management contractor

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "management companies":
The other side of the coin is companies don't stay in business by ripping off their customers. Appletree isn't a multibillion dollar corporation, it's a local Pocono business whose customers are local Pocono resort communities. I'd be surprised if over 20 communities would continue to use them if they were not getting their money's worth. My experience with outsourcing (Fortune 10 company) has been proven personnel are assigned to start up projects to insure success and the success is then used in marketing campaigns. The outsourcer has a pool of experienced people to pull from and by servicing multiple area communities they would be familiar with managing our type of facility and the problems that go along with it. I think Eagle Lake (via our attorney) could be convinced to share their contract negotiation experiences and Appletree may even refer us to some of their other clients for help in drawing up a contract. If not then they are not reputible and we should stay away. It wouldn't cost anything but time for the BOD to do some research and ask a few questions

anon-- do you work for this contractor???? sounds like it!

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Anonymous to me show details 4:16 PM (12 minutes ago) Reply
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "comment":
I believe I heard Appletree Mgt signs a contract with Eagle Lake to manage the community and employees and certain projects. The projects are to be be completed by a certain date, if project completion dates aren't met then monies are deducted. They are given an annual budget to manage and complete projects and if they go over budget depending on the reason they may or may not recoup the money from Eagle Lake. This includes managing property sales. This approach limits the BOD interactions with employees but they still need to be involved in decision making and expenditures. The board might do well to contact a few of the properties Appletree manages other than Eagle Lake to get an idea how effecient they are. Here is their services site that explains what they do. http://www.appletreemanagement.com/appletree/sub_category_list.asp?category=10&title=Services


anon-- yes management companies can provide professional services for customers -- if the customer writes a good contract and has a defined set of goals to accomplish with the mgmt. company these arrangements can be beneficial to the community -- in most cases they will be expensive and can result in ever increasing creeping costs if the bod doesn't know how to manage the contract (this will be a real challenge for this bod)-- but given the past track record here at la with picking incompetent managers and having weak and ineffective board of directors it may be an option and cost that is acceptable to the operation of the community and the members--- this is actually is a good option considering this bod and their inability to oversee and manage la in an effective manner

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