Today we’d like to introduce you to Nate Bringhurst.
Hi Nate, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I’ve always been drawn to entrepreneurship. Even as a kid I was constantly coming up with business ideas and looking for ways to make them happen.
While I was in college, I started my first business selling custom silicone wristbands. The kind that were popular during the Livestrong era. It was a fun venture and actually had some success. We supplied fundraising campaigns for organizations like the State of Utah’s “Save H2O” initiative and the University of Florida’s Gator Aid campaign. But mostly for smaller organizations. It was a great learning experience, but it wasn’t enough to support a growing family. My wife and I had our 3rd child while I was in grad school.
I closed that business and started working for a startup that operated out of a garage. Sometimes in the freezing cold. Not sure why, but working in a cold garage with a parka and facing new problems to solve every day just fed my hunger for startups.
As I was finishing my Master’s Degree in Economics at the University of Utah in 2011, the job market was still feeling the effects of the financial crisis. There weren’t many companies hiring, but I interviewed at Goldman Sachs. During the 3rd interview with them, they described the long hours, demanding expectations, and highly competitive environment. I’m not scared of hard work and big goals. But thought if I’m going to work that hard, I’d rather do it for myself and my family rather than a company that was part of the reason we were in a financial crisis! So I decided to start my own business.
My wife’s family had several people in the property management industry, and over the years, I’d had many conversations with them about the business. They were doing well, but they were also very honest about the challenges. They told me it would require long hours, a steep learning curve, and years of persistence to get established. But this time it was for MY business, and I would benefit from my hard work instead of chasing a carrot for a big company like Goldman Sachs. So my wife and I moved to Pittsburgh and started RPM Pittsburgh from scratch.
And they were absolutely right about the hard work. For the first several years, I regularly worked 70 to 80 hours a week while learning the business, building systems, hiring employees, and growing the company. There were plenty of challenges, setbacks, and lessons learned along the way.
This fall, RPM Pittsburgh will celebrate its 15th anniversary. We started with zero properties and have grown to managing approximately 650 properties with a team of 15 employees. My wife and I also have six kids, so balancing my growing family and a growing business wasn’t always easy, but it’s been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.
Looking back, there was definitely a lot of blood, sweat, and tears involved, but I’d do it all over again. Building something from nothing, creating opportunities for our team, and serving our clients has made the journey completely worth it.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
All caps NO. Very much not a smooth road. Ha. Residential property management is a notoriously hard business to run. There are so many things going on. Someone once described it as getting into a boxing ring with tenants, property owners, and vendors. And they’re all coming for you! Tensions can get very high when you’re dealing with a tenant’s personal living space or something property owners depend on for income in retirement.
In property management, you need strong knowledge and skills in so many areas. You absolutely have to be good with people and be able to de-escalate very stressful situations. You need knowledge of real estate, customer service, construction/repairs/maintenance, legal compliance with fair housing laws, understanding contract law, finance/accounting, sales, and emergency response. And you don’t fully control any of them.
I’ve been blackmailed by an employee, had a maintenance employee shoot a deer in one of our properties’ backyards, gut it, and leave the results on the lawn for the tenants to find. I had a tenant tell us we were treating her so poorly she was going to call Oprah on us (we weren’t, and I have SO many tenant stories), and have lost in the 100’s of thousands of dollars from dishonest property owners.
Growth has been a big challenge for us. Managing 100 properties is WAY different than managing 650 properties. You go from two people just rolling with the punches to keeping employees accountable and building systems and processes for them to follow, building departments for maintenance, leasing, accounting, and business development. The other hard thing has been finding good employees. Most people looking to work in property management are doing it as a backup plan. Have you ever heard anyone say they wanted to be a property manager when they grew up? No. There is no degree in property management. They are not coming to you trained and ready to go. You have to train them and coach them along. Only for many of them to quit because it’s such a hard industry to be in. I have so much respect for property managers. Good ones have so much grit and are some of the most resilient people I know.
Another challenge we see quite often is working with property owners who were given unrealistic expectations before they ever bought the property. In Pittsburgh, real estate is much more affordable than in many parts of the country, which attracts many investors. The problem is that many of these homes are over 100 years old. Sales agents rarely give investors a clear picture of the repair/maintenance costs involved in these older homes.
We also see investors influenced by social media ‘influencers’ who make real estate investing look way easier than it really is. It’s easy to find videos full of big, unrealistic promises of passive income and financial freedom, but those videos rarely talk about replacing sewer lines, repairing foundations, or spending $25k to replace a roof.
By the time many owners come to us, they’re frustrated because the numbers aren’t matching what they were led to believe. A big part of our job is helping them understand the true costs of ownership and setting realistic expectations with them. Those conversations are never fun, but it’s important to be honest with them and help them realize cash flow is only one of the ways real estate pays off. We’re able to help them along the way and help them make better investment choices going forward. Our goal is to help them become successful investors and live comfortably.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Our tagine is: Trusted. Experienced. Reliable.
Real Property Management Pittsburgh is the affordable solution to managing real estate in the greater Pittsburgh, PA, metro area. We are a full-time, full-service property management company that manages residential and multifamily homes.
I really do think we’re known for what is mentioned in our tagline. We have a high Google rating, which shows that most of our clients (tenants and property owners) are pretty happy with us. We also have some amazing employees! Their hard work and integrity are what make us who we are as a company.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://rpmpittsburgh.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rpm_pittsburgh
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/rpmpittsburgh
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/real-property-management-pittsburgh
