Canada in Focus

Retaining condo corporations

By Lee Ann Stiff on May 10, 2017 in News

If you are a condominium property manager, every day you work towards maintaining your properties to make them desirable places to live, while keeping operations running smoothly. Further, you must ensure the properties meet the expectations of owners and condo corporations. In competitive markets such as Toronto and Vancouver, this is especially key.

According to the experts, the lack of single-family residential unit supply in the current Canadian market is expected to create opportunities for condo markets to absorb excess demand. Condo demand is forecast to increase in Toronto and Vancouver, due to factors including urban migration and the interest of foreign real estate investors.  In addition, rising house prices, which have reached 4.6 times the national average household income, further powers the condo market. Given the high demand and potential growth in this industry, it is crucial to stand out as a property manager.

Following are some tips to help you attract and retain condo corporations and at the same time reduce your overhead costs and streamline your operations.

Enhance Your Digital Presence

It all starts with branding. In today’s world, it is imperative to have a digital presence in order to establish credibility of your business and to attract prospective customers. When it comes to your property management brand, curb appeal matters. Critical first impressions often happen online. Creating a beautiful property website with rich, easy-to-use features including an owner portal will further heighten your brand value and make you a more valued property management service provider.

Creating a Community

Due to the growth in demand in the condo property market, creating, promoting and maintaining a strong sense of community is crucial to stand out as a property manager. Of course, property appeal goes beyond landscaping and renovations. Today’s owners are looking for high tech amenities including online services.

Providing online services such as package tracking, automated away notices, visitor notifications, amenity bookings and in-suite deliveries are just a few examples of the in-demand concierge services that can increase customer satisfaction. Software that provides these services online automates routine processes, which will in turn make residents happy.

In addition to providing access to these online services for condo owners, begin to think about the various ways in which you can enhance communication. Don’t simply rely on a physical bulletin board or printed flyers to make announcements. There are multiple ways of communicating with owners through online bulletin boards, automated text messages, and social media messaging to expand reach and ensure that your condo/strata community is well informed.

Access to Information

Keeping busy owners up to date on all property activities via digital access is important to ensure their satisfaction. This includes the ability to view online ledgers, submit fee payments, view calendar reminders and download documents, all in one convenient place.

Having online access to documents including financial statements and board meeting minutes is very attractive to owners. The ability to process online payments is now an expectation in the industry. Online payments provide a great convenience for owners, and have the added benefit of keeping cash flowing.

Providing a centralized online location for document and certificate purchasing greatly increases satisfaction and saves processing time with speedy transactions. The traditional method of sending payments and receiving documents via postal mail is inefficient and costly, compared with paperless, pay-per-use online solutions that automate the purchase and delivery of status certificates and other publicly available documents. Buyers, real estate agents and attorneys can search online for units, place an order, pay online and download necessary paperwork anytime, anywhere.

Automating Customer Service

Offering online services is not just an easy way to ensure residents and owners get what they want, when they want it, but it also further simplifies operations internally for your staff. By creating a centralized location for all information and data, your staff is able to manage the property with better insight and also increase efficiency of their daily tasks.

With automation, you will not only see a reduction in errors but also a decrease in lead time for tasks. Leverage technology and empower your staff, who will better satisfy residents with superior customer service. By optimizing your brand and improving the condo living experience, you will increase the satisfaction of both owners and condo corporations. You’ll also make life easier for your staff, and maximize your bottom line with automated cost-savings.

Learn more about solutions to optimize and automate condo property management and condo owner services.