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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.

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.

Vacation season has arrived, and with it, the need to pack, plan and in many cases, make arrangements for our four-legged family members. Many hotels and other accommodations are not pet-friendly, so pet owners must decide where, and with whom, to leave Muffy or Max when heading out of town. From kennels to in-home pet sitters, there are various options to fit your lifestyle and budget.

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%.

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?

As unpredictable as earthquakes can be, your community association should be prepared in case you ever feel the unmistakable rumble of a tremor. Here’s what you need to know.

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.

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.

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.

No board ever wants to find itself in the midst of an emergency, but they happen. Whether you face an outbreak of illness, an earthquake, a hurricane, a fire, the impact of any devastating event can be minimized by good emergency preparedness planning.

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?

Homebuyers are motivated to buy a new home and move to a new community for a wide variety of reasons – perhaps a desire to downsize, upsize, relocate closer to family and friends, or enhance their quality of life. And when it comes to which new home and community to choose, there are nearly as many variables to consider, such as cost of living, location, layout and the quality of the community association and professional management company, to name a few. But while those factors will always be important, there are two additional considerations that, for many people, are even more compelling – community amenities and programs for lifestyle communities.

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.

What does the future hold for your community association? If you’re a board member, you might already have a pretty good idea – most likely because you’ve developed a plan for it. But what about issues outside of your control? How will they influence the strategies you develop to ensure your community is a great place to live for years to come? Let’s see where the coming decades will take us.

On October 28, the eve of Superstorm Sandy’s one-year anniversary, Fox Business News aired a powerful segment featuring Chuck Fallon, FirstService Residential CEO.

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?

Living in a high-rise, condominium or co-op certainly has its perks. You get the convenient location, the dramatic views, attentive concierge services and a range of amenities. However, vertical living also means added challenges when it comes to fire safety. Fortunately, there are measures that both your association board and residents can take to improve safety.

Gene Gomberg, Chairman of FirstService Residential, was honored as an Ultimate CEO/Chairman by the South Florida Business Journal.

Our New York office is profiled in the November/December issue of the Mann Management Report.

How many homes in your community are vacant? Whether it’s one or one hundred, it’s too many. Empty homes can lead to compliance issues and decrease the curb appeal of your community. They can also negatively impact the feeling of connectedness for the members of your association. That’s why it’s so important to keep every home occupied.

It’s always great to have a reliable partner by your side. Whether it’s a family member, someone at work, or even a fellow member of a sports team on which you play, knowing that someone has your back can instill you with confidence and comfort.

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?

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.

There are many types, sizes and varieties of lifestyle communities to choose from, and as interest from homebuyers grows, developers and home builders are creating new ones to meet the demand. If you’re a prospective buyer and don’t know where to begin, we can help. We’ve compiled five important factors to consider to help you narrow down your choices and find the right lifestyle community to meet your needs.