Small-Time, Big Dreams: Unlocking Rental Riches with Mark De Haan

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire. Brought to you by the HubSpot. Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like inclusion and marketing. Today, we'll be breaking down small time, big dreams, unlocking rental riches. To drop these vibe bombs, I brought Mark Dahan into EO Fire Studios. Mark is a co-founder of Rentaler and CEO of Tenant Cloud. He loves tech, real estate, and helping others achieve their dreams. Today, we'll be talking about sacrifices, struggles, growth success, perseverance, leveraging property management software to scale, and oh, so much more.

0:36And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Mark and our sponsors. The Next Wave, your chief AI officer hosted by Matt Wolf and Nathan Lands is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. AI technology is transforming the way we do business and the media landscape is fragmented. The Next Wave strives to be the leading podcast on AI technology and how you can apply it to growing your business. Listen to The Next Wave wherever you get your podcasts. Over 41 ,000 businesses have future-proofed their business with NetSuite by Oracle, the number one cloud ERP, bringing accounting, financial management, inventory, and HR into one platform.

1:16Download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine Learning for free at netsuite.com slash fire. Mark, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Hey, how y 'all doing? One thing that I really believe in is get married young and focus on that. I got married when I was 23. And I think that's a huge thing when you have a spouse on your side, when you're trying to start a business. When I started out, my wife, she was pregnant and riding the train to a corporate job where we were struggling to build a business. And I think it, it's not a popular opinion, but I think it's a big thing.

2:06If you are dating someone, jump in, get married and really focus and get rid of all the booze and the nightlife and focus on building your, your dream to being an entrepreneur. Fire Nation, I can tell you, Kate has been an invaluable partner and teammate for 13 years now in my business. So man, I do love having that team, but I will say this, you got to find the right person. Just because you're 23, don't rush into the wrong relationship is my experience. I waited for the right one and I'm really glad that I did, but I love Mark's advice. I love his concept and I can tell you it's been a big part of my success for sure.

2:47So I want to talk about your story because, you know, we're here talking today about small time, big dreams, unlocking rental riches, which we're going to get to in a minute here, but you've made sacrifices. You've encountered struggles, Mark. Tell us more. When I grew up, I've moved all around the country and in grade school, I lived, you know, we moved 13 different times and I was extremely shy as a kid and I didn't really have a lot of ambition but as I got older and I started to develop my personality and kind of got settled in I realized that I wanted to create something bigger than myself and I think that's innate in all of us and so when I was trying to make it I was managing some jewelry stores and I met a mentor of mine Jason Bangeter he had a great idea to start a business and I said you know what what better time to quit and this is back in when the economy was totally a disaster in 2008 or I think a little bit before that but yeah the struggle was real I didn't think we were gonna not make money for a year or so I thought you know being naive and being young but we did it we uh we did it we raised money and after a little bit of time things started to get better but shoot it was a sacrifice I remember back in the day when we were trying to build a business um I sat down um with my mentor and he was like hey at the end of the day it doesn't matter like you're still going to be breathing you're still going to have food on the table.

4:33And I was like, I guess you're right. So, you know, I drained my 401k, refinanced my cars, and we just kept grinding. And I think back then it was a lot harder to start a business because you had to raise capital and you had to find people and pay them to do a job. Nowadays, entrepreneurs, you can get in, there's so much easier technology and there's remote work and you don't have to fly to Silicon Valley to raise a ton of funds. And so I think it's a lot easier now, but man, back in the day, I don't know if I'd ever do that again, to be honest. Well, Mark, you're here. You made it in Fire Nation.

5:13Listen, growth takes struggle. It takes sacrifice. Success takes perseverance. Let's talk about these words, Mark. What is growth? What is success? What does perseverance mean to you? Tell us your impact. Having a good team around you and not giving up. I think that's huge. So we started in the rental real estate business and my background, I did a little bit of investing and bought my first home when I was like 20 years old. And when we started out, I remember we got token for fraud about$40 ,000. We were trying this payment processing company and this guy was a total crook and we didn't know about it, but we lost a big amount and that was a big blow.

6:05And, you know, it's easy to try to give up because you're counting every dollar. And back then that was a lot of money. And nowadays, you know, we're processing, we have a new payment partner and we're processing over a billion dollars a year and in transactions and things are going great. But I think there's always going to be up and down. You're never going to think that you made it because no matter what, you'll have a really good day and you'll, you'll be on cloud nine and then something will happen and you'll get really discouraged. And I think as we started building the software, we encountered that multiple times.

6:44And I think you really just have to, you know, dig in and realize like, what are you doing this for? And what is the motivation behind it? So that's been kind of the thing that I've been thinking about. So one thing I wanted to dive into, Mark, was small time, big dream and unlocking rental riches. What got you to that first moment where you really understood, hey, there's something here that I can unlock. There's riches within rentals. What does that mean? Back when we started, the thing that I thought about was there wasn't a lot of technology. If you wanted to be an entrepreneur, rental real estate and real estate in general is a great place to start.

7:26But the technology was missing. And I remember when we were trying to rent properties, you know, my my co-founder, he got took in for like, I think, 30 grand from an eviction because he didn't have the right rental contract. And what we found was, hey, these tools that big time professional management companies and corporations have, the small time entrepreneur doesn't have that. We can't do these credit and background checks at the tip of our finger. We couldn't process RAND or get these, get all the tools that we needed to be successful. And so we wanted to leverage that technology. And that's where we founded Rantler.

8:10And then, of course, moved into Tenant Cloud. And I think that was the biggest thing. I love what we do because as a small time person that just wants to build one one door or have one property, our software works for you. if you want 200, 300 doors or units, it can scale. And so I think the barrier to entry to becoming an entrepreneur and making money in real estate and in the rental industry has grown substantially because of the technology that you can leverage now. And it's an even playing field. What I want to know is that first breakthrough moment that you had. I mean, I love talking about when businesses are just starting, getting traction, getting momentum, having that first piece of success.

8:59It's so difficult to obtain. What was yours for what you were doing? I mean, you've obviously grown to great success now and you're having a lot of things going on. What was that first breakthrough where you're like, you know what, this might work. I think we're going to make it. The first thing that really helped us is we were focused on building technology and a product and we really needed to monetize it. And I went to a trade show and I realized I went around to all these bigger booths, competitors, and I realized that they were monetizing our users. And we started out in the state of Utah and I realized that we really had to flip the switch and start charging for our service because we started as a free service and we didn't charge people for it.

9:52And once I went to that trade show, the light went off and I just said, we got to pivot, build this product and start charging for it. And from that point, I think within the first year we were able to book like$2 million in revenue. And it was a huge leap of faith to like change our business model and change and pivot our focus. but that's really, I think your product, it doesn't mean anything unless someone's willing to pay for it. And you can do a freemium model and you can do all this stuff, but you really have to see how to collect those dollars up front. And that can be scary at times when you're just starting out.

10:34I always say people vote with their wallet. I mean, people will tell you a million things, Fire Nation, but until they actually take their wallet out and take the cold, hard cash and hand it to you, it's not real. because people will tell you what they think they want you to hear. They will encourage you. They're trying to be nice. They don't want to be mean. But man, until people actually vote with their wallets, it's not real. And we have so much more to talk about around this topic when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Ever feel like your job description just keeps getting bigger? But we all know there's only 24 hours in a day causing marketers everywhere to feel spread thin.

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13:34And with real-time insights and forecasting, you can see into the future with actionable data. If our businesses needed this type of software, I'd use NetSuite in a heartbeat because whether your company is earning millions or even hundreds of millions, NetSuite helps you respond to immediate challenges and seize your biggest opportunities. Speaking of opportunity, download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine Learning at netsuite.com slash fire. The guide is free to you at netsuite.com slash fire. netsuite.com slash fire. Mark, we're back. and you figured out a way to leverage property management software to scale.

14:11Tell us more about how you did this. Right now, I got to give a shout out to our team. We have an extraordinary team across the United States. We're very distributed, but we have a great development team in Ukraine and they're on the Western part of Ukraine and they've been exceptional. We have an office out there, 70 employees, and they've helped build this business. And we've been able to figure out how to leverage the new technologies that are coming and offer it to these smaller landlords and now bigger property management landlords. And so software engineering is at the core of what we do is leveraging technology to make tasks a lot easier.

14:58And I would say Tenant Cloud, we process tons of rent payments, maintenance, credit and background checks, anything and everything to help fill your vacancies, to help you manage your rental portfolio. If you're an entrepreneur and you want to go buy some properties, check out Tenant Cloud and you'll be able to get set up. And we have a great team to help you do that. So Mark, I love talking about the future with people who have their finger on the pulses, people who are in it every day, nose to the grindstone, they see what's happening, they see what's working, and they probably see what's going to be working.

15:33So take a step back now and really break down for us, for our listeners, what is the future of rental real estate? Yeah, I think what you're starting to see is a lot of AI and big data. Real estate platforms We'll continue to use AI for predictive analytics and helping investors and property managers with pricing strategies and opportunities. I think blockchain is probably a little bit of ways away, but that could help with replacing traditional title deeds and streamlining processes like escrow and payments. But the big shift we're seeing is a lot of people are moving to suburban housing and migrating towards that.

16:20And I think this trend will continue. In addition to that, I think you're going to see a demand for homes with multiple generations. Because the cost and inflation is so high, you're seeing multiple families living in one rental or one property. and I think with the younger population, we definitely need to start building and having smaller, more energy-efficient homes. And I just see that technology will be a big part of this and hybrid work models are really disrupting the rental real estate market. People can live all over, so you can still have that big corporate job or still do what you want and live in a very affordable city.

17:12And we just have to lean in. The rental business, it's very laggard with technology. They're well behind, but it's starting to catch up. And I think we just need to continue to lean into that. And it's going to be really exciting. There's going to be a lot of exciting things coming with that. Mark, take a step back. We're talking about small time, big dreams, unlocking rental riches. You shared your story. You shared what it is that you do. You share what you think the future of real estate is. What is the one thing you really want to make sure our listeners get from our conversation today? I think there's hope and happiness ahead.

17:52I want entrepreneurs to realize that they can do it. They can take a leap and there's so much opportunity. I'm mentoring these young entrepreneurs right now, and they are incredible. And leveraging the technology now, they're coming out well more advanced than I was at that age. And I think people, if they could just be honest with themselves and what they want to accomplish, but also, like I went back to the beginning, you know, you don't need to wait. You don't need to goof around for 10 or 15 years before you really start settling down. Dive in, come up with the plan, whether that's with a spouse or with whoever, and come up with a budget and jump in.

18:41And there's incredible opportunity out there in technology. And there's always deals to be made and things to happen. So you got to take that leap of faith. It's hard. It's hard to take that step into the dark. But when you look back, you know, our company, we're hundreds of millions, you know, value now. And it's fantastic. So Mark, if Fire Nation's connecting with what you're saying, they want to learn more. They want to connect with you, your company. What is your call to action for Fire Nation? Yeah, we have a ton of support and mentors that help people. and if you go to tenantcloud.com, we do webinars every week.

19:23You can connect, come to our support, chat with us, email. We're pretty easy to get a hold of and we'd love to help you out. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with and you've been hanging out with MDH and JLD today. So keep up that heat. For links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com. Just type Mark in the search bar, M-A-R-K, and this show notes page will pop right up. And Mark, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation. For that, we salute you, brother, and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thanks, JLD. Talk to you later.

19:57Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Mark for sponsoring today's episode. And Fire Nation, are you ready to rock your very own podcast? Check out our free podcasting course where I will teach you how to create and launch your podcast for, you guessed it, free, freepodcastcourse.com. I'll catch you there or I'll catch you on the flippity flip side.

20:42future-proofed their business with NetSuite by Oracle, the number one cloud ERP, bringing accounting, financial management, inventory, and HR into one platform. Download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine Learning for free at netsuite.com slash fire.