Boots Levinson: Full-Service Philly Top-Producer!

Guests: Boots Levinson, Daniel Ramsey
Recorded: October 10, 2019

Excerpt

Don’t miss this exciting webinar with Boots Levinson, a top-producing Philadelphia real estate agent and the Principal at Rent Philly – a Condo Shops rental portal. Boots has worked in the trenches to build a highly successful real estate sales, rental & property management business and shares his secrets for online & rental-based lead-generation, time management, and sales conversion with a full-service real estate brokerage.

Watch Boots discuss how the Condo Shop and TCS Homes emerged from humble beginnings in 2006 to become one of Philadelphia’s pre-eminent sales, rental, and property management portals, with 4 retail locations throughout the city.

Boots has worked hard to build a team of knowledgeable, professional agents who share their genuine commitment to innovation in assisting clients with buying, selling, or leasing property. As a result, we can provide important and current market data to sellers and unique or specialized features of condominium buildings and condominium units to buyers or tenants.

In addition to listing info, TCS provides clients with useful information regarding building design and systems, management, amenities, finances, and documentation. They also offer fully customized digital marketing campaigns to maximize listing exposure. In addition, The Condo Shop team is proud to offer full-service property management, utilizing a fully integrated online system.

Transcript

00:00:08:12 – 00:00:34:13
Daniel Ramsey
Hey, everyone. Daniel Ramsey here with MyOutDesk. I’m really excited because we do these crazy interview interviews with amazing folks and you get to learn a little bit about what’s going on in everybody’s market, as well as some secret weapons. And today we got boots on the call, man Boots Levinson. He is the owner of Rent Philly and, you know, an amazingly talented guy.

00:00:34:13 – 00:00:58:08
Daniel Ramsey
I’m really excited. His number 189 on the real trends top 500. So that means he’s not only a badass, but he’s also a client of my outfit. So that’s that’s another cool thing. So we’re going to talk all about you, man. And I appreciate you for being here. If you’re listening right now, you know, my office, we provide high caliber talent to real estate professionals just like you.

00:00:58:14 – 00:01:05:23
Daniel Ramsey
And if you stay at the end, we’re going to give away a copy of our free book. So let’s just dove right in and boots. How the heck are you, man?

00:01:06:05 – 00:01:08:09
Boots Levinson
I’m doing great today, Daniel. Great.

00:01:08:16 – 00:01:22:05
Daniel Ramsey
Thanks for being here. I really appreciate it. First off, how did you get that name, man? We’re going to start it again because I got a name like Daniel Boring. But you’re boots again. I love I love it.

00:01:22:14 – 00:01:41:14
Boots Levinson
So so I’m originally from Minnesota, right in the Midwest. My wife’s also from the Midwest, from Saint Louis. But, you know, growing up when I was three years old, my parents from what I remember, were they told me they gave me a pair of red plastic cowboy boots and they said I would scream and cry if they ever took children.

00:01:41:19 – 00:01:58:14
Boots Levinson
So it it kind of it just stuck since then and, you know, many careers, you know, until to where I am now. And, you know, when I used to call up, I used to be a professional photographer when I would call it my editors, I’m in some third world country or something. I’d say, Hey, it’s boots. I’m here.

00:01:58:15 – 00:02:01:15
Boots Levinson
It’s not like Matt Smith, who.

00:02:02:21 – 00:02:08:05
Daniel Ramsey
I actually have a good friend named Matt Smith, and I love that guy. By the way, if you’re listening, Matt, you’re.

00:02:08:08 – 00:02:11:10
Boots Levinson
You’re is a great guy. I heard what’s about to.

00:02:11:10 – 00:02:21:18
Daniel Ramsey
Happen but the boots man that’s good. Okay, let’s start tell us how you got started in real estate. Like, how did you get into this industry, this crazy industry that I frickin love?

00:02:22:03 – 00:02:47:02
Boots Levinson
So I’m actually so I am a real estate agent, a realtor. But my niche is so different than what everybody else’s is, what they’re doing. I am not, you know, in the business too and rack up sales, right to list the property and sell a property or condo or a townhouse. That’s not me. Right. So we have a team that does do that and they’re amazing.

00:02:47:02 – 00:03:20:13
Boots Levinson
But my focus is on rentals, whether they’re for investments for our clients. But to rent out properties for our management companies and that kind of stuff. So I had been and start in the real estate industry when I was about 17 years old. My dad was a real estate developer and partnered with many companies, including Corman’s, who are big here in the East Coast where they would build new construction, they’d lease it out and Corman would manage the property and the marketing and the leasing side of it.

00:03:20:13 – 00:03:36:06
Boots Levinson
So I was my first job was a leasing agent in one of my dad’s properties, and I took to it. I loved it. I just I loved it. You know, from a young, young perspective, young age and stuff like that. And, you know, fast forward, I can tell you how old I am.

00:03:37:11 – 00:03:39:00
Daniel Ramsey
Mid thirties. Mid thirties.

00:03:39:08 – 00:04:01:14
Boots Levinson
Okay, well, you’re very kind. Very kind. But I mean, you know, now I, I love what I do and I’ve nurtured it since 17 until now. It’s kind of like, you know, in your teens, your twenties and thirties were all out there to gain knowledge. Right. Would go to, you know, high school, college, go out and get a career, maybe go back for grad school and further or knowledge.

00:04:01:14 – 00:04:22:05
Boots Levinson
But I feel, you know, now in my career, it’s about applying that knowledge with the wisdom gained. And so now it’s not just looking at where everybody, if everybody’s in one ocean and doing this in boots, you’ve got to get involved in this one area here. I’m like, everybody’s there. Where’s the other ocean? Where else can I go there?

00:04:22:08 – 00:04:36:15
Boots Levinson
Yes, I I’m still here in this area, but I’m also now looking for alternative, you know, avenues and income streams and and, you know, multiple revenue streams coming in not just from one source, which is why renters are amazing.

00:04:36:18 – 00:04:56:04
Daniel Ramsey
Well, that’s why we’re having you on today. And I really appreciate you because. Okay, so I’m going to break this down for everybody who’s listening. When you become you get a certain amount of success selling real estate as a broker or an agent, you have to build a niche, something that feeds that sales business, that is unique, that you can dominate.

00:04:56:04 – 00:05:16:17
Daniel Ramsey
And my niche was investment properties and development. Your niche is Rent Philly, which is a cool thing. I went to your website. What I love is here’s something that they said about you or a testimonial. We never knew that it would be a rental agent that would put so much heart into his work because Boots knows the market so well.

00:05:16:22 – 00:05:40:05
Daniel Ramsey
It only took us two meetings to find our new apartment. I really recommend Boots, so let’s talk about how your niche feeds your real estate practice and then your real estate practice feeds your niche and how you’ve profited off those both of those things because everybody wants, like most agents who get to 50 to 75 or 100 transactions, they’re like, What’s next?

00:05:40:05 – 00:05:44:23
Daniel Ramsey
This is next. You have to build alternative streams of income. So boots, how did you do that?

00:05:45:17 – 00:06:06:20
Boots Levinson
So, you know, if you look at the lifecycle of someone that is buying or sell or invest, right, someone who buys a house today on average may stay in that house before they sell for. I think the rate is it was originally like 4 to 6 years. Now it’s more like, you know, five and maybe even eight years before that property comes back on the market.

00:06:06:20 – 00:06:35:05
Boots Levinson
Or they, you know, my income is increased in the last four years. I need extra space. I want to grow my family or grow additional square footage. Why? So I’m going to level up. I’m going to go to the next level. And so what happens is, is with those buyers, there’s one transaction every 5 to 8 years. How many buyer leads, how many people do you have to network in order to get a client to get to closing to follow up afterwards?

00:06:35:16 – 00:06:55:12
Boots Levinson
And for me, since my experience in leasing has started when I was 17 years old, the life cycle actually is not on the first time buyer or a buyer less ready to go. It’s getting to those clients before they even consider or even think about buying. So if you think about it this way, you’re in your twenties or thirties.

00:06:55:19 – 00:07:19:11
Boots Levinson
How many of your friends, how many people that you know that are renters? Right. I mean, the majority of when we’re in college and just getting out of control, all renters and the 89% of all clients that use a realtor will use that realtor again for another transaction yet. But only 13% of those clients ever do. Right. And why is that?

00:07:20:22 – 00:07:30:04
Daniel Ramsey
Well, there’s a couple of reasons. One is because they didn’t like you and maybe or you didn’t stay in touch with them and they just forget who you are.

00:07:30:24 – 00:07:59:18
Boots Levinson
That’s it. It’s not staying top of mind. But our goal is to have as many conversations about real estate, buy, sell, rent, to invest as we can, regardless of are they a buyer, a seller or a renter and provide amazing and excellent customer service, concierge service all the way up until close afterwards as well. And so we’ve targeted and really honed in on a market that no one in the real estate world.

00:07:59:18 – 00:08:00:03
Boots Levinson
Really.

00:08:00:10 – 00:08:16:01
Daniel Ramsey
That’s right. Nobody works a rental. So talk to us about how you make money when somebody rents a property like who pays you how? You know, like that’s just a, you know, for most people in most markets, that’s just not a I don’t see how it makes sense.

00:08:16:01 – 00:08:40:23
Boots Levinson
Right. And, you know, it’s it’s great for a brand new agent just starting out, right. If they join a team or they’re by themselves, you know, how can I make money fast? I spent, you know, 60 hours in class time. I pay for my license and all. Now, now. But what they didn’t tell you is how to operate a business just like in law school, which I’m not a lawyer, but they teach you how to think, not how to be a lawyer in business, right?

00:08:41:11 – 00:09:10:20
Boots Levinson
So on the rental side, generally speaking, an agent is paid a commission excluding New York based on one month’s rent. Right. So there is one month’s rent if it’s a $1,000 apartment and of $1,000. If I am a tenant and I’m not the listing agent, I make 500 bucks. Right. But I have to take that $500 and share it with a percentage with my brokerage as a realtor or team and pay taxes on it.

00:09:11:07 – 00:09:38:10
Boots Levinson
So per transaction, it’s not a lot of money, but it will help to cover your operating expenses as you’re building your buyer book, your seller book. It will help cover, you know, a lot of ancillary expenses. So it’s a very it’s a lot of work, though, right. So for let’s say that you make after taxes, you know, maybe 180 bucks.

00:09:38:10 – 00:09:56:13
Boots Levinson
Right. And you’ve taken somebody around to see ten properties and a couple units in each property. That’s a lot of work just to get paid that. Right. So we’re entrepreneurs, you know, our we get paid by the amount of time and effort we do. If I was a W-2 employee, you know that that’s something completely different. My income is guaranteed, right?

00:09:56:22 – 00:10:26:00
Boots Levinson
But as a 1099 employee, we’ve got to do everything we possibly can. And it’s not about as for myself, if I represent a tenant, it’s not about that dollar amount at the end of the transaction. Right? It’s that relationship. It’s providing amazing concierge service and attentiveness to detail to that client’s needs. And then it’s making sure I’m one of those I’m at that 89 percentile where that agent or that leave, rather, is going to come back to me, our team or company.

00:10:26:01 – 00:10:44:02
Boots Levinson
After that one transaction, an average in Pennsylvania, a renter will renew for two years. They’ll say one apartment that were new for second year. And most likely they will move on that third term to another property. We’re all we’re along with them for the entire ride we’re following up after they move and moving gifts, that kind of stuff.

00:10:44:07 – 00:10:59:21
Boots Levinson
Nobody gets moving gifts and that kind of stuff for renters. Why? You know, why do it? You’ve already made 180 bucks. What are you going to do, give $40 to a moving you know, moving gift? But it’s not about that one transaction. We want them to be there. We want to be their trusted advisers for all things in real estate.

00:11:00:09 – 00:11:13:15
Daniel Ramsey
I love that. How how often in your sales business do the leads come from the rental, the rent Philly side of your business, like the niche to your good commissions?

00:11:13:17 – 00:11:38:17
Boots Levinson
It’s a it’s a good percentage, right? So you know, if you think about it, ah my, my goal is to say if you are spending 1600 dollars a month in rent, we hope you can own that same dollar amount. Right. And as your rent increases one year to the next year to the next year, your mortgage stays the same rate from the next year to the next year to the next year.

00:11:38:24 – 00:12:01:05
Boots Levinson
Right. Unless you refinance at a better rate and you know, in law and stuff like that. But essentially you’re able to move on to a, you know, an investment side where you earning a return, right? So you’re the property value increases. But as a renter, that’s it. So, you know, a lot of our renters, you know, whether they have great income or not as much income, a lot.

00:12:01:10 – 00:12:30:03
Boots Levinson
In Philadelphia, we have a lot of new construction buildings. And so you’re getting some amazing amenities now that a lot of the condo buildings and townhouses don’t have or can’t compete with. So with the market where it is, a lot of people, you know, don’t know where they’re going to be in a year or two years or three years, even if they know they have a job here in Philadelphia and they know they’re going to be here for four years or five years, it’s still uneasy for them continuing to rent.

00:12:30:03 – 00:12:31:08
Boots Levinson
And we’re seeing a lot more of that.

00:12:31:12 – 00:12:46:03
Daniel Ramsey
I get it. I get it. Before we dove in, I’ve got a bunch of questions about team you outsource with my old desk. I love that. And also what’s going on in the market. But before we go, if you’re listening right now, I want to give you an opportunity to get our new book. We just finished a book.

00:12:46:08 – 00:13:09:17
Daniel Ramsey
It’s it’s really cool. I want heart and soul into this thing. So if you’re listing, all you have to do is text s VP scale with virtual professionals. SVP 231996 and you get a copy of our free ebook and it’s I put my heart and soul in this thing, man. It’s got all of our tips, all of our tricks, all the frameworks you need to win with a virtual assistant.

00:13:09:17 – 00:13:35:04
Daniel Ramsey
So I’m excited for you guys to get that. But we talked a little bit and I was I was surprised. I’m going to tell you why I was surprised. You knew that L.A. Market had shifted. Most real estate people aren’t tracking stats on a national basis. And what really happened is San Diego shifted first, and L.A. is just in the major market, 19, like it’s one of the major 19 markets.

00:13:35:04 – 00:13:58:23
Daniel Ramsey
So it’s a lead indicator for the rest of the country. And you start and we just had the president of NCBA on a call, the National Association of REO Brokers, and he’s like, look, it’s churn. When you look at Illinois’s and some of the Northeast, he’s seeing a lot of people kind of going away from the top part of of the U.S. and moving down into the Sunshine States.

00:13:58:23 – 00:14:15:08
Daniel Ramsey
And because of that, we’re seeing foreclosures tick up again. And so tell us your perspective on the market. You’re in Philly. It’s a major market. It’s, you know, actually beautiful. One of my favorite places, by the way, is my mine. My cheesesteak is Geno’s, by the way.

00:14:16:06 – 00:14:20:04
Boots Levinson
It’s great minds. Jim Steaks will battle it out.

00:14:20:22 – 00:14:27:00
Daniel Ramsey
Here you go. So what’s going on in your market and what’s your feeling about, you know, where we’re we’re heading?

00:14:27:10 – 00:14:55:02
Boots Levinson
So, you know, my my my partners and I, which are Ben Oller, Gareth Gambier and Kate Gledhill. We constantly look at market trends, right? So you would say why would L.A. or New York or Denver or Miami affect us, right? So why shouldn’t it? And the reason is, is we’re all tied together, right? Whether we see things happen at a later date, we can see where trends are happening.

00:14:55:14 – 00:15:27:16
Boots Levinson
And to then forecast out ten steps, 20 steps down, what will it look like? What are they seeing? What are the agents so the market or the client’s doing in another market that if it comes here, how can we better service our clients? And so here in in Philadelphia, speaking specifically towards the rental market, we’ve seen a huge amount of new construction, multifamily properties, you know, 100 units or more being built across Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs.

00:15:27:16 – 00:15:53:19
Boots Levinson
Right. We also have a reduction in what’s called is brain drain. We’re seeing a lot of them staying here because we become a good tech hub. We’ve got hospitals, insurance companies, tech incubators here. We’re also in between New York and D.C. It’s easy to commute to both, you know, with a train and all that kind of stuff. So we’ve seen, you know, great startups, great businesses starting here.

00:15:54:01 – 00:16:27:12
Boots Levinson
But we’ve also seen because of all this new construction we’ve seen where some of the original units for rent, whether they’re in existing multifamily buildings or or in condo buildings where they would normally rent in 30 days or less. We’re seeing them stay longer on the market because I guess you could call it many overload, right. So if you’re if you’re sitting at a diner and you see 300 different menu options compared to another restaurant that only has 50, how long are you going to stay at that table before you make a choice?

00:16:27:21 – 00:16:59:06
Boots Levinson
Right. There’s lots of options. And because of that, we’re seeing also some changes in application screenings and requirements such as instead of in Philadelphia, the average is first class and security in order to acquire a property from a tenant. Right. Tenants, which is significant. So we do see some companies here, some national companies and multinational companies offering, you know, strict, you know, like one bedroom security deposit, $500, two bedroom, 750.

00:16:59:17 – 00:17:16:11
Boots Levinson
We’re also seeing a lowering of credit score requirements, which, if you had any inkling back to the mortgage crisis what happens in verifying income it we’re seeing a little loosening here to help to reduce days on market for some of these these units.

00:17:17:07 – 00:17:22:23
Daniel Ramsey
And you use the rental market as a lead indicator to the sales side of your business, is that.

00:17:22:23 – 00:17:25:05
Boots Levinson
Correct? We do. We do.

00:17:25:14 – 00:17:41:13
Daniel Ramsey
Okay, that’s interesting. So your niche is helping inform your main practice where the majority of your revenue and commissions kind of happen. Talk to us about tightening the belts and outsourcing and using my outsource. What’s that? What’s that been feel like for you guys.

00:17:42:03 – 00:18:11:13
Boots Levinson
So I wouldn’t necessarily call tightening the belt and and here’s the reason why rentals don’t necessarily generate a lot of income per transaction. You need a lot of transactions to gain an overall right increase in revenue. But we know that our model is you’re a renter now, most likely you’re not going to be in in the future. So we’re investing now with our clients with the leads now.

00:18:11:13 – 00:18:34:05
Boots Levinson
So we may be spending more than what another individual or team or a company would be doing for rentals. But we know the value, we know the life cycle and we I think that we’re really the first that I know of that specializes in what we do. So using virtual assistants inside sales agents or outsourcing some of the some of our type of stuff, it has been vital, vital for us.

00:18:34:05 – 00:19:01:20
Boots Levinson
So for example, let’s say that an individual agent generates 50 leads a month. Some of those are buyer leads, seller leads. They’re calling for sale by owners and expired or withdrawn and networking. And a couple of them are rental leads. Well, some of these newer agents or even agents, you know, experience agents can only work with, let’s say, five deals at one time going on to where they or seven or whatever their number is.

00:19:01:20 – 00:19:21:17
Boots Levinson
But at one point, they cannot continue to lead generate because their time and effort are all on that. You know, those clients right in our business is basically it looks like this for income revenue, right? So you’ve got deals coming in, you’re making money making money. Then all of a sudden cool down three months, nothing coming in and then it’s like this, right?

00:19:22:04 – 00:19:26:19
Boots Levinson
Same thing for rentals, right? For the rental side of the business. Same thing for sales and listings and all that kind of stuff.

00:19:26:19 – 00:19:31:01
Daniel Ramsey
So we call that the real estate roller coaster, by the way.

00:19:31:04 – 00:19:33:24
Boots Levinson
Who I don’t like rollercoasters.

00:19:34:11 – 00:19:41:00
Daniel Ramsey
I, I like consistent ups, you know, like I like consistent this. Yes.

00:19:41:13 – 00:20:09:21
Boots Levinson
Yep. I like trending up without those big trial trials and downward slope. So, you know, recognizing that for us, if we generate a thousand leads a month, 2000 leads a month, and I’m only talking now rental leads. Write rental leads. You know how many of those you need to close? How many, you know, agents that will give in our team or an individual agent will do and do something completely different every time.

00:20:09:24 – 00:20:30:17
Boots Levinson
So if I have ten leads and I hand them out to ten different people and say, I want a 25% referral fee to ten different agents who want to take these leads, maybe 1%, maybe less than that will close. Maybe you’ll make 25% on those ten that are handed off for us. We actually we can’t offer a 25% referral feedback if they refer them to us.

00:20:30:17 – 00:20:55:14
Boots Levinson
What we do offer is 10% and you’ll say, Well, why just 10%? Well, because on average we’re going to close three of those. Got it up to ten because we have a system set in place. We handle all in the same way in regards to qualifying, handing them to agents so that they are ready to go and not bothered by all the follow ups that are required to get leads ready to go out to tour.

00:20:55:24 – 00:21:36:12
Boots Levinson
And, you know, these agents would make that hand out these referrals so they’re not making 25% per deal. But if we’re saying we’re going to close 30% of the time, you’re now making 5% more by heading matches. They’re making 30% return instead of maybe 25. So my out ask has been really revolution has revolutionized our business, right? So we would generate rental leads out the wazoo immediately hand them off to our agents that are working them and have them call follow up, reach out top of their normal business, which is buying, selling, investing, that kind of stuff as well.

00:21:36:23 – 00:22:01:18
Boots Levinson
And so what we found is we need to find a better way to remove amount of the amount of time that these agents are using to follow up and get these leads ready to go out and tour. And it’s been remarkable what we’ve been able to accomplish together. Daniel, I mean, your company has really provided I, I can’t tell you how many hours we’ve been able to save for our agents.

00:22:01:21 – 00:22:36:06
Boots Levinson
I mean, on average, an agent will take one hour to qualify a lead over the life of that lead for one transaction for rental. Let’s call and following up, texting, all that stuff, plus paperwork and 2 hours to go out and tour. We’ve been able to reduce the amount of time that our agents have had to qualify by a third rate by doing your your virtual assistants and essays here on our team, which means that we can get our agents out closing deals faster, more efficiently and more often, and having a higher return on investment because they’re out doing what they do best.

00:22:37:13 – 00:22:53:20
Daniel Ramsey
I love it. And no salesperson wants to follow up on leads. They want to meet people, drive them around, show them property and have fun. They don’t want to do the paperwork. They don’t want to talk to people. They get three people. They just don’t want to do that. I love that. BOOTS Talk to us about your team, Mike.

00:22:53:20 – 00:23:17:24
Daniel Ramsey
How you know, what does it look like in your office to handle all of these rental, you know, folks? And you know what? What if somebody said, okay, I like his idea, I’m in a major city. Maybe they’re in the top 19 markets and there’s actually a rental market in the in their downtown area. How what what would somebody how do you start is?

00:23:17:24 – 00:23:18:18
Daniel Ramsey
I guess, the question.

00:23:19:03 – 00:23:39:21
Boots Levinson
If somebody is in that position, I would say contact me. Let’s open up an office and get run it right off the right. So for us, we are our model is interchangeable regardless of the market, right? So what we do can be put in place in any market, any area, whether it’s in the top 19 or in the bottom half.

00:23:39:21 – 00:24:08:03
Boots Levinson
It doesn’t matter because again, we want to work with clients that at least for my myself and perspective, are renters now but will become buyers in the future. And even for clients that they have, kids they own, we want to also teach them real estate, wealth, health as well. Why not work with them as a renter and get them to understand the real estate market as they move forward, you know, and keep it in, you know, in the family.

00:24:08:03 – 00:24:40:01
Boots Levinson
So our team consists of 60 agents. We are a team within a larger brokerage called K W Philadelphia. Now, my partners, Ben Adler and Groff, recently purchased the market center. So for our own brokerage before joining Keller Williams, Philadelphia, and we had my partners have the opportunity to buy the market center. They did it so in 2017. And now we are a highly specialized team within that brokerage.

00:24:40:01 – 00:25:06:09
Boots Levinson
The brokerage has about 400 plus agents and we have 60 agents on our team now. We have part time and full time agents on our team. And for us, for the rental side of the business, it’s it’s just it’s remarkable to see newer agents, experienced agents really understand the benefit of working with renters. Right. It’s it’s a no brainer for us.

00:25:06:20 – 00:25:30:24
Boots Levinson
And, you know, I teach a class, you know, twice a month at our KW Philadelphia office call renters are your 401k plan. Right. So as we as we talk already, renters turn to buyers and sellers. It’s a long game, right. And a lot of our agents don’t have a retirement plan. Right? Set up a401k established plan or, you know, in other investments and stuff like that.

00:25:30:24 – 00:25:50:16
Boots Levinson
They’re bringing in alternative income streams and stuff like that. But renters really three small apartments for $100,000 or 200 or five. It doesn’t matter the price. And 20 years later, when I go to sell that property and a friend of mine asked me what it boots what you buy that property for, and I tell him they would freak out, right?

00:25:51:05 – 00:26:10:17
Boots Levinson
What they don’t realize is all those 25 years I’m making a cash or cash return plus the increased value in the property as well. So there’s or exactly the same way over the life span of that renter, they’re going to rent for two years. They may move or renew. Then they’re going to buy, they’re going to sell. They’re going to buy again.

00:26:10:17 – 00:26:21:15
Boots Levinson
And Natrium investors and they may end up renting again as they downsize, you know, within the life cycle of renting, owning, buying, selling, investing back to renting. And that kind of stuff.

00:26:21:15 – 00:26:35:07
Daniel Ramsey
So how do you guys pay? One question that I have for your 60 agents, do you buy reeds on other platforms or are most of your leads generated from this kind of referral rental space?

00:26:35:20 – 00:27:00:18
Boots Levinson
So I would say that we do our echo, our organic way of generating leads is, I think, second to none. Right? So if you’re looking and you Google or you search for rentals in Philadelphia beyond all the paid advertising, that’s always on the top of first page. Second page, we’re always coming up organically regardless of the building, the multifamily units and that kind of stuff.

00:27:00:18 – 00:27:41:22
Boots Levinson
We’re always coming up so organically we generate a significant amount of leads, right? So it’s almost like doing an open house when somebody comes to an open house and they’re looking to buy is better. If somebody organically comes to our website, there’s a reason why they came to rent Philly.com. It’s not just randomly, right? So yeah, so we do also purchase leads or spend money towards lead generate, but rather I’d like to consider more branding and brand awareness rather than lead gen where we’re doing Facebook stuff, we’re doing Google stuff as well and our agents are posting to social media and Twitter and tagging everybody, Instagram and all that.

00:27:43:03 – 00:28:05:06
Boots Levinson
But it’s branding per se. It’s not the hard sell. If I’m trying to hard sell a renter, they’re going to unsubscribe like that, right? That I need to either move or renew. That’s it. I don’t need any ancillary things and talking, you know, like that’s their mindset, which is also why I love working with renters. You got a 50 when they contact, you’ve got a 5050 chance that they’re going to end up moving or renewing with a buyer.

00:28:05:12 – 00:28:08:04
Boots Levinson
Could be six months, 12 months, two years.

00:28:08:14 – 00:28:32:04
Daniel Ramsey
I love it. Okay. Well, we’re about to end Boots. We’ve had a really great interview. I think you you really nailed this niche. And it’s unusual for us to have somebody with this much sophisticated explain their niche. So I really, really appreciate you and kind of spending time with us today. I want to offer everybody kind of the last thing again, get the book Scaling Your Business with Virtual Professionals.

00:28:32:11 – 00:28:46:23
Daniel Ramsey
The tax code is SVP and you text s VP 231996. You can get a copy. Boots What do you want to tell our audience? What’s the one thing that they should know about kind of building a rental niche in their business?

00:28:47:15 – 00:28:49:20
Boots Levinson
Contact me.

00:28:49:20 – 00:28:52:01
Daniel Ramsey
How that how would that?

00:28:52:08 – 00:29:14:04
Boots Levinson
So it go on to rent philly.com. There’s tons of places to put your information in. You can always send me an email at boots at the condo shops dot com which is our parent team and it’s a value add for our business by using your your company which is you know we if you think about it by hiring virtual assistants, right.

00:29:15:16 – 00:29:39:15
Boots Levinson
Some of the employees and other companies may say, oh my God, you’re hired virtual assistant. My job is at risk, right? So it’s not the case with us. We hire and look for talent so that they can grow within our company and be part of a family. We really consider our team a family side to it. So if we are reducing hours from repetitive tasks, right, stuff that is the same thing going on.

00:29:40:07 – 00:30:05:18
Boots Levinson
It frees up your time so that you can work on more meaningful projects, write more ways to expand. And I love helping our agents in that regards as well. So, you know, using the virtual assistants is not we’re reducing, you know, their income in any way. It’s creating opportunities. And that’s that’s what we were about and couldn’t have done it without our partners.

00:30:05:18 – 00:30:24:11
Boots Levinson
Our partners are just amazing. Our families amazing. But yeah, I mean, we’re the real deal. We keep it simple. We do it right. We and we always do it the same way. And also looking for better ways of doing it, such as using, you know, you guys and it’s just great. Daniel It’s been great.

00:30:24:21 – 00:30:40:06
Daniel Ramsey
Well, thanks for your time, Boots. You’ve been awesome. You’ve really given a lot to the audience. I just appreciate you guys and I would definitely check out Rent Philly. If you’re interested in putting this niche, this particular niche into your business. And, you know, thanks for your time again.

00:30:41:00 – 00:30:42:07
Boots Levinson
It’s my pleasure. Thank you.

00:30:42:16 – 00:30:50:21
Daniel Ramsey
I bet.