New England Condominium January 2020

January 2020
NEWENGLANDCONDO.COM
Like so many other sectors of the
economy, residential real estate manage-
ment has changed and evolved since the
turn of the millennium—and like those
other sectors, much of that evolution is
directly linked to the development and
adoption of technology. Yet the essence
of the manager’s mission remains the
same: one of close interpersonal interac-
tion. Technological advances may have
sped up response times and analytics
in many situations, but good, old-fash-
ioned personal contact still remains the
keystone to effective management.
The Game Changer, for
Better or Worse
What seems to have changed the
most in the last couple of decades is
the manager’s work hours. Daniel Woll-
man, the CEO of Gumley-Haft, a man-
agement firm based in New York City,
explains that years ago, his job—while
not a traditional 9-to-5 position—was
more or less limited to regular business
hours. Particularly during the summer
months, the pace of work would slow as
many people in the industry went away
for long periods of time, often as much
as a month or even the whole season.
With the advent and adoption of email
as the primary means of communication
between managers and their client com-
munities, that’s definitely changed.
“Email changed everything,” Woll-
man says. “Thirty years ago, there wasn’t
an internet. Now I get north of 300
emails daily. This isn’t a criticism, but we
now communicate 24 hours per day, 365
days per year. Email has substantially
changed my life. Where we were virtual-
ly dead during the summer, now people
fire off emails while sitting at the pool
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Despite the best intentions of board members, residents, and even managers, co-op and
condominium properties don’t always run like well-tuned machines. Sometimes they hit a
bump in the road...and sometimes they break down completely. The reasons behind such a
breakdown can come from many directions, including financial missteps, physical plant prob-
lems, and interpersonal disputes.
Money and Maintenance
In any business, money is always a potentially huge problem—and co-op corporations and
condominium associations are no exception to this rule. Financial complications tend to come
from two directions: One is financing, the other is reserves.
Financing tends to be the larger potential problem for co-ops, where there is usually an
underlying permanent mortgage on the entire property that must be paid monthly. That said,
there are condominium associations that undertake community-wide financing for any num-
ber of reasons that can make the whole community liable in the event of default.
Reserves (or the lack thereof) are the other area where co-op and condo properties may find
themselves in financial distress. Like just about everything else, physical plants and common
elements age—and if proper reserves have not been built up and maintained, buildings may
find themselves in the financial weeds if a major physical component like a roof or boiler sud-
denly needs repair or replacement, or if a bad winter or other unforeseen event causes extensive
damage to the property.
According to Stuart Halper, vice president of Impact Management, a co-op and condo
management firm with offices in Manhattan, Westchester, and Long Island, New York, “A dis-
In today’s world of high-tech property
management and building security, there
are more options than ever for managers
and boards to choose from to keep their
communities on the cutting edge. There
are web- and device-based apps for ev-
erything from package delivery to door
entry to bill paying. When considering
updating, or introducing new manage-
ment or security technology, the question
for co-op and condo board members and
their building managers is not necessar-
ily which tech is best, but rather which is
most easily adaptable for the people who
will actually be using it: the residents.
Chris Lincoln, property manager with
At Home Real Estate Group, Inc., in Bos-
ton sums up managers’ relationship with
technology this way: “If we didn’t have
technology, it would be rather difficult to
function.”
Broad Spectrum
And the functions that technology
helps facilitate are broad. There are any
number of apps and hardware designed
to improve efficiency, safety, and secu-
rity in all aspects of property manage-
ment and communication for co-op and
condo communities. They come in all
shapes and sizes, from simple individual
apps designed to answer your doorbell
or track and accept packages, to broad-
based, integrated systems designed to
do just about everything. Choosing one
over the other is often a function of the
size and complexity of the association or
corporation using it. A five-unit walk-up
condo has significantly different needs
than a 500-unit co-op with multiple el-
evator banks – but regardless of commu-
nity size, for any app- or web-based tech
assistance to be successful, the people liv-
ing in the community have to believe in
and use it.
BuildingLink is both a communication
tool and a management tool, based in
New York City that helps to collect, store,
and distribute information for buildings,
and serves more than 450 buildings in
tressed property is generally the result of fiscal mismanagement. For
example, boards may choose to undertake the wrong projects at the
wrong time. They may decide they prefer to renovate the lobby when
in fact they should be upgrading their boiler. Or they may decide to
put in solar panels when they should be converting from oil to gas.”
And those aren’t just theoretical, Halper is quick to note. “These are
real examples that we’ve encountered over the years.”
The Challenges of
Managing a Distressed Property
Getting Back on Track
BY A J SIDRANSKY
The Evolution of
Property Management
Big Changes in the Last Decade
BY A J SIDRANSKY
Introducing New
Security Tech in
Your Building
The Challenge of Change
BY A J SIDRANSKY
205 Lexington Avenue, NY, NY 10016 • CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED
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