Introducing RowCal - Our new Property Management Company

History

From the earliest days of our neighborhood through the first year of a “resident-led” board (~2019/2020), we enlisted the help of a property management company. Our most recent (2020) was First Service Residential who regularly visited the neighborhood, managed ACC requests, organized all maintenance and repairs (landscaping, gate) and handled all monthly and annual reporting. The initial resident Board identified a number of shortcomings with First Service, and in our search for a better option, identified PayHOA. PayHOA was and is a rich software platform that saved us ~$13K annually and allowed us more direct control over the direction and quality of our expenditures (gate repair, landscaping, etc). The system worked well…until it didn’t. One of the roles of a property manager was to field complaints and initial contacts for neighbors, as well as hold the standards of our CC&Rs and in many ways “be the bad guy.”

Thankfully, we’re a fairly laid back neighborhood, and even though we fielded a handful of contacts each year, the approach was manageable and worthwhile as it saved us a good bit of neighborhood dollars. Last year was a different year, with a bit more effort required on the part of the Board to hold to our existing CC&R’s and answer several specific issues. The weight of the year and its impact on volunteers saw the resignation of two respected Board members, and the unfortunate need to enlist the help of an attorney which brought its own expense and added time investment. We heard several calls for implementation of a new property management company and though the inquiries were driven by a relatively small group of neighbors, the Board and Advisory Committee decided on the path of property management in order to solve for reducing the growing burden on the volunteers, and to put in place a team of service providers that could take over the role of handling responses to concerns and needs - including the higher friction engagements that have become more common.

Current State

After careful review by the Board and Advisory, we’ve elected to contract with Rowcal. We reached out to several companies, heard back from three and received serious bids from two. Based on the experience and interviews, and after conferring with the Advisory Committee, we selected Rowcal.  The commencement date is Mar 1, 2024.

What does this mean for each of us?

• Effective March 1, the community will have a new process for reaching someone regarding a solution to common issues (instructions to follow and will be posted on our website). We will be sending out more information shortly on what exactly that means. We will have one community manager, but the way Rowcal provides assistance is through “pods'' for many needs like billing or other common problems. They can maintain a first-call or email resolution of >90% and can answer phones >75% of the time on the first call. More to come.
• As we’ve discussed, we need to improve maintaining certain landscaping standards - both in common areas and for homes. We will work with Rowcal and they will be regularly visiting the neighborhood, as one would expect with an HOA managed by a property management company. Rowcal will be the source of courtesy letters as needed. We will work carefully with them on standards so no one is surprised. From March through October, they will visit twice per month. In other months they visit once a month.
• Unfortunately, as easy as PayHOA is and as much as we the Board do love it, working with a property manager means using their system. Luckily, Rowcal has a nice platform for us to use and will be linked from our website. New email invites will be going out for signups shortly - via email and postal mail.
• Website: We intend to maintain the website as is (www.saratogahiillsaustin.com)