We hear time and time again from disgruntled boards, the following complaints about their current association management company:
- The Community Manager does not respond to emails or calls quickly.
- The company assigns a different Community Manager every few years (or less).
- The Community Manager does not care about the community they are managing.
But here is the truth: the Community Manager assigned to your community simply may not have the ability to provide the customer service you deserve because they have so many other communities to manage, boards to communicate with, and owners to assist.
You may not be aware, but the typical association management company, has the following business model:
- They pay the Community Manager 20 to 25% of the base management fee. If you are a 75-owner community, paying $1,250 a month for full service management services, your Community Manager earns $312 a month managing your community.
- To make a decent living in Southern California, they would need to manage another 19 communities your size, or 1,425 owners and up to 100 board members.
- That could mean 80 hours out of the office conducting monthly board meetings and monthly site visits. Out of 160 work hours, they may be in the office 80 hours to do their regular job of managing your association. As a W-2 employee, they work 9 to 5, have vacation and sick days, and are not expected to work on the weekends.
- If the Community Manager is still able to do their job successfully for these 75 owner associations, they will be promoted to the larger more profitable communities in the company’s portfolio, and you are assigned a new Community Manager who will learn their craft at your expense.
We have a different and better business model at Progressive Association Management:
- If your community is 50+ owners in size, our local Branch Manager, who is a licensed Realtor, and who also provides residential property management services for 50 or so properties, will be your assigned Certified Community Manager.
- They are an Independent Contractor, meaning they can only have their license with us and work for us, but are paid by 1099 and are not an employee.
- They manage no more than 4 communities or 400 owners, whichever comes first, and are paid 50% of the base management fee.
- If your community has fewer than 50 owners, you will be assigned an “in-house” Community Manager, who is still paid 50% of the base management fee and manages no more than 20 communities or 600 owners. They do not sell real estate or manage residential doors.
- Since they are Independent Contractors, we expect them to take board calls on weekends and in the evenings and they work remotely, and live close to the communities they manage.
At Progressive, we don’t just have better Community Managers, we provide a better business model that allows them to do their job properly and provide a higher level of customer service to our communities.
