Does your building’s board make decisions independently or do you rely on the property manager for decisions, advice, and authority?

Property management is an essential part of most residential buildings.

From day-to-day operations, monthly billing and collections, resident questions, complaints and other administrative tasks, property management is a necessary piece of your functioning puzzle. However, this should not stop a condo or coop board from taking an active, and pro-active, position regarding their building and its operations.

Think of it this way: your coop or condo building is really a business and should be run like a business. You are the part-owner.

If you owned any other business -- and perhaps you do! -- would you just hire a manager and then leave them alone to run your business, with no questions asked or desire for input? Or are you, or would you be, an active, participating hands-on owner? I think we can easily guess the answer for 99% of business owners and aspiring owners alike!

In order to function effectively as a business owner, you need to understand how the business operates, what is needed to run the business, what are the “moving parts,” and what are the goals of the business, short- and long-term.

It may take years to learn, or you may be lucky and have a coop board with members who have directly applicable skills.

In order to perfect your own coop and condo board skills, be sure to be prepared at meetings, listen to those who have experience, and absorb what you can. Take time on your own and attend classes to help you learn about specific areas of interest you may have about running a building.

The Council of New York Cooperatives & Condominiums (CNYC) is a not-for-profit membership organization for housing cooperatives and condominiums in the NYC area, and a great place to start. Another great source of information on all things for coop and condo board members is CooperatorNews New York.

Most of all, never be complacent; technology and applications as pertaining to your building, and really all industries, is constantly changing.

Read our Top Tips on being a proactive coop board member.

Be curious, be creative, and be a contributor!

At The Folson Group, our goal is to inspire you to run your building like a business. We enable and inspire co-op or condo board engagements to be filled with a feeling of accomplishment, excitement, meaning, happiness, and increased probability of success.

For other best practices for co-op and condo boards, get our FREE Policies and Procedures Checklist emailed straight to your inbox. Email us at info@thefolsongroup.com or call (917) 648-8154