Feherty Property Management
Year entered profession: 2011
Year RCM obtained: 2016
Mentor in the Industry: Cynthia Chung
Licensing for condominium managers is now a reality. How will a licence benefit your career as an RCM? What impact might this have for all condominium managers in Ontario? Having a license now furthers the RCM credentials and validates the position of an RCM as a professional career and industry.
The impact of the RCM designation will help to eliminate those persons who were acting as condominium managers, but not fulfilling their roles and responsibilities. It will hold the condominium managers accountable to their decisions and actions.
What path brought you to a career as a condominium manager? How has your membership in ACMO helped you in your career? I have had a variety and multitude of jobs (27) both part-time and full-time from a young age. The benefit of always having worked is that it has taught me how to deal with different types of managers, bosses and co-workers. These various jobs gave me the ability to work in a team environment and to embrace new work situations.
The constant changes and challenges that accompany each day in this industry keeps me engaged and interested and leaves me fulfilled when I am able to troubleshoot and act as a problemsolver and accomplish a multitude of tasks during the day.
ACMO membership allows my career to evolve through the continuing education requirement. Staying educated in the RCM environment, because of its ever-changing parameters, is extremely important. Keeping abreast of new rules and regulations and guidelines allows an RCM to differentiate him/herself from other managers.
Tell us about a personal success story on the job. My favourite success story is when I was assigned to a newly acquired condominium that had relinquished their previous contract with another management firm because of dissatisfaction due to irreconcilable differences between owners/board/manager/ management firm. I have now been able to completely develop a happy cohesive working relationship with the owners/ board. As testament to this relationship, I have personally received flowers and cards with thank you notes from members of the board delivered to my office.
What’s your biggest challenge as a manager? What’s your favourite part of the job? One of the biggest challenges an RCM faces is being able to interact with peoples’ personalities. Every person is unique and knowing how to practice diplomacy and being tactful and understanding in difficult situations has been a learning curve. It is important to be able to listen well and be compassionate in difficult circumstances. Construction problems can be solved in a relatively straightforward manner; however, dealing with some difficult personalities and showing respect and gaining respect from owners and boards has been interesting and sometimes challenging. Having patience and good listening skills is imperative in this profession. The favourite part of my job is running and preparing for AGMs. I have always excelled in public speaking and enjoy speaking in front of a group and fielding questions and complaints and bringing matters to a resolution. Another favourite part: Each day brings its own unique set of issues and no two days are ever alike!
Best business advice you ever received. The best business advice I received was to not dwell on each problem that occurs. There are days where every hour will bring a new problem or issue to be dealt with. What may seem like a insurmountable problem or stressor today will be resolved and forgotten in a year. It is best not to take the problems home; leave them at the workplace to make time for relaxation and family.
What is a recent project that you completed. Although I manage projects every day in my role as RCM, there is one that stands out and has played a large role in my career, which is a concrete rehabilitation job that is currently in progress. In a newly acquired condo complex, within the first six months I was in the unfortunate position of having to advise the board about an apparent need to have the concrete work assessed by a structural engineer. After receiving the abysmal news by the engineers of the amount of work needed, to then moving into the large, closed-bid tendering process with the engineers, moving thorough the analysis of bids, many long, late-night board meetings, including weekends, to then signing the CCDC 4 contract to calling/holding special owners’ meetings, financial analysis which turned into a requirement of a special assessment, this project has – by far – given me the biggest learning experience and challenge not only with construction, but also with empathy, passion and handling all the emotions of the owners. As a recent RCM and new to the industry, this project alone has given me so much more experience and knowledge.
