Our Management Fees are Too High...or are they?

One of the toughest challenges I have faced in submitting proposals for the management of a community is that there is no easy standard to which I can compare our fees.  Feedback from potential clients has varied greatly from our fees being right in line with the other proposals, or from too low to too high.  I had to find out why there is such a wide range out there, and my question has been answered!

It has come to my attention (and, more importantly, to several communities' attention) that the money communities pay to a management company extends significantly past "management fees".  Some were completely surprised by the extra charges, some were aware that there would be extra charges, but all were shocked by the amount of charges that went above and beyond the quoted management fee.

I was shocked myself, and it boils down to what I believe "management" is.  Is it to manage the community's financials by doing their account receivables and payables?  Certainly.  Is it to manage the communication between the Board and its homeowners?  Absolutely.  Is it to manage emergency situations in which residents and vendors are involved?  Of course.  Then why would I charge the community extra to "receive" a homeowner's payment?  Or, why should I charge an additional "administrative" fee to send a violation letter?  Or, why should I charge an "emergency on-call" fee?  In these cases, what does the management fee cover?

At the end of the day, a management fee is a management fee is a management fee; it shouldn't be a fee you pay us monthly just because it is a line item on your budget - it should be the fee you pay us to manage your community.  Postage, copies, and storage - yes, I agree that these fees are in addition to a management fee because they are items needed to manage your community.  But if I were to nickel and dime every association for everything we did to manage their affairs, the accounting itself would be a full-time job.  How in the world would there be time to actually manage the community?

I have made it a point not to talk negatively about my competitors, whom I respect greatly.  I actually consider it bad business practice to do so, so I will never call out a company that does the above.  As a shrewd businessman, one may even respect the fact that a company has found a way to minimize their overhead costs.  But that leaves the community, you as the homeowner, to pay for that business's overhead.  I say, analyze your financials, check out the companies you do business with, and make sure you are paying a company to service you.

So who is "G"? (pt. 3)

Tidewater Property Management, Inc. is owned and operated by Stanley and Marc Greenberg, and it was built on the foundation of personal customer service for community associations - slightly different from the rental property management with which I had more experience, but definitely as interesting and intruiging.   I found that the knowledge I already had about Real Estate and property management was a solid basis for  learning about master and sub-associations, community budgets, ARCs, turnover meetings (and I can go on and on), which I did as the father-and-son's administrative assistant.

As these new terms and concepts became second nature to me, I was offered a new opportunity as Tidewater's Director of Operations and Marketing.  In this role, I started building close relationships with the vendors that supported our communities and our clients themselves.  I met with current and potential clients and studied the qualities of a property management company that were truly important to them.  It was easy to implement systems that focused on enhancing the services we provide because the foundation had already been set.  The management style with which Stanley and Marc (and the property managers, accounting, and administrative staff they trained) approached our clients was one of genuine personal customer service - anything and everything is done with one question in mind - what would we want if we were the customer?  Quick response times, a strong and apparent presence in the community, proactive collection of fees, conservative spending, creative planning, advice based on knowledge and experience all come to mind.

Similar to the way they treat their customers, the familial environment that Stanley and Marc provide within the office itself makes Tidewater my "home away from home", where my co-workers have become my closest of friends and my employers have become as close to me as family.  We work together as a team day in and day out to provide the best service to our clients in a place where business does get personal - you can't provide good property management otherwise.  By the same token, the "personal"  becomes part of business within the Tidewater family itself.  Stanley and Marc have remained steadfast in providing for us, our futures, and our own families with generous benefits that we enjoy today and that will pay off in the future.

At Tidewater (where we have monthly barbecues and daily motivational sessions, where I get a call from my employers to see how I am feeling when I am sick, where my co-workers take part in my sons' birthday celebrations, and where I can take my sons to work when they don't have school), my two separate love stories of family and property management intertwined.

So who is "G"? (pt. 2)

Farhad, Nikolas, and I tackled each challenge as they came head on.  With the purchase of our new home and the addition of our youngest member, Dominik, the chapters of our love story soon seemed as if they would write themselves.  With the turning of each page, however, a part of me was ready to resume the other story that I barely got the chance to start.  With a prelude like it had, though, I was eager to return to my property management career.

Rewind 6 years to August of 2001.  I was your typical "small girl in a big town", fresh out of high school and away from home for the first time.  Ellicott City, Maryland was 3,000 miles behind me and all I had to do was focus onward.  Only the University of California, Berkeley was in my sight, and classes were scheduled to start in the New Year, meaning I had only four months to get myself prepared.  First on my list was to get a job - any job.  So I perfected my resume, printed a couple dozen on parchment paper, and hit the busiest block in the business district.  From one office to the next, I handed out my resume.  As luck (or fate) would have it, I had one resume left as I walked into the last building on the block - Prudential California Realty.  Unfortunately, Prudential didn't have any openings.  But their property management division, Professional Property Management, did.  Get this - their Spanish Administrator was leaving on maternity leave, and they needed someone bilingual to fill in for...yes, four months!

Thank God for Senora Doyle's Spanish 5 AP class, and, of course, the cute guy that I shared an office with, who showed me the ropes, and took me to lunch a bunch of times (Farhad)!  Management agreements, leases, tenant apps, credit checks, walkthroughs, inspections, and work orders soon became part of my daily vocabulary.  And I just fell in love.  Why, you ask?  It's the challenge - the same reason I am actually enjoying writing my blog right now.  Property management is not an easy industry.  It is the ups and downs of the Real Estate market, it is sales, negotiation, customer service, technology, organization, and so much more.  You have to be logical, mechanical, and compassionate all at once.  It doesn't only take my strengths, but my weaknesses, too.

Four months led to four years because of a few personal challenges.  With the announcement of my engagement to Farhad, I lost my family's financial backing for Cal so I had to keep on working.  (I use the words "had" and "working" loosely.  I was and still am, obviously, enjoying my job, and it only seldom feels like "work".)  I transferred schools to release myself from the clenches of out-of-state tuition, resolved my family woes and we became one big happy family again, I got married to the man of my dreams, and continued to build on my career, until I put it on hold to move back East.

Fast forward to April 30, 2007, and I'm walking through the doors of Tidewater Property Management, Inc. ...

So who is "G"? (pt. 1)

This whole blog idea intimidates me to say the least.  I don't even know if I should say that.  Maybe starting off by showing vulnerability is completely the wrong way to go.  But, I don't know any other way to show you who this person is that thinks she has something worth saying, without mentioning that this blog is one of the toughest challenges I am currently facing.  I can't even write a sentence without referring to myself in both the first and third person!  But that's the last time, I promise.  Bear with me and I might actually say something worth reading.

So who am I?  First and foremost, I am a wife and a mother.  At least that is how I would describe myself first - I am a romantic completely in love with my husband, Farhad, and the love story that we started almost 10 years ago.  We met at a property management firm in California (and I will get back to the property management thing later...).

Farhad and I started with one of the biggest of odds against us - an age barrier of 15 years.  But we decided that it would only be a barrier if we let it.  So we didn't let it, and 8 months later we were married.  Our wedding song - You're Still the One by Shania Twain.  "I bet they'll never make it," she sings.  Sound like a challenge?

After I graduated college, we were eager to have a baby and before we knew it, we had Nikolas.  Mom intrigued us with her request for us to move back East so that she could be close to her first grandchild.  We did, but not before going to the Philippines for my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary.  One day, Farhad and I will be celebrating that same momentous occasion, and Shania will sure be a part of the celebration.

The move to Maryland was tough in many ways.  Do you know how expensive it is to move across the country?  From one coast to the other, we dragged our young family to start anew, bringing a few things, but leaving far more behind.  The property management firm that I mentioned earlier (where a separate, but equally strong, love story began) was now 3,000 miles away.