Learn how to MasterSimplify Capital Expense Management
By Operations Team. For more information, contact Robert Parmar
We frequently take over properties from 3rd party fee management firms whose recent capital spending is excessive, poorly conceptualized, and/or the quality of work is not to a reasonable standard.
How does this happen?
- Most property management firms are not set up to successfully manage these types of projects. They do not effectively communicate this to ownership, over commit, and the result ends up being negative.
- Ownership in some cases will push their management company to handle these types of projects for no additional compensation for the sake of saving a few dollars; the result is often regrettable.
- In some cases, management firms rely on these types of projects to enhance their bottom line by performing them in-house or via affiliate companies. Unless the management firm or its’ principals are part of the Ownership we see this is as a conflict of interest that generally does not serve owner best interest.
The best thing ownership can do for any capital projects of significant scale or complexity is to hire qualified third-party contractors with property management acting in a supporting role.
Examples of these kinds of projects are things that require extensive technical expertise such as re-plumbing or heavy interior renovations like tearing down to studs and rebuilding which require the coordination of a lot of different elements.
The kinds of projects that we easily handle on behalf of our clients for no additional fees with on-site staff are basic cosmetic upgrades on turnover, relatively simple projects like replacing roofs, etc. We do not believe in being a jack of all trades; in our experience, it is rare that any management firm has this multi-faceted capability. We choose to stay in our lane, do the work of property management the right way, and not stray from specialization.
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Summerfield specializes in the management of apartment properties that are approximately 125 units or larger, and is licensed to manage in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Florida, Georgia, & South Carolina.
If you would like to discuss additional specifics of our management program, please reach out to our Managing Director, Robert Parmar at rparmar@smfield.com or call 770-628-5943.
