-
Making Your HOA Community More Pet Friendly
Amenities play a large role in differentiating your community, enhancing its brand, and drawing in potential buyers. Pet amenities have risen in popularity and range from simple touches such as having dog-friendly treats like biscuits and bowls of water available in the main office, to providing on-site pet services such as grooming. Here are five suggestions for making your community more pet friendly. -
6 Questions for Self-Managed Associations to Consider
As a self-managed association, do you need a management partner? Before making that choice, ask these 6 questions. -
Want to Start a Neighborhood Watch? Consider this.
Is your building or community considering establishing a Neighborhood Watch program? These crime watch programs – joint efforts between homeowners and local police departments – are gaining traction in many communities by helping to deter unusual or criminal behavior. Here are some tips to consider. -
25 Ways to Prevent Household Poisonings
Poisoning is the leading cause of death from injury in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control. But fortunately, poisonings are also highly preventable. -
4 Back To School Tips to Keep Parents Sane and Kids Happy
As a parent, you know what back to school means. It’s more than a change in your schedule -- it’s a change in your whole reality. Rushing out the door. Blasting through the homework. Making second trips back to the house for forgotten lunch boxes, book order money or scarves. -
Five Ways to Prevent a Remodeling Nightmare
You’ve heard the horror stories. The homeowner association (HOA) board hires a contractor to remodel the clubhouse, the fitness room, or one of the other amenities within the community. The contractor talks a good game, but when the actual work begins, it’s a whole other story. -
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. -
“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. -
Budget-Friendly Tips to Transform Your Nursery Into a Toddler’s Room
Somehow, in the blink of an eye, your sweet and cuddly baby has turned into an active and independent toddler – curious about everything and always on the move. She’s outgrown her crib and baby furniture, and now that she can speak up, she’s quite vocal about her desire to change the nursery into a big kid’s room – and has some definite ideas about how to get there. We know you may not agree with her tastes – or how much they might cost to implement – so here are six budget-friendly, easy-to-do tips to transform your nursery into a toddler’s room the whole family will love. -
Dispelling common homeowners association horror stories
As a buyer, you may wonder whether moving into a community with an HOA is right for you. Perhaps you have heard horror stories from unhappy homeowners or have read about unreasonable boards that bully residents. How common are these events? And are the stories even true? -
Buying in an HOA community: Evaluating HOA financials & more
So your diligent search for that home of your dreams has finally led you to one that fits all your criteria. However, it is in an association, and you have known people who belonged to condo or homeowners associations (HOAs) that were poorly run or financially mismanaged. -
Moving out checklist: Essential things to do when moving
You’re moving! That means an exciting new beginning. It also means a lot of work. But no need to stress out – following a simple checklist can prevent those moving migraines. One thing you’ll want to keep in mind: starting as soon as possible is the best policy. Good planning early on will save you some real heartache later. And though we’ve created a timeline that starts at two months out, your home closing may happen in as little as 45 days – just be sure to start the first items on the checklist as soon as you possibly can. -
Managing HOA disputes: HOA mediation vs arbitration
While it’s always best that all parties in an HOA, community association, condo association or other deed-restricted community agree and cooperate, it’s a fact of life that conflicts or disputes may arise. In many cases, the parties can settle their differences amicably and directly through frank and open discussion or negotiation. In other instances you may need mediation or arbitration to find a resolution. -
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? -
Great Service: Community manager duties
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? -
Eight tips and tricks to pass home inspection
Selling a home in a competitive market can be challenging, and your home still must pass inspection – a critical step to help prospective buyers make an informed decision about your home’s current condition, as well as any repairs and maintenance it may need. -
Getting involved in the community: Participating in your association
When you purchase a home or unit within a deed-restricted community or building, your new residence comes complete with an added bonus – membership in your association. Whether your association is an HOA, community association or condo association, it’s comprised of fellow homeowners and stakeholders who, like you, want to protect the community’s property values, enhance its quality of life and make it a desirable place to live, both now and in the future.But an association can’t achieve these goals without homeowner involvement – after all, how can you have a say in what happens in your community if you don’t participate? -
Creating a Feng Shui entryway: Enhance your home and life
In today’s busy, noisy, fast-paced world, many of us have become multitaskers by necessity, caught up in trying to juggle the demands and responsibilities of family, health, career, lifestyle, community and more. But what if you could turn down the stress and volume of everyday life and enhance your life just by coming home? -
Five reasons to stop renting and start owning
If you’re part of the Millennial generation (typically defined as someone born between 1977 and 1992), the renting vs. buying landscape is drastically different for you than it was for your parents and their peers. That’s leading many Millennials to ask themselves the age-old question: should I rent a home or should I buy? -
The top 5 benefits of an HOA
You just got home from a long day at work, and the trash bins are still there, full, in front of your house. They’re starting to reek, and any calls to your local government at this hour to find out why they weren’t picked up are going right to voicemail. You feel like no one is on your side, and it won’t be long until the raccoons are here to feast. -
Five Winter Organization Tips
Winter’s coming, and with colder temperatures comes something that isn’t cool at all: disorganized closets and cluttered winter gear. -
Fixing a condo catastrophe without litigation
What happens when glass from a skyscraper crashes down onto crowded Fifth Avenue? It shatters your expectations of how a condo board, a developer and an insurance company can work together to come up with a compromise solution without litigation. Turns out it’s not impossible. Hey, who knew? -
Four tips for creating your HOA holiday decoration policy
People decorate for everything these days – from Valentine’s Day to the patriotic celebrations of summer and on to the fall festivities and winter wonderlands. Many people derive a sense of community and comfort from seeing familiar decorations at the same time each year.