Many communities struggle with the decision of self-management vs. professionally management for their association. Self-management can work if you’re a small to medium size association that has enough volunteers to do the work. The key is finding enough volunteers who can do the job to give freely of their time. When volunteers shoulder more than their fair share for a lengthy time, it may lead to frustration.
There’s a lot to manage in a successful community. Every owner contributes through assessments for insurance, maintenance, and amenities. If you’re one of the volunteers, you may also wear many hats because someone has to take care of the day-to-day association business. Collector, rule enforcer, treasurer, vendor management and more. Volunteering at best can be a thankless job, but some people enjoy serving their community. But, enjoyment stops if the job becomes all-consuming and overwhelming, especially when part of the job is dealing with your neighbors delinquencies or violations.
It’s tough to deal with neighbors who are in arrears, and it can be even more difficult to take action when they won’t attempt to pay assessments. Nor is it easy to approach neighbors to enforce association rules. Volunteers can be targets of criticism from other owners, even when they are highly skilled. For example, your treasurer may be a CPA, but he or she can be the target when neighbors don’t agree with how money is spent in the association.
Neighbors aren’t always fair to those few volunteers who give so much, and that can make life difficult. Plus, the number of hours needed to handle community business continues to grow. After a while, some volunteers decide that they want their life back and search for a way to give the same as other homeowners. There is a way to distribute the workload for your community. A professional management company can handle part or all of the day-to-day business for your association, which frees your Board to focus on other issues to help the community.
Property management companies offer multiple service options. For example, your Board may choose to outsource collections and/or bookkeeping. Or, you may want the management company to handle all your routine business transactions. It’s your choice.
Best of all, hiring a property management company is very cost-effective. It may even save you money due to buying services in volume, streamlining processes and improving collections. Look into property management and find out if it’s right for your community.
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Wise Property Solutions is a property management company serving East Tennessee with offices in Knoxville, TN and the Tri-Cities, TN-VA. Specializing in Condominium Association Management, Home Owners Association Management, HOA Management and Gated Community Association Management.