A day in the life of a Strata Agent
I get asked all the time by people that are curious about the BC Strata industry: “what does a Strata Agent’s average day look like?”
While it really depends on the day, and of course the day of the week, an average day without any major emergencies might look something like this:
8am-9am: turn on the computer, and open up your email inbox. Depending on the size of your portfolio, and how long it’s been since you last checked, you could easily have several hundred emails to browse through, and potentially more on a Monday.
Most agents would also check their voicemails at this time to see if any emergencies were reported from the night before.
The first thing would be to attend to any emergencies that happened over the weekend or the night before. This would be any water related issues, insurance claims, fire alarms, etc.
Next would be to attend to any urgent matters; basically anything that looks like it needs to be done that day.
After that, an Agent might return any phone calls that came in yesterday.
They might then log into the invoice approval portal, and start reviewing/ approving invoices that were submitted the day before.
Once you’ve gotten through the emergency stuff, an Agent would typically look at their agenda for the day. It might be an electronic to do list generated through software, or an old fashioned day planner. This is where most agents can actually be proactive, attending to meeting directives, planning AGM’s, budgets, Council meetings, and trying to secure quotes for various projects.
Throughout the day there may be some meetings with the accounting team, assistants, or perhaps the Managing Broker.
A Strata Manager deals with lot’s of emails!
Late afternoon is a great time to burn through the rest of your emails from the day and yesterday. This may take 2-4 hours, depending on the volume.
By 5pm it will be time to log off for the day, and to get ready for your evening Council meeting, which may run from 6:30-8pm. You will typically have a couple of these every week, but most are done over video platforms now, so they can be done from home.
Expect long days as a Strata Agent
While not every day looks exactly like this, it’s a very typical one. You may have site visits that take you out of the office periodically, but for the most part it’s very 9-5pm ish, in front of a computer, dealing with emails and emergencies as they unfold. Evening meetings with Strata Councils would occur on average twice per week. If you’re prepared for an action packed calendar, then this might be the career for you! If you’re looking for an easy job, then I might suggest you apply with the Government! 🙂
Reach out to us here if you are considering a career as a Strata Agent, and we can give you some advice!