MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 1 | 69
rentals were almost always a veritable sec-
ond-class system. Real estate firms want to
list and to sell property, agents want to real-
ize commission and, as a result, very little
time was directed to building a community
of clients or to providing anything more than
short term guidance. We saw real estate
agents chasing the $3 million sales not ser-
vicing the rentals they took on well, so we
knew there was an opportunity to take rent-
al listings and service them with intention
and attention to detail.In other words, we looked at rentals as a fer-
tile area for a new approach that could be
carved out with minimal relevant competi-
tion from established firms. They, by and
large, didn’t want the business that we were
going after and did not have the interest or
energy required to develop it into a success-
ful endeavor.We also faced a world in
which potential staff had to
be educated about how
they could be financially
successful in a business
where large commissions
were not the order of the
day. We had to build a mod-
el, develop a process and
demonstrate its viability.Because we had no legacy
infrastructure, we set out to
build both a unique business and one that
took advantage of demographics, technology
and online based communications and mar-
keting. And one that fit our vision.In building Foundation, we divided the tasks.
Christopher has concentrated on clients,
sales and new business as well as industry
leadership opportunities. I run marketing,
administration, staffing and have developed
a quarterly survey now in its fourth year that
uniquely tracks the high-end residential rent-
al market.If you access our website today
(www.foundationhomes.com), you will see a
mix of information about our properties, ed-
ucational information about residential
home regulations, easy to understand guide-
lines that help potential clients as they de-
cided whether renting their property is right
for them and a healthy dose of social inter-