Peter McCabe, Director of Clear Building Management provides six questions to ask potential managing agents.
When you are interviewing potential managing agents, how do you really identify the points of difference and find the ‘right’ supplier for your development?
Clear Building Management set out six questions to help get you get under the skin of your shortlisted managing agents and understand if they will be a good fit for your block, your residents and the RMC directors.
Where does your development rank in terms of size against the others that they manage?
If it’s clear you’ll be a small fish in a very large pond, does this concern you?
Equally, if you’ll be their largest estate so far, are you confident they have the ability and resource to cope?
What do they see as the main challenges facing RMC directors, and how do they help to meet these challenges?
This will give you a sense of their understanding and empathy – and also any innovative approaches they may have to working with the RMC board.
How do they use technology to support their property management expertise? Whilst we are firm believers that technology can support better building management, IT can only ever be part of the solution; relationships and the human touch are essential.
Seek to understand that your potential managing agent has the right balance between people and process – and that any technology will add value rather than detract.
What are the values that guide their operations? Professional managing agents should have a clearly articulated set of company values that guide their decision making, recruitment and behaviours. If they can’t answer this question, you can substitute it with ‘what three words would your existing customers use to describe you?’
Understanding a potential providers’ values is, in our minds, a key part of the decision-making process. At Clear we operate on three core values of Quality, Transparency and Value – and these run through everything we do.
What is their split of customers between freeholders, developers and RMCs?
If the answer is anything other than 100% RMCs, think hard! As a resident-led management company, you need to know that your managing agent is free of any conflict and that their services are delivered in partnership with residents – and with residents’ best interests in mind.
How do they deal with complaints? No one enjoys dealing with complaints but making it easy for a customer to complain can actually help to quickly improve leaseholder relations. Every managing agent will have their own way of dealing with complaints.
At Clear Building Management we believe customers should be able to complain in whatever way suits them best, whether in person, over the phone, by email, by text, or through our online portal. In terms of response, we would recommend aiming to resolve all complaints by the end of the next business day. This is surprisingly possible!
Choosing a managing agent for your block comes down to a mix of personality and practicality: you want to get on with the people who will be taking care of your development but you also need to be confident that they have the right mix of skills to deliver an excellent property management service.
