Managing a property yourself can be exhausting and time consuming, which is why many associations decide to hire a property management company. However, if you don’t conduct the proper research, you might end up hiring a company that makes things far more complicated than they need to be.
In this article, we are going over three red flags that indicate that you’ve chosen the wrong property management company. All of the issues you see below are never a problem here at Wise Property Management, Inc., the premier St. Petersburg association management company.
1. Hidden Fees
This may be the biggest warning sign of them all. Property management companies get paid in a variety of ways. It is a continuous service over a predetermined amount of months, which is paid for through budgeted association fees. Like us, they often offer a variety of different services, and you can select only the ones you need that fit into your budget.
This is normal, and the company should disclose all costs they plan to present. If the company ends up billing you with fees that were not a part of the initial agreement, you now have reason to worry. Not only is this unethical, but it could completely topple the budget that you had for property management, making for a serious and unnecessary headache. Here at Wise, a St. Petersburg condominium management company, you can rest assured that we will never put you into this situation.
Related: 5 Characteristics of a Great Tampa HOA Management Company
2. Exorbitant Maintenance Expenses
It’s only natural that the cost of maintenance will increase when you hire a property manager. However, hiring a bad property manager may cost you more in the long run. It’s difficult to keep up with the high demand of maintenance requests and can quickly get out of hand. If they fail to tend to these, then your overhead and reputation will suffer in the end.
Whether or not the company has in-house maintenance or uses a third party contractor doesn’t matter, a big part of hiring a property management company is that they have a pre-established network to assist in lowering maintenance costs. If you’re shocked at your maintenance costs, it may be time to switch to new management.
Related: Avoid Unnecessary Costs With These 4 Commercial Property Maintenance Tips
3. Lack of Communication
The point of a St. Petersburg association management company is to be less involved in the maintenance of the community. However, you need to be crystal clear as to how much involvement you want to have. Imagine this: it’s the end of the month, everything is running smoothly (or so you think) and then WHAM! You find out that only half of the rent has been collected, a long time tenant has been evicted, and several unexplained expenses are on your monthly bill. What happened?
Bad management happened. As a board member, you should be made aware of these kinds of situations and any extra costs before they occur or at least immediately after. This is something that bad property management companies struggle with, and something you’d never experience being under Wise management.
Are you ready to work with one of the top St. Petersburg condominium management companies that makes life easier for you and your board members and improves the value of your property? If so, submit our proposal request form today!