www.condo-benchmarking.ca compared 746 Condo buildings in Toronto and North York to identify the best Property Management Companies that repeatedly show the highest efficiency of Management Performance expressed in the Lowest Maintenance Fees/ per SF

As we discussed earlier, the most influencing factorsfor condo maintenance fees are the effectiveness and honesty of the property management company and property manager, the greatness of teamwork among the Condo Directors, the degree of competition and transparency in the condo services market, and the availability of information about the best practices for Condo Management team decision-making.

Considering those factors, we are trying to improve Condo services market transparency through our website: www.condo-benchmarking.ca. We are collecting, analysing and publishing the information that might help Condo owners, directors and property managers to get comparable information on different buildings’ performances. We are also trying to encourage the Condo service market rivalry by launching our website: www.condo-fairtender.ca that we expect will help a lot of qualified Condo service providers to get direct access to Condominiums’ contracts and projects. And we are striving to organize a Powerful Condo Owners’ Community using www.condo-social.ca to give Condo owners influential power by discussing all aspects of their Condo building life within their own building (internal network). Also, they can ask for advice from other buildings’ owners (external network) and bring their solution or decision to their Condo Board. Condo directors can also get advice from other Condo directors which might save them a lot of time and money, and make the Condo director’s experience more pleasant. We have created “Condo Management Company Selector” to help Condo directors and Condo owners to make the right choice in a management company that can manage their building for less. So, let’s see how it might be helpful.

Which Company Would Be Good For Your Condo?

It does not matter how nice or not nice your Condo Management Company owners are, it is always desirable to know what the best practices of Condo maintenance are. This means how the owner’s money is spent (is it in an efficiently and effective manner), and are the owners being provided with the highest quality and the best quantity of services for their money.

One of the best ways to understand which Management Company is most efficient with the owner’s money is by comparing the maintenance fees of similar buildings — and the management companies offering them.

To get started, we looked at maintenance fees across Toronto and North York for different groups of buildings. We’ve sliced the data in several ways to give you an idea of low, high and average maintenance fees for buildings having different sets of amenities and costs inclusions.

We divided 746 buildings into 5 groups to compare buildings with similar sets of amenities and owners’ bill inclusions:

• buildings with a pool, hydro and heat included in the owner’s bill (YYY)
• buildings without a pool, hydro and heat not included in the owner’s bill (NNN)
• buildings without a pool, hydro and heat included in the owner’s bill (NYY)
• buildings with a pool, hydro and heat not included in the owner’s bill (YNN)
• buildings with a pool, hydro included and heat not included in the owner’s bill (YYN)

The most detailed set of amenities and inclusions might be selected at our Management Ranks page of www.condo-benchmarking.ca

Using our Condo Management Company Selector tool, the best Management Companies which maintain Condo buildings for less have been identified

Just desirable search parameters have been selected:

Using our tool, we selected appropriate search parameters, and got 5 tables with ranks of maintenance fees and management companies, offering them, for 5 main groups of buildings.

You need to click the arrows to see all of the building group’s ranks.

As we can see from the tables, there are a few Management Companies that repeatedly appear in the top 10 of each group of buildings. And based on 2 criteria:

1. Number of times being in top 10.

2. Lowest Maintenance Fee related to wider and more expensive set of buildings amenities

For YYY group of buildings (buildings with a pool, hydro and heat included in the owner’s bill):

For NNN group of buildings (buildings without a pool, hydro and heat not included in the owner’s bill):

It is noticeable that the first 10 leading maintenance fees of the buildings without a pool and hydro and heat not included is higher than for a group of buildings with a pool, hydro and heat included. Some of the reasons might be the presence of facilities that is more expensive to maintain or just not efficiently spent money.

For NYY group of buildings (buildings without a pool, hydro and heat included in the owner’s bill):

For YNN group of buildings (buildings with a pool, hydro and heat not included in the owner’s bill):

For YYN group of buildings (buildings with a pool, hydro included and heat not included in the owner’s bill):

According to the information, of about 10 leaders amongst 5 groups we can say are the main leaders:

The most often appearing leaders having the best performance indicators are:

It would be fair to notice that Larlyn Property Management shows the lowest maintenance fee in Toronto and North York, but for that low maintenance fee the building at 1881 Jane Street have just 36 units, and are at a mature age of 40 years old, and also has an indoor pool. So, the company did not appear in the list of leaders too frequently, and this might be because of the Company’s size. But it is worth to check if that company might be efficient for your Condo building.

We hope our new tools for the Owners and Condo Board will help everyone make the right choice for a Property Management Company.

Keep in mind that the cheapest isn’t always the best. It is just a point to start from. As a next step, it would be reasonable to: see photos of the buildings servicing that Management Company, search for the information about the buildings’ problems and successes, visit the building to see how the building is maintained, and talk with those buildings’ owners (now it is possible through our www.condo-social.ca). And it’s important to compare a few Management Companies and their performance to make the best choice for your Condo building.

How “Condo Management Company Selector” of www.condo-benchmarking.ca Helps You Make the Best Choice?

As the name suggests, the Condo Management Company Selector is a Condo owners’ tool specifically designed for those interested in understanding how similar Condo buildings pay to maintain a particular set of amenities at the desirable level and which Companies manage those buildings. Also, which property management companies provide the best efficiency for owners’ money, i.e. provide a decent level of maintenance for the lowest costs. For more information visit the “How To” page.