Giving and Investments

Yeah, not at all. We’ve been gifting to our tenants for as long as I remember having tenants. we originally started by giving usually gift baskets with different things in it. And then as we got to know our tenants more, we custom. So we knew like if someone was a tea drinker, we would buy them probably a basket with specialty teas or tea mugs, or if someone really liked making a specific type of drink.

we could custom a basket of that, or if they had a little bit of a larger family, maybe it was a bunch of different kind of cookies and popcorn and treats. And then as time has gone on, we’ve morphed that a little bit and we still do some gift baskets, but we’ve shifted it a little bit more to gift cards. we like, I think we like the experience. So we’d like to do dinner, theater, movie tickets, restaurants, but then there are some families where they’re, like I said, they’re a little bigger and maybe they don’t have as much.

so that we’ll get them gift cards for grocery stores or Amazon, trying to make their life easier.

Brian Persson (01:53.838)
Yeah, and we, you know, our personal portfolio is small enough that we can keep tabs on our tenants and understand what they have. But for our apartment buildings, I actually put it as a year-round job for our resident managers to watch the tenants and figure out what they need so that they know what we can give them at holiday time. you know, all portfolio sizes, you can make it work and you can discover a little bit of

personality about your tenants to give like a very meaningful, like thoughtful gift.

Yeah, and all this is amazing to get through the holiday season, because we all love gifting and giving through the spirit of the holidays. But we actually do this kind of throughout the year, depending on the situation. So, like, if we’re going to interrupt a tenant’s suite, you know, we’ll give them, it’s a smaller gift card, like, it’s not going to be as big as what we would do during the holidays. But just as a thank you for, you know, letting us enter your,

building and maybe we had to go fix something or maybe we’re doing an audit to make sure like there’s no leaky tops or things going wrong with the unit.

Yeah, it doesn’t have to be big. Just a $10 gift card to Tim Hortons or Starbucks or McDonald’s. Well, whatever you kind of, kind of know is important to them and they really appreciate it. And it, uh, it really breaks down the barriers of, having someone, even, even though it’s the owner of the property, having that someone enter their home because the tenant, you know, the place you’re renting to the tenant is their home.

Brian Persson (03:33.132)
So you have to be respectful of that and just giving them a little, little thank you, like a gift card just breaks down those barriers and they’re, they’re much, much less resistant to have you come in and, know, like you said, sometimes you’re not actually fixing something there. There’s nothing wrong, but you want to make sure that your taps aren’t leaking every year. That kind of, that kind of little gift card can, can like eliminate all the resistance of getting in there and properly managing your portfolio.

Absolutely, and when it’s a little more custom, when they know they’re like, oh wow, like they got me a gift or a gift card to somewhere that I love, they’re starting to go, oh wait, this isn’t just my landlord, this is someone who actually cares enough to learn a little bit about me and give back to me. And while you mentioned they’re more open to opening their doors for visits and fixing.

but I think they’re also more apt to want to pay, pay on time, do good because they, when you give, people just naturally want to give back and that’s an easy way for them to give back, pay their rent on time.

That’s called the law of reciprocation. So if you give first, people are naturally inclined to give back and a tenant, you know, might give back by taking care of the property better. They might give back by paying their rent early. There’s all kinds of different ways that a tenant will figure out how to give back. But as a landlord, you should give first. you know, as a landlord, you mentioned it just a second ago, you can give by giving your time.

For example, I’m fairly responsive with fixes. So if there’s a, you know, a tap that’s leaking, if there’s a problem with the dishwasher, whatever it happens to be, I’m on top of it quite quickly. And the tenants really respect that because they feel like they’re getting taken care of. And all it is is like a little bit quicker response to their concerns to the point where sometimes they actually just want to be heard and they don’t actually need anything really fixed or they’re actually willing to do it themselves. So if you just go in there,

Brian Persson (05:36.65)
make sure that your tenants understand that you’re hearing them. Sometimes the problems just resolve themselves. So giving your time and giving your ear to your tenants is actually really important for having like a long-term successful tenant.

Absolutely. That all lends back into the whole communication, which we stand strongly behind. Communicate, communicate, communicate. It doesn’t matter if it’s your tenants, your investors, your team, your wife, your kids. Just communicate. And there’s just so much more comfort and ease in knowing that people can trust you’re going to communicate to them and that they can openly communicate to you. And it leaves a lot less room for problems and errors and issues.

Yeah, over the years I’ve, I’ve built up a sort of a bullet point list of expectations and I try to get as many of them out at the beginning of the tenancy as possible. And one of the expectations that I have of my tenants is communication. And the way I phrase it to them is if, if you think you’re over communicating with me, you’re probably communicating at just the right level for me. And what I want to do is I want to prep them like right before they move in to.

to make sure that they’re communicating with me as much as possible because that way I know what’s going on in my suite. Generally, it ends up in a whole lot less cost and a whole lot less management for me. But to have them right from the get-go with the expectation of they must communicate at a high level for them, that eliminates a whole bunch of barriers for me when it comes to actually managing my tenants.

Absolutely. Back to gifting. So it’s not just your tenants you want to gift to. You got to think about your investors and your team, whatever your team might be. So for your investors, don’t cheap out. Nope. They’re the ones keeping you afloat. Take them out for a nice fancy dinner or maybe dinner, live theater or better yet, find out what your investors like and take them there. Maybe it’s golfing.

Jessilyn Persson (07:41.792)
maybe it’s a hockey game, like whatever they like, they’re going to love it even more if you’re gifting it to them or going with them and spending that time with them. Remember, they bring a lot of money to the table and they should be celebrated.

Yeah. And you get that experience, style gift that actually builds your relationship with your investors. So they will be apt to refer you. They’ll be wanting to like, perhaps bring more money to the table when, when you, when, when they have more money to bring to the table. So by, building that relationship with them, even stronger than it was when you first started a, like the financial relationship with them, that’ll just expand.

everything about the environment around how you guys interact and how the relationship operates.

Absolutely. And then don’t forget your team. that, mean, obviously we’re talking real estate, real estate investing, because that’s our game. regardless of where your team is. So if you’re an entrepreneur and you have staff or if you’re an employee and you have staff or if you’re on a board, you do volunteer work and you have a board like I do. I give I got gift cards for all my board members this holiday season and I do it with a nice thank you card I ride out and

That’s just my way of thanking them for all the time they’ve given to this association over the year. And I do the same for my team where I work and I don’t necessarily give them all gift cards, but I will do a gathering and I will bring in goodies and treats and book it during work hours. So they also get paid to meet up, but they get to know their, their teammate better as well as myself better. And it just builds a better all around.

Jessilyn Persson (09:31.958)
collaboration and communication through the team.

And they really appreciate it. From their perspective, it looks like you’re looking out for them. throughout the year, they’re going to give back to you again, that you reciprocate first and then they want to give back,

100 % and I’ve been doing this for years and I especially do little What I call shout out Thank You cards and I’d put usually like again a $10 gift card to a coffee shop or something in it when someone went above and beyond or went out of their way for one of my projects and I remember the first few times I did it they they looked at me they’re like Wow, I’ve been here for 10 15 years and no one has ever given me a card never mind a gift card like even a handwritten card and man Let me tell you that’s paid in dividends

They hands down anytime I needed help, they were the first to show up because they knew I truly appreciated their effort.

Yeah. And you can do this throughout the year. can be the little shout outs throughout the year, the little gift cards throughout the year. I make sure as a point in my emails to a lot of our service providers to point out what they are doing right and how much I appreciate what they’re doing because to them, it might just seem like a job. But if they fixed, you know, if they fixed my leaky tap in like record time with no issues and I didn’t even have to show up at the property because they were really helpful to my tenants,

Brian Persson (10:52.908)
that is a massive service for me and I make sure like whether it’s a text message or an email that they know about it. And like you just said, it pays dividends. So now I get to the top of their list when it’s an emergency and I need to call one of my service providers, I have like air quotes, priority service because I’m giving with thanks and appreciation throughout the year in order to.

Like make sure that they understand. Like I really truly appreciate their service. And to me, it’s not just a job, right? It’s not just a job they’re doing. It is a value add to me and my life.

Absolutely. And it’s the same thing with the team, right? And I do that as well, like a show and appreciation or I do a shout out and a thank you, especially if there’s something they’ve done, they’ve gone out their way. It might literally just be a one-on-one and I’ll thank them and let them know how much I appreciated the style of how they might’ve communicated something. And that just lets them know that I’m watching and learning and realizing and supporting them. And that opens up the door for more communication with me, for them.

Yeah. And then lastly, let’s not forget ourselves. Nope. We always put ourselves last and we always say, don’t forget to celebrate. And well, of course we believe you should do this throughout the year, not just at the end of the year. And I know we do, we go out for dinners, know, celebrating when we close on a deal or when we sold the property, whatever it may be, we try to do what we call a small win, although they might not always be small.

Yeah, we always do.

Jessilyn Persson (12:28.088)
But even around Christmas, like doing something with our family. So yes, you want to celebrate yourself for all the work you’ve done, but also your family because they either were there to support you, if not like physically, maybe emotionally or mentally they were there, or they watched what you went through and they want to celebrate and know what you’ve done as well.

Yeah, like for our kids, we’re going to a hot destination this right before Christmas essentially. And we’re making it quite clear to our kids like, hey, you know what, like we’re going here because real estate put us here. Like we’re aiming to pay ourselves and like appreciate the work that it went in into a real estate portfolio in order to get us to the point where that portfolio can now pay for vacations. so we’re ingraining it into our kids like early that

you we, you, need to treat yourself like, why are you, why are you in the real estate game, which is, can be hard and without actually paying yourself. Cause we know personally for years we did that. Like we, kept all the money squirreled away in, into our real estate portfolio, made sure we like had it nice protected for the future, but we never really took anything to pay ourselves for all the work that we did. And

Over the years, know, our mindset changed and now, now we’re making sure that like, we are valuing ourselves and our work through paying ourselves out of that real estate portfolio.

Yeah, and this vacation is just, you know, some time to take away for our family. It’s just the four of us going for about 10 days, an all-inclusive where I don’t have to do any work. But we’re spending a lot of time with our boys and that’s to show them firstly that real estate is paying this. This is because of real estate. This is why we’re here. But also as a thank you to show them like, we know there are days where I’ll hear my oldest be like, you’re always on your computer working, mommy. And it’s like,

Jessilyn Persson (14:29.662)
Yeah, I know, son. I got some deliverables too, right? But just to show them that sometimes this hard work pays off. And here now, mommy and daddy have a whole week to 10 days to spend with you guys on Interrupted.

Yeah, and they get roped into having to come to rental properties, which they don’t really like all that much. So it’s nice to just say, hey, you know what, I know I had to drag you out. And here’s why I had to drag you out, because this is the result. We get to go on this vacation.

Yeah, thank you for helping us and supporting us. And as you get older, we will ask you for more support, but you get to reap the rewards of what this produces.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So absolutely do not forget yourself. You, know, you got to take care of yourself first, put your, your own oxygen mask on first, as they say, before you go and help anybody else out. So make sure you take care of yourself.

Yeah, and the most important takeaway we want to discuss to wrap up this year, I guess, for this episode, mine is have an attitude of gratitude always. And I find that if you’re grateful, regardless of your situation or where you are, people can see it and they appreciate it way more than I think sometimes we understand.

Brian Persson (15:44.206)
My key takeaway for this episode is just find a way to make giving part of your investment. It will pay you back tenfold as you give