Recently, one of our clients, Derek Morton, shared an incredible story from a networking event where he transformed his booth into a blackjack table to illustrate that property owners shouldn't "gamble" with their rentals. When a prospect tried to pressure Derek into matching a competitor's price by a mere half-percent, Derek firmly refused, explaining that he refuses to build a portfolio around owners willing to jump ship over such tiny margins.12 In this episode of the #DoorGrowShow, property management growth experts Jason and Sarah Hull discuss the vital importance of being selective about who you serve and why taking on "bad" owners creates a "cycle of suck" that destroys profitability and personal happiness.

Jason and Sarah explore the foundational mistake of targeting everyone, explaining that identifying exactly who you want to serve is the first step in building a business. They apply the "Pumpkin Plan" principle of clearing rot from a business to prevent bad clients from spreading negativity throughout an entire operation.345 The discussion also highlights how poor client filtering leads to a "cycle of suck" featuring bad properties, bad tenants, and bad reviews, which ultimately traps owners in a "race to the bottom" on price. By being picky, business owners can significantly lower operational costs and achieve elite profit margins, sometimes reaching 60% to 90%. Finally, the hosts introduce a three-day initiative designed to help entrepreneurs diagnose why their growth has stalled and how to pivot toward attracting "good" clients rather than just "any" clients.

You'll Learn

[01:08] - The Blackjack Table Lesson: A story about a client using a blackjack-themed booth to teach owners not to "gamble" with rentals and why he refuses price-shoppers. [05:50] - The Pumpkin Plan & The Cycle of Suck: Applying Mike Michalowicz's "Pumpkin Plan" to clear out "rot" and avoid the downward spiral of bad properties and tenants. [07:46] - Maximizing Profit Margins through Selectivity: How being picky lowers operational costs and enables elite profit margins between 50% and 90%.4 08:30 - Diagnosing Stagnant Growth: Introducing a new three-day team-led initiative to help stalled businesses identify why they are stuck and create a fix. [11:34] - Avoiding the "Property Management" Product Trap: Why selling "property management" is the wrong approach and the importance of a unique offer for your target audience.

Quotables

"If we took on every owner and if we took on the wrong owners, we would no longer be happy, and we would no longer love what we do. And this would become a real pain in the ass."

"If you target everyone, you are guaranteed to be miserable in your own business."

"You can only have a ridiculously good margin in your business if you're picky about your clients."

Resources

DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind

Transcript

Jason Hull (00:00)

Alright, five, four, three, two, Alright.

What was that? Something broke. Five, four, three, two, one. Hans goes, smash. All right, Hans, out of here. We have a dog in, two dogs in here. All right, we're going to try that over again. Five, four, three, two, one. All right, I'm Jason Hull, the founder and CEO of DoorGrow. This is Sarah Hull, the COO of DoorGrow, co-owner. And we're the world's leading and most comprehensive coaching and consulting firm for long-term residential.

property management entrepreneurs on the planet. We're the best on the planet. So for over a decade and a half, we have brought innovative strategies and optimization to the property management industry. At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management business owners and their businesses. We want to build the industry, transform it. There's a dog walking around on my feet right now. Change perception, expand the market, and help the best property management.

entrepreneurs when now let's get into the show. is awesome. I love when she brings the dogs in right before the show. He's like running into stuff like cables are falling down. I don't even know what I I'm gonna have to find what he did and try to fix it. I don't even know. Good times. All right. So what are we chatting about today? Sarah? I was going to share some good news that one of our clients

was messaging back and forth with me on the weekend. Derek Morton, he's out in Utah and he was at an event over this weekend and it was a really cool event. I wish I could have been there, but he, like everybody gets their booth, right? You get your booth and you have your setup and everybody hopefully comes over and you get some leads. That's not how Derek does things.

at all. So Derek gets a booth and turns it into, I think it was Blackjack. And there, I mean, he had the the dice and the table set up and he got a, ⁓ a, a card dealer and he had the chips, but the chips were like customized with his brand name. And the whole thing looks amazing. It was, it was really awesome.

And the theme was, don't gamble with your rentals. Right? So obviously... Very cute, very clever. Yeah. One of the way more interesting booths at an event. Yeah. Come play blackjack. Now, it's not gambling. That's not legal, but they did have blackjack, so you can come play hand, but it wasn't gambling. And there was a lot of interest at the booth. There was a lot of excitement at the booth, which is great.

And there was a property owner that was at their booth, Derek was there, and the guy was saying, yeah, you know, I've got five units and I work with this other property manager now. Derek said, yeah, that's great. It's awesome. Like, how are things going? And he's like, yeah, things are going well. Like, I like the property manager. That's great. And I guess he was expecting to be sold too, because then he was kind of like, and so, you know, what would you do for me then? And Derek said, well,

Like, you know, this is kind of what we do. This is what we offer. And the guy was like, all right, well, how much do you charge? And he, you know, was telling him, hey, you know, we've got some plans you can kind of choose from. And the guy said, well, you know, my current property manager, they charge, I think it was like 7%, whatever it was, who knows. Let's call it 10 % because that's really common in the industry. So, all right, well, my property manager charges 10%. And essentially it was, you know, what are you going to do for me? And.

Derek goes, yeah, this is where we sit. And the guy goes, you're not going to try to beat it. He's like, no, no, we're not. He goes, let me ask you something. If you're at 10 % right now, if we charged, if we did like 9 and 1 percent, would you switch over to us? And the guy said, yeah, yeah, I would do that. I switch over. And he goes, for 9 and 1 half percent, yeah, I'll switch over. Yeah. And Derek said, yeah, and that's exactly the type of owner that we don't take on.

Okay. The guy was flabbergasted, not expecting that at all. He said, well, you know, listen, with all due respect, you know, I just met you. We're having a conversation. You're at my booth. You know, you're playing some blackjack. That's great. If you're ready and willing to dump the property manager that you work with over half of a percentage, which ends up being like five bucks in a 20 minute conversation, then where is that going to lead me?

So pretty much anyone that undercuts that price, you're just going to jump ship. didn't even try to do anything and you're already ready to jump ship over half of a percent. He said, yeah, we don't take on owners like that. That's not when we build our portfolio around. And that was such a cool message for me to get. I love that. ⁓ And I was really excited that that's just Derek.

A lot of people would be like, well, you we don't really do that. Derek is like, yeah, that's exactly the type of owner that we don't take on. He's so, he's not like, doesn't, yeah, he doesn't, he pull punches at all, which is great. That's why we like him. But really, he said to me, you know, one of the things that we've done really well, and they're a sizable company. And he said, but we, we're happy. We love what we do.

And really that's a testament to the owners that we work with. And if we took on every owner, and if we took on the wrong owners, we would no longer be happy and we would no longer love what we do. And this would become a real pain in the ass. And that's just not what I'm looking for. Because I love what we do. And part of that is being able to say no to the people who aren't a fit. Yeah, I love it. I mean, before you start a business, the very first thing you need to figure out is who do I actually want to work

Who do I want to serve? That's the foundation of the business and a lot of times people are like everyone. And if you target everyone you are guaranteed to be miserable in your own business. That means you're not going to filter out anyone. You're going to just let everybody in. Really good book on the subject is The Pumpkin Plan by Mike McCallewitz and he talks about this principle. He's been on my podcast twice. Our podcas...