Page 8 - New England Condominium October 2019

8 NEW ENGLAND CONDOMINIUM -OCTOBER 2019 NEWENGLANDCONDO.COM CONT... “You have people who are very needy,” says Stoller, “and you have people who you never hear of from. And then you have people that have unusual requests. Often it’s just dealing with those types of unrealistic expectations and educating your clients, but it’s also help- ing them to understand that there are cer- tain things they’re responsible for.” “If it’s a non-emergency question, yes, by all means send us an email or pick up the phone and call us during business hours,” says Nardone. “There’s a difference between providing customer service and people tak- ing advantage of that. You have to set those boundaries upfront.” Methods and Tools Whether it’s through handwritten notes or spreadsheets, property managers have their own tools to get tasks done in a timely manner. For instance, Nardone carries a little notebook with him. “I like writing my stuff down,” he says, “and as I complete a task that day, I strike a line through it. At the end of the day, when I look at my list, I can say, ‘Alright, so I had 10 things to do, of which I accomplished seven.’ So there’s the sense that you’ve actually accomplished something.” Crespo says his company uses Excel spreadsheets for everything. “We use a lot of GoogleDocs that we can share internally to keep the team apprised of things. I’m always sending myself scheduled text messages be- cause I can respond to them really quickly. I use Gmail to filter through things that are important. That that really helps out with regards to time management.” Nugiel recommends having an annual calendar. “When you need to go out to bid for a snow contractor, it’s summer – and you’re not thinking about snow per se. So if you have it written down in the calendar, it gives you a good framework to work from. And a monthly calendar is good because you know you have certain meetings during the month, then you know when you need to get your board packages out to the board. That way, the manager and the board can It’s really important to work with a list of focus on the bigger projects where they’re cierge Plus, says that his company’s suite outstanding items and a calendar of items not constantly having to answer, ‘When are of tools helps managers with tasks, as well that you need to do as regular management the pool hours?’ ‘What are the trash days?’” activities. ” To plan his schedule effectively, Jordan ting his people at his company run with the the tasks module. It allows you to create blocks his time. “For example,” he says, “on ball. “A lot of people feel they need to con- Thursdays I try to schedule all of my of- fice meetings throughout the day,” he says. the way to make things really work best is or in a given period. They’re able to update “That way, everyone knows I’m in the office to give up some of that control to somebody those tasks with progress on that item, keep on Thursdays. The vendors know I’m there. else who can handle it. \[Doing that\] has al- And then I do the same exact thing when lowed us to really service our properties in a it, and then be able to print out those tasks I’m out in the field. I’ll have a day where I’ll manner that’s much more effective.” stay at a property and try and have multiple back-to-back vendors come by throughout the day, so I can get as many things done erty managers can employ special software as a walkthrough, versus driving back and to shave off time from their daily routine computer literacy and training will find that forth every single day to the same loca- tion.” Delegate! A property man- ager is not expected to accomplish every- thing on his or her own, and probably shouldn’t try – which makes delegating du- ties and responsibili- ties crucial. For instance, Weil’s company website; resident access to governing docu- uses a team system: “Our managers who ments; email and text message blasts; and dictate their work, says Weil. “One of the are responsible for the physical property accounting integration with resident data. hardest things for managers is they want to get bids, meet with contractors, and super- vise them. But their in-house assistants do President of Condo Control Center, says of he wanted to see me on Tuesday, but I’m a lot of their followup. Our compliance de- partment writes up the notices of meetings munication and improves transparency, so to have to set expectations as a manager, and the meeting agendas and minutes, and that the owners are able to get what they and then you have to manage the people makes sure insurance gets updated.” Jordan cites his company’s 24/7/365 Customer Center Center service as both a agement software is handling service re- useful time-saving tool and a form of del- egation. A homeowner can call the service’s like to have all of our customers get all their don’t plan are the employees who struggle toll-free number and have his or her ques- tions resolved by a customer care associate. residents can put the requests in themselves. “\[The associates\] have full access to all the That saves management time because they condominium docs, the rules and regula- tions, work orders – so you can look up your cord it. And then you’ve got everything in balance. They can help you make payments one spot. It makes it easier to follow up on \[and\] can direct you in the right direction. it.” Crespo says that he has no problem let- trol everything,” he says. “But sometimes manager is working on in a given month, Property Management Software Not just notebooks and calendars, prop- and service their cli- ents better. Compa- nies such as Condo idents’ email or text message blasts, keeping Central Center, Con- cierge Plus, Yardi, and ments,” Pietrzkiewicz says, “all of that stuff App Folio specialize is done in a seamless and integrated way in property manage- ment software. Gen- eral features of their tures and functionality into a very simple software include the and intuitive interface that really lets you creation of a condo get a lot done with not a lot of clicking.” or co-op community “It just streamlines things,” Brian Bosscher, make owners happy. Like, ‘So-and-so said management software. “It improves com- need. They don’t have to wait on anybody.” One of the advantages of property man- quests from residents, says Bosscher. “We couldn’t be more true. The employees who stuff into our system directly. So owners and the most with time management.” don’t have to type it, they don’t have to re- Peter Pietrzkiewicz, Founder of Con- as with accounting for their time. “One of the things that we have in our platform is the different kinds of tasks that a property track of how much time has been spent on in a really easy to understand format that the manager can include in the monthly re- port for the board.” A property manager with some degree of management software is generally easy to use. “Whether that’s sharing files, doing res- track of packages, amenity bookings, pay- with any kind of online property manage- ment software. We try to put complex fea- In the end, for managers it all comes down to planning, and not letting events supposed to be across town.’ You really have who are, in effect, your bosses.” “There’s an old saying: ‘Failure to plan is a plan for failure,’” says Nardone. “And that n David Chiu is Associate Editor at New Eng- land Condominium. “You have to pick your core tasks that are absolutely essential, and do them without fail.” —Sean Jordan HOW PROPERTY.. continued from page 6 buildings or associations. Giving residents brokers to maintain active social media ac- the opportunity to say online what they counts where they broadcast their listings, not looking to hook in new people. When tions as a way to communicate with each wouldn’t (and probably shouldn’t) say in but more importantly also listen to what units are for sale, you see social media used other in a completely private, secure forum. the hallway could quickly set not just a bad their customers are looking for in their on- precedent, but could also create a toxic at- mosphere in the community as a whole. Buying and Selling Led Black, a social media consultant in New York, says he has never encountered an official Facebook group for a co-op or con- do – but he has seen the platform used in the sales and marketing of co-op and condo units. “As far as real estate is concerned,” he er-buyers-new-approaches) says, “social media is a cost-effective way of reaching potential customers. I would My Boston Condo in Boston concurs. “So- advise sales agents, managing agents, and cial media leans more towards advertising,” BuildingLink that provide an ‘intranet’ of line comments. I also would advise them to ence for a unit or an entire building gener- look into advertising on Facebook and Ins- tagram, because you can set your own bud- get and get very granular with your target- ing. A healthy mixture of organic and paid engagement can get more properties sold.” used by co-op and condo residents, boards through email – especially emergency no- (For more on what next-gen home buyers and managers for the purposes of commu- are looking for, and how they’re finding it, nication about building issues, and for no- visit https://cooperator.com/article/young- Bobby Woofter, a real estate agent with has been email. In addition to regular email, he says. “Condo associations themselves are sorts for individual buildings or associa- by marketing teams. The social media pres- ally isn’t maintained after the property is scribes BuildingLink as “an information and sold, or after the project is sold out.” Tech That Co-ops and Condos Do Use Web-based technologies are primarily tween building residents and management tifications. As Halper points out, the main means of communication for many years there are web-based applications such as Meryl Sacks, President of Sacks Real Estate Management in New York City, de- communication software system. Its most heavily-used aspect is communication be- tifications, which can be broadcast through MULTI-FAMILY... continued from page 1 continued on page 13