Our Passion for Service Can Make a Difference for You Thousands of communities across North America trust and depend on FirstService Residential for their association management needs. Why? Because we help them successfully fulfill their responsibilities and achieve their goals for their communities adding value, enhancing residents lifestyles, and ensuring that their communities remain robust and financially healthy, both now and in the future. We welcome the opportunity to show you how our unparalleled experience, local market expertise, proprietary tools and resources, value-added services, and passion for service excellence can make a difference for your community.
Making a Difference. Every Day. Welcome to FirstService Residential, North America s leading residential property management company. Our company was founded in 1950 as Wolin-Levin Inc., a small firm managing just one rental property in Hyde Park. Since then we have grown to become the most experienced full-service community association management company offering a wide range of services. We currently have the privilege of managing over 160 communities and 18,000 homes in Illinois. In 2004, Wolin-Levin became part of FirstService Residential, the largest residential property management organization in North America, overseeing more than 6,500 properties and over 1.5 million residential units. This allowed us to leverage the many programs and industry-leading services the organization offers to benefit our clients. We are successful because of our people, local experts, who are committed to making a difference for our clients. Our business philosophy includes building strong relationships with every Board Member and resident in our managed communities. We listen to your needs and customize a full-service management solution to optimize your community s property values, reduce its operating costs, and create a welcoming living environment for residents. We service communities and properties of all types throughout Illinois including condominium associations, town home communities, high-rise buildings, cooperatives, and homeowner associations.
The FirstService Residential Difference 1. Regularly scheduled property inspections to ensure quality control practices and continuous evaluation of building mechanics. 2. We have great people serving our clients. We work to find the best match between every client and our management team. 3. We have been managing associations like yours in the Chicago area for over 60 years and we use our experience to meet the needs of every client. 4. Implementation of Standard Operating Procedures (i.e. weekly site visits, work order system, and preventative maintenance). 5. Leveraging cost savings opportunities with our buying power and benchmarking programs.
North America s Property Management Experts Through our decades of hands-on experience, we understand every detail and nuance of property management; we continually build on this expertise through collaboration and the sharing of best practices across our organization. Our associates deliver proven solutions to any challenges facing your community; ensuring your property and its residents benefit from our best-in-class property management services. We listen to our clients and design customized property management solutions to meet their unique needs. We provide full-service management services to properties of all sizes and types, including: Low-, mid- and high-rise condominiums Large-scale, master-planned communities Single-family homeowner associations Cooperative Corporations Town home communities Investor-owned rental and REO properties Commercial associations and mixed-use developments
A Commitment to Exceptional Service and Solutions Our teams are comprised of service-minded professionals who share our commitment to making a difference in the communities we serve. Our associates are the best in the industry, and our most valuable resource. Our success is dependant on their talent, integrity, and passion for service. These talented property management professionals come to us with diverse backgrounds and expertise and they unite to create a team that shares a commitment to delivering value and service excellence in all we do. To ensure our management teams have the best knowledge and skills to deliver outstanding service to your community, we provide a variety of advanced training programs including instructor-led training, mentorship programs, and the FirstService Residential School of Professional Development, our proprietary online associate training curriculum. Our philosophy is to put the right teams in place to meet the individual requirements of each community entrusted to our care. When you partner with us you can be sure that every member of your team has the specialized knowledge, experience, and training to understand and fulfill your community s needs. Their local market expertise and dedication to service excellence powered by our organization s global resources are the critical elements needed to maximize your investment as well as your lifestyle.
Our Technology. Your Advantage. At the core of our services is our proprietary software, FSRConnect. This tool is the central communication piece to engage with your homeowners. FirstService Residential includes this software and its service components at no additional cost to the community. Why? Because we understand the importance of connecting homeowners through technology. FSRConnect will improve communication between the board, homeowners, and your manager. Our software is web-based, accessible, user friendly, and syncs with all of FirstService Residential s service products. Scan & Store FirstService Residential believes in the advantages of paperless technology. We scan and electronically store your documents. This allows for better security, better access, and quicker dissemination of information. Transparency and Accountability Property management can be chaotic. Not only does FSRConnect streamline processes, but every stroke of communication is tracked, reviewable, and archived. This allows FirstService Residential supervisors to oversee processes and deadlines with a click of a button.
FSRConnect Value-Added Programs A Community Website A convenient option for homeowners to obtain information about their community, check their account status, or pay their assessments. Where board members can access confidential reports, data, and information. Resident Alert Allows our managers to promptly and efficiently communicate to all residents over the phone within minutes. Gives each resident of your community a personal phone call with important community news. Whether concerning an upcoming board meeting location or urgent updates on a power outage, your residents will be kept informed. iphone Violation Tracking Application We ve got an App for that! Photos included in all violation letters and uploaded to the website for the homeowners to view. Work Order Management Engineers and doormen are involved in the management of work orders. Homeowners can submit and review their personal submissions with progress updates. FSRConnect Plus+ Features Visitor management is an interactive security feature that facilitates accountability for all building guests. All visitors are logged into FSRConnect where their contact information, picture, and signature are tracked. Visitors and contractors are then given photo badges prior to entering the building. Doormen can use this system to automatically inform residents of deliveries by e-mail or a phone call. Doormen use a package scanner to efficiently log all packages that arrive which automatically prompts notification to the resident.
24-Hour Customer Care Our commitment to service means residents never have to wait for answers to their questions. In addition to providing online assistance through FSRConnect TM, we offer a 24-hour Customer Care Center to provide answers and information by phone. Our representatives are equipped with the software and knowledge base that enables them to answer a majority of homeowner s questions immediately, minimizing the need to leave messages and await a returned call. Residents can ask questions about a variety of topics, including community specific information concerning rules and regulations, or information relating to their account, work orders, etc. Typically, the Customer Care Center achieves the following performance metrics: 95% first call resolution rate 80% of calls answered within 20 seconds Average handling time of 3-4 minutes Our goal is achieving complete resident satisfaction by providing the information they need, when they need it.
Financial and Accounting Services By providing full-service financial and accounting services to our managed communities, we create an integral roadmap for their continued growth and success. We tailor the industry s most advanced financial and accounting procedures and systems to the needs of each community, delivered by an experienced, CPA-led, financial team with an eye for detail and a commitment to precision and timeliness. Team members utilize industry leading accounting software, Jenark, which provides real-time access to financial reports, banking statements and more. In addition, they utilize a proven and reliable checks-and-balances system to ensure the accuracy of each transaction. We further strengthen our associations financial stability through proven cost containment and collection services. Because FirstService Residential is part of FirstService Corporation, a publicly held company (NASDAQ: FSRV; TSX: FSV), you can be confident that we are financially secure, stable, and here for the long term. We take pride in our public reputation and hold ourselves to the highest standards of transparency and accountability. In addition, we are subject to Sarbanes-Oxley financial control requirements for public companies and provide a 24-hour ethics hotline for associates.
Banking and Insurance Programs Through FirstService Financial, our specialized financial services affiliate, we are able to secure the most attractive terms and pricing for the high-level banking and insurance programs your community needs. FirstService Financial s programs are available exclusively to our managed communities throughout North America, creating another tangible value-added service for our 6,000 clients. By consolidating their bank accounts into select top-tier financial institutions, FirstService Financial creates value by eliminating bank fees on operating accounts and delivering significantly higher interest rates on reserve and escrow funds. As a result, FirstService Financial created more than $15 million in value for our clients in the past year. In addition, FirstService Financial is able to offer proprietary insurance products to our clients through strong and stable carriers due to the ongoing analysis and demonstration of the proven loss experience of the FirstService Residential portfolio. By leveraging our buying power, clients are offered better options and long-term stability in their insurance purchasing decisions. Although FirstService Financial s financial services are elective, many of our communities take advantage of the added value and quality they provide. Combined Purchasing Programs One of our key value-added services is our ability to identify and improve areas where your association may not be receiving optimal pricing or service from your current third-party suppliers. We manage more than $6 billion in annual operating budgets. Thanks to this substantial combined buying power and economies of scale across our organization, we can negotiate the best terms for your community s necessary operational services, such as utilities, landscaping and maintenance. This FirstService Residential program provides significant and measurable value for our clients; saving our managed communities tens of millions of dollars each year.
Green & Energy Programs Going green isn t just good for the environment - it s also good for your bottom line. We are committed to providing our clients with the tools and resources to reduce their buildings total energy consumption in order to see a positive impact financially as well as environmentally. Education & Compliance Education is the first crucial step in implementing change. FirstService Residential has taken a knowledge-based approach to green and sustainability and is proud to have on our staff LEED accredited associates who ve gone through the US Green Building Council certification program. These associates translate what they ve learned through their rigorous studies in the field, and work to identify areas where our clients can operate their properties in a more sustainable, energy efficient manner while saving money and preserving our environment. In addition, our staff is available to train your staff, board members, and ownership. Energy Report Card The Energy Report Card is an energy assessment and billing audit of your building s total energy usage. We can evaluate your building s energy use in comparison to like size buildings through our national presence. Using a proprietary Building Energy Rating Guide (BERG), we can quickly compare and benchmark your building against others in our database and identify opportunities for improvement. We consider every practical means and then comprise a package of solutions to resolve a building s energy management issues. Retrofits & Capital Improvements To facilitate the broad adoption of energy reduction plans that may include retrofit projects, we have partnered with top tier US financial institutions to create a unique Energy Retrofit Financing Facility. This provides loans for energy retrofit projects on a timely and streamlined basis directly to the property for which an energy retrofit project has been approved.
Find Out Why We re the Best Choice for You As Illinois condominium management leader, we offer a scope of tailored services and capabilities far beyond the reach of any other management company. Let us show you how our service commitment, knowledge, experience and resources can maximize property values, enhance the quality of life, and make a difference, every day, for you and your neighbors. For more information or to request a proposal, please call Asa Sherwood at 312.335.5621 or visit www.fsresidential.com.