Shadowing Practice: Managing a Small Strata? Here's How to Handle the Biggest Challenges - Learn English Speaking with Video
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All right.
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Well, thank you for joining everyone.
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My name is Chris Stepchuk.
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I'm the CEO and managing broker at Fort Park Property Management and Real Estate.
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And thank you for taking time out of your busy day.
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I'm sure you guys are all involved in Stratas.
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So that means that but you have lots to do other than your real jobs.
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So I appreciate it.
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And we do do these webinars.
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We're doing them every couple months.
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We'll probably do them every few months moving forward.
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And if you ever have any ideas or suggestions for topics,
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please feel free to reach out to me and I will try to include them in the next one.
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I've got lots of good feedback from you guys and different ideas over the past while we've been doing these.
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So it is much appreciated.
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I'm just going to get into the presentation a little bit.
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So today's topic is the top challenges that stratas with under 100 units face and how to overcome them.
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So it doesn't mean that, you know, all stratas have the same issues.
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Some, you know, if you're 20 units, you might have different struggles that an 80 unit building has.
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But a lot of these will apply.
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They're fairly broad in nature.
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um you know even if you've got 150 units a lot of these things are still going to apply
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um we're going to have probably about a 15 to 20 minute presentation today
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and then we're going to have time at the end for q a
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if you guys have any questions at all uh pertaining to
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anything strata related please feel free to ask them at that time it doesn't have to be specifically about this topic.
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It can be, you know, anything at all.
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If it's super specific in nature, I'll try to answer it kind of broadly, but feel free to reach out to me
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and we can take it offline
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and maybe I can give you guys some advice on that and kind of how to work through that.
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So there are some unique challenges that these smaller buildings definitely have.
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We manage a lot of smaller buildings, some, you know, four units, some 100 units.
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And they've all got some of these challenges.
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So Fort Park, who are we?
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We help improve strata living through practical guidance and care.
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We're a full service real estate brokerage, specializing in residential, commercial and light industrial strata management.
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And we've been around since 2008.
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And we provide seamless real estate sales and property management services, ensuring a smooth and hassle -free experience for property owners.
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And I like this quote here from Henry Ford, coming together is a beginning, staying together is a progress, and working together is success.
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And this is very true in Strata.
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For those of you, most of you are on councils.
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So just getting together, it's a good start.
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And then sticking together can be challenging.
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And working together is really how you can define success.
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So the topic, as I said today, challenges facing smaller strata buildings.
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So smaller stratas face many of the same issues that larger buildings do,
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but they also have unique experiences and challenges tied to the size and the resource.
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You have, you know, a large building potentially, but not necessarily a large budget, which can make things very, very challenging.
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Professional management, of course, can help smaller and stratas and medium sized stratas, but even that sometimes comes with limited services or limited budget,
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and it might not be enough.
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So here, we're going to create a little list for you, the top challenges we see, and how you can, most importantly,
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how you can overcome them.
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Number one that we see this all the time is lack of building manager or access for contractors.
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So it can be very frustrating for owners to, you know, have to continually provide access to contractors.
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You know, many council members are not retired.
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They have full -time jobs and you can't necessarily afford a full -time building manager.
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Where I live, you know, I'm in a hundred unit strata and we have a full -time building manager
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so it's not even a concern for us but when
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that isn't the case
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if you're in 20 units it can be a little bit more challenging can be very time consuming
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so how to overcome these challenges
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so hiring a part -time building manager is a great way
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we've seen a lot of buildings do this with a lot of success they can be there maybe two
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or three times a week maybe they come in every day but they're only there in the morning me.
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and then you can really coordinate your schedule in terms of
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when you're allowing contractors to come to the building you can um you can just work it around their schedule
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so consider companies offering flexible part -time services
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or you can hire a qualified resident to assist with building duties
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this is extremely successful where we've seen this someone from the, it doesn't even have to be someone on council.
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It can be someone who lives in the building and they're assisting and they're being paid for it.
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You save travel time, you've got boots on the ground right there.
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And, you know, even if companies aren't charging for travel time, they're building it into their prices, right?
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No one can really absorb the gas prices right now.
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So that's one challenge and one way to overcome it.
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Next one that we've got is the lack of volunteers.
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So smaller buildings have fewer volunteers for council positions and committees.
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Limited participation can lead to unqualified individuals managing operations.
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So if you think of it this way, if you're in a 200 -unit building, you've got plenty of volunteers usually for council positions, committees.
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but a 20 unit building you know you just don't have that same number of people right so
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that can make it very very difficult for smaller stratas
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so how to overcome this challenge consider compensating council members for their time
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this kind of alludes to number one what we were talking about
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if if people you know know what they're being paid even if it isn't a large amount if they're being paid,
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they are probably more apt to volunteer and to get involved.
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Compensation may help attract more qualified volunteers.
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And again, if you have 20 units, but maybe, you know, maybe each unit has, you know, people have partners that can maybe help out,
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or maybe they have parents that live with them or children or stuff like that.
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So sometimes it's more than just council can get involved.
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Number three, lack of budget to do the required maintenance.
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So smaller buildings, they have smaller budgets in which they operate, create challenges.
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Major repairs can create a large financial burden on a per unit basis.
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So if you think about it, you know, if you've got 200 units and you need to replace, say a boiler, say it's like $20 ,000,
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each unit's only going to have to cough up a hundred bucks to do it not a big deal
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but in a 20 unit building uh it might be a thousand dollars each right
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so it can it can really it doesn't the risk doesn't get spread as far in a smaller strata
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and essential maintenance becomes difficult to fund
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and therefore a lot of maintenance just gets kicked down the road right because you know even if owners think,
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well, I know this has to be replaced, it has to be done, but I just don't have the money to do it.
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They're probably going to vote against it.
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So how to overcome this challenge?
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Keep budgets very tight and reduce unnecessary spending.
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You can't really afford to have fiscal waste in a small building.
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In larger budgets, you know, things just kind of can get buried in there.
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And we've definitely seen that.
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Whereas in a small building, you just don't have room for that um so
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if you can do that more dollars can go towards funding essential maintenance
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and i've got here prioritize essential maintenance capital upgrades
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and minimize the need for frequent special levies so you know
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if you can really focus on what you're going to need to get done whether it's a new elevator
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or a new roof or you know a podium membrane
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or something like that and really focus all your dollars towards those capital items
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that need to be done and
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and kind of try to eliminate as much day -to -day spending as you can
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that can be very very useful easier said than done of course a lack of anonymity for council members
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so in smaller buildings council members are easily identifiable so
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if you're in again
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i'll use a 20 unit building right everyone knows who the
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council members are they might stop them in the hallway and bug them or or getting out of their car.
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It can create a lot of personal conflict, can create awkwardness and uncomfortable situations,
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especially if there's some kind of governance involved, like say you have to send someone a bylaw infraction letter for doing something, right?
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So council members may face unwanted personal interactions, which can always be challenging for people.
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So how to overcome it?
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Obviously, hiring a third -party intermediary for communication and disputes is a good way to do it.
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For self -managed councils, that might mean getting a lawyer to draft your bylaw infraction letters.
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Or if you're using a management company, obviously they would do those things.
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Create a shared council email or communication portal so that it's not necessarily one owner,
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like it's not necessarily the strata president that's sending out the bylaw infraction notice.
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This is coming from a strata council, bcs1234 at gmail .com.
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It's a group decision, a group consensus, or if you have a portal,
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even better, that makes it even easier and more anonymous.
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And then ensure decisions are made collectively by council members.
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That's a big thing.
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It's like no one particular council member should have to take the burden of being the bad guy, right?
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These are group decisions.
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They're made by a council of three to seven, and that's how they should be handled.
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So try and eliminate the personal side of it, especially when there's conflict.
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Requirement for EPR and depreciation reports.
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So all stratas with more than four units, as you probably know by now, are required to complete these reports.
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But a five to 12 unit building has very different requirements than a 300 unit building.
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And, you know, I'm going to say poorly written legislation often paints all stratas with the same brush.
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So, you know, there's a lot of companies that will just charge the same, whether it's 150 units or 20 units, right, for these reports.
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So you really want to make sure that you're hiring and finding a company that isn't doing that, right?
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You're going to compare quotes from multiple vendors, look for pricing that reflects the building size.
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and consider smaller, newer providers for more cost -effective options.
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So, you know, you don't always want to go with a brand new company that's not established,
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but if they've been around for a little while and they maybe don't have this high of overhead,
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they might be more ideally suited for this type of thing.
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You know, it really depends on what they're quoting on.
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And a lot of these vendors just get super, super busy, especially right now, because these are required this year.
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So if they're just super busy, they're going to quote high.
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So try and find someone that's not as busy and isn't quoting some kind of ridiculous amount,
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which is kind of an indication that they maybe just don't really want the business or can't handle it.
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Next one is fewer choices when it comes to contractors.
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So, So, you know, many contractors prefer working with larger buildings, especially when they're really busy, right?
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They're just going to kind of push all their business towards a larger building where they're getting paid more,
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better economies of scale for their business models, and then kind of filling in with smaller buildings larger stratas provide more consistent
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and ongoing business for them and
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and it just means the smaller buildings may have fewer vendor
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and management company options so how to overcome this look for smaller
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or newer contractors seeking business opportunities
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so again you probably don't want to hire a brand new company
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but if they are fairly newish get some references and see
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if maybe just in them trying to establish themselves that with lower overhead, they're able to charge a little bit less.
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Owner -operated businesses very often have lower overhead costs.
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That comes at a cost.
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You might not get the same service results right away.
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It might take a little bit longer to do things or to get your invoices or things like that.
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But it can be, if the owner -operator very Very often if they're a smaller company,
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they're doing the work themselves during the day
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and then they go home at night and they're doing all the invoicing and the paperwork.
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And they don't have someone that they're paying to answer the phones and to do all their emails.
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So therefore, their costs might be a little bit lower.
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A good idea is to prioritize contractors located near the strata building
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so you don't always know based on the where the head office of the company is
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but um because the technicians
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that are actually doing the work might be uh you know you could hire a company in
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but maybe their technician is out in chilliwack or something like
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that so it's good to try to find
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that out nobody's probably going to tell you that
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but um just something to keep in mind look for like travel charges things like
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that and contractors already working in the area can really help with that.
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you know what i always like to look for is like service fans
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that are parked outside of our building for long periods of time
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that tells me that either a they're working on a project in the area
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or b maybe that technician or contractor actually lives right around here uh
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or you can just kind of ask your neighbors who they're using
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or you can actually see you know
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if it's you're looking for a landscaper go go to the couple buildings in your block
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and just see who's doing the actual work
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and go talk to the landscaper and
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if he's already in the area doing work then maybe it would save you
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that you know additional travel charges
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that are probably going to get worked into the price uh number seven one bad apple can spoil the bunch
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so problematic owners um are a thing in strata unfortunately
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if you're in a two three hundred unit building
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that might go unnoticed right if you have a two
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or three problem owners they just kind of kind of uh it doesn't really create a lot of issues usually
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but in a 20 unit building that's going to can create some absolute chaos
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if two owners
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or 10 of your building is problematic um can be a
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lot more noticeable small number of difficult owners can affect the overall living experience for for everyone
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so how to overcome this challenge
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and limit direct interaction with problematic owners whenever possible communicate through third parties
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so either your strata management company or a lawyer
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if it's really bad you know you might want to hire a lawyer to do that
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um we've certainly done that in in certain cases before uh handle concerns formally through letters or council meetings.
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So rather than, you know, dealing with it on a one -on -one basis,
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it's like, okay, this gets dealt with when we're going to have a council meeting,
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we're going to discuss it and the minutes are going to go out.
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And then from there it'll be addressed.
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Letters, things like that can work very well.
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And you want to set clear communication boundaries to reduce unnecessary conflict.
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So you can't ignore problematic owners, but if you can sometimes curb the amount of interaction you have
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that works really well um you know make them fill out forms
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and things like that or
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or at least all of the issues have to be in writing um right sometimes
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that will just just the extra burden of having to do
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that might cut down on
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if they're constantly complaining about things um just create a formal process and whatever that formal process is
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I think you just want to try and stick with it.
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That's the whole key.
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And yes, I will be sending out, everyone's going to get a copy of this meeting.
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You'll get the presentation.
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We'll send it out to you, the PowerPoint, and we'll also send you the link to the video.
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No problem on that.
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And next thing, number eight is council member talent pool.
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So smaller buildings simply have smaller talent pool to draw upon when it comes to selecting council members.
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They're often elected by default rather than by qualification or even by vote.
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Voting by acclimation could result in the same members remaining on council year after year.
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So we do see this in buildings where, you know, somebody's on year after year.
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The ownership doesn't really want them on there.
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But the way it's done is it's like, OK, you have to have three to seven members.
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Four people put up their hands.
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They get voted in by acclamation, like a majority vote of all owners.
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So that isn't always the best way to do it.
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And and that's probably not the way you shouldn't, not the way you should do it.
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especially if you've got challenging owners that the ownership doesn't really want on council.
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So how to overcome this challenge?
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Replace your voting by acclimation with individual candidate voting.
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This can be a little more awkward and can sometimes lead to hurt feelings, but it's really the best way to do it.
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You can use secret ballots to encourage fair and anonymous voting
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and if you're doing it online you can use polls so it can be completely anonymous
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it requires majority approval for council positions so you know you go through
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if if your bylaws state you have three to seven owners
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that can get on and you have five people
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that nominate themselves you go through each one of those five candidates
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and then you vote on each one of those and
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if they don't get a majority vote they don't get voted on even if you end up of three owners on council.
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And you might want to consider bylaw changes allowing spouses or non -title residents to serve on council.
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This is a big one.
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You know, in a...
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200 unit building you probably don't need that
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but in a 20 unit building um you really want to expand your talent pool as much as possible
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and it's it's really quite crazy
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but the standard bylaws uh don't allow for spouses they don't allow for partners they don't allow for
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children and stuff like that to sit on council
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and they do allow for long -term tenants which is interesting but um
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so you might want to just a simple bylaw change just allow spouses allow partners allow parents
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you know it depends but um that can you know
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if 20 potential of 20 uh people in a smaller building can suddenly go to 40
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or 50 if you change your bylaws a little bit
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so you've expanded your talent pool and the very last one is high rental ratios so
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it's not a unique challenge to smaller buildings.
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It's a huge challenge to all buildings, big or small, but smaller buildings,
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they're simply less well -equipped to deal with high rent ratios because you don't have the infrastructure.
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You typically don't have a full -time on -site caretaker and stuff like that.
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So not having a building manager can make it very challenging.
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Common challenges will include things like increased maintenance requests, increased FOB requests, increased communication difficulties,
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particularly where you've got off -site or even overseas owners.
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We see a lot of communication challenges there.
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So, you know, if it's rented out and the owner isn't there to deal with it,
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usually the tenant is not calling the owner to deal with the issue, especially if the owner is not living in town.
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They're usually calling building management.
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Maybe they contact the strata agent or the council.
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In a big building, they contact the building manager.
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So it just creates more stuff, I guess, more stuff and more traffic, if you will.
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So how to overcome this challenge?
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So you can implement stricter bylaws for neglectful landlords so that a lot of these charges, maybe you have to incur a lot of extra costs,
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but maybe some of those can be borne by the landlords, particularly if they are neglectful.
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and you you know
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if you've had buildings where they have those kind of landlords there's a lot of them
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and and that can be really challenging especially
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if they don't have a property management company dealing with their tenants encourage greater owner involvement in building operations
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you know assign on -site council members to assist with management duties
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and considering hiring part -time building manager or again hiring someone from within the building to deal with some of these things,
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I think is a great way to try and overcome this.
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And we see a lot of smaller buildings
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and 20 to 40 units buildings will have these things in place and they will have building managers,
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sometimes full -time building managers.
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And you might think, well, their strategies are going to be way higher because of this,
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but that's not necessarily the case because they've got boots on the ground, they're saving a lot of money and excess wastage.
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So I would say we don't necessarily see that being the case where they're paying more.
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So that kind of wraps up the presentation.
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I'm going to open it up now.
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If you guys have any questions, feel free to...
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Managing a Small Strata? Here's How to Handle the Biggest Challenges”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: council, unit, strata, smaller, owner. This video has 295 sentences and 3734 words to shadow. The speech runs for 23:26. The speaker talks at a natural 159 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 87% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| overcome verb | /ˌəʊ.vəˈkʌm/ | To surmount (a physical or abstract obstacle); to prevail over, to get the better of. |
| hire verb | /ˈhaɪɹ/ | To obtain the services of in return for fixed payment. |
| contractor noun | /ˈkɒnˌtɹæk.tə(ɹ)/ | A person or company that builds or improves buildings or structures. |
| necessarily adverb | /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/ | Inevitably; of necessity. |
| volunteer noun | /ˌvɑlənˈtɪɹ/ | One who enters into, or offers themselves for, any service of their own free will, especially when done without pay. |
| topic noun | /ˈtɑpɪk/ | A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest. |
| presentation noun | /ˌpɹɛzn̩ˈteɪʃn̩/ | The act of presenting, or something presented. |
| problematic adjective | /ˌpɹɑ.bləˈmæt.ɪk/ | Difficult to overcome, solve, or decide. |
| assist verb | /əˈsɪst/ | To help. |
| fewer | /ˈfjuː.ɚ/ | Less; a smaller amount of something non-integral commonly expressed as an integer |
| interaction noun | /ˌɪn.təˈɹæk.ʃən/ | The situation or occurrence in which two or more things act upon one another to produce an effect; the effect resulting from such a situation or occurrence. |
| burden noun | /ˈbɝdn̩/ | A heavy load. |
| anonymous adjective | /əˈnɒn.ə.məs/ | Lacking a name; not named, for example an animal not assigned to any species . |
| spouse noun | /spaʊ̯s/ | A person in a marriage or marital relationship. |
| overhead noun | /ˈəʊvəˌhɛd/ | The expense of a business not directly assigned to goods or services provided. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. | |
| send out verb | To issue, dispatch or transmit. | |
| work together verb | To be coworkers with someone; to share a workspace with someone. | |
| come together verb | /ˈkʌm tʊˈɡɛðɚ/ | To assemble; to congregate; to combine. |
| fill out verb | /fɪl ˈaʊt/ | To complete a form or questionnaire with requested information. |
| get off verb | To move from being on top of (something) to not being on top of it. | |
| get out of verb | To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of. | |
| get together verb | To meet, to gather together, to congregate. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- We're doing them every couple months.
- We'll probably do them every few months moving forward.
- I'm going to open it up now.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | If it's super specific in nature, I'll try |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are not retired · being paid · be replaced |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | we've been · we've seen · we've definitely seen |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | budget, which can · someone who lives · interactions, which can |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 119 contractions and reduced forms, such as they're, don't, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: presentation /ˌpɹɛzn̩ˈteɪʃn̩/, interaction /ˌɪn.təˈɹæk.ʃən/, technician /tɛkˈnɪʃən/, ownership /ˈoʊnɚʃɪp/, ratio /ˈɹeɪ.ʃoʊ/
- Long words — get the stress right: necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, problematic /ˌpɹɑ.bləˈmæt.ɪk/, interaction /ˌɪn.təˈɹæk.ʃən/, anonymous /əˈnɒn.ə.məs/, unnecessary /ʌnˈnɛs.əˌsɛɹ.i/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like overcome, hire, contractor.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.