More Condos, Less Care

A director’s origin story, a shifting industry, and help for the condos left to figure it out on their own.

Stratastic didn’t really start in 2023; that’s just when it became an official company. Where it actually started was much earlier, in a GTA condominium, trying to make sense of a situation that felt bigger than any one person could handle. 

At the time, I had no intention of building a platform, or a business, or anything beyond what was right in front of me. I was a condo owner in a building that had just gone through a major flood, watching property values drop and uncertainty take over. Selling didn’t make sense with the current state of the corporation and staying felt uncomfortable… yet somewhere in that tension, I made a decision that would shape everything that came after.

I joined the board.

Built From the Boardroom: Why I Created Stratastic (and What’s Coming Next)

At first, it was meant to be temporary.

I wanted to help get things back on track, contribute where I could, and move on asap once things stabilized. Alas, condos have a way of pulling you in, especially when you start to understand how much is happening behind the scenes. One issue leads to another, one decision impacts five more, and suddenly you’re not just observing anymore, you’re responsible. And so I stayed, not because it was easy, but because it felt important.

Over the next seven years, I experienced what I can only describe as the full spectrum of condo life: floods, fires, capital projects, budgets, liens, AGMs, town halls, even a requisition meeting. There were staffing challenges, difficult contractors, resident conflicts, moments of real tension, and moments of real pride. There were long nights, hard conversations, and situations that tested not just skill, but patience and resilience.

It was a lot… but it wasn’t all chaos.

What kept me there, year after year, was the people. We had a board that showed up for each other, even when we didn’t always agree (which was rare, and always resolved). Generally, we were lucky enough to also have staff who genuinely cared about the building and the community. Residents who, despite frustrations, wanted things to work. 

Together, we built something that felt stable, collaborative, and, in many ways, something we were proud of. And somewhere along the way, this stopped being about managing problems. It became about building a community.

After my time on the board, I didn’t step away from the condo world. If anything, I leaned further into it.

I spent time working with contractors and vendors, helping them navigate the realities of condo corporations from their side. Then I moved into a role as Director of Client Services at a property management firm, where I saw yet another layer of how this industry operates. Different perspective, different underlying challenges. That’s when things started to connect.

I had seen condos as a resident, as a director, through vendors, and through management. And across all of those experiences, I kept running into the same thing. Gaps. Miscommunication. Friction between roles that were all, technically, working toward the same goal. Stratastic was built from that realization.

Since launching in 2023, we’ve been active, especially through our blog, where we’ve shared close to 300 posts across a wide range of condo topics. We had a lot to say, and for a while, we said it consistently. And then, on January 15, we stopped… not because we ran out of ideas, but because we needed space to think.

Who Cares?

Over the past two years, something became increasingly clear: the industry is shifting, and not always in ways that are easy to navigate.

There’s a shortage of property managers. That part isn’t new, and the reasons behind it are well understood. The workload is heavy, the expectations are high, and the environment can be challenging. As a result, management companies are stretched thin, and when that happens, they have to make decisions about where to allocate their resources. They triage, and with that, it also means that they must prioritize.

The unfortunate reality is that those decisions don’t always favour smaller communities.

So, where does that leave self-managed boards?

For some, it’s a choice to take on the full operations of the corporation and the savings that come with it. There are boards with the experience, structure, and capacity to self-manage effectively. They take it on intentionally and make it work.

But for many others, it isn’t a choice at all. They find themselves in a position where having a property manager, even on a limited basis, is no longer financially viable. Not because they don’t see the value, but because the market has shifted beyond what they can sustain. And so they adapt, they step in, and hope to figure it out as they go.

These are the communities I’ve been working with more closely. The smaller condos. The self-managed ones. The ones that are doing their best with what they have, even when the system doesn’t quite support them the way it should. And I’ll be honest, it’s not simple, but it is meaningful.

What I see in these communities is effort: directors who are learning quickly (and often under pressure), residents who are stepping up in ways they didn’t expect, and people who care enough to try (even when they’re unsure). Every condo deserves that kind of care.

What’s Next?

Over the last couple of months, I took a step back to really think about where Stratastic is going. Not just in terms of growth, but in terms of purpose… and the direction became clearer than I expected.

We’re moving into a version of the condo industry that requires more involvement from boards, more awareness from residents, and more collaboration across the board. It’s not necessarily easier, but it is more connected.

And it calls for something slightly different.

I haven’t been working through this shift alone. I’m grateful to share that there’s a team behind what’s coming next, and I’m genuinely excited to share more about that soon. For now, I’ll leave it as a bit of a teaser.

Condo Care

What I can say is that the next phase of what we’re building, including what will become Condo Care, is focused on supporting these communities in a more intentional way. In the coming weeks, you’ll start to see that shift reflected in our content.

More focused on small and self-managed condos. More practical. More aligned with what people are actually dealing with day to day. Whether you’re a director, a resident, or part of a community trying to navigate this space, the goal is to make things feel a little more manageable.

If any of this feels familiar to you, I’d love to hear from you, because this isn’t something that should be built in isolation. It works better when it’s shaped by the people who are living it, working with it, and honestly, working it out every day (hopefully, together).

Let’s make Condoland a little easier to navigate, especially for the communities that have been left to figure it out on their own. Because even if a condo is small, what happens inside it still matters.

And the people behind it always do.

- Andreea (President, Stratastic).