Page 10 - New England Condominium January 2021

10 NEW ENGLAND CONDOMINIUM -JANUARY 2021 NEWENGLANDCONDO.COM Flynn Law Group 185 Devonshire St., Suite 401 • Boston, MA 02110 617-988-0633 “Quality Representation at Reasonable Rates - $150/Hr.” Contact Attorney Frank Flynn Frank@flynnlaw-ne.com www.flynnlaw-ne.com ATTORNEYS INDOOR AIR QUALITY • VENTILATION • DUCT CLEANING AIR DUCT & DRYER VENT CLEANING 800-893-1117 www.continentalcleanair.com Property Managers • Multi Units • Associations • Condos Continental clean:Layout 1 12/22/09 11 See Our Display Ad on Page 10 Condominium and Real Estate Law Phone: (781) 817-4900 Direct: (781) 817-4603 Fax: (781) 817-4910 We may be dressed up, but we aren’t afraid to get our hands dirty. www.lawmtm.com See Our Display Ad on Back Cover Merrill & McGeary 100 State Street, Suite 200 Boston, MA 02109 617-523-1760 • Fax 617-523-4893 Contact: Mike Merrill, Esq. mmerrill@merrillmcgeary.com ACCOUNTANTS Accounting • Auditing • Taxes • Consulting Worcester 67 Millbrook Street 508-797-5200 Grafton 80 Worcester Street 508-839-0020 Holden 795 Main Street 508-829-5544 M Love Associates, & LLC Certified Public Accountants Serving Condominium Associations mlove 2.25 x 2.5 condo association color 9.19.2017.indd 1 9/19/17 12:59 PM See Our Display Ad on Page 7 185 Devonshire Street, Suite 401, Boston, MA 02110 Quality Representation at Reasonable Rates. (617) 988-0633 Contact Attorney Frank Flynn: FRANK@FLYNNLAW-NE.COM Flynn_E4C.qxp:Layout 1 12/8/14 2:30 PM Page 1 ddlevy@roofmaxx.com 5 0 8 -4 4-4 7 66 3 DON’T REPLACE YOUR ROOF… REJUVENATE IT WITH ROOF MAXX! guy, another a financial consultant. We felt hasn’t changed. Seventy-five percent of our confident that they could cover the basics. members pay via direct payment online, and Two members are compensated with forgive- ness of some common charges. Economi- cally and in terms of skills, it made sense for through his phone. There isn’t any physi- us. We started to self-manage a year ago, and cal component to our cash flow items at all.” it’s made life easier in many respects. We can Weinstein says the board does all their meet- deal with everything right away, in real time, ings on the Zoom video conferencing plat- without waiting for the manager to respond. form. It didn’t make sense to continue outsourcing the management function—so we eliminated the middleman.” The association had an issue a month ago ciation at 1618 West Wallen Avenue in Chica- with the building’s old-style intercom system. go. The building also features a courtyard and They switched to Carson, a company that garden, and became a condominium in 2006. specializes in providing services to small, non-staffed buildings. “That overhaul was of the community’s response to and manage- seamless,” says Weinstein, “because we dealt ment of the pandemic. “The most difficult with them directly—no middleman in the part was figuring out what the guidelines form of a manager. Nothing was lost in com- munication or translation.” In terms of COVID-19 and how it’s affect- ed their property and its management, Wein- stein says, “We’ve had to make some adjust- ments. There’s more foot traffic, as everyone is home and everything is getting delivered, demic changed some of the things we do con- so we’re getting the building cleaned twice cerning cleaning of common areas. We had as much as before. We also are seeing more to hire someone who could do COVID clean- repairs resulting from more wear-and-tear. ing. They come twice a week to do the stair- Early on we had issues with members not wells and sanitize, which is an added expense. wearing masks or sanitizing properly, but we We did it ourselves before the pandemic on got it under control quickly and there haven’t been any issues since. In terms of payments and collections, everything was done online remotely even before the pandemic, so that 25% slip a check under the treasurer’s door. He makes deposits and payments online, Midwestern Practical Jose Rodriguez is the president of a three- story, 26-unit walk-up condominium asso- “It’s gone pretty smoothly,” says Rodriquez were for prevention of spread, and compli- ance with city and state rules. What the gov- ernor and mayor have said are often different; for example, right now we are in lockdown in Chicago, but nearby suburbs are open.” Rodriguez goes on to say that “the pan- a volunteer basis, but now we’ve hired some- one, to protect owners and incur less liability for the association. The decision was based on our attorney’s advice, and the community as a whole taking a decision together. “We have both back and front stairs,” Ro- driguez continues, “so \[residents\] rarely en- counter each other on the stairs, but masks are required in the common areas, and signs are posted everywhere. In the courtyard, the city permitted 50 people or less, but people don’t really congregate there anyway—usu- ally just a few people, or the volunteer gar- dener.” At one point, they considered hiring a full-time manager as a result of the pandem- ic, but ultimately decided it was just too ex- pensive. Also, the board was concerned that if people lost their jobs and couldn’t pay their monthly common charges, the association would have even less money to spare. So far, self-management has proven the right move for this particular community. Shifting to Off-Site Management Not every community is ready—or able— to go it alone, however. Stuart Halper, vice president of New York-based Impact Man- agement, specializes in small to mid-sized co-op and condominium properties, and says he’s seen some self-managed properties shift to off-site management since the pan- demic began. “We actually have picked up a significant number of clients in the last seven months,” he says. “And many of them are small properties coming off of self-manage- ment. However, could I say that it’s because of COVID-19 that they’ve turned to \[profes- sional\] management? I don’t really know the answer to that.” Halper goes on to say, though, that he be- lieves one particular reason they have seen an increase in new clients during the pandemic is that “we remained open throughout the pandemic. We never shut down, nor did we really work fully remotely. I do believe that has made a significant difference when we’ve interviewed with a lot of the smaller proper- ties. We’ve found that many companies—es- pecially the smaller ones—were working re- motely and continue to work remotely, and some of their clients have not been satisfied with their performance.” The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly wreaked havoc for properties large and small, professionally managed and self-managed alike. At the end of the day, the continued viability of your particular management ar- rangement lies more with the individuals in your community and their willingness to adjust to a frequently-changing landscape. If that adjustment is too difficult, professional management is just a phone call away. n A J Sidransky is a staff writer/reporter for New England Condominium, and a published novelist. SELF-MANAGEMENT continued from page 9 DUCT/DRYER VENT CLEANING