Published on March 11th, 2014
By Alexis Hammond

You’ve seen it before. The advertisement with the unnamed person, sitting on their laptop gazing out over a beautiful beach. The headline might read: “The freedom to work from anywhere.”

One young man took these images to heart, and made the decision early on that he would be one of those “beach executives”. At 21 years old, he set his goal to be retired by 27. His name was Brenton Hayden, CEO of Renters Warehouse.

In 2007 Renters Warehouse started with a small base of 30 customers, managed with a homegrown spreadsheet system. They quickly realized they had a growing business on their hands, with seemingly unlimited potential. And with his self-imposed retirement deadline looming, Hayden knew they needed a solution that could streamline their processes and support rapid growth. “We began seeking a system that was sophisticated enough to provide the functionality we needed, but also simple enough to support many users,” noted Hayden.

Enter AppFolio Property Manager—in 2008 they made the switch from the time-consuming manual spreadsheets to AppFolio’s web-based software. “We now have about 3,800 customers under management in Minnesota, with 7,000 across the country if we include the 10 franchises we’ve sold. Seven of them are already up and running with AppFolio Property Manager systems in place,” said Hayden.

One of the many features that made a huge difference for the business was the ability to have tenants pay their rent online. Before implementing AppFolio Property Manager, the company was wasting time and money dealing with bad checks and late rent. Now, 95 percent of Renters Warehouse tenants pay online through the AppFolio Property Manager ACH feature, and the company processes over $3 million per month in rent through the online payment system.

Hayden’s vision had come to fruition. His ambition, dedication to transparency, strategic approach to hiring and training coupled with a powerful software solution has transformed Renters Warehouse in to one of the largest and most awarded property management companies in the U.S.

These results showcase the power of ambition and how implementing the right tools for the job can have a huge impact on your business. And in case you were wondering, Hayden does still work, but he now has the luxury to choose when and where. With a little help from AppFolio’s web-based software, he now quite literally can be working from anywhere—even the beach.