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KrystalA
(Iowa)

Posts:59

07/15/2008 7:15 PM
How often does your management company contact the board in between monthly meetings? Do they contact by phone, email, not at all? If they aren't contacting frequently, do you feel they aren't doing their jobs, or they are doing their jobs and the visual cues around the community show that there isn't a need to communicate every little thing. Do you expect the management company to do everything and the board just show up at a monthly meeting and then be done with it? Basically - how does your board run and communicate

MonicaZ
(North Carolina)

Posts:1

07/15/2008 9:23 PM
Our current PMC shows up for meetings and only does half of what we ask. We need to remind them to do monthly drive throughs, etc. Needless to say we are interviewing PMCs. There seems to be a direct correlation with price per home being higher for a more full service PMCs.

MaryA1
(Arizona)

Posts:1562

07/16/2008 2:40 AM
Posted By KrystalA on 07/15/2008 7:15 PM How often does your management company contact the board in between monthly meetings? Do they contact by phone, email, not at all? If they aren't contacting frequently, do you feel they aren't doing their jobs, or they are doing their jobs and the visual cues around the community show that there isn't a need to communicate every little thing. Do you expect the management company to do everything and the board just show up at a monthly meeting and then be done with it? Basically - how does your board run and communicate Krystal, The manager and the board (at least the board pres.) should be in communication with each other on a regular basis. It could be daily, weekly, whatever, depending upon the size of your community and the type of amenities available. Although the manager may do the bulk of the work, the board members should have more to do than just show up at the monthly meeting. Again, this all depends upon the size of the community and the amenities. I wonder. . .are you a board member or a member who has some misgivings about your manager and/or BOD?

MaryA1
(Arizona)

Posts:1562

07/16/2008 2:58 AM
Posted By MonicaZ on 07/15/2008 9:23 PM Our current PMC shows up for meetings and only does half of what we ask. We need to remind them to do monthly drive throughs, etc. Needless to say we are interviewing PMCs. There seems to be a direct correlation with price per home being higher for a more full service PMCs. Monica, I'm not familiar with the method used by mgmt. co's to determine what the mo. fee should be. However, I've been told that most of the mgmt co's require their managers to be assigned to a particular number of properties with no regard to the number of units per property. Oftentimes the manager will have so many units to take care of that it's almost impossible to be an effective in their duties.; Many board members are so out of touch with the operation of their assn that they just don't know the manager is not doing a great job. Now I'm not saying all mgmt co's operate this way, but I've been told many do. The source of my info is the manager of my assn. She now owns her own mgmt co (which is NOT operated in this manner) but previously worked for several companies in the Phx area and says this is how they all operate. Each manager may be expected to manage 10 properties; however each of those 10 properties do not total the same number of units. One manager may be managing a total of 10,000 units while another only has 2,000 units, but they both are resp. for 10 properties. Since you're now in the process of interviewing managers, it might be wise to ask how many "units" they manage, not just how many "properties".

KrystalA
(Iowa)

Posts:59

07/16/2008 6:01 PM
Posted By MaryA1 on 07/16/2008 2:40 AM Posted By KrystalA on 07/15/2008 7:15 PM How often does your management company contact the board in between monthly meetings? Do they contact by phone, email, not at all? If they aren't contacting frequently, do you feel they aren't doing their jobs, or they are doing their jobs and the visual cues around the community show that there isn't a need to communicate every little thing. Do you expect the management company to do everything and the board just show up at a monthly meeting and then be done with it? Basically - how does your board run and communicate Krystal, The manager and the board (at least the board pres.) should be in communication with each other on a regular basis. It could be daily, weekly, whatever, depending upon the size of your community and the type of amenities available. Although the manager may do the bulk of the work, the board members should have more to do than just show up at the monthly meeting. Again, this all depends upon the size of the community and the amenities. I wonder. . .are you a board member or a member who has some misgivings about your manager and/or BOD? I am a board member and we have a couple newer board members that feel that we should be notified on pretty much everything, which I think is very excessive. I think they should communicate with at least one member as needed, but if any board member has an issue, they should ask and not wat around and hope the PM contacts them.

DuaneW2
(Georgia)

Posts:2

07/16/2008 6:35 PM
Krystal, I'm sure you'll have as many different answers as there are HOA's. We get contact from the MC usually weekly with financial updates (paying vendors, updates on any monies that have trickled in from delinquent assessments or fines) plus news concerning the past week's ACC visits. (We have a group of three that goes around on Sunday afternoons leaving courtesy notices on doors, not MC drive thrus to save money). We only see them twice a year, the annual meeting in February and then two weeks later at the meeting for the officers to be elected. I've been President for almost six months, and what I've noticed is that we get about as much attention as we are active as a Board. Duane

KarenS11
(Florida)

Posts:132

07/16/2008 8:24 PM
In my experience, what works best is for one Board member to be the designated commicator with the management company. In our HOA that is the president. Having a zillion e-mails bouncing back and forth is not productive. We come to consensus and the president communicates with the management company. If the treasurer has routine financial questions, that is a different matter. But having 3-7 board members all contacting the PM is whack!

KirkW1
(Texas)

Posts:685

07/16/2008 8:49 PM
Along those same kind of lines, does you management company solicit and collect bids when you are looking for something? Or do they leave the BOD to do that leg work? I ask because when discussing having a reserve study done, our manager said perhaps we should call the previous company and ask them to come out again. I had thought (perhaps incorrectly) that she would solicit a number of bids and then pass the result back to us.

GlenL
(Ohio)

Posts:1223

07/17/2008 12:06 AM
Kirk I'm sure if you ask them to they will get bids. I'm not sure the manager's comment was out of place assuming you had good results with the reserve analysis company the first time around. They would be familiar with the property and have the most detailed notes from which to notice any material changes in the property.

MaryA1
(Arizona)

Posts:1562

07/17/2008 4:17 AM
Kirk, I would think soliciting bids would be outlined in the contract with the mgmt co. From what I gather, that usually is a function of the prop. mgr.

HeatherB2
(Oregon)

Posts:16

07/17/2008 9:10 AM
Our BOD has constant communication with the MC (almost daily via email). The MC does drive throughs twice per month and provides a formal evaluation of the neighborhood with recommendations for the BOD and a list of all notices/letters mailed to homeowners. We strive to be very pro-active and have laid out some guidelines to our MC on what we expect. We also receive copies of all ARC applications via email for quick decisions.

HeatherB2
(Oregon)

Posts:16

07/17/2008 9:16 AM
Oh, and I forgot to mention that we have a very specific contract with the MC that outlines how many hours they spend on our community per month, what it includes, etc. They will get 3 bids on any work that costs over $1,000, they get yearly bids for the reserve study, they will attend the annual meeting as part of the contract, stuff like that. They also give us a list of other services with prices if we want additional help. If you have a contract with the MC, I would read through it carefully to see what services are included and ask questions so you know what to expect from them.

DonnaS
(Tennessee)

Posts:2299

07/17/2008 9:34 AM
Krystal, Every management company does things differently, according to what the contract reads, according to the needs of the community and the Boards requirement of the company. Our P.M was on site for 2 hours at least 3 times a week, doing drive thrus and walking to do inspections where she needed to. She also attended all Board meetings, be they 1 or 10 times a month. She took the minutes and wrote them for distribution to the BOD. She wrote all letters for violations and was on call to the Board for any Statute questions so she wears many hats. She also pays bills and keeps the monthly balance of the Budget which she then gets to the Treasurer for each months checks and balances at the monthly Board meeting.

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