Real Estate Underground

Revolutionizing Real Estate Operations: Jennifer Statz's Guide to Success

• Ed Mathews • Season 3 • Episode 119

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Is working from home really as easy as it seems, or does it require a whole new level of discipline and structure? Join us as we uncover the secrets behind successful remote work from Jennifer Statz of Statz Solutions. Jennifer shares her groundbreaking approach to managing real estate operations nationwide, blending technology with human expertise to deliver tailor-made back-office systems. 

Her entirely U.S.-based team, full of real estate professionals, offers wide-ranging operational support, from business startups to payroll and staff management. Discover how understanding the intricate details of a client's business can be the key to driving success.

We also navigate the nuances of maintaining a disciplined work routine in a flexible home environment. Jennifer opens up about the importance of setting boundaries, creating a professional routine, and the evolving role of a CEO as a company scales. 

You'll hear about her journey from an unpaid intern to a real estate success story, along with invaluable advice from her mentor on building positive relationships. Jennifer's definition of success extends beyond professional achievements, emphasizing work-life balance and quality family time. 

Tune in to learn how to blend career growth with personal fulfillment, all while managing a diverse team and staying at the top of your game.

New outro for Season 4 (2024)

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Ed Mathews:

Greetings and salutations. Real Estate Undergrounders. It is Ed Mathews with the Real Estate Underground. Thank you so much for joining us today. With me today is Jennifer Statz of Statz Solutions, and actually I had the fortune of appearing on her podcast a few months ago, and I've been a listener for even long you know, for just a little bit longer than that and it's a wonderful podcast, and, if you ever have a chance, check it out. Before we get into the interview, though, I'd like everybody to ask, if you enjoy our podcast, if you could like drop a review or, more importantly, most importantly, follow or subscribe to us, depending on the platform. We would appreciate it. It helps us grow. So welcome, jennifer, nice to see you again. How are you, my friend?

Jennifer Staats:

Nice to see you too. Thanks for having me on my friend. Nice to see you too. Thanks for having me on.

Ed Mathews:

I'm doing great Good. So with the company, so life and listings. Let's talk about that first. One of the things I really enjoyed about it was your approach and your view on the world. So for those folks out there that haven't gotten to know you yet, haven't listened to your podcast, why don't you tell us a little bit about you and your company and then we'll get into it?

Jennifer Staats:

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, my outlook on business is, I would say, much different than your average person. I feel like you can grow a business that fits whatever you want in any stage of your life, which is kind of what the podcast is about. My name is Jennifer. I am from Colorado Springs. I own a company called Stat Solutions. We run the operations of various real estate businesses nationwide. We've been doing that for about seven years I've been a licensed agent for 14, and it is a whole lot of fun running the operations of so many various businesses all over the place.

Ed Mathews:

And so it's a fascinating business. Coming from an operations at least part of my career operations background, I'm always interested in how do you create that back office with you know so many disparate companies, but create enough operational um consistency so that you can run it right? Is that? Is that just a matter of throwing humans at it, or are you a technology person or or a little bit of both? Or is there a magic hidden back there somewhere?

Jennifer Staats:

yeah, I mean it's. It's definitely a combination of much different factors, right? Like, obviously I need people because we are running their full-blown operations, so I need people to run the tech. But with any company I'm coming on board with, I'm looking at what they've currently got going on or what they want to do, and we're a combination of both. Right, and we're a combination of both right. I'm going okay, how much integration, how much tech can I throw at this? Or how much tech do they already have to make it really efficient? And then I put some really strong people behind that to kind of keep it going. All of our clients are very long-term, so that really does take that personal touch, getting to know them, becoming friends and family with a lot of our CEOs. So it's definitely a combination. I think we run about 25 different companies. We're a team of 11. And we just do that all over the country.

Ed Mathews:

And so what does that team look like? Is it domestic workers? Is it people on the ground at the various companies? Is it offshore? How does that work?

Jennifer Staats:

So currently we don't hire anyone overseas. Everyone's in the US has some form of real estate background. We actually work as teams. So we have a couple small teams within Stats that could consist of, like operators, admin and marketing people. So they all work together and we're all virtual. So I do meet some of our clients at conferences or various things, but no one's actually boots on the ground. We will work with their in-house staff too, so some have office managers or assistants or transaction coordinators or whomever will manage them virtually from wherever we are.

Ed Mathews:

Yeah, marshall McLuhan is right. You know, the global village is is now real, just sitting here. We're, you know, 2,500 miles apart, I'm in Connecticut, you're in Colorado and 2000 miles at least. But um, you know, the fact is is that it's it's totally doable to to manage a business. You don't have to occupy the same same space right.

Jennifer Staats:

Nope, nope.

Ed Mathews:

So so, in terms of your operation and what you do for folks, can you kind of step us through? You know the primary services that you provide.

Jennifer Staats:

Yeah, I mean kind of like what I said before. Like there are, we can manage the entire back operations of a business by ourselves or we'll accompany who they already have in place. It really depends on the business structure. Like, if they have a physical office space, a lot of times they do need someone there, whether it's just ordering supplies or answering the phones, whatever that is. We do have a lot of virtual companies as well, so they don't need an office space, they don't need boots on the ground, people, they're perfectly fine with us working all over the place. So that does depend.

Jennifer Staats:

Various services could be business startups. So like, hey, I have this wild idea, I want to do this thing, no-transcript. We do a lot of just workflows. So new customer comes in, what happens, and really trying to streamline every process, whether it's bringing on new staff, bringing on new contractors, the client workflow, all of that we'll kind of touch and really try to streamline and then overall we'll manage it. So you know, we manage payroll, onboarding, offboarding, all various operations we'll kind of dig into and we actually require it of our clients. I want to have a good understanding of everything. That way I can come in and say, hey, this is working really great, or this?

Jennifer Staats:

isn't, or I can see the quarterly goals with them and we kind of work on that with our CEO.

Ed Mathews:

Yeah, you know it's interesting. It's the old adage of working in the business as a job versus on the business as a CEO. It sounds like what you do is you provide those hands and feet and brains to be able to let them take a higher level and be the CEO of their company, as opposed to the person who's just another cog in the wheel.

Jennifer Staats:

Yeah, and a lot of times they don't want to do certain parts. Maybe they really like the training aspect of their business, but maybe they really don't like the managing part of their business. So our services are very customizable in the fact that we'll I'll talk to someone. They're like. This is the problems I've had before. I've hired people and it doesn't work because of X, y, z, and I can spot where I think our team can come in and support. Or they'll just straight up say, hey, I'm trying to start a whole other company, I don't want to be in this one as much anymore, and they'll back out. Let me run this one while maybe we are also helping them start this other one. So it really depends on what they're trying to do in their life.

Ed Mathews:

Exactly, and so you know obviously. Step one then is understand where they are, and step two is okay, where are you trying to get, and then what are the services you need to be able to get there? Okay, and then so, so I'm a real estate investor, obviously, and I, we run apartment buildings, and so I assume you work, you know with, with a whole bunch of folks in our space, right?

Jennifer Staats:

Yeah, we've worked with a whole bunch of different real estate companies. We've done flippers, developers, real estate teams, real estate brokerages, real estate coaches. Right now we're working with two different startups, easy Home Search and Digital Maverick, which are more so in the lead purchasing space, a competitor to Zillow, as well as database management. So anything in the real estate umbrella will involve ourselves in.

Ed Mathews:

Okay, and so are you strictly operational, or are you doing like marketing or outbound, or you know anything in terms of touching clients, potentially touching other brokers, or you know property owners or anything like that?

Jennifer Staats:

Generally we. So we don't do any type of cold calling, so we don't do any type of like outbound sales. We do do marketing, you know social media, some minor website stuff. We will do customer service. I mean, that doesn't bother me either. But with remembering that I hire a bunch of operators so they're not necessarily always phone people right. So I'll take that into consideration and say, hey, if there's a ton of calls and stuff like that, you might want to hire someone internally for your team that's better suited for tons of phone calls rather than our operators that are more known for full-blown operations, tasks, transactions, stuff like that. So it's case by case.

Ed Mathews:

And so, in terms of as you add operations or you grow your business, you know what are some of the things that you're struggling with in terms of growth and how are you thinking about those things?

Jennifer Staats:

I mean the people problem is real, right, I mean it's. We've been very slow to grow because I'm very picky about who we bring on. I mean for many different reasons. Picky about who we bring on. I mean for many different reasons. One is, obviously we are handling such sensitive items day to day so I really have to find the right person that I feel comfortable.

Jennifer Staats:

You know, working with my CEOs and building their businesses, and then we're also virtual. So everyone sees like virtual jobs or work from home jobs is maybe something that you think on TV, like you're going to be in your jammies and you're going to be in front of the TV eating bonbons while you kind of type on the computer and stat solutions, is not that? So it definitely would be awesome, right, but it's not. And so we're very yeah, we're very picky about who we bring on. A lot of people apply because they're like you know, work from home sounds great. And then they start and they're like this, I can't do work from home 40 hours a week. So that's been one of our problems is just finding the right people that I feel confident putting my name behind.

Ed Mathews:

Yeah, it takes a certain discipline, right, because you know being at home like I, you know my previous life. I worked from home for gosh 15, 20 years and the hard part early on was educating all the folks I live with, my wife and kids, right, that I'm at work and I can't, can't go hang out. I can't. You know, keep an eye on the, on the washer and dryer. I can't. You know I can do that after work or during a break, but you know it's not dad's home and he can do the laundry. Or, you know, quick vacuum the living room or go pick up. You know this little one or that little one.

Ed Mathews:

You got to work and it takes a certain discipline to be able to, you know, make that work from home. So you know working from people around, you understand that there is no time to do the laundry or to pick up a child or to go walk the dogs or you know anything like that, because you're at work and you know putting in an honest eight plus hours a day to go earn your, earn your paycheck, and that doesn't include vacuuming and and washing. You know washing clothes, right.

Jennifer Staats:

Yeah.

Ed Mathews:

But not during.

Jennifer Staats:

Yeah, I mean, to me it came really easy. I'm a very disciplined person. My husband, on the other hand, we were both at home for a little bit during COVID and he was like this is not for me, I cannot work from home, I don't want to be here, because he would just like wander outside or do whatever. And he's like no, I can't do this. So I get it. And so during our interview process we ask a lot of questions around it.

Jennifer Staats:

You know, we do offer flexible schedules, which then takes even more discipline, because then I'm telling them they don't have to be clocked in at a specific time, they can just work whenever they want. So that kind of takes a little bit of discipline too. But I do kind of very strongly during the interview process we're talking about why do they want to work from home and do they understand what it takes? And, like the second, they kind of tell me oh, I just, I wanted to work from home because it sounded really fun, I wanted the flexibility to do a little while. I'm like, okay, let's dig into that a little bit more before we bring you on. Luckily, we found a really good group of really solid core people that have been with me for a couple of years, but you know we still add on very slowly as we bring on new clients too.

Ed Mathews:

And you know, once you start, once you find that core and you build that culture right, then culture kind of takes over and incorporates and inculcates the people that come in. Very quickly you start to understand not only am I getting training of here's how I'm supposed to operate, but also you see examples everywhere, right? And how they do it. And uh, you know, you either fall in line or you don't, and you either survive or you don't.

Jennifer Staats:

Right, yeah, well, it has gotten much easier to add people on now that we're a little bit bigger. I mean, I definitely feel that like it was much harder when there was only like maybe three or four people. I felt like it was all on me. Now I bring someone on, that's not really on me anymore. I've got managers to train and help with that culture aspect.

Ed Mathews:

Again, it's the working in the business versus you being the CEO and working on the business, and that's, you know, an entirely different role, right you?

Ed Mathews:

know I had this mentor, rob Bernstein. You know he was the CEO of a company I worked for and he was explaining to me. He said look, you know we started. I started at the company we were at. You know it was like I think I was employee 32. So in Silicon Valley world that's teeny, and you know. Eventually that company you know grew, to you know, from a couple million dollars to $10 million and that required a different skillset and a different group of people.

Ed Mathews:

And then 50 was a different skills set and a different group of people, and then 50 to 100 and so on. As you scale your business, you have to be constantly looking at am I the right person to lead and also, am I the right person to run this business operate? And in a lot of cases the answer is maybe not, and that's okay. You can evolve as a CEO, but you better be filling behind you with the people that have the skill sets to be able to fill in the holes as you grow.

Jennifer Staats:

Yeah, you need to be really self-aware. I think a business owner on any level I coach on this all the time. What are we learning as we're growing about ourselves Not about other people too, right, but it's like what are we learning about ourselves, what we are good at, what we're not, what you know, what is our zone of genius? I feel like you learned so much about yourself, more than you ever would have thought like owning a business.

Ed Mathews:

I love that term zone of genius.

Jennifer Staats:

Yeah.

Ed Mathews:

I may borrow that that's. That's brilliant. Okay, so you know, in terms of the team overall, you said you have 11 folks, is that right? Yep, know, in terms of the team overall, you said you have 11 folks, is that right? Yep, I assume a couple of managers who are managing and then a whole bunch of folks that are making the wheels turn right.

Jennifer Staats:

Yeah, I have. Right now I have about four people that would be considered managers. They're in different types of roles and then I have a few different administrative people. We just launched a transaction coordinator half of the company. So I have a few contractors and then we have a couple of people that specialize in marketing too.

Jennifer Staats:

Marketing wasn't something I wanted to do when we originally launched, but I, just as we were digging in, it was like every time I would help with a business, there'd be marketing things that need to happen and I'd have to like hire a separate company to do it and then the lead time would be really long or they wouldn't work. So, finally, I was like I'd rather just do it in-house. So we now have a few people on staff that do marketing, you know, various social media or even just project management If they've got website builds going on or whatever they've got. That way they can just come to us and say thought, that way they can just come to us and say, hey, I need this graphics made, I need a new logo, I need these things, rather than hiring out, waiting three, four weeks.

Ed Mathews:

It's like done in a couple of days which is a big difference, yeah, a huge value add to your clients. You know it's interesting, you're you're kind of going through all the marketing tasks and you know I'm a marketing geek and the you know the the creative piece of marketing is what everybody sees. But the actual hardest part about marketing is the operationalization.

Ed Mathews:

It's keeping the trains running on time and making sure you're posting at the appropriate times, consistently disciplined, and that actually, marketing wise, is probably the, you know, the hardest thing to accomplish, right, because you know it's the law of sevens, right, that you know the fact is, a human being needs to see your brand seven plus times before they connect. I have a problem with your solution and you can solve it for me, and, yes, I trust you to at least have a conversation. And so you know, making sure that the trains run on time and that the posts are going out and the videos are going out and the direct mails are going out and the follow-up phone calls are happening, whether you're making them or you're pushing somebody else to do it, that's the hard part, right?

Jennifer Staats:

Yeah, we were already building out all these systems anyways, and then I would hand it off to a third party and it wouldn't get done or they'd be like, oh, this is going to take me a week to get to and I'm like it's real estate, I don't have a week to wait for you to do this thing, I need it now. So we just started doing it in-house a few years ago and it works out so much better because we can just do it done. I don't have to wait for feedback, I don't have to pay for someone else outside to do it and drop the ball or whatever.

Ed Mathews:

Consistent with your culture and it's consistent with your expectations and everybody knows what is expected, so they can just simply operate to that level by that step.

Jennifer Staats:

Absolutely.

Ed Mathews:

All right, so let's get into the final four. Okay, so first first one. These are really hard You're going to, so the first first one is please finish this sentence. My purpose is.

Jennifer Staats:

I think my purpose is helping others see their potential, whether it be business owners or some of my friends and family. I genuinely feel like I found my purpose in going you can do that, like you can build that business, you can do this thing, you can write that book, and I found over the years that I'm good at seeing that or pushing people to do new things, so I think that's my purpose. Awesome.

Ed Mathews:

Good answer. So the next thing I'm always curious about how leaders receive information, like in terms of advice, right? You know we all we've all had mentors at least the lucky ones have had mentors in their lives and so I'm really curious about the mentors you've had in your life. You know what's the best advice you ever got and who gave it to you?

Jennifer Staats:

Yeah. So I actually started my real estate career when I was 20 years old. I started it as an unpaid intern in San Diego and while I was getting my license and you know, I don't remember the exact moment she told me this, but she was always like beating it into my brain, telling me that every single person you come in contact with you should be building a good relationship, regardless of who you're talking to, and that was a little bit contradictory to the culture of real estate, cause a lot of times it's like we're in negotiations, we've got to be tough. I'm not here to be your friend, and I would so often see that her relationship she would build with the other side would actually benefit her in the long run. She'd get her offer accepted or whatever.

Jennifer Staats:

And so I took that with me, even to today, where you know I might be dealing with an admin or a vendor for one of my clients, and I'm always telling my employees, like we are in such a small industry, we are always going to be nice and kind. You are going to be firm if there's something that we need from them, but we're always going to be nice and kind because you want to know what next year we're going to have contact with them again and we want them to be favorable of stat solutions because you get further in life. Her name was Lisa and um worked with her years ago. Probably she really has no idea that I took that away from that relationship, but it's really impacted me over time and how I treat everybody in business.

Ed Mathews:

Outstanding. I, we, we teach my wife and I teach our kids. You know, be respectful and understand that everybody's dealing with something at any given time and you know, treat them with kindness, even when they don't deserve it, right.

Jennifer Staats:

Yep.

Ed Mathews:

Cause, now you know, you never want to build a, you never want to burn a bridge, cause you, you never know, All right. So readers tend to be leader, or leaders tend to be readers. And so I'm curious A how are you taking information to, to kind of sharpen the saw, so to speak, and and who you paint? Which creators and authors are you paying attention to these days?

Jennifer Staats:

Yeah, and I feel like I'm just I barely watch any TV. It just can't hold my attention. So I'm constantly all over the place, right. I mean podcasts, webinars, if there's something coming out. I attend quite a few conferences, just you know, either for networking or just gaining knowledge. And then I'm also listening to a lot of our clients too, like we're we're dealing with some serious business owners, so I'm, you know, I'm I'm watching how they talk to people or what they're doing, and I'm soaking that in too. So I'm taking a little bit of information all over the map different coaches and stuff like that.

Jennifer Staats:

I would say I'm not focused on one person or author right now. I'm almost enjoying comparing what different people are saying as all these different things are happening in the real estate landscape. I'm liking listening to different people's point of views on what they think is going to happen and kind of making my own judgment and then also, over the last 12 months, been doing a lot of just kind of getting to know me as a business owner. Getting to know what I want to do. Moving forward has been kind of funny. I did some coaching last year with the Pitch Club and it was really eye-opening just for my own business journey, not real estate related, but just kind of getting to know about our visibility and getting confident in our message, stuff like that.

Ed Mathews:

Yeah, self-awareness and understanding how other people perceive you is so important as a business leader. Last one, so finish this sentence for me, please. Success means.

Jennifer Staats:

Success means whatever you want it to mean. I think that kind of goes along with my purpose. Like the first question, there's so many things out there where you're watching social media, you're watching TV or whatever, and you're like, wow, that person's really successful. Well, what does success mean to you? To me, success means I can be go pick my kids up from school while running a business and be present for them while making good living and saving up for their college and all that stuff. That's what success means to me. Success should mean something different to every single person. So, in short, that's what success means to me, like, whatever you want it to mean.

Ed Mathews:

All right. So when not talking about real estate and not talking about operations and helping people run their companies? What do you like to do? How do you spend your time?

Jennifer Staats:

Anything outside. My husband calls me a flower because I am much happier in the sunshine. We do a lot of camping, off-roading. We have a razor that we off-road quite frequently in the forest. And then I live on five acres. I have a small farm, so we have goats and chickens, and so usually in the morning or the afternoon, or if I'm, you know, even if I start to have a bad day I go sit outside in the sun with my goats. You can see me out in the field.

Ed Mathews:

It's amazing what a little vitamin D can do for a disposition right.

Jennifer Staats:

Yep.

Ed Mathews:

So, Jennifer, I've really enjoyed this conversation and if folks want to get in touch with you, learn more about your business, learn more about you. What's the best way to get in touch?

Jennifer Staats:

Yeah, so our website is statsolutionscom. You can find a little bit about what we do. The contact button goes directly to my calendar for a 45 minute free consultation, and probably the easiest way to get in touch with me is just Instagram. Very simple, jennifer. The realtor is my Instagram handle. It's me. You're probably going to see baby goats and a little bit of real estate. You can always DM me and I'll answer. You know, maybe within a couple of days.

Ed Mathews:

Okay, well, jennifer, thanks again, jennifer. Stats with Stats Solutions. Thanks, and it's good to see you, my friend.

Jennifer Staats:

Thank you, nice seeing you too.

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