Jeremiah Hines Career Background
What is your biggest career achievement?
- During College I had passed my exam to become a licensed real estate agent. I organized a real estate brokerage owned by myself, my real estate broker and a local businessman/mentor. Our brokerage is set up specifically for property management.
The fall after I graduated college, one of our clients purchased a portfolio of 120 scattered units comprised of duplexes, single family houses, and vacant lots. The portfolio had been in probate and was grossly mismanaged and neglected. Once all of the D level property was sold, what remained was a 63-unit portfolio with massive deferred maintenance and 80% vacancy.
I assembled a team comprised of a property manager, a leasing agent, and two maintenance technicians, all of whom are full time. We worked with the construction teams during the full remodel of 50 units, equaling 1.4 million in investment. Our team handled all the leasing of 50 custom apartments and have managed the property to the point of 97% occupancy at higher market rents than most other properties in our neighborhood. We did all of this within 14 months from when our client first purchased the property. During all of this our team has held together and enjoys working together more now than ever before… that is my greatest career achievement thus far.
What is your ultimate career goal within the rental housing industry?
- I’m a person of faith and I believe that God calls us to do everything that we set our hands to as though we are serving him directly. That being said, my ultimate career goal, is that at the end of my life people will look at my career and see hundreds of times that I have: sacrificed my time or desires to care for my team, been thankful for the opportunities that I was blessed with, been joyful in extended periods of unfortunate circumstances, and swallowed my own pride in order to lead well. Ultimately, I hope that when people look at my career that they will see a life of someone who is acting like Jesus in the workplace and doing so with love and humility.
What's one rental housing trend you have your eye on?
- I believe that short-term rental platforms like Airbnb, Booking.com and VRBO have already been changing and will continue to change the rental housing industry. This year I have started a second brokerage called NeatSuites, specifically dedicated to managing short term rentals for third party owners.
In the beginning short-term rentals were primarily run by small mom and pop owners who had a mother-in-law suite and an entrepreneurial spirit. As popularity in short-term rental platforms like Airbnb has grown, more and more larger companies are seeking a way to get in on the action. With the increase in supply of short-term rentals, guests are looking for more professionally run properties with better amenities. This is where we come in. We’ve been working with larger property owners, helping them turn just one or two apartments in each of their luxury level apartment communities into short term rentals. This allows us to offer guests, luxury level apartments that include things like, a gym, a rooftop deck, a pool, yoga studio and other amenities that most typical short-term rental owners are not able to provide guests.
The benefits to the apartment communities are also numerous.
1. The communities often already have an Apartment that is furnished as a model unit, now they can make money off of their model unit and still show it to perspective residents between guests or on slow days of the week.
2. They can offer their residents a place for family to come and stay on the property.
3. They can offer perspective residents the “Try Before You Buy” option by allowing them to stay in the community over a weekend to test the amenities and meet the residents.
4. The apartments are often cleaned and inspected multiple times per week.
5. When looking at income, after all short-term related expenses are considered, short term rentals tend to be 20% more profitable than regular annual rentals.
All that being said, I believe the apartment association and other leaders in the industry should spend more time considering how they could get involved with short-term rentals.