Page 21 - New England Condominium October 2021

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WE ARE BOTH PROPERTY MANAGEMENT & PROTECTION PROFESSIONALS CERTIFIED WITH OVER 30 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE. 1.978.212.5823 • chrislanni@secure-residential.com www.secure-residential.com Secure Residential Services, LLC is an independent consulting fi rm specializing in general security management consulting and liability issues in the residential property management setting. We provide physical security, risk, staffi ng and security-related technology assessments and project management services. We offer expert witness services, Director of Security services “by the hour”, incident follow-up services, policy and procedure review and development services as well as staff and resident awareness programs. We help property managers, board members, developers and owners understand security initiatives and how they are maintained through the appropriate use of technology, policy & procedure and staffi ng. ferencing has proved to be a vital bridge between work and home. “We are in a discovery phase,” says Miller, “where corporate America is try- ing to fi gure out how this works down the road. Th e relationship between work and home has changed; the future isn’t going to be as it is now or was before COVID, but rather somewhere in between. Indus- tries will adapt to a new balance between work and home. It’s become an employee benefi t to have that fl exibility. Th at chang- es things, like markets in the suburbs. You have reverse commuters, which wasn’t on the table before. “What didn’t happen,” Miller contin- ues, “was that for the most part, people didn’t just sell their homes in the city and move away. Many bought second homes—co-primary or alternative-pri- mary homes, so to speak—and thanks to remote work, they commute less. One thing I think the experts and pundits have wrong about remote work is that they’re focusing on people who work in the city and live in the suburbs—overlooking those who do the opposite: living in the city and working in the suburbs. Th ere are currently more people telecommuting from Manhattan to the suburbs than from the suburbs to city-based or other subur- ban work locations right now. People who want to live in the city will work remotely for companies based in the suburbs—and vice versa—in the future.” Suburban vs. Urban In the greater Boston market, buyers have distinct choices between urban and suburban lifestyles, with many gravitating toward the popular townhouse condos common throughout suburban Boston. “In terms of pricing and lifestyle, townhouses in suburbs are a great entry point for fi rst-time buyers,” says Allenby. “A townhouse gives you the opportunity of ownership without a complete lifestyle change. You don’t worry about cutting grass. During COVID, this segment of the market was up, because it wasn’t ur- ban, and was less dense. People wanted more space, so they made the jump and bought—so the townhouse market re- mains strong.” Manning points out that “many sub- urbanites are also keeping a unit down- town—some for personal use, and some for rental investment. In general, younger buyers are looking for downtown condo- miniums.” Overall, both Manning and Allenby see their markets in downtown Boston and in the suburbs as improving. While COVID did bring some uncertainty and a bit of a rollercoaster ride to the market, that ride seems to have calmed, and ac- cording to the pros, its direction seems to be trending carefully—but steadily—up- ward. n A J Sidransky is a staff writer/reporter for New England Condominium, and a pub- lished novelist. describes the bidding process for large capital improvements as follows: “Let’s say I need to replace a roof—so I call in an engineer who specializes in roofs. Th ey come out and inspect the property and then create a request for proposal, or RFP. From there, the engineer will draw up project specs and a bid package that will be sent to between three and fi ve ven- dors, depending on the preferences of the board. Also, vendors and contractors are very busy—so if you only send an RFP to three, you may not fi nd one.” To ensure fairness and impartiality, says attorney Hubert Cutolo, founding partner of Newark, New Jersey-based law fi rm Cutolo Barros, LLC, an RFP should stipulate a deadline for submissions— usually around 20 days—aft er which no other bids will be considered. Once all the responses are collected, says Cutolo, they’re delivered back to the board and/or manager in a sealed format, and all opened at the same time. (Opening bids as they come in could give an early bidder an advantage—or allow other bidders to adjust their proposals to undercut the known bid.) Some boards elect to unseal bids at a regularly scheduled board meeting. Oth- ers limit it to the manager and the board president (and the engineer or other pro- fessional if involved), who coordinate the unsealing together according to their schedules, and then share the results with the rest of the board online. Regardless of a board’s preferred method, at least two people should be charged with unsealing the bids together to ensure transparency and accountability. And, says Cutolo, “While price is not the sole factor in determining which ven- dor the board selects, the process of bid- ding under seal ensures that the vendors submitting bids will off er the most com- petitive prices. Without soliciting mul- tiple bids, the board and its management may not be able to reasonably determine if a bid is in line with market forces.” “We also tell boards that the lowest \\\\\\\[price is\\\\\\\] not necessarily the best,” adds Schlossberg. “At this point, we pare it down to three candidates based on previ- ous experience with the companies and/ or referrals from other people who have used them. Th en comes a meeting with the engineer and companies one at a time to ‘sharpen the pencil’”—a common eu- phemism for adjusting their proposals to a more favorable price or off ering. “We get their best price and best schedule, check for contingencies, and whether there’s a cushion in the price for unexpected prob- lems. Th ey come back with fi nal revised bids, and then the board picks a vendor.” Th e pros add that this ‘pencil-sharpening’ THE BIDDING... continued from page 1 continued on page 22 See us at Booth 102