Property Management, when done correctly, is based on a harmonious relationship between the Board of Directors and the management company. Unfortunately, in many cases this isn’t the case. Either the property management company is too big and has too many layers, the Property Manager is overworked and has too many accounts, your phone calls don’t get returned, or your finances are incorrect. Maybe every year or sooner you are introduced to a new manager who needs months to get up to speed (and maybe never does), or the management company is too small, overwhelmed, and don’t have the years of experience to handle the complex problems a community experience. Sound familiar?
Here are 5 reasons when it’s time to consider a new management company:
- Hello, can anyone hear me! One of the biggest complaints that we hear is that the manager or the company doesn’t return phone calls or emails. That is totally unacceptable. Property Management is a service business and our role is to increase the quality of life for the owners or residents and assist the Board and residents in business matters as it relates to the community.
- The Board does not receive (accurate) Monthly Financial Statements. One of the most important functions of a management company does is billing out and collecting monthly common charges and assessments, paying the bills, and accurately preparing a monthly financial. Poorly prepared financial statements and bookkeeping issues, including incorrect general ledger, allocations, segregation of operating and capital accounts, double entry of bills and late payments to vendors, can create havoc with your accounting and homeowner accounts.
- High Property Manager Turnover. Maybe you are on your 5th property manager in 2 years. Or you keep asking for a new Property Manager because you are dissatisfied with the prior Property Manager’s performance. If you are getting a new Property Manager every 6 months, you should question what is going on with the management company. Many companies don’t properly train their managers and don’t properly oversee their actions, know if they are even going to the properties, or review their Board Meeting Property Management Report.
- Money, Money, Money. Boards usually put a lot of trust in a property management company and the manager and sometimes that is ill placed trust. At times, some property managers feel that they don’t need to go back to the board and appropriately get approval for an expenditure above their spending limit or they play games with the rules and bypass them. For example, if a manager has a $2,000 spending limit and supplies costs $8,000, they can ask the supplier to spread the supplies out in 4 invoices bypassing their spending limit. Every property manager or management company needs to respect the Board’s authority and spending other people’s money.
- When You Just Don’t Fit in Anymore… or Maybe Never Did. When you hire a Property Management Company hopefully it feels like a great first date. You see eye to eye on policies and procedures and you have a common vision for the future. Then the “A” team leaves and you get assigned a manager that you never met and they aren’t as knowledgeable as the “A” team. Maybe your community is now too small for the company, your services have diminished, and you just got lost in between their other larger clients. It’s very important for the Boards have an ongoing dialog with their management company. Your management company should be speaking with you on a regular basis and their accounting/bookkeeping professionals should be speaking with your Board treasurer and meeting with your Board to discuss your budget and any variances in your budget.
When you grow dissatisfied with the services, responses or attitude of your Property Management company that is representing your community, immediately ask for a face to face meeting with someone in authority and discuss your dissatisfaction, a game plan on how to rectify any issues, and a date for the Board to re-address the concerns and see if the changes made, if any, are acceptable to you.
If not, then it’s a good time for the Board to look for a new management company that meets your needs and vision. At Klein Property Management, we pride ourselves on client fixation. If you are experiencing some of these difficulties, call us at (732) 446-0611 or visit us at www.kleinpropertymanagement.com
