Tom Caldwell & Brett Brewer

When Cowboys Dream

Tom Caldwell and Brett Brewer, who run leading real estate investment management firm Brewer-Caldwell Property Management (B-C), are probably the most unlikely partners you will ever find. They are life-long friends from a small rural town (2007 estimated population: 4,900) in the high deserts of northeastern Arizona. They have the genuinely romantic roots of the West. Squint and they’re the Marlboro men with cowboy boots and an avid interest in big game hunt¬ing. Even their hometown is a charac¬ter. Snowflake, Arizona takes its name from two prominent frontier Mormon families, the Snows and the Flakes. Today State Representative Jake Flake continues this independent history.

HOMETOWN VALUES BUILD BIG CITY NUMBERS

From a small town high school, Brett Brewer made it to professional baseball playing for the Atlanta Braves farm team. Tom Caldwell, while at Arizona State University, was inter¬ested in construction and property management, first as an employee, then manager and an investor. When Brett was injured and unable to play competitively he returned to Arizona. He and Tom followed their dream to build their own company spe¬cializing in property management.

Over the last six years, B-C has become one of the largest property management companies in Arizona, with more than 2,200 properties under management statewide. They are entrusted with over $600 million of investor portfolio properties in Phoenix, Tucson and the White Mountains.

CUSTOMERS FIRST

To build a satisfied clientele they first have had to build a cul¬ture based on customer service.
“Our business is only as good as our unhappiest investor. At the point we identify that customer with that problem everything else is irrelevant. When you are working a herd of cattle, one unhappy and out of sorts cow can be disproportionately disruptive to the objective. Even worse, unhappy human customers have feelings, perceptions and the ability to communicate that to other prospects,” says Brett Brewer.
“To build this culture of service begins with the newest employee. Whether it be an owner/landlord or their tenant, the number one goal is to provide great customer service. The way we have best found to do this best is constant and advanced train¬ing and providing the technology tools necessary to deliver the highest level of service in the industry,” says Tom Caldwell. In the last eight years, they have assembled a team of more than 100 professionals, many of whom own their own investment homes.

B-C finds tenants are typically in transition. Between career and life stages often with mediocre to poor credit. This is a potential home-buying pool. As B-C rents the tenant a home, it is an opportunity to help those indi¬viduals to build or rebuild their credit. In this way they may one day be able to own a brand new home. They often attract tenants who are unaware they may be able to qualify for a home for the same price as an apartment using their signature line “a house is better!” That is not only as a rental but also with the knowledge to help a renter discov¬er that they may qualify to purchase.

IT’S ABOUT EMPLOYEES

“If they don’t understand the business at a personal level how can they empathize and serve a custom¬er, otherwise its just theory,” says Brewer. The very real side benefit to employees who buy into this is phi¬losophy, is that many of these twenty and thirtysomethings already hold personal real estate portfolios worth over a million. In Arizona that is the capital value represented by just four homes. An employee benefit and incentive to participate is that they get free property management from B-C.

B-C services client portfolios of mostly new homes or those less than eight years old. This allows the tenants to live in new homes with the most recent features. There are obvious advantages to this: They come with the builder warranties, newer systems, and market to tenants more easily. The cost of management is lower on new homes as maintenance is initial¬ly subsidized by the builder warranty and individual appliance warranties.

BETTER BY THE DOZEN

B-C began in property manage¬ment and expanded into brokerage and sales. Because of their basic prin¬cipals, they have attracted partners such as national investor advisors like the Marshall Reddick Real Estate Network and Sunvest Communities. Dr. Marshall E. Reddick is Professor of Business and Economics at California State University, Los Angeles, where he teaches Real Estate Continuing Education. Since 1978, Reddick and his staff of professional trainers have conducted approximately 180 real estate seminars each year for nearly all the universities and community colleges in Southern California. From this base he has helped thousands of individuals successfully purchase personal and investment properties nationwide. In Arizona, he has cho¬sen B-C as the very necessary and reli¬able property management partner.

Leading condo-converter Sunvest Communities of Hallendale, Florida has also partnered with B-C to man¬age some of their rental properties and those of their investor clients.

BULLISH ON ARIZONA

B-C is in the evolution¬ary stage from property to real estate portfolio management. First were fortunate to found and grow a company during that period when Arizona and the Southwest went from a wild backwater setting for Zane Grey novels to an international desti¬nation for people and capital. Phoenix is expected to remain the second stron¬gest job and commercial growth engine in the nation until 2025. Recent history generated 34 percent in home appreci¬ation during 2005. Although apprecia¬tion rates will likely moderate, Arizona is still expected to grow at twice the national rate for the next 20 years. It’s the Wild West with a wide-open entre¬preneurial philosophy. Expect B-C to ride herd on investor portfolios, hus¬banding client success as if it is their own, for years to come.