How to Hire the Best Community Management Company

When hiring a property management company, going through your options to make the best choice can certainly make your life much more comfortable. But with so many property management companies to choose from, it can be overwhelming and quite stressful to pick the right one to fit your board and community’s needs. There’s also the question of what to expect from a property manager.  
  
Where do you start? “Figure out exactly what you need,” advises Trevor Salway, regional vice president of business development at FirstService Residential. “The number one reason boards are unhappy with their property management companies is a disagreement of their needs,” he explains. “So before you begin the selection process, have all of your board members assess to determine the needs of your community. Start with any big projects on the horizon and focus on the residents – why they chose to live there, what they’re proud of and what they’d change.” 
  

Once your board agrees on what the community needs, this is where the next step follows. We recommend the following tips to help navigate the process: 

1.  Be consistent in your questioning.    

As the saying goes, compare apples to apples. When you go from company to company, don’t fall into the trap of asking different questions each time. This will only confuse you and make you unable to accurately compare the different options you have because there won’t be any fair comparisons. The right thing to do is to write out a proper list of substantial interview questions for every firm to answer. How do you come up with these questions? We’re glad you asked!

2. Ask some basic questions.

There’s no need to get fancy with the question-asking process at first. In this step, you want to get the basics down. Ask essential questions like whether a firm is local or national, how long they have been in business, and whether the firm is licensed and certified.  
Besides this, here are a few other questions to help fuel your decision-making: 

• Do you provide full-service management? What operations and maintenance services do you provide? 
• How many properties do you manage? 
• What are your staff and client turnover rates? 
• What do you think is the optimal solution to our needs? 
• What other communities do you serve in this area? May I have three reference names and contact numbers from current clients?   

Asking these basic questions gives you a better understanding of the inner workings of the management company. For example, asking about their staff and client turnover rates speaks volumes, and can easily be a deciding factor to move on depending on their answer.  

3. Ask more detailed questions.

Here’s where you should tailor your questions to the needs you identified in Step 1. Ask the potential management companies about any value-added services and capabilities they offer. This includes budgeting, banking, insurance, state and local compliance, advanced technology, vendor relationships, combined buying power, 24/7 customer service, energy-saving programs, training programs and more. The more services they provide, the better, but if you only need about half of these services, you should ensure you are not going overboard in costs.  

4. Give each property management company a tour.

Salway warns boards to be careful of companies that take a “one-size-fits-all” approach to management. You’ll be in for a surprise if you choose a property management company that applies the same process as they would any other community. “Allow each management company to tour the community and ask questions themselves.” The better a property management company understands your unique needs, the more they can provide you with their vision as to how they plan to take care of your community. They can also customize recommendations that accomplish your goals, he explains. You can have a back-and-forth conversation that digs into the specifics of what your community needs. This even begins the professional relationship you will need to make the partnership work.  

5. Check references.

Once you have reached the final stages of choosing a property management company and have gotten references, take your time with each one. Ask the references how satisfied with the company you are considering, and for how long they have been working with them. The longer, the better, since this means they have had a long working relationship with the company. You can do this process using a phone call, or you can go a step further and visit the community in person. This gives you a first-hand view of the services each candidate firm provides and the resident’s quality of life. 

6. Read every word of the property management proposal.  

Reading through a contract or proposal is not the most exciting thing, but you must carefully read every word. This way, you can get a clear idea of what the company is proposing as its scope of responsibility - and what they expect of you in return. During this time, it is not rare to ask each company about their fee structure and a sample management contract. 

7. Look for value, not price.