Condo Media - April 2013 - 34

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COLUMN NAME
beyond the day-to-day management
services, that makes you different?’
We will have to find ways to provide
unique value.” Branding, McBride suggests, will be one way for management
companies to achieve that goal.
Condominium communities will also
face competitive pressures to distinguish
themselves as the real estate market
recovers and as new development resumes. “Boards have to think about their
identity in the marketplace. They have to
think about how to make their property
the one that people want to move into.

While younger residents expect to manage their affairs online, older ones still want the personal touch.
How do you staff to meet the needs of both?

that a two-bedroom apartment will accommodate not just a couple and one or
two children, but an extended family that
also includes grandparents, aunts, uncles,
cousins, and close friends. “And if they
have a spare room,” Brawley says, “they
think they can rent it out.”
The odor of unfamiliar foreign foods
can be unpleasant to some residents, and
such practices as “cooking a goat on the
balcony,” for example, can be jarring.
“The more global we become and the
more people who see condominiums as a
good purchase,” Brawley says, the more
frequently these problems will arise.
Managers, board members, and condominium residents “are going to have to
become more open-minded about other
cultures and about what we consider to
be ‘the norm.’”

It won’t be solely because of the lovely
view or the good floor plan; it will also
be because of how well it is managed, the
amenities and services it offers, and how
easy it is for people to live there.”
When David Abel, CMCA, senior
manager at First Realty Management
Corporation, ponders the future, he
thinks about demographics — current
residents aging in place and younger residents moving in with a different mindset
and different priorities. Older residents
are generally “more resistant to change,”
Abel says, but they are also “more willing
to think long-term” and, as a result, more
likely to accept the need to commission
a reserve study and fund it. Younger
residents, on the whole, “would rather
keep their money today and write a check
in the future.” Clashes between those age
groups and their philosophies will create
challenges for managers and boards in
some communities, Abel predicts.
Like other industry professionals, Abel
has seen and been encouraged by the
growing sophistication of board members and their willingness to pay for the
expertise they need. But while he has
seen “greater appreciation for the value
of professional management,” Abel
says that evolution remains incomplete.
“It is so difficult to explain what goes

• Technology: Brawley sees technology
as a double-edged sword. It will (at least
in theory) increase operating efficiencies,
enabling management companies to do
more with fewer employees. But property management is “a people business,”
she notes, “and when you are handling
more transactions online, the relationship aspect of the business begins to get a
little lost.”
While younger residents expect to
manage their affairs online, older ones
still want the personal touch. The problem for management companies, Brawley
says, is “how do you staff to meet the
needs of both?” The technology-savvy assistant who can manage the data systems
“probably is not the person you want to
be answering the phones.” Hiring two
people with different skills won’t be an
option for most companies in a business
in which profit margins are notoriously
tight. As technology-oriented residents
become the majority in more communities, “this will probably sort itself out,”
Brawley expects. “But getting from here
to there is going to be difficult.”
Douglas Thayer, CPM, president of
Thayer and Associates, AMO, sees energy
costs as a defining issue for community
associations and the managers serving
them. Owners and boards are going to
be looking to management companies to

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Condo Media • April 2013

on behind the curtain that makes your
company different and justifies charging
a higher fee. It’s the rare client who gets
it.” He expects that educating clients and
prospective clients will be as important
for management companies in the future
as it has been in the past, and the major
challenge they face will also be the same:
“How do you do this business the right
way and do it profitably?”
Technology, globalization, and
regulation top the list of challenges Pat
Brawley, CMCA, AMS, PCAM, property management consultant and owner

of Central Management & Consulting
Services, LLC, foresees for community associations and their managers. In reverse
order:
• Regulation: The increasing number
of people living in common interest
ownership communities will attract the
attention of lawmakers, who, Brawley
fears, will react, as they often do, “by
trying to control something they don’t
understand.” Association operations,
reserves, and manager licensing, among
others, will become “hot button issues,”
she predicts, as they have already in some
states, and the resulting laws and regulations “could create a monster for us.”
• Globalization: Brawley has evidence of
this trend already, especially in communities located near medical and research
centers that are attracting highly educated professionals from different countries.
Many of these new condominium residents speak English poorly, or not at all,
making communication—hard enough
with an English-speaking residential
population—even more difficult.
Cultural differences add another
layer of complexity. Some foreign-born
residents, Brawley notes, have “very different ideas about occupancy,” assuming
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