Property Management

They're all bad.

Bk, What do you want to pay to the maintenance company if they are good? I may have someone if you have the budget.

"... and not being able to keep promises. ..."

The successful running of a building is based on contracts, not promises. And, potentially, financial penalties for failure to meet the contracted terms.

For a small building you could try Bren Management. Speak with either Marty or Brenda Kera. You can tell them David Goldsmith referred you.
Bren Management Corp
240 Madison Ave, Fl 7, New York (NY), 10016-2820, United States (212)681-1602

Thanks to everyone's responses...We were planning on paying around $1600 a month for property management fees (this does not include porter fees).

While $80-100 per unit per month in BK is the going rate, it is too little for a good one for a 18 unit building. The one I know believe needs at least $30k per year to get involved.

We have a good one. I'll avoid mention the name. It's too easy to conduct the research. Just keep in mind that the basic functions are not rocket science, keeping the books in good order, paying bills and helping with the annual audit and preparation of monthly budgets and cashflow reporting.

Don't shop just on price. A lot of firms will low ball a bid to get their foot in the door and then raise the price later. Also they'll ding you with minimal service and you'll be stuck purchasing a liason person to work between the condo and the managing agent.

What makes the difference between good and bad is simply being there, responding to problems and how helpful they are with planning. Most members of the team will have limited expertise but there should be at least one good person who can help provide insight to the advice you are getting from consultants, lawyers and accountants.

It's getting more complex out there with local law 11 issues, Covid and increasing energy requirements

Bumping this thread again

We will talk with Bren Management soon, but other recommendations will be appreciated.

If Riversider could disclose the property management group we would like to speak to them if you had a good experience. And yes the basic functions aren't rocket science, but our past two property management groups we have worked with have been terrible.

Thank you

"Just keep in mind that the basic functions are not rocket science, keeping the books in good order, paying bills and helping with the annual audit and preparation of monthly budgets and cashflow reporting."

Here's an example of what can go wrong:
In the last Coop I lived in, around 2010 I brought up at the Annual Shareholder's Meeting that the maintenance wasn't covering expenses. The Managing Agent and Accountant said I was wrong, and the Board President mocked me asking if my calculator was broken. The next Annual Shareholder's Meeting was kicked off by the new Board President announcing "they discovered" the maintenance wasn't covering expenses. When I asked for the accounting firm to be dismissed because of what happened at the previous Annual Meeting the response was that that the new Board had seen emails from the accountant to the old Board warning them of the situation. So I guess since they only lied to the Shareholders it was ok, because obviously both the accountant and previous Managing Agent were firmly in the Board's pocket and that's the way they liked it.

As a result of various financial mismanagement (like not timely painting the facade so an estimated $75,000 job turned into an $850,000 one) the underlying mortgage went from $500k to $2.9M in addition to over $1M in assessments. For reference the annual budget was between $300k - $400k.

I bring this up because saving $50 a month because $30K/yes is too much for a small Coop can end up being a costly mistake.

It's too easy to complain about real estate management companies.
The tenants are usually worse to deal with, and many tenants are plain nuts

I use a service that just launched in the West Village / Greenwich Village area called Super. It’s simple and works! You can just send them a text and a real human handles anything home service related for you. They help you find the best vendors to show up and do whatever task you need, when you need it done. Just text StreetEasy to +1 (917) 672-0124 and get started

BKhomebuyer if you are still looking I have another lead who handles small buildings but their minimum is $2k. You can reach me at David at BankNeary.com