“If Only's…”
By Julie Adamen

(If you didn’t get a chance to read last month’s article, go to our website, www.adamen-inc.com, click on newsletter and  then on May, 2001).

Last, month we published the comments and results from our web-based survey, “Are We in the Box So Deep We Can’t See Out?”  Regarding full service contracts and their effect (and affect) on the industry, here is a synopsis of the answers given to us:

“The juxtaposition of opinions was fascinating, and tells the story of our industry: Those who are in the trenches managing feel as if the (full service contract) system is one in which they are powerless to achieve a higher quality of service to their associations and a higher remuneration from their employer/associations. The employers felt, for the most part, the contracts were fine and the system would be ok if only 1) their competitors would just bid contracts higher, 2) the boards were better educated, and 3) there were more mandated requirements to be community manager. “

There is at least one conclusion we can make: We are an industry where a good portion of our leaders are in a state of denial due to a bad, bad case of the “if onlys.”

A Bad Case of the “If onlys…”

“If only” # 1 – “Full service contracts would work if only the competition didn’t low ball me.”

This is America. The competition has every right to offer services at a lower rate. They are, and will, continue to do so. To rail against this fact as we have done for the past 10 years is wasted energy. What can your firm do to offer something different? Meet a niche? Look at the issue from a different angle? Market your services differently? Or, for most companies, market your services at all?   Remember, there’s a gas station on every corner. Why do you choose Exxon instead of Chevron?

How to address the reality of our competition, not our fantasy of what they should be?

“If only” # 2: “Full Service contracts would work if only the Boards were better educated.”

Hear this loud and clear: The Boards ARE NOT GOING TO CHANGE, at least not anytime soon. Imagine if you heard yourself say, “I’ll change the way I do business when the moon falls out of the sky!” it makes just as much sense. You know, I know it, every manager in the industry knows it, and the vendors know it.   The Boards have no impetus to change. And an object at rest… tends to stay at rest.

How to address the reality of Boards of Directors, not our fantasy of what they should be?

“If only” # 3: “Full service contracts would work if the requirements to become a community manager were more stringent. “

This is one that really gets me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for education, but we have forgotten one very important factor: THE CONSUMER must demand that better education.  The consumer is the homeowner, and the average homeowner or board member is woefully ignorant of what it takes to be a really effective community manager – and frankly doesn’t care, as it has no obvious, direct effect on their everyday lives that they know of.  And with the actual headline-inducing incidents where an unscrupulous management company owner left for the Bahamas with the association’s money being statistically nil, again, the consumer is left shrugging their shoulders and watching yet another Survivor! Knock-off.

Until we market our services to the public, openly and competitively, the consumer will be woefully ignorant. Until the industry takes a visible and aggressive regional and national campaign to educate the general public about the existence of the community management profession and its unseen importance and relevance, it will continue to be… unseen.

How to address the reality of our employee pool, not our fantasy of what it should be?

We are probably one of the few industries that can operate (if just barely) at the same compensation rates we did 10, 15 or 20 years ago. There is a lot of talk about it, and some management companies have figured out how to make it work for them: volume (I mean real volume), integrated services, courting the developer market (where you get paid a fair rate at least for awhile – if you can stay through the transition of developer controlled board to homeowner controlled board). As far as making money, they do it pretty well. But the vast majority of management companies are just hanging on, running through staff, offering mediocre services because that’s all they can offer at the per door rate they are paid.

So, let’s get this straight: We are making the same, or less, money than we were 10 years ago. The job has gotten a lot more complicated. We are running through staff at an enormous rate, and not attracting new staff that will become long-term management professionals (despite what you may hear to the contrary).

So let’s stop railing against what we can’t change, and move towards changing what IS in our control: Our contracts and the execution thereof.

If only # 4: If only we could change how we do our business.

We can.