Peter Jaques on Connecting People, Managing Properties, and Lessons from Startup Life

What happens when a commercial broker spends years inside venture-backed startups and then brings all of it back to property management? Peter Jaques has worn a lot of hats. He got his start in commercial real estate through a cold call to a broker named Doug Seidenberg, found his footing in retail and restaurant leasing, and then spent seven and a half years running a family office with over a million square feet of real estate. From there, he moved into technology, working with farmland marketplace Farmland Finder, single-family sale-leaseback company Easy Knock, and farmland brokerage platform Tillable before returning to where he began. Today, Peter is a managing member of The Real Estate Department alongside his wife Megan, who runs day-to-day operations. Their focus is property management and development grants, and Megan has become a go-to resource for identifying public funding that helps investors improve both their properties and their returns. Together, they manage a mix of shopping centers, multifamily, and single-family properties across the Des Moines market. Peter shares what he learned watching venture capital money move through early-stage companies, why the social signaling inside startups often masks deeper problems, and how a FedEx truck crash once led to a house being sold twice. He also talks about why thoughtful property management built around dignity creates better outcomes for owners and tenants alike, and what three metrics he would track if he were stranded on an island for a year. 🧠 Peter Jaques' Top 5 Takeaways: • How years in venture-backed tech taught him what good data looks like and why trust drives investor decisions • Why property management built around dignity produces better long-term returns for owners • How Megan Jaques turned a cash-flow-negative 50-unit project into a property generating five to ten thousand dollars monthly with a six-figure reserve • Why the real estate brokerage and technology spaces have fundamentally different economic structures • How tracking a maintenance-to-receipts ratio helps measure both financial performance and quality of stewardship 👤 About Peter Jaques: Peter Jaques is a Des Moines-based connector, commercial real estate professional, and managing member of The Real Estate Department, a property management and development company he runs with his wife and business partner, Megan. With a background spanning retail leasing, family office management, farmland technology, and single-family sale-leasebacks, Peter brings an unusually broad perspective to every conversation about real estate and business. Contact Info: Instagram: @DSMCRE X | @DSMJQUES Facebook: Peter Jaques | Peter Jaques - Commercial & Residential Professional Email: [email protected] Learn More: www.littleguyloans.com/learnmore