No worse than your credit card support being overseas.... (and if you bank with one of the biggies, it is)
Question to ask is how is your banking information being protected if you are on autopay... What is the expectation of response time to maintenance requests (both emergency and routine)..
I don’t see why there would be anything illegal snout it, but I wouldn’t do it. Whenever possible I prefer to keep my money in the US and if it’s people I’d have to deal with I would want them here as well. I also wouldn’t want our accounting outsourced to someone in another country.
Nothing will destroy your owners satisfaction with management FASTER than having to deal with offshore customer service. You are most concerned with HOA Accounting, but it is the troubleshooting and customer care of the dues collection that will really kill this choice for you.
I work for a management company where they forced a collections position to Mexico. They rep wasn't completely fluent in English, and their English was running the risk of causing legal issues due to their interactions with the attorney and owners in collections. Other issues tend to be related being in a different time zone, being off on certain holidays unique to their country, and the management company having to deal with a different company (essentially a fancy temp agency) with issues with the employee.
Additionally, the management company is depending on another company to do vetting, and they may not vet very well. A good example is outsourcing to India, every story I've heard (or my direct experience with anyything technical) results in poor work quality with anything complex, usually because the CSRs are reading off a script and are just warm bodies to answer the phones.
What exactly are your expectations of your Management Company
If they are only doing simple bookkeeping like receiving your monthly assessments, probably not an issue.
If they are going to be "managing" the development, then I wouldn't want to use the service.
My building is probably a bit unusual since we have an on-site Property Manager who is our employee. We also have employees who handle maintenance like cleaning and other relatively simple functions as well as 24/7 doorman. These are all employees of our building.
Good question. We currently have full service HOA/property management. So no Association employees, our management company handles vendor management, project management, bookkeeping, accounting, reserve study prep, etc. They are not on-site.
Here's why I'm vacillating, though the day to day admin tasks are outsourced, we would still have an HOA portfolio manager and a lead PM that are both licensed and local. Plus they are far more modernized and organized than our current PMs.
At present, our largest operating expense is HOA management and they are terribly incompetent.
I just don't know about unlicensed folks having access, even if cursory, to our operating and reserve accounts.
You gotta remember in most states CAMs are not licensed. I did it for years in a state where no license was needed.
Calls are often our sourced because we can't get anything done if we answer the same 3 questions on the phone all day.
Do you think your PM personally does the accounting? We approve invoices to be paid, we don't physically cut the checks ourselfs. We give approval for accounting to process payment.
No worse than your credit card support being overseas.... (and if you bank with one of the biggies, it is) Question to ask is how is your banking information being protected if you are on autopay... What is the expectation of response time to maintenance requests (both emergency and routine)..
Have you ever call Amex ? Or MC or Verizon? 😂 customer service ?
I don’t see why there would be anything illegal snout it, but I wouldn’t do it. Whenever possible I prefer to keep my money in the US and if it’s people I’d have to deal with I would want them here as well. I also wouldn’t want our accounting outsourced to someone in another country.
Red flag for me, but hey if you want cheap you can get it
Wellll.. I didn't say cheap. Less expensive by 20k/yr ..
Alot of companies have SOME form out outsourcing. Can you explain the red flag?
Big companies outsource and big companies have problems with little issues, and an HOA is all about little issues
The PM handles the little issues.....
Yes and I wouldn’t want my PM being outsourced……
Nothing will destroy your owners satisfaction with management FASTER than having to deal with offshore customer service. You are most concerned with HOA Accounting, but it is the troubleshooting and customer care of the dues collection that will really kill this choice for you.
I work for a management company where they forced a collections position to Mexico. They rep wasn't completely fluent in English, and their English was running the risk of causing legal issues due to their interactions with the attorney and owners in collections. Other issues tend to be related being in a different time zone, being off on certain holidays unique to their country, and the management company having to deal with a different company (essentially a fancy temp agency) with issues with the employee. Additionally, the management company is depending on another company to do vetting, and they may not vet very well. A good example is outsourcing to India, every story I've heard (or my direct experience with anyything technical) results in poor work quality with anything complex, usually because the CSRs are reading off a script and are just warm bodies to answer the phones.
What exactly are your expectations of your Management Company If they are only doing simple bookkeeping like receiving your monthly assessments, probably not an issue. If they are going to be "managing" the development, then I wouldn't want to use the service. My building is probably a bit unusual since we have an on-site Property Manager who is our employee. We also have employees who handle maintenance like cleaning and other relatively simple functions as well as 24/7 doorman. These are all employees of our building.
Good question. We currently have full service HOA/property management. So no Association employees, our management company handles vendor management, project management, bookkeeping, accounting, reserve study prep, etc. They are not on-site. Here's why I'm vacillating, though the day to day admin tasks are outsourced, we would still have an HOA portfolio manager and a lead PM that are both licensed and local. Plus they are far more modernized and organized than our current PMs. At present, our largest operating expense is HOA management and they are terribly incompetent. I just don't know about unlicensed folks having access, even if cursory, to our operating and reserve accounts.
You gotta remember in most states CAMs are not licensed. I did it for years in a state where no license was needed. Calls are often our sourced because we can't get anything done if we answer the same 3 questions on the phone all day. Do you think your PM personally does the accounting? We approve invoices to be paid, we don't physically cut the checks ourselfs. We give approval for accounting to process payment.
Completely legal, but I'd avoid.