How to Hire the Right Property Manager for Your HOA
Hiring the right property manager for your HOA community is crucial to your community’s success. These managers are the face of your HOA and are integral parts of the maintenance and care of the property and residents. Having a caring, proactive, organized, and responsive manager is key to making a great community. Follow these tips to help you hire the right property manager for your HOA association!
Determine Responsibilities
Before you can find the right individual, you need to understand what responsibilities they will have in the community. A common and, in most cases, most important task will be homeowner management. This includes answering questions homeowners might have, communicating with them about events, helping them submit architectural requests, and answering violation questions. Excellent communication is crucial, so you want to ensure you have the right tools in place. SmartCommunications allows you to send messages to homeowners in a few clicks! Tag residents into different groups to help send targeted messages out to your community and make communication that much easier.
Managing violations will be a large part of an HOA manager’s job. This will include creating violations, sending out violation letters, and communicating with homeowners. Managing violations can be extremely time-consuming, so having software like SmartViolations will significantly benefit a property manager. Managers will be able to map, submit, and report on violations making it simple to stay organized.
Vendor management is another responsibility of an HOA manager as they will get bids, hire vendors, and follow up as needed. With software like SmartWorkorders, you can schedule maintenance with your preferred vendors, track the progress, and pay them directly. This helps everyone stay informed on what maintenance is being performed, and with the mobile app, vendors can directly track their progress.
These are just a few duties of an HOA manager, and there are many more, so it’s important to understand what they will be doing so you can hire the right candidate. If you want a more comprehensive list of HOA manager duties, you can visit HOAmanagement.com!
Licensing and Credentials
Does your state require property managers to have some sort of license, certification, or other credentials? Make sure they have them! Even if your state doesn’t require them, it’s a great benefit to hiring someone with industry knowledge as it means they are invested in the industry. In your application, you can simply ask each candidate to input their specific licenses/certifications they have acquired.
Speak with Their References
References can be a benefit to anyone searching for the perfect candidate. You only see what comes across on their resume or interviews, so speaking with individuals who have previously worked with the candidate can be insightful. Have each candidate give you one to two references for you to reach out to during the interview process, and make sure you look at the references to make sure they have previously worked together.
Conflict Resolution Skills
Asking personality questions will help you see if the candidate is a good fit for your position. One of the most essential aptitudes for any property manager is conflict resolution skills. We know dealing with angry homeowners, tracking down vendors, and communicating with many different people can be challenging. You want to make sure this individual has excellent problem-solving and communication skills. Asking them to give examples of difficult situations they had to resolve or handling conversations in challenging scenarios will help you better understand your candidates.
Hiring the right manager for your HOA community can take time, but it will be rewarding in the end! Property managers are a great asset to your community and can help the perception of the HOA in your resident’s eyes. Once you’ve got the right manager in place, make sure you have the right tools as well! Smartwebs’ all-in-one platform can help managers run their communities smoothly. Violations, Architecturals, Work Orders, Communications, Resident Portal, and Accounting management are all at your fingertips.
Schedule a demo with our team and see how Smartwebs can help you manage your communities smarter.