Mike Nelson (NARPM Chapter Communications Chair) with Excalibur Home Management presented NARPM’s new for-profit subsidiary called Rental Home Professionals, Inc. at the NARPM national conference in Scottsdale. See the video above, which I took at that event.
Please excuse the poor video quality. I should have brought my tripod and gotten an audio feed.
Mike Nelson and NARPM were nice enough to give me permission to publish this presentation on RentVine.com.
This is the big news I was referring to in a previous post.
From Mike’s presentation, RentalHomePros.com will be launched around January of 2008.
I would to like to hear your comments.
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10 users responded in this post
Are all the vendors really on board? I spoke to about 20 vendors and none of them knew about this. Seems a little fishy to me.
We, at MyNewPlace, are on board now. The NARPM show is the first that we had heard of RentalHomesPro.com. This product has the potential to save a ton of time and money for property managers.
I DONT SEE HOW THIS WOULD REALLY HELP YOUR COMPANY AS THEY ARE NOW SELLING THE SAME ITEM WITH SOME MARKETING RESEARCH AND ARE JUST TRYING TO GET MORE MONEY OUT OF US ARE OUR FEES GETTING REDUCED IF THEY CARE WHY NOT GIVE IT TO USE FOR FREE WHY FOR PROFIT ?!- AS FOR THE REST OF THE PRODUCTS THAT SEEMS OK BUT WHAT THEY WILL BE DOING IS CREATING A DATA BASE OF PROPERTY THEY CAN (A) MARKET WITH OUT YOUR SERVICE (B) WHAT WOULD BE THE NEED FOR YOU- RENT VINE (C) ANOTHER COMPANY YOU HAVE TO FIGHT WITH TO GET TOP BILLING ON SEARCH ENGINES - THEY NEED TO STAY OUT OF THE RENTAL GAME AS I THINK THEY CAN PROVIDE EVERY THING WITH OUT TRYING TO RENT HOME’S FOR US AS THAT PART OF IT WILL ALL WAYS OVER SHADOW THE REST OF THE INFOMATION -HOW DO WE GET MORE SELLS AND THEY WILL PUSH MORE SELLS OF THE WEBSITE AND PUSH FOR MORE LISTING –NOT A GOOD IDEA -EITHER YOU DO MARKET RESEARCH OR YOU OWN A RENTAL WEBSITE **WHICH IS IT NARPM TRYING TO DO BOTH I AM A AGAINST IT ALL THE WAY STAY OUT OF IT MIKE NELSON !!!!!!!!!!! I THINK I DONT REALLY WANT TO ME A MEMBER ANY MORE ! SICK OF ALL THIS !!! DANA REYNOLDS
Thank you Dave for sharing.
Where to begin with all of my thoughts about this “great new product?”
It sounds like the goal is to only sell this service to property managers that are NARPM members as it will be a National “MLS” for Property Managers. What many MLS’s are going through right now are court cases where the MLS’s are being forced to allow non REALTOR members to list in the MLS? How will NARPM be different? Also, what happens when those that can list on this web site start taking “limited service” agreements to just list a home on this site but not provide any of the services except to list the home? This is something that MLS’s and REATLOR associations are going through across the country with lawsuits by the DOJ where there have been banning of such listings.
Mike discussed that this new product will promote the services of the NARPM member. Is that not what NARPM should be doing right now? If you visit REALTOR.org, which is the web site for the National Association of REALTORS, you can search for REALTORS that specialize in a specific area, by designations, location, etc. Should NARPM not be providing this as part of the yearly dues now?
There are many types of contact management programs out there available. I have heard from many REALTORS that they do not like having online contact management software because if they stop paying the monthly fee, they loose their contacts. This is why many choose to stay away from Top Producer.
I’m wondering if this announcement is reason why I’ve received e-mails in the last couple of weeks from NARPM affiliate members that currently provide services that Rental Home Pros wants to provide in the future? Or does Rental Home Pros plan to use the NARPM affiliate members to “farm” out the items that they have planned?
Besides statistics, is this the only reason that property managers don’t join NARPM? Could it be other reasons that could be “fixed” to allow for NARPM to be better without competing against the affiliate members? Yes, providing value is important.
How about a great National web site for NARPM that has great SEO? If we take a look at the NARPM web site as it stands now, it does not provide that great of an outlook for Rental Home Pros. The NARPM web site should be ranking high for property manager searches in all areas where there are NARPM members as well as touting why to choose a NARPM member.
How about online education? This can be a benefit to not only current members but to all of those that are thinking that Property Management is their business of choice. It can also be a great education to those that choose to rent their properties on their own. Isn’t it better to educate to provide a great experience for all or at least help people understand that this may not be the path for them? In Colorado there is very little education directed towards Property Management so people get into it without little to no knowledge. There would be some value!
My concern is will this be like REALTOR.com. It’s licensed by NAR to use the name and has agreements to list homes for sale throughout the US. Right now many people aren’t happy with REALTOR.com as they can pay lots more each year to “upgrade” their listings, to be featured REALTORS, for virtual tour links, and more. These fees are based on how many listings you have had the last year.
Will the proceeds from this “for profit” go back to the members at all? There are some not for profit REALTOR associations that have joined together and have formed for profit MLS systems that pays back dividends each year to the association shareholders. Will Rental Home Pros be similar?
With updates - why did I have to wait to hear it from Rent Vine when I’m a NARPM member? Shouldn’t NARPM have been providing this information to all of the members that didn’t attend? This concerns me in where will we hear the next update?
I do understand the intention and the reasonings that NARPM wants to provide value but sometimes the best intentions are not always the best ideas. I hope that my NARPM dues do not increase to pay for this for profit venture while NARPM does not neglect those that choose not to participate in their “for profit” venture by ignoring the NARPM not for profit site.
Wow, Wendy excellent comments and questions!
I enjoyed getting the scoop on this news, but I too thought it was odd that I was the one leading the story online when the NARPM web site sits dark on this issue.
If NARPM has 300 people (number from Steve Wood at Epic River) that are interested in this service and each pay the minimum $49 a month that would be $176,400 a year. Perhaps after Steve Woods get his money out of this deal, perhaps NARPM can offer a reduced membership fee each year to it’s members.
So who is this Steve Wood’s at Epic River? Is he designing the site RentalHomePros.com that has been registered to Mike Nelson, the past NARPM VP for Region 1. I see that the site, RentalHomePros.com has been registered to Mike at his company e-mail address since July of 2007. If this was a NARPM project, wouldn’t it be registered either to NARPM or to the new company that they’ve set up for this project?
Steve Wood is the person I met at NARPM Scottsdale at RentalHomePros booth. His company Epic River is creating the site.
It appears they are trying to mimic Rentlist.net that PM’s in Atlanta enjoyed for a handful of years before someone else got a hold of it and…well… just kinda let it sit out there in outer space & orbit Uranus, my anus & everyone’s anus associated with property management. A couple of issues they are dealing with 1) they can either optimize their site to attract landlords or tenants, but its next to if not impossible to be successful at attracting both. Theories sure do sound real good & all before they are put to the test 2) its gonna take an awful long time to get any traffic. Just think about that - Fowler had Rentlist firing on all 8 cylinders because all he had to worry about was Atlanta Metro basically. It didn’t happen overnight even when circumstances were much more conducive for success in just one market. And they think they can do this for all NARPM members in every state with NARPM chapters? Who’s smokin’ what? No 301 redirects available here - unless they go out & buy someone like RentVine (Dave - your stock just went wayyyyyy up! Work it baby, work it!). And even with 301’s, things can still implode fast - just dial up Rentals.com and ask how things are going on that front.
NARPM needs to focus more of their energy & resources on supporting the professional and ethical practices of rental home management through networking, education and certification…and less time trying to turn NARPM into a revenue stream feeding off its members. Riddle me this? Who’s opened up their wallets the most in support of NARPM & the industry? Who talks to more PM’s on a daily basis than even NARPM does in a year? Who’s going to pony up for those lucrative sponsorships & super duper official partnerships? Do ya think those same companies are still going to sell & push non NARPM members on the value (perceived at that) of joining? Big Mama always said don’t bite the hand that feeds you. They are well on their way of becoming the National Association of Pissedoff Members
Wow! Great post, Redneckrenter!!
Could not have said it better! I was going to put my 2 cents into this “crazy” idea. But redneck did it for me! No sweat on my part.
“TRAFFIC” No 301 redirects, Nothing! How do they expect to get it in this market? Not gonna happen!
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