Community association managers have a lot to talk about these days. Hot topics include short-term rentals, court decisions and client satisfaction.
At the recent State of the Industry luncheon seminar, hosted annually by MCD Media and Condo Lifestyles magazine, a panel of community association pros fielded questions and shared viewpoints on these issues and more.
Here’s a sampling:
Q: Associations seem to hire new managers more frequently than they do other professionals such as attorneys and reserve study providers. How can we avoid this?
“I believe there is a disconnect between the expectations of the client, which is the board of directors, and the service the management company believes they are contracted to provide,” said Lou Lutz, executive vice president at First Community Management in Chicago.
Lutz has created a roster of 265 services a management company could provide. The list includes sending assessment bills to owners, making court appearances, maintaining a Facebook page and tabulating election votes.
Lutz proposes boards create a wish list of services desired and present it to management companies they consider hiring. Negotiate a contract that names those services and identifies performance benchmarks. Everyone will then know whether the contract terms are being met.
Q: What is some of the latest technology helping managers do their jobs faster and better?
Smartphones and tablets can assist in many operational, administrative and maintenance tasks, said Michael Donnell, regional director of portfolio management at FirstService Residential in Chicago.
A few examples: Managers can read and approve invoices remotely, and they can view the monitors of security cameras on their client properties. And similar to red light cameras that capture traffic violations, managers can snap photos of homeowner violations, and then immediately send notices along with time- and date-stamped photos.
Q: What are some of the positive outcomes of the court case Palm vs. 2800 Lake Shore Drive Condominium?
“A lot of people seem to think Palm is a four-letter word,” said Tom Skweres, regional vice president at ACM Community Management in Downers Grove. “It isn’t. Palm is an attitude. It’s a way of doing business that the associations’ documents have required them to do. It is causing boards to become more transparent, which they should be anyway.”
The requirements for open meetings and no commingling of reserve and operating funds are good business practices, he said.
“I don’t think Palm is a real burden except to keep boards from emailing each other” because doing so could be construed as conducting business in private, he said. “You can’t hit ‘Reply All’ anymore.”
Q: What steps are you taking to prevent and eliminate short-term rentals?
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“We have one building with such a major issue with short-term rentals that we set up a fining system of $300 a night if we catch them,” said Tairre Dever-Sutton, president at Tairre Management Services in Des Plaines. “How much money are they going to make a night? $200 or $300? But still a $300 fine doesn’t stop everyone.”
She said she regularly searches short-term rental websites using an assumed name for rental offerings in the buildings she manages. She matches them up with reviews from people who have rented the units, so she can prove a rules violation took place.
When one renter posted on social media a party invitation at an address she manages, Dever-Sutton showed up. The owner was cited for a rules violation.
“We are raising everyone’s consciousness about who is in their building,” she said. “Now my homeowners look out for people who are coming in and going out of the buildings with suitcases, and they are reporting them. If you see someone you don’t know, you have to ask questions.”