My experience with Community Management Associates ("CMA") lasted from June 2016 to July 2021. In…read more2016, after 15 years with Bauman & Company (https://www.yelp.com/biz/bauman-and-company-atlanta-2), the HOA board at this particular property in Midtown Atlanta, where I owned a rental condo, selected CMA to be the new property management company. Over the approximately five-year span I was a homeowner of a property managed by CMA, I thought CMA did an OK job, hence my three-star Yelp rating.
I thought Bauman & Company was exceptional, but they left the residential property management business. Other Midtown Atlanta condominium property management companies (companies not necessarily based in Atlanta, but manage Atlanta properties) I have experience with are Sentry Management and FirstService Residential. In my experience, CMA, Sentry, and FirstService have all been about the same: satisfactory.
The folks I had the most interaction with at CMA were Sharon Andersson and Chris Roberts. Personally, I thought both Sharon and Chris were great. They were always responsive to my questions and concerns, mostly via email. I met Sharon at CMA's offices on Northside Drive in Atlanta because the HOA's annual meeting happened to be held at CMA's offices that year, so I have been inside CMA's offices. I met Chris virtually, because of COVID, during the 2020 annual meeting.
I also interacted with Robert Corona, Brandi Ogburn, Krista Brito, and Ashley Grannum, among other CMA employees. All of these folks - Sharon and Chris included - were/are property managers. Each was assigned, at one point in time, to be *the* property manager for this particular community I owned a unit in. That's a lot of turnover. On average, this particular community had at least one new CMA property manager per year. That's one thing I and other homeowners weren't huge fans of. During the transition periods between property managers, there was often confusion because the outgoing property manager would disappear with no notice.
In contrast, at the property where I live in Atlanta, also a Midtown condominium, the current property manager has been with us since September 2015. Over that time, I have enjoyed developing a long-term relationship with this property manager. This property is managed by FirstService Residential. Why is there so much turnover with CMA property managers?
I did appreciate CMA's email announcements of new property managers. The announcements included contact info for both the new property manager and their supervisor. I thought that info was helpful.
Since I was renting out a condo, I had to deal with another company, described by Brandi as CMA's "leasing dept." However, I don't think it is a "department" internal to CMA. I think it's a separate, outside company. The company is called Rental Monitoring Solutions ("RMS"). RMS stayed on top of my leases and made sure I paid my leasing administration fee. All this was so I could keep my rental permit which legally allowed me to rent out my unit. A lot of landlords and tenants rent under the table, but I always played by the rules.
Aside from what seemed like an unusually high turnover rate of property managers and the confusion that ensued during the transition periods between managers, I thought CMA was fine. I don't remember having any exceptional experiences, good or bad, with CMA.