Summary: I just came back from a real estate forum in Florida where I was speaking on a panel answering questions about real estate and turnkey operators in the industry. As it turns out, I was asked a very important question about building your reputation in an industry with shady operators. Unfortunately, they only gave me two minutes to answer a question that required at lease 15 minutes.<br> <br> So, I felt the question was important enough to cover as a podcast episode. Especially in our industry where there truly are shady operators.<br> <br> And if you missed last week's episode, be sure to listen to Common Investor Questions (Part 1).<br> <br> Enjoy the show!<br> <br> - - - - - - -<br> <br> Download your FREE copy of: The Ultimate Guide to Passive Real Estate Investing.<br> <br> Get your FREE coffee mug by leaving us a Rating and Review on iTunes. Here's how.<br> <br> See all our available Turnkey Rental Properties.<br> <br> Please give us a RATING & REVIEW (Thank you!)<br> <br> SUBSCRIBE on iTunes | Stitcher | Podcast Feed <br> <br> <br> The Importance of Reputation<br> Today's show is about the importance of reputation. I'll tell you why I have chosen this topic for today's episode. I just came back from Miami, Florida for the 4th Annual Single-Family Rental Investment Forum. It was great. I had a lot of fun. I got to network with a lot of people that I know in the industry. I was actually speaking on a panel there on turnkey operators. We all got asked questions of various sorts about the industry and turnkey providers specifically and how we operate and just what is going on. It was interesting. I got asked one question that was, "How do you build your reputation in an environment with some shady operators?" There's just no way that I could've answered this question in the 30 seconds or a minute or two minutes that they gave me to answer this particular question. I thought it would be a good idea to actually have a podcast episode on the importance of reputation, especially in an industry like ours where let's say, nine out of ten operators are actually worthy and ethical and have a decent or good reputation and one or maybe two out of ten, don't.<br> <br> You as a consumer, you as an investor, need to know, you should want to know who has a good reputation and who doesn't because obviously, you don't want to work with somebody who's going to sell you a lemon or a money pit for a property or tell you one thing and it's something else like you're in a good neighborhood, but then you end up finding out there are a bunch of crack dealers down the street. This is not a good thing. I have seen this happen. Having been in this industry for 12.5 years, again, being one of the first turnkey providers in the country on a nationwide basis, I've seen a lot of people come and go. I've seen a lot of operators die on the vine.<br> <br> <br> <br> The reputation of a business is essential to its survival. You have to have trust and confidence. The trust and confidence of the consumer does have a direct and profound effect on a company's bottom line. While reputation is an intangible concept, having a good reputation can benefit a business in many, many ways. It expands from consumer preference to support foreign organization when it's in times of crisis or controversy. It also affects the future value of an organization in a marketplace. Having a good reputation just adds to a company's brand strength and goodwill.<br> <br> I was doing a little research and I came across a reference to a study that indicated there were ten main components to an organization's reputation. The first of those ten is ethics. An organization that behaves ethically is admirable, is worthy of respect and is trustworthy. I think this is a very important thing, especially as the first item on this particular list because a company needs to be ethical before it ca...
