Survey says property managers don't text or take credit cards

By Teri Karush Rogers| January 4, 2011 - 3:45PM

In the print edition of its January issue, Habitat Magazine publishes the results of its survey of 49 NYC property management firms (representing 44% of New York’s co-op/condo stock) on issues ranging from average maintenances increases, to average fees for sublet applications, to most common forms of communication with residents.

BrickUnderground eyeballed the results. Here are the highlights:

Entry level property managers generally get paid between $36-$75k, senior level managers from $56-$150k.
Minimum annual management fees per building range from $12,000-$45,000.
Email is the most common form of communication with clients, followed by phone, and facetime. Texting was dead last, with about half the firms reporting 0 text communications, the rest reporting 5-10% of their client communication occurred via text.
About two-thirds reported average maintenance increases in the 3-6% range; most of the rest reported higher average increases.
No surprise that the most common reason cited for maintenance increases was property taxes, followed by higher operating costs. What was surprising, given the kvetching over union labor contracts renewed last spring, was that only one firm cited increased union labor costs as a factor in this year’s maintenance increases.
Only one property manager reported that residents are allowed to charge their maintenance payments on a credit card. [Correction 1/6/11: Five of the 49 accept credit cards.] Three-quarters accept online payments.
Average application fees for buyers fell into the $250-$450, with a few in the $600-$750 range.
Average sublet application fees clustered in the $250-$450 range.
Fees to review proposed renovations clustered in the $250-$500 range.

(Habitat Magazine, Jan. 2011, not yet online)

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