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Dive into the details of creating a strategic plan for your homeowners association.

As a homeowner, you want to live in a place that accentuates your style – from a beautiful entrance monument or exquisitely decorated building lobby, complete with freshly pruned trees and lush landscaping – but unless your association board has strategically planned out your community’s budget, you can forget all of that. The budgeting process is a valuable opportunity to explore the current financial condition of your association and ensure its financial stability for the future.

Humans are social creatures with a deep-seated yearning for connection and community. This is particularly evident in an HOA, where a strong sense of community can be the difference between long-standing residency and high turnover.

One of the most challenging aspects of being on the board of your homeowners association (HOA) can be running board meetings. It’s not always easy to keep everyone tuned into the business at hand. In addition, you have to manage the inevitable disagreements among board members. How do you keep these meetings running smoothly?

The spring season is a time for renewal and a fresh look, so being able to properly landscape around the building is of utmost importance.

Having an integrated plan is the key to proactively addressing your property's maintenance needs. Here are six things you need to do for an effective preventive maintenance plan.

Rules and regulations are important in any homeowners association (HOA). But when they aren’t enforced, are enforced inconsistently, or go a bit too far, they can create resentment and put your HOA at risk.

Reserve components are association maintained major property components with a determinate useful life. The analysis of the reserve components results in accurate and supportable annual reserve fund contributions.

Safeguarding an association’s operating and reserve funds is one of the main fiduciary duties of all board members, not just the treasurer. This means that boards must protect the financial interests of the association and its members by making sure all funds are properly managed, invested and protected.

The tips in this quick reference guide will help your board communicate better with residents in your community association.

Whether you’re on the board of a single-family homeowners association (HOA) or a high-rise condo association, your community depends on volunteers to operate successfully. However, finding residents who are willing to be on your board of directors, join a committee or help at an event can be challenging.

Maintaining the health of your Minnesota community homeowners association’s finances is similar to the way you keep yourself healthy: make good choices, don’t overindulge and exercise good judgement.

Some self-managed associations believe they can't afford to hire a professional property management company to manage and maintain their community's operations, assets, finances, common areas and other day-to-day activities. However, as you'll learn in this article, a professional property management company is one thing many communities can't afford to be without.

One of the most important responsibilities your community's board of directors faces is effectively planning for major common-area repairs and replacements. Whether a costly expenditure is needed in a few years or not for 20, it’s the board’s fiduciary duty to make sure your community association has adequate funds when the time comes. That’s where reserve funds come into play.

A strong, healthy association requires every facet of property management to work in sync toward one common goal...true financial stability.

It’s no secret that association management is a big job. Across Minnesota, common areas require a lot of routine maintenance to uphold community standards – things like exterior light bulb replacements, landscaping and paint touch-ups. Depending on your townhome community, the scale of your amenities' needs will vary.

Developing the annual budget for your homeowners association (HOA) is one of your board’s most important jobs. It requires hard work and often means making difficult decisions about spending. At times, homeowners may question some of those decisions or even vehemently disagree with them.

It’s that time of year again – budget season is upon us. You know the things to consider when creating your budget, but what drives your process? Are you focused on achieving a particular vision for your community? Avoiding conflict in the community? Solely looking to avoid increasing dues?

Humans are social creatures with a deep-seated yearning for connection and community. This is particularly evident in an HOA, where a strong sense of community can be the difference between long-standing residency and high turnover.

One of the most challenging aspects of being on the board of your homeowners association (HOA) can be running board meetings. It’s not always easy to keep everyone tuned into the business at hand. In addition, you have to manage the inevitable disagreements among board members. How do you keep these meetings running smoothly?

As community association managers begin their inspection, they note the necessary repairs for winter damage as they make their rounds through the community. The spring season is a time for renewal and a fresh look, so being able to properly landscape around the building is of utmost importance.

Your community association depends on volunteers to operate successfully. However, finding residents who are willing to be on your board of directors, join a committee or help at an event can be challenging.