Onsite Staffing in Brevard County: What Your HOA Management Company Should Be Providing

What happens when a resident  in an HOA community has an emergency bright and early on a Saturday morning? A Satellite Beach COA could have a water main break, an access gate arm might be stuck open or closed at the entrance to a Viera HOA. Or, perhaps someone is having a flood emergency in a Melbourne high-rise, and no one can find the shutoff valve! 

 Who will respond? How fast do they get on site? Do they even know what to do? 

 Who is actually there when it matters is at the heart of the significance of onsite staffing — and what it means for Brevard County community associations. It is one of the most under-utilized resources boards have available to them when reviewing and planning services needed from their property management company. Remote management is not adequate for larger, more complex communities. It needs to be supplemented with qualified onsite staff which are much easier for residents to contact, and promotes trust while adding to the total worth of an HOA or COA.

Remote Management vs. Onsite Staffing

Remote-only community management works OK when things are going well. An experienced community association manager can perform routine tasks (maintenance, monthly financial reporting, vendor scheduling and preparation for board meetings, etc.) from an off-site office. 

But, Brevard County associations face a lot of surprises. The area is prone to frequent afternoon storms that can overload stormwater systems to cause flash flooding. The coastal salt air wreaks havoc on building materials. Brevard is also home to large, complex planned communities, with some spanning hundreds or thousands of units across multiple neighborhoods, each with varying maintenance and resident needs.

What many board members may not know about onsite staffing is that it’s not a luxury upgrade meant only for the largest of communities. For associations with lots of common areas; multiple amenity buildings, gated entry systems, or a dense residential population, onsite staffing is essentia. Onsite management has long been considered by the Community Associations Institute (CAI) as a unique and important service model for associations over a certain size. 

 What Onsite Staffing Really Looks Like 

There are a few essential functions that must be included in onsite association management for the Brevard County community, even though what “onsite staffing” looks like is different to every management company based on their community's needs. 

Onsite community association manager (CAM). The most important part of onsite staffing is a dedicated CAM who is present in the community on a set schedule. They should walk the property regularly, interact with vendors and residents, and really get to know the community. This sort of steady involvement provides certified community association managers the type of Brevard County experience that no number of remote check-ins can hold a candle to. 

Ensuring gate and community access. Many of Brevard County’s HOA and COA gated communities, like the planned developments along Wickham Road in Melbourne, use sophisticated gate and access control systems. Having onsite staff who understand those systems, maintain service vendor relationships, and respond quickly when access failures occur is worth every penny to keep residents happy and keep day-to-day operations running smoothly. In communities where security is touted as an amenity, leaving the gate stuck open all night is a liability in terms of safety and also resident satisfaction. 

Amenity oversight and daily inspections. Whether swimming pools, fitness centers, clubhouses, or courts for tennis and pickleball, there are many assets of an association that need to be assessed regularly. Periodic vendor visits can only do so much; it takes staff inspections on a daily basis to monitor issues that require work orders and verify completion. Brevard County's coastal communities are subject to salt air and humidity that expedites the breakdown of amenity structures. During daily observations, they can identify and handle problems early before they become significant capital expenditures. 

After-hours emergency response. The disparity between remote-managed communities and those with responsive on-site staff becomes painfully evident during after-hours emergencies. Flooding, fire suppression system activation in high-rise COAs, broken elevators, and other surprises can occur at any time. An association management company that provides after-hours emergency response with trained onsite staff is much more capable at handling crises than one that routes calls through a general answering service. Aging high-rise communities in Cape Canaveral or Cocoa Beach COAs should be particularly keen on overnight management because they are more prone to failing pipes or other last-minute emergencies. 

Vendor coordination. Vendor oversight is another critically important function of onsite staffing. Landscaping crews, pool service technicians, pressure washing contractors, and their ilk need someone to manage the work done. Onsite staff also see that it was done right, and document deficiencies to hold vendors accountable. Remote managers simply do not know what is going on if they are not present. In Brevard, a county where landscaping and exterior maintenance is a year-round job, associations need to appoint someone to oversee this routine work, or it won’t be done in an acceptable manner. 

Why Onsite Staffing Makes Financial Sense 

Although onsite staffing is more expensive than pure remote management, the risks and benefits need to be weighed. 

Onsite management incurs costs of employee compensation, benefits, and overhead that simply do not exist in a wholly remote model. For smaller associations, the level of oversight required may not warrant those costs. 

It is important to remember that proactive onsite oversight typically pays for itself over time. For example, a CAM who observes early signs of roof failure before it starts leaking can save the association a six-figure repair bill. An in-house vendor who sees a pool contractor cutting corners when it comes to chemical balancing can protect against both resident health liability and damage to equipment. A fast response to a plumbing emergency in a Melbourne Beach COA will minimize water damage and reduce repair costs. 

Two of the major financial pain points for certified community association managers are underfunded reserve accounts and unanticipated special assessments. These are completely preventable outcomes, often the result of a lack of attention to issues that might have been detected and appropriately addressed earlier, if only the community had effective onsite management.. 

Given all these points, it only makes sense for communities to make an investment in this type of proper onsite staffing! Following CAI's professional standards, associations prosper with management structure staffing that aligns to community complexity. 

Matching Staffing to Your Community 

There is no one-size-fits-all solution in community management companies, as each Brevard County HOA or COA has its own needs. The responsibilities of onsite engagement should reflect what a community truly is. Not every association needs a full-time onsite model, but larger communities on the remote-only model will have gaps. 

Communities in Brevard County that will benefit the most from dedicated onsite management will be those associations comprised of 150 or more units, have a large amount of common areas (multiple pools, clubhouses and fitness facilities), those with gated access points, and high-rise COAs where a large number of residents translates to high call volume. Seasonal population trends can also affect the usage of amenities and communication needs. 

Smaller HOAs (a 60-unit townhome association in Palm Bay, or a patio home community in West Melbourne, for example) can use a split system of remote management with scheduled site visits. The important thing is for the board and management company to agree on what the community really needs, not just what’s easiest to sell or least expensive. 

Questions For Your Prospective Management Company 

When a board is evaluating whether onsite staffing is valuable to them in general, or when rethinking their current arrangement, it boils down to a few direct questions. 

How often a CAM visits the property? What do we do in the event of an emergency after hours? Who answers resident calls? Do they have an understanding of the community? How fast will they respond? What licenses does the management company hold? How will vendor work be documented and certified for quality? Most importantly, what is the mechanism for communication between onsite staff and board members for non-emergency but time-sensitive issues? 

The responses to these questions will inform a board of a management company’s service capacity. For Brevard County communities traversing the unique combination of coastal exposure, regulatory pressure and resident expectations found on the Space Coast, this is a significant worry. 

The correct onsite staffing model, tailored to a community’s actual needs and delivered by a management company with true boots on the ground experience in the market, is more than just a service feature. It is what lays the groundwork for all of the other things we promise to do in community association management. 

If you're looking for professional community management services for your association in the Brevard County area, keep Southern States Management Group in mind. Our experienced team has been serving Florida communities with comprehensive management services for over 35 years. Known for our rigorous vendor selection process and commitment to community success, we treat your property like our own. Learn more at https://www.ssmgfl.com/ or contact the team directly.