Blog Post #1 Interview

Michael McMinassian's Informal Interview 

As the first blog assignment we had to interview someone in the Real Estate Market. I chose to interview Brenda Rico on 03/02/13. She is a property Manager for a local Entrepreneur. He has properties throughout Fresno and a couple of properties in the Bay Area. She did not want to disclose her employer so we did not disclose the employers name or name of her company she works at.  

Where did you go to school at?

Fresno state.

What was your major of study?

Bachelors Degree in Finance was initially Accounting.

What is your position?

Property manager.

Are there any classes that you took at Fresno State that helped you in this field?

Accounting classes helped with the books, and Business Law  class helped with structuring the contractor labors, and tenants rights.

How did you get into this field?

She started with a summer job as an office assistant with the broker and wanted to learn more. After she showed loyalty to employer, the employer noticed her being eager learn more and kept her more responsibilities. To now being the property manager.

What is a daily thing that you do in your job?

Check messages. Check deposits. Check the balances from the renters. Make sure no problems at sites. Make sure that all renters have paid. Notate in system that partial payments and keep track of logs.

What is the most stressful thing about your job?

The part that is the most stressful is when I have to look for the renters or haven’t paid yet. This past January she had to serve a 3 day notice. That is the worst feeling ever.

Do you plan on learning the trade and taking on your own venture in the same field?

Yes. I plan on taking this knowledge and skills I have learned and start my own operation. Then hire someone to collect the rent and manage the properties.

What do you think the future outlook of this industry is?

It’s great! People would be buying and renting forever. People don’t necessarily want to purchase a home and try to sell and move on elsewhere because it is a long term thing. People don’t want to get tied down.

What is the ideal customer?

Is somebody that is timely with their rent and is timely with information about the property. You want to get somebody that is willing to understand the difference between wear and tear vs the property

Do you recommend entrepreneurs to purchase multi-unit buildings for residential tenants or to 

purchase single family homes?

At the start you should go with the single family homes to get your feet wet. Then you can advance over to the multi unit properties. This way you can have liability. You will have a easier to purchase home via with a loan than obtain a big loan for a multi-unit complex.

Do you see a difference in ROI between these two options?

It depends what type of tenants you are going to have. It depends on their age and if they are going to stay at the unit or house. The ROI would be difficult to answer because it still depends on the tenants you are going to have. You can have a multi-unit complex that has high turnover and will have vacancies and not generate guaranteed income versus one residential property.

What I got out of this informal interview from Brenda was that there is a future in this field but I need to be able to have either a team of people to help me in this venture. I have not thought of the little things that renters might bring up and now have been exposed to a realistic view of the market.