The best questions to ask a property management company force specific answers: who actually manages your building, how fast they respond, what sits outside the base fee, and who owns the data when the contract ends. URBI gives boards that visibility. Strong firms answer every one of these gladly.
This is written for the board, not the bidder. Every question asks for a number, a name, a document, or a deadline, because a promise nobody measures cannot be enforced. Good firms answer all of them without being pushed.
Who will actually manage our building, and what else are they carrying?
Ask for the human being, not the company. The firm you interview is not the person who answers your calls, and that gap is where most relationships fail.
- Name the manager assigned to us, and let us meet them before the contract is awarded.
- How many properties, units, and board meetings does that person carry today, and what is being added?
- Who covers vacation, illness, and resignation, and how do we find out it happened?
A good answer sounds like a named person, their portfolio, their supervisor, a named backup, and an offer to bring them to the next meeting. The Community Associations Institute advises boards to identify the manager who would handle the account and meet that person during selection.
A dodge sounds like "you get our whole team." Staffing pressure is industry wide, not a mark against a firm: CAI's 2024 industry report, fielded in December 2023, found firms naming the ability to maintain service levels while growing without expanding teams as a primary challenge. Worry about the firm claiming unlimited capacity.
What response times are we promised, and how are they measured?
Ask for the clock and the counter, not the intention. "24/7 service" with no acknowledgement target is a slogan.
- Define emergency, urgent, and routine, and give the acknowledgement, attendance, and completion target for each.
- Who answers the phone at 2am, and are they your staff or an answering service?
- How is response time measured, and how often does the board see it?
A good answer sounds like written targets by category plus a sample report measuring performance against them. Board members in CAI's survey told managers to "Respond quickly and consistently", or at least set expectations about how fast a reply comes.
A dodge sounds like "we respond immediately." Immediately is not a measurement. See our guide to after hours maintenance calls.
What does the contract do when service slips?
Ask what happens in a bad month, because that clause is your only leverage. Most agreements describe the fee in detail and the remedy not at all.
- What is the initial term, the renewal mechanism, and the notice period on both sides?
- Is there termination for cause with a cure period, and termination for convenience?
- Can we require a change of assigned manager, or a change of fees or scope, without terminating or signing a new contract?
A good answer sounds like a named cure period, a written escalation path above the manager, and a statement that nothing changes without both signatures. Good firms want this too, because it protects them from a board that moves its expectations mid year.
A dodge sounds like "we have never needed that." Ask anyway. The clause costs nothing while things go well.
What sits outside the base fee?
Ask for a complete written fee schedule, not the headline number. The base fee is the part everyone compares, which is why it gets sharpened.
- Is the base fee flat, per unit, or a percentage, and a percentage of what exactly?
- Which of these are extra: transition, added meetings, after hours callouts, collections, records requests, project management, maintenance markups, insurance claims, legal coordination, termination?
- Do you take any discount, rebate, or commission from vendors we pay, and which charges can change without our signature?
A good answer sounds like a line item exhibit attached to the contract and a direct yes or no on vendor rebates. The California Department of Real Estate's reference book, drawing on Institute of Real Estate Management standards, tells managers to refrain from taking discounts or commissions on client expenditures without full disclosure to and permission from the owner. Disclosing a markup is correct. Refusing to say is not.
A dodge sounds like a low base fee paired with "that would be quoted at the time." The opposite error is just as costly. Kelly Zibell, senior vice president of community management at Communitas, told CAI's Common Ground that "Changing companies for cheaper fees is not going to be a solution" unless services are cut too.
How are the books kept, and what do we see each month?
Ask to see a real monthly package before signing. Financial control is demonstrable or it is absent.
- Where are operating, reserve, and deposit funds held, and in whose name?
- Who initiates a payment, who approves it, and are those different people?
- How often are bank balances reconciled against the ledger, and who reviews exceptions?
- What is in the monthly package, and can a director see bank data directly?
A good answer sounds like segregated accounts, a stated approval limit, monthly reconciliation, and a redacted sample package handed over in the meeting. California's trust fund guide for brokers is a useful model: funds placed no later than three business days after receipt, and bank records reconciled monthly.
A dodge sounds like "our accounting is fully transparent." Transparent is not a procedure. See our walkthrough of condo financial statements.
Who owns the data, and what happens to it when we leave?
The association should own it, and the contract must say so before you sign, because after a relationship sours nobody answers the phone. Software is near universal and the governance around it often is not. A Foundation for Community Association Research survey published in 2018 found 92 percent using software management programs while 56 percent had adopted policies to protect private information.
- Who owns the ledgers, documents, resident records, work order history, and audit logs? Name the owner in the contract.
- Can the board export all of it in usable formats, on demand, without asking permission?
- Is multifactor authentication required, and what does the transition timetable say about records, funds, credentials, and open work orders?
A good answer sounds like the association owns its data, export is self serve, and the agreement sets a handoff deadline in days. Guidance published through CAI urges associations to vet vendors carefully and make contracts spell out security responsibilities, and notes that cyber insurers now require MFA for coverage.
A dodge sounds like "everything lives in our portal." That is where it lives, not who owns it. See our notes on condo document management.
What licensing and insurance should we verify ourselves?
Check the regulator's registry yourself rather than accepting a logo on a proposal. Licensing is set state by state and applies to the contracting entity as well as the individual.
- Which license applies to the firm, and which to the person assigned to us? Give us the registry numbers.
- Certificates for errors and omissions, general liability, cyber, and crime or fidelity coverage, with limits and cancellation notice.
- Any disciplinary history, litigation, or claims involving associations you manage?
A good answer sounds like certificates and registry numbers by email the same week. Florida requires a firm responsible for more than 10 units to be licensed by the department, and regimes vary elsewhere. CAI's insurance guidance is that the association carry its own fidelity coverage, independent of the management company's policy, with the company and unpaid volunteers covered under it.
A dodge sounds like a certificate in the parent company's name when a subsidiary signs. Check the names match.
What should we ask the references?
Ask for references that resemble you, and one client who left.
- Was the manager you were promised the manager you got, and for how long?
- Name a month when something went badly. What did the firm do?
- Did any charge surprise you, and how did the transition go?
A good answer sounds like the firm offering a departed client unprompted. CAI also suggests boards find candidates independently, through their association lawyer, accountant, and directors at nearby buildings.
A dodge sounds like three references who all joined last year. Ask for tenure with the contact.
How do good management companies answer all of this?
Directly, and usually in writing, because the work is already visible in the systems they run. When tickets, approvals, vendor work, reporting, records, and board decisions live in one place, the hardest question is answered by opening a screen.
URBI is built that way. Tickets, vendor work orders, amenity bookings, board voting with an audit trail, documents, and reporting sit in one platform, and the board sees the same data the manager sees rather than a summary. URBI's accounting is In Beta, with trust and reserve fund handling built so a board can trace a number to its entry. Whichever platform your manager uses, ask to see it live. More in URBI for residential buildings, what URBI is, and the condo board guide to building software.
Frequently asked questions
Is it rude to ask a management company this many questions?
No, and the good ones expect it. A management agreement is one of the largest decisions a volunteer board makes, and the firm is being asked to hold association funds and records. Experienced managers have answered these many times and keep a packet ready. If a firm treats the questions as an insult, that reaction is the answer.
How should we run the interview itself?
Send the written questions first, then use the meeting for what you can only judge in person. Give every bidder the same scope, then spend the hour on the assigned manager and a hard scenario. Ask them to walk you through a burst pipe at 2am and a disputed vendor invoice.
What if we already have a manager and want them held to this?
Run the same list at renewal rather than waiting for a crisis. Turn the answers into an operating exhibit attached to the existing agreement: scope, response targets, fee schedule, reporting calendar, and staffing commitments. Boards often do better naming the standard than changing firms, and CAI practitioners note a new firm needs close to a year to settle in.
Before you sign
Hire an operating system, not a brand. Every question here reduces to one test: can the promise be named, measured, contracted, and verified? Boards that insist on it get better management, and good firms get boards who know what they are asking for. To see what that looks like in one place, write to hello@myurbi.co, or read our notes on vendor management for property managers.
