Property managers offer expertise in maintenance and cost efficiency. When condo boards include management at the onset of project planning, they avoid omissions that have long-term impact on maintenance, budgets, and operational performance.

Let’s look at why condo boards need property management input prior to starting major projects.

Major project omissions

Property managers provide valuable insights that prevent omissions that cost condo boards money down the road, including:

• Effective infrastructure recommendations to improve sustainability
• Savings in procurement of materials and contractors
• Streamlined tendering process
• Operational feasibility studies
• Improvements to project specifications to overcome end-user disappointment
• Staffing requirements

Long-term considerations

Forward-thinking property managers use long-term planning to ensure integration across all project components. Long-term considerations reduce the risk of infrastructure constraints that impact operational efficiency and end-user enjoyment, such as:

• Ensuring infrastructure and supporting system requirements align with predicted occupant use
• Accessing trusted vendors and contractors to improve selection and avoid impacts on performance, quality, and reliability
• Reducing gaps between short-term and long-term costs by considering details such as material warranties, accessibility of outdated parts, long-term serviceability, etc.
• Applying real-world scenarios to improve design decisions that negatively impact end-users and maintenance costs
• Occupant advocacy to improve operational performance and reduce maintenance issues with informed material and design selection
• Considering occupant behaviour as a “user-friendly” approach that optimizes space allotment based on current and projected community needs

A second pair of eyes

The combination of designers, engineers, condo boards, and other players can create biased reactions that lead to errors. Property managers offer a second pair of eyes and less subjective input that addresses all aspects of effective planning to avoid downtime and delays. Data from operational case studies allow managers to spot design flaws and material decisions that lead to operational losses.

Objective input also meets occupants’ needs. For example, choosing materials to help reduce noise transference also reduces occupant complaints. Also, preventative maintenance features such as leak detectors mitigate widespread water damage through early interventions.

Avoiding long-term effects of poor planning

Focusing on low upfront costs from materials to systems increases operating costs. Property managers offer effective life-cycle cost analysis to outline improved ROI. Condo boards that lack expertise in these areas can make smarter decisions when they understand the long-term effects on costs, occupant satisfaction, and expected life cycles.

Implementing the RACI framework

RACI framework identifies the roles of various stakeholders defining who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed throughout each project phase. The RACI approach reduces unnecessary input, clarifies the level of involvement required, and improves accountability. Expertise drives the project and all deliverables from each stakeholder using this simple framework. The result is smarter decisions that impact long-term operations, costs, and maintenance.

Property managers and condo boards improve occupant satisfaction when working as a team. By including property managers in the early stages of major project development they can provide insights that avoid omissions, realize cost savings through forward thinking operational considerations, and help developers and designers optimize space and improve occupant satisfaction.

The condo experts at CPO Management Inc, a full-service property management company in Toronto and the GTA, have successfully implemented effective major project strategies for high-rise condominium communities. Reach out to us today to learn more about how we can help you realize substantial cost and time savings with our condo services.