Average Mgmt Company costs per owner.

Great question, Nancy. The figure of $22.50 is within the typical range I calculated in an earlier thread a few weeks ago.

Personally, I think that is too high for the services rendered. But others disagree.

The greatest expense is probably bookkeeping. If you have an active volunteer group that is willing to take over some management tasks, you might save a bundle by just hiring an accountant to handle the books and process payments/receipts.

Ours charges $10/month/house and we think it's too high! (Note: that is partially based on levels of service!)

Understand that we live in Texas, but our cost is $5.00 a month for each lot. Then we also pay for things like supplies and stuff. I think that last year the extra costs worked out to be a few dollars per house for the year.

One thing that was told to us by our management and makes sense is to look at what all is provided in the base price. Some companies will offer a lower price and make up the difference in the extras. We have not yet gone through this, but it would make sense.

Nancy, if I were in your position I would start by reviewing the Association records to try to determine, in an unbiased manner, what your current attorney and ombudsman have done to justify their expense. I would get a copy of the management agreement and solicit unofficial bids for management. I would then provide information on how to reduce expenses to the Board and ask them to make specific changes. If they don't I would start a petition to remove them from the Board and elect new Board members to fill any vacated positions. This would require the support of many HOA members. Based on the costs you presented there probably is the opportunity for significant savings. If so, sufficient owners will support this change. I would not consider legal action unless there is solid evidence of wrongdoing or fraud.

Roger ~ Thank you for your attention to this matter. A year or so ago I requested the financials quite often.(I used to be the tresurer) They were sent to me with MANY MANY redactions (crossed out items)so it was impossible to track anything. But I did read the DS sunsine act and realzed these redactions were not appropriate. I complained. I was sited as the mal-content. And nothing was ever done about it. The "in house" attorney claimed these were "attorney client privledge items" I then paid for another HOA attorey to review these items ~ turns out our "in house" attorney was wrong. I pressed the issue. I finally got her to admit at one of the meetings that the redacted items were really not necessary (her words)and the subject was dropped. I have never recieved any of these redacted figures to date. I gave up. Right now we have a bunch of "don't care" homeowners, that have little interest in serving on the board. Wait until they get the new dues increase.

NancyM2

Last year, we paid about $95K ($75K MF + $20K extra) for 538 units (75% are single family homes + 25% townhouses or duets) here. We have a big parkway and a big bridge with a lot of green. In addition, California laws require a new reserve study for every three year. Therefore, you do not need to have the reserve study done every year.

LT.

Nancy
If this sounds familiar to some discussion members it's because it's a contribution I made recently whern a similar question arose. Here is it (Again).

ONE ...the costs for Property Management Services do not relate in any way to your overall costs or to your current unit-owner fees. To take a percentage of this or a ratio of that is exactly what you should NOT be doing. For example there are those that believe the amounts for funding the reserves should bear a certain percentage of the operating budget. This is so very wrong that we have written an article on the subject and if you contact us we’ll send along a copy by e-mail.

TWO ... every community is different … in size, in design layout and facilities and in respect to how they want to have the property managed. Therefore, looking at other communities’ property management costs can be very misleading. Don’t do it.

Here’s what we think you should do. Number One, sit down and decide exactly what you’d like the PM to do. As a starting point here’s a list http://www.brookfieldresidential.com/cms/CorpInner/ctm_displaypage.asp?page=SEREXCE&PageGroup=CORPINNER&flag=-1
offered by a very large PM company up here. Use it to check off the things you’d like your PM to do. It’s very long and inclusive and you’re sure to want only a fraction of the services that could be specified. Once that’s done, get in touch with a few PMs in your area, show them the list and ask them to quote a monthly or annual fee for carrying out those duties. Also get a list of their clients — not just their favourite clients but all of them so you can call them. It’s a “from the ground up” approach and it’s the only sensible way to proceed. Good luck.

The Monthly Walk Thrus or Drive Thrus are included in the Monthly Management Fees. We send out the Monthly Billing statements. We do have a conference room in our office, but it cannot hold more than 20 people. The Newsletter is only included in the Management Fee. Regarding advise, we provide Management advise as well, meaning we follow the Civil Code. Unless your Association is constantly involved in legal matters why would you need an attorney??