The Man Behind the Numbers: A Conversation with Dan Carmichael

Ever wonder who keeps the lights on, the budgets balanced, and everyone's computers from spontaneously combusting?

This week, Mike and Marc welcome Dan Carmichael into the vault. As NAI FMA Realty's Vice President of Finance, Dan wears more hats than most people realize—accounting leader, IT troubleshooter, payroll guru, benefits administrator, and occasional miracle worker.

The guys dive into property management budgets, cash calls, office culture, and why Dan may be the calmest person to ever survive a server outage. If you've ever wondered what happens behind the scenes of commercial real estate, this episode is for you.

Thanks for tuning in to In the CRE Vault with Mike and Marc—where we break down commercial real estate without putting you to sleep. Powered by NAI FMA Realty in Lincoln, Nebraska. For more, visit naifmarealty.com. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:07

Welcome to the podcast in the TRE Vault with Mike and Mark. All right, welcome back to the vault with Mike and Mark. How you doing, buddy? I'm doing good. How about you, Mikey? I'm doing great. We got a little bit of rain this morning, which I think was unexpected. We did.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

Um, yeah, it I feel like we've had storms for the past two or three weeks, and it's just uh it's just kind of just about perfect.

SPEAKER_03 0:28

The grass is green, right? Grass is green. You always know like when you've got a lot of moisture, if you've got any shrubbery, those things are like where the wild things are. That is true. That is true. I had to cut some back yesterday.

SPEAKER_02 0:39

Yeah, yeah. It's uh it's the the the weeds are popping up here and there. I have a bigger yard than you do, so yep. It's uh you gotta get the flamethrower out. I do, and it's and you know, it's a project, right? You move where you you move on an acreage, you gotta love to mow because it's a lifestyle. Yeah, it's a part-time job. My neighbor is retired military. He mows every day.

SPEAKER_03 0:59

What a dream.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

Well, could you imagine? Every day.

SPEAKER_03 1:02

Yeah. That's his day. Yeah, that's true. He's probably the most peaceful man in the world. He is.

SPEAKER_02 1:07

He is.

SPEAKER_03 1:08

Holy smokes. Well, uh, we have very special guests uh in the vault today, Mr. Dan Carmichael. He is um, he oversees all of our accounting finance. I don't want to say finance, but it's not, but just the division that handles anything uh to do with anything accounting-wise at at FMA. So um extremely crucial and important part of this um this business.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

Dan is a top five human. Yep. I mean, he is if you have any questions, he he always has the answer. And and I think if you asked ever anybody in the office uh, you know, about Dan, he they would answer it that exact same way. Yep. He always has the answer. Yep. Kind kind at heart.

SPEAKER_03 1:52

Yeah, for sure. You're very, very key player in the business. So we're we're especially happy that you're not only here in the vault, but here at the office.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

So I appreciate it. That's a sparkling introduction. Thanks, guys. It is. Well, that's a wrap.

SPEAKER_02 2:06

All right, Dan. Your your title is what? Vice President of Finance. And and I I've heard the term comptroller thrown around. Is that fair to say comtroller would be a title as well? Or what is the di what is a comptroller? Because that sounds like something that somebody made up on their way into work. That's from War Games. Yes, it is not. It just seems like something's made up. So unwrap that.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

Before, well, before I was vice president of finance, it was controller. So it was never comp troller, at least for my my specific position, but um, yeah, it's vice president of finance now. I handle uh I oversee the accounting department. So we've got a team of uh two property accountants and uh lease administrator, AR specialist, and AP specialist, and then of course Lori up front. Um so we we handle all of the uh all of the needs for all of our properties, anything related to um, you know, collecting their private rents from from tenants, uh paying all the bills, uh getting their financials ready for them, asking any questions that they may need meet may need to have answered. Um really just all the good day-to-day operations that that they'd be needing us for, we're we're there to help them out. So you and you started with us how much five September 2019. Okay, so you're seven years? Yeah. Oh, wow. So time flies when you're having fun.

SPEAKER_02 3:36

You know, and and there's always that job where you say, you know, it's just not easily transitioned into a new position. And and and this is the one. How long did it take you? Well, let's let's take a step back. What did you do before this?

SPEAKER_01 3:50

So I for three years before this, I was at H B E L L P great public accounting firm here in town. So I did tax returns, worked on audits, um, some just general bookkeeping. And yeah, I was there for about three and a half years before I came here.

SPEAKER_02 4:07

And how long did it take for you to be with us to be fully comfortable and learn just that kind of our processes? Because that's a that's a night and day difference, right?

SPEAKER_01 4:16

Yeah. Oh, yeah. It definitely, I'd say it definitely took a few years to really get fully comfortable with everything. And we also had quite a few transitions when I first got here. So we had a little bit of turnover between all of the property accountant positions, the AR position, the AP position. So that that actually kind of helped in a way because I I needed to then jump in and really make sure I knew how each of those roles, you know, what what the whole circle was there, how one role impacted another, uh what all tasks this role had.

SPEAKER_03 4:51

Um, did for a while.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

Yeah, just to make sure that nothing fell through the cracks during that time. And and now I can you know, I can say we've we've had the same accounting group for I think at least two or three years now, all around. So everybody's experienced and everybody has a really deep understanding of the properties that they specifically work with. And I think that's a a huge benefit now. And um it makes my job a lot easier as well, just having a really seasoned, you know, kind of veteran group.

SPEAKER_02 5:25

And you had to transition kind of through COVID. So there was the work from home. And I think you've I, you know, just thinking, I'm not speaking out loud, I think you've just transitioned that entire department in in perfect form. Uh just because you've allowed some work from home and you've just I I just I think back to the the the the one the the the one we had before you, Dan, and and he was fairly abrasive. I enjoyed him, I got along with him well. Oh, he's great. He was great, but you know what? I don't know how many front desk ladies we went through because he just, I mean, one it was is either a new lady every day or the lady they had was crying. I mean, it was and and and you know who you are if you're listening to this. He was he was a good human, but he was he was still love you, yeah. You were fairly abrasive, and uh so it is it's it's nice to see the same faces every day in that department. And I think the role of a company gets a lot easier when you have long-term employees, and I guess consistency, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:25

Oh, it's it's absolutely huge.

SPEAKER_03 6:27

Um clients calling in, you know, like hey, it's still Jana, you know, it's still a friendly, yeah, warm call.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

Right. And and when we, you know, when we manage properties, um, it's nice for our clients to know, have names and and those faces and not change as much. Yeah. From the property manager to the accountant to all the because it just makes the relationship that much stronger.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

Oh, definitely. Yeah. And you call in and you know it's somebody who actually already knows what what they're talking about. Don't have to I mean, I'll I'll be the first to admit it, you know, sometimes have to go and and look stuff up after a phone call and then maybe get back to them if I don't know what's going on. But most of the time, if we answer a call, we will recognize it right away. We can get them helped and and they're on their way.

SPEAKER_02 7:13

So I will have I will have questions just from time to time, maybe a managed property. Well, how much are the triple nets on this building? And I can I can truthfully ask you as we're walking down the hallway, and you you just you know it right out of the gate. So I think that's amazing how how how your brain works.

SPEAKER_03 7:29

Yeah, for sure. You're just you're a key player. Um what else? Other what other topics could we talk about?

SPEAKER_02 7:38

What so so your daily, what what's your daily process? I mean, what's a what's a day in Dan hold? What's a day in Dan hold?

SPEAKER_03 7:47

This is gonna turn south real quick.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

Well, I get here and I you know gotta get my coffee, of course, and uh sit down, check all my emails. Usually I've I've got a fair number of them and um try to get those responded to right away. And then honestly, it could be a pretty sub it could be a pretty substantial mix from day to day, a good variety, and that's part of what I love most about my job is just that on top of the the actual accounting department work, I'm also gonna handle handling the day-to-day IT for the company and then the 401k plan, the insurance, the payroll. And you do a ton that I I really like that because it every day kind of keeps me on my toes. You know, I don't know if I'm gonna sometimes, you know, if something's gonna pop up on the IT side that I need to handle or or on the HR or 401k side. Um and it kind of sometimes it feels like I'm bouncing around, you know, from from one thing to the next. And but I I think that's kind of how I where I thrive is just the really having all these all these different projects and and kind of organizing them to figure out, all right, how am I gonna how am I gonna get all these done today? Um but it's it's a lot of fun. I like the variety and um and I I really just enjoy this this company as a whole. You know, like you said, we've got our we've got a really good team now in the accounting department. We work closely with the property management team and also with the leasing team here. So it really does feel like a just a big happy family. A big team.

SPEAKER_02 9:22

Yeah. Talk about the IT because it it just went right past me up until you said that that yeah, you handle the IT site. So talk about the IT. Are you before you started here? Were you were you a good conversation on working with computers? Are you like a shade tree mechanic using YouTube? Somebody some somebody says it it's doing this, and you go and YouTube it to find the answer. I mean, uh, you know, that just seems like a different role.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

Yeah, that's been an evolution over time for sure. I when I started, um yeah, I had I had a decent knowledge of computers. I kind of grew up with them, you know, one of the first generations actually grow up with computers. So I've always had somewhat of a working knowledge, and then through college, you know, I had had some um computer experience with that. But jumping into this role, um, yeah, I I started learning right away that I probably didn't know as much as I as I should. And we have a a third-party IT guy who helps us out with a lot. Mike Wibke is his name, Rapid Fire Solutions. Sure. He's an awesome guy and super, he's brilliant. Um, he's he's really trained me along the way, um, you know, to be able to troubleshoot, to know kind of all the basic things I need to know from day to day. On someone calls me with a certain computer issue or a monitor stops working, you know, any anything like that. I now I know where to go. And a lot of that's because I would call him in the early days and just have him kind of walk me through things. Um, of course, there are still some some bigger items. You know, if a server goes down, which that's always the the worst days for me, is if something like that happens because then everybody can't work. Yeah. If we've got a server that goes down, we don't have internet connection, we don't have access to all of our property files. You know, those are that's the nightmare situation. So thankfully it's only happened a few times, and we can usually get it back up fairly quickly, you know, within a few hours. But those are the times I'm calling Mike and asking for his help, and he can easily walk me through it or he'll come up and help me out.

SPEAKER_03 11:24

But you you are the the Mr. Fix It. I'll there, you know, on occasion, you know, someone that used to share this office with me say, is Dan in my computer isn't working. Can you go find them? And you're just, you know, the jack of all trades, I should say. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

It's fun. That's one of the things that keeps me on my toes. You don't know who's gonna call and what issue they might have.

SPEAKER_02 11:45

So and then you gotta deal with all the degenerate sales and leasing teams as we just open up every spam file known to man. So we just we just we think it's elite. We we we think it's elite, so we click on it and all of a sudden the screen goes black.

SPEAKER_03 12:00

Next thing you know, you got a ransom letter coming at you.

SPEAKER_02 12:03

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, that's uh you're trying to delete your cash, you know. That's just that's gotta be tough.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

That's why we have antivirus software and yeah, malware bytes is also very nice to have. Yeah. They can quarantine your computer and knock out all the bad stuff pretty quick.

SPEAKER_02 12:19

The uh okay, so uh take a step back here. Talk about, you know, I'm gonna guess, I'm gonna I'm gonna shoot from the hip here. One of the hardest parts of your job, and I'm just thinking out loud in the in the brain of Dan, one of the hardest parts of your job has got to be doing cash calls. When you have a client that probably needs to fund a little bit of cash into the account, and that has got to be, would you, would you, is that fair language to say that's probably one of your hardest.

SPEAKER_01 12:46

Yeah, I'd say that's fair. Um, thankfully, the really nice thing with a lot of our owners that we work with, they for the most part, you know, most know they know the name of the game, you know. If they need to fund the property, if there's something needs to get paid for, if there's a project, most of them just really don't even question it. You know, if they need to throw some money in, yeah, they'll they'll do it, they'll find a way, and they know that that's their responsibility as owners. Um we've certainly had some that are a little more we have just more issue with, you know, and in actually getting that money collected, and it's never an easy thing, you know, as obvious obviously as the property managers, you know, we'd like to we'd like to think that we can avoid help them avoid those situations, but we're also dealing with buildings and properties and just yeah, there's a lot of things that are out of our lot of unknowns. Yeah. Yeah. And um, and so that can be that can definitely bring about some hard conversations from time to time, but I I do think in the for the most part, we've been pretty fortunate with the owners that we've had that they're willing to step up and and contribute, find a way to contribute the funds that are needed to make sure everything keeps running smoothly and yeah, um, you know, take care of the building and their tenants. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:07

I think our our our accounting department does an excellent job of budgeting. And and having been on all the managed properties I've been on and sat through all those meetings. I mean, it's uh it is an amazing process visually how they get everything to come together.

SPEAKER_03 14:21

A lot of research, a lot of practice, and the and a good runway of a property's history helps a ton too.

SPEAKER_02 14:28

Yeah, and just our our knowledge goes so deep as a company when it comes to managed properties because there's there's a few other groups out there that manage them and and I don't know how they function, but I mean ours is ours is second to none. Yep. Best of the best, I would say.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

Yep. That's another area, you know, where it's it really is a it does take a lot of teamwork getting the budget done. Um because we're you know, we're sending out for lease projections for the lease from the leasing team pretty early on in that process. So then that obviously working with the property managers to get everything else thrown in, any expenses, any um new contracts or contract increases that might happen in a year. Um we're uh setting up the spreadsheet and kind of making sure everything's running smoothly and uh and pulling through properly. So it's it's uh definitely a major team uh project, getting uh getting even just one budget done, and we've got 50, 60 of them in a year. So it's a fun time, and that's coming up in a few months.

SPEAKER_02 15:32

Random question. Do you balance the checkbook at at home? Or do you or do you have the wife do that because you're so sick of looking numbers?

SPEAKER_01 15:40

Oh no, I handle it.

SPEAKER_02 15:41

I love that stuff. So good for you. I don't balance shit.

SPEAKER_03 15:44

I just know up here.

SPEAKER_02 15:45

Yeah, I get it. Well, and you know, I think about I'm I you know, in the office, I'm uh I'm so extroverted, but when I'm at at home, I'm so introverted because I don't want I don't want to talk to anybody.

SPEAKER_03 15:55

Oh, I lock myself in a closet and you don't come out until 6 a.m.

SPEAKER_02 15:58

Just murmuring nonsense. And I I don't, you know, so I just I I asked you that question, Dan, and the fact of do you just get tired of it doing it daily? The the fact that but good for you and just enjoying it. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:09

This is this has been great, Dan. Um I think I'll close with this and I'll say this. In all the years I've known you, I've never seen you shook or in a bad mood. And I can honestly say that.

SPEAKER_02 16:20

That is that is true now that you say that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:23

Yep, top five human. You've never been, you know, sideways, which is amazing because you deal with a lot of shit. Not shit, but a lot of stuff. No, you deal with some shit. And some shit, but no, we we appreciate your time today, buddy. This has been great.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_03 16:39

Nice to highlight a very crucial uh sector of the business.

SPEAKER_02 16:44

Backside of the business that keeps everything running. If if if we didn't have you, Dan, I I just I don't our company wouldn't be 90% of what it is.

unknown 16:52

Totally.

SPEAKER_03 16:53

Thanks, Dan. Thank you. Thanks, buddy. We'll have you back on back in the vault again, probably in a few months. Sure. Check in. Yeah, yeah. Cool. All right, we'll see you next time, Mark. See you, Dan. See you guys.

SPEAKER_00 17:27

Information presentative period, information property, and I FMA, real ticket in the building, building individual youth, real night and information presentative individual.