The All Things Real Estate Podcast with Chris McAllister

Ep009: The State of the ROOST Union 2026

• Chris McAllister

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In this annual State of the Union–style episode, ROOST Founder & CEO Chris McAllister reflects on a pivotal year of rebuilding, professionalization, and strategic positioning—and lays out a clear, grounded vision for 2026 and beyond.

Joined by ROOST’s Marketing Director and longtime podcast partner Laci LeBlanc, Chris breaks down what actually moved the needle in 2025—not buzzwords, not vanity metrics, but real operational upgrades that improved owner profitability, team effectiveness, and long-term scalability.

This is not a highlight reel. It’s a candid operating report from inside a real, growing real estate company—what worked, what had to be rebuilt, and what’s now possible because the foundation is finally right.

Whether you’re a landlord, investor, agent, property manager, or business owner thinking about scale without losing your soul, this episode offers practical insight and a clear lens for evaluating your own next season.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • How Rehab & Maintenance 2.0 evolved from a reactive cost center into a profitability engine
  • Why Owner Portfolio Reviews became the most valuable—and personal—work ROOST does
  • How ROOST intentionally became a media company, using YouTube and avatar-driven content to educate, attract, and scale trust
  • The team investments that had to happen before meaningful growth was possible
  • Why migrating marketing and referrals into HighLevel changed everything
  • A deep look at “Hey Chris, Buy Me a Beer”, ROOST’s referral partner program built for modern agents and professionals
  • The launch of a unified investor ecosystem combining Invest With ROOST and ROOST Portfolio Management
  • New initiatives in publishing, recruiting, leasing, and brand experience heading into 2026
  • The long-term vision behind Boutique@Scale—and why it’s harder (and more valuable) than it sounds

LINKS

P.S. Want more practical tips for buying and selling real estate? Our ever-growing library of books, blog posts, podcast episodes, masterclasses, documents, and other tools is at your fingertips.

Learn More >>> The All Things Real Estate Resource Hub

Chris McAllister: Hello everyone. I'm Chris McAllister with ROOST Real Estate Company and welcome to the State of the ROOST Union 2026. Each year I try to take the time to reflect on what we built, what we've learned, and most importantly. Where we're headed as a company. So this is my annual report to our buyers and sellers, our clients, our agents, our our owners, and our team, and anybody else who trusts us with their home.

And their investments. So I'm joined today, as always by our marketing director and my podcast partner, Laci LeBlanc, who actually was a huge help in making 2025, the success it was. So, good morning, Laci. 

Laci LeBlanc: Good morning, Chris. 

Chris McAllister: Happy holidays. 

Laci LeBlanc: We've earned it. Yeah, 

Chris McAllister: 2025 was quite a year. We've definitely, I'm, I have to tell you, this is sort of my last official, uh, act of the year, and I'm looking forward to a little bit of time off.

But, you know, 2025, it wasn't a quite year. We made some big bets. We made bets on people. We made bets on systems and content. And, you know, I really feel like those bets have, have if they have it paid off already, they, they, they soon will. But looking back, I can say with confidence that 2025 was foundational for us.

I think we really set the stage for what the next, 3, 4, 5, you know, 10 years look like. So what I'm hoping to do today is discuss with you the wins we had for 2025, the, at least the ones that mattered most. 

Laci LeBlanc: Yeah, let's get into it. I have the luxury of seeing a, a brief overview or an outline of these ch these podcast episodes in advance and, and getting excited about it, um, before everybody else gets to hear it.

But this is gonna be one for the books. 

Chris McAllister: Well, I'm gonna be jumping around a little bit. You know, we, you know, we do several things at ROOST, right? We have a wonderful group of agents that, that help buyers and sellers make their real estate dreams come true. We have an incredible property management team that looks after over a thousand properties.

Now for, or a thousand doors for around 300 owners and the rehab and maintenance division, ROOST, rehab and maintenance. That, that's kind of the first thing I want to uh, touch on. So anyway, there's not a whole lot of theme here. I'm gonna jump around a bit, but, the rehab and maintenance.

This was definitely a year, and I, I knew that we had to improve our rehab and maintenance services by spring of, uh, 2025, and I called it at least to myself or with the team, I communicated it as rehab and maintenance 2.0. So if 2024 was the year we kind of stabilized, you know, property management and rehab and maintenance, 2025 was the year, especially in rehab and maintenance where, I don't know if this is a real word, Laci, but I feel like we truly professionalized our rehab and maintenance division.

And I, the other thing that became clear for me was. You know, we, we do three things at ROOST. There's three legs of the ROOST stool or the ROOST business, and the first leg is sales. The second leg is property management, but the third leg is truly the rehab and maintenance division. So we did a lot of upgrades.

You know, we have much stronger leadership in rehab and maintenance. We've got better field processes and more professional field people. Our turn times have improved dramatically. Honestly, I haven't done the math this week, but I, I would say that our turn times are easily 50% faster than they were. This time last year, you know, we, we, we do a much better job.

Our guys in the field, when they go out to fix something in an occupied unit, it gets done the first time. And the scores that they get, the feedback results they get from, um. The, uh, the tenants has been phenomenal and it only gets, it's only getting better month after month. So the tenants really appreciate what the field guys are doing and uh, uh, and I appreciate it as well.

It's become a critical part of our. Business here at ROOST. Much, much better. Contractor coordination. You know, we, 90 ti 90% of the time when we are, uh, helping an owner with a turn, we use third party contractors. And some of these guys have been with us, you know, since, uh, we started this in like 2009. But as we've grown, we've had to add.

Additional contractor partners. And I think we're doing a much, much better job now, uh, coordinating, uh, their activities. And we also got the, the finances right, both internally and, and also for our owners when they're, when there's a charge, it's very clear what it is. They understand it, they're prepared for it.

It's been communicated so. That's a big win. So the numbers don't lie, you know, satisfaction is up, tenant satisfaction is up. Maintenance completion times are down. Owners are seeing more cost effective turnovers, and more importantly, there's fewer surprises and it is really. A huge profitability center for us.

It, it is huge to us. I guess more important is the, uh, is the better phrase there because again, the three legs of the stool, you know, we've got sales, we've got management, and now we've got rehab and maintenance. And I really want to shout out to Brad Owens our. Rehab, a maintenance manager and Reina Smith, uh, who joined the property management team this year.

And every one of the guys in, in, in the field and Angela and, and Josie and Kelly for getting the money back all the time that we front to the owners. So, uh, it was a team effort to make this transformation possible. And, uh, that's win number. 

Laci LeBlanc: Yeah, I, I spend most of my time working remotely, so I don't get to be in the office around everybody.

But I was there this past weekend and being able to meet a rehab and maintenance team that is so invested in the company they work for that is so happy to be there. And that has such great leadership is. It is really a pleasure. You don't see that a lot. Um, and I think it's worth pointing out that, you know, if you read anywhere about property management, if you talk to any owners, then rehab and maintenance is, can be the killer of profitability, right?

That can be the difference between no question, red and black in any given year. So to get this under control and, you know, to, to have a rehab and maintenance. Program that makes money is, that's the difference. And so that's a, a huge win. I think it's a aptly put at the top of the stack here.

But it was very cool to see everybody in person and to hear, you know, to see the faces behind all those fantastic Google reviews that we get from tenants and from owners. Um, and to just see how invested they were in, in the success of ROOST and the success of the tenants and the owners, um, was, was a real treat.

Chris McAllister: Yeah. Thank you for saying that. It's, uh, it's definitely, definitely a win. All right, so the second thing I wanted to touch on are. Owner portfolio reviews. And one of my personal goals, and I know we discussed this when we did this last year, but one of my personal goals coming into 2025 was to increase my direct engagement with our owners.

Not through automation, not through templates, but through real one-to-one conversations about their assets, their strategy, and most importantly, their long-term goals. You know, I, I. Probably have done, I think I had close to 30 meetings with, with owners this year. And we've got a, uh, we created a really, you know, me and spreadsheets, I love spreadsheets, but we really created a spreadsheet for each and every owner so that we can really drill down as to exactly what's happening with their portfolios.

What we're able to do now when we schedule these is we can sit with the owner and, and Gretchen does 'em with me, so we can actually understand what's happening with their portfolio. We can understand where they are on rents, and we can see at a glance where the rents should be going over the next at, at the next renewal cycle and beyond.

We're, uh, downloading. All of the, uh, income statements for this year and last year so we can analyze not just the rents, but the in expenses. And when we go through and look at those. The rents we're getting, or, and, and the rents we could be getting, we can start to map out like a strategy over the next three to five years.

That includes a conversation about where our owners may want to upgrade some of their properties. You know, one of the things that, again, it still ties back to Rehab of Maintenance 2.0. You know, everybody knows that this has been a, a pretty tough year in real estate, whether on the sales side or on the owner side, or the property management.

Side. And what we finally realized the hard way this summer was what I need as an owner, what all of our owners need is, is to minimize the cost of turns, right? So when a tenant moves out 99% of the time this year. We've recommended, and our owners have, have demanded that we, they just want to do enough to maintain the property in its current state and to maintain the rent they're currently getting.

And I get that. You know, this is a time to be cautious. This is a time to keep your powder dry because when the market changes and we have buying opportunities, again, I want all of our folks. To be ready for that. But you know, there's still times, and I found this in my portfolio this year where I've had houses.

Where the rent increases, I did make, didn't keep up with what the market was doing, right? So, you know, I'm nervous about raising my rents too much because the last thing I want to do is have a, a tenant move out and then I end up with a vacancy, right? So there's always that happy medium between, you know what increase.

Is reasonable that does it displace the tenant and cause me more short term expense and where should we be from a market rate rent? But there's been many instances that. Uh, strategic upgrades on properties these days, and I'll just use mine as an example where, you know, there's been places where I've updated kitchens or I've added air conditioning or, installed replacement windows.

And in many cases, and we had a podcast about this earlier this year, I've been able to increase my rents by, you know, sometimes 20, 30% with a new tenant. And being able to sit down with an owner, these portfolio reviews and map out a three to five year strategy. I think it's been very, very valuable for everybody involved.

It's certainly been valuable for me. The other thing we've been able to do is talk about what their goals and plans are for the future and kind of identify expansion opportunities. And more importantly, or just as importantly, you know, we talk about what dangers, you know, they, they, they are experiencing.

Uh, really what keeps them up at night. So this one-on-one communication, I, I feel a little bad that we weren't doing this, you know, for the past five years or whatever, but at least we started this year and it's become, you know, a really meaningful part of my work. So I just wanna shout out to every owner that took the time to sit down and do a Zoom with us this year.

I truly enjoyed it. I, I learned a lot. And I do feel this is one of the most valuable things that we can offer our owners going forward. So in 2026, the portfolio reviews will become a standard part of the ROOST owner experience. 

Laci LeBlanc: Yeah, I, I think that two things. First of all, if you've owned property for any amount of time or know anyone who has, then you know that, that a lot of the time.

Where there's at least been a chunk of time where it feels like you're just putting out fires. So having this kind of bird's eye view and being able to look at it and plan for things and be able to avoid, risk to avoid, you know, to, to address things before they happen, right?

And to not be in this, putting out fires, Headspace is naturally gonna be great for a portfolio. So I think that's a, a huge value. And most owners probably don't. Take that time or can't make that time without a little bit of help. Um, the other thing is, is I don't think that this is a standard thing that property management companies offer.

This is portfolio management. This isn't just property management. So I do think that taking all of the knowledge, we as the property manager. Has about this portfolio and every other property and portfolio that we help manage is highly valuable to people. You can get a lot more when it comes to trends, when it comes to, you know, spotted risks when it comes to, picking out things and planning ahead if you have the knowledge that a property management company has versus just one.

Property owners. So I think sharing that knowledge is not standard for most property management companies, and I'm super excited that it will be a standard part of the ROOST experience moving forward. Because I think selfishly, you know, as the marketer in the room. That really helps differentiate you know, how we do business.

And the thing is, is we've been doing it all along. Right. This is just standardizing it. Yeah. For everybody. 

Chris McAllister: Well, and you know, we, we need to be partners in our owner's success and, you know, we've, we've got skin in the game too. We need our owners be around and profitable for a long, long time so that we could be around and profitable for a long time.

So, okay, let's jump to, uh. Laci, you're bailiwick. This is really the year, I think when ROOST and learned with ROOST.com. It's almost like we became our own little, uh, media company. For us, I, I love content. I love doing these, you know, thank God I've got Laci, you know, you here to do them with me.

But for us, the content that we generate at ROOST for investors, for real estate professionals, for buyers and sellers. It's really it's part of who we are. It's, it's, it's part of the product. And, you know, this was the year that, we launched a, a YouTube channel. A YouTube presence.

What's the, is it, what's it called exactly? I can't remember. Forgive me. I think it's not just ROOST real estate co I think it's something else, but we'll put that in the show notes. But, so we have a YouTube presence now that we never, ever had before, and we're steadily building it out every single month.

The other super cool thing we discovered was there's a, uh, uh, website out there called Hey Gen. And what it does is it creates AI video avatars of real people. So we started pushing content out there with my digital avatar, avatar doing, uh, different training and uh, communicating, you know, a lot of the updates and, and a lot of stuff about the company out there.

So that's been super, super cool. And it, it, it's just, it's, it's just one more thing that allows us to. To push content out to the world that first of all, we think is valuable to the people that we're targeting, but more importantly, we're reaching these people where they are. So if somebody loves to.

To listen to a podcast or now watch our podcast on YouTube. Or somebody like likes to read and they wanna read the blog post, or somebody's on social media and they catch some of this stuff on social media, or they're video people and they wanna watch, uh, one of, uh, avatar video. You know, we're, we're kind of hitting all the bases now and, you know, this is one of those long game projects, you know, it's not like we're suddenly gonna become Mr.

Beast anytime soon. But at least we're building a library of content that's all linked back to the website. So all of that should help us with, with Google search and AI search and, and all of that. And, you know, Laci, you know, you've created a sort of a content rhythm, you know, you and Kylie that, you know, we're, we're out there on the socials.

We're, we're out there on, you know, on Google, we're on the website, you know, we're gonna be picked up on ai. All this stuff is only gonna help get our message out. More and more. So what did I miss there, Laci? I made, this was a much bigger job than uh,

Laci LeBlanc: yeah, it has been. But I don't think a lot has changed for us.

I, I do wanna point out for anybody listening out there that has knowledge of how content worked, uh, before that content was king for a long time when it came to search engine optimization, and then it kind of fell by the wayside when you had all these shortcuts that you could use. Yeah. Um, and when paid advertising on Facebook and Google became a thing, content kind of fell by the wayside for a lot of folks.

It never did. For us, right? We were always producing the content, but the struggle was being able to get it out to all the different channels like you talked about and to all the, the right people. Um, so now thanks to some of these new tools and some having some great folks on board, uh, we're able to do that, but the goal is still the same.

Um, you know. Yes. Do we want people to find us on AI search and on Google and, and wherever content, you know, is found, of course. But what we're looking for is what we've always been looking for, and that's the person who needs us and vice versa, the right fit. Um, so, you know, I think that by, by continuing the content journey that we're on, we're really just trying to get the information out there.

And then for folks who decide, yeah, you know what, I could benefit from a relationship with Roos, whether it's an agent or a property manager. Or, you know, whatever a career, then, they will connect to us because they'll know who we are and where we are and how we work. Um, so I think that it's more than just, you know, marketing.

For those out there listening, it's really about, just getting. ROOST out to the world in order to help us find our right fits and vice versa. So I'm really proud of that and I'm really proud how, you know, we hung in there with content and with that kind of mission from a marketing perspective, and that with the new features of AI search and you know, kind of all of SEO coming back around, we're gonna be in a really good spot for people to find us who need our services and who will fit with our culture.

Chris McAllister: I agree. I, I think it's just one of those foundational things that we were able to do this year that's gonna just bode well for the company, for the future. You know, and I'm especially proud of, of, uh, the eight mindsets of the new real estate professional. It's an avatar video series starring years truly.

So if you're a real estate professional agent or broker, please check that out. And also, um. We, I, I don't know what week we're on, but we do one of my 59 rules for real estate success every, every single week. So those are actually really cool short form avatar videos that are out there on the socials and, uh, on the YouTube channel as well.

And in, in next year, early next year, we're gonna have an avatar driven series. For buyers and sellers that Priscilla McNamee, our director of sales avatar, is going to present and it's called How to Win a Bidding War. So I'm super excited to get, uh, Priscilla's avatar out there in the world and communicate some just incredible information that's gonna help our buyers next year and, and in years to come.

So we have to some extent become a media organization in the best possible sense. And I think it's just the beginning. So now that we've kind of touched on. The front stage part of, you know, ROOST as a media company. I'm gonna jump ahead, Laci, to the backstage. Part of the accomplishments that, uh, we enjoyed this year as a media company and that was moving.

All of our marketing to a new platform that you may be familiar with out there called High Level. So, Laci, do you mind, why don't you give us a little bit of background of what high Level's doing for us and and, and what it'll do in the future and what it took to get that set up. 

Laci LeBlanc: I mean, I think every company out there needs a CRM or a customer relationship manager.

And I think that those words are the perfect description. They don't do enough to talk about how high level stands out, I think, from other CRMs that, that people use. But it really and truly gave us the tools, from the basic CRM that we were using. Moving to high level gave us the tools to actually manage relationships.

So. At the most basic level, we're able to communicate via text, via phone, via email, directly through high level, so that our entire team has an insight into what conversations are ongoing. We can communicate as a team through high level. So that really improves our, um, accuracy and our response time when it comes to working with clients or prospects.

Um, so I can't say enough about just the relationship portion. Of high level and what it allows us to do. Um, but it also really helps us with automation which gives us our time back because at ROOST we are so, insistent on true communication with folks, right? We're having calls, we're doing personal emails.

We're doing zooms constantly. We want to maintain that personal relationship because it's the only way that you can truly understand one another. The. Perfect example is, you know, when you send a text and you don't have a tone, but like, maybe my husband read a tone into it and now he thinks I'm mad when really I was just in a, in a rush or something.

Um, so the personal conversations and personal relationships, we are not willing to sacrifice that at ROOST. And high level has given us, funnels and tracking and drip campaigns and prospect management, lead management. Forms that just make it easier to communicate and automate the process where it makes sense so that we can get, get our time back and continue to have personal relationships, um, with those folks.

The last thing I'll say is the data that high level presents to us is. Far more accurate. Um, much easier to dig into. Uh, we can see where everybody came from, where everybody ended up. We can go, you know, go back to folks who you know, are in the ghost status. Um, yeah, because their lives got busy or, um, and you know, on multiple occasions we've been able to go back to folks who maybe fell out of the process.

Because we have that data and we're able to tap into it on a regular basis and they say, oh gosh, no, my kitchen remodel is just taking far longer than I thought it would. Which, you know, same. Um, but we're really able to use high levels tools to enhance our personal relationships with people. And that's been the value to me, um, as a marketer, because this, the struggle is real when it comes to, what do you automate versus what do you keep person to person.

Chris McAllister: It's actually helping us. We, we always did it, but it took a lot more manual effort. So through high level, we're able to manage that group of relationships with real estate professionals that have downloaded the various books or, you know, clicked on something on the website, uh, some item of value they wanted.

You know, it, it manages the, um, investor group, you know, people who may someday sign up with us to, you know, for property management. And it also. Manages groups for that our agents appreciate, right? Potential buyers and sellers that, that may become clients for our real estate professionals. So, you know, we're able to manage, connect, practice, track, and grow for agents.

We're able to manage all things real estate for buyers and sellers, and we're able to manage the landlord profitability, playbook, um, ecosystem for all of our real estate investors. So. It was a lot, it was a big thing. Um, it was, and I 

Laci LeBlanc: could not be more thrilled that we did it, especially now that we're on this end of the transition.

Chris McAllister: Yeah. Now that it's over, it feels, feels great, but 

Laci LeBlanc: there's so much more that we're looking forward to doing with it. Am I right? 

Chris McAllister: There is, but before we jump into, you know, things that, uh, we're excited about for next year, I just want to touch base and call out a couple of other key people on the team. I've learned the hard way over the years that we just can't.

Treat team members as an expense Team members are an investment, and they're our most important investment because they're the ones that, that, at the end of the day, make sure that, the promises we make to our clients are kept. You know, we, we, we really did do some upgrades. You know, we, we brought in new leadership where leadership was needed.

We added operational support. This year we simplified the backstage systems, whether through technology or just getting our, our workflows right. Our communication between you know, Gretchen and our property managers and the owners is improved and we've got big plans to improve that even more as we go into next year.

But across the board, especially in property management, because it's such a labor intensive and, and, and system-based business, you know, stronger man, stronger management, stronger leadership, we've improved the leasing, the maintenance and, and of course the marketing alignment. And, you know, I can't say enough.

You know, there was a time, I guess, like a lot of entrepreneurs where I guess I was hiring for bodies. But I assure you at this point we're only hiring for, uh, we're only hiring people who bring value to the business. We're only hiring people with batteries included. And, you know, we're always looking for people who think independently, act decisively and, and show up.

Again with batteries included. So a couple of shout outs. Taylor Cole, you know, she was promoted to our property manager position in Columbus. Jennifer Brent is a new hire with us. She's a licensed and experienced real estate, uh, agent who's now our leasing manager. She'll be working with owners across the entire portfolio when there's a vacancy to fill.

Stephanie Doppler was a new agent with us this year in, in, uh, January. And now she's working directly with Gretchen Mitchell, and she's gonna be key to helping Gretchen and Taylor and Tina in Springfield. Get owner inquiries under requests and so forth. Answer quicker. Of course, you, Laci and, and Kylie are marketing or advertising artists and so forth, you know, driving high level brand messaging, the content engine, and of course Priscilla you know, our director of sales who I'm so excited that, uh, she's gonna be with us next year as, as we launch new initiatives to, to grow our. Our agent group. So, this is the team that I always wanted, but it's the team that we never, for whatever reason, were able to put in place.

And this is the team that we needed to have before we could get serious about growing the business. So, uh, shout out to everybody and thank you. How about next year? Laci? Can we run through some things that we're gonna do next year? 

Laci LeBlanc: Yeah. This is the team that's gonna make that possible, so I can't wait.

Um, I can't wait to talk about, but I'm not gonna steal your thunder. Um, this next one, I think is, is even named after you and your hobby. So you, you take it from here 

Chris McAllister: by hobby. That's funny. So one of the things that we're going to do next year to grow our property management business is. Is establishing an agent referral program.

You know, a lot of agents work with, um, investors selling them new properties and so forth, but they never have a partner that they can refer that, that buyer to for management. And we wanna be that partner or every single licensed real estate professional in, in Ohio and Florida that works with investors.

Right. We, we wanna be that. Property management provider, and we're calling this, Hey Chris, buy me a beer. So there's a new website that. We'll be launching next year, and it's gonna be driven, uh, by high level. So, you know, thank goodness for high level, it's gonna run that entire program for us. But I, I, I wanna talk about this because it's, it's not just another referral program.

I really see this as a strategic growth engine for the company, and it's designed specifically to work in, in, in the modern real estate. Environment. So, hey Chris, buy me a beer is built on three pin three principles, right? People love to help people they trust. So agents, owners, past clients, community partners, they already send us business, but this program gives those referral structure and appreciation.

And number two, referrals are the highest quality leads in property management. You know, we have always worked by referral with the agents in the sales side, but we've never intentionally worked by referral in the, uh, property management sides. You know, the very best owners don't click Google Ads, although some of our owners did initially find us by clicking the Google Ads.

But most of our, our owners come to us either through our own agents. Agents who trust us, owners who trust us and appreciate us, and vendors and partners who respect how we operate. So the whole idea of, Hey, Chris, buy me a beer, is to really put some intention behind, uh, earning referrals for property management from the agent community.

At large, right? So we want every agent in Columbus, Springfield, Dayton, the Space Coast, to know about ROOST and, and our property management services, and also know about, Hey Chris, buy me a beer. So what happens is we're setting this up so that agents who refer clients to us, owners to us, that we sign up that we're, we're gonna be providing some.

Pretty meaningful rewards and yeah, uh, these aren't, like, you're not gonna replace your, uh, career with this, right? They're, they're, maybe not change your life, but there's definitely gonna be rewards that are probably a little bit better than beer money. So, you know, this isn't, these aren't just token gifts.

There aren't just thank you gifts, but we're setting up a system with real trackable and recurring rewards tied to the lifetime value of an owner or a door. So with beer, money referral partners will receive, uh, they'll receive money, beer money. They'll also get bonuses when an owner they refer has a lease that, that, that we get to keep in renewal.

When we have a, a vacancy for that owner, our pay Chris buy me a peer referral partners will get a little bit of a bonus based on the fee that we charge to, to get leases done. They'll also get. Uh, monthly statements and emails from us showing exactly what their, Hey, Chris, find me a beer balance is, and they can you know, anytime that their balance goes above 50 bucks, they'll be able to request a payout and it's gonna be total transparency on every dollar earned, right?

Which is all fine and dandy. But the only reason this program works is, every, we are going to make sure that any client, any agent, refers to us. Always goes back to that agent when it comes time for them to buy or sell one of their properties in their portfolio. You know, this isn't just let's send them to, you know, Ru's Property management and lose 'em, for a few bucks.

This is having a partner that our whole mission is to help that owner grow their portfolio and create more and more opportunities for, for you as a referral partner to sell more properties to em, to them and earn. All of that commission. So it's a lot. We, we just recorded a, a podcast. I know it's not out yet, but we're gonna be, you, you're all gonna be hearing more and more and more about this and I already hear myself rambling 'cause I get a little bit too excited.

But just, just leave it like this. In 2026, beer money becomes a defining part, uh, a brand defining part of who we are at a ROOST. 

Laci LeBlanc: Yeah, it could have been, Hey Chris, buy me a concert take out. But that just doesn't have the same like ring suit, but it's more than just, you know, a few dollars in your pocket here and there.

And I think that the real benefit is, like you said, the beer money is great, but knowing that you have a partner you can trust to, yeah. Protect that relationship in addition to providing another service that they're gonna, they're gonna find valuable, um, is really the, the basis of it all. So, um, I think the beer money part of it is fun.

But when it comes right down to it, I think that agents, that, owners that we here at ROOST obviously really know what it's all about. And that is. Making sure that these relationships, which we're all relational based, um, are the thing that we take the best care of. 

Chris McAllister: Yeah. Yeah. I'm super excited about it.

I love the way the website looks. I can't wait to get that launched next year. The second thing I want to, I'm excited about going into 2026 is, you know, we've had great success with our invest with Roos. Program basically that it's what we've been featuring on our, you know, website for property managers for, gosh, probably close to 18 months now.

And we're gonna expand that idea with something that, uh, you alluded to early called ROOST Portfolio Management. So for years, you know, invest with ROOST has supported first time investors, accidental landlords, small portfolio owners, and quite a few outta state buyers, you know, who bought their first, or, or, you know, many properties in, in Ohio or Florida.

And the mission for Invest with ROOST hasn't changed, but we're going to, we're gonna expand on it. The second part, of our property management offering after Invest with ROOST is called ROOST Portfolio Management. And I do think it's a natural, a natural evolution of our investor services.

So between Invest with ROOST and RPM, Roos Portfolio Management, I. Think we're gonna have, you know, a unified ecosystem that serves, individual owners, right? Owners with one to three properties. You know, these owners are looking for some stability, some guidance growth, and most importantly, they're, they're looking for landlord profitability.

And then the next tier of owners that. We can support our growth minded investors. And these are owners that generally have four to maybe 20 properties, and they're looking to scale. Uh, they're very intentional about it. This is something that they're, they're going to carry out for the long term. And, you know, they, they, they wanna buy more, right?

So, you know, those are the growth minded investors. And then there's this other group of owners and institutions that we have never intentionally. Tried to, to make contact with, or, or create content or a. A management strategy for, and these are portfolio owners and, and institutions. So, you know, I, you know, we're saying 20 doors to, it might be 200, 250 doors.

It could be more, but what we're looking for are investors that are looking for a solid boots on the ground relationship, but delivered at and in a way that. Real estate institutions need, require and appreciate. You know, hopefully by, you know, continuing to expand on Invest with ROOST and then combining it with ROOST portfolio management.

It is gonna be a, a. All in one, a cohesive offering that supports the full lifecycle of Modesta. Right? So we start with education strategy. We help them with acquisitions, we focus on rehab and maintenance with them. And what's interesting is, you know, a lot of folks in the RPM group, you know, they have a, like a 10 year timeline for how long they're gonna own these properties.

And for them, rehab and maintenance becomes very critical because they consciously. Have planned to invest and upgrade these properties so that when it does come time to sell them, they get the full possible value for that property. So again, education is strategy, acquisition, rehab and maintenance, leasing and management, portfolio review and optimization.

And finally, you know, disposition or a 10 31 exchange. Basically whatever it takes to harvest that, that equity in the way that makes sense for him, for them. And as far as I know. No other property management company in, in Ohio or Florida certainly is doing this. And you know, this may patting, patting us on the back a little bit, but I haven't seen anybody do this with the level of clarity or the relationship first execution that.

You know, I, I, I think we've brought to this, so 2026 is the year of the unified invest unified investor ecosystem at ROOST. And I do think it's gonna, uh, you know, be a, a huge competitive advantage for us going forward. 

Laci LeBlanc: Yeah, I think you mentioned that, you know, we've never targeted right these folks, but that doesn't mean that some of these folks haven't found their way to us.

Um, and I think that we certainly have some of these RPM portfolio management clients on board with us already, and, you know, the ability to scale that very experience is what drew them to us. Um, lots of them started out with a few properties with us after they had maybe had a negative experience with another.

Property management company in some cases, um, or they just didn't feel like they were getting the service that they needed in the right places. Right? Whether it be rehab and maintenance, or whether it be communication and insight into what's going on with their properties without having to be really hands-on.

That's just some of the firsthand kind of conversations I've had. So I think that, you know, ROOSTs. ROOSTs our culture and our strategy when it comes to property management. Um, being able to scale that as we are now able to, has naturally invited some of these people. And I'm really excited to share that, um, you know, purposefully with a broader audience, um, and, and bring some more of those folks on board.

Chris McAllister: Yeah, thank I think it's going to be exciting. I can't wait to get it out there in front of people. So the, the next thing I wanna talk about that's coming up probably by next spring is it's a new book that I've written called property Management for Fun and Profit. And this book is written for property management professionals, licensed property management for professionals, um, out there anywhere, not just Ohio and Florida.

And this book has two purposes, one. I genuinely wanna help property management professional professionals. I want to become as part of, uh, learn With ROOST, a resource that's designed to improve their businesses, help them with their systems, and frankly make the work at Property Management a. More enjoyable.

It can be a grind. It, it, it, it can be drudgery. And especially for folks out there who, you know, are a one person band. I, I wanna be able to give them some ideas that we're looking 

Laci LeBlanc: at you, nana 

Chris McAllister: we're looking at. I wanna give them things that, align with our mission of, of supporting and, and adding value to homeowners, investors and the people who service them.

And the second purpose of this book is. This is the selfish purpose, but I wanna keep ROOST real estate on their radar when they start thinking about making life or career transitions. You know, there's a lot of these property managers out there eventually, you know, they're gonna wanna sell their book of business, they're gonna wanna sell their, their property management contracts for their doors, or they're gonna be looking for a partner, or they need a succession plan, or maybe they just want to, you know, align and join with the.

A bigger, stronger team. So this book is a, it's a relationship builder first, also eventually we'll see what happens. But I think it could be an acquisition funnel to help Roo to grow secondly, and, and that's the only order of priorities that matter. So I'm excited about this book. I think it's one of the best ones I've done and I, I hope to get that out.

I think Laci, we said we'd get that out probably in April of next year. 

Laci LeBlanc: Yeah, I just talked to the editor this morning. So that's the next thing, um, that she'll be working on. But I think you're right, relationship builder first, acquisition funnel second. And that's how we do everything. So if you look at any of our emails, you'll see the, at the bottom it says, whenever you are ready, here are some ways that we can help you with, you know, whatever is your next task at hand.

And that's the key. It's always whenever you are ready, we're looking for, again, the right. Fit. And you know, until then, please take this information, be educated, find some more joy in your day-to-day life by implementing some of these, these things that, that we personally use and do every day.

But I do think that that's really important that it's, it's all done really. You're very pure of heart when it comes to these marketing strategies. There's just a, but there is always a way to go about it that, that will hopefully bring people to us in the end. And so far, so good. Yeah. 

Chris McAllister: Well, the first three things we talked about were really strategic and they were really focused around property management.

This one also is focused around property management, but it's a bit more tactical, right? So I'm excited to announce that, uh, beginning in January of 2026, we're going to start working with a company called Plan Matic. And Plan Matic is a photography company, but they're a photography company that's integrated with our.

Property management technology stack. So property plan matic works seamlessly with AppFolio and um, and tenant turner. So starting in January, every new vacancy that we market for rent will have professional real estate photography, consistent wide angle imaging. Faster syndication to Zillow and the rest of the world and will help us, um, do a better job with tighter leasing timelines.

So I'm confident that, um. We've got a great team. They're doing a lot of things right. But the goal of this is, and the reason we're doing it, one, is to improve applicant qua quality. Get more serious eyes on a property. I mean, quite frankly, it's like when you list a house, if you've got crummy pictures.

Qualified buyers may skip right over it. If you have fantastic pictures, everybody's gonna wanna see that house. And it's the same thing with rental property. So we hope it, we expect it, not hope it will. It's gonna improve applicant quality, the quantity of applications, days on market, online listing performance relative to the competition.

I think it's gonna give our owners more confidence. And from a marketing and overall brand perception of ROOST, I think it's gonna be a massive upgrade. Um, I'm really excited about the ripple effect of this. And, you know, we, we've, I've had, feedback from our owners and, and there's been times when I really don't like the way that looks.

It doesn't show my house in the best possible light. We're gonna take all that off the table and uh, professionals going in with every single listing. And I also wanna say that there's no additional charge to, um. You know, our owners for this, it's just an upgrade to, to how we lease a property at ROOST, and I expect that we're gonna get some operational efficiencies because the best thing about this is once Plan Amatic, uh, sends somebody out to take the pictures, those pictures immediately show up in AppFolio automatically.

We don't have to have our folks going out, taking pictures, getting 'em off their cell phone or emailing 'em and so forth. So it should be a time saver. It should help us operationally. I think that's why it's a, a real win for our owners and, and for our team as well. 

Laci LeBlanc: Agreed. Agreed. The, the homes themselves you know, on our existing pages, they look great, but there's, this is absolutely a game changer, I think, for owners, for tenants for us so that everybody sees the exactly what they're getting, um, right up front.

And I think it will stream, help streamline the whole process. 

Chris McAllister: I think it's, it's, it's definitely gonna provide a better value. And it it's what our owners need and it's what they deserve. Um, one more thing on this property management theme. And, you know, I just wanna say this does seem like a property management heavy year, but you know, I go back to the very beginning and, you know, when I was thinking about what I wanted ROOST to be, this was back in 2013, and, you know, I wanted a business that would.

Would operate, support us. Profitably, regardless of the ups and downs of the real estate market. And it's no surprise to anybody that this has been a tough year for sales, a tough year for buyers and sellers. A tough year for agents, but it has been a good year for property management. And, you know, everything comes in cycles.

You know, I, I can't say that there's been a whole lot of years where sales and property management all hit at the same time, but thank goodness when one sort of flattens out, the other one tends to take over. And this was the year that I'm grateful that, you know, we built this business and, and worked so hard over the years with Gretchen and her team to.

Take care of our owners. So we've talked a lot about how I want to build the property manage management business over time with, you know, agent referrals and you know, some acquisitions and so forth. But I, I just wanna kind of touch on, and this is a work in progress, but you know, my 10 year goal for property management ROOST, I'm calling it boutique at scale.

So this vision is simple. We are going to become the premier property management and services organization in Ohio and in Florida. That just happens to be where we're licensed. Now, if an opportunity came up somewhere, we'd figure that out. But we wanna be the best of the best in Ohio and Florida. And you know, I say boutique at, at.

At scale, I wanna grow the business. For me, the fun part of being a business owner is to, you know, see the owners happy, see their portfolios grow, to see our people get better, make more money, but to watch the business get better. You know, if we're going to say, grow our business 10 times, right?

If Bruce is gonna be 10 times bigger than it is now over the next 10 years, the only way that's gonna happen is, is that if we maintain personal service. Real relationships, and I'm calling this white glove communication because I know our communication is getting better, but it's never good enough. You know, that's key premium advice and counsel, but basically a boutique feel at every touch point.

You know, we may become a much, much larger company. We may be working with owners with, 2, 3, 4, 500 door portfolios, but if there's not a person at the other end of the, of the, uh. Email client or on the other end of the phone or on the zoom, it means nothing. So for me, boutique at scale, it, it, it, it, they are cool words, right?

I always like to title things, but it really is the lens through which that we'll be evaluating every operational decision, hiring decision, and, and growth decision going forward. 

Laci LeBlanc: I think no matter who we're working with, they can take comfort in the same thing. I take comfort in working with you, Chris, is that, the question that you ask is, does this make business better?

Does it make business better for us? Does it make business better for our clients, for our agents, for, you know, home buyers and home sellers? And that's kind of the. The bottom line, um, if it makes business better, then we find a way to implement it. If it doesn't make business better, then you know, we can move past it.

But, you know, knowing that you and the team at ROOST have that, um, as your kind of breaking point is highly comforting, I think, for everybody that works at ROOST and for everybody we work with. 

Chris McAllister: Yeah. I appreciate that. So finally what I wanna talk about is. Growing the agent side of the business, growing the number of buyers and sellers that we were able to service.

Again, it hasn't been a, hasn't been an easy couple of three years for maybe more for listing agents than buyer agents, but it still has been. It's been kind of tough. And, and you know, what we've come to grips with is the, you know, since the NAR lawsuit and the settlement you know, the, the pre NAR era.

It's just over. There's very little about the real estate business from an agent point of view that is the same today as it was two years ago. And quite frankly the agent of 2026, the agents that have survived the, uh, the, the NAR changes and the settlement, those agents are. They're leaner, they're smarter, right?

They're, they're more entrepreneurial. They have a business owner mentality, but most of all, they are relationship driven. So my initiative next year as we get back to a growth posture on the, um, agent side and the, and the buyer and seller side, is we're gonna call this one build a better career with ROOST.

And I think this is actually the, the recruiting message that we wanna get out to the world, to every licensed sales agent in our market areas, that, that actually matches our culture. It doesn't have anything to do with, you know, the industry noise out there or what anybody else is doing, whether it's the legacy franchises or the, you know, regionals or the mom and pops.

This is about what makes ROOST special, what makes ROOST unique. And why ROOST is always going to be the home for entrepreneurial and relationship minded real estate professionals. You know, ROOST will never be about body count. It's never about how many agents we have. It's about finding right fit agents or great fit agents that.

Appreciate what we offer, how we support our agents who fit in with our values, and they're looking to play the long game just like we are. So there'll be lots more details coming up over next year, but build a better career with ROOST is gonna be our messaging, our marketing, our operational blueprint for how we work and support.

And, uh, grow, uh, licensed real estate agents. And, we were lucky enough this year that Priscilla McNamee has, has become our director of sales. I think we might have to change that to the director of maybe, uh, agent support or something, but she's gonna be spending a lot of time face-to-face with real estate professionals that we already know and enjoy working with.

Just to, to let these people know that, that we're out here, this is what we're doing, and this is what our plans are. For the future. So I'm excited about Priscilla, bringing this message of build a better career with Roos to every agent and every market that we serve.

So I think Laci. That kind of wraps up what we have planned for next year. Did I miss anything? 

Laci LeBlanc: Oh, I'm sure we'll add a few things here and there as time goes on, as we tend to do, but I think you've covered it as of right now. 

Chris McAllister: I, it has been a great year and as I go through this with you, you know, I'm super excited for next year.

You know, I guess to sum it up, the state of the ROOST Union is strong. You know, 20, 20 25 was a great year. 2026 will be even better. You know, we're gonna continue to grow through relationships and referrals. We're gonna expand into new market segments. We're gonna launch new programs for agents and buyers and sellers and investors.

We're gonna scale on YouTube and across every podcast channel. And you know, I think all of that is gonna elevate our brand and help everybody that we work for and with. It'll help us meet our 10 year goals and, and beyond and, and, uh, it'll help them meet their goals and, and beyond as well. But I just wanna say, and I guess, uh.

You know, and in the spirit of the season, we will never lose sight of our ultimate mission. You know, ROOST will always equal home. And no matter what we do, no matter how we grow, we will continue to create and coach real estate and business opportunities that support net value to the lives of homeowners and investors and the people who, who work for them.

To our clients, owners, agents, and most of all our team. I want to thank you for being part of the journey. Thank you for a great 2025 and here's to a powerful, productive and, and a, a breakthrough filled 2026. So 

Laci LeBlanc: it's an honor and a privilege and we'll see you next time in a new year. 

Chris McAllister: That's right.

Thank you, Laci. I appreciate it.