Business Spotlight: Strong Foundation

It’s a principle in housing and in life: Start with a strong foundation.

Michelle Gipson and Trent Jackson founded their property management firm, At Home Real Estate Services of Southwest Missouri LLC, with a goal of providing expert, fair and values-led service to homeowners and residents. Property management is a challenging industry, full of interpersonal difficulties to mediate, day-to-day nuances to sort, fires to put out and industry fluctuations to navigate. Having a strong foundation is necessary for success.

Jackson and Gipson met while working together on a sale between their former, separate property management companies. Through that interaction, they discovered a common goal of founding their own company and joined forces. After six months of planning, At Home’s doors opened in May 2007.

“I really appreciated Michelle’s skillset that she exhibited during that transaction, and she seemed like somebody I’d want to work with long term,” Jackson said. “The business grew organically and quickly.”

Today, At Home’s team of 25 manages more than 3,000 doors. Approximately 98% of those locations are single-family homes and duplexes, with a few commercial sites and some small- to mid-scale multifamily housing.

Golden rules of success
When Gipson and Jackson were developing how they wanted the At Home experience to feel, they identified a frequent shortcoming of property management they had observed.

“It seemed like some of the management companies were really on just one side or the other,” Jackson said, “and didn’t really have as much focus on the resident enrichment.”

Property managers have an opportunity to serve as a liaison between owners and residents, they agreed, and creating this equanimity remained a cornerstone of their customer service.

Leaning into technology has been another catalyst for growth. At Home adopted AppFolio as their software system early on and is continually evaluating and testing user experiences for other tech platforms. Making these systems as streamlined as possible for residents and owners boosts a manager’s competitiveness, said Chief Operations Officer Jamie Wilcox, who joined the team in 2008 while still in college.

“We’re not afraid of change and we adapt well. If something isn’t working, then let’s find a solution that will work and it has to work for a collection of people,” she said. “We are an extremely unique industry where we have a customer and a client. We have to keep both extremely happy, so we’re adapting constantly.

Another great driver of success in property management, Jackson says, is building one’s team up with respect and care, enabling them to act autonomously.

“We have to make very quick and sometimes hard decisions for our fiduciary clients and our customers and we have to do it with integrity,” Jackson says. “We are always thoughtful and mindful of trying to do the best thing for our owners as well as our residents and it’s a constant balancing act, so giving our team the support they need and deserve is a big factor in that.”

That support also extends to quality of life. Paid time off more than ever is an important competitive factor when it comes to benefits packages, Gipson said. They offer 80 hours of regular PTO, plus vacation time with one week after the first year and two weeks after five years. Engaging in civil service also bonds the team to the community. Community partners include Harmony House, Ozarks Food Harvest, Least of These, Children’s Smile Center and Ozark Greenways Inc.

“They encourage everyone to find something they are passionate about, and we find a way to help or be involved,” Wilcox says.

The industry pendulum
Having a common set of values bolsters the company’s foundation to get through difficulties. Increased cost of housing, homeowners insurance and property taxes pose challenges to the industry. According to data last updated this month from Zillow Rentals, Missouri’s average cost of rental properties across all bedrooms and property types is $1,350 per month, a $50 year-over-year increase. This rate is still approximately 36% lower than the national average.

Missouri homeowners pay a median average of nearly $1,200 in property taxes across all 115 counties, according to data from the World Population Review. Greene County’s rates are higher than the average at a $1,469 median. Real estate property values are reassessed in odd-number years to reflect market conditions, according to a May 14 news release from the Greene County Assessor’s Office. A memorandum of understanding issued from the Missouri State Tax Commission upholds that, under Missouri law, assessments “must fall within 90% to 110% of the market value.” The STC determined that Greene County must increase 2025 tax rates by a minimum of 13% to 15% to be compliant.

“While I was able to negotiate a lower increase than originally proposed, nearly every county in Missouri is facing similar reassessment orders for 2025,” Greene County Assessor Brent Johnson said the release. “Even with the 2023 increases, we remain below compliance due to how quickly the market has grown.”

Gipson noted “it’s very lean right now and it’s a pendulum.”

She added, “So, it will go back and forth and, because of the raises in costs, we have to raise rents.”

Having a strong knowledge of the market has helped At Home navigate the uncertainty of a fluctuating industry, Jackson said. They also credit some of their stability to having clientele who have also been in the industry for a longer period of time and are accustomed to weathering industry storms.

“They are in it for the right reasons and know that the market is going to ebb and flow,” Wilcox said. “They are extremely respectful of their residents, as well, and they understand the importance of retention and keeping good people in their properties.”

Becoming a trusted property management partner for clients is critical to business. That brings At Home back to its values set with emphasis on treating each person with respect and consideration.

“We really do treat something like it were our own personal home,” Gipson says. “We do care and I think that simple, little component is what has made us successful because we do treat it like our own and I think people have seen it and know it.”

Jackson agreed: “It’s a trickle effect. If people trust us, they know that we’re going to treat everything fair and we’re going to go into everything with the lens of, ‘What would we do if that was our property, our situation, our resident?’”