Real Property Management : Richard and Stacey Zeba on Their First Year With Real Property Management

This testimonial features Richard Zeba and Stacey Zeba, owners of Real Property Management Abound in the Tulsa metro area. The pair are in their first year of operation and use the video to walk through how an unexpected post-Navy retirement landed them in property management — and why the franchise route fit a recently retired military operator. Richard retired from the Navy roughly two years before the recording, and the timeline he describes is unusually compressed. He and Stacey had been planning to remain in the DC area, but life shifted them to Tulsa about a month before retirement. From there they began evaluating franchise options, ruling out brick-and-mortar formats and any business that required them to be in an office every day. The decision to franchise rather than build something independent came down to one feature: a playbook. Richard frames it as the right structure for a military-trained operator — the system is in place, the guidance is in place, and his job is to follow it. Operationally, the model fits the lifestyle they wanted: the business runs from a laptop and a cell phone, which gives them latitude to work late or stop at five depending on the day. Stacey emphasizes the Neighborly support layer. She calls out the training as the most valuable tool they have received and notes that every franchise owner they have met has been willing to bend over backwards to help. Looking back over the first year, the pair describe themselves as grateful for taking what initially felt like a scary step into franchise ownership.