How to Hire a Part-time Building Super in NYC

How to Hire a Part-time Building Super in NYC - Part 1

What's a "part-time" building super?

As a building manager in NYC, I’ve heard them all when it comes to problems with the building super:

My super is never around when I need him.
He never picks up his phone or gets back to me
He’s not clear and I can’t understand what he’s saying
I’m always second-guessing my super because I can’t trust what he says

If you’ve experienced something like this, you’re not alone. Finding a reliable, trustworthy super in NYC is not easy.

Buildings face tough challenges finding and keeping excellent supers, especially when it comes to part-time supers.

Part-time super are also called "traveling" or "visiting" supers because, unlike live-in supers, who live and work onsite, visiting super get the name because they often don't have an apartment at the building they work in.

They often travel from afar to perform their work at the building on part-time hours, and then go back home.

During these part-time hours, a visiting super cleans the common areas, manage the trash and recycle and, depending on the arrangement, they take care of minor repairs and maintenance upkeep, among many other tasks.

These part-time supers have been the answers for many buildings to the rising costs that they face. Every year, utilities expenses, property taxes, and all-around maintenance costs increase to strain the building’s budget. There are a number of ways that part-supers can save this budget. For instance, because part-time super don’t have apartments, buildings are able to turn these extra spaces into revenue-producing opportunities. Part-time supers help building reduce or eliminate the labor-related costs that come with a “live-in” super, such Workers compensation and disability insurance.

Yet, during these unprecedented times of “on-demand” convenience, the demand for better services by residents has never been greater.

More than ever, residents expect their supers to:

Be available at all hours of the day
Know more things about building maintenance and
handle more tasks and responsibilities than ever before

So, the challenge for buildings have been to maximize those benefits that have traditionally come with an around-the-clock, live-in super within tighter and tighter part-time budgets.

Hi, my name is James Park and I’m the director here at Sparksuper.com Inc, a company that helps find and optimize part-time supers for your building.

Since 2012, I’ve been working towards the goal to deliver “live-in super” experience to every building in NYC, no matter the size and at a fraction of the cost.

Our customers are management companies, coops and condos, single-family and multi-family landlords who are looking for part-time supers who are reliable, trustworthy and flexible to their budget.

Since 2012, I’ve:

helped staff over 80 buildings throughout Manhattan alone.
partnered with over a dozen professional building management companies
responded to over 1,000 emergency calls with my team
attended over 200 board meetings and annual shareholders’ meetings
Our supers have an average of 10 to 15 years of professional work experience
...And they’re licensed, bonded and insured.

Before I was a super, I was a building manager. Many of my buildings had part-time supers. So I know a little bit about the long hours and hard work it takes to find the right reliable part-time super and what it take to keep him motivated.

Like you, I’ve also combed through stacks of applications and resumes from people I've found on craigslist, indeed or monster, and other websites, hoping that this was my lucky day. I know what’s it like to go hunting endlessly for referrals, knowing that there will be far more misses than hits in this game.

And, we also don’t want to forget the experience of what happens when you hire the wrong super. The frustration when you super doesn’t show up for work, when you have to follow up on every little thing, when there’s that trust issue again!

What can follow is something called the Revolving Door Syndrome where supers just seem to come and go, and suddenly you’re back at square one looking for a Super, starting from scratch all over again.

I used to think that this was normal and that going from crisis to crisis was just a part of the normal experience of being a building manager.

But, I was wrong. And, as someone who’s been finding and training exceptional part-time supers around since 2012, I want to show you that too.

As a building manager, I know how busy it can be to run the building without having to go through crises because of an unreliable super. Supersuper.com is here so you can leave the super part of your work to us.

Our goal is for you to take back your time and energy and focus on the things that matter to you.

Our unique methods are designed to:

Promote accountability and transparency of your super
Eliminate the revolving door syndrome.
Enhance the ability of your/ any super to tackle more tasks and responsibilities than ever before, as if he had a full staff behind him.
Cut costs while keeping critical services running 356 days per year

So stay with us in the following videos to learn about how we do this.

Btw, even if you have your own super and prefer to keep him, we’re here for you too. We offer:

temporary super relief and support
vacation or sick day coverage for your super, and
emergency staffing

And, in case he needs a little push or help getting on track, we can help with an array of productivity tools and training to keep your super at his very best.

Read on to Part 2: https://www.sparksuper.com/how-to-hire-a-part-time-building-superintendent-in-nyc-part-2/