President Street Condominiums in Carol Stream has been self-managed almost since the community was built 5 1/2 years ago. The first board didn’t like the developer’s management choice, so it decided to handle the job itself.
“It can work in any complex,” says Mike Rounds, association treasurer and an original board member. “But it’s a hands-on business if you want to do it right.”
The 48 unit owners mail their monthly assessments to a post office box. Each month Rounds picks up the funds and deposits most of them into a money market account. Money needed to pay bills goes into a checking account.
The board decides which improvement projects should be taken on each year. Preventive maintenance is a priority. This year, all the windows are being recaulked. Another year, all the wood trim was wrapped with aluminum. Rounds, who is retired, hires and supervises the work.
“I set up the standards and line up vendors to do business with,” he says. “I’ve been around long enough I can tell by looking at their tools if they can do the job. I’ve remodeled my own houses over the years. I can do almost all the trades.”
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Should a unit owner break a rule, he or she will most likely receive a warning letter from the president.
If pressed, Rounds admits he does much of the work running the property. He is aided by an attorney, an accountant, a couple of willing residents and a couple of active board members.
“I’ve always been an organizer,” he says. “Someone’s got to do it.”
According to his figures, self-management saves each owner about $20 a month in assessments and “you don’t have to worry about anyone stealing from you.”
On the downside, he is often the first person called in the event of a real or imagined emergency. “When the fire department calls at 3 a.m. to say the trouble lights are on, you have to get up and see if there is a squirrel on the telephone line or if there is actually a problem.”