The condominium track

Three names go to the board. Somebody searches all three that evening.

When a board is handed three names by a director, a lawyer or an engineer, the first thing somebody does is look those three names up. What they find decides who receives the package. A firm that is invisible, or that shows a 3.2 average built from eleven tenant complaints, loses at that stage - before any proposal is read, and without ever learning it was in contention.

Reputation and record first · Live in 14-21 days · Your boards are never my prospects.

The reframe this whole track runs on
Google’s job here is not to win you the lead. It is to stop you losing an RFP you were already shortlisted for.

If somebody has told you that ranking wins board work, they have not sold to a condominium firm. You already know how you get work: referrals, reputation, and an RFP run through a selection committee. What I am selling on this track is the thing that stops you being quietly removed from a list you never saw.

Surviving the shortlist

The due diligence happens before anybody meets anybody.

who actually writes the reviews132 reviews
4.3average, out of five
5
4
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1
Tenant, worst weekOwner, quietly happy
Illustrative · volume and timing only. Nothing written, gated or filtered
What loses the package
A rating built from eleven tenant complaints is the first thing a shortlisting board finds. It decides the outcome before a proposal is opened.

What a shortlisting board checks

Public reviews and rating. How long the firm has managed their type of property. How many properties it currently manages. Licensing status. Named references. Manager tenure and client retention.

Which engines answer that list

Trust answers the rating. The Record answers retention and responsiveness with numbers instead of adjectives. The Inflow makes sure the search finds you rather than a stale directory listing from four years ago.

The season is real and it is short

Board work runs on a cycle - budget months, meeting months, renewal months. During meeting season I hold a real date and come back on it rather than pushing. Renewal season is the best month of the year in both directions.

The rule that protects the relationship

Once a management firm is my client, its boards are not my prospects. A board that approaches me goes back to the manager first, in writing. It is in the agreement, not just on this page.

Order of build on this track

Trust, then Record, then visibility. In that order, and not the other one.

First

The Trust

The rating is the first thing checked and the cheapest thing to lose on. The people most motivated to review a management firm are not the people who pay it - a resident with a complaint writes four paragraphs, a satisfied owner writes nothing. Eleven reviews means one bad month defines you. A hundred and forty means it does not.

Second

The Record

Retention and responsiveness are on every board’s list and almost nobody can answer them with a number. A monthly report written to be tabled at a board meeting without editing turns your strongest argument from an adjective into evidence. See The Record.

Third

The Inflow

Defensive, on this track. The search has to find your firm rather than a stale directory listing, a wrong phone number, or nothing at all. Worth doing, and worth being honest that it is third. See The Inflow.

Fourth

The Intake

The after-hours contact from a resident, logged and routed on your escalation order. Administrative only, and the limits are below. See The Intake.

Licensing, stated precisely

The desk routes to a licensed manager and stops.

What it does
  • Answers from the corporation’s or the firm’s own documents
  • Triages against criteria you set, not criteria I assume
  • Logs every contact with a timestamp in and a timestamp answered
  • Routes anything real to a licensed manager on your escalation order
  • Books owner enquiries into your calendar
Where it stops
  • It does not interpret a declaration
  • It does not decide common element versus unit
  • It does not commit the corporation to a dollar
  • It does not touch another owner’s file
  • It does not put dates on statutory processes
  • It does not accept service of anything

Where a jurisdiction licenses management - the CMRAO in Ontario, equivalents elsewhere - the desk routes to a licensed manager and stops. It does not perform, and is never presented as performing, any function requiring a licence.

Questions

Answered plainly.

Does Google ranking win condominium management contracts? +
No, and I will not pretend otherwise. Boards run an RFP through a selection committee, usually working from names put forward by a director, a lawyer or an engineer. What search does on this track is defensive: somebody looks all three names up that evening, and what they find decides who receives the package. Ranking matters here, it just is not the lead engine.
What does a board actually check before it sends a package? +
Public reviews and rating. How long the firm has managed their type of property. How many properties it currently manages. Licensing status. Named references. Manager tenure and client retention. Almost all of that is checked before anybody meets anybody, which is why reputation and record do the work on this track.
My rating is low because of tenant complaints. Can that be fixed? +
It can be moved, not erased, and the honest version takes time. The engine is volume, timing and response quality: a structured ask to the owners and outgoing satisfied residents who never think to leave a review, and a proper reply to every negative one written for the next reader rather than the complainant. I will not write reviews, incentivise them, gate them, or filter who gets asked. All of that is against platform rules and all of it is detectable.
Can an intake desk touch condominium work without breaching CMRAO rules? +
It can, because it never performs a licensed function. It answers from the corporation’s own documents, triages on the corporation’s own criteria, logs the contact, routes to a licensed manager, and stops. It does not interpret a declaration, decide common element versus unit, commit the corporation to a dollar, touch another owner’s file, put dates on statutory processes, or accept service.
If you work with my firm, will you approach my boards? +
No. Once a management firm is my client, its boards are not my prospects. A board that approaches me goes back to the manager first, in writing. I say that early rather than when asked, because the firms worth having do ask.

Find out what a board sees when it looks you up.

On a nine-minute call I will read you your public rating against the firms you compete with for packages, what your listing shows a director searching at nine at night, and what I would fix first.