Executive Summary
Martha Ramos is a property manager with Crossbridge Condominium Services. She cares for two condominiums, both of which are approximately 30 years old. These older buildings require regular maintenance and have undergone a few significant projects. In order to manage these intricate projects more proficiently without having to work even longer hours, Martha wanted a solution that would consolidate and streamline tasks, communication, and record-keeping. After being introduced to Condo Control, Martha embraced the Task Tracking feature because it allowed her to organize projects exactly how she wanted. Condo Control helped Martha and her staff work smarter, and reduce issues and errors that slow projects down.
About Martha
Martha Ramos has been a property manager for eight years. She is an insightful, industrious manager that takes the time to know and understand her communities. Martha sets high expectations for herself, which drives her to deliver exceptional service to the people she works with.
Background Information
Martha cares for two urban condo buildings located in downtown Toronto. One building is home to a variety of residents, including renters, young professionals, and older owners. The other is a boutique-style condo. Most residents living there are retired. While each building has its own unique needs, both are older structures and require regular maintenance.
Challenges
As a multiportfolio manager, Martha is always multitasking. She must divide her time and resources between numerous issues each day. Before finding Condo Control, Martha was relying on a pen and paper and Outlook to keep track of what needed to be done.
Project Management
Condo projects can take a couple of days, a few weeks, and some last several months. Mapping out and tracking all of the tiny tasks involved in a big project is crucial, but tedious. Martha was recording a lot of these tasks using a pen and paper. There was no way for her to streamline or consolidate this process, and paper notes would be tough to follow after working on something for five or six months.
Organization
Martha found it very difficult to juggle everything and ensure project tasks were accurately tracked and completed. It was hard to identify loose ends or small tasks that she might have missed. In addition to making lists on paper, Martha used her Outlook calendar as much as she could for scheduling. However, she didn’t like that all of her information was kept in different places.
Communication
From coordinating with vendors, to getting approval from the board, to notifying residents about disruptions, projects can’t move forward without communication. When it came to getting messages out, Martha was having multiple conversations about the same project with different individuals. She would have to add owner email addresses one at a time when sending out mass notices to residents about construction noise or temporary suspension of water flow.
The Solution
Martha was introduced to Condo Control by one of the boards she currently works with. The board members implemented the condo management software to help keep residents in the loop. It didn’t take long for Martha to get the hang of Condo Control. Once she was familiar with the core tools, she started using some of the features that the board hadn’t tried out. She found that those features made a real difference when it came to projects, as well as day-to-day operations.
Task Tracking
Martha’s favourite Condo Control feature is Task Tracking. She uses this tool to manage everything related to condo tasks and projects. Once a task is created, “you can put in your quotations, you can put in your PO, you can put in the engineer specs, and the board can vote” if a decision is required to move forward with a task. The board and management can also include comments so that people involved in the project don’t have to email back and forth.
Martha can also add a due date, and assign the task to someone else.
Everything that needs to be done to complete a project or assignment is there in one place. The feature also lets her update the status of tasks and mark them as complete once they are done. She feels she is organized and always knows what’s going on when it comes to the status of projects.
At the end of a project, when she is ready to invoice everything out and close it, Martha appreciates that she can locate and print off all relevant documents if she needs to. “The auditor is happy, the board is happy, and management is happy.”
Announcements
It’s so much easier for Martha to send out notices or messages through Condo Control. She can customize recipients by groups or individuals, meaning she can send a message to just offsite owners, renters, the board or the entire building. “I can send something like an emergency water shut down notice, and it will be in their inbox within a couple of minutes.” Condo Control’s online Announcements feature gives managers and boards the option to send messages via email or text. This allows for faster communication, and reduces print and paper costs. It’s much more time-efficient than trying to sort out who the message needs to go to and entering email addresses one by one.
Service Requests
Even though maintenance issues that arise inside a condo unit must be taken care of by residents, Martha likes that they can still submit service requests for small things throughout the building, like a dead lightbulb in the hall. This feature gives residents a more effective way to reach Martha and her team. Even if she’s out of the office, someone on Martha’s team will see the service request and take care of it.
Results
With Condo Control, Martha can organize and manage projects for all of her properties more efficiently, and she feels in control of the tasks she is responsible for completing.
Martha
- Is more organized and can systematically manage long-term projects
- Saves time by centralizing information and records
- Streamlines projects and minimizes issues or processes that slow down completion time
- Established better communication with residents and team members
Board Members
- Can quickly and conveniently approve and track tasks
- Has access to and can locate records and documents from any device
- Able to proficiently serve their community
Residents
- More informed about what’s going on in their building
- Able to easily connect with management
- Can enjoy a building that is well maintained
Final Words
“All my projects have been streamlined seamlessly through Condo Control. It’s a great way to keep myself accountable, and a great way to keep me and my staff accountable to each other.”
“With Condo Control, when a resident or board member asks for something, or something needs to be done internally, it’s all there. It’s all in one spot. That’s really the most important part about property management; ensuring that you’re organized.”