“I’m very excited to continue working on growing my business, and implementing the processes and procedures available to me, to increase my efficiency. By operating our business with the utmost integrity and respect to our clients, as well as offering them top notch customer service, we should see steady growth and be able to capture a decent size market share within Grande Prairie”.
Betheboss.ca: What attracted you to open a Real Property Management office?
Sheldon Dietz: I had been looking for a franchise business opportunity with solid systems in place in a market with good growth potential.
BTB: What tools and systems offered by RPM do you find most helpful in your business? Why?
SD: The most helpful tool offered to me as a franchisee has been the automated property management software. It can help manage every facet of your business and automatically generates all reports need to help streamline your business.
BTB: What immediate goals do you have for your RPM office?
SD: My original goal was to have the business managing 150 doors within the first year of business. We were lucky to have an opportunity to buyout another existing local property management company shortly after we took over the office. We were able to add an additional 132 doors to our existing portfolio, bringing our total number of managed properties to just over 250 within the first 3 months of business!
BTB: What is your professional background?
SD: My background actually had nothing to do with property management. I am a licensed automotive and heavy duty mechanic, and had been in the trade for about 19 years. It was about 5 years ago I started my investing career and bought my first investment property, I was able to grown my own real estate portfolio to over 20 doors, so I am very familiar with dealing with tenants, and I know how to get the best possible returns from an investment property.
BTB: What inspired you to enter a career in property management?
SD: As a real estate investor myself, I had heard horror stories from some of my tenants as well as other real estate investors on their poor experiences with other property management companies. When the opportunity came about, I knew that with my experience managing my own properties, I could add more value to homeowners and tenants over the competition by providing high quality customer service, and treating people fairly.
BTB: What are the best qualities about the community you work in?
SD: Grande Prairie is a unique town that is heavily driven by oil and gas activity, however it also has other industries that keep the town busy when oil and gas fluctuate as they do. It is also the main hub for Northwest Alberta, and Northeast British Columbia.
BTB: Where do you feel the local market is going in the next year? Where are the strong points?
SD: Grande Prairie has always been a town that has peaks and valleys due to the fact that there is a lot of oil and gas activity locally. From what my market research indicates, we should see a slight reduction in the price of residential real estate in the first half of the year. Investment real estate may also experience a bit of a price reduction, but shouldn’t be as much as residential. Investors know that even in a slower market, good investment property will continue to generate cash flow, and produce great results for them. I anticipate that a pull back in the real estate market will likely bring in more investors, which will make us busier.
BTB: What regions will you be focusing your services in?
SD: We will be mainly operating Real Canadian Property Management franchise in Grande Prairie, AB. However we will also manage properties in towns close by like Wembly, Clairmont, and Sexsmith.
BTB: Are you planning an opening party? If so, when is it?
SD: We have no planned an opening party as of yet, as we have been so busy with not only opening the business but also the second property management acquisition – and we will be moving into a new office early in the new year. More than likely we will have a grand opening party in the spring at our new location.
