Have HOA Management questions? 

Progressive Property Management, Inc. (residential property management), dba Partners Real Estate Group (real estate sales), dba Progressive Association Management (association management) is 100% owned by Scott P. Brady. He graduated from UC Berkeley with a BA in Comparative Literature (German, Latin & English), earned his MBA from Call State Fullerton and obtained his broker’s license in 1997. He became a top producing real estate agent, joined the Coldwell Banker franchise in 2003, and experienced first-hand, the Great Recession. After crawling through that financial wreckage, he started Progressive Property Management in 2012 to not only survive any recession, but to thrive in any residential market.

From 0 doors under management in 2012, Progressive now manages over 1,000 residential properties (doors). In 2014, Progressive started allowing agents working for their sister company, Partners Real Estate Group, to manage properties. The goal is to add a minimum of 50 residential properties a year. In 2020, when the Covid lockdown occurred and there was the potential for a statewide “rent holiday” and a threat to residential management income, he started Progressive Association Management and now expects to add 50 to 60 associations a year or 3,500 to 5,000 owners. We currently manage about 195 associations and 12,500 owners.

Like many residential management companies, we were receiving inquiries from associations asking us to manage their communities. Spurred by COVID, we started Progressive Association Management in 2020. We have found that communities that are 20 to 200 owners in size are being neglected by the industry. They are either too small for the large management companies, too big for the very small “mom and pop” companies and there is just a shortage of mid-sized companies (managing 50 to 250 communities). Progressive had the opportunity to build a company and business model to provide a higher level of service to these communities at a fair, transparent price. We now manage over 195+ communities that are 12 to 700 owners in size, but our average community size is about 100 owners.

Our main office is at 1290 N. Hancock St., Ste. 103 in Anaheim. That is where our departments are located. You will find accounts receivable (collecting dues), accounts payable (paying all invoices), collections, financials and management. We have three branch offices where Community Managers can congregate and prepare board packages, in Pasadena, Long Beach (Los Alamitos) and soon Riverside. For the most part, our Community Managers work out of their homes and are “remote”. We require they live within 30 minutes of any community they manage, but their business office is usually at home. They spend at least one day per week in office for training and compliance.

There are many association management companies and most share the same business model: they have a salaried Community Manager, who makes $70,000 to $90,000 a year, and they require them to manage a minimum of two to three times that salary in base management fees. So, for a community of 100 paying $1,850 a month in the base management fee (using our pricing), with a Community Manager making $7,000 month, they would be required to manage 11 to 15 communities, perform 20 to 30 on-site walks and meetings, answer to 40 to 50 board members and another 1,300 to 1,500 owners. They are assigned an almost impossible task.

At Progressive, we pay our managers 50% of the base management fee and limit them to 10 communities or 1,000 owners, whichever comes first. Most work remotely from their home a majority of the week and are your local “boots on the ground”. The job of a Community Manager can be trying, so they enjoy a better lifestyle working remotely. By limiting the number of communities and owners they manage and paying them more, we expect them to provide a higher level of customer service. Also, if it is a fit, and you are satisfied with their service and they enjoy managing your community, they may be your manager for years.

In addition to your base management fee, we charge three recurring fees and a one-time fee: a management software access fee ($1.15/per owner per month); an annual budget assistance fee ($5 per owner per year); recording meeting minutes ($75 per meeting); and a one-time set up fee of $10 per owner. We are also entitled to be reimbursed for hard costs incurred for your community (paper, printing, postage, etc.). We do not charge to coordinate vendors, communicate with your attorney or interact with your vendors as many other companies do. If an owner pays late, we do retain 50% of the late charge. In addition, if the board requests for us to mail out documents to the community, or if there are boxes requiring storage, we are reimbursed for our costs as follows:

Our pricing is completely transparent and not pulled out of thin air. You can visit our website and go to our pricing page (www.Progressive-Am.com) but it is based on two factors: how many owners are in your community and the total amount of your monthly dues. We charge a flat fee per owner which decreases as the number of owners increases due to economies of scale, and 3% of your total monthly dues higher dues means more common area covered by the association and more complex finances. Here is a table of those fees so you can calculate your base monthly fee yourself:

Yes, we do. For a community with a minimum of 30 owners, for an additional $4 per owner per month, we include the cost to record the minutes ($75), the monthly software access fee ($1.30 per owner per month), the annual budget assistance fee ($5 per owner per year) and all mailings to the community.

The fee our management software company (Cinc) charges us. Unlike other software providers, who charge an additional fee for owners to pay online, there is no additional fee with Cinc. We chose this software because of how robust it is. Owners have their own portal where they can pay online, make maintenance requests and communicate with our company. The board may also allow free access to community documents in this portal. The board has a higher level of access and can review the monthly financials and bank statements and approve invoices.

Sometimes it is not a fit between the manager and the board. If that occurs, we expect you to reach out to our management team and we can find another manager to assume your account. We ask that you give your manager a few months to get acclimated to the board and community before making that request.

We understand that effective communication, between the board, the Community Manager and your owners and both the manager and our company is paramount to a successful business relationship. To achieve better communication, the board will have the cell phone number of their manager. We ask that you use this judiciously, during working hours, and prefer communication to go through one board director. Assuming the board follows this request, the manager should return calls or text messages almost immediately, but certainly within 24 hours. In our management agreement, we guarantee to return any owner’s email or call within 2 business days or we pay a financial penalty (we reduce our management fee by $100 for that month). We also have a local emergency number.

Since we manage almost 1,000 properties and over 200 associations, we understand the importance of comprehensive and effective insurance.  We carry the following policies:

• • General Liability – This covers any damage to person or property at a community, rental property or during the course of work.
  • Errors and Omissions – This covers an agent for real estate related activities includes residential property management, association management and real estate sales.
  • Cybertheft – Anyone who handles money is a target of unscrupulous criminals looking to steal funds.  This can be business operating, trust or even reserve funds.
  • Workers Compensation – If an employee, manager or agent is injured on the job, their injury is covered by this state fund.
  • Fidelity Bond – We have a $1,000,000 Fidelity Bond to protect the funds we have on hand.

First you must terminate the agreement with your current company. Review that contract carefully, some contracts allow termination with 30-day notice, others 60-day, but a few only allow you to cancel the contract during a specific 30-day window or the contract automatically renews for another year. Once that agreement is terminated, which can be done via email or written notice, you will execute our contract. Once that is complete, we will start the transition process. This includes reaching out to your current company, obtaining the “owner role”, picking up governing documents, changing banks and on boarding your owners. We can transition a community in 30 days, but 45 days is preferable.