272: Self-Management with Show Me the Rental with Cliff Hayden

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It's my pleasure. Welcome Cliff Hayden. He is the founder of Show Me the Rental and this is a self management tool. It is such a great time to have all of this technology that can help us be become empowered investors. And that's what we're all about on this show, empowering millions of investors to take control of their income properties, to take control of their financial future. And this is another one of many potential tools out there. Cliff, welcome. How are you?

I'm great, Jason. I'm very excited to be here. Thank you very much.

Yeah, good to have you on. You are a real estate investor. I guess you were probably frustrated with the process of leasing properties so you created a tool to help make that easier, Right? Good.

Correct.

Okay, fantastic. Well, what happened? What was just, you know, very quickly, what was kind of the seminal moment that brought this about?

My wife actually I was so busy in real estate, had so many things going on that I didn't have a lot of free time. So I would actually come home for dinner with I actually got five kids. So I would come home for dinner at night. If I had empty rental houses, I would be on the phone, email, texting back and forth, not really being present. So my wife, I tell everybody, if you remember Superman, when he looked at you and his eyes got real red and could shoot lasers out of his eyes, that's kind of what my wife felt like because we were having a bad home life. So I was just so busy working, so busy trying to do what I thought was a good father, which was put food on the table. But I was kind of missing the big picture. So I just knew I had to do something different and put some systems in place. So I went out and tried to find systems that did this automatic screening and pre screening and I couldn't find anything. And so then we just decided to create one.

Okay. I think it's important first to define tenant screening. What is tenant screening? Now most people think it's okay the tenant fills out an application and you run their credit report. Hopefully you run a criminal background check too. And that would be like sort of a complete screening in terms of the, you know, specific task. But it might include checking job references, could even verify bank accounts, you know, of course, interviewing the potential tenant and so forth. There's an issue of defining screening because your system does part of it, but not all of it yet. But what's kind of good about that is it allows people to use other tools with your system. It's complementary. Right. So for example, you know, we've had Cozy on the show a few times. You know, some of our clients use that, some of our clients use other tools. There are many of them out there nowadays to do screening, to do rent collection. You can do the screening yourself. And when I say screening, I'm talking about like running a credit report and criminal. What does your system do and how does it save investors time?

So what our system does is it kind of I picture like a big funnel. So if you had empty rental houses before, you just in our area, you get just a truckload of emails or phone calls and inquiries about the house. And a lot of them aren't qualified to even view your house. So my thought of screening a tenant is, it's in line with my lifestyle of what I want out of a customer, what type of houses that I particularly buy, which we're not going to go into that. So this system is built to kind of, I want to say, screen these tenants so you're not wasting your time with people that aren't qualified to go view your house. And it just cuts out so much time because you don't have to talk to them, you don't have to deal with them, you don't have to even associate with them until you get a paid application, which our system automates that whole process and the showing process. And then once you get a paid application, then we go in there and then, because everybody's management's different on how they screen people, like you just said, with background checks, criminal checks, bank statements, W2s, paycheck stubs. So everybody's different on how they screen section 8, not section 8. So this system just kind of weeds all those people out and get you those 10 or 12 qualified leads and applications and then you kind of go from there.

Okay, so tell us about, you know, mechanically exactly how it works. The owner landlord would set up an account on your site and they'd pay what, $49 and that's a one time fee, right, until the property's rented. Is that correct?

Correct. So basically what we did is we created an online system. It advertises for you to all the major websites, generates leads. And so when a tenant will go on a Zillow and find your house, instead of them contacting you, it's going to contact our system.

Tell me what contact your system means. It means what they click on a link. I mean, doesn't Zillow require that there be phone numbers in there or something? There always seems to be.

There does. That's a great question. And so every city we have. Show me the rental phone number. So you put your phone number in there. So nowadays, you know, there are still people that use phones.

Yeah, I know a little bit.

But our system tries to gear them towards their cell phone, which would be through text messages or through our email. And then from there they'll ask your pre screening questions. I'm sorry, they'll answer pre screening questions that you selected from our system. And then once they pass those qualifying questions, we'll then set them up to set up a showing which is done automatically through our system also.

Okay, so let's review what the system does. It fields inquiries from Zillow from all of the websites that you aggregate the content to. Right. Do you include Craigslist in there?

We have not yet. Because Craigslist you can't post to. You have to manually do it. So we're not.

I had a feeling you'd say that. Okay, but they could use Craigslist or some other non participating site, I assume, and put the link in that you supply. You supply each investor a link for a specific property, right?

Yes, sir.

Correct. Okay. Okay. And then the applicant, prospective tenant can go and click on that link and that's where it asks them the screening questions, right?

Yes.

Okay.

You'll gather up another cool thing about it. It's a database. So you actually have a huge database of everybody that inquired about your system. And we also have.

You mean your property?

Your property Property, yeah, I'm sorry, your property. And we also have a cross reference database system built. Once they fill out a profile, we can go ahead and automatically match them up with properties in our system already, which is a very cool feature. So if you. So say for instance, if I want to look, one of our heavy zip codes is 40207. So we might have right now a potential of 40 tenants that are already looking at 40207. Once you put your property on there, it'll reference that against the questions you have versus what they answered in our profile and send them the house automatically.

Okay. So it might provide some leads, too. But let's just assume that that's a perk and it may, may or may not happen. I'm not gonna. Let's just use it as a. As a tool. Okay, so give us an example of some of these screening questions it would ask. How many question. What kind of questions would you want to ask? You can make your own or use your. Your suggested questions, right?

You cannot make your own as of yet. So basically we have around 30 questions, and they're based on lifestyle, your income levels, pets, you know, different things that you're going to want to know.

Okay.

And so basically a sample question is, how long have you been on your current job? That would be one question. A big one we have is, are you on section 8? Another question would be, you know, one of my favorites is, do you have tools and can you complete small jobs like unclogging toilets?

I'm concerned that you might run afoul of fair housing laws if you're not careful with this. You gotta be. It's. It's a really touchy subject nowadays. Yeah, yeah, that's good. Okay. All right, go ahead, Go ahead.

Okay.

We definitely all like handy people in our properties. There's no question.

Yeah, well, they're not disqualified. It's just a question we asked.

Yeah, right. Okay.

Do you have a co signer? How much money do you have in all your bank accounts? Do you ever sublet? How long do you anticipate staying in the home? When do you plan on moving in? Are you a smoker? How many people will be living with you? You know, provide credit references from your employer or former landlord. Are you convicted of a felony or currently awaiting trial for a felony? So just questions like that.

These are, these are all the questions that. This takes the repetitive nature out of it, right? You let the technology do this repetitive work, which makes it a lot easier. And it's sort of easy on the fly for an investor to. For to ask one of these questions. So do you require that the prospective tenant answer all the questions? Will it not let them go to the next page or complete the application without answering?

So basically what will happen is we have some investors that use it that they don't even ask questions. They just want to get the lead information. They want to get their name, phone number, email, so you don't have to ask questions. But if they answer the questions incorrectly, it'll say, sorry, you do not qualify to view this property.

These are yes or no questions always, right?

Correct.

Okay. And so you put the criteria in there as well. Interesting. That's like another layer. So it's not just you'll get the answers to the questions, you'll get the actual screening and you'll only get the tenants that answer the way you want.

Correct.

Okay, interesting. Very interesting.

It's like a big funnel. So you're not. Because that's what we found out. It's a great question is we were asking the same questions over and over and over again and you might go through 80, 90 people before you find those few that are qualified. And it just, we, so we just automated that whole process.

Okay. And then what's next? They answer the questions and everything worked out on the answers. So every, everything was good there. Then what is there a link that is provided to the prospective tenant that says, you know, go here to apply and then it's the application and that'll run their credit and background check. Is that the next step? Correct.

So the next step is once they pass, it'll send them showing instructions based on how you show your properties via sign out, a key at your office, an appointment, an open house, a lockbox, however you.

Yeah, it could be an electronic lock.

And you know, every show you'll give them that information.

Okay.

And then from there, after they view the house, it'll send them a link for an application. Now we have an online application, like a generic one or if you have your own. Like we use Buildium, so we have our own applications. So we put our link in the system so it sends them Buildiums link to Buildiums, our application, and then from there they fill it out. Once they fill it out, we get notification and we start screening.

That's fantastic. Okay, good. Anything else? Are there any other features you want people to know about?

No, that's basically it I'm really impressed with. It's such a time saver. That's all I can say. We actually can sit home at dinner at night with my kids now and I don't have 50 things going on. I'm kind of slowing down with it and this system does it all. While I can do, I'm doing everything else I need to get do.

Yeah, that's fantastic. In terms of the cross referencing of the tenants where basically it can take tenants and send those tenant leads to other properties. Right. If they don't match with this one. Anything else you want people to know about? That, that or you know, how many leads can they get? Is it an unlimited number or you know, how does that work? And then maybe anything else on the way, you know, you fill out your properties, profile, I assume you upload photos, description and address, and then it aggregates to all these other websites that it's, you know. How many websites? Which websites? I know. Zillow, of course. We mentioned anything else on those two components of it.

Yeah, it does all the. All the major ones. Zillow, Trulia, hot pads, basically all of them at like Craigslist. Yeah, I think we're on, I want to say 20 something, almost 30 something websites.

Okay. And then when the property is leased, it takes them off of those sites, I hope. Right.

Well, once you lease the property, you will go into the system and just turn it off.

Okay. And then it shuts everything down. It'll shut it off. That's so convenient. And there are other products that do that. That part I know other products do that, but I don't know if they have the same kind of screen questionnaire that you have, which is interesting. You know, it aggregates the pictures, syndicates those on all these websites as well, Right?

Yes.

Okay, fantastic. Anything else you want people to know?

No, not really. Just. I hope it helps people. It's a huge time saver for us and kind of give me some time back in my life.

Yeah.

And for $49, we made it as cheap as we possibly could to get people some help and kind of get some time back.

And it's a pretty new product. Right. How long. When did you launch?

We just launched literally a little less than a year ago.

Okay.

We've been working on it for a while and tweaking it and now. Yeah, we just launched less. Less than a year ago.

Like how many investors are using it so far?

Right now we're about. I want to say between 40 and 50. Active is about what we have right now.

Okay. Any tips beyond your system that you just want to share? Just anything that you want to share in terms of general property management tips that you can share with our listeners before you go, Cliff, you know, I.

Kind of give you my life experience. When I got into this, I bought hot and heavy for a lot of years and built up a lot of rentals and was just miserable. I just had too much stuff going on. So my thought on management is figure out what kind of lifestyle you want to have and then build your portfolio based on that. So we've kind of spent the last six, seven years upgrading our portfolio to A and B properties so I can travel with my kids all summer. Now I don't have to worry about a lot of headaches going on our customers are really nice, good people and we have good relationships and so that works for us. I'm not saying that works for everybody.

Right.

But I would just say build your system and your management company on your kind of principles and what you like doing. And I think it becomes, for me anyway, it became a lot easier and I enjoy my life and my kids a lot more, which is very nice. My wife's a lot happier, which is also very nice.

Yeah, good, good. That's, that's good advice. What do you love about real estate?

I like doing deals. So right now we're big on tax free investing. So I'm doing a lot of option deals and stuff in my IRA and just learning new techniques and new strateg strategies to help people out. Whether you're working on cash flow growth, investment management, whatever part you're working on. I like doing the deals and talking to people and seeing a situation and figuring out how to help them out. I get a lot of fulfillment from that.

Good stuff. Cliff Hayden, thanks for joining us. The website is showmeetherntal.com Think of Jerry Maguire, but instead of money rental, which equals money either way, right? Showmeterental.com that's where we got the name from too.

That's pretty good.

Good stuff. Thanks again, Cliff.

Thank you, Jason.

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