Ep003: The State of the ROOST Union 2025

Join Chris McAllister and Laci Leblanc for a special episode of The All Things Real Estate Podcast, where they reflect on the wins of 2024 and share their vision for 2025. In this “State of the Union” update, Chris discusses key initiatives that shaped the past year, including the launch of the ROOST Investment Gateway, advancements in property management, and the ongoing evolution of the real estate industry post-Sitzer Burnett v. NAR.

Discover how ROOST Real Estate Co. is helping buyers, sellers, landlords, and agents navigate today’s challenges, from leveraging cutting-edge tools to focusing on 5-star service. Chris also shares his personal commitment to building stronger partnerships and maximizing opportunities for clients and team members alike.

Whether you're a homeowner, investor, or real estate professional, this episode will inspire you to make 2025 a year of growth, innovation, and success.

Key Highlights:

• 2024 milestones and what’s next for ROOST.
• Insights into the changing real estate landscape.
• How ROOST is creating value for clients and the community.

Listen now and get ready to embrace the opportunities ahead!

Show Notes

www.AllAboutROOST.com

www.ROOSTInvestmentGateway.com

Why ROOST's Mission Matters

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Transcript

Chris McAllister: Hello, everyone. I'm Chris McAllister, and it's my job to create and coach business opportunities and strategies that support and add value to the lives of homeowners and residential real estate investors. And as always, this morning, I'm here with our marketing director and my podcast partner in crime, Laci LeBlanc.

Good morning, Laci. 

Laci LeBlanc: Good morning, Chris. 

Chris McAllister: How are you? We're just, uh, kind of coming off the holidays. How are you feeling? 

Laci LeBlanc: I feel pretty great. Um, this is a great way to, to start the podcast season, I think. Tell us what we're going to talk about. 

Chris McAllister: Well, this is a kind of a special episode and I've been referring to it as the State of the ROOST Union 2025.

So, in years past, I, I, I have spent some time just trying to make sense of, uh, you know, what happened in the prior year and, uh, you know, how we're going to use that as a stepping stone in the. And the next year, and I have to be honest, I, I, I wasn't too keen on doing it this year. You know, we've had a, uh, uh, it was a rough couple of years, you know, we've, we've had a lot of challenges as, as everybody in the real estate industry has.

And I was sort of focused on, uh, let's just go forward. Let's not, uh, let's not rehash the past, but, uh, you, uh, Sort of guilted me into it, Laci. So, uh, 

Laci LeBlanc: and it turned out to be, 

Chris McAllister: I think it's going to be pretty darn good. So thank you for, uh, pushing me, pushing me through that. So, you know, one of the 

Laci LeBlanc: tenants of, of all of these podcasts, I mean, it's the track and connect practice track and grow.

It's. The profitability and landlord profitability playbook. Um, it's, it's part of the all things and all things real estate. So one of the tenants of all these podcasts is being able to, to take a step back and assess what worked and what didn't and use that to help you move forward. So I think it's particularly important.

In the years that maybe were not as great as you expected them to be to take a step back and, and really focus on what's working, what's not working. Um, and what are the goals and steps to take moving forward? 

Chris McAllister: Well, I did spend a huge chunk of time over the holidays thinking this through and, um, you know, I'm glad that we're continuing, uh, Tradition.

So I like to take some time and think about and document and reflect on the wins of the last 12 months and try to look ahead and see how we can build on them going forward. So we're going to, we're going to share this on all three of our podcasts, right? So we're going to, we're going to share this on the all things real estate podcast, the landlord profitability playbook podcast, and the connect practice track and grow podcast, because we're going to talk about things that concern buyers, sellers, landlords.

And real estate professionals. So I sort of want everybody who, uh, listens to this, to consider this as a, as an open missive from me to you, our clients, our team members, our leaders, and our licensed professionals. 

Laci LeBlanc: Here goes nothing. 

Chris McAllister: Here goes nothing. So I still come back to, and I know we've been talking about this for a few months, but I truly believe that the biggest win of 2024 was focusing on earning five star reviews.

On Google from everybody we work with, whether it's tenants, whether it's owners or it's buyers and sellers, it's agents and so forth. And I'm super proud of this because we've made some progress today. We've got 345 reviews on Google between the 3 offices. Maybe, maybe it's Actually, it's probably closer to 3 50 this morning, and we have an average score of 4.

8. And I'm embarrassed to say that, you know, for years and years, I refuse to pay attention to, you know, any, any of these reviews across any platform, and it was a bad decision because ultimately it started to hurt us. And to, you know, we were missing things that, you know, we need, we needed to understand and, and, and, and learn from.

So, you know, to go from where we were a couple of years ago to where we are now is just a huge win. And it, it really puts, uh, it just builds confidence for me and it builds confidence to the team. And, you know, it's, it's the reason we get five star reviews is, is because we ask for five star reviews, right?

We, we don't, uh, have an interaction with a With with somebody and say, Hey, uh, you know, did I earn a three star review today? Right? If we, if we asked for three star reviews, we would get three star reviews. But our policy is, is that we asked for five star reviews and more often than not, we get them. So, yes, we earn these reviews and we get them because we act, we ask for them.

But I can tell you that the team works incredibly hard and they deserve them. And my philosophy on these has been when we fall short, You know, if there's a review that clearly we dropped the ball, you know, our policy is, you know, we own it and we do everything we can to to improve. Right. So I'll be honest.

There are times when we get reviews from people who we don't know who they are. We don't have them as a tenant. We, we, we don't recognize them as a buyer and applicant or anything. And, you know, we will push back on those. And depending on the, on what goes up there, Google's pretty good about taking them down.

But there are times when, um, there are also times when, you know, and I don't want to sound defensive about it. Things go up that really aren't fair or what have you. But again, when we try to own it. So when we fall short, we own it. We try to improve and we say so right out there in public. If it's something that is either untrue or there's more to the story that we think needs to be shared.

Then, you know, we, we tried to do the best we can to be transparent. about that also. So if any potential clients or agents or, you know, so forth, want to take a look at, uh, really get a feel for how we do business at ROOST Real Estate Company, take a look at the reviews and don't just look at the five star reviews, look at the one star reviews, look at the bad reviews, but I want you to really look at how the team responds to those reviews and how we handle that.

that criticism. So my goal, you know, trying to build on the success of 2024 is I want to get to 1000 reviews between the three offices and I want to see an average score of 4. 8 or higher. That's that's my goal going forward for the next 12 months that we pick up, you know, another 650 odd reviews at a minimum.

You know, that's only roughly, what is that, a month? I can't even do math this morning, Laci. I guess it's at least one a week, uh, two a week, quite frankly, that we're looking for. And we want to maintain that four point 4. 8 or higher. 

Laci LeBlanc: Yeah, I think, um, I've got three things to say about reviews. I agree with you that this is the biggest impact I think in 2024.

Um, and so the first thing is these reviews are, are all pure, right? They're all, um, you know, client driven. And, you know, there's no incentivizing clients for these reviews, but you did do a really great job of incentivizing your employees, um, for these reviews. So, they are incentivized to get a five star review and, and that means they work harder and more diligently.

That means they're encouraged to ask for them. So, they are incentivized, but not, you're not paying people for good reviews. You're, you're rewarding. Your existing employees for their hard work. Um, and I think that's a really great approach to Pushing for more reviews and getting more reviews without compromising the integrity of the reviews.

Um, second is, you know, what's the point of all these reviews, right? Um, we want to make sure that people know there is an impact on the bottom line here. You have had property management clients come in and say, you know, I was looking for a property manager. I saw all your reviews. Um, you've had buyers and sellers come in and say, yeah, I found you on Google and I saw the reviews were great.

So these do. Make an impact on the bottom line. All of this work is not just, you know, to feel better about ourselves. Um, and then finally, you know, number three is if you don't take control of these reviews, you know, it's perfectly fine to be okay with having no reviews out there, but that's just not normally, if you're in business and you're doing business and you're talking to people and every single day, it's very unlikely that if you don't take control of your reviews, then somebody else is not going to, you Manhandle them for you.

So it becomes a place when you don't have a strategy around your Google reviews. Your Google reviews become a place for disgruntled folks to go and express their opinions almost exclusively, right? So you end up with a two star, or a one star or a, I would give 'em zero stars if I could. Um, type of review situation when if you take control of them yourself, then you, you really start to see more of the real picture.

Um, so those are the my three. Missives on, on Google reviews and why they, they matter and how this was such a, why this had such a big impact, I think, this year. 

Chris McAllister: Right. And another thing internally, you know, we, we are always creating, um, or updating job descriptions and job responsibilities for, for every team member, whether they're in support of the agents or the team member in support of owners, tenants, et cetera.

And at the top of, the first line item on every job responsibility list is, have I earned a five star review today? So we are trying to, to make this a part of our culture. Um, and, and every way we possibly can. And, uh, this, this is something that's going to be core to our brand and it's, it's just not going to go away.

So the next thing I want to, um, talk about as a huge win is the, is the, uh, Is the performance of our property management team. Um, you know, Gretchen, Gretchen Mitchell, our director of property management and, and, and the whole team have just done amazing things over the, um, the past couple of years. And, uh, you know, if somebody wants to go back and listen to the landlord profitability playbook podcasts, uh, you know, you can hear a lot about the challenge we've faced.

But suffice it to say, you know, COVID was interesting. During the actual, uh, lockdown, our business did incredibly well. People were buying houses like crazy. Interest rates were low. And, you know, we, we increased the number of, of, of doors that we have under management. Um, I, I think we 1, 500 and, You know, as we, as the tide started to roll out, um, on the whole real estate industry and the economy as a whole coming up on April of roughly, roughly April of 2022, you know, we, we realized that not only were we not up to the challenge when tenants started to move out again and, and, and they didn't have a lot of extra stimulus money in their pocket, but we had a lot of owners that weren't prepared for the tide going out.

too. And, you know, it was a very, very tough couple of years. And, uh, honestly, our business is pretty much right where it was, um, again, in, uh, 20, 2019 and 2020. So a lot of that growth we have, we have shed over the last couple of years. But on the plus side, uh, almost all of that growth, Um, wasn't real growth because quite frankly, it, it, it wasn't profitable.

It wasn't good for us. You know, we were signing up anybody who, who called us and said they wanted to buy a property or they wanted us to manage a property. And, you know, it was a, it's a tough thing to go through after, you know, feeling like, you know, we're really doing a great job. We're essential, you know, we're taking care of people during COVID and then to really wake up.

But if you're honest with, if I'm honest with myself that, wow, we, we really weren't prepared for that. And you know, we, we didn't do the job that I wish we would have. But having said that, I am super thrilled with where we are today. We have an incredible group of people. We put the right people in the right roles.

We've also introduced a lot of new software tools that have just changed the entire shape of our, of our management business. And one of them Is called property meld. This is a software service that has managed maintenance requests for the tenants. And we've talked a lot about that on the landlord profitability playbook podcast.

And I, and I think we did a little video about how property mill works. Oh, also the cool thing about PropertyMeld is every time a tenant has a maintenance request, they also have the opportunity to, uh, give a review, uh, for the maintenance team member that, that helped them with the issue. And I, I am so proud of this maintenance team.

Uh, I, you know, so many of our five star reviews are, are, are for the guys that, that, uh, you know, go out and take care of, uh, uh, repair issues. in in our tenants homes. So property melts been a huge thing. It's cut our time to fix things down to less than three days. I think our average review score for each particular meld or incident is, uh, I think it's over four at this point out of five.

And that's great. Um, the second piece of software that has just changed everything for us is called tenant Turner. We've been using this for leasing. This also gives us an opportunity to to easily track our days on market or, uh, properties we have for lease. And it keeps those numbers and those metrics front and center and top of mind for all of us to look at.

So these changes have improved tenant satisfaction and and it's it's helped us keep tenants. And this, of course, in turn helps our owners keep their properties. Profitable. So those are huge in 2024. In 2025. I really want to continue this focus on team productivity and and team, uh, I guess, excellence, right?

And it sounds a little hokey, but that's exactly what we're pushing for. So this year we're partnering with a company called Productive Power that is helping us, uh, helping the team master Productive Power. All of those Microsoft Office 365 tools that we pay money for every month, whether it's, um, email or teams or, um, the tasks and so forth.

And we've had, I think, four sessions with them so far. And I think we've got another six. Uh, training modules lined up, I think, starting again next week. So I am super excited about that. It's helped me a lot and I know it's helped the team a lot. And ultimately our goal is to automate as many tasks as we possibly can in, in the, in the, in every aspect of our business, quite frankly, not just the, the.

Management business. But what I want to make clear on, you know, we're not trying to use technology for the sake of technology. We're not trying to use technology to automate every single part of our business or distance ourselves from the people that we work with. Technology is critical for our productivity and profitability as a company.

It's critical for our buyers or sellers, our owners, our tenants and so forth. But the, the thing I am absolutely most focused on with, with. Technology, whether it's, you know, things like, uh, Microsoft tools, property mill, tenant, Turner, chat, GPT, whatever it is, it's to create more time for personal connection between our team members.

And the people that we work for. So if we can, we can streamline, um, uh, Taylor's job in leasing so that we can automate more of those processes, get more done faster with less human hours. It's not like, um, you know, Taylor's going to go add another department to, to her plate of, of duties. The, the idea is that Taylor's going to have more time in her day to speak directly to applicants.

Or to speak directly to, to owners about what's happening with their properties. So for us, productivity is in service to more personal one on one connection and faster response times to anybody who inquires for any reason at ROOST. 

Laci LeBlanc: Yeah, I think that's super important too, to keeping your costs down, um, you know, people, good, good human beings who have the skills needed, uh, to, to fill these roles are not cheap, um, so by automating some of these other processes that don't require that personal kind of human touch, um, with this technology, you're, you're really keeping costs down for, I think, most of your owners, um, because, I mean, you're, you know, If you ask me, all of your costs are too low, right?

I'm the marketing person. So it's my job to tell you to increase your prices, but you guys have very, very reasonable flat rate, you know, for your, for your owners on a door to door basis. And I do think that this really contributes to that because you've got great people. You can afford great people, uh, because you've really spent the time to invest in, in technology, which when you divide it over, you know, your, your whole business, um, is really minimal for each of the owners.

So you have a lot of technology and it ends up reducing costs on those automated tasks. So you can afford the best people to do this, this work that does require personal touch and things like, you know, interviewing tenants and qualifying them for properties. All of that is better. When you can talk to somebody face to face or, and, and really get to know them.

So I think that's really important to, to that part of it as well. 

Chris McAllister: Well, there's a lot of things there. You know, we've, we are paying our folks a heck of a lot more than we paid them, you know, two, three years ago. And we want to continue to be able to do that. I truly want to have the best paid team in the industry bar none, but to do that.

They also have to be the most productive team, bar none. And I'm not interested in Productivity or technology for the sake of productivity or technology. We have so many competitors out there in the world right now that are doing everything they can to employ technology. It almost seems like to to not have to talk to people, right?

And I, I, I can't. I can't get my mind around that. Every time we have the chance to spend quality time one on one with a, with a client or a potential client, we deepen that relationship and at the end of the day, we both make more money. We both do better. So everything has to be in service of, of, of greater connection.

The third thing that I'm super proud of is the ROOST Rehab and Maintenance team. So, She's our director of rehab and maintenance ROOST rehab and maintenance and she's done a heck of a time at a job, really building out what we want the rehab and maintenance department to be going forward and in 2024, we My gosh, I think we doubled the size of the field team, the W2 team, and we've got folks that are doing, um, the repairs for, um, you know, tenants in occupied units.

And we also have, uh, folks on the team now that are part of rehab teams, and they're actually doing The turns for our owners when somebody moves out and, you know, having these folks on the payroll and having and them having the skills and the tools and so forth that they have, it just makes all the difference in the world when it comes to completing rehabs on time and on budget for our clients.

Uh, you know, for a long time, I thought, you know, is it self serving that we want to build out this capability and so forth? And the fact is, it's not. We should have been building out this capability for years. Every time we have to go out to a third party that we don't know, we have no influence over, certainly no control over.

And, and, you know, we're passing along their costs on their timeline. You know, we're not doing any, we're not doing our owners any favors when we have to go to the market to help them get a turn completed or to get a rehab done on a newly purchased property. So building out this team. And right now we have 1 fantastic team and we're in the process of building out a 2nd.

Is really making all the difference in the world because it's getting things turned faster and in turn gets them rented faster. And at the end of the day, even if it costs the same amount as what a third party would charge, it's getting done so much faster that they're collecting rent faster than, than they were before.

And you know, anytime you miss a month's rent, it's a problem. It messes with your, with your profitability. So. This is a new capability for our company that I am super excited about. I mean, at the end of the day, faster, better repairs mean happier tenants who stay in the properties longer. And, and that at the end of the day is the key to owner profitability.

Laci LeBlanc: Yeah, and any one of us who's ever called a repairman for anything at home knows that not being on their timeline and being on your own timeline, being in control of that is, is well worth it. 

Chris McAllister: The other thing I'm super excited about in 2025 is with the rehab and maintenance team, we started, so we do this thing, it's called a site audit pro report.

It's just an app. We refer to it as SAP. And, uh, Paul's one of our, our maintenance guys. He's, he's, he's kind of like our lead, uh, um, uh, turn guy. So whenever a property goes vacant, he takes his, uh, his iPhone to the property. He opens up SiteAutoPro. He takes pictures of every room, every issue in every room.

And as he's walking through that property, doing the assessment, he, he, Talks into his phone and the phone takes notes as to what he see, right? So he's getting a photo, pictures of what's going on in the property and he's, he's, he's making detailed notes of what's going on in the property. So those, those get shared in the cloud.

Heather back at the office, um, you know, she gets that report. She's got some processes and procedures that she goes through to, to, uh, get that report. You know, estimate what it's going to cost to get that report to get that property into rent ready condition. And then she's got something to share with the owner and actually have an intelligent conversation with the owner about the condition of the property and what it's going to cost to fix it.

But the other thing that, um, We're doing, we started doing last year and we'll continue to do going forward. Everybody knows that the cost of, you know, getting things fixed these days, getting things rehabbed has just gotten more and more expensive. And that goes back to why we've got to have more control over it so we can control the cost and control the quality and the timeline.

The one thing we started doing is We're, we're giving our owner clients. If a tenant moves out, we're, we're giving them two prescriptions, right? Two quotes. And the first quote is here's the bare minimum that you need to do to maintain the property where it is, keep it safe and continue to get the rent that you've been collecting for the past, you know, two months.

Few months, years, whatever it is. And then there's a second quote. And the second quote is, these are the things that we really think you should consider doing to make sure that you maintain that property to the neighborhood standard. And oh, by the way, you know, if you were getting a thousand dollars a month rent and you want to keep getting a thousand dollars a month rent and, and, and spend as little as possible, let's, let's just do the, the safety and security rehab.

But if you're ready to, you know, improve this property, And in turn, you know, raise the rent, you know, by a couple of hundred bucks to 1, 200. Here's what we suggest you do to maintain and enhance the property, and in turn be able to raise the rent. And I think that kind of, that dialogue, that kind of one on one counseling, I do think is invaluable.

But here's the great thing that we're going to be doing going forward in 2025. Whenever any of our owners, or any new owners, Especially out of state owners, you know, find a property that they want to buy and add to their portfolio. Then we're offering the same service right to to them to make sure that they have as much information as possible about what it's going to cost to put that property.

In rent ready service after they close off. So that's a service that we've never provided before. As far as I know, it's a service that, that I've, I've never met any, any real estate professionals that are providing that service, but this is something that we have the people, we have the rehab and maintenance department.

We've got Heather, we have the technology, and I'm super excited about offering that service to new buyers going forward. 

Laci LeBlanc: That's really just one of the new services you've got for. Investor buyers moving forward, right? 

Chris McAllister: Yeah. So that leads us right into another huge one. Last year was called the ROOST Investment Gateway.

So last year we launched, uh, on our website, the ROOST Investment Gateway and the weekly best bets email. So these, this is a, this is, these tools help our investor clients find The best opportunities available, even in a competitive market. So we've been working with Morgan Cole at a company called ReSCOVR, and he's created a super powerful system that uses data from the MLS to identify potentially great investments.

You know, any given week, the Columbus MLS alone has over 5, 000 listings, and this technology Actually sorts through every listing. It applies an algorithm that makes some assumptions and it sorts every single property based on its potential, um, cap rate and internal rate of return. So this, this is just, you know, a game changer.

This is something that I used to try to do years ago during the, um, um, you know, in the aftermath of the crash in 2008, you know, manually with a spreadsheet and Morgan's built this, uh, This, uh, software that allows us to offer all of this information to anybody who wants to go to investwithROOST. com and take a look.

Um, And then you've 

Laci LeBlanc: got the, you take it a step further there, right? So the, like we said, technology, not just for technology sake, you still need a personal touch in there. So what do you do, Chris, after we get the, the investment gateway to give you kind of a list? 

Chris McAllister: Well, so it's interesting. Actually, we just really got this up and running, and I think we've probably only sent out maybe a 10 weekly best bets emails.

But I've been talking, uh, and Taylor and I have been talking to, uh, Um, a gentleman from California who, who found us on, on Google, right? Our Google, that's another win, right? Woo. Google. 

Laci LeBlanc: Woo . 

Chris McAllister: People are actually finding us on the internet thanks to Laci, and they're seeing good things thanks to the five star reviews.

But anyway, he's, he saw, he, he, he opened, he found it on, uh, invest with Ruth, and he found a house that he really liked and he reached out to me. We did a, a couple of Zoom calls and, um. Taylor actually wrote an offer for him and, and, you know, we're working closely together and it, but to answer your question, what happens is this technology.

gives us something to talk about with somebody that is of added value, right? Anybody can talk to anybody about, oh yeah, there's, there's opportunities, you know, it's just hard to find. Whereas, you know, we can say, yeah, opportunities are hard to find, but here's how we're going to narrow down the pool of opportunities into, you know, 15, 20, 30 possibilities that make the most sense.

And our actionable and we can show you what those properties are worth today that we can show you how we think they're going to cash flow over the next few years. And then the other cool thing about the website is it shows how appreciation is going to increase the value of those those properties. So.

Yeah, so you 

Laci LeBlanc: send out these, we send out these best bets emails that are kind of the handpicked several from all of the, from the investment gateway, you know, that kind of match the criteria. Um, but what's really great is that if you see something, right, if you're, if you're not on these emails, get on these emails, right?

But if you see something that interests you, it is a conversation starter. And there could be several other things out there depending on your specific circumstances. Um, you know, I think that that's really the trend towards automating everything. Like we just talked about with all of the technology, um, is, is taking away the necessary personal touch.

Once you get to know a buyer, whether it's a, you know, a buyer for their own home or an investor. You really get to know what they're looking for and what they need out of a property. And, and so, like you said, there may be 10 or 20 more that aren't on that best bets page that actually would fit their, their specific criteria.

Um, but it's really, you know, because we have this investment guest gateway to kind of, Shortcut us to to these properties. It really gets us off on the right right foot with folks and simplifies that part of the process. Um, and allows you to spend more time focusing on the really personalized part of it and finding the right property for the right person.

Chris McAllister: Yeah. I mean, we want to be, you know, the, the 

Laci LeBlanc: work smarter, not harder. They say, well, 

Chris McAllister: yeah, we want to be the coach, the consultant, the advocate and so forth. And this is another example where technology gives us more time to do that and be that because we're not sorting through the MLS randomly looking for, you know, golden nuggets.

So the other moment of 

Laci LeBlanc: silence for your spreadsheet. 

Chris McAllister: Yeah. And then just yesterday, I know we sent out our Sunday, we sent out, uh, on our weekly landlord profitability playbook, email, uh, link, and we can put this in the show notes, uh, to a video I did with Martin Cole, who, who's the founder of reiscover and we, we went through the.

ReSCOVR website and the ROOST Investment Gateway in detail and did a video. So we started to share that this week and we'll add that to the show notes as well. And if you're not receiving best bets, go to investwithROOST. com, scroll down and you'll see a place where you can subscribe and make sure that you're, you can get those emails if you're not already.

So from the ROOST Investment Gateway. sort of leads us into, um, another initiative, I guess, for 2025. That is, we want to be the one stop shop for real estate investors. So Ohio and Florida remain strong markets for real estate investors. And we're focused on Columbus, uh, West towards Springfield and into Dayton.

And we're also focused on the space coast of Florida. And as we've kind of been saying, our goal is to be the trusted partner in every single part of the investment process. So as a one stop shop, we want to help people identify. We want to help them. You know, make offers. We want get, get it to closing. So basically we wanna help them buy it.

We wanna help them rehab it, we wanna manage it. We, we wanna lease it, we wanna manage it. And when it comes time to, um, uh, harvest that equity and dispose of that property, we want to be. Uh, the first choice for our owners for, for that as well. So when it comes time to sell or 10 31 exchange of property, you know, we're here also to maximize those returns.

We have the skill, the expertise, the tools and the people that can do that. Uh, I dare say, uh, as good or better than, than anybody else in the business. So in 2025, a couple of other things we're doing, we're going to expand our free rent analysis offers to, um, many, many more people in our market areas and our offers of free consultations and quotes.

And the other thing I haven't even talked to you too much about this. Laci. But the other thing that we want to do for our investors, um, going forward is there's a couple of companies out there, and I actually have a meeting with one of them today when we finish that are offering, uh, technology sort of like ReSCOVER in that it, whereas ReSCOVER will do a financial analysis on any listed property in the MLS, we're looking at services that do a similar analysis on every property in our portfolio.

So one of the things that I think helps us get to the next level when it comes to adding value to our owners is, is helping people, um, see on a day to day basis, the direction of the, of the profitability and the value of their portfolio. So. Um, I don't want to reveal too much or, or what we're going to call this or anything, but if we can get to the point where our owners can go to a website, pull up their properties, whether it's one property or a hundred properties and see how each individual property is performing or how the portfolio is performing as a group and what the value might be, um, in the years to come.

I think that's a value add that I'm super excited about in 2025. So another win for 2024, uh, ROOST real estate, co. com. I'm calling it. This is probably the 5. 0 version, but I'm calling it ROOST real estate, co. com 2. 0. So again, thanks to you, Laci. Thanks to Kylie are. A graphic designer. We, we basically launched a whole new website in 2024 with updated content and tools for buyers, sellers, and investors.

I'm super excited about the new learn with Ruth section that brings together all of the blogs and podcasts that we do together and. And resources for anybody in real estate, whether they're homeowners, investors, or agents. And this is the first time that we've actually taken all the content that we've been working on for the past few years and put it all in one place.

And it's already paying off, you know, so, you know, just like, uh, um, the gentleman found us online in California, you know, just because he was Googling real estate in Ohio. Um, the fact that we've got all of this Content and helpful content all in one place. It's allowing more people to Find us online and the other cool thing is, you know From a referral standpoint, you know, we've always had owners that, you know, would try to refer us and our issue was we didn't have a website that was built out to, to do what we do justice, right?

We weren't telling a good story. So now what happens is if an owner or anybody else wants to refer us and they go to ROOSTrealestateco. com or investwithROOST or what have you. They're going to see what we're all about. They're going to see the kind of content and the education we strive to provide. And again, that's already paying off because we're seeing more referrals come in.

We're actually talking to more and more people that say, yeah, so and so said I should check you out. So I checked you out. I was impressed with your website. So, you know, we clicked through and here we are having a conversation. So I'm super excited about that. I know, you know, Laci, you're working on, you know, getting the Google ads to To be that much more effective.

And, uh, you know, we've got some other outbound postcards and things we're sending out because yeah, just, just, just like everybody else, we want to grow our business and, and we've got a great foundation, um, to build from. 

Laci LeBlanc: Yeah. There's that referral comment is really key because I mean, you know, we have lots of thoughts and feelings on.

Proactively facilitating referrals, right? And you guys do a lot of the things and that's like a whole nother episode, but, um, most commonly people say, Oh, yeah, I just bought my new investment property. I use ROOST. They're great. You should go check them out. Right. And that's it. ROOST Real Estate, go check them out.

And so if you're not coming up when somebody types in ROOST Real Estate in their search bar, then that's problem number one, right? And then if they go, if they do find you and they go to the site and they don't see evidence, you know, that you're putting in the work of professionalism. Um, you know, or, or resources, then that's problem number two.

And so, you know, I think that that's always been there. You've always had the professionalism. You've always had the resources. But yeah, showcasing those on the internet in addition to, you know, the very logistical results of Google indexing it and getting keywords and site authority and outbound links and inbound links and all that marketing stuff.

There's just a very kind of. Basic element of looking professional on the internet when somebody finds you. And I think that having everything that you've always had showcased there is number one priority doing that. 

Chris McAllister: I know we're going to talk about it tomorrow when we do our weekly status, but the leads that have come in from from the Google ad really since Christmas, I think have improved dramatically and they're coming from people within our market area and, um, I think people are actually Yeah, they're coming 

Laci LeBlanc: from people who are already searching for what ROOST provides.

That's the value of a Google ad is that you don't it's like it's like make new friends but keep the old. You know, you don't want to it costs a lot less to keep a client than to get a new client. Not that you don't want to get new clients too, but it also, it costs a lot less to find folks who are already looking for the services you provide than it does to convince people that they need the services that you provide and then get them on board.

So that's what we're working on now. 

Chris McAllister: Well, and, and, you know, yes, we want to grow, you know, because I think that's what entrepreneurs do, but whenever we, as we grow, we are able to provide because we can afford more value added, um, things, right? So whether it's the investor gateway or, or, or whether it's the, uh, portfolio monitor, uh, for lack of a better name that, that we're going to implement this year, um, you know, the technology for.

Um, you know, property mill and so forth. That's all. That, that all helps all of us, um, our, our clients and, and, and ourselves. So we've talked a ton today about property management, but property management was, it was the focus because we've got the most incredible owners that are, they're so loyal and they, they take good care of us and, and, uh.

You know, it was deserving of our focus, but I never, ever want to lose sight of the fact that, you know, we are still brokerage, we still have agents that work for us, right. We still help people buy and sell houses. And this was a, another challenging year in the real estate business because of all the industry changes.

So, you know, the Sitzer Burnett versus NAR lawsuit and settlement was an absolute game changer in 2024. It took up an incredible amount of time and. And in brain space, and I don't want to go too deep in here. We've got tons of content out there about the actual lawsuit and settlement, but you know, the sister Burnett is it's, it's reshaping how commissions work.

It's giving buyers and sellers more control. And while the changes have been challenging, it's also opened up. A lot of doors for, uh, innovation. And it also gives us an opportunity to, um, as we go forward in 2025 to bundle fees. So now that, uh, you know, commissions have always been negotiable. And I'd like to think we have always been transparent.

But there is an opportunity for us to quote bundle fees, right? You know, uh, if we're going to help, uh, um, uh, an owner move from one house to another. To another new house, right? That's two transactions, but for that owner, it's really one transaction. So, you know, in the past that was two separate things and, you know, it was two separate, you know, uh, sets of fees and being able to bundle.

services for moving from one house to the next is ultimately going to save our clients money, and it's going to help our agents build their business. The other place that I think is exciting about bundling fees going forward is, you know, if we're going to sell a house through the investment gateway or any other place to an investor, And that investor is going to place that property with us for management.

That gives us an opportunity to quote bundle fees there as well. So, you know, paying a buyer agent and, and, um, you know, signing up for, you know, property management and, and the fees that we collect with that bundling those together, again, that's another opportunity to provide value to our owner clients that, that helps them.

ultimately helps us. So this year, um, we're going to continue to focus as we did really, uh, the second half of last year on my job as a broker is I have to, our agents, our real estate professionals, I have to help them continuously articulate their value to their clients. You know, real estate professionals are just that they're professionals or they should be right.

Ours are, and they deserve to be compensated for their expertise. Right. We don't want agents at ROOST that, that, you know, do this as a, as a side hustle, or it's a part time thing, or it's a hobby, or it's something that's fun to do. We see realtors, we see, uh, real estate, uh, licensees as professionals that, that at the end of the day, we have to see ourselves as being no different than a doctor is a professional, an attorney is a professional, and we have to not, we have to carry ourselves as such.

We have to have confidence in ourselves as such, and we have to add value. as real estate professionals. And as a professional, we all deserve to be compensated for the value we provide. And one of the fallout from Sitzer Burnett is, I, I, we can come back here in a couple of years and check this, but I would say, you know, Within two years, maybe sooner at a minimum, we're going to have 30 percent fewer realtors in the country than we have today.

And quite frankly, that number could be higher because without the backstop of a guaranteed commission on the buy side, I just don't know what percentage of folks are going to be able to articulate their value and be able to explain to a buyer or an investor why their expertise is worthy of trust. Of X amount of money.

So again, our focus going forward is to make sure that our folks. are skilled that they are knowledgeable and that they are able to add value and they're able to speak about how they add value. You know, I always think that's 

Laci LeBlanc: a really important part of it, right? Because we don't, we don't like to talk about ourselves very much.

We inevitably end up doing it as, um, you know, examples of the. The tools that we're talking about or the strategies or the tactics that we're talking about because we're our own best example. Right. But ROOST as a whole, we try to really focus on who we're talking to and how what we do impacts them and what their needs are and how we're meeting those needs.

You know, that's just kind of marketing. 101 is you don't talk about yourself. You talk about, you know, what you provide in terms of how it meets the needs for the people you're providing it to. Um, so I think being able to talk about yourself in a way that showcases exactly that is, is really important.

So for your, for your agents and I mean, even property management team for everybody to be able to articulate the value of your services to the clients, um, without going on and on about, Oh, we provide, like we provide, You know, a walkthrough, a video walkthrough for homeowners. Well, that's great. But like, how does that positively impact the seller or, you know, the buyer?

How, well, what's the value of that? Like we have to take it. When 

Chris McAllister: I say, when I say adding value, I'm not talking about just doing the things everybody else does. I'm talking about finding ways to do things that nobody else does. And to be, and explain why 

Laci LeBlanc: that's beneficial. 

Chris McAllister: I just don't think 

Laci LeBlanc: anybody's super comfortable talking about themselves and why we're so great.

Right. But when you really. focus on framing it from the eye of the beholder, right? The client, then it gets a lot easier and providing that, that ability, helping, helping people be able to do that is huge. 

Chris McAllister: Yeah. And I, and you know, speaking to, well, everybody in the audience, but to the real estate professionals that might be listening, you know, I always say the very best agents among us, they do three things and three things only, quite frankly, they connect with their clients.

They practice their craft and they track their performance. And if they do those things, they can't help but grow personally and professionally. And that core belief, that core, um, mission, connect, practice, track and grow. That is going to continue to, to inform everything we do. over the entire company. And, you know, I always say that if, if the agent's job is to connect, practice, track and grow, then my job as a broker is to promote agents connections, right?

Make sure that they're getting the airtime they deserve. To to find ways to enhance their practices, whether if it's things like the investment gateway or, um, buyer seller brochures, etcetera. That's that's my job as a broker. And it's also my job to to support their into individual businesses. So if, if the outcome of connect, practice, track, and grow is, is growth, then the outcome of what I do is, is really about being a coach and coaching for growth.

So all these things that we're talking about, you know, as we, as we come through these industry changers with Sitzer and Burnett, I think that these, these new habits or these, uh, enhanced habits. Are going to lead to growth in both income and expertise for for ROOST agents in 2025 and beyond. 

Laci LeBlanc: I agree.

Speaking of talking about ourselves. Why don't you tell us about ROOST equals Home? 

Chris McAllister: Okay, so as we clear out the wins for 2024, because, you know, I've gone on quite a while here, so, um, but the last win that I really want to focus on is the whole concept of ROOST equals Home. So looking back, 2024 was the start of our second decade as a company, and it was a year of getting back to basics, and our mission has always been about serving everybody who needs a roof over their head, not just the 60, 65 percent of the people in a given market who actually own their own roof, and as we've talked about many times, you know, way back in 2014, What I, what I envisioned for this company that we're essentially in the shelter business, right?

So we're going to serve people who need a roof over their heads, whether they happen to make a mortgage payment or whether they happen to make a rent payment. But at the end of the day, all the changes in the industry, all the changes that happened through covid, what became clear was home is the heart.

Of everything we do and our purpose and our mission is simple. We at ROOST Real Estate Company create real estate opportunities, strategies to support and add value to homeowners and real estate property investors, and there's a graphic we have up on the site. Um, under about ROOST and it's a, it's a cool graphic.

And actually in the show notes, we'll, we'll put the little video that I did about ROOST equals home so people can click on it if they choose, but in the center is ROOST is where you, and I don't know if you follow us on Facebook or Instagram, but every Sunday we have a ROOST is where you post. And it's, it's just a graphic that Kylie does that, that just with the goal of equating the idea of ROOST with home.

So in the center of what we do is ROOST. So around that, that hub is sell with ROOST. We help people sell their properties, rent with ROOST. We help tenants rent properties, invest with ROOST. We help investors buy properties. Properties and expand their portfolio, uh, career with ROOST. You know, we, we, we want to be the best place possible.

For, um, a real estate professional to, to affiliate with buy with ROOST, right? Where we help people buy their, their new home, learn with ROOST, which I do think is helping us on so many levels where we're consolidating all of the podcasts and on all of the content that we're putting together, repair and maintain with ROOST, and finally day to day manage with ROOST.

So those one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight things, they sound like a lot, but when you look at those That graphic and you think of those eight things that support one thing and one thing only, and that is that ROOST equals home, then I think it really does simplify and clarify what we do for not just our clients and future buyers and sellers, but also for our agents and team members.

Laci LeBlanc: Yeah, I think that's, I mean, You know, you want to work with a company that knows what they're trying to do in this world. I think most people do. Um, but. You know, our most recent email out to, to folks about this was, you know, why ROOST mission and vision matters. You know, why does that matter to all of the people that we work with on a daily basis?

And it goes back to being able to articulate what, you know, what that means for these folks. But in the end, it's also nice to know that, you know, the company that you're working with or for, uh, Knows who they are and, and has a, a goal and a, and a mission that's going to keep them on track. Um, because I think that the most successful companies have that and they stay true to that and, and that's one thing that I love about working here and with you guys is that you've always been very clear.

About what your mission is, uh, this, this shelter business really had me at shelter business, Chris. Um, anybody, everybody needs, needs a roof, even if they don't own it. Right. Well, everybody needs 

Chris McAllister: a home. Everybody deserves a home. So 

Laci LeBlanc: yeah. Yeah. So it's, I think that's, it's an excellent way to kind of cap off the, the 2024 moving into 2025 conversation.

Chris McAllister: Well, looking ahead as we wrap this up today, um, you know, I don't, uh, I'm, I don't want to sound pessimistic, but you know, it's not all sweetness and light in the shelter business these days. And, you know, I think as we look ahead into 2025, we have to be honest with ourselves because we're, we're going to be based with continued uncertainty, not just in the broader economy, but in the real estate market as a whole.

You know, interest rates and inflation remain high. There's zero reason to believe that interest rates are going to fall or that inflation is going to go down at all this year, quite frankly. And I think inventory is going to remain tight, meaning that there are, you know, fewer homes to buy and when there's fewer homes to buy and you have more buyers than there are homes to buy, the prices continue to go up.

So it's a tough time when, you know, values are. Are still firm or rising, you know, rates are higher than we want them to be. You know, I don't see that we're going to, uh, you know, get I think we'll be lucky if we if we get, you know, close to 6 percent this year. I think we're going to be, you know, it's a higher range of between 6 and 7.

Um, it's just, uh, You know, it's tough. I don't think it's going to be any worse than the last couple of years. I think, ultimately, we'll start to get some clarity on what's going to happen going forward, but I would be lying if I said that I think everything's going to change and a magic wand is going to be waved and everything's going to go back to the way it was, you know, before COVID.

Having said that, challenges bring opportunities, and I'm optimistic about our potential for growth, our potential for innovation, um, and I am optimistic in the broader economy and the political scene that, um, I do think that there's a good chance we're going to see fewer regulations at the federal level that will hopefully trickle down to fewer regulations at the state and local level.

And when I'm talking about regulations, I'm talking about the ability of developers to build more housing stock. And every place we do business, it's not like we need any more apartment buildings at this point. We've got tons of new apartment buildings that have gone up the last few years, but what we need is more.

affordable or market rate, um, single family housing stock. And quite frankly, until we start to see that dam break and we start to see more houses going up, new houses going up for sale, I, I think that inventory is going to. remain tight. That's my two cents, right? But this year, my personal focus is to ensure that everybody we work with sees ROOST as their trusted, uh, real estate agent or asset management partner.

So, you know, if, if you're an investor or homeowner, I want you to think of ROOST as, you know, the, your source, your resource from acquisition to rehab, to management. And and beyond and to our clients. I want you to expect to hear from me more often this year. I need to continue to get better at understanding what your goals are, what your challenges are, and I need to personally be focused on finding ways to help you succeed.

And that's my resolution going into 2025. So thank you all for being part of the of the ROOST family. And, uh, let's make 2025 a great year together and happy new year. 

Laci LeBlanc: Happy 2025. 

Chris McAllister: Happy 25. We'll see you next time.