Managing a condominium is far from simple; there are countless operations involved with immense pressure from the owners that the condominium board is representing. This explains why a board is made up of multiple members who work together to work through their arduous list of responsibilities.
Boards perform well if they are systematic and work together, but nonetheless, mistakes will inevitability be made. Human error is unavoidable. This is part of the reason the world now relies so much on technology and computers for complex and repeatable work. Despite this trend, there is still a major lack of state-of-the-art technology solutions represented in the condominium management space.
For all the operations that a condominium board undertakes, one expects there to eventually be a greater representation of technology solutions, if only because these operations are begging for technological solutions. Some of these operations are simply better suited for computers. For example:
Reserve fund management and forecasting
Budget analysis and forecasting
Utility consumption analysis
So why aren't more businesses being created to address this gap? The major barrier is the high cost of acquiring the talent that can produce the scale of technology needed to truly benefit any industry. Condominium corporations don't exactly have a surplus of money to be spending on state-of-the-art tech services. At their core, condominium corporations are interested in keeping their costs as low as possible. This, in our opinion, largely explains the lack of investment in high end solutions in the space.
Finding the right people or companies qualified to provide such services is not easy in a world where the best tech experts are in such high demand. Condos often don’t have tech experts on their boards; how could they evaluate the quality of these people or companies if they don’t have the technological literacy themselves?
The second question is why are existing businesses that provide services to condominiums not also providing technology solutions? This one is simpler. Service providers are typically low margin businesses; their revenue is only marginally higher than their costs. It quickly becomes clear that these companies are not in a position to pivot.
We've also learned that existing condominium service providers may not have a culture that truly appreciates the potential of technology. Our founder learned this firsthand during his days on his condominium board when meeting with a property management firm to discuss a 🌐utility tool he had built for his condo. He was aiming to find out if they would potentially get behind the tool but the responses he got showed a lack of interest; it seemed they didn’t see the value.
A New Age
We believe that a new age is approaching. Technology is becoming accessible to everyone, and with the frequent turnover of members on these boards, better solutions to existing problems are being discovered everyday. If there is truly a need for these new solutions, then new businesses in this space will soon exist.
Komentarze