Property Management Business Owner’s Ticket To Freedom

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Our hosts Marie Tepman and Brittany Jones recently welcomed Courtney Wolf, founder of RentWise Property Management in Idaho, to their show to discuss Courtney’s journey to successfully creating a hands-off business.

Courtney runs a thriving property management company in Boise that she has gotten to a point of running itself. When asked to expand on the steps she took to make this dream a reality, Courtney shared that it started with big dreams that were broken down into “biteable, doable, and reachable goals.”

She explains that her process involved getting an excellent business coach to hold her accountable and provide guidance, as well as buying in critical team members like her operations manager Carly. Together, they methodically worked backwards from their vision to establish micro-goals that they could tackle over the years to get RentWise to where it is today.

Starting Out Overwhelmed and Doing Everything

Running a property management company is an extremely demanding job. You have to coordinate maintenance, place lockboxes, do showings, answer all phone calls…the list goes on. It’s not uncommon for property managers to experience total overwhelm trying to juggle it all.

Courtney knows exactly what this feels like. When her Idaho-based company first launched, Courtney was a basically one-woman show doing absolutely everything needed to keep things running. Courtney knew something had to change for the business to be sustainable and for her to have any sort of work-life balance.

The Genesis: A Small Business Handling Every Task

Courtney started RentWise property management as the sole employee, handling all aspects completely on her own:

* Placing lockboxes

* Conducting showings

* Checking on maintenance issues

At the same time, her eventual Operations Manager, Carly, would work at the office answering all calls and managing day-to-day relations. The lean team worked hard but constantly felt overwhelmed and overburdened trying to self-manage everything.

The Catalyst: Facing Employee Burnout

Courtney shares the catalyst for taking her business virtual was Carly approaching her, feeling completely burnt out and ready to quit. Carly felt she had no freedom or work-life balance between her full-time job and demands at home.

Facing losing her right-hand employee, Courtney realized if she wanted to retain top talent long-term, she needed to rethink how she structured her business.

Working Backwards to Make the “Hands-Off” Vision a Reality

Courtney’s first step was engaging an experienced business coach. She needed someone who could hold her accountable to goals and break down her big-picture virtual vision into smaller, tactical steps.

Together they mapped out:

The Big Goals

* Create a 100% virtual property management company

* Design systems and processes for complete freedom from day-to-day operations

The Path to Make it Happen

* Determine company values to guide decisions

* Build the right in-house and outsourced team

* Map all processes in extreme detail

* Utilize technology for efficiency

Setting this strategic foundation with her coach gave Courtney clarity and confidence to systematically build her virtual model.

Assembling the Right Team

A key component enabling Courtney’s shift to virtual was curating the right staff across her organization, specifically: