Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Property Managers In Cohousing

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

Lois Lyons <llpens3601 [at] gmail.com>
is the author of the message below.  It was posted by
Fred, the Cohousing-L list manager <fholson [at] cohousing.org>
after deleting qutoed digest and restoring digest subject line.
--------------------  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS --------------------
Responding to Holly McNutt. We are fortunate in living where there are
several very good proprty managers. We haven't had the problems that
Holly describes. It depends on the quality of the management company.
It may be better to not have one at all if the alternative is the kind
of experience she describes  As for the management company hiring
people they know, we always ask them to get several bids before we
(the board) decide, so that problem doesn't present itself. The board
really needs at least one person to oversee everything and to make
sure bills are paid on time, work is done properly, etc.

The condo I live in has only 17 units and is located near Los Angeles.
I realize that cohousing is different than a condo but there are many
parallels. I can see that some co housing complexes may be located
where there are few good management companies to choose from or
possibly none.  I don't have a suggestion for such a situation except
that the board has to be hyper vigilant and good at management
themselves. It might be a good idea to have a real estate attorney who
knows the law for condos and co housing to call on when needed. Other
than that I send everyone in Co-housing my best wishes for successful
management.

Louise