ARTICLE: Self vs Professional Building Management for your Apartment Building or Resort.
This is one of the most important decisions a building management committee needs to make. Only a few years ago you effectively had two choices, to hire a company who offer building management services to look after everything or do it all in-house.
However fortunately, this is no longer an either/or decision
The property management industry in Cyprus has evolved and many apartment building managers offer custom services to perform individual specific key tasks and work with an active committee who deal with organise other tasks directly.
Maybe you are lucky enough to have an admin king/queen on the committee so all the back-end stuff you can keep in house, but you want to benefit from having a property manager available 24-hours a day to deal with maintenance, or you want to hire a property manager to cover every and all aspects of the administration and management of your building from A-Z so all the committee need to do is supervise and check the reports. The choice is now yours.
You need to find out what balance you want. How many and what specific tasks do you want to keep in-house and what do you need to hire out to a professional?
Note: Self-management does not always = cost savings!
Providing there are individuals on the committee with suitable experience and skills to perform the necessary tasks and most importantly are willing to devote their time to perform these tasks, keeping some or all of these tasks in-house can save the building a significant sum in professional management fees.
However, if these individuals do not exist on the committee choosing self-management can have serious side effects.
The most common reason I find for buildings self-managing is not because they can do everything in-house but because they have financial problems, and are trying to save money.
If this is the case, then self-management is NOT the solution. It’s a dangerous trap with potentially devastating consequences.
Most of these scenarios end up with individuals without enough time, knowledge of the regulations and/or experience dealing with essential tasks like credit control and administration. This can result in inconsistent services, unstable committees, lower collection rates and all the financial problems it creates.
Once this stage is reached you can recover, but it takes an extremely long time, so it’s best to take every effort to stop this from happening in the first place.
While it may seem contradictory to spend money on a property professional when you are already experiencing funding options, you must keep in mind one of the first negative effects from poor or inconsistent management is a reduction in payment rates as owners get frustrated with the site condition or loose faith in the committee.
A building management professional can assist the committee to ensure that the building standards are maintained, the committee operates within the regulations and help the committee save money through operational efficiencies.
So if you dont have the individuals on the committee who have the experience, knowledge and time to consistently do all the essential tasks of running a multi-million euro building, hiring a professional property manager is a investment which will financially benefit the building rather than cost it.
Plus, many providers offer communal collection services on a fixed percentage with a no-collection no-fee policy.
So, while the choice is now yours, it’s never been more important to make an informed one.
If you are unsure of the roles and requirements of being on the management committee, how to approach and organise a bidding process for a property manager and figuring out what you can and cannot afford to keep in house get a copy of my latest book The Ultimate Committee Handbook which covers this subject in great detail.
Looking for a professional?
While I founded the Cyprus Communal Guide as a free resource to help apartment owners and management committees with free advice and support, I also run Cyprus's leading independent specialist communal management companies -Complete Property Management www.CompletePropertyManagement.com.cy
If you are looking for a professional property manager to assist your building simply contact me to organise a free no obligation consultation call or meeting.
Russell Flick
The Cyprus Communal Guide
Helping you unlock your buildings true potential.
