When you hire a property manager, property management qualifications must be taken into account, in addition to many other attributes. For example the cost is an obvious one. The experience level of the property management team is another. The services that they will offer to you are another. This assessment can sometimes be quite difficult. It can take a lot of time with competing interests and different opinions on the board. However the important thing is to do a thorough job. In the end everyone agree on the best company for the job. Ask for other properties that are being managed by this company. Interview the owners to confirm service levels etc and other areas that you may be interested in.
Condo Board Decisions – Property Manager Qualifications
Prepare for interviewing property managers for the job of managing your property, or condominium as part of a board decision. It is important to make sure that you list all of the criteria that you are going to use to rate each property management firm. The board must review and agree to the requirements. Everyone will have a variety of opinions. It may be difficult to reach a consensus. But better to do this before the request for proposal is issued than after. The board needs to make sure that all of the requirements are included that satisfy everyone. Otherwise it is back to the drawing board and a waste of everyone’s time.
Property Manager Qualifications
The property management qualifications include services offered. Also price for those services, experience levels and knowledge of the current conditions of your property. There are also legal requirements in the jurisdiction where you live.
Some board members, and owners will prepare a spreadsheet listing all of the services and features and costs. They will write down all of these requirements. They will rank the level of adherence to each of the criteria that they are looking for. Some issues have more importance than others. Give these a high-ranking. It is much easier when everyone has discussed and agreed to the rankings ahead of time.
Document everything including all decisions. They should have a detailed list of criteria that they will use to rank and interview property management companies. This is protection for both the board itself, the property manager and of course the owners of the property. If the board does not take this step and the property manager they hire fails or does not perform, at least you can go back to the documentation to confirm where you went wrong. This is one way to avoid the same mistake the next time around.
Services Included
The services that are included will depend on whether this is an owner occupied building, a rental building or a mixed use building. Each group has different objectives and it helps to keep them separate.
For example the condo board is responsible to the owners, whether they live in the building or rent their units out. They may need a separate company to manage the rental of the units and the maintenance of the interior of the units. It is not a good idea to have the same management company managing the condo and managing the rental portion of the business. Sometimes there can be some cost savings, however the job of managing a condo is much different from managing a bunch of rental units.
In mixed use buildings there will often be a condo board to manage the condominium corporation and another board made up of owners who rent their units. This second board will be responsible for managing the tenants and the property manager responsible for the interior of the rented units. This board may also represent this subset of owners on the condo board as well.
There can be some conflict in these situations since rental unit owners do not have the same objectives at all compared to people who own their units and live in them.