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As a board member of a condominium or homeowners association near the coast, hurricanes are of special concern. But did you know that the best property management company can help you prepare for the season – and even minimize its impact on your community? That makes your property manager more than just a fair weather friend.

As communities in Texas and Florida discovered in 2017, hurricanes can be devastating, even if your community takes all the proper precautions to reduce your association’s risk. Read how a property management company should assist your community after a storm passes.

Hurricanes can bring tremendous physical destruction and financial ruin to a community association unless policies are put into place to prepare for the storms before they arrive, and to deal with the consequences afterwards. Every board whose association could possibly be impacted by a hurricane must have a hurricane preparedness policy to help maximize safety, minimize risk and ultimately, protect its operating budget too. And just as important as having a policy is communicating the policy to your residents.

A recent study found that 75% of greenhouse gasses in New York City are generated by buildings, primarily multifamily residential buildings. As part of a city-wide effort to incentivize buildings to develop programs to curb emissions, FirstService Residential held its Third Annual Green Expo & Symposium on May 15 in New York. The event featured a panel of industry experts, including FirstService Residential President Dan Wurtzel, who described the benefits of participating in city programs, as well as the opportunities to save money, help the environment and enhance property values.

Swimming pools are one of the most common, and most desirable, amenities in communities. Making sure to have proper community pool insurance coverage.

During these unprecedented times, residents are spending the majority of their time at home to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and protect themselves and their loved ones from infection. One of their primary contact points with the outside world is in your HOA or condo common areas, where they can be at risk of contact with lingering coronavirus or even spread existing virus to other areas of the property. Read on for a comprehensive list of places to clean and how to clean them.

Maintaining your buildings’ assets is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. The common areas require a broad range of routine maintenance and repairs to keep them looking good and operating smoothly.

With a growing focus on proper environmental stewardship, many associations are working toward implementing green initiatives. But getting there can be daunting. With so many programs and opportunities available for all of us to reduce, re-use and recycle, it’s hard to know where to begin.

In many parts of the country, flash flood watches and/or flash flood warnings are often issued during torrential downpours, especially in hurricane-prone and/or low-lying areas.

Hurricanes. Floods. Tornadoes. Hail. Wildfires. Lightning strikes. Earthquakes. Blizzards. Mother Nature has quite the arsenal to throw at us! Unfortunately, every part of North America is subject to one or more of these events. Some, like hurricanes, come with enough advance warning to prepare for them, but most do not. That’s why it is critical to the financial health of your community association to have the proper insurance coverage in place.

It’s a term that gets tossed around quite a lot. But “conflict of interest” is a real and genuine threat to your association and its proper stewardship. Understanding what the term means – as well as how to recognize and avoid conflicts of interest– can go a long way toward ensuring the strength and stability of your community and eliminating many concerns.

While exclusive communities like the Hamptons or Malibu will always be attractive locations for affluent vacation home buyers, several new trends are emerging in the growing second home market.

Losing power is never fun. But it’s bound to happen at some point, so preparation is the best defense. Obviously, different types of communities are affected by blackouts in different critical ways: high-rises lose their elevators and water; resort-style gated communities lose the ability to operate their gates. For residents, a blackout may be a short-term nuisance. For a community association, it can be a major headache in terms of risk management, safety and potential equipment damage that can provide an unwelcome shock to your budget.

Part of your job as a board member is ensuring the safety of residents in your community association. To that end, it’s important to educate homeowners about possible fire risks and the steps they can take to prevent fire hazards in their homes. Chances are that fire safety isn’t top of mind for residents. However, home fires are more common than most people realize.

Many HOAs and community associations would like to save energy and energy spending, but they think that putting an energy management plan into place for their multifamily property is difficult to accomplish. FS Energy's Chris Normandeau explains some basic, easy-to-do steps that can make a real impact on an association's energy usage and budget.

In our guide to capital improvements , reserve studies and their relationship to capital improvements and preventive maintenance were discussed at length.

Your reserve fund is what helps your association anticipate its future– and budget for it, too. This fund gives you the power to maintain the quality of your community by allowing for projects that are both necessary and expensive (like a future roofing or paving project, for instance).

In this article, we delve into the significance of energy conservation within community associations, exploring its benefits and strategies for effective implementation.

So what can condo boards or community associations do to mitigate or even reduce costs this winter? Let’s start with what you can do in the summer and fall, before winter actually begins. This includes cleaning, tuning and performing any necessary repairs to heating systems, furnaces and boilers to make sure they won’t be working longer, harder or less efficiently than they should. Other pre-winter tasks include cleaning gutters to remove leaves and debris to ensure water can flow freely. Otherwise, water can become trapped and freeze, which can not only damage your property’s gutters, but also cause ice dams and possible roof leaks.

For most of us, storm season means prepping our residences to mitigate potential damage caused by high winds and heavy rains. But there’s a part of our homes and neighborhoods we often overlook – sometimes with disastrous results. That often-forgotten place is right outside your front door: it’s your landscaping.

No longer the products of science fiction fantasy, electric cars are now a reality of everyday life. While the reduced emissions of personal electric vehicles, or PEVs, are good news for the environment, their charging requirements may create challenges for condo associations trying to navigate their infrastructure requirements, legal implications, management concerns and even aesthetic considerations.

It’s that time of year again – budget season is upon us. You know the steps to creating your budget, but what drives your process?

If you’re on the board of a condo, co-op, high-rise or HOA, you know that managing your community’s budget is a major priority. You’ve likely explored many ways to save money and get the best deals, while still maintaining a high level of service.