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  • Twelve tips for spring cleaning in your community

    This winter, much of the country was hunkered down under thick layers of snow and temperatures so low that even the groundhog thought twice about going outside. But thankfully, spring is here, and with the blooming fruit trees and sunnier days comes the need to clean up, spruce up and get your community ready to enjoy the season.
  • How to find a good insurance agent: 15 things to consider

    You’re a member of your community association’s board, and it’s time to review your current insurance policies and providers. While it may be tempting to maintain your current relationship, you may find that significant savings can be found when you shop around.
  • Four home safety tips for the holidays

    It's the most wonderful time of the year but not if your holidays are cut short by a fire, an accident or a theft. Taking these 4 safety precautions can prevent such misfortunes.
  • What to expect from your property management company: Services to look for

    For many communities, responsive service from a property management company is the best they can hope for when it comes to issue resolution. But what if you required more from your property management team? What if you held them to a higher standard, demanding that they address challenges early enough so that they never become full-blown issues at all?
  • Finding a property management company: 5 things to consider

    Your homeowner association (HOA) board has decided to hire a property management company. That’s a big step, and one not to be taken lightly. You might think because your board made this decision your community’s future is in good hands. But has your board done its research?
  • Five ways to improve board member communication in your HOA

    How well your board communicates has a tremendous impact on your community association. Great communication can lead to better relationships with residents – both homeowners and renters – and helps build a stronger sense of community.
  • Planning your community budget: Six tips to follow

    Experienced property managers have created countless budgets, and they’re familiar with the best practices entailed in creating one that helps your community accomplish its goals. So to help you get started, here are six community budget basics you can follow.
  • Avoiding risks of short-term rentals

    The sharing economy continues to grow, and this, in turn, is fueling the proliferation of home-sharing websites like Airbnb, VRBO and HomeAway. In our previous article on this growing trend, we discussed how the interest in short-term rentals is impacting multi-family buildings throughout the U.S. and Canada. Now we’re back with a game plan to help your condo board or strata council protect its interests.
  • Airbnb and short-term rentals: How the sharing economy can affect your multi-family building

    One of the most recent societal shifts has been a move towards a sharing economy – and if you’ve ever been driven home in an Uber car, or reserved a distinctive blue CitiBike for a few hours to pedal across town, you’ve experienced this practice first-hand. In this article, we discuss how the quick growth of the sharing economy – particularly, home sharing – is impacting buildings in large cities, and we’ll follow up next week with valuable advice on how your Board or Strata council can address this mushrooming trend.
  • Four steps to creating building maintenance schedules

    Creating and executing a comprehensive building maintenance plan for your high-rise community should be a top priority for your board and property management company.
  • “Be Genuinely Helpful": Giving Back to Our Communities

    Learn how associates and residents are making a difference in their communities, providing grocery delivery and food delivery, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Understanding how property management software can help

    Can cutting-edge property management software increase personalized customer service? It’s not a trick question, at least when it comes to the property management industry.
  • How Property Management Experts are Making a Difference in Today's Competitive Housing Market

    FirstService Residential’s Tasso Eracles discusses Toronto’s building boom and the important role property management experts play in helping condominium developers and builders overcome challenges and compete in this dynamic marketplace.
  • Communication in the Community: Do you have a plan?

    Is your community always aware of upcoming events, scheduled construction projects and upcoming board meetings? Do they understand their responsibilities and the policies they need to comply with? Clear, effective communication from the board to the residents makes a difference in the overall well-being of any community. Poor communication, on the other hand, is a real problem that can negatively impact your community’s reputation and even your operating budget and property values.
  • 5 steps to create your preventative maintenance schedule

    While community preventative maintenance keeps systems running in a way that keeps future problems from happening, predictive maintenance entails using existing data to determine when systems might fail. Creating your community preventative maintenance schedule will help you budget for these occurrences – and eliminate most of those nasty surprises. Here’s how you can do it.
  • A guide to community swimming pool resurfacing options

    Your pool is a source of fun for all of your community’s residents. Yet when it comes time to resurface it, it can quickly become a source of headaches. Knowing the facts about your pool resurfacing options can help minimize the hassle – and ensure your community enjoys a quality pool experience for years to come. The best decision is an informed decision. An excellent community association management company will be experienced in this area and can weigh in with some really good insight – and make a recommendation for a reliable pool specialist, too. But before you get to that point, you can start with these pros and cons.
  • 6 essential HOA pool rules to enforce in your community

    Summertime is swim time, and for the most part, it’s a plunge into carefree fun. But without the right swimming pool safety practices, your residents and association could be at risk.
  • COVID-19: Making Virtual Connections in Crisis

    Learn how associates, residents and board members are making a difference in their communities with interactive online activities, during COVID-19.
  • HOA committees: Understanding HOA committee roles and responsibilities

    Thriving HOA committees have typically attributed “success by committee" as a factor for their growth. But what are actual HOA committee roles and responsibilities?
  • Debunking property management company myths

    Here’s one of the great ironies of the property management industry: though it’s incredibly big, it’s still a big mystery to most people. Let’s let the numbers do the talking. In the United States, 24% of homes are part of associations, with a total value of $4.65 trillion and $65 billion collected in assessments. In Canada, the industry generates about $6 billion in annual revenue with a healthy annual growth rate of 3.4%.
  • Understanding common community manager responsibilities

    The right support, the right personality and the right set of expectations from your community are critical for your community association management team to deliver exceptional results. Does yours have what it takes?
  • HOA nominating committee guidelines: Understanding HOA elections

    Elections are a big part of what make our community associations work. It’s what empowers members, galvanizes our community, and brings residents together for a common purpose.
  • Eight ways a property management company can help you and your community

    Being part of a Homeowners Association is rewarding – yet it can also be challenging at times. Board members are often tasked with difficult duties ranging from proper financial stewardship to navigating community conflicts, and much more.
  • The future of community association management: What to expect

    As a profession, community association management is relatively young; it goes back about 50 years. But in that short time, it has made great strides—and so have the communities who have benefited from professional, skilled management teams. But what does the future hold for this profession, and how will it influence how community members live? The trade organization Community Associations Institute (CAI) put their publication, Common Ground , to work to find some answers to this question. They brought together industry experts to weigh in on the matter. FirstService Residential has also been at the forefront of looking to the future in this growing industry.
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