Frequently Asked Questions
Tina Larsson
I help NYC co-op & condo owners increase their property value??| Coop & Condo Board Consultant | Make buildings safer, more sustainable & more affordable | Podcast Guest | Published SPEAKer | Strategy Session BELOW ????
When I started my business, my partner and I discussed how to charge for our services. As fiduciaries over non-profit organizations, boards do generally not have a lot of money that they are comfortable with spending. They would be spending the money of the people that they represent. So how do we charge them?
We work on contingency. We do the analysis, estimate savings, and make suggestions. If approved, we then bring in vendors and implement the agreed upon savings. Not until completion of the implementations, and savings are realized, do our clients share their savings with us.
Buildings have lots of operating costs and those are increasing every year. Costs include, electricity, heat, water, insurance, elevators, exterminators, water towers, fire system, etc. Someone needs to pay for those increases, which is why rents, maintenance and common charges increase every year. As a fiduciary to the residents, coop and condo boards need to prioritize minimizing how much the residents are paying.
The board and building vendors become “cozy,” resulting in that increases often get out of control. As a result, the residents’ fees are increasing at a higher rate than they need to.
Our Process
We are frequently asked the same questions over and over again. Here are some of them.
Our fixed costs account for over 80% of your budget. How do you help us in this situation?
Managers and Boards have come to believe that because many costs are fixed, they cannot be reduced. This is where we disagree. For instance, everyone knows that electricity for the hallways, basement, and lobby are necessary, hence fixed. However, we work with boards on reducing the amount of electricity that buildings consume. The property manager typically works on reducing the cost of electricity with an ESCO or energy consultant. This, in our opinion results in minimal savings if at all. (If you’re under a fixed price agreement and the price declines, it will actually cost more than if you had stayed with a variable rate).
We already have a managing agent who does everything that you do. Why would we need your services?
Our services complement the services of the managing agent. The managing agent specializes in the day-to-day operations of the buildings, administrative tasks, complaints, and requests. They generally do not have time for a lot of ad-hoc requests. We specialize in financial and business analysis. We review, recommend, and implement two or so projects per month, potentially implementing over 25 projects in a year. This same procedure would take the board and managing agent years to accomplish, resulting in lost savings for your building.
Here's how we do this:
Our board is working on a very big project right now and we don’t have time to hire you. Can we follow up with you at a later date?
Hiring us may provide enough savings to pay for your big project! Big projects are always taking up a lot of the board’s time. Hiring us as soon as possible allows you and your board to continue to work on your project, while we work on our analysis, recommendations, and implementations for your building, simultaneously.
How much extra time and work will it take for us to work with you?
We send recommendations via email between meetings with follow up to answer any questions. We then ask that the board vote on those recommendations in the following monthly board meeting. It shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes per monthly meeting to vote for our suggestions and less than 15 minutes between meetings reading a list or our recommendations (which can be discussed over the phone, Zoom or via email) including potential questions and answers.
What documentation do you need from us?
This is as easy as 1-2-3! Just forward us the email that the property manager sends you every month. This will give us enough information to start making recommendations. Receiving these every month will enable us to have a complete understanding of your building over time.
We do not have a property manager or do not believe that our property manager has enough time and resources to help us with our needed repairs. Can you help us with those repairs?
In this case, we work on a project management basis. This includes goal setting and priorities, planning, estimating costs, bringing in vendors, manage the bidding, construction, and documentation. Our project management services are detailed here.
How long will it take our building to realize savings?
Some savings are realized immediately, but most are evident during the next billing cycle. It generally depends on whether the billing cycle is monthly, quarterly, or yearly.
How much does it cost to hire you?
There are no up-front costs (unless you hire us under our project management terms.) Our fees are a percentage of your savings for a limited amount of time, after which you keep 100% of the savings.
How can we get started?
Once your building agrees to work with us, we begin an immediate, comprehensive review of your building.
?What if you can’t find any savings for us?
Then it doesn’t cost you anything, and we’ll even be happy to put it in writing if you would like to show your shareholders or owners that they are in good financial shape!
What makes your team experts? What experience do you have?
We believe your building should be run like a business. We have an average of 20 years of experience as Wall Street business analysts and direct experience as successful co-op board members. We are applying our analyst business experience of identifying companies that are inefficiently priced in comparison to their business operations and applying that in ways for the building’s operations to improve efficiencies making them greener and more sustainable at the same time.
You can read more about me and how we got started here
See what our clients say about us
Check out our website
I would love to hear from you, contact me here:
Phone: (917) 648-8151
Set up a meeting with me here
And I’m quite active here on LinkedIn so please connect with me here.
The finance professionals who learn my structured system for improving small business cash flow and profitability help improve business success rates. I talk about cash-flow on podcasts, television, and at conferences.
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