The 5 Financial Tools Every Property Manager Must Know

Yolanda Muchnik:
Hello and welcome multifamily pros. For our new listeners, I’m your host, Yolanda, and to returning listeners, welcome back.

Did you know that NAA’s 2023 Property Management Benchmark Report indicated that nearly half of property management firms identified delinquencies and financial management as the biggest risks impacting their operations?

Today I’m sitting down with Dean Julius, portfolio manager at Vesica Real Estate in Jackson, Mississippi, and we’re diving into the five critical financial tools that every manager in multifamily should know.

Dean, welcome to the show.

Dean Julius:
Yeah, hey, thanks for having me.

Yolanda Muchnik:
Awesome to have you here. So, in property management, financial literacy isn’t just a skill. It can often be a deciding factor between success and failure in maintaining profitability. Yet it’s a skill that sets many folks apart and many underestimate it until it’s too late. Dean, you’ve entered the industry relatively recently. So I’m curious, was there a specific moment early on where you realized that mastering these financial tools wasn’t just important but crucial to your success?

Dean Julius:
Yeah. Well, you know, first of all, like I said, thanks for having me. I’m grateful to Zego and you, Yolanda, and Amber for having me on the podcast.

You know, I would say two things. One, you know, my career is in teaching. I was a teacher for a decade before I came into property management. And, you know, also, like, as a kid, I was just fascinated with saving money. Early on, I had a coin jar that was shaped like a parking mirror. And I just really was fascinated with this notion that, you know, if I tucked away a little bit for a long period of time at the end, that would pay off and I could get something big rather than spending my money in the short term on something small.

Dean Julius:
And later on, I got a part time job and my dad forced me into doing that and I’m grateful for it, but opened up a savings account. So I’ve always had this desire to save and manage my money. But like I said, I was a teacher. And so, like a lot of people, I think, who are fascinated with real estate and property management, I was interested in, and I understood the financial freedom that owning real estate can afford, especially if you’re you know, if you’re trying to do this as a side hustle, that could eventually become like a main source of her primary source of income. And so that’s really the thing that spurred my interest. And I’m fortunate that I work at a small company where my boss is not just a boss, she’s a mentor and someone I’ve been able to partner with.

And so I think early on it was just that desire, really. I mean, like a lot of people, I wanted to get into real estate as a side hustle. Reached out to our owner, our CEO, who incidentally taught her son 7th grade English, and so just kind of reached out for some mentorship and that turned into a full time job.

Yolanda Muchnik:
That’s awesome. How fortuitous that that happened. And so since then, have there been any market or industry events that you can point to that have influenced your approach to financial management?

Dean Julius:
Absolutely, yeah. So, you know, I joined our company at a pretty chaotic time. We were coming out of the depth of COVID and in our state, a lot of rental assistance programs were ending or drying up, and that was a lot sooner than other states and markets. And so not only that, our owner was going through a pretty major health crisis, and we had some staffing issues, lot of staffing issues, frankly, that made, you know, daily operations pretty challenging. And so, you know, I can remember some candid conversations that we had early on where, you know, she said to me, look, this job is simple. You got to collect rent and you got to rent apartments, and everything else is extra.

And I think that those two goals really work in service of good financial management. Like, if you’re not bringing money in, then you’re not making money, and that’s collecting rent. And if you’re not renting the units that you have in inventory, then you’re losing money to vacancy loss. And so, you know, that’s really the bread and butter of property management. You gotta sell apartments and you gotta collect rent.

Yolanda Muchnik:
It’s simple as that. So getting into the meat of it a little bit, spoiler alert for our listeners. We did some pre-recording communication and shook out five of the most important financial concepts in property management.

Now, these aren’t necessarily in order of importance, but they are cash flow analysis, budgeting, capex planning, delinquency management, and P and L, meaning profit and loss and reporting.

So, to kick this off, Dean, cash flow, which some folks refer to as the heartbeat of a property’s financial health, why is cash flow a top five skill for you? And could you share a time when understanding and analyzing cash flow made a significant impact on a property’s profitability.

Dean Julius:
Yeah. So everything that we own and manage is in the same neighborhood where all of our properties are located in Jackson, Mississippi, in a couple of different neighborhoods, you know, basically within four or 5 sq. mi. But we’re, you know, we’re a tertiary market, as they say, so. And we’re also a market where property values have appreciated, like roughly 3% since 2013. So if you’re chasing appreciation, Jackson is a pretty tough sell. But there’s a lot of opportunity here for value add and for buying distressed property.

And, you know, if you’re able to keep expenses low and the math works out, then you can, you can find properties that cash flow, or properties that you can flip. And I think that, you know, it’s important to understand cash flow. And I, you know, I think it’s one of, you know, as you mentioned, one of the top five skills because it gets to the, you know, the basic fundamentals of business. Right.

If your, if your money in your income is less than the money that you’re spending, then, or, yeah, if you’re, if your money in is less than your expenses, you’re net negative. And, you know, without somebody, without, without some kind of cash infusion, then you’re not going to be able to sustain this operation for the long haul. And, you know, you also want to be able to grow your business, and so you’ve got to be able to find a way to keep cash on hand so that you can do that.

And, you know, especially in this business, like, things break all the time. And, you know, as soon as, I mean, my wife and I are a great example, is we bought our first house and the hot water heater broke and the air conditioner went out, you know, so, I mean, and that was within the first month of ownership. So, you know, that’s not ideal. And sometimes these things happen, but in property management, that happens at scale.

And so you’ve got to be intentional about doing your due diligence ahead of time and making sure that after your management expenses and everything else, that there’s something extra, especially in a market like ours. Because as I mentioned, we don’t really anticipate, given historical data appreciation in a place like California or other states like Texas, Austin, some of these other bigger markets.

If, you know, for example, that there’s a really great local school and I, you know, there’s a huge amount of development and growth happening and you found a great deal, then you can kind of bank on the fact that five to ten years down the road you can pocket some equity from the purchase of whatever property you’re in, and maybe you can stomach the loss on cash flow on the front end because you paid a little bit more for the deal or whatever.

But we just don’t have that liberty. We’re more interested in what folks would call value add investing and trying to find something that’s a great property at a reasonable price so that we can make enough after expenses to support our property management business and hopefully offer owners and investors overturn.

Yolanda Muchnik:
That makes a lot of sense. And digging a little deeper into just something you just said here, I’m curious, you know, what key indicators do you monitor to ensure healthy cash flow, and have you run into any scenarios where monitoring those indicators has actually allowed you to proactively address any issues?

Dean Julius:
So, you know, vacancy occupancy is such an important component of that. And, you know, when you’re, when you’re only typically as a management company, pocketing 10% of your income as your management company expense, then if your vacancy begins or if your delinquency begins, then no one’s really making money. So I think that’s one thing that we’re always keeping an eye on, and this is a great time of year to be talking about that. It’s the summer, it’s leasing season, especially in Mississippi. I always ask myself this, why does everyone want to move when it’s 100 degrees outside?
You would think that in the wintertime people would be more attuned to making a change, but I don’t know.

Yolanda Muchnik:
Good question. I want to know too. The next big concept that I’d love to cover with you is big in a number of jobs, mine included, and that’s budgeting.

I consider budgeting both an art and a science because it’s not just about what you have planned. You also need to consider potential changes throughout the year, kind of like what you alluded to a little bit earlier on. And I’ve heard that budgeting and property management is often compared to walking a tightrope, balancing immediate needs with those longer term goals.

So how do you maintain flexibility in your budgets, especially when those unexpected costs arise?

Dean Julius:
Sure. Well, I think the important thing to talk about here is maintenance for a little bit, because really, what we say primarily when we talk about expenses in this biz are maintenance, and we do that in house. I know a lot of folks vendor it all out. They have a third party that’s helping them with their maintenance, but we have an in house maintenance staff. And so, you know, like I said, that doesn’t work for everyone.

And frankly, it’s incredibly challenging, especially given the amount of employee turnover that exists in this particular industry. I think that’s true both on the management and the maintenance side, frankly, but more so, at least I’ve experienced it on the maintenance side. But because we do it in house, it helps us, I think, better understand our budget for unit terms. And we have a more intimate knowledge of the cost involved and everything from changing something as simple as light fixtures and plugs and switches to doing a toilet, to doing a tub, shower, surrounds, et cetera, et cetera.

And so we are able to estimate, plan for how much it’s going to cost to do a unit turn, and we have a system and a process for that. Is it a level one? Is it a level two? Is it a level three? But, you know, like I said, we’ve struggled pretty mightily with turnover among technicians, and I don’t think we’re alone in that. It’s just like the nature of the beast. But anyway, that’s created a burden at times of needing to vendor out unit terms, and that puts us at the mercy of a contractor. And if you’ve been in this game for any length of time, you know that contractor prices fluctuate pretty wildly.

What they quote you, one month for a few grand could be, you know, double that, triple that a few months down the road, just sort of depending on the market, really. And so, anyway, in 2022 and 2023 especially, we had to do a lot of that. We had to vendor out a lot of our unit turns just given staff turnover. And if you’re a mom and pop like us, or even smaller if you’re just retail and you have a rental property on your own on the side, that can be the difference between whether or not your property cash flows for the year or doesn’t.

And so finding ways to keep those expenses low is really so integral to whether or not you’re functioning and able to sustain your business.

Yolanda Muchnik:
Yeah, clearly such an important skill to be able to master in this industry. The next one, CapEx, correlates a little bit with budgeting for the acronym challenge. Like myself, CapEx stands for capital expenditures, and it refers to the funds that investors or managers use to make large repairs or replace essential parts of a property right? CapEx considerations can be crucial for maintaining property value over time.

So, Dean, I know that Vesica’s properties are in a historically significant neighborhood in Jackson. So I’m sure this is a topic you’re familiar with. Can you walk us through a particular project where CapEx planning led to some surprising results?

Dean Julius:
Yeah, so two things. During COVID we invested some money in a system called ButterflyMX. It’s an access control system, a gate system, at two of our largest properties. And, you know, we weren’t entirely sure how that would turn out. We had clickers and, you know, kind of did it the old school way. But our residents and neighbors loved the, loved the change. They can download an app on their phone and it lets them get in and out of the gate.

They can create a virtual pass for guests when guests come, and that expires after a set time. And so that was really a welcome change. And frankly, access control gates are not cheap, so we really had to plan for that expense. But then another cool thing that we did was we installed solar panels on one of our twelve unit properties. And we worked with a company called Alum Energy and Energy Mississippi, our major utility provider here.

And we were able to, you know, by installing this solar array on top of the building, we were able to cut resident utility bills by somewhere between 15 and 20% monthly, which, you know, at $100 utility bill, that’s $20. So it really adds up. And, you know, we’re one of the first, we’re one of the first places in Mississippi to do a project like that. So I think, you know, being small and being agile and, you know, knowing where to put those dollars when you have them really paid off.

Yolanda Muchnik:
Awesome, and also sounds like you also got some maybe unexpected, really positive satisfaction results from residents as well.

Dean Julius:
Yeah, I mean, from what I’ve heard from tenants who provided feedback on the solar array, it’s been really helpful. Really helpful.

Yolanda Muchnik:
Awesome. And now our fourth critical financial tool is a little bit of a sensitive topic, delinquency management. This financial skill is more than just number crunching. It involves difficult conversations and making tough decisions. So, Dean, how do you balance the empathy with the need to maintain financial stability when dealing with delinquent delinquencies?

Dean Julius:
Sure. Well, I would start by saying that our ethos and, you know, our mission as a company has always been centered around keeping our neighborhood affordable and welcoming to everybody, you know, and in this business, it’s often about, especially at scale, profit. And so, you know, that’s not always, and I don’t think that that’s entirely where our heart lies. We love this neighborhood and we love our management team.

And everyone here lives in the same neighborhood where we rent. And so we just have like a deep commitment and passion to this neighborhood and the people that we rent to. And so I think it’s important for property management companies and property managers to understand that, you know, everybody falls on hard times. That’s the reality. But, you know, keeping consistent with whatever your company’s policies are and working with tenants on good communication before they get into a pickle is critical.

And so we offer, we offer payment plans for folks who have a good relationship with us. We utilize some software solutions that integrate with our customer relationship manager to allow tenants to split payments. And I think Zego even recently started offering some of that as well. So, yeah, things like that. Anything we can do on the front end, really to be proactive, communicate with the tenant before they get into that pickle and just encourage tenants. Right.

And, you know, let them know, hey, we’re here. If you’re having a hard time, reach out to us before, you know, you get into this bind. I think that helps a lot with keeping delinquency low.

Yolanda Muchnik:
Yeah. And that certainly sounds like sage advice. So last but certainly not least, our top five financial tools that every property manager must know is P and L reporting. P and L reporting is more than just numbers on a page. It can tell a story of a property’s financial health.

So, Dean, how do you use P and L reports to help inform your decisions? And what are some of the most critical metrics that you zero in on with them?

Dean Julius:
Sure. Well, let me touch back on what we were just talking about for a second. Because it relates to profit and loss, delinquency eventually is going to become a secondary issue. Ultimately, you have to bring up the eviction word. I, you know, court is not fun for anybody. We want to avoid it. Tenants want to avoid it. It’s not pleasant for anybody, and it’s also expensive for everybody, you know, even management companies. And so, you know, to connect that with P and L reporting, I can give, you know, sort of like a yearly example and then also a seasonal example.

But we’re constantly looking at our monthly profit and loss statement and then as well as our yearly profit and loss statement to see where our dollar is going. And post Covid, like I said, a lot of rental assistance programs dried up. And so we were seeing a rise in delinquency.

And, you know, we realized on our P and L report, we were spending an enormous amount of money month over month. And ultimately, we spent a lot of money in those years immediately following Covid on court.

And so we knew we needed to come up with a new strategy right. Like the strategy of, okay, you’re delinquent, we’re gonna go to court, we’re gonna try to get the money. Following the typical court system wasn’t the most effective way. And it was expensive. It was too expensive, really. And so the alternative is, like I said, communicating on the front end, having a conversation with our neighbors, and saying, look, is there something that we can do early on, before you get two, three months down the road of being behind on rent to help you, can we incentivize a move in some other way? So that’s one thing. And we only came to that realization by looking at the profit and loss statement and saying, okay, look, we spent x amount of money on court across the 400 units in our portfolio. And that is, when you compare that to years prior to Covid, it’s pretty exponential. Another good example on the yearly scale is, like, our cost of insurance. And I know this is true in California, just from the folks that I follow on social media.

I mean, insurance costs have gone through the roof for everybody, and you don’t exactly plan for that. No one’s anticipating 100% increase in the cost of insurance, but it has happened. And, you know, we’ve seen a huge rise in our insurance costs. And so just looking at your P and L is really helpful in that regard. And then seasonally, you know, it’s hot as heck down here. I think today the heat index is over 100 in Jackson. So with regards to vacancy, I mean, we can see on our. On our report, you know, we’re spending approximately, you know, five grand a month on keeping ghosts cold.

And so, you know, I mean, it’s little stuff like that that adds up. And, you know, it’s as simple as having a conversation with our maintenance staff. Like, hey, you know, we gotta. We gotta cut the air conditioner off. We gotta make sure the lights are off. And, you know, I feel like we have a Monday meeting with our maintenance staff, and I feel like, you know, an angsty dad, like, cut the lights off. It really does. It adds up.

Yolanda Muchnik:
Yeah, it does sound like this is such an important tool to be using regularly and to be able to proactively manage the properties of. So, Dean, interesting question for you. I started out by saying we’re discussing these five financial tools in no specific order, but I’m curious, if you had to rank them in order of importance for decision making, what would that rank order be?

Dean Julius:
So we didn’t really mention this one. I kind of came up with my own list, or I riffed off your list, a little bit. But I think the most important thing is to remember that payroll is your biggest expense. I think this is true of any company. Payroll is your biggest expense. And so I think the most important financial tool, and this probably relates to your p and l. But the most important thing is to build a good team.

You’re only as strong as your weakest link on your team, and if you don’t have good teammates, a, your job’s not enjoyable, and, you know, it’s hard to run your business. And so I think that that’s probably the most important thing to your success financially, is knowing that you’ve got good teammates. But then, you know, I would say your p and l, your money in, your money out. Recognizing that and understanding that is second most important.

And then, you know, understanding what your goal is in terms of cash flow and appreciation. I don’t. Two things. I don’t think that every property manager is thinking about this stuff. I think that some of these questions are probably more in line with what the CEO of the property management company is thinking and the owner is thinking. But, you know, as a property manager, you can help inform some of those decisions. And so, you know, understanding.

Are we, are we after appreciation? Are we in this market? Are we looking at this property because we think that five years down the road like this, this asset is going to be worth 30, 40% more than what it is today. If that’s the case, then maybe you’re not exactly concerned with the fact that you might not be cash flowing right now versus a company like ours that’s more interested in, you know, value add and, you know, cash flowing in the short term.
And then, you know, I would say you got to have a good budget. If you don’t have a budget, then, you know, I don’t know. I mean, I think you got problems. I think, both personally and professionally, this is just incredibly important to your success financially.

Everybody needs a budget, and I can’t recommend that enough. And then, you know, lastly, I would say I’m constantly looking at comparables and, you know, having a good understanding of your peers in the market and where things are going, what rents are looking like down the street and in other neighborhoods, important as well.

Yolanda Muchnik:
Absolutely. Thanks for sharing your personal view on that rank order, Dean. And I know that getting familiar with, and, of course, applying these financial skills can be a daunting task for some. Are there any specific resources that you might recommend for those who want to develop this skill set, both for general knowledge and also for application? And what if any resources do you personally use today, now that you have more industry experience under your belt?

Dean Julius:
Yeah. So like I said, everyone needs a budget. You need a budget. And so my wife and I personally use, I don’t know how many of you all follow Money with Katie, but I think that she is great. She is Katie Gatti Tassin, and I could be mispronouncing her name, but anyway, she’s excellent. She’s got YouTube videos and she has a blog. Anyway, she has a really great budget spreadsheet. We kind of like to do things more hands on, so we’ve used that budget spreadsheet in our personal lives.

But, you know, on the professional side, you need to be applying the same fundamental principles. You need to know how much things generally cost and if those are moving in a direction of being more expensive so that you can plan for that. So I think that’s one thing. If you want something more hands on personally, that’s what I would recommend. If you’re into automation, you need a budget is a really good one line app.

Let’s see, what else? I recently finished reading Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, and I’m forgetting, I’m blanking on the name of the author, but it’s not exactly about financial tools. But it is, you know, the thesis really, if I could, like, sum it down to a sentence, is, you know, you need to understand the why of your business and the goals of your business, and in order to, you know, succeed.

And ultimately, that’s if you don’t know your why, if you don’t know your company’s values, then it’s really hard to. It’s hard to be profitable, but it’s also about developing systems and processes like Rockefeller did for, you know, quarterly meetings and weekly meetings, daily check ins, all that kind of stuff is just helpful to your day to day, month to month, quarter to quarter of success as a business.

And then I would say there’s quite a few people that follow on social media, like Twitter / X. Moses Kagan is a really great one who has a similar business model to ours. They run a property manage, like a local property management company. His blog is kagansblog.com and he used Moses Kagan on Twitter. And then Chad Carson is another great example of just someone who started out kind of like me, investing on the side and interested in real estate and grew that into a property management business.

Those are a couple of folks that I follow. And then, you know, like, in terms of comps, I mean, I’m always on Zillow. My wife is always getting on me because I’m looking at Zillow or looking at Apartments.com or, you know, whatever, because I’m just interested in what our market looks like. And my sister in law is also in Arkansas, and so I’m trying to get her to move into town part because I want to find her a great deal and get her to move to town. But also, I mean, it just helps. Like, I know what, I know what a two two, I know what a two two is going for around here. I know what a 32 is going for in our neighborhood. And that’s helpful. I mean, I’m not, you know, I’m not actively a real estate agent, but I feel like having that knowledge is helpful, especially on the, on the rent side. I mean, I know what, you know, I know what a one one is going for, and I know where our rents are relative to that.

Yolanda Muchnik:
Yeah, I’m with you. Those real estate apps and websites can be quite the time suck. They’re fun to look at. Well, thank you so much for sharing that. And we’ll make sure for our listeners that all those resources that you named are listed on our podcast page so they can easily access them. And, Dean, I think that’s a great note for us to end on.

Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us today. We covered a lot of ground in this conversation, and I hope our listeners find it useful and interesting, just like I have for most of us, financial speak does not come naturally, but it’s a critical component of the job. So thank you so much for agreeing to join us on the podcast and for sharing your perspective.

Dean Julius:
Yeah, thank you all. I really appreciate it. Glad to be here.

Yolanda Muchnik:
Thanks again. And folks, hold on one moment for the Good News.

The Good News

Amber Halteman:
Hey, multifamily pros. I’m Amber, your behind the scenes podcast producer, stepping into the spotlight to share some listener good news with you. Now, what’s Good News? Well, really, it can be anything, we’re talking a successful work initiative, a fantastic resident review. I want to hear shout outs to your work colleagues, even a friend, personal updates, heck, even promote yourself. I love self promotions. Who else is going to do it but yourself? So this is your time to shine. There’s enough stress and anxiety in multifamily and the world, so help us shine a brighter light on what’s going right.

How do you submit Good News? Luckily, it’s simple. Go to the show bio on any platform you’re listening or on our podcast page gozego.com/podcasts and click the contact the show link. You can leave a text or a voice message of your Good News and we’ll highlight it on the following show. All right, you know how to do it. I want to see those getting submitted, so let’s get into the good stuff that was already submitted.

First up, Ally said I finally leased an apartment that has been on the market for 70 plus days. Go Ally. That has got to be such a great feeling.

Next up is Anonymous. The best thing to happen to me this year is that I obtained my real estate broker’s license. This will help me to be able to bring on new clients and expand my business portfolio, while also helping to increase my revenue stream. I’ll also be doing some continuing [education] each year to stay on top of the industry’s hottest trends, which will help to keep me quite in the know. Anonymous, congratulations! It’s always about building on your skills, getting your real estate broker’s license, no easy feat. So congratulations on that. I can’t wait to see you grow.

Next up from another Anonymous is a personal win. I have successfully lost 40 pounds and I’m making great lifestyle changes to improve my health. Oh my gosh, Anonymous, I wish I had your name here. Congratulations, losing 40 pounds is no easy feat. It’s all about the lifestyle changes so congrats on your continued healthy lifestyle.

All right, next up, another Anonymous. So the unusual market, Anonymous says, the unusual market we’ve experienced this summer seems to be stabilizing and we’re back up to 98% occupancy. Congrats! According to apartments.com, the leads we weren’t seeing at the start of the season are finally trickling in. We’ve signed more than ten leases in three weeks, so this seems to be accurate. Oh, Anonymous, kudos to you. I know, like when numbers take a dip, it can be heart attack inducing, but you definitely seem like you’re on the right track. Congrats on the 98% occupancy. I’m sure you’re going to be at 100 even by the time I’ve said this, so congrats.

And our final Good News for the day is from Jacqueline A.. Jacqueline says, my tenants are happy with all the improvements that were made since I took over two years ago. Oh my gosh, Jacqueline, congratulations. That says a lot about you as a property manager. It’s so wonderful to hear that your residents are happy you’ve made those needed improvements. I bet your resident satisfaction scores are through the roof right back in and share them. But either way, Jacqueline, congrats on that.

All right, that’s it, everyone. Thank you to everyone who wrote in for the Good News this week. I can’t wait to hear what our listeners have to say next week, till then.