In this century of having technology deliver food to you to curing your health via online doctors from your mobile, Time is Money. Reduction in the time used up in all our activities is the mojo of our lifestyle. Gated communities built with advanced infrastructure are also expected to be maintained with high standards. How do we know which is the right call – investing in an experienced property manager or keeping the control within the Management Committee?
Residents with a full-time job, living in Gated Communities or Integrated Township are stuck in a dilemma of whether to hire or fire a property manager. Investing their savings and acquiring loans trickle down to being over-cautious about the decisions made in the community.
The people who reside in housing societies are yet to figure out – Who should be involved in managing their home, the common areas, the amenities, the advanced facilities and the smooth running of the whole community.
The reflection in India
In India, the term housing society refers to residential complexes that are consisting of buildings with flats. A housing society in India is a cluster of house owners that reside in the same premises, apartments, or buildings forming relevant laws for the smooth functioning of amenities and utilities provided for those who are living in the area.
Every housing society has to be registered with Registrar of Co-operatives and every city in India should have its own rules and by-laws regarding the housing society. However, most of the housing societies in India have a premium cost since they are infused with multiple amenities for the luxury of the residents.
Hence managing these communities are up for a toss when it comes to deciding whether the residents should take over the important working of the community – including billing, collection, managing security, staff & vendor management, processing the budget, managing the sinking and corpus funds or do themselves a favor and hand over the responsibilities to a certified property manager.
Who should be in charge? Property Manager?
Let’s take a deep dive into understanding why hiring a property manager can be beneficial as well as detrimental in some cases.
How many units are assigned to you? Keeping in mind, the real estate in India has implemented RERA in many states coercing the builders and developers to ensure full delivery of projects in time along with the appropriate maintenance for a certain number of years. Now, once the units are completely handed over – the larger the number, more are the responsibilities. The more tenants you have the more helpdesk issues are lodged. In conclusion, the SIZE of the property is a primary factor to be weighed while choosing to hire a property manager.
Do you have the key skills to manage a property? Let’s assume, you have decided against hiring a property manager – owing to majority decision during the AGM. The need of the hour is enough Time and apt Knowledge or an easy replacement for the same.
Management Committee members take up the responsibility of managing the finances, security and even the maintenance collection without realising the work that goes into payment follow-ups and vendor expenses. In most scenarios, MC members have a day job and coming back to handle the auditors and the scrutinising of their accounting books always push the MC to take a step back.
However, in recent years, we can see robust technology and software – ADDA, taking up these issues and solving it on a platter for the MC members to function. Treasurers are satisfied as they have a portal to manage all the finances even if not from a CA background.
Residents are happy since they have easy modes of Online Payment Gateway also giving them access to transparency. As a consequence, the management committee is able to monitor the health of the community with minimal knowledge and luxury of time.
In conclusion, replacing the time and apt knowledge for managing the community, ADDA and technology can bring about ease for MC members in the absence of funds for hiring a property manager!
What’s the verdict?
Two questions to pose while deciding to hire or fire your property manager in your next AGM :
1) Is the MC (management committee) army equipped enough to run the community smooth?
2) Do you have the funds afford a highly experienced PM (property manager)?
Irrespective of the above answers being Yes/No; the need to have a good community management platform is undebatable. A Good property Manager would require all the expertise to enhance productivity. And in absence of a Property Manager – the need to have ADDA increases manifold.
Bring about great changes in your community with small steps as -> Adopting the best software, hiring an experienced property manager and rounding up of the best team to form the Management Committee.