Keynotes by Casago

Steve V2: Welcome to Keynotes, a
podcast just for Casago homeowners.

This is where we explore how to get
the most out of your relationship with

Casago, learn tips and tricks on how
to make more income with your property,

and learn a little bit about the short
term rental industry along the way.

I've been a vacation rental nerd since
my 20s, and the team has finally let

me have this podcast so I can share
everything I've learned with you.

I'm your host, Steve Schwab,
and this is Keynotes.

Hey, welcome to Keynotes.

. I'm here with Michael Austad, the
owner of Casago in Willamette Valley.

Michael, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me.

Glad to have you here.

You've been with Casago now
for a little over a year.

Yep.

Started May 1st of 2023.

So awesome.

And before Casago, you were
working in retail for 20 years.

Can you tell us a little about that?

Speaker 2: Yeah.

Uh, it was a family business.

Me and my family opened the franchise
of Good Feet Stores and we started

in Portland and we grew from there.

I opened personally with the help of
my family, of course, uh, Boise, and

we kept growing and By the time I
left, we were at twenty six stores.

Wow.

Yeah.

Congratulations.

Speaker: That's amazing.

Yeah, thank you.

Some successful business.

And you have a beautiful
wife and a little boy.

Yes.

So he's, he's young.

You guys are, you got your young
family taking off and going?

Speaker 2: Yeah,

Speaker: he's just started kindergarten.

It's nice.

So nice.

What made you decide on Willamette Valley?

Speaker 2: Uh, well, you know,
that's where all my family lives.

I moved around a lot, but
I always liked Oregon.

Beautiful place.

It's green all year.

Like, what can you say about
a lot of places to be green,

we're not having water issues.

It's a nice place to be, and
that's where I live, that's where

all my families are, for sure.

Speaker: Michael, what made you decide
to get into the hospitality industry?

Speaker 2: You know, I started out
looking for, because when I was in retail

for so long, the problem with retail
is, you're kind of on your own a lot.

What do you have to do?

Everything for your store.

Even, uh, competitors that come in,
because even though we weren't shoes, we

would still have shoe companies come in.

They'll scope out your store, take a
bunch of pictures, like, Cognito style.

Then they'll start demanding stuff,
or pushing things around, and

you just had a lot of adversarial
relationships with people.

And when I started looking for another
business after leaving, and I want to

stay somewhere local, I didn't want to
grow and have to grow it in other cities.

I wanted to stay in Oregon.

And that's when I ran into hospitality.

If you want to grow, there's
plenty of homes out there.

You just grow your inventory of homes.

And then the other thing was even
entering, To this industry, just

how collaborative everyone is.

It's about building relationships with
your homeowners, with your clients, your

guests that are coming in the house with
vendors that are in the industry and also

with Casago and other franchisees and you
guys, the franchise or it's been so nice.

Just, it's such a
collaborative place to be.

And that's what really

Speaker: sold

Speaker 2: me.

Yeah,

Speaker: that's great.

Speaker 2: Michael, what
led you to decide to be

Speaker: part of Casago?

Um,

Speaker 2: I actually explored another
franchise in the industry before

you guys, nothing against them.

It's just wasn't a good fit.

The part reason for that was the first
thing they talked about was money was how

much money you can make, how much this,
how much that, and then it was about

a list of how we can nickel and dime
our homeowners and ways to, to maximize

that and still have the low, like, you
know, rental commission to be as low as

possible, but we're gonna, we're gonna go
on the back end and get all that money.

When I went and looked at your website
and your franchise opportunity part,

first thing you guys talked about
was quality, was about orange, uh,

our orange credo, which is, you know,
First thing owner centric or being

owner focused and taking care of it
really showed is just about taking care

of everyone around you, your owners,
your employees, your guests, and then

eventually they will take care of you.

And that was the first focus you guys had.

And that's what the biggest
selling point for me was like.

Wow.

This company really wants to stand
up on high morals rather than

just about making that quick buck.

Speaker: Yeah.

About, about the stakeholders
instead of just the cashflow, right?

Speaker 2: Yeah,

Speaker: exactly.

I believe the cash always comes
if you do the right things.

Speaker 2: Yeah.

Speaker: And are consistent with them.

Speaker 2: And I, I believe that
cashflow shows, uh, or like a good

cashflow shows the health of a business.

It's like a health check, but
it's not the end all be all.

Cause if your money was gone,
would your industry be there?

Is that industry really worth it?

If it would be gone, that's
always a question to ask yourself.

Speaker: It's a good question to ask.

I'd ask you the question what
your personal approach is to a

great vacation rental experience.

And you mentioned KISS and you
had kind of a unique spin on it.

Can you tell me a little bit about that?

Speaker 2: Well, we all
know the acronym KISS.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker 2: I like to say,
keep it simple Socrates.

It was part of our, my
last business as well.

We would say that.

It was part of our motto.

But, keep things simple.

Don't over complicate everything.

Especially in communication.

Because if we go into too much
complicated words, or make it too long,

or too wordy, or, or start pulling
out words that people don't even know,

um, you really lose your audience.

You lose the people.

And I was in, like I said,
retail, which is sales.

We had a lot of sayings like,
people don't care how much you know

until they know how much you care.

And how to show that is usually in
your way of communication with them.

If you can go into a long, wordy thing
or you try to elevate yourself above them

through the words you're using, you're
going to not only lose your audience,

but you're going to make them feel small.

And you never want to do that.

And so I do believe in business, keep it
simple, and especially with communication,

Speaker: yeah.

Being authentic.

Speaker 2: Yeah.

Speaker: And building
a relationship, right?

Speaker 2: For sure.

Yeah.

Speaker: I feel like you do a
really good job at having authentic

conversations with people.

I've never ever felt like you've
ever been anything but authentic.

Less than perfectly genuine in every, in
every interaction I've ever had with you

and it shows through in your opinion.

I mean, what do you think makes
Casago different than other

property management companies?

When a homeowner is thinking about
signing up with somebody else,

Speaker 2: you know, saying I have is we
have the power of a large company, but

the touch of a local owner, all those
Benefits of a big company, lower rates

on certain things we can get, having
better priced items coming in, so it

keeps things lower margins, helps we
can get more products into the home.

You know, uh, companies don't look
over, overlook us because of our size.

But as a homeowner, if you want to call
your property manager, you just call me.

You have my cell, you can text, you can
call, you can email, whatever you like.

And that's a huge thing.

You don't have to call a call center.

You don't have to deal with
a random person every time.

Uh, you may, you know, some
places I've heard, they don't

even know their property manager.

Like they never meet up with them.

They never seen them in person.

They never have any insight
of who they are as a person.

And that's the thing that's so different
with us because we're, Again, we're a

local owner, we're there to help you,
we're there to work with you, and I would

like to visit and just say hi and talk,
not just be about business all the time.

If

Speaker: somebody wants to call the
owner of Casago, they get to call you.

Yes.

Because you're their property manager,
you're also the owner of the company.

And you get to make the final decision.

You don't have to go up a chain of
command or find for something, find

out, you know, what's going on from
somebody in a whole different state.

They get to speak to the ultimate
authority because you're the

owner of Casago and you get
to be on the ground with them,

building relationships with them.

And I think it's a really
valuable and unique place.

Value proposition for homeowners.

Yeah.

Speaker 2: You'll never hear from me.

Corporate said, right.

Yeah.

Corporate said this, I'm sorry.

No, you don't have, we don't have that.

No, cause it's your business.

I'm corporate.

Speaker: Michael, what does
owner centric mean to you and how

do you put that into practice?

Speaker 2: Well, owner
centric is what it means.

It's, it's owner focused.

So we're there to always be an
advocate for the owner, take

care of their needs first.

So a big part of that is how we
look at ourselves versus them.

Cause so many people look at what
am I getting out of this situation?

How am I.

My money, how am I going to make my thing?

Or this is a lot of work.

I don't know if I want to do that.

And I heard a story a while back from
you guys in Mexico where it was on one

of our orange calls where someone had to
go to the like utilities or somewhere in

Mexico and, and they just know the result.

It's, it's not going to go well.

But they still went because they're
advocating for that homeowner.

They say, I went to that place.

I, I went to the office.

They said, no.

And even if they, you guys knew
they're going to say no, you still

went because again, we're there
to advocate for the homeowner.

And I believe in that is the first thing
you want to do is advocate for their

property, protect it, take care of it, and
also produce as much revenue as possible.

So they are making their money.

So they're able to afford that
place and take care of them.

Speaker: I love that.

You know, advocating for the owner.

In their absence is our
highest and best value.

I mean, they're not there.

We're there on the ground to be
the stewards of the property.

And just like you said, like advocating
when they're not there and they

can't do it on their own is such
an important part of what we do.

And are there other parts of, of our job?

Certainly the revenue, you know,
communications, guest experience,

these are all important, but
they all serve the homeowner and

advocating for that homeowner in
their absence is the number one thing.

That you do there on the
ground, taking care of

Speaker 2: their interests.

Yeah, definitely.

And in the conference not too long
ago, I heard someone talking about a

homeowner coming up to them and saying,
Hey, here's some notes I have for you.

Can you fix these?

And they did it immediately,
fast as possible.

And it just, it shows the owner,
cause when is there any time to

show that you're there for them?

It's usually when
there's a problem, right?

Cause when everything's smooth sailing,
everything's good, everyone's happy.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker 2: But when there is an issue
between what your homeowner is feeling

with your service, how do you handle that?

Are you dismissive immediately
or talk down to them in some way?

Or are we there to like, listen
to them, take what their input is.

And even if it's not exactly something we
can do, Maybe we can fix it another way.

Maybe we can find a compromise
so we can help each other out

instead of being competitive.

Speaker: Even if you have to
say no, allowing your homeowner

to be seen and heard is so
important to that relationship.

And quite honestly to their comfort
level of entrusting you with a massive

asset, a major asset in their life.

Speaker 2: Yeah,

Speaker: definitely.

Michael, if a homeowner is interested
in speaking to you about property

management for their properties in
Willamette, how do they get a hold of you?

Speaker 2: Well, you can go to Casago.

com.

My information's there.

I'm under Willamette Valley.

I also have my own website is Casago wv.

com.

You can go on there and I have
all my information on there.

I'm on Facebook.

I'm on Instagram.

And, yeah, you can find my
information in many places.

That's great.

And is there a

Speaker: specific email they should
use if they just want to just type

it in right now and you quick?

Speaker 2: It's a long
one, so pace yourself.

It's, uh, WillametteValleyGMatCasago.

com And that's my direct email.

It goes right to me.

No one else sees it, so.

Speaker: Well, I know you're always really
responsive anytime people are messaging

you, so I'm sure that will be right away.

Michael, thanks so much for coming on.

Really appreciate the time.

And if you're interested in having your
property managed by Michael in Logan

Valley, make sure to reach out to him.

Thank you.