A Healthy Budget in the Time of COVID-19 Part I
The COVID-19 pandemic is creating financial impacts that may change the course of dues in the future. Board members may have to invest in extra cleaning, disinfecting, and other services to help keep residents safe and healthy. At the same time, however, your association's residents may have difficulty making their assessment payments.
As you begin to work on next year's budget, it's essential to look for ways to save your association money to offset those unplanned expenses and potential revenue shortfalls. You know how important your budget is, and what it means to the future of your association. Fiduciary responsibility is one of the most important commitments you make to your fellow homeowners. The last thing board members want to do right now is to raise dues for those homeowners.
Condominium Associates provides ways to help board members seek opportunities that work well for homeowners and the association. One of those examples is through vendors and benchmarking.
Vendors and Benchmarking
Do you review your vendor contracts regularly or just let them renew automatically? Did you know Condominium Associates can help you with this issue? More than 57% of board members said they are not sure if their management companies take this vital step.
However, this is not the time to take a "we'll deal with that later" approach. Reviewing your contracts may reveal places you can save money. Or it may show opportunities for your association to get more for the same dollars, perhaps saving elsewhere, by extending your existing contracts at a better value or using the buying power of your management company to save on vendors.
Condominium Associates helps associations find ways to save money, or alternatively, provide additional value. Our professionals will conduct a line-by-line review of your financials, vendor contracts, utilities, and operations to identify areas where you can receive better pricing and service from your third-party suppliers.
Benchmarking, or comparing what communities spend on several services, is a powerful tool that tells communities where they stand relative to their peers. Like Condominium Associates, professional management companies can accurately create benchmarks for your town or high-rise, which allows for numerous communities to track such data.
How Does Benchmarking Help Your Board?
How does benchmarking help your board save money? Imagine an expert sitting down and looking at your landscaping contract in the context of other communities or buildings in your area. For example, compared to other properties of your size and type, you may be paying 15% more for your landscaping. We then look more closely at your landscaping contract, line by line. Are you paying for more higher-end services than you need? For unnecessary services? Or are you just being overcharged? That information gives your board and management the leverage to go to that contractor and negotiate better pricing or added services to deliver more significant value to your board and community.
Associations can get used to paying for something. Sometimes, all it takes is a phone call to a vendor to see what pricing models they offer to get a better deal.
We evaluate contracts annually so associations don't pay more than they need to. The right management partner will help you do this periodically and look for places to increase service value to your community or save money. That's good advice at any time, but especially during and after the coronavirus pandemic.
A company with the depth of resources to help you negotiate with vendors may also help your association procure items like hard-to-find disinfectants and personal protective equipment (PPE) at better prices and in a shorter time than if you tried to source them yourself.
When the COVID-19 crisis started, disinfectants were in short supply. We were checking with our suppliers every day, sourcing for our various markets. At the same time, our partner vendors kept us updated about the status of the supply chain and product availability. Ultimately, that effort and network allowed us to get needed supplies before others could.
Contact Us
Are you seeking a management company that can help you contact vendors and design benchmarks to save money and make residents happy? Contact Condominium Associates today!