Self management vs Management Co

My POA is considering hiring a professoinal managment company due to lack of time of board members. I have heard many "horror" stories about companies low balling the initial bid then running up the fees later. Can anyone offer any advice to control such liability or ease my fears. Our development is 300 SFH and Townhouses.

Coral,

You can also asked any company that wants to manage your association for references. Contact those people and find out how long they've been using the company, what their fees are, have the fees changed, are there a lot of "hidden" costs, what's been thier biggest problem dealing with the management company.

Try to get bids from at least three different companies. Each may offer a different level of service and different costs. Meet with the owner and whoever will be assigned to your association. That is extremely important to get to know your property manager beforehand.

Once you have three bids, have checked references and met the managers, you can make a pretty well informed decision. One other note, most management contracts are only for one year, so if it's not working out, you can always reconsider your choice.

Good Luck

The initial fees per house/unit are easy to lock into a contract. The residual income a Management Company makes is sometimes more interesting for them.
This is where an HOA can find itself stuck with extremely high costs for variuos services such as copying/printing/faxing/phones etc.etc. Dont forget the transfer fees, statement fees, and all the other fees that management companies love to charge to defend their presence in your community.
Management companies do not have the devoted interest in your community or property that you have. They are in the business of making money by spending yours, and trust me, it is human nature to spend whatever you can see is available, and consistently ask for more every year.
I have to honestly say that as Secretary / Treasurer of a 300+ HOA, it can be just as time consuming keeping tabs on the management companies residual fees every month as it is to do it personally / with help from some members.