Using A Website To Help Sell Your Condominium

The tremendous rise of online commerce over the past decade has seen the fees charged by service providers such as travel agents and insurance agents fall dramatically as they try to compete with their internet-based counterparts. Real estate agents have still been able to charge relatively high fees in comparison.

Now though, they are under attack from various sources, including For Sale By Owner (FSBO) websites which advertise properties for sale on behalf of the owners in a particular area. People looking to move to an area now have a choice of traditional real estate agent sites to search, plus any local FSBO sites.

Whatever type of property you are looking to sell, there are several choices. Many people now feel comfortable with the idea of selling their home through FSBO websites as an alternative to traditional real estate agents. Read the rest of this entry »

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Your Condominium Manager: Control-Freak or Nurturer?

Is your Board-Manager relationship dysfunctional? If you’re butting heads constantly or just can’t seem to get things done, you’ll need to examine the individual management styles of each and find some common ground.

This subject involves the management style of both the Board of Directors and the Manager and for each, there are two distinct styles. A newly-elected Board at the same property can be very different in its preferred style, from the previous Board, so this is a dynamic condition. The Board may be very involved, very hands-on and prefer to direct their Condominium Manager with specific and detailed instructions; or the Board may prefer that the Manager be very proactive and look after things with as little of their involvement as possible. With either management style, you as a Board should understand that no matter your preference, decision-making is still the Board’s responsibility – not the Manager’s. Allow me to reiterate this: decisions are not the Manager’s responsibility – even if you would prefer it that way.

For the Involved Board, your Manager will take direction and carry out the specific tasks you (reasonably) request of them (an example of this involves the Vice-Chair who regularly walks the property and sends a list of maintenance items and by-law infractions to the Manager to engage the contractors and send letters to the offending residents). For the Less-Involved Board, your Manager should advise you of maintenance items and by-law infractions and while they may act within the authority allowed to them by the Management Contract, they must still report to the Board and should have such actions ratified by the Board.

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Professional Vs Self-Management: Pay Now or Pay Later

The old adage “you get what you pay for” can too often be true in the negative sense and worse, you may even be paying far too much when you don’t pay for what you need. It’s a complex matter that involves not knowing what you don’t know and one which fortunately, has some acceptable options.

This question involves the decision to be self-managed or to engage a professional condominium manager. Generally, we see this reserved more and more, for smaller properties with limited budgets; but even so, this requires a very careful look at what’s at stake. There is always danger when you aren’t aware of what you don’t know. If you think you know what you’re doing, please be sure you have Errors and Omissions coverage and that your Director’s and Officer’s insurance is up to date.

Two main influences are becoming more common: first, many of the retired residents in condominiums are moving to other accommodations and second, more households need to have more than one income; both situations result in fewer people who perhaps had the time to look after administering the property in years past. So with fewer people and less time, many necessary issues are not attended to, or worse are being done incorrectly.

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