Often when I tell people I'm a Community Association Manager I need to explain to them what I do. The short version could best describe me as the person that manages the common property and services of planned communities and/or condominiums through their homeowners' associations.
At my office, most of the community managers have eight to twelve properties that they are responsible for and oversee. I currently have 8 properties that I manage and I co-manage two more with another person. Our typical day starts about 8:00a.m. and each of us can construct our day to the needs of our communities and job responsibilities.
When we are in the office, most of us are answering emails, taking and returning phone calls, negotiating with contractors, paying association bills, monitoring finances, writing letters, relaying information, organizing paper work for upcoming meetings or completing paperwork from a meeting the night before. As well as maintaining the association files.
When we are out of the office we are often out at one of our properties for an inspection of the community. A community inspection can involve a variety of things. Some of the items we check are what's called the common areas of the property. An example for this time of the year would be to go out and make sure the entrance signs and entrance way are ok, street lights are working, to check the landscaping making sure there's no broken limbs, dead trees or damage to the property. If there's ponds/lakes we check them, we also check any playground and park equipment. If there's been a snow, we check to make sure the snow was plowed and removed properly by the contractor for that community. When the weather is warmer, we are often checking on the landscape, coordinating maintenance work, checking on pools and clubhouses and working with homeowners, the board and the architechtural committee on various homeowner improvements. The other important part of our commnunity inspections are to make sure no one is in violation of the covenants for that community. Each community has there own set of covenants and restrictions that we monitor and help to enforce.
This job also requires the community manager to attend each community's board meeting. Some of the communities are monthly and others are bi-monthly meetings. Most of these meetings are in the evenings. There are days when I do not return home until after 9:00p.m.
What I like best about my position is the diversity the job provides and that I get to meet and help some wonderful people along the way. Well, I hope that helps to answer the question "what is a community association manager?"
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