Inside Imagine Homes: Making Rentals Feel Like Home

At Imagine Homes Management, our growth with single family rentals has always been driven by excellence, passion, technology—and the amazing people who make up our team. We sat down with our Director of Leasing, Allison Aamot, to talk a bit about why we do what we do.

To be honest, I didn’t know anything about real estate or renting houses when I first joined Imagine Homes Management.

Adam Pry [IHM Head of Acquisitions] was a neighbor of mine, who knew that I was between jobs and asked me if I would be interested in working for his new company. Since my previous background was in retail, joining the company was something completely different and outside of my comfort zone. But I was ready for the change.

What Imagine Homes was doing sounded fascinating to me. The idea of taking a home that possibly was not in good condition, or outdated and needed to be updated, and then transforming it into a more modern, high quality property that could then be rented out to people, is very exciting.

That mission to give folks an option to live in a home with a yard as opposed to an apartment—that really appealed to me.

When we purchase a house in a neighborhood, it’s with the intention of making it a home for somebody.

There’s a complete renovation that goes on to make sure that it is up-to-date, safe, and more modern than perhaps it was at the time that we bought it. In doing so, we’re trying to build a home that somebody can be proud of and that they can be comfortable in.

A lot of thought is put into which neighbourhoods our homes are in. In return, that attracts people for a variety of reasons. These neighborhoods are places that people want to live in.

Residents who move into one of our homes become part of a community. If they’re raising a family, their children can attend local schools. If it’s a job that’s brought them to our neighborhoods, they have the option to either work from home (which is more commonplace these days) or to commute to work in a reasonable amount of time.

People rent for a variety of reasons. Maybe they have just sold their house, or they’re going through a transition in their life, and are just renting until they find someplace more permanent.

As someone who has been renting for 20 years, I’m personally not ready to commit to the responsibility of owning my own home and being responsible for the upkeep. Others feel the same way. There are some benefits to renting: some people might not be ready to put down roots in a certain place; or they might want the flexibility to be able to move for a job or for a new opportunity, or to be closer to family.

That said, it’s always our hope that our residents stay for the long term. We do have renters that have been in our homes since they first became available. But whether their time frame is one year or 10, we hope that the people who choose to live in an Imagine Home will stay for as long as they want.

I’ve been with Imagine Homes Management for three years now, and it’s been a very exciting time with the company to see all the changes that have happened.

As a company, we started small, but we’ve always had big dreams and a clear path for growth. The most exciting milestones we’ve had are when we open a new market, which fortunately, has happened more than once.

It’s a great feeling when we buy our first home in an area and when we have our first house available to rent after the renovations are complete, that always feels like another step forward. And of course, the final piece of that is once we get our first resident moving in and we feel like we are firmly established in a new city.

We’ve gone through that in Minneapolis and in Pittsburgh, and we’re looking forward to doing that in St. Louis in the next couple months.

What I enjoy the most about my work are the people. I’ve been very fortunate to have such wonderful people to work with.

I am currently involved in a little bit of the operations and property management, while also overseeing the leasing, marketing, and processing of applications. Working with the team, there’s a lot of energy. A spirit of entrepreneurship and growth that is part of our daily life.

It’s also been a joy to see how our vendors, suppliers, contractors, and other partner companies have been able to grow as we grow. We are always on the lookout to find suppliers and contractors who can be part of our team of reliable partners who produce the results that we want, at a competitive price, and who are happy to work with us.

That we have managed to do that is a huge part of our success. Building relationships and finding the right people to contribute to our growth, and who help fulfill our vision.

At the heart of our work, we want to provide a comfortable environment for people to live in.

Every time I walk through a house that is ready to rent. I just look around in awe at a space that I would want to live in. These are not new homes and you can tell they have character and they have history. They are not in perfect condition—but they are spaces that are ready for someone to move into and make it their own.

Interested in working with us? Let’s talk.

Everyone at Imagine Homes Management answers to the same calling: excellence. We love investing in neighborhoods and we are out to raise the bar in the real estate universe. Talk to our team—we’d love to work with you.

TALK TO US