Business Profile – Incline Property Management

Originally published in IVCBA’s LIVE.WORK.PLAY Magazine (Spring, 2024) Written by Kayla Anderson

Anyone who has been in Incline Village for an extended period has likely seen the Incline Property Management (IPM) trucks driving around town. Working with homeowners in the Reno, Carson, and East Shore Lake Tahoe region since 1979, IPM is all about helping people maintain the integrity of their second homes so that they remain stress-free vacation spots, especially at a time when the construction of many of these homes are reaching the end of their useful lives. 

Celebrating its 45^th year in business, Larry Wodarski is the third owner of IPM. The story goes that the founder saw a need for providing services for the onslaught of homeowners’ associations that were being built in Incline, and he started IPM with a focus in property management and helping the new HOAs with their financial statements. As Incline’s number of homeowners grew over the years, IPM’s services expanded with it, and they evolved to include grounds maintenance, housecleaning, home inspections, customized concierge services, and management of long-term rentals. 

“The uniqueness of the Village allowed this company to seize these opportunities,” Wodarski says, and they were in an advantageous position to offer these services considering that the availability of contractors and handyman services are so limited here.

“Most HOA companies simply provide management to their clients but in our case we do much more than that,” Wodarski reiterates. Out of the 132 HOAs in Incline Village, IPM manages 50 of them, ranging from small four-unit properties to 250-unit complexes. IPM also keeps an office in Carson City and has 70 employees between the two (most of them work in Incline Village). 

Wodarski admits that his favorite part of being involved with IPM is “working with our people and making things happen.” There is one employee who has been there for 30 years, another for 26 years, and a handful of others who’ve been there for 14-16 years. “There’s a culture in this company that we all take pride in,” he says, explaining that a lot of it comes from feeling continuously grateful to work in a place like Incline. 

When asked what the most popular people utilize IPM service is, Wodarski says it’s definitely the community management- working closely with HOA boards on financial statements and bill pay. Next is the grounds maintenance and housekeeping. A small faction of IPM is managing long-term rentals, something that IPM would like to do more of.

“We deal with zero short-term rentals; the associations don’t interchange them,” Wodarski says. He recognizes that the STR discussion is a controversial issue with the lack of workforce housing available, but he is working with other local entities and officials to try to be part of the solution. 

“We look for the owners of condos that we manage… we know them well and have seen their lives change. When we start to see them less frequently, we try to encourage those owners to do long-term rentals.” He explains that not only would second homeowners be getting a more consistent income but they would not have to worry so much about maintenance issues, and when they come up during a holiday period then they can use their rent money to stay at the Hyatt and enjoy their vacation, all while helping the local economy. 

For instance, Wodarski says that frozen pipes are an issue every single winter and when the pipes burst, and their place gets flooded– those end up being very expensive insurance claims. (However, home inspections are a service that IPM offers.)

IPM provides a great benefit to Incline, but Wodarski understands what the village has given back, and tries to act accordingly. For instance, IPM donates time every spring to clean up the 431 roundabout and it sets up and tears down for the Shakespeare Festival every year as well as give a generous in-kind donation. 

Most of their business comes from word-of-mouth and from people coming in and saying, “We see your trucks running around the Village so you must be doing something right.”

IPM is doing something right, and it shows. 

“We all feel a sense of pride and responsibility; we’re out there every day making things happen,” Wodarski says.