 Hi, I'm Realtor Sara Maro with Cell State Ace Realty. Today on Proper Tea Time, I get to chat with Tom Orlando, owner and managing broker of Housing Helpers. Tom is a certified relocation specialist and a certified specialist of global mobility. Not to mention he's a total problem solver, creative strategist, lover of people, and father of six. Housing Helpers connects people with places. They serve Denver, Boulder, and between and beyond. Tom hails from upstate New York and has owned and operated this awesome company since 2014. He fits right in here in Colorado as he loves skiing, camping, and driving any jeep that he can find. Tom lives in Broomfield, Colorado, and he manages a fast expanding team of 22 people. I know you're gonna find his knowledge and his services useful and engaging. Thank you so much for joining me. Thanks for having me, I'm happy to be here. Awesome, thank you. Let's dive right in, so why don't you tell me a little bit about what Housing Helpers does, what services they provide, and what your role is there. Okay, well Housing Helpers has been around since 1987. We started as a roommate matching service solely, and that quickly grew into apartment locating and just unfurnished rentals locating. So owners would call us, sign up their property with us, and then we'd lease it out for the owner, and then the lease is between the owner and the tenant. We walk away. And then we started the corporate housing piece, which is furnished, short term, 30 day minimum stays, but average stays about 68 days, I believe. And so, yeah, we started doing the corporate housing piece and we have, I don't know, about 200 units, 180, 200 units right now throughout the U.S., and then about, I'd say it was about 2,000? We started the real estate division. Gotcha, and were you a property manager before that? Were you, when you became, you know, the real estate side of things? Like, tell me about the transition there. We actually never did property management itself, like actual property management, until about three or four years ago. So after you became a sort of real estate services company? Yeah, yeah, we were always asked, you know, will you manage the property? Because we were talking to all these owners and we always just said, no, we don't want to work that angle. Right. So we decided to do it, and it's been good since. It's been great, so. So they demanded it over you enough. Pretty much. We're down. Yeah. Well, I know your slogan, and I love it, is connecting people with places. Like, to me, that's so great. It's kind of what us realtors do, but way more so if you're looking at a national, you know, just housing crisis that we're in. You guys do that so much more than any realtor really could. Can you talk about what you love about your job? I assume you're, I mean, I know you when you're a crazy people person. Tell me about how that slogan even came to be. Well, what I like about my job, I'll start there, is that I was selling real estate back in the crash of 2007, 2008. Okay. We had all these other housing options for people instead of just buying and selling. So we actually stayed quite busy. What do you mean, we? The agency you were with? The housing hubbers. Oh, okay, you were with them then. Oh, yeah, yeah. I've been with them since 2002, and I worked in our boulder office for 12 years. Then I bought the Denver operation and just last summer, I bought the boulder operation. And is housing helpers nationwide? It's obviously in Denver and Boulder. You obviously send people all over the country with various needs, but tell me more about is it a franchise sort of thing? So it was founded in the Boulder office. Tom Smith is the original founder of the company. He's still involved. There's one other office in Las Vegas, Nevada. Oh. And so the only thing that's truly national is our corporate housing units. We have them from Florida to California. They're all over the place. And we have different models for out of state properties. In Colorado, we tend to master lease the properties for long periods of time, year or two years. We've had some on Pearl Street Mall that are over 20 years we've had them. We master lease the whole building. The ones out of state, we do what's called set up tear down. So we'll set it up for a guest and then as soon as that guest moves out, we will tear it down, take all the furniture out, housewares, lit-ins, TVs, everything. So I've heard about some of these third-party, you know, relocation specialists. You know, they're their own giant company. A giant company sort of like contracts them to relocate their employees and move them around the country. Is that sort of what you do? Or are you more just like a smaller version of that? Like talk to me about what corporate housing really looks like in your world. So those companies are typically who we work with. So if a major corporation hires a relocation management company, that relocation management company's job is to find whatever their package is for that employee. But usually it's a temp housing package and then a home buying package, movers and all of that. We've done that on a small scale. But we haven't, we don't do that normally. That's, we rely on the relocation management companies and they send us their bid requests or buyers and sellers, whatever, you know. So you're more of like an executive, stay short and long-term leasing company versus like a relocation mega crew. Yeah, that's exactly it. And you work in tandem with some of these third-party contractors, some of these major companies. Like who are your clients? Exactly what you said, the relocation management companies are huge for us. The companies come, some of them come direct to us, especially in the broom field area. And so they'll contact us, you know, we've got two employees coming to town for training. They need a month's stay, whatever, and we place in the housing. So that's interesting. So you're more of a, you're like a filler in of the gaps wherever there's a need that's kind of like complicated. Like there's a giant relocation guy and there's an employer and you're sort of the boots on the ground that's gonna help find, it's gonna make it happen. That's exactly it. We are the ones that actually have the housing. I see. So the company, you know, when you used to move, you'd go to HR and HR would help you with all of these functions that we're talking about. Well, HR didn't wanna deal with that anymore in those companies. So they spun it out to relocation management companies and then they put it out. Typically, there's a few platforms out there. There's more and more every day because that's where the market's going. But these platforms, so if Bob Smith is needing to move to Boulder, Colorado, it goes out of platform and then all of the corporate housing companies bid on that platform. I see. Sometimes it's only three to get to Bob, sometimes it's 10 to get to Bob and then Bob picks which unit he wants. Gotcha. So it's not really an HR problem anymore. Correct. They can't really find, I mean inventory's so low they probably can't do it all themselves. You're one of the people bidding on this need. Yep. Okay, I think I follow up. Now are you relocating families and individuals? Sounds like they're mostly employees already with a company or just became an employee of a company. Mm-hmm. And are you moving them permanently? Is it usually a long term, 60 to 100 day lease that they need temporarily? Like talk to me about your clientele. Everybody's different. So some, it depends on the package they get from their employer. Sometimes they're only allotted for a 30 day housing stay and sometimes they can get, usually be seated about 120 on a say a family moving but we also have some that the client needs a year. We have a few clients in, I should call them guests in our properties that have been there for four or five years in furnished housing. Okay. And that's mostly what we do. You don't have a lot of the 30 day, even 60 day. It sounds like these are mostly long term needs. No, most of them are short. Oh. Yeah, there's a few exceptions of the long term ones. I see. We lease them long term and then as that guest moves out, we get somebody else to go in. So you're controlling a lot of properties. You're not owning a ton of properties. Correct. You have a long term lease yourselves. You fill the vacancies with short term needs and then that bidding is sort of, you look at what's available for space and you look at the people that might need it. Exactly. Okay. I think that's all. And most of those are short term which are 30, 60, 90, 120, 180, like. Yep. And a lot of times too, so the relocation management company, we know that that employee is approved for 120 day stay. Well, they only allow us to sign 30 day leases with a 30 day notice to vacate. Oh, got it. So we don't always know our availability but we have a good idea. Got it. So 30 days and then 30 days and then 30 days and you're guessing. Sort of when they're gonna go. Yeah. And we have notes in our systems basically saying approved for 120. To this date. Yeah. Okay, cool. You talked about your team. It sounds like you own most of the company, at least the Colorado Division of this company. Can you talk about how many people work for you? What are they licensed realtors? Are they property managers? How many of you are there and who is your client really? I'm still not clear on that. So the client is the relocation management companies, the platforms and then mom and pop, we get a lot of direct calls and businesses that are in the area that are hiring people and bringing them in. I see. A lot of them just know of us and so they call us direct instead of going through all those different platforms and everything else. So your client is an individual, a company and any channel in between. You really serve a whole bunch of different people who are helping with that one need of the final client or the end user, if you will. Just like you as a realtor, if a company contacts you because of an employee, you're gonna go and tour that person and just from your sphere, you probably have other people as well. Gotcha. It's housing. So it's not specific to a corporation, it's specific to people. Sure, that will be actually living in there and you hear about their needs maybe through their company. Yeah, initially anyway. Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. So it's kind of like a lead source really. These third parties, these employers, they lead you to the person who's actually gonna be living in the space. Yeah, and a lot of times we only interact with the platform or the third party and we don't even know who lives there other than their name. Sure, okay. And other times it's just the individual that sort of skips all those other channels. Right. Sorry, I asked about your team and then we diverged because I asked two questions. Can you talk about your team that works for you? So we have 15, we are hiring because I need a few people. We have 15 people now and I'm guessing by the end of 2023, we'll probably be 22 people. 22 people, it's a pretty big crew. It's, we just bought a new office, we moved in there, we set it up for having more people. You know. So you wanna grow. Yeah. You guys are expanding. Especially after I bought Boulder, that was the whole plan. I see. And you think Boulder's gonna be like the headquarters long term for this? We'll always be Boulder, yeah. Yeah, that's why I bought the building. I didn't wanna keep leasing. I see. So. That makes sense. We're permanent. So are you considered, I know you're one of the leaders in this sort of relocation conversation and I know short term rentals is a really hot topic. Like, what is your title? I mean, you're an owner, you're a licensed realtor. What is a day like for you and what would you call yourself? You know, to be honest, I would say my day is mostly filled with taking care of my employees. I'm big on just touching base with them, making sure that they're happy in doing what they wanna do. I. You're the boss man. I'm the boss man, but I don't act like it. I know this, so I know that. Well, one more question. So like, we touched on this, but like, small businesses, major corporations, mega corporations, like, what are the majority of your clients doing for jobs? And is this, like, are they really just temporarily staying somewhere and then going back home? A lot of them are temporarily staying and until they find something to buy. I see. So we have, we don't always know who's buying and who's staying and who's going and whatnot, but a lot of times there is a lot of opportunity to talk to those clients and guests and help them with their next transition. And it could be that travel nurses, for example, we have a lot of travel nurses and well, they're never going home for the most part. They're always going to a different city. So we have some that have worked with us here in Denver Boulder, that, oh, where are you going next? You know, okay, well, we're going to Texas and so we help them find temp housing in Texas. Okay, so you're very useful for that person because they're just sort of nomadding and you're just constantly helping them with the next job. Yep, yep. Now it's a real, one of the things that we struggle with is like timing, right? Like, what are the chances that the stars are going to align that I close on one property and like that same day or week, you know, their new home is all ready to go? Like we know that that's not as common as we would like it to be in a market like this. So give me an example of like a complicated temporary housing situation that maybe you're just sort of filling in the gap and being the catch on me, where do people go? If it really is just like a couple of weeks or if it is a couple of months. We just actually had that happen where it was a couple and they sold their home in Texas and they were building new construction here in Colorado and Broomfield. And so I told them the best thing to do is when you move, put your stuff in pots. That way you don't have to move it into storage and then back into a truck and back into a new house. It eliminates like that one step. That's correct. And so they pay storage for that, which a client's gonna pay that anyway. And then they move into furnished housing for we have to do 30 day minimum leases. So however long they need, if they need to weeks, we still do a month. We have to do my law. Sure. And that usually cushions them nicely. Like in my experience, they're glad to have 30 days to move twice versus 14. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. So you're saying a lot of times they could be coming from anywhere and your solution often isn't even necessarily their new home. It's a temp house, it's furnished and it's upon. Because that's the way to kind of reduce the amount of work. Yeah. Even for long-term unfurnished renters, same scenario. That house that they really like might not be available yet. So we always have temp housing. We have a lot of realtors that they know of us and they have that exact scenario you were just talking about. Oh, I love that. I mean, when the home is promised to be done in March and it's completed in June, what do you do? You told them to sell in March. They're like, ah, a homeless. I had one house that the woman I was working with was under contract with new construction. They hadn't been ground yet on the house. But she had to list her house within 30 days of the contract. Right. Then you factor in the qualifying expiration for the loan and you factor in just the shortage of homes and the materials. I mean, sometimes they won't even close on a house over an oven. And everything else is done. They're like, please let my people in. Yeah, I had one that was the stoop in the backyard that wasn't poured. And they couldn't get the certificate of occupancy. Man. Well, I don't have any other questions. I think what you do is awesome. I think you really help us fill in the gaps, both as realtors and as clients and as employees. I mean, there's nothing more exciting for someone than getting a new job in a new city that they really want to be in, but where they're going to live. It's getting harder and harder. And I really appreciate just the creative solutions that your team provides and the forward thinking. Because it's not just about single family home sales anymore. There's a lot where we need to get into it to solve this. Yeah, there's new cranes every day with new apartments. And we handle apartments, but we also have single family homes and townhouses and everything else. So whatever that family or person needs, we usually can accommodate it. That's amazing. Now, the last question I have for you is like, let's say I want to relocate to a certain place. Like I want to move to Michigan. Do you just say, no, I'll refer this out if you have no properties in that area? Or how do you deal with the 50 states? For 10,000? For anything, yeah. We find them. We find them and we furnish them. We set them up, everything. So you go after a place that you find for a long-term lease and then you'll settle on it. We typically get short-term leases out of state. So if back to the 120-day approval, we'll take a lease out for that 120 and factor in lease break fees and stuff like that. I see. So even though yours doesn't necessarily need to be longer than the need, it just sort of, you're the controller and then it is still sublet. OK, cool. Well, I think that's brilliant. I think that's really a wonderful compromise to some of this short-term rental restriction stuff that's changing every month. And it's nice to know that there's a professional who knows the legislation and the municipalities. And you're going to sort of do that mandate work for us. Nice. 30 days is the key. And we don't get the complaints that traditional short-term rentals under 30 days, because those are weekend party houses that you hear about and everything else. Yeah, that's really what's the cracking down on, I think. Well, Taunton, you've been a wealth of knowledge. I super appreciate your time and your expertise. That's the proper team.