The Top 15 worst things about being a Strata Manager!

Being a Strata Agent is a great job, and can provide a very fruitful, stable, and well-paying career for many!

The purpose of this article is not to dissuade you from getting into the industry, but merely to give you some insight into what some of the drawbacks might be, so that you get into it with open eyes, and awareness of some of the potential negatives.

1. Volume of meetings

Most agents are expected to run around 50-100 meetings per year.

If you manage 10 buildings, and each one meets monthly, that works out to a whopping 120!

100 meetings per year works out to almost 2 per week. While this may not sound like a lot, these meetings take up a huge amount of time and energy! You need to plan the agendas, run the meetings, minute them, and action the endless list of directives that come from the meetings. You will find that as much as half of your time is spent prepping and actioning meetings.

2. Evening meetings

Most of these meetings will be held in the evening, which makes it even more difficult, and can quickly lead to Strata burnout!  The one positive here is that most Council meetings have moved online thanks for technology improvements and adaption in the Covid world, which certainly helps reduce the hours spent commuting to and from buildings during rush hour traffic. Just be aware that for as long as you are in the industry, you will be holding meetings at least 1-2 nights per week indefinitely. This may mean missing your kids soccer practice, your salsa classes, or even the odd hockey game! 

3. Volume of clients

Management companies in BC use a “portfolio” approach to maintain profitability, whereby the particular agent will be managing anywhere between 10 and 20 buildings, depending on the size and scope of the Strata building. This can range from 500 units, with some high performing Strata Agents managing up to 2000 units! Can you imagine having 2000 customers to answer to? If even 5% of them email or call you on a given day, that’s 100 emails…

4. Serving more than one master

Most strata agents have around 75 Council members that are giving them direction on a regular basis. Sometimes different members on the same Council may tell you to do two different and opposing things, so it can become very difficult to know where to focus!

5. Drowning in emails

As we have moved away from phone calls and snail mail, most communication now comes in the form of email. While it’s great to have written records of all conversations, emails are easy for owners to abuse since they take no effort, especially once they harness the power of ChatGPT!  It’s not uncommon for an agent to receive 200 emails in a day.

Just responding to the volume of emails can be a full time job, never mind trying to actually get your planned work done during a given day.

If an agent decides to take a week off, or gets sick, the wave of emails does not stop, it only backs up, and can create extreme anxiety!

6. Most calls and emails are complaints

Generally speaking, most owners aren’t calling you to wish you a happy birthday or to check in on how you slept last night! Unfortunately, 95% of the calls and emails you receive are going to be complaints, and that can become extremely tiresome day in and day out!

7. Your reward for being good is more work

Congratulations! You’ve done an amazing job with your current portfolio! Your customers love you, your managing broker loves you, and your reward for doing such amazing work…we are going to add another 2 buildings to your portfolio! Generally speaking, this will come with an increase in pay, but is it really worth it considering half of that goes to the Government in taxes anyway?

8. Owners can be rude

95% of Strata owners are very nice and respectful, but the 5% who aren’t can make your life miserable!  Dealing with a rude owner can be very mentally draining.

Unfortunately every building tends to have one or two owners who feel that it’s OK to assault their Strata Agent with continual phone calls and emails about different issues. They can sometimes rude, and even verbally abusive. No one should have to deal with this type of abuse, but unfortunately many Strata Agents do, and this can lead to them wanting to quit and leave the industry for bluer skies!  

9. Expectation management

Many owners don’t understand that their Strata Agent is a “portfolio agent”, and that he doesn’t only work for their building. They don’t understand that the agent may only have 1-2 hours per week to work on their particular building, and therefore can’t attend to their needs in a timely manner. It is critical that the Agent explain this to the owners so that they understand this, but how can someone explain this to hundreds of owners who may have no interaction with them..

10. Lack of public education  

The general public really doesn’t understand how Stratas work and operate. They may attend their AGM once a year, do everything in their power to keep their strata fees as low possible when it comes time to reviewing the budget, and then complain when things aren’t done to their satisfaction. We continually receive calls about issues that have nothing to do with us, such as “my fridge stopped working”, or “The City construction taking place outside of my unit is too loud!” Many strata owners think that their entire monthly strata fee goes to the Strata Management company, rather than forming part of their overall budget. We hear comments like “I pay you $500 per month to work for me!”

11. Everything is urgent

We get it! To a strata owner, everything is an emergency and should be dealt with immediately. Unfortunately that isn’t reality, and most things are NOT an emergency. Most agents are receiving 10-20 “emergency” calls or emails on a daily basis, which can be extremely stressful, and quickly lead to burnout!

As you can see, these are just some of the issues that plague Strata Managers, and some of the reasons why many fizzle out quit within the first few years of being licensed. Education of the public, and expectation management are keys to being successful in this industry! If you want to be a Strata Manager with longevity, you’ll have to have thick skin and the ability to set expectations for your clients. 

12. It’s hard to be proactive

Everyone wants to be proactive, to spend their time forward planning, but the reality of being a Strata Manager is that most of it will end up being reactive. You may have plans to create a budget and draft an AGM package on Tuesday, but you wake up to a water leak in one building, and a break in that happened overnight in another. Unfortunately all of your attention is going to be taken up by the emergency situation, and your day of “planning” goes right out the window…

13. The work is never done

One of the most disheartening things about being a Strata Agent is that the work is never really done. Once you complete a task, guess what? Your Strata Council has ANOTHER task to assign to you…

14. Long hours

There really isn’t enough time in the day to get everything done if you want to excel at your job. You may have a meeting until 9pm at night, then it’s time to start it all over again tomorrow at 9am.

15. You’re expected to be an expert on everything

Your Strata Council will expect you to be an expert on everything, but this simply isn’t practical. You need to know about building maintenance, accounting, insurance, law (at least the Strata Property Act), and of course how to deal with people…

To conclude, I am merely pointing out the negatives to being a Strata Agent. There are many positives to the job, which I do feel outweigh the negatives. Hopefully this can give you some insight into the position, and allow you to make your own choice when it comes to your career path!

Looking for Strata Management guidance? Reach out to us here!