By: Mike Perez

As hurricane season approaches us, many of the residents in our more than 25,000 units under management become concerned because the fury of Mother Nature can be formidable, and no one wants to face that fury alone.

In an Ameri-Tech managed community, they don’t have to.

Everyone here, from the front desk to the back office, has an assigned role to help our communities during a storm, and, if need be, restore damaged units and grounds quickly and completely.

We have all been lucky: Hurricane Irma in 2017 wasn’t the devastating whirlwind we anticipated. The power outages, downed trees, non-functioning traffic lights, and shuttered businesses were more of an inconvenience than a danger, and for the most part our communities fared well. Neighbors helped each other. Our first responders exercised skill, expertise, and compassion. Local and out-of-state crews worked hard on our behalf, and the mark Hurricane Irma left, for most of us, was relatively small.

But what about next time? What if our luck doesn’t hold out?

When uncertainty reigns and fears hold sway over our lives, it’s important to remember that decades of experience and careful planning have gone into making Ameri-Tech managed communities as prepared as possible.

Our expert team of property managers, our fiscal planning, and our relationships with service providers make us ready to move quickly, confidently, and responsibly to make our communities whole.

To do that, we adhere to four basic principles of property management:

While all are vital to a community’s “health,” the first two ensure a comfortable yet affordable way of life for the residents in our managed communities year around.

It is the last two points that are especially important to residents and association representatives when natural or man-made disasters disrupt our daily lives.

At Ameri-Tech Community Management, we take disaster preparedness seriously, and that means paying meticulous attention to maintaining our managed properties. Our managers are conscientious guardians of property integrity, walking the grounds, checking the common areas, and scheduling small repairs before they can become big problems. If a major issue does develop, they move quickly to call the right professionals to handle the situation.

That is where our fiscal acumen comes into play. Community associations trust us to guide them to responsible financial choices to protect their property values, and we honor that trust by leading those associations to sound, day-to-day maintenance practices, appropriate insurance policies, and adequate financial reserves. This leadership will not only minimize the effects of a disaster, but also help mitigate its impact on the community and its financial health.

This oversight is important even during those times of relative calm, when routine maintenance is all that is required, and our managers and corporate officers can focus on everyday concerns.

During these times, we dedicate ourselves to ensuring that the board members of our community associations have all the tools they need to serve their communities. We can help them fulfill their responsibilities in accordance with the law and with their communities’ association documents. We combine tried-and-true, fiscally responsible practices with up-to-date innovations that allow board members real-time access to their community’s financial documents. This results in fiscal transparency and a level of accountability that are unparalleled in our industry.

We work with our associations to establish insightful application processes that will help identify prospective residents who may not be happy in a managed community environment, and we help associations navigate the sometimes choppy waters when a resident’s behavior goes against association rules and regulations, or causes difficulties with his/her neighbors.

We are proud of our track record of 30-plus years of experience in creatively resolving association and resident issues.

Ameri-Tech Community Management continually strives to improve its services, and the way we deliver them. We hand-select members of our staff to be a community’s primary point of contact so our boards know they can always find a responsive manager to handle virtually any issue.

We work to build relationships between our management office and a vast array of carefully selected vendors and service providers. To that end, we work with a variety of experienced maintenance companies that range from roofing repair, to paving, plumbing, painting, grounds keeping, swimming pool maintenance and repair, carpet and furniture cleaning, catering, cabinetry, tile work, and air conditioning. We also encourage relationships between those contractors and our association boards. We want our associations and residents to have the same access to top quality work that Ameri-Tech demands.

While our primary concern will always be the 200-plus properties that have turned to us for expert, professional community management, we also are regarded as leaders in the industry and strive to educate associations and residents seeking knowledge about community management.

Each year we publish the Apex Report, which is our Preferred Vendor publication. It has evolved over the years from a simple listing of the vendors we trust to do right by our communities, to a compilation of those at the apex of their fields. Community leaders, everyday residents, public employees, entertainers, and — yes — the vendors and service providers that we are confident will provide the quality service and integrity to be recognized as the “best of the best.”

And in 2017, we went into the sound booth to host the radio show “The Ameri-Tech Connection.” Carried on WTAN (1340 AM and 106.1 FM) at 5:00 p.m. every Thursday, the show’s live question-and-answer format introduces the professionals who help support the community management industry. The shows are archived on our website at https://www.ameritechcompanies.com/2005-2/.

Ameri-Tech is proud of our management team, our Realtors, and those select few we invite to learn property management the Ameri-Tech way. They are the reason so many condominium and homeowners’ associations are eager to “Experience the Difference” that Ameri-Tech makes.

Ameri-Tech is continually growing, managing communities in Pinellas, Pasco, Hillsborough and Polk counties. If you are aware of a community that can benefit from the Ameri-Tech approach to property management, please reach out to them, or to us, to help us make a connection.