Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: cost for management companies?

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Dec 7, 2015, at 3:01 PM, John Carver <jcarver [at] islandnet.com> wrote:
> 
> Along with cost it would be helpful to know what services the group is 
> getting for the money. Management contracts can vary a lot from place to 
> place, from an annual or occasional consultancy to bookkeeping services, to 
> full-on facilities management, where all the business of property maintenance 
> & repair, financial and legal documents, minutes, bylaw enforcement and other 
> stuff is taken care of.

One of the problems with what the fee includes is that what a cohousing 
community would expect it to include what a company managing traditional condos 
would expect it to include. It’s one of definition. We don’t speak the same 
language. 

It is not a situation where we call them, they manage the property, and report 
in at board meetings. One of our management companies said most of the boards 
they work with never even look at budgets and financial reports. They bring 
them to board meetings — and the board is the only governance body — in the 
same envelops they received them in, unopened.

We do all the work of budgeting, overseeing maintenance and repair, legal 
documents, minutes, etc. It’s more like we give them tasks they can do — like 
the accounting. We still have a lawyer who reviews documents. Another CPA who 
does the audit.

Our facilities rep from the management company attends one meeting a month and 
recommends providers. Someone’s tub was leaking over the weekend and he picked 
up the email and gave her the number of the plumber to call. She called and 
supervised the appointment. He advises but his advice is limited to what he has 
dealt with before. 

He shares what other condos do — standard practices. The company outsource the 
condo fee collection to a company in Utah and send late fee letters. 

I think calling a consultant is better — like a general construction engineer 
who has expert experience is better. They might charge $200 an hour but you 
know they know the specific issues. You don’t have to call the  management 
company who then calls specialists and gets three bids.

In my opinion— you can see I disagree with the forces in charge — is that what 
the company most provides is a feeling of security. It makes many people feel 
that a professional is in charge. 

They do not do our minutes for board meetings but I think they would if we 
wanted them to— conventional condos do. But like many other things, we do a 
better job and we do one that meets our needs as a community — not just as a 
condo or property owners association.

Bookkeeping, bill paying, and condo fee management can be done on line now so 
easily. A CPA or bookkeeper can set up the books if your people don’t know how 
to do it. Perhaps the same CPA who does the taxes and audits the books at the 
end of the year. Services like Freshbooks print out reports for CPAs and 
auditors. And they can review all the accounts online. Another community uses 
Xero.

Managing cohousing is hard because it can’t be hands off. We have to do most of 
it ourselves and we do a better job. Some people like book keeping as much as 
others like gardening. Do we really think others know more than we do? Usually 
we don’t so hiring a management company is a questionable use of funds. If a 
community has no one who wants to do the bookkeeping, just like a community 
that happens to have no gardeners, then you can hire it out. If you have no one 
who works with books and budgets professionally, hire it out. It really depends 
on the skills and interests you have in the community.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines, Washington DC
"The story of history is the story of increasingly complex organization."