jack’s Beach area is just incredible. It’s a beautiful area. So what about Atlanta? I’m headed there in a couple weeks with my family. Where do I need to eat in Atlanta? Anything? Lots of choices there, I know. Speaker 3 (49:02): Atlanta’s just too much easy. Speaker 1 (49:03): Too many to pick. Speaker 3 (49:05): Right. I mean, my thing is if I’m in Atlanta, I’m just going north now. Go through Speaker 1 (49:11): Atlanta. I grew up in Speaker 3 (49:12): Canton, so I’m partial to a lot of the Canton restaurants. Downtown Canton is a great spot. We have a little place in Jasper, Georgia, and downtown Jasper has, it’s called the Mule House. When we’re up there, we eat there. It’s great. Speaker 1 (49:28): Ask our agent about that, who’s got a place up there. The Mule House, huh? Yeah, Speaker 3 (49:32): Mule Huse. They have the Mule cocktails and stuff. Yeah. So it’s good. I mean, Atlanta, you can’t go wrong in Atlanta. There’s always new restaurants coming and going. So I mean, it’s a good spot. I mean, Atlanta’s growing exponentially. It’s a hotbed. I mean, that’s why my business took us there. Speaker 1 (49:51): Yeah. Well, Royce, thank you very much for your time. I mean, it’s been incredible to spend this time with you and hear about your journey. I’m always amazed at the parallels of these different journeys. Time and place, right? Speaker 3 (50:05): Right. It’s not all glamor. It’s fun being an entrepreneur some days, but not every day. And it takes the right cut for you to handle it and succeed in it. So I’m impressed by obviously the Auburn story and the Aubin background. And now it’s Aubin’s turn to kind of take the mantle from Peach Day. Speaker 1 (50:29): Well, thank you for trusting us in that. We don’t take that lightly. So hope you have a great day and enjoy some time at the beach with your family this summer. Speaker 3 (50:38): Absolutely. Thank you so much. Thank you, Roy. Thank you.