A New York State of Mind just might be the end of RTO in that state

The industry of RTO has been in existance for over 40 years. It has overcome adversity, misunderstanding, and economic downturns. With a solid history and over 10 billion in revenues annually you would think that there is nothing but great things headed our way.  That is until bills A9585 and S9275 were introduced to the New York legislature this past session. With the possibility of shutting down RTO as we know it in the state of New York APRO notified the NYRDA to act fast to get on top of this new legislation, and see just what needed to be done to educate these lawmakers on the effects these two bills have on the RTO industry in this state. NYRDA's new president Jeff Smith and his partner Matt Radecki at Hometown Rent to Own are working hard to keep RTO working properly in the state of NY and so much more.

Sponspred by APRO, Vox Pop Uli, and Jeraud Marketing Group
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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Hello, everybody out there. How are you guys doing today? My name is Pete Chow. I'm your host of the RTO show, and today we're talking Rent to Own with Matt Radeki and Jeff Smith, the owners of Hometown Rent to Own. Best name ever, because it really just kind of showcases how we are in the neighborhood. These guys are from New York. How are you guys doing today?

SPEAKER_03 1:41

I'm doing great, Pete. How are you?

SPEAKER_00 1:43

Doing well, Pete. Excellent. Listen, guys, I first off I want to talk about Hometown Rent to Own because I can't help it. It's all over Facebook. There is a news store on the block. Where is it at? What's going on?

SPEAKER_03 1:54

So actually, we just opened up two locations about six weeks apart. Uh one in Quarry, Pennsylvania, one in Gwanda, New York, with more plans on the way. So it's been a very, very busy year for us and uh continually going to be busy, busier.

SPEAKER_00 2:09

Wait a minute, wait a minute. Now you're named hometown. Is hometown gonna get too big?

SPEAKER_03 2:13

There's there's never a too big. Not big enough.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

I like it. I like it a lot.

SPEAKER_02 2:18

And it doesn't matter how big we get, we're still gonna have that hometown feel. Uh we want to be connected with our customers. Uh we we know many of our customers by names and faces. You know, we're seeing we still handshake with all our employees, and it'll continue to be that way, whether it's you know, store six, store twelve, or store twenty.

SPEAKER_00 2:33

That's what I'm talking about. There's nothing like that hometown feel. Now, one of the reasons that I've got these gentlemen here today is because it's actually a very serious situation. Right now, the importance of your state RDAs, and when we say the the state RDA, it's the rental dealer associations, whether it's FRDA from Florida, whether it's Missouri, no matter where it's from, your RDA is extremely important because there's a lot going on. Now, before we get into the thick of it, give me a little backdown story. How did you guys get together to create hometown?

SPEAKER_03 3:02

So uh Jeff and I worked together at a previous company uh that's no longer in existence where we started. And I started in the industry in 2007, just as a delivery guy and account manager, and I made it very well known. I wanted to be at the top and and ask the questions on what it took to get there. Um, in a matter of seven years, I I fulfilled every position within the industry. My last position I fulfilled with the prior company was a district supervisor. And then in 2014, we opened up our first location in Salamanca, New York, and it was off to the races from there.

SPEAKER_00 3:35

Well, how is that for a success story? I'm gonna tell you right now. If anybody hasn't seen Matt, Matt's a large guy. I would have definitely put you on the truck at first, too. I'd have been like, hey, this guy can move a fridge, no problem. Let's make it happen. And Jeff, so as you guys were doing this, whose idea was it to create hometown?

SPEAKER_02 3:53

Um, it was actually our our predecessor's idea to kind of uh create the spin-off uh as they transitioned into retirement due to some unforeseen and unfortunate um circumstances. So we uh Matt Matt and another uh ex-partner uh approached me in 2021 to kind of help grow the business because my background was more of the IT uh home office side. I I also started in the industry in 2000 as an account manager, um, but uh after 2006 worked my way into the home office field and was the IT manager for for 12 stores and um kind of learned a lot of the payroll aspects, the behind the scenes, you know, the inventory processing, the invoicing, uh the dealers, you know, they're the vendors to deal with, and and that's kind of where I first heard about April and Tribb. And um, and then Matt and Chris uh brought me on uh in 2021, and then we've kind of just just grown in leaps and bounds uh together since then.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

So, so Matt, are you are you over the operations and then Jeff is over the back end?

SPEAKER_03 4:51

Yeah, that's that's kind of how we look at it. Um that's that's where my strengths are. Um, not that I can't do the back end, I just prefer to do operations front end. Um and Jeff, you know, that's where his skill sets at, and we compliment each other well.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

I I tell you what, man, uh I love to put my pretty face in the showroom if I don't scare anybody off with it. But I am probably better at customer relations than I am handling the back end. So I definitely understand that I understand the way you're approaching it because you have to have a knack for it. There is sometimes where the four walls start coming in on you, and I like being outside and being able to greet people and talk to people. And I couldn't tell you the first thing about labor laws unless, you know, you get work your 40, don't drop anything on yourself, make sure you clock in and clock out and take a lunch. You know, that's about it, right?

SPEAKER_03 5:32

So that's it, you nailed it.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

That's it. So hometown rent to own is in New York. Now, the reason that we brought this up, everybody, is because your state RDAs are super important. Now, before we get into everything, the rental dealer associations are set forward so that they have an understanding of what's going on in the state legally. So, not just with what's coming down to pipe, what's already there and what you want to do to address these issues. Now, as far as I remember, and Jeff, I think this is where you come in because you you you're playing a big role in this. New York really didn't have an active RDA, is that correct?

SPEAKER_02 6:09

Correct. Once I got into, you know, I mentioned that I was behind the scenes at uh my old company and kind of saw, you know, I knew a little about April and TRIB, but um, once I got to uh meeting of the mines in uh Atlanta last February, I kind of just saw the camaraderie in the in the industry, and that led me to uh kind of you know followed up into April at in San Antonio at RTO World. And then um when I found out there was a need for uh uh an RDA uh board, I guess, so to speak, I I put my name in the hat to be president of the New York Rental Dealers Association. Um and it kind of just you know um highlights the the importance of being April members for any any dealers out there that are independent dealers that aren't April members, you definitely need to be because um they were on top of this bill, you know, as soon as it got uh scratched onto a napkin or a piece of paper, and and Charles was in touch with me to to get the wheels in motion to kind of start being proactive and and and and put our best foot forward to to prevent this thing from from coming into play.

SPEAKER_00 7:06

Absolutely. So let's let's play this out. Let's let's show the scene. Right now, a few months ago, APRO, the Association of Progressive Rental Organizations, is one of the big watchdogs that we have. They watch over the nation as far as looking at the political landscape, the legality of what we're doing every single day, because rent to own is governed by its own laws. Well, out of nowhere comes New York. Now we have a representative, Helen Weinstein out of New York, who presents a couple of, well, she presents a bill and then somebody else presents another one, but the main one that we're talking about right now, guys, help me out with this. Uh I know I read up on it a little bit, but in your words, what does this bill do? What does this do for the people of New York? And what does it do, and more importantly, to the rent to own in that state?

SPEAKER_02 7:54

Yeah, it's eighty ninety five, eighty five. Um it basically was threatening to put a limit or like uh or or quantify rent to own as a credit transaction, uh, you know, being lumped in with the you know, buy now, pay later people, and uh it would put a put a limit on on what we could charge and and essentially put us put us out of business because that limit was so uh minute and constraining on what kind of margin we could have that you know it would put the uh put the independent and and the big the big dealers out out of business in New York State, quite honestly.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

So what it does, it essentially it takes the RTO transaction, lumps it in with a credit transaction, and then it puts a limit on the interest rate. Is that pretty much how it works?

SPEAKER_02 8:32

Yeah, that that's that's that's the way that was that was the way I understood it. It was like a it was like a six percent rate or something crazy like that.

SPEAKER_00 8:37

Correct. Now, what happens? So a couple of months ago, April gets a hold of this. They find out what's going on and they go to reach out to the New York Renter Dealers Association. How far did that go? And then how did it transition from you being outside of it doing hometown to also now being the president of the RDA?

SPEAKER_02 8:56

You know, April and the RDAs are for the independent dealers, so to speak. Um, you know, and had I not been involved, I I probably wouldn't have known about it, quite honestly. Um and in New York State, um, you know, Renaissance and Aaron's are are primarily uh a big portion of of what's what's in the state. And it was it was really encouraging to see um you know Brian Pachersky from Renaissance and uh Mike Wall from Aaron's kind of kind of piggyback with with us and and present a united front to to the assembly and to uh New York State in general. Um we had we had some lobbyists on the ground in in Albany working for us and pushing the words to um to those there to show that we're not bad people, we're not taking advantage of of you know uh unfortunate or underprivileged consumers that were actually there to help them. You know, it was really just an awesome big uh thing to be a part of. It was unexpected in a sense that you know when I would when I took over as president of New York rental dealers, it was kind of like, oh, you know, you just you have a meeting once a year, and then you kind of just you know, just kind of kind of just get by and do your do your thing. And then all of a sudden, you know, my feet got put to the fire pretty quickly when Charles called me and told me there was a bill being put out. So uh great learning experience and great to see just the the the unified front of the the industry as a whole, you know, large and small dealers.

SPEAKER_00 10:17

Well, I just want everybody to know, and I'm gonna be full and open on this. APRO is a sponsor of this show, and the reason that we took on APRO as a sponsor of this show is because they do so much for the rental industry. When Charles Smitherman, the CEO of APRO, gets a hold of something, he really puts it in action, he really puts in quick. So he puts in this call to you guys, and then so we got 9585, but there's also 9275. Now, do those go hand in hand as far as taking out the the lease to own or the rent-to-own transaction and and compiling it into a credit transaction? Are they both kind of doing the same thing?

SPEAKER_02 10:52

I I I that's the from my understanding, yeah, the the the 9275 I think was more the the V NPL or buy now pay later, uh, where the 9585 was more rent-to-own driven, I I believe. Neither one of them are are good for anybody, really. I mean, that's we provide a service to to our customers that that nobody else provides. And it, you know, if they yes, it's a small segment of the population, you know, but but they're still, you know, they're there, they would then become an unserved portion of the state, you know. So it'd be it would definitely be unfortunate if this if this were to pass. And and to speak to speak to that, we're not we're not out of the woods yet. We are we are going to be proactive and probably go out to Albany sometime before 2025, because just because June 6th came and went and and the Senate has has closed for the year, you know, we we've got some work to do to stay in front of this thing.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

So just to tell everybody how much this can affect the New York transaction when it comes to lease-to-own or rent-to-owned transactions, there is approximately a hundred thousand customers that currently utilize the the rent-to-owned transaction in New York State. Now, when you talk about as a whole, New York State has about 200 brick and mortar locations and they employ around 1,200 people. You're not just impacting the customer. This is gonna impact all of these businesses that stand to take a really, really heavy hit amongst a time right now where I think all businesses are taking a hit. I mean, economy-wise, we're all taking it on the chin. To then say you're gonna displace 1,200 people, 200 stores, and I mean, honestly, that's huge. Now, right now, it also represents about $55 million in wages for New York State, which I think everybody can use to get paid. And then not only that, that's $7 million in payroll taxes alone each year that the RTO industry in just New York State represents. That is a huge, huge issue. Now, as you're going forward, right? And I know hometown is building up, they're getting they're getting ready. This happens as you're putting together the plans to make this new hometown RTO store up and going. How did it make you feel when you start, you know, hey man, we got a new store, we got a new location, we got the lease set up, we're about to we're about to buy all the furniture, and then bam, wait a minute, what's uh what's 9585? What's going on with that? How did that work?

SPEAKER_03 13:08

Well, um, I'll try to take that one. Um, Jeff was concentrating on that side of of the business to where I tried to remind myself to try not to worry about the things I cannot control, and the universe will work itself out and um focus on the things in front of me that I can control. And, you know, it was still pedal to the floor on growth mode and operations and making sure things were running smoothly and uh making sure our image was fitting, fitting our brand in the opening stores, getting staffing into place and everything that goes into opening a store, making sure that the trucks are en route and everything like that, while we're still worried about this and uh with our lending partner and and everything that goes into that, I knew that we were going to come out on the other side of it at some point in time and still be able to operate business where there's a law, there's a loophole, and I would have found a way, Jeff would have found a way, we would have made it happen. In fact, I think this happened in Pennsylvania a while ago, to where they had to create a rent-to-rent transaction.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

Wow. That's that's a scary thought. And and for everybody who's listening in, the reason that we're talking about the RDAs, the reason that we're talking about APRO right now, the legality, the political viewpoints of it is sometimes it's somebody outside of the thought processes. Sometimes you have somebody like Representative Weinstein who's trying to help the constituents of a certain area. And what happens is you kind of get lumped in without knowing exactly what you're affecting. And so what happens is they're trying to make this law and it lumps rent to own into this law, which now we've got a whole big problem because now you're involving an industry that has nothing to do with credit transactions into 100% being credit transactions, and there's a reason why we do rent to own. We are not credit-based. We have a lot of people out there who don't want to have their credit affected in any way, shape, or form still come in and have all the functionality, services, and processes that rent to own brings. So now this gets added on and then it's in session. But when I saw it, when I heard about it, as it's coming out the pipe, it kind of made session a little bit late. I mean, it wasn't it wasn't in the beginning of the session running, it was kind of more towards the back end, the back third, the back quarter. Was that advantageous for us for it not to really be in the beginning and kind of shown at the end? Uh, do they plan on picking it up next session?

SPEAKER_02 15:31

Yeah, I think I think that was definitely you know played a hand in the our advantage of not you know uh worrying quite as much as we could have or should have, you know, had it been introduced early on in session. The the fact that um Senator Weinstein is retiring, I think maybe played into it. I'm not 100% sure. I don't want to speak speak to that really. Um but to your point, too, there are always unintended consequences when something like RTO gets lumped into a bill such as that, you know, um, which is why we were we were on the forefront of putting together a little uh leaflet or a leave behind, kind of like what we do when we when we climb the hill in Washington. We always have a lead behind that we you know give for the aids that we meet with out there that's you know just speaks to the positives of rent to own and how many people we serve, even though it's only you know, you mentioned 100,000 customers, that's only 1% of the population when you look at it as a whole, but it's still a very important 1%. It's still a a percentage that needs to be served and has has needs that we can that we can provide. And you know, uh the the it's it's unfortunate that we have the reputation that we do because we do so much good, you know, in all of our all of our communities and and provide such a great service to people that it would be unfortunate if this were to pass.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

You know, Jeff, I'm I'm so glad you said that because sometimes I think we forget in this country the enormity, the size, the coverage. 1% is 100,000. There are some countries that are not the size of New York City, nor have a twenty-fifth of what they have as far as population, and yet it's one of the largest economies in the U.S. And it a hundred thousand people are can be greatly affected. But then here's the other side of the coin. Now, New York has always been seen as a progressive state. Good, bad, or indifferent, it just means that they introduce things first or they do things first. Well, let's take a look at the other side of that. Now, if we're going into an entirety, if we're going into what's going on in the in the country, if you're going on to what happens outside of New York State, okay, now we're talking a whole different story. Because the RTO industry, roughly, uh I mean, on average, there's about 40,000 rent-to-owned jobs in the United States, 6,100 stores, and that that doesn't exactly include the online, but I mean 65% of rent-to-owned companies are actually independent or small business, just like hometown rent-to-own. So, what happens if April's not there? What happens if we don't have a state RDA to check this? This gets put into law in one state. Then what happens? I want you guys to understand rent-to-own, like anything else, is one domino. It takes one move unchecked, and we can have an outbreak of laws that that weren't set for rent to own. Now I know that rent to own is highly, highly uh reviewed. We have our own laws, we have our own statutes, we are watched over. We've had that for years, roughly almost 40 years in I think New York. So, what do you think brought this about? Where how did we get into this situation to begin with? And where do we go from here? What is the idea? And how do we say we need to step in? We're going to uh Albany. Do we have a chance to actually sit down with Ms. Weinstein and say, hey, I know that you are representing District 41. I know you're an assemblywoman in the New York State, but let me tell you how this works.

SPEAKER_02 18:46

Um we do we we have some some representation and form of of lobbyists that uh you know we we connected through with APRO that uh allowed us to uh get the information to the right people, I guess, which which was critical. And and you know, being updated throughout the process, uh we were able to kind of stay in the loop and kind of know you know how concerned we should be throughout you know each week before uh June 6th came and went. Uh and even at the end, there there's kind of like a uh a grab bag, so to speak, of bills that kind of get tossed in at the end. So until things finally close on, you know, when session finally closes, uh I think it was at like 8.15 on June 6th, uh, you know, where you're never really out of the woods. Um, at the end of your seat, right?

SPEAKER_01 19:30

You're sitting at the edge of your seat going, oh my God, I can't wait for overtime to be over.

SPEAKER_02 19:34

Yeah, when's that gavel gonna when's that gavel gonna hit? So so you know that somebody else kind of what what what gave us a little bit of pause or a little bit of cause for concern was somebody else picked up uh the the bill and is kind of was kind of trying to run with it also, um, which is which leads us to believe you know we regardless of what would have happened, we would have been proactive for for 2025. Um but we we do need to keep our our our ears to the ground and our our you know people out there to um to spread the good word of what rent own can really do. Um and and and the story I'll share that I think is awesome, um, that was shared with me throughout this process was uh uh Mr. Meeks, I'm not sure if he's a congressman or a senator. I apologize that I don't know exactly his position, but uh was actually very familiar with Rent Own because he went to college in New York City and uh couldn't afford a mattress and was actually sitting in a beach chair, I believe, if I'm if I remember the story correctly. And uh he got sick and his parents came down to visit him and found out he was sleeping in a beach chair in his apartment, and they couldn't afford to buy a mattress either. So they went to a rent a center around the corner and rented a mattress for him for the remainder of his term in college and then returned it once he went back home.

SPEAKER_00 20:42

Oh, rent a center to the rescue.

SPEAKER_02 20:44

Yeah, so I mean, you know, there's there's all kinds of cool stories out there like that. So we we do have people on our side, we do have people that, you know, believe in what we do and have used the services. You know, when we when we go to I just went to DC in April and and it's funny how many of the aides have never heard of us, but then there was the other side of it that a girl still had a dresser from when uh a girl down in Florida um still had a dresser from when she was a girl uh from errands that her parents had bought because her parents couldn't afford to buy furniture. So she had a she was an aide for a congressman or a senator of Florida, and she you know was familiar with the product because she still had a dresser. So, you know, there are people out there that believe in what we do, which is awesome. We just need to spread the word and and you know, just educate people, really, is what it stems down to, um, which is why I, you know, I would I would encourage anybody to go to if if people don't know what I mean when I say climb the hill, uh, every year, April has a legislative conference in Washington, D.C., where uh the states break out into groups and go um, you know, spread the good word of rent to own to to um those that don't understand. And we we have flyers that we give information, the economic impact, like you spoke about, Pete, you know, with how many, how many people we employ and the payroll taxes that we pay and the the economic impact of rent to own on the state at the state level?

SPEAKER_00 22:43

There is so much knowledge that needs to be passed over when we go, we need we need to give it from us to them so that they can see we are a big part of our communities, especially somebody like Matt, he's a big guy, big part of the community. Matt, how important is it to get your employees to understand and be involved in things like this? Do you share the knowledge with them as far as the operation side? Because I can tell you right now, when I go see you guys, when uh because I was on the hill as well, and I love seeing you guys up there and I love being a part of it. But here's the thing I feel like there's a lot less of us on the hill than there should be. How do we get them involved? I mean, Matt, are you are you talking to these guys about what's really going on as far as on the hill or these session points that they have or these laws that are getting passed? Is that something that that goes over in the Monday morning meetings?

SPEAKER_03 23:31

We we try to drive it home. Um, this most recent one. Let me back up first. Um I'm I'm a big guy, yes. I always say that I'm 5'9 in reality, but that's just a joke. Um, but going going forward.

SPEAKER_01 23:44

And just so you guys know, he's not 5'9 at all.

SPEAKER_03 23:48

Um just just we didn't want to put the fear in our employees that hey, this is this is real, this is what we're facing. Um, you know, if this goes through as rental owned as we know it is no longer, and we Didn't want to put the fear in them that their uh jobs could potentially be on the line, their careers, everything that they've worked for, um, could be over just by a law being passed and how the law is interpreted. Um, but as far as rent-to-owned knowledge and things going on within the industry, absolutely we're huge with it. I'm huge with training. Every single day our staff is training. In fact, I had my managers send me over a weekly schedule with a week prior to what they're going to be training on or a focus point on what they will be training with.

SPEAKER_00 24:32

You know, you bring up a good point. Sometimes, and and you know, every situation is different. Do you stir up the masses by giving them the honest truth and what's going on, or do you play it by the book and make sure that there's something to commit to once it's done? Because sometimes you say things and people can get worried about it before it's really there, before it's really an issue. And then when it does come down to it, you've already had the pandemonium. And sometimes it's good to kind of navigate that one issue at a time. So here it comes. Now we finally end with the session, like you said, Jeff, on June 6th. We've got everything kind of poised and ready to go now. How when did Hometown join A Pro? It was it like right off the bat, like, was that a decision that was like, hey, I'm gonna join these guys right off the bat? And then how well did that pay off?

SPEAKER_03 25:19

Yeah, we uh in 2014, uh, with the with a previous business partner, um, we were advised right off the bat um with previous owners that helped us get going. Randy and Morio Tander, who were longtime Trib members, that we need to be involved with APRO and TRIB. So we knew we had that guidance and mentorship, and to this day, he still mentors us both um in the industry to get affiliated with APRO and TRIB both.

SPEAKER_00 25:46

Now, if you guys don't understand, APRO is the Association of Progressive Rental Organizations, and that is the watchdog of the industry. The TRIB is the rental industry buying group. So if you want to get some good pricing, you want to get some good deals, TRIB is where you go. And then sometimes they join together and make it even better, like they will in RTO World 2024 in Orlando. You guys got to be a part of that. So if you have the one-two punch where you got April, you've got Trib, we've started the NYRDA, correct? It is the New York Rental Dealers Association, so it's the NYRDA. Can we how much can we see with you guys kind of spear hitting this? How much can we see coming from the RDA now in New York? Is that are we gonna have some big get-togethers? Are we gonna have some big meetings? Because when you guys go over to Albany, you've got to call me. I want to be a part of that.

SPEAKER_02 26:29

We actually um have merged forces with um the New England Rental Dealers Association. We're we're just kind of working out the uh the legality kinks of all that stuff. Um, just because there's so few independent dealers in New York State, and then like uh Massachusetts, Rhode Island uh are kind of in the same, kind of in the same boat. Um I think John is the president, I can't remember his last name, I apologize. Uh was the president of the of Nerdda, which is the Northeast Rental Dealers Association. Um we've kind of joined forces and uh have talked about putting on some kind of a uh a meeting similar to the the PARD, which is really good that Sandy puts on in Pennsylvania down in Harrisburg. Um I went to I went to that last year because we were going to be opening up a store at NPA, so I wanted to see what a what a what a real and I went I went for two purposes. One, we were opening a store in NPA, and two, I wanted to see what a real functioning uh rental dealers association meeting looked like. So I so I attended that last June. Um so John and I have talked about doing something similar, you know, possibly in the Syracuse area or you know, even um closer to New York City since it's you know a little more central to the New England folks, but we could we could we could even meet in New York City if we had to and and kind of you know uh take everybody out and kind of just figure out figure it out from there. But yes, they're definitely definitely uh you know, it won't be like uh John Cleek Missouri Rental Dealers Association big right away, but um we'd like to we'd like to strive to get to that at some point.

SPEAKER_00 27:54

Well, let me tell you, if you guys have any questions or any or need any pointers, I can give you his number. That guy's got it going on over there. You couldn't you couldn't set foot in Missouri without hearing Cleek's name. Some way, somehow, some form of it, it will permeate into everything that you're doing. Um, because they're all over the place. And it's one it's one of those things where you want to build that knowledge, you want to build that base so that everybody understands, knows, and what where to go to for the sources of information to have this? So they reach out, they let you know APRO does this, and you do it. Now, if somebody wanted to follow up on this story, let's say I have somebody in rent to own or listening to this and they want to follow up on this New York story outside of what we're doing. Where's the best information to get stuff like this, even in their own state, where would be the best place to kind of find what's going on politically and legally with the rent to own space?

SPEAKER_02 28:46

Uh I would say probably the APRO website um or or contact, you know, find out who their rental dealer president's uh president is and get on like a an email chain or or or even volunteer to be part of the rental dealers association. We're always looking for people to help. Um, in fact, uh I know when uh when I go to PA in a couple weeks, um they're having uh elections for you know board members and vice presidents and secretaries. So I mean they can it it is all volunteer, obviously, but um but what but what better way to support your community than you know or your your industry than uh you know being a member of the of the State Rental Dealers Association?

SPEAKER_00 29:22

Well, I will say the best place to get that news and knowledge, yes, is number one April. And number two is gonna be the RTO show. You guys gonna want to dial in all the time and find out what's going on here? Matt, so we have we have everything laid out for this news store. I've seen a couple new videos, I've seen some crazy furniture.

SPEAKER_03 29:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:39

Where are we gonna open up next? Where are we going to?

SPEAKER_03 29:42

I I think it's gonna be more Pennsylvania-based by the time we're all said and done. Um, and and I'm a small town guy. I like to stick to small town USA. Um from a bigger city, um, you know, like Buffalo. I it's just not us. You know, we again it reflects our name, hometown. Um, you know, uh keeping it, keeping it small and controllable. So into those small towns of Pennsylvania. Um and I know Mike Tissett is you know notorious for going in those small towns, and you know, it seems to work well for him and and a lot of other dealers that we know. So, you know, we're gonna kind of follow those footsteps.

SPEAKER_00 30:16

Well, I can tell you right now, they have the lockdown on certain areas. Let me tell you, Cleek's got it, Missouri, and then uh he's you know, Tissett's got it in Ohio. They've they've locked it down. Now, you know when you start reaching out into Pennsylvania, you're gonna start bumping up against Magic. And they those guys, they got it going on. But I can tell you what, if you ever have a chance to sit down with their guys, you know, Patrick and Joe and all those guys, let me tell you, they can give you some information on how to grow your location, how to create a great culture. And you know what? The education piece with Joe, like we're gonna talk about it again because they have what they call the you know, the magic university. Now, I don't know if you guys are gonna be going that route as far as hometown, but let me tell you, man, I got some good stuff in there. If you ever want to train your guys, you gotta give uh you got to give the guys a call and say, hey man, I want to sit on a session or two and find out what's going on out there. But I can tell everybody right now, the RDAs, and it's so important to have your RDA set up in your state. If you do not have an RDA, the Rental Dealer Association set up for your state, maybe you can do what Jeff was talking about and be a part of a multi-state RDA, whether it's the Northeast, whether it's New York, no matter what it is, you're gonna want to be informed. You're gonna want to be a part of that. And especially, especially for hometown people. Just like hometown rent to own, when you have these small businesses, you have these small places, it's easy to say, well, Rack's gonna take care of it. It's easy to say, you know what, Aaron's gonna take care of it. But the truth is they're gonna have one voice. They're gonna send somebody and they're gonna represent Rent A Center as a whole. They're gonna send somebody and represent Aaron's as a whole. And although they have a conglomerate of people that they could send, they're gonna send a representative or to. How great is it if everybody who's in rent to own, who everybody who has that well, something to lose, sends somebody up there. Now you got hometown, now you've got buddies, now you've got everybody down the street coming in and saying, hey, that that's not what we do. This is this is not how it works. Let me show you the benefits of rent to own. Let me show you how we differ from the credit transaction and how we make lives better. So coming into this, did you guys ever think that you you would be a part like, oh my God, this all of a sudden start coming down the pipe in the last couple of months, and on top of opening a store, we got to deal with this. Like, how crazy was that in the whole transition of things?

SPEAKER_03 32:30

I can tell you if I had hair, I probably wouldn't have hair. Um, you know, it's anybody knows me, knows me, I'm bald, and it's uh it's okay. I rock it. But I mean, it was it was pretty stressful. I'm not gonna not gonna lie about that. Um, you know, but the the stress factors of not wanting to scare off employees while still keeping them somewhat aware, hey, like this is what's going on, um, carefully wording it. And you know, at the same point in time, there's a lot on the line being a small dealer, um, opening up not one, but two locations almost six weeks apart. Um, you know, so it it was it was a very, very crazy time, you know, and it's it's starting to smooth out now, and we're seeing the other side of it. But, you know, the the foot's always to the floor um for growth mode.

SPEAKER_00 33:16

Well, just so you guys know, it we are praying that it does not pass the way it is right now. It has to be amended, it has to be changed, it has to be looked after. And uh there's no other people. I'm gonna tell you guys right now, I have complete faith in Matt and Jeff to spearhead this in their state and tackle it straight on. Uh, because I can tell you right now, this is the first domino. And if we don't watch it, if we don't curtail this, if we don't let them know how important rent to own is in the form that it's in now, that it's been highly regulated for the last 40 years, that we have companies and people and families that rely on this from day to day. And this is what we do, and we do it very well. This is actually one of the few industries that's still growing. Hence, we have another hometown rent to own going up. So when's the next one coming? When can we say that? We're not making hometown too small, right? We you guys are going from small to big. So when's the next one coming?

SPEAKER_03 34:10

Well, as as we learn um from other other dealers, um, and uh we learn each time we open up a store. We like one store to become profitable before we start the start the process on opening up another store. But I would say within a year, year and a half, we'll start approaching that that uh fifth store, um, sixth store, and and continue. Ideally, we would like to grow a store a year, and I think that's probably where the sweet spot is. And you know, we're we're already doing research on where we want to put our next location. We kind of have an idea in mind. Um, but kind of going off subject, you know, my first taste of uh of of how close and tight-knit the the the rent-to-own industry is um, you know, per dealers, is I was a store manager in a rather inner city store, and I had a skip, and I got out the Who's Who book of rent-to-own dealers. I found out where this person was, and this was way before data true or anything like that. And I ended up finding where the person was, contacted that local dealer. The person went and picked up, and I remember to this day, it was a it was a three-piece dinette and a 32-inch TV. The guy knocked on the door, was able to retrieve the merchandise, and actually repote it from the lady. And that's where I kind of knew that, you know, yes, we're competitors, but we're all in it together.

SPEAKER_00 35:27

Well, it is a friendly business. If you sometimes I've noticed in some of the bigger corporations or some of the bigger companies, there isn't as much camaraderie as it is from people who have been doing it in the smaller areas, uh, as far as like a couple of store dealers or somebody who's only got 10 stores or 20 stores. There is something out there. If you haven't been to a trib meeting, if you haven't been to an April convention, you are missing out. And Jeff was telling me before the call at the Green Room, he's gonna have part of a session with Kit Knight all the way from Iowa. So him, Kit Knight from Iowa, they're gonna have a session at the RTRO World 2024. What are you guys talking about?

SPEAKER_02 36:08

Um it's kind of gonna just be like uh an open table uh discussion. Um we were gonna do a panel, but I think we kind of kind of tweaked it a little bit, and we're gonna just have like a round table, and uh people can bring their questions and we can kind of try to give our best experiences as three to four steel three to four store owners uh as to what worked best for us and and more importantly, what didn't work, um, so so you know what not to do, um, which is almost as important as what to do.

SPEAKER_01 36:35

I think it I think they go hand in hand. I mean, you can't have one without the other, right?

SPEAKER_02 36:38

Absolutely. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 36:40

To do, not to do. You know what? Uh I can tell you right now, I I don't know how big my list is to do, but I can have a big old list of what not to do, all the mistakes I've made along the way. And I could say, guys, I don't know what really works well. I'm still trying that out, but I can tell you what not to do. You probably don't want to say this to Miss Jones if you're trying to grow your business, right? So you definitely want to make sure that you have that on either side. And so when we have these open discussion, open panels, basically they they're gonna mediate and say, This is this is what's on the table, this is what we think, what do you guys think? And it opens the floor to have a lot of different people say things. And the reason it's so important is because I might be able to do it well, but I can't do part B well. And somebody might be able to do part B very well, but part A is is kind of gloomy. They don't really understand it. And we get everybody together, all these minds from across the United States, and say, hey, this is how we rent to own. How do you do it? Well, this is what I do, how do you do it? And then all of a sudden, it makes sense. Uh guys, I really appreciate you guys being able to do that. Matt, I can't wait to see you again. Jeff, I think I did see you on the hill, right? We saw each other up there um in DC, correct? Yep, yeah, briefly. Yep. Yeah, absolutely. And and so hometown rent to own, opening up a place near you, and then Jeff and Matt kind of being able to see what's coming down the pipe. April lets them know. Jeff jump someone, are you gonna be on an RDA, Matt?

SPEAKER_03 37:56

At some point in time, yeah, absolutely. Um I I think the problem was at the time is we were opening up these two locations, and I was so geared towards making sure the operations were, you know, perfected, as perfected as we could get, and then just working on the backside of things. But yeah, eventually, eventually I'll be I'll be a part of that as well.

SPEAKER_00 38:15

Matt's like, if they don't have collecting and renting over that, I don't I don't know if I want to be on the board. I just you know, we were talking about that on the hill as far as junk fees and what's going on in the nation and and how they want to define rent to own, and it's so huge how different we are from that credit landscape. That six percent will essentially destroy the rent to own industry. And some of you might be going, well, six percent, that's a good margin. Well, considering how much you get out of rent-to-owned with the free delivery, no credit checks, free service, free loaners, you get a same as cash period where you're not paying any interest at all. You understand where that's at. They give you a full-term mock-up and say, hey, if you paid every single payment on this agreement, this is exactly what you're gonna pay. I don't know any credit transaction that says if you pay exactly this, this is what you're gonna pay off. And you want to know why? Because credit affects you completely different. Interest affects you differently. Rent to own doesn't have that. And we're open and we've been open for the last 40 years. You cannot look at a rental agreement and go, I don't know where my payments are, I don't know what I'm gonna pay, I don't know when I'm due, I don't know when the same as cash ends, and I don't know the legalities of this. It is all already there. It's 100% good to go, and this is why your state RDAs are so important. Matt, Jeff, I can't tell you, I'm really glad that you guys are spearheading this and making this a priority for New York State. And really, I'm gonna tell you guys what. You you might not have heard this yet, but you're making it a priority for the rent-to-owned industry because you guys are on the front line of what could change, possibly rent to own for the entire country. And as long as I feel like you guys are there, you got the right people in place, we're in some good hands. I don't want to tell you that. We really appreciate what you guys are doing.

SPEAKER_03 39:57

Well, thank you very much. Um, and and you know, that was one of the that was one of the things. If New York was, you know, gonna pass this, other states pay attention to what New York does. You know, it's it's not uh that other states just make things up, you know. They pay attention to what other states are doing, and you know, that's that's one of the big fears, you know. So hopefully we can put a squash to it and you know continue keeping that good name out there.

SPEAKER_00 40:19

Well, in case anybody doesn't know, California and New York are probably the two states that you look at the most for laws passed and followed. And as it is, as it stands right now, California is almost a no-go fly state for rent to own. It just doesn't work out there. We let New York fall, and it's just gonna be a domino effect. And it's not that any one state is not as important. The thing is, is it always happens in a few states. You've got Texas, you've got California, and you've got New York that kind of just stands on it and says, and the good thing about Texas is usually just pertains to them, whether it's a border dispute or whatever, it just happens to deal with them. When you're talking about New York and you're talking about the Northeast and you talk about the West, you're really just talking about New York State and you're talking about California. And they lead the way in most laws passed and followed. And it's one of those things like where if it passes here, it's gonna get the attention of somebody else. And we've got to do our part to not only educate, but if there is a law that's going to be passed and there's nothing that we can do about it, make sure that they carve out the rent-to-owned industry so that they can understand we are not in that credit side. We're we we don't handle it on the credit transaction in the same way at all, ever. So, guys, we're gonna open up more hometown rent-to-owns. We're looking to move into Pennsylvania, just now spearheading this with Matt and the New York Rental Dealers Association for what's going on, the issue of the 9585 and the 9275, those laws or those bills in New York State. What else is down to pipe besides RTO World 2024? Any good news? Anything else going on?

SPEAKER_02 41:53

Potentially some other adventures in the work, but uh we're gonna keep those uh under wraps for now. We're working working on some other business ventures to expand our portfolio a little bit, but uh that's that's I guess all I'll say about that for right now.

SPEAKER_00 42:06

All right, we'll let you guys keep that close to the best. I totally understand that. And for everybody who has a question, if you guys don't have the ability to reach out uh to look these up under these statues, you're always welcome to hit us up on the show. You can email me at pet at the rtoshow podcast.com, ask me any questions. If you have a question for Matt and Jeff, you can also hit up us at the podcast and say, hey, what's going on with this? You don't use emails? I know we're a little bit old. It's okay. Go to social media. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Send us a message. I will get in contact with Jeff and Matt, or we can find out together. Also, we do appreciate you guys listening. And if you have any questions about them, go to hometownrto.com, visit what they got. They actually have a great website, which looks freaking amazing. I'm telling you, I've seen you know companies that have 10 and 15 stores that doesn't look quite that good. You have a great social media presence. Guys, Jeff, Matt, I really appreciate you being on the show. And is there any last words of wisdom you want to share with the listeners before we go?

SPEAKER_02 43:04

Nothing I can think of. Just keep renting and collecting.