Managing Agents-Who are the best? Least expensive?

I have heard they all pretty much suck.

not true, but understand grass is always greener mentality...

No one who would be able to run the building really well and save the building money while running it correctly would do it for a price than anyone is willing to pay. You can see it buried in the OP's question: I want someone with high skill levels who i don't have to pay for those skills. I have to say it's sort of endemic to consumer internet message boards: they tend to be full of DIY'ers, so they don't want to pay a lot of money because they would rather put in the sweat equity. You see it here all the time with no one thinking any broker is worth what they get paid to do their jobs.

I can say that Cooper Square will fleece you and AKAM will ignore you and will try to fleece you, the good thing is that you'll catch them. Plenty more that will do both, but those 2, I've dealt with. Most of the time if the management company is cheap, you may as well just hire a person and manage yourself.

I agree that Cooper Square stinks. I have had very good luck with ADRENY. They are very responsive and effective in managing. Nice people to deal with.

My building chopped and changed quite a bit, but has now stuck with Orsid for many years. Don't know whether they're good, or manage expectations better, or what.

30yrs has it nailed.

From what I see in management companies managing, the larger buildings (500+) units will need 1/2 - 3/4 person full time. This is considering the secretary's time, the manager's time, etc. Paying $80K-120K a year for that, you should get great service.

Also remember, that management companies make money from the buyer and seller on each transaction when reviewing the board packages and handling the closing. Reviewing the board package takes less than 30 minutes and costs $500-$1500. Closing takes approx 2 hrs and they charge $1500-3000.

So would you all agree that it is generally true that bigger buildings get better service because they can pay more and generate more revenue in other ways (eg closing costs mentioned by ab_11218)?

"Closing takes approx 2 hrs and they charge $1500-3000."

Could you give some examples? I'm not familiar with too many Managing Agents who pocket $3,000 for a closing. there's lots of fees, but a lot of them don't go to managing agents a lot of the time.

"So would you all agree that it is generally true that bigger buildings get better service because they can pay more and generate more revenue in other ways (eg closing costs mentioned by ab_11218)?

I'll put it differently: it's almost impossible for small buildings to get good service for a decent length of time (every once in a while you get lucky and catch a good building manager at the beginning of their career, but then they move on).