Dear Billionaire

This week I thought I would walk you through a property assessment and why these are so important to any homeowner – but especially if you're new to the property.

I was on a site visit last week at a house where the homeowner had purchased it within the last 6 months to a year. They have had full blown renovations happening since they purchased it, and they purchased it as is. However, nobody did a full inspection of the property.

In this episode I share what I found, what's critical, and how I put this property assessment together.

Thanks for listening.

Get your FREE Property Assessment Report Template here: https://www.estatemanagementsystems.com/property-assessment-report-template-optin

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At midnight on Sunday, I was awakened by my phone vibrating. Not in a standard, silenced phone call way; more like an Amber Alert.

Without my glasses on, I dismissed it and went back to sleep. Minutes later, I heard one of many tornado sirens blast – longer than their average weekly testing. After the third or fourth round, I couldn’t ignore them. I got out of bed to look outside and check the weather; dead stillness. However, there was a hazy yellowish glow in the sky. The American flag that flies over the nearby bank’s rooftop – my visual form of a weather vane – was utterly still.

Sirens were still blaring. I checked the weather app on my phone. High winds were headed our way. I checked Tulsa Weather on Facebook, which confirmed exceptionally high winds were expected.

What happened after this was truly amazing. And even though I had long lists of emergency preparedness procedures and supplies for this exact situation, living through it gave me a different awareness.

In this episode, I share 10 things I learned from this experience that will help you prepare for emergencies. To implement your family plan, check out our How to Manage a Mansion™(HTMM™) Emergency Preparedness module: https://www.estatemanagementsystems.com/shop/p/htmm-emergency-preparedness

Thanks for listening.

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If you employ staff in your home, you are likely already using a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). And if you do, you probably have stipulations in it like the following, to which your staff have signed their understanding:

- They will not be involved in the preparation of a book, article, story, video, or film about the homeowner, their family business, their business interests, or their personal lives, interests, assets, or properties.

- And they will not disclose confidential information on blogs, Wikipedia, social networks, virtual worlds, or social media.

The problem? Even with specific language like this, your NDAs can have "gray areas" which, if they are not addressed, can lead to questions and conduct from the private service professionals you employ that go against the privacy level you expected when staff signed your agreement.

This episode of the Dear Billionaire Podcast sheds light on some NDA gray areas to look for to best protect both your family and your staff.

Thanks for listening.

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When it comes to hiring new staff, does it ever feel like you’re jumping off a cliff into the abyss? Like you and a private service professional are getting married without knowing each other really well?

I can tell you from experience as a former estate manager, and from the estate managers and house managers I speak with, that this feeling goes both ways.

The solution to this for both parties: a 90-day trial period

Use a 90-day trial to:

- Allow everyone to see each other when they're tired.

- Flush out some stressful situations.

- Reveal everyone’s truest personalities, allowing you to see if they work together, or don’t.

- Ask your estate manager to outline what you're going to receive in the 90 days

- Have them walk all of your properties so that, later, they can be effective in answering your questions as well as questions from other staff and contractors, and in making decisions on your behalf.

- Have them conduct both one-on-ones with your other staff members as well as team meetings so they can understand how staff interact with each other.

- Have them gather key contractor information so they are set to react efficiently while minimizing your risk if something goes wrong, is not on schedule, or is over budget.

- Write staff and contractor memorandums of understanding and have all staff and contractors sign them.

- Have your estate manager start providing weekly property summaries, one-page documents detailing what was completed, what's ongoing, what's coming up next week, stuck projects, and any staff updates.

- Have them capture all the above information in a system, preferably a project management system with a phone app, so that, in the event that this person doesn't last beyond 90 days, your next candidate won't have to dig so deep -- saving you time moving forward.

Thanks for listening.

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It’s time to look at household staffing differently

When a homeowner decides they need staff, they:

- hire people,

- sign the paychecks, and

- assume they’ll get the service they need from those employees.

Then, when staff questions overwhelm them – when the homeowner doesn’t get the service they desire, and they feel frustrated with the lack of control over their day and the lack of privacy within their homes – they often reduce the number of staff and ask fewer people to maintain their homes and provide personal services.

But…

When systems fail, or if there’s an emergency that no one is prepared for, the household staff gets deemed inadequate, often labeled “not a good fit.”

The staff gets fired, and this cycle repeats itself with new staff.

The frustration with training new staff and them not “getting it right” continues to the point of the homeowner wanting to downsize.

If this sounds correct, we’ve got answers.

My team created an eBook to address these issues related to:

- Why you want to become a good employer

- Knowing all that it takes to maintain your property and provide service to your family

- Capturing your preferences and pet peeves to share with everyone who works in your home

- And addressing whether you need a house manager

We’ve entitled this book The Ultimate Guide for Hiring Staff and Maintaining Your Luxury Home.

This 16-page document provides quick and actionable solutions to your toughest domestic staff challenges.

This eBook is free if you schedule a call with me (https://calendly.com/estate-management-systems/demo).

Or, for a very small fee, you can download it from our website at https://www.estatemanagementsystems.com/shop/p/ebook-the-ultimate-guide

I think you’ll find that it will address 99% of your household staffing challenges. And we think your staff will thank you, too.

Thanks for listening.

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From the first day I stepped into my role as an estate manager, I had an idea of how I thought it should be. I had been working on luxury properties for more than 20 years, but not in them. And I felt like I had hit the jackpot when I was hired for this very demanding role. One that I felt I was 110% suited for.

I thought that by being employed by a high-tech giant that I would walk into a world of professionalism and sophistication that I hadn’t experienced in the landscape construction world (and I worked with the best contractors available). But, I was wrong.

Thanks for listening.

Find out the full story, plus details on what an ideal day for an estate manager looks like, here: https://www.estatemanagementsystems.com/blog/ideal-day-in-the-life-estate-manager 

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One of the most important tasks you should complete before hiring staff is this Master Maintenance Task List. You can create this yourself in Excel. There are only (5) columns. They are:

1) Item or Category

2) Who completed the task

3) Frequency that the task needs to be completed

4) How long each task takes to complete

5) What is the task

The investment of time to create this task database provides information such as:

-How many hours it takes to maintain your home and meet your service needs (thus, determining how many staff are required).

-It helps determine if a staff member is assigned too many responsibilities, needs extra training to increase efficiency, or is underperforming.

-How much time each system requires for maintenance. That will allow you to assess whether using staff or contractors is smart and whether to repair or replace older mechanical equipment.

-How much time will your staff be required to work each week to keep up with their responsibilities. In other words, will they be required to work overtime frequently? If so, consider contracting out the service or hiring another maintenance tech to lessen your staff’s need to work overtime.

This information helps proactively schedule preventative maintenance and develops a scope of work so your subcontractors can price their service.

Create this document for each property you manage to track critical information. Then, create a free Trello.com account (or other project management software) to implement this information to track progress and communicate with your household team about each of these tasks.

We sell this document in our House Manual Templates, available to download and edit for your principal, property, and personnel needs.

Thanks for listening. 

For more information, visit our Linktrees:

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King Charles’ coronation was an extraordinary experience filled with pomp and circumstance, gold and glitz, and all of the eye candy that we royal watchers can stand. But many who posted on social media this week – I’ll call them the lip readers – counted the times Charles said, “Thank you.”

So, we all know that he was hyper aware of the millions and millions of people that were watching him during the coronation. But what a nice thing to focus on in his role, and at his stature.

The coronation is a reminder that we’ve talked before about royal treatment and what it takes to get that in domestic staffing in your own home – whether you’re in 2,000 square feet or in a palace, it doesn’t matter. There are some essential experiences and lessons to be learned about how that is going to add value, security, and privacy to your life.

So, I want billionaires and millionaires to stop doing these three things that prevent them from attaining the level of value, security, and privacy they deserve.

1. Creating unsustainable roles.

2. Assuming that your staff knows what you want.

3. Under-staffing your household.

Take a moment to figure out how your entire life can become more peaceful, more secure, and more streamlined with the right staff, given the right information, and what it would take to just say "thank you" and let them feel appreciated. King Charles is doing it.

Thanks for listening.

Get our FREE Master Maintenance Task List, mentioned in this podcast, at: https://www.estatemanagementsystems.com/master-maintenance-task-list-optin

For more information, visit our Linktrees:

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Recent job descriptions of estate managers have become a laughable list of unrealistic expectations and impossible deliverables.

As with any job, an employee should have reasonable agility to adapt to ever-changing work environments.

While the growing trend of homeowners wanting fewer staff in their homes is understandable, it shouldn’t be seen as an opportunity for unethical behavior.

Thanks for listening. 

For more information, visit our Linktrees:

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Remember, staff won't leave employers or managers when they feel successful, well-paid, supported, and valued. The best candidates have options, and seasoned vets' salaries are at an all-time high. You’ll need to be an excellent employer to attract and maintain a trusted household team.

Here are the top 10 ways to retain world-class staff.

Thanks for listening. 

For more information, visit our Linktrees:

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https://linktr.ee/estatemanagementsystems

#luxurylifestyle #luxuryhomes #uhnwi #domesticstaff #estatemanager #billionaire #millionaire #mansion #householdstaff #housemanager