BryanF1 (Florida)
Posts: 3
Posts: 3
Posted:
In our case, our condominium used to be a hotel in downtown Orlando and was converted to a 128 unit condominium. Parking was in a gated area on two floors. In addition, there were 6 spaces in the very front of the building where the hotel had valet parking or pickup/drop off. The developer had sold these six spaces to owners on a first-come/first serve basis. The result was that there was absolutely no place for guests to park except off-site. This is a work in progress, but I will share with you what our Board has done to remedy the problem.
1. We managed to creatively find 6 more spaces inside our garage plus a few extras that helped us solve some disputes that residents had against a developer... like an individual that had a "stairwell" for their spot. It looked much better on the floor plan than in reality!
2. We had to convince the owners of the spots to take the spots inside the garage. For most, it was a no-brainer because it was in a secured area and protected from the elements. However, we had one individual "change their mind" after several years. Lesson learned... get property transfers done formally through an attorney. We eventually rectified the situation by buying the space from the owner sometime later.
3. Once we had our 6 wonderful spaces in the front of the building, everything was perfect... not! We had owners who would park their cars from inside the garage in one of the front spaces and literally "park" it there for days and even weeks. They then allowed their friends to come and park in their spot in the garage. As you know, "no good deed goes unpunished!"
4. I did research on parking meters, the original solution to ration parking. Unfortunately, not everyone plays fair, so the implementation of a meter was the best idea at the time. By charging a nominal fee, it would ensure that only those who needed the parking would pay and use it. We weren't trying to make money, but merely charge enough to give everyone a fair chance to use the spaces. Unfortunately, the meter was around $5,000, so it was a tough sell to the Board. After several years, we did pay it off, but unfortunately, by that time, the display was scratched and impossible to read. The battery kept dying after only several months, the merchant fees and wireless fees for pay by phone started to take its toll on our Association. The meter was down on a regular basis, so enforcement was sporadic and we either had everyone parking there for free or nobody parked there at all. It was a complete disaster! I ended up writing a database on some free web platform that we used to track vehicles and issue tickets based on the number of violations, but the guards that were working at our building didn't use it effectively because it wasn't a very polished program (I had thrown it together in an afternoon).
5. After years of our management company screwing around with the meter company to no avail, I finally set out to solve the problem. You can usually find a solution on the internet. In this case, I tried to search for an app on my phone. I was looking for a parking enforcement solution, but all the apps that came up seemed to be tied to companies that only worked with municipalities and big parking lots... we were too small for them. I didn't give up. I tried a few more before I came across "Pango." They were agreeable to taking on our condo Association, even though they hadn't done that sort of thing before - I love startups! It was an app on the iPhone billed as a mobile payment solution. However, the system allows you to see what cars are currently paying for parking by parking spots or zones. We chose to have one zone across our 6 spots for simplicity. When a guest pulls up to the parking spot, they see the sign (see attachment). They download the app, register their vehicle and a form of payment. Finally, they choose the zone where they want to park (could be a space number) and hit a Start button. In our case, we chose the stop and start method, so nobody would get towed for coming back 15 minutes late. Our goal was not to tow residents or even strangers. The nice thing is that Pango support would give the drivers parking their cars a benefit of the doubt if they forgot to stop the app. After about three times, they would probably say that they need to pay or quit using the parking spaces. In just one short month, we were off and running. We had rates set at $1.00 per hour from 8:00 AM - 11:59 PM. We made it $0.50 per hour from midnight until 8:00 AM, so someone could park their car from 8 PM until 8 AM for just $8.00. Keep in mind that we are in the very heart of downtown Orlando by Lake Eola and there are no cheaper parking spots, especially in the front of a building. Of course, there is always street parking, but you better not forget to get there at 8:00 AM to move your car or that free spot just became very expensive!
Results: We went from losing about $120 per month in fees and expenses for the parking meter to making $10,000 per year! On just 6 parking spaces. if you notice at the bottom of the sign in the attachment, you will see that we actually attached it right onto the old meter! It became a very expensive signpost. Our only problem now is getting tow trucks to come to the premises in a timely manner.
What's Next? We are now trying to work with Pango to rent out individual spaces inside our garage such that we could split the profits between the owners of the unused spaces (on a daily, weekly, monthly basis) with the Association. We are also going to start implementing enforcement of all of our parking inside and out with a ticketing system from Pango (I'll post more after we implement). We also plan to get rid of our decals and use Pango to register all of our owners, renters and guests vehicles. Finally, we have ordered two Barnacle devices which are a modern take on the boot solutions. It is ingenious and deserving of its own post. I am cautiously optimistic about being able to use the Barnacle to channel even more revenues toward our Association, while also being able to make fines more "reasonable" and if there is a mistake, the Association won't be out money if a refund must be issued due to a mistake on the part of our security guards.
If you are interested in talking to be more about your specific parking scenario, I'd love to give you a quick synopsis on what I would probably do to solve your problem. I wish it hadn't taken so many years to get to where we are today, but it was a learning process. One thing I have learned is that there is always a solution to your Association problems. Technology is usually the key ingredient in any solution. Controlling your parking situation is a critical step to maintaining a secure environment. You'd be surprised how many problems you will solve once you get your parking under control!
Best of luck!
Bryan Fangman
PS - it wouldn't let me load the image of the sign even though it was only 173kb
1. We managed to creatively find 6 more spaces inside our garage plus a few extras that helped us solve some disputes that residents had against a developer... like an individual that had a "stairwell" for their spot. It looked much better on the floor plan than in reality!
2. We had to convince the owners of the spots to take the spots inside the garage. For most, it was a no-brainer because it was in a secured area and protected from the elements. However, we had one individual "change their mind" after several years. Lesson learned... get property transfers done formally through an attorney. We eventually rectified the situation by buying the space from the owner sometime later.
3. Once we had our 6 wonderful spaces in the front of the building, everything was perfect... not! We had owners who would park their cars from inside the garage in one of the front spaces and literally "park" it there for days and even weeks. They then allowed their friends to come and park in their spot in the garage. As you know, "no good deed goes unpunished!"
4. I did research on parking meters, the original solution to ration parking. Unfortunately, not everyone plays fair, so the implementation of a meter was the best idea at the time. By charging a nominal fee, it would ensure that only those who needed the parking would pay and use it. We weren't trying to make money, but merely charge enough to give everyone a fair chance to use the spaces. Unfortunately, the meter was around $5,000, so it was a tough sell to the Board. After several years, we did pay it off, but unfortunately, by that time, the display was scratched and impossible to read. The battery kept dying after only several months, the merchant fees and wireless fees for pay by phone started to take its toll on our Association. The meter was down on a regular basis, so enforcement was sporadic and we either had everyone parking there for free or nobody parked there at all. It was a complete disaster! I ended up writing a database on some free web platform that we used to track vehicles and issue tickets based on the number of violations, but the guards that were working at our building didn't use it effectively because it wasn't a very polished program (I had thrown it together in an afternoon).
5. After years of our management company screwing around with the meter company to no avail, I finally set out to solve the problem. You can usually find a solution on the internet. In this case, I tried to search for an app on my phone. I was looking for a parking enforcement solution, but all the apps that came up seemed to be tied to companies that only worked with municipalities and big parking lots... we were too small for them. I didn't give up. I tried a few more before I came across "Pango." They were agreeable to taking on our condo Association, even though they hadn't done that sort of thing before - I love startups! It was an app on the iPhone billed as a mobile payment solution. However, the system allows you to see what cars are currently paying for parking by parking spots or zones. We chose to have one zone across our 6 spots for simplicity. When a guest pulls up to the parking spot, they see the sign (see attachment). They download the app, register their vehicle and a form of payment. Finally, they choose the zone where they want to park (could be a space number) and hit a Start button. In our case, we chose the stop and start method, so nobody would get towed for coming back 15 minutes late. Our goal was not to tow residents or even strangers. The nice thing is that Pango support would give the drivers parking their cars a benefit of the doubt if they forgot to stop the app. After about three times, they would probably say that they need to pay or quit using the parking spaces. In just one short month, we were off and running. We had rates set at $1.00 per hour from 8:00 AM - 11:59 PM. We made it $0.50 per hour from midnight until 8:00 AM, so someone could park their car from 8 PM until 8 AM for just $8.00. Keep in mind that we are in the very heart of downtown Orlando by Lake Eola and there are no cheaper parking spots, especially in the front of a building. Of course, there is always street parking, but you better not forget to get there at 8:00 AM to move your car or that free spot just became very expensive!
Results: We went from losing about $120 per month in fees and expenses for the parking meter to making $10,000 per year! On just 6 parking spaces. if you notice at the bottom of the sign in the attachment, you will see that we actually attached it right onto the old meter! It became a very expensive signpost. Our only problem now is getting tow trucks to come to the premises in a timely manner.
What's Next? We are now trying to work with Pango to rent out individual spaces inside our garage such that we could split the profits between the owners of the unused spaces (on a daily, weekly, monthly basis) with the Association. We are also going to start implementing enforcement of all of our parking inside and out with a ticketing system from Pango (I'll post more after we implement). We also plan to get rid of our decals and use Pango to register all of our owners, renters and guests vehicles. Finally, we have ordered two Barnacle devices which are a modern take on the boot solutions. It is ingenious and deserving of its own post. I am cautiously optimistic about being able to use the Barnacle to channel even more revenues toward our Association, while also being able to make fines more "reasonable" and if there is a mistake, the Association won't be out money if a refund must be issued due to a mistake on the part of our security guards.
If you are interested in talking to be more about your specific parking scenario, I'd love to give you a quick synopsis on what I would probably do to solve your problem. I wish it hadn't taken so many years to get to where we are today, but it was a learning process. One thing I have learned is that there is always a solution to your Association problems. Technology is usually the key ingredient in any solution. Controlling your parking situation is a critical step to maintaining a secure environment. You'd be surprised how many problems you will solve once you get your parking under control!
Best of luck!
Bryan Fangman
PS - it wouldn't let me load the image of the sign even though it was only 173kb