Page 16 - CooperatorNews New Jersey Summer 2021

16 COOPERATORNEWS NEW JERSEY
—SUMMER 2021
NJ.COOPERATORNEWS.COM
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Vice President—Operations
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COVID-RELATED...
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In a 25-unit property, that would come to
$20 per month per unit. In a ve-unit prop-
erty, the management fee turns into $100 per
month per unit. at’s a big chunk of month-
ly common charges or maintenance, and it’s
not tax deductible. is is likely why smaller
communities opt to self-manage in many
cases.
In addition to all that, another part of the
appeal of managing oneself has less to do
with money and more to do with community,
regardless of size. “Most management com-
panies would not be here on a full-time basis,”
says Domenick Lorelli, former president of
the Sonata Bay Club, an active adult commu-
nity in Bayville, which has been managing
itself since 1993. “ ere are two big bene ts
to self-managing: the rst is that it’s cheaper,
and the second is the accessibility and you
know the people personally. A property man-
ager is here only on a part-time basis. So you
don’t have access to any answers or solutions
to your questions or problems until they are
on site. Whereas with self-management, the
people live here, and they are on site every
day of the week. ey can be available to talk
to, or if you have any problems you can come
up here [to the o ce] and have them handled
the right way.”
Another major consideration is what a
particular property requires from a manager.
A large, multi-story, multifamily building
with many amenities is more management-
intensive than, say, a small, six-unit line of
duplex units with no interior common areas
and no amenities. So what requires the exper-
tise of professional management? And what
does the manager actually do?
A Condo Grows in Brooklyn
Benjamin Weinstein is the vice president
of a 10-unit condominium building located
on Lorimer Street in the Williamsburg sec-
tion of Brooklyn. e ve-story elevator
property was built in 2018 and is 100 percent
sold.
Weinstein explains that when the asso-
ciation was originally formed, they had out-
side management. However, with minimal
reserves and residents and board both very
conscious of spending and keeping an eye on
money, the community reconsidered their
situation. “Having o -site management was
expensive,” says Weinstein, “and we weren’t
getting the quality and attention we felt we
paid for. We had the experience we needed
in the building; one owner was a real estate
guy, another a nancial consultant. We felt
con dent that they could cover the basics.
Two members are compensated with forgive-
ness of some common charges. Economi-
cally and in terms of skills, it made sense for
us. We started to self-manage a year ago, and
it’s made life easier in many respects. We can
deal with everything right away, in real time,
without waiting for the manager to respond.
It didn’t make sense to continue outsourcing
the management function—so we eliminated
the middleman.”
ey had an issue a month ago with the
building’s old-style intercom system. ey
switched to Carson, a company that spe-
cializes in providing services to small, non-
sta ed buildings. “ at overhaul was seam-
less,” says Weinstein, “because we dealt with
them directly—no middle-man in the form
of a manager. Nothing was lost in communi-
cation or translation.”
In terms of COVID-19 and how it’s a ect-
ed their property and its management, Wein-
islation that basically says, notwithstanding
any provisions in your documents that may
require in-person meetings, the association
is permitted to have Zoom or any type of re-
mote electronic board meetings, electronic
unit owner meetings, and electronic voting.”
Partially in response to adaptations made dur-
ing COVID, and partially to modernize gov-
erning documents to re ect current realities,
this bill “is trying to bring the condominium
world here in Massachusetts into the 21st cen-
tury,” Gaines says.
Nevada is also considering a bill that would
provide for electronic voting in homeowners
association elections. Assembly Bill 313 has
gone through amendments and passed out of
committee, advises certi ed property man-
ager Barbara Holland in her weekly column
in the
Las Vegas Review-Journal.
“If passed,”
she says, “this will be an interesting regulation
and potentially a di cult regulation as asso-
ciations will need to protect the integrity of
the voting.”
Planning for the Next Disaster
Although not necessarily a direct response
to the pandemic, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY)
has committed to introducing federal disas-
ter assistance legislation this year in the U.S.
House of Representatives, according to CAI.
e Disaster Assistance Equity Act (DAEA),
as the legislation is called, would streamline
the approval process for the Federal Emer-
gency Management Agency (FEMA) to re-
imburse local governments for the cost of re-
moving debris from community association
roads, and would allow condominiums and
housing cooperatives to use FEMA disaster
assistance payments to fund critical repairs
for common elements.
One thing this year has taught us is the
importance of acting quickly, intentionally,
and informedly when a disaster threatens the
health and safety of our homes and our neigh-
bors. Helping community associations plan
for disasters and improving recovery coor-
dination with local emergency management
o cials will go a long way toward resilience,
restoration, and recovery in the face of ever
increasing threats from natural and biological
disasters.
■
Darcey Gerstein is Associate Editor and
Sta Writer for CooperatorNews.
SELF-MANAGEMENT...
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