How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Real Estate Marketing & Property Management
Show summary
In this episode, Joseph Crooms interviews Emmet Morgan, a young marketing director in Los Angeles, about his journey into real estate, marketing strategies, and how his company is navigating market challenges. They discuss innovative marketing channels, the importance of authenticity, and opportunities for growth in the property management sector.
Key takeaways
- Rosano Capital markets commercial properties across LoopNet, Zillow (for apartment buildings), Facebook Marketplace, and Craigslist, but their strongest leads come from calling relationships built over the last twenty years.
- The company is testing advertising on OpenAI specifically for property management, treating AI search tools as a new lead source alongside traditional channels.
- Their top property management prospecting priority is older property owners (roughly 70-80 years old) whose adult children don't want to take over day-to-day management, creating a win-win where kids keep ownership and hire a manager.
- Rosano Capital operates three divisions: construction management, property management, and brokerage, with marketing currently focused only on property management because construction is busy with existing properties and brokerage relies on agents/assistants working phones.
- Emmet Morgan built his marketing experience before real estate by starting Claremore Media in college, doing advertising for a friend's catering company (shooting content 1-3 days a year plus ongoing brand awareness) before expanding into art studios and fashion brands.
- Rosano Property Management has been in business for 30 years and managed over 100 properties in Los Angeles and Southern California, having operated through a recession and COVID.
- Emmet's approach to business is built on authenticity, integrity, and respect for people's time, which he says has been key to closing deals in a commercial real estate market he describes as a 'hungry fish tank.'
In this episode
- 02:04Introduction to Emmet Morgan and Rosano Capital
- 03:01Emmet's role as a commercial real estate broker
- 04:42How long Emmet has been in the role, background from Chicago
- 05:12About Rosano Property Management's 30-year history
- 07:08Why Emmet was hired, sports background and mindset
- 08:46Starting Claremore Media in college
- 11:16Company priorities: targeting aging property owners
- 13:00Using AI and OpenAI advertising for qualified leads
- 14:33Rosano Capital's three business umbrellas
- 17:03Current marketing channels: LoopNet, Zillow, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist
About the guest
Emmet Morgan is the marketing director at Rosano Capital in Los Angeles, a firm with construction management, property management, and brokerage divisions. He is also a commercial real estate broker there, a role he has held for about a year, and is originally from Chicago and double-majored in Wisconsin. Before real estate, he founded his own marketing company, Claremore Media, in college, working with a catering company, art studios, and clothing brands before moving into real estate marketing.
Listen to the audio
“Our best case is to be calling these people that we've already formed relationships with within the last twenty years since we've started, and seeing if they're interested in expanding their portfolio.”
Emmet Morgan
“Unfortunately, I'm not the biggest fan of AI, but the reality is if you don't use a tool that everybody else is using, you're gonna be left in the dust.”
Emmet Morgan
“What's for you won't pass you, and it's definitely a great motto that I've taken out through life.”
Emmet Morgan
Questions answered in this episode
What marketing channels does Rosano Capital use for commercial real estate listings?
They list on LoopNet, use Zillow for apartment buildings, and also post on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist. According to Emmet Morgan, despite using all these channels, their best leads still come from calling people they've already built relationships with over the last twenty years.
How is Rosano Capital using AI in its marketing strategy?
Emmet Morgan says they are exploring advertising on OpenAI specifically for property management, treating it as a new search engine people use to find information. He admits he's not a big fan of AI personally but says not using tools everyone else is using means getting left behind.
What is Rosano Capital's target client for property management?
Their top priority is refocusing on families with older property owners, often in their 70s or 80s, who no longer want to manage their properties or deal with tenants directly. Emmet describes a scenario where an older owner's adult children don't want to take on property management, so they hire a property management company instead, letting the kids keep ownership while offloading the work.
What are the three main business lines under Rosano Capital?
Rosano Capital operates three umbrella companies: construction management, property management, and brokerage. As of the interview, Emmet was marketing only for the property management side, since construction management was busy with current properties and the brokerage had agents/assistants working phones to find investors.
What is Emmet Morgan's background before getting into real estate marketing?
Emmet is originally from Chicago, double-majored in Wisconsin, and started a marketing company called Claremore Media in college, inspired by seeing inexperienced marketers fail clients in the AI age. He began by doing advertising for a friend's family catering company, then moved into art studios and fashion/clothing brands before landing in real estate marketing at Rosano Capital in Los Angeles.
Resources and links
- Rosano Capital Partners’ Website
- Rosano Capital Management’s Website
- Rosano Construction Services’ Website
Full transcript
Emmet Morgan (00:00)
Right now we have a lot of marketing channels. And now we’re on LoopNet, I know we do Zillow for apartment buildings, we do Facebook Marketplace, we do Craigslist—pretty much anything that you can think of, we’re on that sort of level. But when it comes to really getting these leads,
our best case is to be calling these people that we’ve already formed relationships with within the last twenty years since we’ve started, and seeing if they’re interested in expanding their portfolio.
Joseph Crooms (02:04)
Hey everyone. Welcome to Investor Fuel Real Estate Pros Podcast. Today I am Joseph Crooms, I’m your host. Today I’m chatting with someone that’s new in the industry, I detect, but he’s a dynamic young man.
His name is Emmet Morgan. What a name, right? Love it. Emmet, he’s making some serious moves in the marketing field, but I’ll let him talk about that a little more. So right now I’m gonna let Emmet say hello to everyone.
Emmet Morgan (02:33)
Hey, how’s it going, everybody? My name is Emmet Morgan. I’m a marketing director over at Rosano Capital in Los Angeles, California. I am new to real estate and have been getting into the business for about the last couple of years. But it’s been great to kind of see what it’s like to be a marketing partner for such an advantageous capital firm that has so many different umbrellas and avenues that it can go down to.
But yeah, Joseph, thank you so much for having me.
Joseph Crooms (03:01)
All right. So you were talking about real estate. What are you interested in doing with real estate now that you sort of got your foot in the door?
Emmet Morgan (03:13)
Yeah, so right now I am a commercial real estate broker, so I am here to advertise any buildings or kind of in our—in our portfolio that we’re able to kind of get out into the public. So one thing about the kind of state of Los Angeles, and especially going through working on these—on these deals,
is finding somebody that is kind of reliable and, most importantly, respectful with—with your time as the company moves forward. I’ve had many, many deals go through, I’ve had many deals not go through, and I’ve learned a lot from what it’s like to kind of deal with people in this world of—of real estate, and especially commercial real estate. It’s been a difficult journey, but if it was easy,
everyone would be—would be doing it. So I’m glad I took the initiative a couple of years back and decided to be a broker. But also, I’m very, very happy to be on the marketing side, because it definitely, you wouldn’t think it would go hand in hand, but it definitely goes hand in hand when you think about selling such a—a needed and a big price tag, commercial properties, obviously, in the last year, it’s—
last twenty years have been struggling and going down. I’m sure we can talk about that a little bit later, but as a result of that, it’s become a very, very hungry fish tank. That’s the best way to put it. Okay.
Joseph Crooms (04:42)
Emmet, how long have you been in this particular job position that you’re holding now with them?
Emmet Morgan (04:48)
Yeah, I’ve been here for within the last year. It’s been a great opportunity. I—I’m originally from Chicago. I studied my double major in Wisconsin, so I’ve definitely come a long way, around two thousand miles, but it’s definitely worth it. I definitely encourage anyone to go out there and open up those doors and see how far you can get through.
Joseph Crooms (05:12)
So Emmet, what is—what is it that you want us to know about your company right now?
Emmet Morgan (06:06)
So, what I really want everyone to know about Rosano Property Management is that we’ve been in the business for the last 30 years. We’ve managed over a hundred properties here in Los Angeles and Southern California. We always go about our business with integrity, respect, and, most importantly, authenticity. That’s kind of our main way of doing business with—with people. It’s worked out really well so far.
We’ve gone through, you know, a recession, we’ve gone through COVID, and it really kind of tells our clients that we’re there thick and thin. That’s really the best way to do your business is to be relentless and always be trying to conquer the next—the next fire that’s being lit your way.
Joseph Crooms (06:59)
Emmet, you’re a young man, and so I know that you bring a unique perspective. Why do you think your company hired you?
Emmet Morgan (07:08)
I think my company hired me because I’ve always been a leader growing up. I started my own company. I’m very, very, very—I don’t back down easily. I would say not annoying, but like I said before, relentless. I definitely don’t stop. I always kind of go on to the next play.
I kind of get that from my—my history of playing sports in my youth. I played for the NCAA here as well. I also play for a semi—semi-professional league here in Los Angeles. So it’s about the concentration and really the dedication you have to what you want to accomplish. And something I always tell myself is that, you know, what’s—what’s for you won’t pass you,
and it’s definitely a great motto that I’ve taken out through life. It’s really helped me kind of, if something doesn’t go my way, it really helps me move forward and look on to the next thing. And that’s—that’s definitely the mentality that got me into a city that I’ve always wanted to live in, and passionate about something that I studied for for a long time. And I’m,
using my marketing skills from my—my own company I started in college, and using them to help other people, especially the owner here.
Joseph Crooms (08:23)
Okay. So before I ask you the next question, let me see. You were in base—who was in the baseball?
Emmet Morgan (08:29)
It was actually the other spring sport. I played lacrosse growing up. It was very popular in Chicago. So it was—it was—it was definitely very fun. So I met a lot of my friends growing up here as well.
Joseph Crooms (08:42)
What is the company, Emmet, that you started in college?
Emmet Morgan (08:46)
So I started a company called Claremore Media. It was—it was kind of inspired by the, you know, digital age kind of digressing and more transitioning into the AI age. There’s a lot of people that, you know, that didn’t go to college and didn’t get the education with multimedia and marketing that kind of start up agencies that don’t really help other people.
And I saw this as kind of like a problem, especially with AI making it so easy for anyone to, you know, start a company or, try to get results money-wise. But when it comes to profits, I didn’t really see a lot of these other companies or these other young men that really maybe didn’t have the,
the facilities to kind of see ahead a little bit in the future. I saw that, and I thought I could do a good job. So I started off. I talked to some of my professors, I had a lot of my capstone for ending my college career and graduating was kind of building up this company and seeing how—how, you know, how well it could perform in the real world. Like I said before,
I like to do all of my business honestly and authentically. That’s my motto. And, you know, it—there’s tons of reasons why I went into marketing, but the first reason was my best friend growing up, his family has a catering company. So they do, you know, graduations, they do weddings, and I started doing advertising for them.
I put together a plan. I would shoot for around one to three days within the year and then set up some brand awareness and advertising online to get them the high-ticket sales that they needed. And ever since then, I’ve just kind of kept progressing. I did studios, I did art studios, I went into the clothing brands,
fashion industry. But here I am, landed in the real estate industry, and I’m very grateful for that to happen. So it’s been—it’s been a long journey, but now that I’m kind of the director here of marketing, I can put all of this information that I’ve gathered throughout the years of me doing this and really try to see how I can help, without anybody
wasting their money on some person—the losses that got, unfortunately, have to fail and rebuild again. So that’s definitely one of my top priorities.
Joseph Crooms (11:16)
Let’s talk about your company now. What are some of the priorities that you notice that you think you can help the most? How have you positioned the company with your new marketing director position? What’s the priority first?
Emmet Morgan (11:33)
So our number one priority is to really refocus on these families with older people that are kind of at the end of their lives that don’t want to manage their property anymore. They don’t want to hear from the tenants, they don’t wanna really get into the nitty-gritty of why their tenants are taking up most of their—most of their day. So one example is I went into a store,
I—I love to make connections with people no matter where I am. And the owner of the store, she was a really, really kind lady. I ended up coming back, and her father was there and he owned a lot of properties and he was on the older side, around 70, 80 years old. And we were—we talked for a while, and he was saying that maybe his kids will do it,
but usually when they say that they want to hand it off to their kids, really the kids don’t really want to do the property management part of it. So they end up just hiring another property manager kind of company to take on that burden. So it’s kind of a win-win. They still get to pass on the ownership to their kids and their kids get to keep up with their own career and kind of reap the benefits of having
somebody else to do all the work they don’t want to.
Joseph Crooms (12:45)
Okay, so that’s the priority. What else have you done? What else do you have in your mind since you’ve been with the company? You can see what the problems are, you can see what the successes are. How are you going to make them come together?
Emmet Morgan (13:00)
Yeah, so one of the big problems that we have is just getting our portfolio out there. A lot of people—we do have a database where we call our recent clients or anyone that’s interested in buying in the area, and we definitely have been getting some leads that way, but there is a way to find these qualified leads without spending so much time or money on specific areas of the business,
and that is where kind of the new age of AI kind of comes in. And this is something I’ve talked to my mentor about, he’s teaching another—one of my professors, he’s even teaching another unit about AI marketing. And unfortunately, I’m not the biggest fan of AI, but the reality is if you—if you don’t use a tool that everybody else is using, you’re gonna be left in the dust.
So one strategy also is advertising on OpenAI for specifically property management. But there is a way to kind of reach these people that are using this new—this new search engine as their go-to way of finding out information, and it’s something we can’t look past.
Joseph Crooms (14:09)
We know that you—you’re dealing with AI. What’s your next real goal? What do you plan on scaling on next?
Emmet Morgan (14:16)
Our next real goal is gonna be our property management business. So we wanna try and find people, a good way to reach out to people and find qualified leads online without giving an arm and a leg to Google and having them kind of hold our hand through making a subpar advertisement at best.
Joseph Crooms (14:33)
What is your book about? Do you already have a property management business, or do—and do you have a construction business as well?
Emmet Morgan (14:41)
Yes, yes. So our company, Rosano Capital, they have kind of three main umbrella companies: that is the construction management, property management, and the brokerage.
Joseph Crooms (14:52)
Okay. So on the brokerage side, so you have investors looking for property. Is that true?
Emmet Morgan (14:57)
Yeah, we have investors looking for property. We also are selling properties here as well. We have a lot in the—in the Hollywood area with a great price. It’s just getting people to purchase or take a chance even on a property, ’cause that’s what real estate is. You’re gonna be taking chances on anything. You never know what’s the state of the world. It’s kind of like getting someone to jump into cold
water, so it’s definitely a difficult task. But like again, like I said, we like to do our business very authentically. So something like an offer that we are giving out is definitely gonna be the best offer on the market.
Joseph Crooms (15:44)
Emmet, are you marketing for all three businesses?
Emmet Morgan (16:29)
Just property management right now. Right now, our construction management company is definitely busy with our current properties right now. So there’s really no need for us to be doing a lot of construction management advertising. And then the brokerage side, we have
some agents that are, or assistants, that are definitely working the phones every day trying to find investors. But that’s kind of our next steps: to find definitely a better way to find qualified leads for these—these properties that we’re trying to sell and hold.
Joseph Crooms (17:03)
What are—what marketing channels are you currently using?
Emmet Morgan (17:06)
So,
right now we have a lot of marketing channels. And now we’re on LoopNet, I know we do Zillow for apartment buildings, we do Facebook Marketplace, we do Craigslist—pretty much anything that you can think of, we’re on that sort of level. But when it comes to really getting these leads,
our best case is to be calling these people that we’ve already formed relationships with within the last twenty years since we’ve started, and seeing if they’re interested in expanding their portfolio.
Joseph Crooms (17:41)
First of all, let me say this about you, Emmet.
You’re dynamic, you’re aggressive, and you’re progressive, in that order. And the information that you just shared—and share it with them.
Emmet Morgan (17:51)
Okay. Yeah, it was—it was really great to meet you, Joseph. I really appreciate you giving me the opportunity to come on here and kind of share my experiences so far in this—in this journey. But I’m very excited for the future and I’d love to see how we can—how we can work together.
Joseph Crooms (18:08)
Sounds good.