HOA Reserve Study Red Flags Every Board Member Should Know
Roofs don’t send a warning email before they give out. Neither do parking lots, boilers, or pool pumps. The closest thing your board gets to an early alert is an HOA reserve study, a report that estimates what your big-ticket items will cost and when you’ll need to replace them. A study only helps if […]
How to Build an HOA Annual Budget Step by Step
The moment the proposed dues increase shows up, there’s a fall in the sound level in the room. An individual in one of the middle rows wants to know the destination of the money. The treasurer opens a document that looks almost the same as that of the last year, as all the figures seem […]
HOA Reserve Funds vs. Operating Funds: Understanding the Difference
Picture two jars on a kitchen shelf. One holds money for groceries and the electric bill. The other is for the day the furnace quits. Mix them up, and you’ll be eating cereal for dinner in a cold house. That’s the whole idea behind HOA reserve funds and HOA operating funds. Both belong to the […]
What Does an HOA Management Company Do? Key Duties Explained
A board treasurer sits down to compare three management proposals, and the numbers don’t match at all. One quote comes in low, another triples it, and none of the paperwork explains why. That confusion is the norm, not the exception, because most homeowners never see what actually happens behind a management contract until they’re the […]
Self-Managed HOA vs. Professional Management: Which Is Better?
During the budget meeting, there was a division in the room. One side advocates for a reduction in expenses and maintaining the approach used by the board in the past: having spreadsheets, texting group members, and involving whoever is willing to help out. The second side was already tired of the constant attempt to recover […]
HOA Maintenance Checklist: What Should Your Community Inspect Regularly?
A homeowner notices a stain spreading across the clubhouse ceiling and mentions it at a board meeting almost as an afterthought. Nobody had walked that building in months. By the time a contractor gets out to look, what should have been a two-hundred-dollar sealant job has become a five-figure roof repair, and the board is […]
Streamlining Invoice-to-Payment Workflows with Vendor Payment Solutions
Vendors are the lifeblood of any association of homeowners. Landscaping companies, roofing service providers, and snow removal teams, for example, provide important services for homeowners. In addition, home associations rely on the work of insurance companies, accountants and auditors, so the list of vendors expands with time. Each vendor delivers its invoice on time, indicating […]
Understanding Structural Issues Identified During Property Inspections
An insignificant crack just above the door frame hardly ever seems like a serious problem. A floor that squeaks a little louder than it used to, or a door that sticks, does not create too much trouble either. These shortcomings are normally ignored by both homeowners and the board members for one or two seasons […]
Record Keeping for Inventory Management: A Complete Guide
In every business, there exists a storage unit that no one can seem to find. Old lighting from two years past renovation sits, cleaning products that were duplicates. A pallet jack that went missing in winter and never came back. This does not happen due to lack of care, but rather, inventory keeping taking a […]