Info about free units - is that the job of the building management?

[OneMoreFarang]

Is it the job of the condominium management to know which units are available?

And is it their job to give this information to people who are interested to rent or buy?

 

I ask these questions to make sure I don't have the wrong expectations.

Until now I though if I walk into a building and I am interested to buy or rent a unit that I can ask the building management and they are supposed to tell me which units are available. Or not?

 

It seems in some buildings people in small shops in those buildings know more about the available units then the management.

And I am pretty sure they get commissions from the owners or agents.

I am not against paying commissions to a property agent who helps me to find a unit. Like finding and showing me different units in different buildings, etc. No problem, they work for their money.

But if a on site shop owner tells me unit 123 is available and has 60sqm and contact this number then that is about a minute work for them. And I don't think they deserve thousands, maybe many thousands of THB "commission" for about a minute "work".

 

I prefer to walk to the counter, tell them what I am looking for a unit with size x and then I expect that they tell me what's available. Is that their job?

 

[Peterw42]

Didn't we discuss this in another thread ?

Theoretically a condo office should have nothing to do with sales and rentals in a building, its a giant red flag, a conflict of interest etc. Its not their job, actually forbidden in the condo act.

The may keep track of owner occupied etc, so they know where to send the bill or for emergency/problem contact, but that's for their operation not for the public.

 

I think a lot of confusion comes from, early on in the lifecycle of a condo block, often the developers sales office and the condo office is the same office space. The staff wear two hats.

 

I can appreciate as a buyer, you want a one stop shop for what's available, prices etc, but at the end of the day its not the condo office job.

 

As for paying a commission etc, if the local shop owner puts you on to a condo for sale, they will get a spotters fee, kickback etc from the seller. As the buyer, any commission is not your concern but can work to your advantage as lots of people will be trying to put you in contact with the seller.

 

Nowadays, the best place to find what's for sale etc is Facebook marketplace of local Facebook property groups (Bangkok condos for sale group). And you can post what you are looking for, area, budget etc, and people will send you their listings.

[OneMoreFarang]

1 hour ago, Peterw42 said:

Didn't we discuss this in another thread ?

Theoretically a condo office should have nothing to do with sales and rentals in a building, its a giant red flag, a conflict of interest etc. Its not their job, actually forbidden in the condo act.

The may keep track of owner occupied etc, so they know where to send the bill or for emergency/problem contact, but that's for their operation not for the public.

 

I think a lot of confusion comes from, early on in the lifecycle of a condo block, often the developers sales office and the condo office is the same office space. The staff wear two hats.

 

I can appreciate as a buyer, you want a one stop shop for what's available, prices etc, but at the end of the day its not the condo office job.

 

As for paying a commission etc, if the local shop owner puts you on to a condo for sale, they will get a spotters fee, kickback etc from the seller. As the buyer, any commission is not your concern but can work to your advantage as lots of people will be trying to put you in contact with the seller.

 

Nowadays, the best place to find what's for sale etc is Facebook marketplace of local Facebook property groups (Bangkok condos for sale group). And you can post what you are looking for, area, budget etc, and people will send you their listings.

Thanks

 

yes, we had a similar thread but as far as I know my answer above was not answered in an earlier thread.

Thanks that you answered it now.

 

About facebook and other websites: I am sure they make sense if people look for an area, like i.e. 1km around a certain BTS station.

Personally I first look for buildings which I like - which are few. And then I want to know all the units with certain criteria in that building. That's why I thought/think visiting that building is a good idea.

Another big disadvantage of online listings is that it seems many of the shown units are not available anymore. Especially property agents keep them listed so that people contact them and then they get offered something else. That is very annoying - at least for me.

[Surelynot]

In our condo the two functions are clearly delineated .......separate buildings, different uniforms .......any queries to juristic are always referred straight to sales......if that helps any???

[1FinickyOne]

That commission/favor is usually quite discounted compared to an agent and if it leads you to a unit for sale that you might not otherwise have found, then worth it, but it is traditionally paid by the seller... sort of a tip...

 

My limited experience the office/management really doesn't know much or care... I asked the head maid - she knows everyone... and found my unit which was not otherwise listed... 

[natway09]

The condo Juristic people & (or)management staff have nothing to do with renting or 

telling a stranger off the road which units are available..

It is outside their brief, they are there to run the condo for existing owners or renters.

There may be a real estate or leasing agent on the premises representing the Condo owners.

but if not your only way to find out which units are available for rent or sale is to google real estate companies along with the Condo name & you will still not get actual unit numbers but can make an appointment to view

[OneMoreFarang]

Thanks for all your replies.

 

For clarification: I didn't know if it is the job of the management to tell people who are interested.

According to all of you it's not the job of the management and I won't argue with that - I asked for an answer and I received that answer.

Now I know that I should not expect those answers from the management and likely asking people in a shop in the building makes more sense.

 

Thanks!

[1FinickyOne]

1 hour ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Thanks for all your replies.

 

For clarification: I didn't know if it is the job of the management to tell people who are interested.

According to all of you it's not the job of the management and I won't argue with that - I asked for an answer and I received that answer.

Now I know that I should not expect those answers from the management and likely asking people in a shop in the building makes more sense.

 

Thanks!

you might also check for a bulletin board... some have, some don't..

[digbeth]

It's not the job of the management or any employee of the Juristic Person/Condo, but often they can play agent on the side, have access to keys etc and are always on site, other owners are being taken advantage off if the committee don't stamp out the practice, say if the manager took a customer to show rooms to potential renter/buyer, that robs them of their paid time for their duty. 

 

But it is undestandable, Being a manager of a Juristic person must be the most dead-end job ever, showing rooms once or twice a day for a nice commision every once in a while can't hurt.

 

In my quite old condo, we stop the juristic person from holding on to keys to stop these (and remove the temptation for anyone in the juristic person office to act as agent for rentals and especially airBnBs when it was rife a few years back) and have proper agent paid rent to sit in the foyer/office.

 

Still it won't hurt to ask the girl at the reception if they know how many rooms are on the market, if they know any good agents who has lots of contact in the building, they see the people coming and going a lot. But see, the people in the shops in the condos are less bound to consider things like impropriety  

[smutcakes]

6 minutes ago, digbeth said:

It's not the job of the management or any employee of the Juristic Person/Condo, but often they can play agent on the side, have access to keys etc and are always on site, other owners are being taken advantage off if the committee don't stamp out the practice, say if the manager took a customer to show rooms to potential renter/buyer, that robs them of their paid time for their duty. 

 

But it is undestandable, Being a manager of a Juristic person must be the most dead-end job ever, showing rooms once or twice a day for a nice commision every once in a while can't hurt.

 

In my quite old condo, we stop the juristic person from holding on to keys to stop these (and remove the temptation for anyone in the juristic person office to act as agent for rentals and especially airBnBs when it was rife a few years back) and have proper agent paid rent to sit in the foyer/office.

 

Still it won't hurt to ask the girl at the reception if they know how many rooms are on the market, if they know any good agents who has lots of contact in the building, they see the people coming and going a lot. But see, the people in the shops in the condos are less bound to consider things like impropriety  

 

Takes 2 to tango. Management can only get involved in leasing/selling units as their are Co-owners allowing, encouraging them to do so.

[OneMoreFarang]

1 hour ago, smutcakes said:

Takes 2 to tango. Management can only get involved in leasing/selling units as their are Co-owners allowing, encouraging them to do so.

I guess there are also co-owners who like to sell/rent their units that way.

I am sure some people just walk into the building and ask what's available. If the management has keys and shows them the units they will like that.

If they have to look first for the agent for one unit and maybe another agent for another unit that takes a lot more time.

And yes, I see that that shouldn't be the main job of the building management. 

 

[smutcakes]

5 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I guess there are also co-owners who like to sell/rent their units that way.

I am sure some people just walk into the building and ask what's available. If the management has keys and shows them the units they will like that.

If they have to look first for the agent for one unit and maybe another agent for another unit that takes a lot more time.

And yes, I see that that shouldn't be the main job of the building management. 

 

 

It should not be any job of the management. I would be raging if the Juristic employees were wasting time showing people around private Co-owners units. They are paid for by all Co-owners to manage the Common areas of the building, not spend time working for individual Co-owners trying to lease their units.

[lkn]

On 6/28/2021 at 6:21 AM, smutcakes said:

It should not be any job of the management. I would be raging if the Juristic employees were wasting time showing people around private Co-owners units. They are paid for by all Co-owners to manage the Common areas of the building, not spend time working for individual Co-owners trying to lease their units.

Our building manager acts as agent, and gets some nice kickbacks from answering questions (and showing condos) to people who just walk into our lobby. Some inquiries may even arrive via me, as I manage our website and Facebook page, and I just direct all questions to our building manager.

 

I was not too happy about the system. My thinking was that we all pay his salary, and if we want him to show units for sale/rent, that should just be in his job description.

 

So first question, do we want him to show units for sale/rent? The answer is yes! I mean, what is the alternative when someone walks into the lobby and asks what is available? Tell that person “try to search online”, that is just ridiculous, especially when our building manager know what is available. And I like renting to go via our building manager, as we can get ID from everyone staying in the building and ensure there is no short-term renting going on.

 

So next question: Should he get a kickback for this? I would say no, but co-owners are happy to pay him for this, after all, they make money when they get a unit rented out or sold, and he is of course happy to receive the kickback. So should I really introduce a ban on kickbacks? And then what about other expressions of gratitude? E.g. I know he helps out co-owners, and some of them give him cash compensation for this.

 

What I have chosen to do is just to make everyone aware that our building manager is available to help with whatever the co-owners need, as long as his schedule permits it, and it is up to co-owners if they want to give him extra compensation for this.

 

As long as the system is somewhat transparent (within the building), I have settled on this being acceptable, and I know that if I tried to ban kickbacks, it would still happen, but people would just be more reluctant to tell me about it.

 

As for the argument that the building manager is not being paid to show condos to prospective renters: I am quite sure that he spends a lot more time servicing the co-owners who live in the building (beyond what is in his job description), than he does servicing those who live abroad and rent out their unit.

[lkn]

On 6/24/2021 at 3:22 AM, Peterw42 said:

Theoretically a condo office should have nothing to do with sales and rentals in a building, its a giant red flag, a conflict of interest etc. Its not their job, actually forbidden in the condo act.

How is it a conflict of interest? And where does the Thai Condo Act state that it is forbidden?

[Yellowtail]

49 minutes ago, lkn said:

How is it a conflict of interest? And where does the Thai Condo Act state that it is forbidden?

You do not see it as a conflict that the condo office which is supported by all the owners is working as a rental agency for a few of the owners?

 

 

[Peterw42]

1 hour ago, lkn said:

How is it a conflict of interest? And where does the Thai Condo Act state that it is forbidden?

 

The Condo office manages and maintains the common property. 

Anything other than managing or maintaining the common property is a conflict of interest.

 

Section 33 Juristic condominium duly registered shall have the status as a juristic person and shall have the objectives to manage and maintain the common property 

 

 

Section 17/1 No person shall be permitted to engage in any trade transactions in the condominium except it is a trade transaction in the area of the condominium designated in accordance with paragraph one. (specific business premises, restaurant etc)

 

The Condo office cannot do property sales or rentals, no more than they can run a noodle shop.

[OneMoreFarang]

4 minutes ago, Peterw42 said:

 

The Condo office manages and maintains the common property. 

Anything other than managing or maintaining the common property is a conflict of interest.

 

Section 33 Juristic condominium duly registered shall have the status as a juristic person and shall have the objectives to manage and maintain the common property 

 

 

Section 17/1 No person shall be permitted to engage in any trade transactions in the condominium except it is a trade transaction in the area of the condominium designated in accordance with paragraph one. (specific business premises, restaurant etc)

 

The Condo office cannot do property sales or rentals, no more than they can run a noodle shop.

I understand your point. But I also understand what was said above: Let's look at reality and manage it.

 

I wonder what you say to this situation: In my condo the management offers a service that they print documents for people who live there, and they charge for it. A few days ago I needed to print something and my printer was out of ink so I asked them to print it, and I think I paid 40B.

I guess what they did is not managing and maintaining the property. But I am sure it's a service which people in the property like. And nobody get's rich doing that.

What do you think? Should they be allow to do that? Or is it illegal and should be reported?

I know I am playing devil's advocate and this is not a serious matter, but out of curiosity I would like to hear your opinion about it. Thanks.

 

[lkn]

A conflict of interest is when interests are misaligned.

 

But for the building manager to increase their bonus / kickback, they should basically just work to make the building attractive, so it has a reputation of being well run, and nice to live in, as that would cause units to sell or rent faster, and possible fetch a higher price, which is what the building manger gets a percentage of.

 

But those interests are well aligned with those of the co-owners: The co-owners also want the building to be attractive and well run, and co-owners who are renting out their units, or who are selling, don’t want their unit to be empty for a long time.

 

So it seems to me that interests are perfectly aligned.

 

You could even go so far as to say, that if the building manager makes a good amount on the side, by “agent fees”, the co-owners can pay a lower salary, as the position will still be attractive, which benefits those who live there permanently, as the building manager is partially subsidized by those who rent out their unit.

 

It would only be a conflict of interest if e.g. the building disallows renting out units, and the building manager is tasked with enforcing that, but at the same time, also get a kickback for renting out a unit.

[Yellowtail]

17 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I understand your point. But I also understand what was said above: Let's look at reality and manage it.

 

I wonder what you say to this situation: In my condo the management offers a service that they print documents for people who live there, and they charge for it. A few days ago I needed to print something and my printer was out of ink so I asked them to print it, and I think I paid 40B.

I guess what they did is not managing and maintaining the property. But I am sure it's a service which people in the property like. And nobody get's rich doing that.

What do you think? Should they be allow to do that? Or is it illegal and should be reported?

I know I am playing devil's advocate and this is not a serious matter, but out of curiosity I would like to hear your opinion about it. Thanks.

 

 

So what if the condo office filled up with printers and the condo staff are are busy making  flyers for Lotus or out drumming up print work such that no one is there when you need assistance?

 

Most people don't care about little things, but the rules are in place to reign thing in when they get out of hand. I doubt anyone would care if one of the staff put a prospect in contact with an owner wanting to sell or rent, but if it turned into an enterprise at odds with the common good, it has to be stopped. 

 

What if you owned a nice condo, and the staff were working as Air-B & B agents for a dozen owners that lived in China?

 

Or what if the staff were walking people around at all times showing the common areas and vacancies? Open house with snacks by the pool?

 

 

[Peterw42]

10 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I understand your point. But I also understand what was said above: Let's look at reality and manage it.

 

I wonder what you say to this situation: In my condo the management offers a service that they print documents for people who live there, and they charge for it. A few days ago I needed to print something and my printer was out of ink so I asked them to print it, and I think I paid 40B.

I guess what they did is not managing and maintaining the property. But I am sure it's a service which people in the property like. And nobody get's rich doing that.

What do you think? Should they be allow to do that? Or is it illegal and should be reported?

I know I am playing devil's advocate and this is not a serious matter, but out of curiosity I would like to hear your opinion about it. Thanks.

 

I see your point, and technically probably not legal, but hardly comparable.

I suppose it comes down to where is the 40B going, into the pockets of the staff or into the normal revenue of the condo block, fees, fines, fee for replacing lost lift card etc. 

Sales and rental commissions are not usually going into the condo blocks revenue.

 

Sales commissions are a big chunk of money in Thai terms, a 3% commission on a 2,000,000 Baht condo is 3-6 months wages for a office worker. If the staff have a choice between the broken elevator, the pool leak etc,  or a massive commission, its just too much temptation. 

 

Playing devils advocate, In theory, the said printer is common property, you cold argue that you are just paying extra condo fees to use that common property. The same as you indirectly pay condo fees to use the pool.

[Peterw42]

12 minutes ago, lkn said:

A conflict of interest is when interests are misaligned.

 

But for the building manager to increase their bonus / kickback, they should basically just work to make the building attractive, so it has a reputation of being well run, and nice to live in, as that would cause units to sell or rent faster, and possible fetch a higher price, which is what the building manger gets a percentage of.

 

But those interests are well aligned with those of the co-owners: The co-owners also want the building to be attractive and well run, and co-owners who are renting out their units, or who are selling, don’t want their unit to be empty for a long time.

 

So it seems to me that interests are perfectly aligned.

 

You could even go so far as to say, that if the building manager makes a good amount on the side, by “agent fees”, the co-owners can pay a lower salary, as the position will still be attractive, which benefits those who live there permanently, as the building manager is partially subsidized by those who rent out their unit.

 

It would only be a conflict of interest if e.g. the building disallows renting out units, and the building manager is tasked with enforcing that, but at the same time, also get a kickback for renting out a unit.

What part of "its not the condo offices job, and it illegal", dont you understand.

 

If the condo office has an interest in running around selling condo, instead of an interest in getting the broken elevator repaired, that is the very definition of a conflict of interest.

 

Condo blocks can, and do, go bad. They run out of money, don't do timely maintenance, corruption etc. Its invariably the blocks where the office staff are too busy running a little real estate empire, at the expense of doing there job, Managing and maintaining the common property.

Its like a bank where all the staff are busy selling used cars in the car park instead of running the bank

[lkn]

25 minutes ago, Peterw42 said:

What part of "its not the condo offices job, and it illegal", dont you understand.

Can you point me to a legal ruling where a building manager getting a commission from facilitating a sale has been deemed in violation of the Thai Condo Act? If not, it is not me failing to understand it is illegal, it is just the two of us having different interpretations of what constitutes “trade” in the Thai Condo Act. Your interpretation seems to be anything involving money, where I would lean toward commercial activities that encroach on the common area, e.g. setting up an AirBnB station in the lobby would violate the act, but having the building manager show condos to people interested, would not.

 

35 minutes ago, Peterw42 said:

If the condo office has an interest in running around selling condo, instead of an interest in getting the broken elevator repaired, that is the very definition of a conflict of interest.

That is not the definition of “conflict of interest”. At best, it would be a distraction for the building manager, i.e. if the elevator is broken, how succesful will the building manager be at selling/renting out condos? Clearly there is still an interest for them in maintaining the building, also because, if they do not, they should lose their job, and then they are neither building manager nor receiving any commissions.

 

39 minutes ago, Peterw42 said:

Condo blocks can, and do, go bad. They run out of money, don't do timely maintenance, corruption etc. Its invariably the blocks where the office staff are too busy running a little real estate empire

Sure, condo blocks can, and often do, go bad in Thailand. But that does not make commissions illegal nor do I think it is caused by having the building manager show condos to prospective buyers or renters.

 

At least our building hasn’t gone bad, and we have had an official policy of allowing this for about five years.

 

1 hour ago, Yellowtail said:

What if you owned a nice condo, and the staff were working as Air-B & B agents for a dozen owners that lived in China?

 

Or what if the staff were walking people around at all times showing the common areas and vacancies? Open house with snacks by the pool?

You are conflating things: Short-term rental can be a big problem for a building, and quite the nuisance for the permanent residents. But that is a different subject. In my building, where the building manager does show condos to prospective renters, we do not allow short-term rental, and exactly because our building manager is involved with showing condos, we are in a better position to enforce this, as anyone who lists via the reception will not be able to rent on a short-term basis.

 

I did once stay in a building which was 90% (or so) short-term rentals, it must have been so painful for the permanent residents, but you know what? Main lobby was not involved with any of this, and instead there was literally dozens of “freelance agents” handling all the check-in/check-out on behalf of the Chinese owners, and I honestly think it lead to a lot more chaos, than if there was just a single office to handle this — of course, ideally the permanent residents would just ban short-term rental, but obviously majority of the co-owners had bought as an investment.

[OneMoreFarang]

I am listening to arguments from both sides and I think I understand possible problems.

 

But is real life, how much time do many building management people spend with their real work and how much do they spend with, lets call it, additional work?

I.e. in my building often the people behind the counter and in the office behind the counter don't seem to be too busy. Sometimes they speak with residents and i.e. collect money, sometimes they seem to do some computer work, but at least in my building it is very seldom that there is a que of people waiting at the counter.

 

And relative speaking I see very seldom that someone seems to be interested in units. And then the counter staff asks one of the security people to show the unit to that person. I also asked and I was shown two units.

 

I think if that happens a few times a day then not much time is "wasted".

[Yellowtail]

3 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I am listening to arguments from both sides and I think I understand possible problems.

 

But is real life, how much time do many building management people spend with their real work and how much do they spend with, lets call it, additional work?

I.e. in my building often the people behind the counter and in the office behind the counter don't seem to be too busy. Sometimes they speak with residents and i.e. collect money, sometimes they seem to do some computer work, but at least in my building it is very seldom that there is a que of people waiting at the counter.

 

And relative speaking I see very seldom that someone seems to be interested in units. And then the counter staff asks one of the security people to show the unit to that person. I also asked and I was shown two units.

 

I think if that happens a few times a day then not much time is "wasted".

So there's no security (such as it is) while the security guard is showing the property. Maybe add staff?

 

Should all the owners pay for the insurance associated with having security show units in the absence of the owners? 

 

 

[OneMoreFarang]

26 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

So there's no security (such as it is) while the security guard is showing the property. Maybe add staff?

In our building there are plenty of them. 

And as I mentioned earlier they don't do it all the time. 

It is very seldom that I see that there is no guard in an area where there should be one.

[lkn]

6 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

But is real life, how much time do many building management people spend with their real work and how much do they spend with, lets call it, additional work?

On paper, there isn’t much work for a building manager to do, especially if they use contractors for preventive services (which I think you are required by law to do, with something like the elevators) and accounting / invoicing systems for anything related to co-owner payments (like charging for utilities and management fee).

 

 

Proof of this is that many buildings run perfectly fine without any permanent staff at all, except for maybe a cleaner, and then a management company where each employee is assigned to a handful buildings.

 

In practice, buildings with lots of staff tend to just run around and solve all sorts of issues for the co-owners.

 

I visited one building with my bike, which had flat tires. When I came back down, the security guards had inflated my tires. Another time I asked our building manager if he knew if there was a Red Cross nearby (to donate blood), and half an hour later, I got a report about all the places I could donate blood in the area, plus a schedule and map of some blood donation bus that was driving around.

 

So yeah… I think they have time to show a condo to a prospective buyer / renter, without the building breaking down ????

[smutcakes]

There are such a myriad of potential problems with it that its impossible to list them all. I expect that there is a difference in views on this depending on the type of condo someone lives in. I expect if the Condo was in a holiday destination where perhaps a larger majority of units were bought as investment, or up for lease it is probably much less frowned on by owners as they are all in the same boat. In my condo we are 95% owner occupiers and there is no way in hell the management are permitted to show units around.

 

For me its just a no no. As an owner occupier why would i pay for a building manager to spend their time showing individual co-owners units to perspective buyers and renters. There is literally zero benefit as an owner for me. Why cant that owner just as easily list it with an agency, as simple as that. Can the receptionists also get involved, the technicians, the security guards? the maids? the Committee Members? Do some owners with a wink and a nudge move to the front of the queue when deciding which unit to show around? Does the Manager spread the money around to everyone?

 

What happens when a Juristic employee runs off with someones deposit, is that a Juristic issue to resolve as one of your employees? If they run of with 100's of K, will all the Co-owners need to pay it back?

 

I would be concerned if you think there is nothing for your manager to do, in a well run building the manager would have plenty to do.

[lkn]

1 hour ago, smutcakes said:

For me its just a no no. As an owner occupier why would i pay for a building manager to spend their time showing individual co-owners units to perspective buyers and renters

Presumably, at one point, you will have to sell your condo yourself. Would you not appreciate, if someone walks into the building and ask if any units are available, that your unit gets a mention and possibly a showing?

 

As for paying for this: Our building manager is on a fixed salary, showing condos does not cost us anything. Also, as a person who live in my condo, I am quite sure I make a lot more use of our building manager than the overseas co-owners.

 

1 hour ago, smutcakes said:

What happens when a Juristic employee runs off with someones deposit

Having our building manager show condos to prospective buyers / renters, and him sometimes receiving a commission for this, does not mean he should accept payments directly. If co-owners trust him with that, then it is between them and our building manager, just like I had our building manager pay my property tax this year, should it turn out, that he just pocketed the money, then that is my problem.

 

1 hour ago, smutcakes said:

I would be concerned if you think there is nothing for your manager to do, in a well run building the manager would have plenty to do.

Of course there are things for him to do, but most days he could take a 5 hour lunchbreak, and not much would be different wrt. the building.

 

I wonder what it is, you think takes up your building manager’s time? And do you also have a full time building manager in your home country? Because if not, does that not concern you?

[Yellowtail]

1 hour ago, lkn said:

Presumably, at one point, you will have to sell your condo yourself. Would you not appreciate, if someone walks into the building and ask if any units are available, that your unit gets a mention and possibly a showing?

 

As for paying for this: Our building manager is on a fixed salary, showing condos does not cost us anything. Also, as a person who live in my condo, I am quite sure I make a lot more use of our building manager than the overseas co-owners.

 

Having our building manager show condos to prospective buyers / renters, and him sometimes receiving a commission for this, does not mean he should accept payments directly. If co-owners trust him with that, then it is between them and our building manager, just like I had our building manager pay my property tax this year, should it turn out, that he just pocketed the money, then that is my problem.

 

Of course there are things for him to do, but most days he could take a 5 hour lunchbreak, and not much would be different wrt. the building.

 

I wonder what it is, you think takes up your building manager’s time? And do you also have a full time building manager in your home country? Because if not, does that not concern you?

Presumably, at one point my I may want a prostitute, doesn't mean I want them working the common areas or renting a vacant condo for a short-time. But it would be a great money maker for the non-resident owners, they can kick a little back to the guards to check them in and out.

 

No doubt a fair percentage of owners would go for this as well....

[The Hammer2021]

No it is not part of their duties to know about or inform people about available units. There is a notice board in most condos advertising available units. However, there may be an exception when owners go into default. In my condo a notice of warning, default and demand was pinned to doors to warn the owners. The units were then listed by the condo managers for the public to viewv and the units were auctioned by blind auction sealed envelope via a court or municipal tax office.