IN

one of the first few hockey games of the Chicago Blackhawks 2017-2018 season, left wing player Brandon Saad accomplished the venerable task of achieving a “hat trick.” In the hockey world, a “hat trick” occurs when the same player scores three goals in one game. The term “hat trick” was first coined in 1858 in the sport of cricket, when H. H. Stephenson took three wickets in a game, and his fans took up a collection to purchase a hat with which to award him in recognition of his feat.

In the association industry, the term “hat trick” could be used to refer to the seemingly “magical” efforts managers employ to solve association problems – they “pulled a rabbit out of a hat,” so to speak. But that is a topic for another another day and another article. The term “hat trick” is also used in other sports to define three positive accomplishments in a game. For the purposes of this article, “hat trick” will refer to a “top three” list of reasons to hire a professional management company for your association.

Top Three

Reasons to Hire a Management Company…

In today’s economic uncertainties, associations are always looking for ways to cut costs and are often torn between self-managing and hiring a professional management company. When the budget process begins, boards struggle with increasing the assessments and don’t even want to consider a special assessment. Some boards feel self-managing is the way to go and will save the association money by doing so.

When homeowners are elected to serve on the board of directors for their association, they often realize after a while that they may not have the experience or resources to address all of the issues that come up when managing an association. There may be problems that rose up that they hadn’t even considered and are at a loss to solve efficiently. They may also find it is very hard to obtain homeowner participation with the association or even getting homeowners to consider running for a position on the board. Board members may also be less likely to have the knowledge of a wide range of topics that relate to property management and maintenance of an association. That is then when the decision is often made to hire a professional management company.

By Mary Seego, AMS, CMCA, PCAM, ACM Community Management

The professional management company comes with knowledge in various aspects of property management and generally has years of experience. Professional management companies also usually have several managers on staff, as well as a customer service department and an accounting department. Many professional management companies also have a maintenance team which can be utilized for everyday repairs and inspections, and on-call staff to handle emergencies that occur during non-business hours. The combined knowledge of a manager and a professional management company provides experience in dealing with people, because managing associations is a people business!

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