Not every estate requires an onsite estate manager. Smaller complexes can make do with a caretaker role or an offsite estate management service that allocates time in the week to attend to estate issues and administration. However given our size, though being pitched offsite estate management quite aggressively by players in the industry, we decided on an onsite estate management service. I suspect whether the onsite or offsite decision depends on the state and size of the complex in time. Our complex is around 550 units and proper maintenance has not been a serious focus for a very long time. Maintenance and onsite operations for a complex of our size are significant and require resources that are coordinated and managed.
An estate manager is essentially the eyes and ears of the trustees on the ground.
Duties
- Access control administration – granting and revoking access to owners/tenants moving in and out. Records need to be current and accurately kept as this affects the security of the complex.
- Service provider oversite and coordination. Gardening services, onsite maintenance, and cleaning services need to be managed
- Owner/tenant queries and issues to be resolved
- Special projects management and coordination
- Administration – this unfortunately takes up a lot of time and needs to be done in order to keep track of work done and a proper communication trail established.
- Warning letters sent to owners/tenants
- Insurance claim processing
- Emails and phone calls attended to on a daily basis
- News Letter Creation
- The ticketing/administration system updated
The above list is just a brief overview – there is a lot more that can occupy an estate manager’s time.
The Nuances
I think though, an estate manager provides a lot more value to an estate than what is listed above. Since they are the eyes and ears of the trustees, they can provide valuable feedback to the trustees as to what is going on in the complex – if the estate manager is listening and observing properly, he/she can understand the sentiment of the tenants and owners. The estate manager can be talking to the workers on the ground, observing their quality of work, and picking up on issues that would concern the trustees but not necessarily those that do the work. When an estate manager understands and fully supports the trustee’s intentions and mission at their complex, he/she becomes an extension of what the trustees require and is able to take a lot of the load off the trustee’s shoulders. The estate manager becomes an integral part of the community of the complex.