Phone:  818-889-4426
Chris Johnson
Property Management Consultant
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EXAMPLES OF MY INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS AND SAVINGS

I would like to provide some specific ideas and ways that I have solved stubborn problems or found methods of reducing expenditures that proved extremely beneficial to the Associations. These examples will be either uncommon or generic; not your specific resolutions but will help to demonstrate my fresh approach.

I took over the management of one Association that had a unique electric and gas setup. The developer had the utility companies provide the electric and gas only to the entrance to the property and hired contractors to finish running the lines to the individual units. A Company was hired to read the individual meters and the charges were included with the monthly dues. I reviewed the records and found that 37 units had been added to the community some time after the original 160 were completed. I noticed that the bills indicated only the original 160 units, no previous manager had informed the utility companies of the addition for five years. I immediately contacted the Gas Co. and SCE to advise them of this omission, they then corrected the error. This increased the Associations baseline (lowest rate) allotment by over 20% and also provided the submetering discount ($2.79 mo. per unit because they didn’t have to read the meters) for the additional units. The result was a saving of about $10,000 annually for the Association, unfortunately it was not retroactive and about $50,000 was lost because of an oversight.

Another example is an Association that was replacing a refrigerator and microwave oven the night of my first meeting as their manager. I was told that the previous appliances had been stolen just after the locks had been changed and there was no sign of forced entry. I was perplexed that they would replace them without having resolved the access issue and would have advised against it had I been handling the account before that evening. Sure enough, the next week both appliances were stolen and the Board requested that I obtain bids for the installation and monitoring of a security system.  The best bid was $1,800 for installation and $68 monthly for monitoring which the Board approved at the next meeting. I was onsite a few days later to meet with a contractor that was implementing my next example and spent some time trying to figure out how the thieves were getting in. I looked at the newly installed lock system and figured out that one of the bolts that go into the door frame to secure it didn’t have a stop installed. The thieves were simply stepping on an object so that they could reach the bolt and push it down, which allowed the door to open easily. I went to my car and put a screw where the stop was missing and the problem was solved, not genius but the prior manager didn’t feel obligated to figure it out. Managers are so overloaded they don’t have time or inclination for creativity.

Lastly, the example I referred to in the last paragraph. He was implementing an energy solution that most of my Associations now use. Without being too specific, I most that Associations lighting areas that were targets of vandalism and rules violations. I thought a better method was to black out the areas when not in use and install two motion detectors ($700-900) to activate when the area lighting shut off. Not only have these Associations saved on average 2000 watts of electricity for about 10 hours a night, 365 days per year, and my solution either stopped or greatly diminished the vandalism and violations. Electrical savings averaged $2,000 yearly.

I could provide dozens of other examples of creative thinking that solved problems and/or resulted in substantial savings. If I’m hired to troubleshoot an Association and am unable to provide a method of resolution that is utilized, there’s no charge!

For reviewing governing documents or creating and drafting more efficient rules, policies, and/or procedures I charge hourly and the savings recover my fee quickly.

HTP

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