Prática de Shadowing: Managing a Small Strata? Here's How to Handle the Biggest Challenges - Aprenda a falar inglês com vídeo

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All right.

Well, thank you for joining everyone.

My name is Chris Stepchuk.

I'm the CEO and managing broker at Fort Park Property Management and Real Estate.

And thank you for taking time out of your busy day.

I'm sure you guys are all involved in Stratas.

So that means that but you have lots to do other than your real jobs.

So I appreciate it.

And we do do these webinars.

We're doing them every couple months.

We'll probably do them every few months moving forward.

And if you ever have any ideas or suggestions for topics,

please feel free to reach out to me and I will try to include them in the next one.

I've got lots of good feedback from you guys and different ideas over the past while we've been doing these.

So it is much appreciated.

I'm just going to get into the presentation a little bit.

So today's topic is the top challenges that stratas with under 100 units face and how to overcome them.

So it doesn't mean that, you know, all stratas have the same issues.

Some, you know, if you're 20 units, you might have different struggles that an 80 unit building has.

But a lot of these will apply.

They're fairly broad in nature.

um you know even if you've got 150 units a lot of these things are still going to apply

um we're going to have probably about a 15 to 20 minute presentation today

and then we're going to have time at the end for q a

if you guys have any questions at all uh pertaining to

anything strata related please feel free to ask them at that time it doesn't have to be specifically about this topic.

It can be, you know, anything at all.

If it's super specific in nature, I'll try to answer it kind of broadly, but feel free to reach out to me

and we can take it offline

and maybe I can give you guys some advice on that and kind of how to work through that.

So there are some unique challenges that these smaller buildings definitely have.

We manage a lot of smaller buildings, some, you know, four units, some 100 units.

And they've all got some of these challenges.

So Fort Park, who are we?

We help improve strata living through practical guidance and care.

We're a full service real estate brokerage, specializing in residential, commercial and light industrial strata management.

And we've been around since 2008.

And we provide seamless real estate sales and property management services, ensuring a smooth and hassle -free experience for property owners.

And I like this quote here from Henry Ford, coming together is a beginning, staying together is a progress, and working together is success.

And this is very true in Strata.

For those of you, most of you are on councils.

So just getting together, it's a good start.

And then sticking together can be challenging.

And working together is really how you can define success.

So the topic, as I said today, challenges facing smaller strata buildings.

So smaller stratas face many of the same issues that larger buildings do,

but they also have unique experiences and challenges tied to the size and the resource.

You have, you know, a large building potentially, but not necessarily a large budget, which can make things very, very challenging.

Professional management, of course, can help smaller and stratas and medium sized stratas, but even that sometimes comes with limited services or limited budget,

and it might not be enough.

So here, we're going to create a little list for you, the top challenges we see, and how you can, most importantly,

how you can overcome them.

Number one that we see this all the time is lack of building manager or access for contractors.

So it can be very frustrating for owners to, you know, have to continually provide access to contractors.

You know, many council members are not retired.

They have full -time jobs and you can't necessarily afford a full -time building manager.

Where I live, you know, I'm in a hundred unit strata and we have a full -time building manager

so it's not even a concern for us but when

that isn't the case

if you're in 20 units it can be a little bit more challenging can be very time consuming

so how to overcome these challenges

so hiring a part -time building manager is a great way

we've seen a lot of buildings do this with a lot of success they can be there maybe two

or three times a week maybe they come in every day but they're only there in the morning me.

and then you can really coordinate your schedule in terms of

when you're allowing contractors to come to the building you can um you can just work it around their schedule

so consider companies offering flexible part -time services

or you can hire a qualified resident to assist with building duties

this is extremely successful where we've seen this someone from the, it doesn't even have to be someone on council.

It can be someone who lives in the building and they're assisting and they're being paid for it.

You save travel time, you've got boots on the ground right there.

And, you know, even if companies aren't charging for travel time, they're building it into their prices, right?

No one can really absorb the gas prices right now.

So that's one challenge and one way to overcome it.

Next one that we've got is the lack of volunteers.

So smaller buildings have fewer volunteers for council positions and committees.

Limited participation can lead to unqualified individuals managing operations.

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.

but a 20 unit building you know you just don't have that same number of people right so

that can make it very very difficult for smaller stratas

so how to overcome this challenge consider compensating council members for their time

this kind of alludes to number one what we were talking about

if if people you know know what they're being paid even if it isn't a large amount if they're being paid,

they are probably more apt to volunteer and to get involved.

Compensation may help attract more qualified volunteers.

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,

or maybe they have parents that live with them or children or stuff like that.

So sometimes it's more than just council can get involved.

Number three, lack of budget to do the required maintenance.

So smaller buildings, they have smaller budgets in which they operate, create challenges.

Major repairs can create a large financial burden on a per unit basis.

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,

each unit's only going to have to cough up a hundred bucks to do it not a big deal

but in a 20 unit building uh it might be a thousand dollars each right

so it can it can really it doesn't the risk doesn't get spread as far in a smaller strata

and essential maintenance becomes difficult to fund

and therefore a lot of maintenance just gets kicked down the road right because you know even if owners think,

well, I know this has to be replaced, it has to be done, but I just don't have the money to do it.

They're probably going to vote against it.

100

So how to overcome this challenge?

101

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.

104

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

111

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.

139

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,

156

better economies of scale for their business models, and then kind of filling in with smaller buildings larger stratas provide more consistent

157

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.

166

You might not get the same service results right away.

167

It might take a little bit longer to do things or to get your invoices or things like that.

168

But it can be, if the owner -operator very Very often if they're a smaller company,

169

they're doing the work themselves during the day

170

and then they go home at night and they're doing all the invoicing and the paperwork.

171

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

175

but um because the technicians

176

that are actually doing the work might be uh you know you could hire a company in

177

but maybe their technician is out in chilliwack or something like

178

that so it's good to try to find

179

that out nobody's probably going to tell you that

180

but um just something to keep in mind look for like travel charges things like

181

that and contractors already working in the area can really help with that.

182

you know what i always like to look for is like service fans

183

that are parked outside of our building for long periods of time

184

that tells me that either a they're working on a project in the area

185

or b maybe that technician or contractor actually lives right around here uh

186

or you can just kind of ask your neighbors who they're using

187

or you can actually see you know

188

if it's you're looking for a landscaper go go to the couple buildings in your block

189

and just see who's doing the actual work

190

and go talk to the landscaper and

191

if he's already in the area doing work then maybe it would save you

192

that you know additional travel charges

193

that are probably going to get worked into the price uh number seven one bad apple can spoil the bunch

194

so problematic owners um are a thing in strata unfortunately

195

if you're in a two three hundred unit building

196

that might go unnoticed right if you have a two

197

or three problem owners they just kind of kind of uh it doesn't really create a lot of issues usually

198

but in a 20 unit building that's going to can create some absolute chaos

199

if two owners

200

or 10 of your building is problematic um can be a

201

lot more noticeable small number of difficult owners can affect the overall living experience for for everyone

202

so how to overcome this challenge

203

and limit direct interaction with problematic owners whenever possible communicate through third parties

204

so either your strata management company or a lawyer

205

if it's really bad you know you might want to hire a lawyer to do that

206

um we've certainly done that in in certain cases before uh handle concerns formally through letters or council meetings.

207

So rather than, you know, dealing with it on a one -on -one basis,

208

it's like, okay, this gets dealt with when we're going to have a council meeting,

209

we're going to discuss it and the minutes are going to go out.

210

And then from there it'll be addressed.

211

Letters, things like that can work very well.

212

And you want to set clear communication boundaries to reduce unnecessary conflict.

213

So you can't ignore problematic owners, but if you can sometimes curb the amount of interaction you have

214

that works really well um you know make them fill out forms

215

and things like that or

216

or at least all of the issues have to be in writing um right sometimes

217

that will just just the extra burden of having to do

218

that might cut down on

219

if they're constantly complaining about things um just create a formal process and whatever that formal process is

220

I think you just want to try and stick with it.

221

That's the whole key.

222

And yes, I will be sending out, everyone's going to get a copy of this meeting.

223

You'll get the presentation.

224

We'll send it out to you, the PowerPoint, and we'll also send you the link to the video.

225

No problem on that.

226

And next thing, number eight is council member talent pool.

227

So smaller buildings simply have smaller talent pool to draw upon when it comes to selecting council members.

228

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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Vocabulário e dicas de fala para esta lição

Esta aula de conversação usa o vídeo “Managing a Small Strata? Here's How to Handle the Biggest Challenges”. As palavras que mais se repetem: council, unit, strata, smaller, owner. Este vídeo tem 295 frases e 3734 palavras para praticar shadowing. A fala dura 23:26. O falante fala em ritmo natural, cerca de 159 palavras por minuto, próximo de uma conversa do dia a dia. 87% das palavras estão entre as 3.000 mais comuns do inglês, por isso o vocabulário é fácil de acompanhar.

Vocabulário principal deste vídeo

15 palavras do vídeo que vale a pena aprender, com pronúncia e significado:

Palavra	Pronúncia	Significado
overcome verbo	/ˌəʊ.vəˈkʌm/	vencer, superar
hire verbo	/ˈhaɪɹ/	contratar, alugar
contractor substantivo	/ˈkɒnˌtɹæk.tə(ɹ)/	pedreiro
necessarily advérbio	/ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/	necessariamente
volunteer substantivo	/ˌvɑlənˈtɪɹ/	voluntário
topic substantivo	/ˈtɑpɪk/	tópico, assunto
assist verbo	/əˈsɪst/	assistir, prestar assistência
fewer	/ˈfjuː.ɚ/	menos
interaction substantivo	/ˌɪn.təˈɹæk.ʃən/	interação
burden substantivo	/ˈbɝdn̩/	carga, fardo
anonymous adjetivo	/əˈnɒn.ə.məs/	anónimo, anônimo
spouse substantivo	/spaʊ̯s/	cônjuge, esposo
overhead substantivo	/ˈəʊvəˌhɛd/	overhead
vendor substantivo	/ˈvɛn.dɚ/	vendedor, vendedora
technician substantivo	/tɛkˈnɪʃən/	técnico

Phrasal verbs que você vai ouvir

Palavra	Pronúncia	Significado
fill out verbo	/fɪl ˈaʊt/	preencher
get off verbo		sair
get together verbo		reunir
go out verbo		sair
move forward verbo		adiantar
put up verbo		afixar
wrap up verbo		embrulhar, empacotar

Frases que vale a pena repetir

Frases curtas e completas do vídeo que você pode usar na conversa do dia a dia:

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.

Gramática neste vídeo

As estruturas que o falante mais usa, com as palavras exatas do vídeo:

Estrutura	No vídeo
Frases condicionais if + oração, will/would + verbo — uma condição e seu resultado	If it's super specific in nature, I'll try
Voz passiva be + particípio passado — o foco está no que acontece, não em quem faz	are not retired · being paid · be replaced
Present perfect have/has + particípio passado — uma ação passada que ainda importa agora	we've been · we've seen · we've definitely seen
Orações relativas who / which + oração — informação extra sobre uma pessoa ou coisa	budget, which can · someone who lives · interactions, which can

Pronúncia para ficar de olho

O falante usa 119 contrações e formas reduzidas, como they're, don't, you're. Diga-as na forma curta, do jeito que você ouve.

Os sons de “sh” e “zh”: presentation /ˌpɹɛzn̩ˈteɪʃn̩/, interaction /ˌɪn.təˈɹæk.ʃən/, technician /tɛkˈnɪʃən/, ownership /ˈoʊnɚʃɪp/, ratio /ˈɹeɪ.ʃoʊ/
Palavras longas — acerte a sílaba tônica: necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, problematic /ˌpɹɑ.bləˈmæt.ɪk/, interaction /ˌɪn.təˈɹæk.ʃən/, anonymous /əˈnɒn.ə.məs/, unnecessary /ʌnˈnɛs.əˌsɛɹ.i/

Sons difíceis para falantes de português:

Consoante final — sem acrescentar um “i” depois: topic /ˈtɑpɪk/, problematic /ˌpɹɑ.bləˈmæt.ɪk/, assist /əˈsɪst/, overhead /ˈəʊvəˌhɛd/, landlord /ˈlæn(d).lɔɹd/
/l/ final — a língua toca o céu da boca, não vira “u”: formal /ˈfɔɹməl/, practical /ˈpɹæk.tɪ.kəl/, poll /poʊl/, residential /ˌrɛzɪˈdɛnʃəl/, fiscal /ˈfɪskəl/
/h/ — um sopro suave, diferente do “r”: hire /ˈhaɪɹ/, overhead /ˈəʊvəˌhɛd/, whereas /(h)wɛɹˈæz/, hallway /ˈhɔlˌweɪ/, hassle /ˈhæsl̩/

Como praticar com este vídeo

Ouça o vídeo inteiro uma vez sem falar e anote as palavras que você não conhece.
Comece na velocidade 0,75×, faça shadowing frase por frase e volte à velocidade normal quando ficar fácil.
Grave a sua voz e compare com o original, prestando atenção a palavras como overcome, hire, contractor.

O que é a Técnica de Shadowing?

Shadowing é uma técnica de aprendizado de idiomas com base científica, originalmente desenvolvida para o treinamento de intérpretes profissionais. O método é simples, mas poderoso: você ouve áudio em inglês nativo e repete imediatamente em voz alta — como uma sombra seguindo o falante com 1-2 segundos de atraso. Pesquisas mostram melhora significativa na precisão da pronúncia, entonação, ritmo, sons conectados, compreensão auditiva e fluência na fala.

Técnica de shadowing: leia o guia completo passo a passo →

Prática de Shadowing: Managing a Small Strata? Here's How to Handle the Biggest Challenges - Aprenda a falar inglês com vídeo

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