Thanks AdC for the complements!

Property managers owe the owners a fiduciary obligation, which means in simple terms to act in a position of trust for the benefit of the principal (or Cooperative/Condo).

As per my previous post..
"...a good manager will have some sort of check and balance system, some type of ethical model and a set system for handling certain sensitive situations. These are things that should be discovered during the initial interview with the agent or management company..."

Paramount to hiring an agent/company is knowing what your needs are.
Then we can establish a check list to hire.

Several principals:
~ Hire a company that only uses licensed and insured vendors, not in-house staff.
~ Hire a company that has managers with credentials (there is added accountability to him/her).
~ Hire a company that is primarily the property management business .You don’t want a company that manages your property as a loss leader to attract owners to sell them more lucrative services like maintenance or listings and sales.

The answers to those will help you decide who is best qualified to manage your property!

The individual agent/manager should be able to answer:

~ Communication – All board members should have a cell phone number for the pm, and all residents his/her email address. (I like email best because it creates a trail, reminders, and is much faster and more effective)
~ Bidding process - how are larger projects handled? How are the bids reviewed and decided on? Also, smaller day to day repairs.. how are these handled?
~ How are emergencies handled? - give a scenario: Mrs. Jones in 5A has water seepage in her bathroom, there are 6 more floors above her.. What procedure do you take to determine the cause, resolution and conclusion?

There are many more that can be added to the list, but these are what I think to be the main ones.
Check also to see if any complaints have been filed against them.

Finally, when you hire a company that will be charging you approximately $2.00 per day per unit, don’t ask how to get it done cheaper! Instead, you should be asking what efforts will be made to extend the life of your property, develop a budget to increase your equity and cash flow and assist in reaching your written goals.

Hope this helps!!

~AR