Have you ever wondered about the story behind Real Estate Gladiators?
Where did we come from? How did we get started?
We thought this might be a good opportunity to share our branding story with you. We have been serving owners and investors and tenants and properties for so long, that sometimes we forget about how far we’ve come.
This is Tracey Minick. I’m a co-founder with Real Estate Gladiators. As you may know, we’re a preferred property management company in Washington State. We are primarily serving King County and Snohomish County,
Real Estate Gladiators as a company really originated about eight years before we even started using the name Real Estate Gladiators.
Are you wondering what that story’s about?
Good, because I’m going to share it today.
Managing Rental Properties in King and Snohomish During a Recession
During the economic downturn in 2007 and 2008, I was working in property management by myself. I had my own professional career, but somehow, I had become known as the “property management girl.” Now, I guess, I’m more known as the “property management woman” or the “property management lady.”
As part of the work I was doing, we had affiliated ourselves with these amazing nonprofit organizations where investors could come together to build a team. Once they were able to assemble a team, they were buying homes and real estate. And then, the market crashed.
The intention of these investors had been to buy homes, flip homes, and then sell those homes.
But when the market crashed, they could not sell those properties.
So, I became quickly inundated with opportunities to provide property management services for all of these properties that had been acquired and now were being rented rather than sold.
At the time, I was feeling completely overwhelmed.
- I had no processes or systems to lease and manage and maintain these homes.
- I had no technology to automate anything.
One day, I was talking with my long-time business partner, with whom I had been working on our own real estate investment ventures, and I told her I felt like I was drowning. I loved the work I was doing; property management was always a great fit for me, but I also felt like I was drowning.
So I told my business partner how I felt, and then I told Katherine Swanberg, my long-term partner, the same thing at the same time. Katherine was a mortgage broker at this time. And, when the economy crashed during those years, she had a bunch of free time. There was not a lot of work for a mortgage broker. So, she said she could help.
We joined together and formed our company.
Early Attempts at Branding a Property Management Company
We didn’t do such a good job of branding our company at first. We did not start out as Real Estate Gladiators.
Why? Because we thought we’d start our company by naming it with the letter A. This isn’t so uncommon; we picked that strategy because when people went looking in the yellow pages or wherever they were looking for a property manager, we’d always be at the top of the list.
It was naïve thinking, but we didn’t know then what we know now.
Our business goal was pretty impressive. We wanted to provide property management services to King and Snohomish County landlords who were at a level of service that we would personally expect from a property manager.
Both Katherine and I had owned our own real estate investments, and before we even started the business, we learned quickly that things were not being done by property managers the way we wanted them done.
This was another good reason to come together with the goal of providing the type of property management that would meet our standards. We wanted to work with and for other investors who also had high standards.
Another goal we had was ambitious: we wanted to double our book of business every year.
As we approached 2015, we realized there was no way we could double our capacity every year as we had initially hoped.
So, we did the next best thing. We bought an existing property management company. We acquired a local property management company that effectively more than doubled our business. This was a management company that primarily served the Snohomish County area.
We decided we needed a brand that represented us.
The Arrival of Real Estate Gladiators
We knew we needed a brand that transcended both the counties that we served.
Our first step was to partner with a professional branding expert. We had the most fun with it, and we found that it was an engaging and meaningful process.
- We answered all of these questions that the branding expert proposed about who we are and what our company was trying to be.
- We chose colors that represented us the best.
- We even created an avatar of our ideal client.
This part took a lot of work. We had to think about it: who is the perfect client or the ideal client for us?
We actually created a visual of who that person looked like. It was helpful because having this image in our minds allowed us to focus our marketing to that type of individual. It gave us an actual person we were trying to reach.
Here we are in the northwest, close to the Seattle area, so we quickly realized who our ideal clients would be. It was all of those real estate investors working at Boeing, Microsoft, or Amazon who owned multiple properties.
Once we knew that, we continued working through branding exercises and experiences to find a name for ourselves. What came from this is that we kept envisioning ourselves as a team that was fighting off lions.
Those lions represent all the problems that come with being a landlord.
And we kept seeing ourselves standing there, between the lions and the house or the lions and the owner, and slaying our swords.
Then we realized what this vision actually was: we were in a gladiator arena.
So, Real Estate Gladiators?
We treated it as kind of a joke at first. It felt so far out there. But then we realized we could elevate this as a brand. So, it stuck.
Core Values of The Real Estate Gladiators
The core values of Real Estate Gladiators help us to manage properties. These core values are:
- Technology
- Transparency
- Communication
- Efficiency
I share these core values with owners all the time. I also talk about them with tenants and vendors and the staff working with us. If we have those four foundational corners, and they’re solid, it solves a great deal of problems.
If we have the technology to advertise, take online applications, and receive maintenance requests, we’re doing good work. If we can communicate the data that we have or the needs that tenants have to vendors, we can have an easier time managing timelines and expectations.
All of his is put together efficiently and in a format where there’s transparency.
It solves a lot of problems.
We strive to have high technology capabilities even though we’re not a tech company.
We like to say that we’re high-tech with high touch. If we solve for all four of those values on the back end, it allows us to have time for that high touch, and to give tenants, owners, and vendors the time they need from us on real problems.
We problem-solve and fight for for the properties we represent. We proudly serve King & Snohomish County, including Issaquah, Sammamish, Kirkland, Monroe, Everett, Lake Stevens, Renton, Duvall, Bellevue, Bothell, Snohomish, Sultan, and beyond.
At Real Estate Gladiators, our journey has been shaped by experience, resilience, and a commitment to excellence. What started as a challenge quickly became an opportunity—to build a property management company that not only meets industry standards but raises the bar for landlords, tenants, and investors alike.
Our name isn’t just branding—it’s a promise. We stand on the front lines, fighting for property owners, protecting investments, and solving problems before they become disasters. With our foundation of technology, transparency, communication, and efficiency, we ensure our clients receive the service and protection they deserve.
📢 Whether you’re a seasoned investor or a first-time landlord, we’re here to help you navigate the world of property management with confidence. Let’s build success together.
We proudly serve property owners throughout King and Snohomish Counties, providing expert property management solutions in Issaquah, Sammamish, Kirkland, Monroe, Everett, Lake Stevens, Renton, Duvall, Bellevue, Bothell, Snohomish, and Sultan. Our deep understanding of these local markets allows us to effectively manage rental properties, ensuring compliance with Washington’s evolving regulations while maximizing returns for our clients.
📞 Ready to experience property management done right? Contact Real Estate Gladiators today!
