Marko Vrzic is the founder of Vrzic.com, pronounced “ver-zich”, is one of the leading real estate investment companies in the United States.
The company started from humble beginnings; however, it was their unique approach to outbid all the odds regardless of any recession systematically.
Within 15 minutes sit down, Marko was able to break down his magical investment approach and answer our questions about the business, its unique take on the market and how entrepreneurialism has shaped its services.
Marko, how did Vrzic begin and what were some of the business’ early key challenges?
It came from the need to allocate and diversify our profits (from the single-family redevelopment projects) to a recession-proof cash-flow structure.
One of the key challenges was how effective our marketing campaigns were. My team and I created 36 original marketing campaigns per month to generate leads, and the difficulty was having to give these leads to other developers as there is only so much redevelopment projects we can do ourselves.
What would be your number one pro tip in this line of work?
Never let the contractor buy the material. This way, they can focus on hours of labour versus their logistical abilities. Ideally, you can hire a “Product Associate” to handle all the SKU purchases. We even have a blueprint of 8 different layouts for all the different rooms from paint colour down to the screws.
How do you consistently encourage high standards of performance?
The way I built the company was for every single person to work in a meritocratic environment. Meritocracy requires brutal honesty and an obsessive passion for your craft. This brutal honesty and criticism from others make for the employer to reach for his / her perfection in their craft each and every single time.
Do you think it is important to have a dynamic strategy, or should your strategy remain relatively constant?
There is no other way but for it to be a dynamic strategy as it requires the needs of thousands of renters, contractors, management team, as well as the assets’ demands, which is and requires systematic pampering and beautifying.
What do you think are the most important skills required to be an effective entrepreneur?
Much like war, skills can only be demonstrated and acquired on the battlefield. Unfortunately, our educational system does not reward failures as motivated skills in learning from them. I mainly believe that the most valuable skill is a person who grows a strong backbone from his or her shortcomings.
Where do you think your business will be in the next few years?
Our yearly objective is to always double up on everything we do, whether it’s the phone calls, the paperwork, the building units that we purchase, it has been an ongoing tradition in our family that has separated us drastically from others.
Cameron Dickerson is a seasoned journalist with nearly 10 years experience. While studying journalism at the University of Missouri, Cameron found a passion for finding engaging stories. As a contributor to Kev’s Best, Cameron mostly covers state and national developments.