Property managers lean on their financial partners to support associations and communities

Property management companies are under constant pressure to do more for the associations and communities they serve—to make it easier for homeowners to make payments using the latest technology, to manage more efficiently with fewer staff, or to find the best financing for a new project. Whether you’re a single association or a multi-property management company, delivering these capabilities isn’t easy.

The need has never been higher for strategic partners who can help by presenting you with easy-to-manage payment and financial processes, offering debt and financing options, and providing the industry depth and advice to help you make smart financial and funding decisions.

Property managers looking to leverage their strengths should partner with business and financial advisors that have technology, service, and financial capabilities they can deliver to the communities and associations they serve.

Serving homeowners

Homeowners expect associations and their property managers to provide the simplicity, ease, and do-it-my way flexibility that they get from Amazon or Netflix—and they expect it to be delivered efficiently. That can mean:

• Letting customers pay the way they want with the ability to accept and process ACH auto debit, eCheck, debit and credit cards, and online bill pay. Also, accepting payments through the mail and in person.
• A platform that allows homeowners to sign up and manage their account and payments in ways that are most convenient for them while keeping them up to date with coupon books and association budgets.
• An easy way for communities to manage deposit accounts, oversee reserve funds, provide regular reporting and easy reconciliations, and integrate with property management software.
• Keeping sensitive data secure while providing the reporting you need to watch out for any signs of payment or other fraud.

Those requirements are a challenge to deliver—technology platforms require scale to develop, and customer service adds to a property manager’s already busy workload.

The right partnerships can provide services, technology, and staff to extend your business processes and boost your value, allowing you to do your job better with fewer workarounds and complex time-consuming steps, and ultimately helping you better serve your communities.

Capital and financing 

Property management for communities carries with it the responsibility of managing the capital resources needed to maintain and upgrade your communities’ common property and infrastructure. It’s never an easy task to build reserves and decide when to put them to work, much less handle unplanned infrastructure needs—a reality that more than 80% of associations have had to deal with over the past three years^{Disclosure 1} Add in the recent construction cost inflation, interest rate escalation, and the continuing aging of housing stock, and it’s more challenging than ever.

The answer comes in teaming up with a financial partner who knows association property funding and can work with your association boards directly to get to financing solutions and assessment strategies that fit your business and the property you support. That financing includes:

• Staging capital improvements, major replacements, and maintenance and repairs to sustain the value of your properties and maintain their attractiveness to homeowners and buyers.
• Setting reserve requirements, designing assessments, and accessing lending, which requires planning informed by the latest on the economy and capital markets.
• Finding financial partners who understand the subtleties of lending, including guarantees and specialized terms for permanent loans and lines of credit and particular uses like insurance premium financing and emergency repairs.

Partners who put it all together 

When it comes to delivering to the communities you serve, your financial partner can be a powerful force in helping you put together the resources you need. And that can allow you to stay close to your customers—homeowners and the governance structure of their association boards or guiding groups—while focusing your attention on their properties and their needs, for both long-term care and short-term maintenance and upkeep.

What should you look for in a partner? Think about a partner that:

• Makes it about you. Someone who knows your business, your operating and financial processes, your reserves and your debt, and has a genuine interest in the communities you support along with your business and its success.
• Can do more for you. Effective partnerships take time to develop, and if you can find a strategic partner who can do more for you, you can get more out of that investment. Financial partners like Truist Association Services can provide a range of services from comprehensive homeowner payments and full-service banking and treasury management to financing, insurance, and investments—all from one of the top financial institutions—and allow you to put more value to work for your business.
• Brings property management industry insights. Leaders understand the value of the knowledge that a strategic partner can bring—property management industry trends, latest innovations, and local market conditions are vital to property managers. Even better is a strategic partner who knows your business inside and out, who can adapt ideas and best practices that can make a difference for your communities and your business.

Working with the right financial advisors adds a layer of expertise and scale that’s hard to replicate, but that may be the key to delivering more to your communities and the association boards you serve.