Rental Center: Built by the community, built for the community

By Clair D. Urbain

For more than four decades, Home Rental Center and Sales Company has grown

That’s Adam, Roger and Noah Vajgrt at Home Rental Center and Sales in Marshalltown, Iowa.

The company remains disciplined about replacing equipment before maintenance costs outweigh reliability. It maintains waiting lists of customers eager to purchase its well-maintained used machines.

“If customers ask for something often enough, there’s probably a business opportunity behind it,” says Roger Vajgrt, owner and founder of Home Rental Center and Sales in Marshalltown, Iowa.

Based on community demand, Home Rental Center and Sales maintains an inventory of party and event equipment. It accounts for about 15 percent of the total rental business.

alongside Marshalltown, Iowa. What began almost by accident has evolved into one of central Iowa’s most diversified rental operations—an 11-acre campus with three acres under roof, hundreds of storage units, an expansive equipment fleet, propane services, party rentals and a reputation built on solving problems before customers even know they have one.

Ask owner Roger Vajgrt (pronounced Vogert) how the business became what it is today, and he won’t point to a strategic business plan or corporate growth model. Instead, he’ll tell a story that starts with family, opportunity and paying attention to what the community needs.

“My dad was in the underground construction business,” Vajgrt recalls. During the winter months, when construction slowed, his father began buying and remodeling houses to keep busy. That side business naturally evolved into a home improvement company, laying the foundation for what would eventually become Home Rental Center.

The rental business itself arrived unexpectedly. While Vajgrt was still in high school, helping around the family business on weekends, a customer stopped by looking for an insulation machine after another rental source had failed him. “He asked if he could rent ours,” Vajgrt says. “We said sure.” That simple request sparked an idea.

Soon afterward, another opportunity rolled into the parking lot – literally. A traveling sign salesman offered portable marquee signs. Instead of buying just one, Vajgrt bought all six. Within a year, he had grown the fleet to 48 signs, delivering them throughout central Iowa while still in high school.

Those early experiences taught him a lesson that would shape the company’s future: if customers ask for something often enough, there’s probably a business opportunity behind it. That philosophy accelerated in the early 1980s when Marshalltown’s Taylor Rental store closed during the recession. Vajgrt and his father attended the auction intending only to purchase a few useful items. Instead, they unknowingly bought the beginnings of a rental company.

A fellow attendee approached them and remarked, “I hear you guys are starting a rental store.” Roger and his father exchanged puzzled looks. “We looked at each other and thought...I guess we are.”

Starting in a modest 30-by-50-foot building, Home Rental Center steadily grew as customer needs expanded. Today, the business bears little resemblance to its humble beginnings.

Its equipment fleet includes excavators, skid loaders, trenchers, aerial lifts, telehandlers, concrete buggies, lawn and garden equipment, landscaping tools and specialized contractor equipment. It serves professional contractors, commercial customers, homeowners and event organizers alike.

About 60 percent of the business comes from contractors and commercial customers, roughly 25 percent from homeowners and another 15 percent from party rentals. That diversity isn’t accidental. “I always call ourselves a community rental store,” Vajgrt says, “Whatever the community asks for.” Sometimes that means adding equipment that didn’t exist, or wasn’t even imaginable, when the business began. “If you’d told me 30 years ago we’d have 38 bounce houses,” he laughs, “I’d have said, ‘A bounce what?’”

Other times it means stepping in when another service disappears. When the area lost its local propane distributor after a corporate acquisition relocated operations out of town, Home Rental Center invested in propane filling stations. Today, it supplies propane cylinders for industrial forklifts, campers, food trucks and local residents. It’s another example of a recurring pattern: identify a local need, then build the capability to meet it.

The same customer-driven thinking led the company into an entirely different business: self-storage. While serving as a Ryder truck dealer in the early 1990s, Vajgrt picked up on the fact that customers frequently asking where they could store their belongings when moving plans didn’t line up perfectly. “So we built our first storage building,” he says. Demand was so strong the second building was ordered before the first was even completed. Today, Home Rental Center operates approximately 480 storage units while also repurposing additional commercial properties throughout Marshalltown into spaces for contractors, automotive businesses and specialty tenants.

The company has continually reinvented itself as markets changed. Some rental categories disappeared entirely. At one time, Home Rental Center rented dozens of Santa suits, costumes, colored party supplies and hand tools. The rise of big-box retailers, online shopping and inexpensive consumer tools changed those markets forever. 

Instead of fighting those trends, Vajgrt adapted. “We used to rent a lot of Sawzalls,” he says. “Now you can buy a reciprocating saw for less than what it makes sense to rent one.” Rather than compete against disposable consumer products, the business shifted toward professional-grade equipment that customers couldn’t justify purchasing for occasional use. That evolution continues today.

Battery-powered construction equipment, GPS fleet tracking, computerized diagnostics and robotic chain sharpeners have all become part of daily operations. Excavators and skid loaders are geofenced for security, while modern software from Visim integrates rentals, inventory, service records and shop management into a single system.

Maximize efficiency
Technology has changed the tools, but not the philosophy behind using them, and operational efficiency has become another defining characteristic of the business. The company recently completed a 9,000-square-foot warehouse featuring drive-through access, pallet racking and carefully organized inventory. Every item has its place, allowing customers to pull in, load equipment regardless of weather conditions and quickly get back to work.

The warehouse itself has even become a sales tool. Customers picking up one rental often spot additional products or party equipment they never realized were available. “Customer pull into the warehouse to either pick up or drop off rental items and notice other tools, equipment or even party supplies we have.We’ve found it’s likely that in the future, they’ll rent that from us because they know we have it,” he says.

Organization extends beyond the warehouse. Every piece of equipment follows the same disciplined inspection process. Machines return to a designated spot where technicians clean, inspect, lubricate and prepare them before they return to the rental fleet.

Vajgrt insists equipment be returned clean, not simply for appearance, but because clean equipment makes it easier to see worn parts, damaged components and maintenance issues before they become bigger problems. “The better you keep your equipment,” he says, “the better people treat it.”

That attention to detail has earned customer trust. Contractors know the equipment they rent has been thoroughly maintained, making breakdowns less likely and keeping projects moving. The company also remains disciplined about replacing equipment before maintenance costs outweigh reliability, while maintaining waiting lists of customers eager to purchase well-maintained used machines.

Evolving customer base
As the rental industry has evolved, so has customer management. Forty years ago, Vajgrt estimates he personally knew about 95 percent of customers walking through the front door. Today, with more transient workers and out-of-town contractors, that number is closer to half.

The business has responded with tighter procedures, using driver’s license scanning, insurance verification, deposits and electronic documentation. It’s not because relationships matter less, but because protecting the business has become essential. “We’ve had to become a little more hard-nosed,” Vajgrt admits. “That’s just business now.”

The business is transitioning into its next generation. Sons Adam and Noah have taken leadership roles, with Adam overseeing front-end operations and Noah specializing in equipment maintenance and repairs. Daughter Sarah is joining the business in bookkeeping while continuing work with Iowa State University, following years of involvement in the family company. Roger’s wife, Laura, has long managed the financial side of the operation.

Their involvement gave Roger the confidence to continue investing in the company’s future, including the newest warehouse expansion. “They’re my exit strategy,” he says with a smile. Even then, retirement won’t look much like retirement. He expects to continue maintaining facilities and working several days each week, simply because he enjoys building, fixing and improving things.

After all, this isn’t simply where he works; he grew up just four blocks away from the rental center’s present location. In his youth, he and the neighborhood kids played baseball on the very lot where the business now stands. Over the years, the company expanded by purchasing neighboring properties, transforming what was once a residential block into the thriving campus it is today.

Hometown connection
That history explains why Home Rental Center’s greatest strength isn’t any individual piece of equipment or service; it is its connection to Marshalltown. Rather than chase business hundreds of miles away, the company intentionally focuses on roughly a 50-mile service area. Rather than compete for massive national construction projects, it concentrates on being the dependable local partner customers can call for a one-day rental, a propane refill or a last-minute delivery.

Its success has never been built around being the biggest rental company. It’s been built around being the right rental company for the community. When Marshalltown residents and businesses needed equipment, Home Rental Center added equipment. When it needed propane, the company invested in propane. When they needed storage, it built storage. When contractors asked for new tools, the fleet evolved. Every major chapter in the company’s history traces back to one simple question: What does our community need next?

For more than 42 years, that question has shaped every expansion, every investment and every decision. It’s a philosophy that transformed a small family home improvement business into one of central Iowa’s most respected independent rental centers and one that will continue guiding the next generation into the future.

This article originally appeared in the September-October 2026 issue of Pro Contractor Rentals magazine. ©2026 Urbain Communications LLC. All rights reserved.

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