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What Goes Into Strata Fees?
Condo living has its perks: amazing urban locations close to public transportation, being part of a community without having to do yard work or home maintenance, enjoying amenities like fitness centres, party lounges and pools at your doorstep. Just don’t forget that those perks come at a price – a monthly strata fee. What are strata fees and how are they determined? -
Eight Ways the Best Community Association Management Companies Can Help You
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. -
Can Your HOA Handle a Crisis? 8-Step Emergency Preparedness Plan
Is your association really prepared for an emergency? Learn how to develop an HOA emergency preparedness plan in 8 steps. -
Before Creating a New HOA Policy, Ask These 5 Questions
Great policies can help your association run smoothly, enhance the resident experience and improve your reputation. Here are five questions to ask before creating a new HOA policy. -
Formalize these 4 high-rise community policies in your association
Living in a high-rise is unlike any other experience. Here are some community policies to consider to create a more harmonious environment for all. -
HOA Agreement: 4 Tips to Promote a Functional Board
How do you tackle alignment as a group of diverse individuals with unique values? Follow these four tips on HOA agreement to find out. -
Is Your Association Manager Equipped for Success? 3 Questions to Ask
Does your association manager have the right tools, resources and support to take your association to the next level? -
Don’t Be the HOA Bad Guy: 4 Proven Policy Enforcement Tips
Enforcing HOA policies is nobody’s cup of tea, but having good policy enforcement in place helps improve the resident experience and elevates your reputation. Follow these 4 principles for healthy policy enforcement: -
How HOA Leaders Create Happy Communities
Association leadership plays an important role in creating harmonious communities. This applies to board members and community management professionals to work in partnership. Here are seven steps to a happy community. -
Investing HOA Reserve Funds: 6 Tips to Improve Your Returns
Are you getting the best returns on your reserve funds? Most California board members are not sure. Here are six ways to improve your reserve fund returns and create an HOA investment policy. -
Post-Crisis HOA Cash Management: 3 Tips for Your Association
How do manage collections and HOA funds after a crisis? Get 3 tips to help you plan for the future -
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. -
Six Simple HOA Board Meeting Rules for Success
A great board meeting should have a balance of diverse opinions and discussions that are rooted in your community’s overall vision. Start with these 6 simple HOA board meeting rules. -
CMCA certification: California HOA manager qualifications 101
Acronyms like CMCA, LSM, PCAM and others are used to designate certifications for community management professionals. What do these certifications mean? How does this benefit your association? -
10 steps on how to plan a community event
You’re planning an event for your homeowner (HOA) or community association. Congratulations! After the initial excitement comes growing panic, right? Well, not necessarily. -
How to be a successful property manager: 12 key qualities
When choosing the right property management company for your community, you will be asking a variety of questions to assess whether the company or manager will be the right fit for your board and your residents. -
Tips for managing building projects & community construction projects
So your homeowners association is going to undertake a construction or improvement project for your community. That can be exciting – and more than a little daunting, too. The construction project management process can be fraught with complications and frustrations – after all, with so many moving pieces, there are a number of things that can go wrong. To smooth your way, you can consult with an experienced property management company to obtain proven guidance and advice. But to get started, we’ve put together a dozen pointers to help your community construction project build towards success. -
12 To-Do’s for the Ultimate Community Spring Clean Up
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. -
Four Ways the Best Service from Your Property Management Team Starts Before You Even Ask
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? -
Avoiding risks of Airbnb and 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 & Short-Term Rentals Part 1: How the Sharing Economy Can Impact 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. -
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.