Deanna Zubrickas

Alex Reeves: Hey everyone, thanks for joining us on this episode of Invest Smart with Steadily. We've got Deanna Zubis on from Relay, and we're going to be discussing the unique banking needs that small and medium-sized businesses have and how Relay helps them out. Deanna, I want to start off by thanking you for joining us on this episode. I'd love to get a quick background — I did a little bit of LinkedIn searching before this interview and noticed that you've worked your way up at this company since early on in 2021, from a junior account executive to account executive to senior account manager. I'm really curious, in that time, I'd love a background on Relay but also how you've been able to better serve your customers over that time.

Deanna Zubis: Well, thank you so much for having me on today, Scott, and I always appreciate a good LinkedIn sleuthing of my profile. I started at Relay in March of 2021. My background previous to that was in retail management, so obviously very different from the online banking world. When I first connected with Relay, it was really the people that stood behind the brand and the product itself that connected me to Relay's mission. My role when I first started was working specifically with accountants and bookkeepers, showing them how to use Relay and how to onboard their clients. My role has kind of evolved — I speak to a lot of business owners directly now across many spaces, and real estate investing is definitely a big one.

What's really interesting about Relay is the way we're structured: we're considered a neobank, meaning we're a tech company built on top of a partner bank. I always think that's worth explaining because typically when you head to your financial institution, your feedback goes in one ear and out the other — you're really just dollars and cents to that bank. At Relay, because we're built by a tech company, we really prioritize customer feedback and can implement changes as soon as we need to, whether it's different features or constructive criticism. That's what's really helped us serve clients and grow as a business, and what I got to witness over the last three and a half years. Five years ago, did I think I'd be working in small business banking? No. But I absolutely love it. It's great to see the growth of small businesses — whether you're talking to a business owner who just got their EIN and their registration yesterday, or someone who's been investing for ten years with 70 properties in their portfolio. We can still make an impact along the way, which has been really special to see.

Alex: That's awesome. Segueing from that — you said you help a lot of different types of customers. We're super focused on the landlord side, so I'm curious: how do you guys have a unique approach when helping out landlord investors, especially those mom-and-pop landlords?

Deanna: What I think is really unique about landlords in the real estate industry is that you are wearing multiple hats at once. This usually doesn't start out as your full-time job — you might have multiple properties and a full-time gig and you're doing landlording on the side. So the ability to bank from wherever you are, whenever you need to, whether it's before or after your regular hours or on the weekends, is really important to landlords and people in the real estate community. That's been a really big help for that community.

But also the ability to really understand your finances. Businesses that come onto Relay at a basic level get 20 different checking accounts per entity. So many people can be running multiple properties under one EIN, and the ability to have multiple checking accounts separated per property — whether you're managing it, flipping it, or whatever you may be doing — is very helpful because you are not looking at one lump sum for multiple projects, which is confusing for anybody, even if it's just one property. We've really seen people take over their business, understand more clearly what's going on, and make better financial decisions by being able to separate their funds.

Alex: Totally. We oftentimes find we end up working with a lot of what they call "accidental landlords." They might have bought a property to live in at first, and then when they're looking at moving into a larger house — life happens, their family grows, they move cities — as they're upgrading their houses they think, "Okay, instead of selling the last house, maybe I'll hold on to it as a rental." And often those landlords find it's not as simple as they thought. It's a side investment, not their main line of business, so a lot of the time they need assistance in categories they're not used to dealing with. I'm in sales and business development, so I might not be as good at bookkeeping as some other people. Having someone to help walk hand-in-hand on the banking side to support that part of the business is really helpful. So maybe transitioning a little on that — how do you help those landlords who are looking to scale their portfolio?

Deanna: It's a great question. On Relay, if you own multiple entities, you can actually register all of those entities under the same set of login credentials. You're logging in once and basically unlocking a dashboard — if you have five different properties, maybe including a holding company or two, you can access them all on one page, switch between them, transfer funds between them. Whatever needs to happen, it can happen all in one space, but it's still separated. Your bookkeeper or tax accountant will love you for that.

And even if you have multiple properties under one EIN, you can still separate them within those 20 checking accounts. How you structure that will depend on the size of your portfolio, but the point is you have options for both structures. As you're growing, you might have different property managers, cleaners, or other people helping in your business, and you have the ability to add people to your account under specific permission levels — so you're never giving them the keys to everything. You can really restrict access if you want, but it allows you to collaborate with those people. Whether they're making purchases for you, you can separate that into a separate account, require receipts, and really have a better understanding of what's happening in your business, especially once you're not the only person working in it anymore. I think everybody comes to that point where it becomes too much for one person.

I like how you use the term "accidental landlords" — I always say "I fell into business." It's a similar idea. We all need help, and I think Relay is a really great tool even if you're just doing it on your own, because it's a helping hand along the way. And once you're ready to get help, you can invite those people to collaborate with you on Relay too, which I think is important.

Alex: Yeah, the reality is, more properties, more problems. You really need the assistance of people who are experts in that space. So, Deanna, do you have a specific success story about Relay working with a real estate investor or landlord?

Deanna: Yeah! I work with a female-based real estate community that I do presentations for often, and a lot of these are first-time buyers, whether they're doing wholesale or flipping. I'm very familiar with the industry. I met one specific investor about two years ago — it was their very first property. They were getting their EIN, getting their state registration, and it was all very new, all while holding down a regular job and supporting their family. We introduced Relay to her and she absolutely loved it and thought, "Hey, if I can make this first one work, I think I can add on more. I didn't even know banks were capable of helping me with this."

About two and a half years down the road, she's been a Relay customer and I think she has about six or seven properties in total, all on Relay. I connected with her again recently and she said there's no way she would have been able to do this at her local institution or a bigger bank, because they often don't understand the business needs of a real estate investor or a landlord. Speaking to a company that gets it makes her feel more supported in her journey. It's been pretty incredible to watch.

Alex: That's awesome. That's a little bit of what Steadily tries to do in the insurance space — educating and consulting, and being able to let seasoned investors adjust to what they're looking for in terms of pricing, coverage levels, and deductibles to match their own risk portfolio. And for the accidental landlords or newer landlords — call in if you have a question. We have seasoned insurance agents who can help walk through different scenarios. We don't work home, auto, and all these other sides of the insurance industry, so we're not upselling. Our agents spend all day every day talking to similar types of real estate investors. Pick their brain if you have questions on coverages.

If you've got a DSCR loan and you're trying to make sure it stays in the green and insurance is a factor, have that conversation from a risk perspective. If you need to get the premium down to keep that DSCR in the green, have that conversation with the agent. You need quality coverage, but if there's a way to potentially juice up a little bit of return on investment, a Steadily agent can have that conversation more readily than a traditional insurance agent, who's really thinking from the insurance angle and not necessarily the real estate investing side — where it's got to be green to move forward on deals.

Deanna: That's really nice, and there are a lot of parallels between Steadily and Relay on that front. You want a partner — whether it's insurance, a tech platform, or banking — who is going to be flexible with you and meet you where you're at on your journey. Especially in real estate investing and landlording, it's very personal, because it can start out as your first home or first property and you put everything into that. Seeing that energy mirrored back with the partners you work with builds trust moving forward and helps you want to come back to those people for additional deals in the future.

Alex: All right, Deanna, I've got one more question. Maybe the only thing more exciting than insurance is taxes, in my opinion. How do you help those landlords or real estate investors on the tax side of the business?

Deanna: I love this question. No matter where you are in your journey — whether you're brand new or very seasoned — everybody has to deal with taxes, whether personal or business. Often when business owners open accounts with Relay, they look at 20 accounts and think, "What am I going to do with those? How do I even start?" My very first recommendation every time: open a separate account just for taxes. That's the first time using multiple accounts, and everybody understands that language. Whether you know exactly what you owe or you're still building a tax strategy, at least being able to separate funds for that one thing that you know is coming every single year — even multiple times a year — everybody gets that part.

We even have an option on Relay to automate transfers. You can automate, say, 15% of your monthly funds into the tax account so you don't even have to think about it — no alarm on your phone every Friday reminding you to transfer funds. You can automate that, which is really important because we're busy, especially as you add more properties. It's nice to have that set up.

We also have a huge database of accountants and bookkeepers that we work with at Relay who are tax professionals. If you're at the stage where you want to hire help, you can look through our advisor directory. And you can give your advisors direct access to Relay so they can get the info they need for your taxes without having to bother you for it. No more sharing personal passwords or waiting on monthly statements. April 15th, guys — every year. Be ready for it.

Alex: It's my dad's birthday — it's a great day. He got it big. Well, Deanna, thank you so much for joining us today. It's clear that Relay is really changing the game for real estate investors. If you're a landlord or investor looking to simplify your financial management, Relay is definitely a partner worth considering. Be sure to check out their website for more info, and don't forget to subscribe to Invest Smart with Steadily for more insights and real estate investing tips. Deanna, again, thank you so much for joining today's episode.