Carin’s Corner Spring Walk-Throughs: Timing Is Everything By Carin Rosengren, Keller Property Management
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t takes a favorable combination of circumstances to pull off a successful walkthrough, but when it comes together, there’s no better way to get board members, vendors and property management on the same page for the association’s upcoming season of activity.
roofer, or whoever. Having these folks present can eliminate a lot of back-andforth afterward about what needs to be done and about the association’s expectations.
A spring walk-through is also a great time to get a close-up inspection of individual units and any violations. What’s not great is finding a lawn full of pet waste that accumulated, under the cover of snow, all winter long – but getting a head start on compliance practices that will last through First and foremost, there’s the weather. It’s the summer can save loads of time down hard to forget last year, when the calendar said that spring had arrived but our seasonal the road. I like to bring association sticky notes and business cards to alert residents service vendors still had plow attachments on-the-spot about what was found around instead of trailers full of mowers and their homes. trimmers. Spring walk-throughs had to be put off until the snow melted, and by Finally, having experienced eyes and good that time the landscapers were so behind schedule it was difficult to get spring communication goes a long way toward cleanups done. maximizing everyone’s time during and after a walk-through. The weather plays an important part in a productive walk-through. A downfall of I recall the year one of my boards decided to doing one too early is that it may cause us conduct their walk-through on a weekend to see problems that will resolve themselves I was out of town. They generated a long as the weather warms. If you look too list of items for repair including missing soon at driveways, sidewalks and fences shingles and crooked fences – easy enough for needed repairs, you might be looking to spot – but they also found more than at frost-heaved components and causing a dozen pieces of siding with holes that unnecessary calls to the vendors who would needed to be replaced. make these repairs. I dutifully typed up their list for the general Second, there’s the scheduling. What’s the contractor and sent him off to make repairs. best day and time to get the most people He dutifully came back and reported that involved? When it comes to walk-throughs he couldn’t find any siding with holes. It for an association, there can never be is just fine, he said, leaving me baffled and enough sets of eyes, so setting a date and prompting me to do a second walk-through time when the most board members can of the property. As it turns out, what the board members thought to be holes were attend is critical to its success. clumps and spots of dirt. It’s true that from a distance it’s hard to tell the difference, but The date-and-time dilemma extends the result was time wasted by the contractor to any vendors you want to have come and by me. Another result of that incident along. It might be the general contractor was that it was easy to convince the board who ultimately will receive the punch list created, or the landscaper who will replace of one more needed expense: it was time to take bids for power-washing. trees, shrubs and do the irrigation, or the concrete and asphalt representative, the
Save the Date! CAI-MN 2014 Vision Awards
International Market Square New time of year!
October 23, 2014 Nomination Information Coming Soon at www.cai-mn.com
March | April 2014
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