Re: Property Managers In Cohousing | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Holly McNutt (holly.mcnutt![]() |
|
Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2013 10:20:59 -0800 (PST) |
Hey, thanks for chiming in. As a property manager, I love hearing success stories! - Holly at Nyland Holly Wilder Visionary Properties LLC www.visionaryproperties.vpweb.com hollywilder23 [at] gmail.com (303) 517-4180 cell (303) 447-8204 fax On Jan 23, 2013, at 7:04 PM, Jim Snyder-Grant wrote: > > New View Cohousing (Acton MA) has gotten deeper and deeper in to the > professional management business over the last 17 years. We started with a > local handyman after a few years here, and smaller property management > firms of one or two people. Now we work with a large property management > firm. The main guy we work with has had a learning curve, but he's working > out well. He works closely (monthly meetings and lots of email and some > calls) with the maintenance committee and the committee takes care of > dealing with the rest of the community or other committees as needed. From > the property manager viewpoint it's kind of like working with a slow board, > but it works out. > > What are our compelling reasons for working with a property manager? > -Large company can often find contractors when we can't (this was more true > in boom times). > -Since they handle both bookkeeping and hiring contractors, important stuff > gets done correctly, like collecting insurance certificates. > -Our aging property has some tricky problems. They can get us good advice > and good people to fix them. > -Our aging population is not doing as much physical work as we used to (and > we never did have a super-high participation rate). We still have > volunteers (and some paid community members) do some work, but we have more > work then we can find residents with appropriate skills to do them. Having > a property manager and a maintenance committee means tasks get tracked, > prioritized and completed much better then they used to. > > It's expensive, but we keep deciding it's worth it. > > Jim Snyder-Grant > Home: 978 266-9409 > Cell: 508 572-2985 > 18 Half Moon Hill > Acton MA 01720 > > > On Sat, Dec 15, 2012 at 4:03 PM, John Carver <jcarver [at] islandnet.com> > wrote: > >> >> When Pacific Gardens cohousing community moved into our new building, >> this was quite a discussion, ranging from some wanting cohousers to do >> it all as community to some not trusting any members to manage such a >> task, foreseeing the deterioration of the property and chaos. We opted >> to try to manage as much as we could for now, but hired a consultant to >> help us get started with what we needed to know and to set up the first >> budget. >> >> After three years we are still doing the work ourselves, but get help >> and advice where needed and as much as we can. We've hired consultants a >> few times, but get most of our advice from the condo owners' association >> we belong to, called Vancouver Island Strata Owners Association (VISOA >> <http://www.visoa.bc.ca/>). >> >> Members of VISOA are owners of condominiums (called 'strata properties' >> here) in the region. Many of these are self-managed and the members have >> a wealth of experience to share. Just last weekend I attended an >> excellent workshop on reserve fund planning given by the association. >> >> So for the problems: >> 1. Yes, it takes time. Not just decisions, but learning what you need >> to know to make those decisions responsibly. >> 2. We do sometimes overlook things, like maintenance tasks. It's all >> about learning to take care of a large and complex building. >> 3. Not equally shared. Most of the work is being done by a small group >> of people. But I suppose that's true of any volunteer organization. >> >> The advantages: >> 1. We get to choose how we want to run things. >> 2. For better or worse, we share the responsibility. >> >> So far the only job that members are being paid for is janitorial. When >> we realized that we could not keep up with the regular cleaning (it's >> not a popular community job) we looked into hiring a company to come in >> weekly. But then we decided to give the job to people living here who >> needed paid work. Other work we can't handle is done by outside >> contractors. >> >> In conclusion I would say it's rewarding and good community building to >> do it yourself, but it is work. And you do need to seek out advice and >> direction from other building and condo owners, associations and >> professionals. >> >> John Carver >> Pacific Gardens Cohousing >> Nanaimo, BC >> http://pacificgardens.ca/ >> >> _________________________________________________________________ >> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at: >> http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/ >> >> >> > _________________________________________________________________ > Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at: > http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/ > >
- Re: Property Managers In Cohousing, (continued)
- Re: Property Managers In Cohousing Sharon Villines, December 12 2012
- Re: Property Managers In Cohousing John Carver, December 15 2012
- Re: Property Managers In Cohousing Jim Snyder-Grant, January 23 2013
- Re: Property Managers In Cohousing Diana Carroll, January 24 2013
- Re: Property Managers In Cohousing Holly McNutt, January 24 2013
Results generated by Tiger Technologies Web hosting using MHonArc.