Everything You Need to Know About Your Co-op / Condo Property Manager
Jan. 7, 2011 — Your relationship with the management company that oversees much of your building’s business is probably the most important one your board maintains. So that your performance and price expectations are real, Habitat presents its annual “Business of Management” survey, now in its 22nd year.
Participating were 49 property management firms, represent 3,563 co-op and condo buildings — about 44 percent of New York’s co-op / condo housing stock, so chances are high that your management firm is in here. What are their annual minimums per building? Are lock-box fees and bank charges included in their management contracts? What state, city and tax forms they file pro forma with their fee, and for which do they charge extra? Which ones let co-op shareholders and condo unit-owners pay their monthly maintenance or carrying charges online, by charge card or through automatic debit? What fees do they charge your residents for alteration-plan reviews, sublet applications and other things?
Our findings appear in a series of five charts available in print in the January issue of Habitat as well as in our online digital edition (with the survey viewable to subscribers only, though others can sample the first 25 pages of our other content for free). There you'll find comprehensive charts of:
- Who's Managing What and Where
- Fees and Extra Charges
- Manager Salaries, Gender and Other Stats
- Board Business: Budgeting and Communication
- Resident Business: Fees of Ownership
About 6 percent of the buildings covered here changed management companies in the past year. Each manager oversees, on average, 5.7 buildings. Seventy-five percent of management principals actually manage buildings. Sixty percent are male. Firms have been in business for as few as four years and as many as 85.
Annual minimums per building can be as low as $9,000 to $12,000 — plus loads of per-item fees, though some low-cost companies actually include a lot built in to their annual charge — to as high as $45,000 by two companies — both of whom also have loads of per-item fees!
You'll see which three companies
allow residents no electronic
payment whatsoever,
insisting on paper checks.
Some include capital-improvement project management as part of their fee, like one of the two top-end firms mentioned above — though the other one does charge for that, on a sliding scale.
To give you an accurate picture of each company's size and resources, one chart lists the number of full-time staff and the average entry-level and senior-level salaries, plus what benefits they offer to employees.
You'll also which methods of management / board communication you and your peers are using: phone, e-mail, texting and face-to-face. And among our other findings, you'll see which three companies allow no electronic payment whatsoever, insisting on paper checks.
The more we look at these charts ourselves, the more we're convinced that if a board's proceeding without these objective facts and knowledge, you're flying blind. You're not being robbed blind, presumably, but, y'know, whether you're totally blind or legally blind, you still shouldn't be driving.
Click here to see a list of participating management companies.
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