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Explore overall emergency management and three extreme weather scenarios - tornadoes, wildfires and hail in this quick 4 part series! Learn practical safety tips and what emergency prepartion taks should be completed by residents, board members, and your property managment company.

Extreme Weather in Texas: Part 4- Are you prepared for hail storms? Get practical safety tips and what emergency prepartion taks should be completed by residents, board members, and your property managment company.

Extreme Weather in Texas: Part 3 - Are you prepared for a wildfire? Get practical safety tips and what emergency prepartion taks should be completed by residents, board members, and your property managment company.

Summer time – the perfect season to hit the road, relax, spend time with family and friends, or embark on a new adventure. While you hope your residents have fun on their summer vacations, you also want to make sure that their homes stay safe and they fulfill their responsibilities to the association while away. Whether you live in a condominium, master-planned or single-family community, you want to make sure that your residents prepare their homes in a way that helps protect themselves and the community.

Summertime: It’s the perfect season to hit the road, relax, spend time with family and friends or embark on a new adventure. Although you hope that residents in your community have fun on their summer vacations, you also want to make sure that their homes stay safe and that they continue to fulfill their responsibilities to the association. Whether yours is a condominium, master-planned or single-family community, follow these tips to help your residents prepare their homes in a way that protects it and the community while they are away.

Capital reserve fund vs. improvements: Budget for both and know when and how to allocate them in your Texas HOA for a continuously improved community.

Learn about special assessments as a way to fund unexpected capital improvements

Handling day-to-day maintenance and making necessary improvements are critical responsibilities for any homeowners association (HOA). And when your serve on your association’s board of directors, they can quickly become overwhelming if you don’t have a good system in place to manage them. So how do you make sure that your maintenance staff is able to handle that long list of tasks that need to get done so that your community runs smoothly and retains its appeal?

Your reserve study is important to your financial health, but how do you get one? How do you choose the right reserve study firm to conduct it? Learn more.

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/contributions?

Security risks increase exponentially during the holiday seasons for high-rise buildings. Many residents travel for the holidays, move to warmer weather during the winter months, or have an influx of guests and family members in and out. These factors make it easy for intruders to make it into the building, especially if there are no procedures in place to track the many people and deliveries in and out of the building.

Frozen pipes are an unwanted, but common, occurrence during Alberta's cold winters. The damage caused can be significant to condominium units and shared property. Our cold weather warning offers condominium residents tips to prevent frozen pipes and the water damage that results.

Keeping your condominium corporation’s finances healthy is much like keeping yourself physically fit. The key is to make smart choices and avoid over-indulgence.

When it comes to cyberattacks, you may be under the assumption that your condo corporation is flying under the radar. But you’d be dead wrong. In fact, as a small business, your corporation may be at greater risk of being targeted than ever before.

Reserve Fund Studies are based on the assumption that components will reach their maximum useful life. However, if a preventative maintenance plan doesn’t accompany your reserve study, it’s highly unlikely some components will ever reach their maximum useful life.

We can all agree there are many important elements to a housing structure, but your roof is probably the most important. Changing temperatures, snow accumulation, large amounts of rain, ice dams and high winds can all cause major damage to condominiums, townhomes and single-family homes. These harsh weather conditions can create all sorts of problems, from minor leaks to major cave-ins that can cost a condominium corporation thousands to repair.

Safeguarding a condominium corporation’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 corporation and its members by making sure all funds are properly managed, invested and protected.

Continually maintaining and improving your property is crucial if you want to protect your condominium corporation’s financial health. To ensure that these important responsibilities are well managed requires a long-term plan and a means of effectively handling day-to-day projects. Here’s how you can make that happen.

Most people who join the board of their condominium corporation aren’t experts. Rather, they are well-intentioned, dedicated volunteer-leaders who want to protect property values and ensure their community continues to be a great place to live. If you’re a new board member – or even a seasoned one – it’s important to get the training you need to govern effectively and address the issues you may face.

FirstService Residential and FirstService Financial work in tandem to help our clients successfully finance capital improvement projects and save money without compromising quality of service.

Is your building prepared for Local Law 152 gas piping inspections? FirstService Residential recommends getting ahead of schedule to avoid unforeseen deficiencies and costly fines.

FirstService Residential managed properties have access to the tax certiorari experts at Goldberg Weprin Finkel Goldstein LLP, the premier firm in this specialized field.

FirstService Residential has invested substantial resources to facilitate each of our managed properties with facade inspections and is here to help you navigate the many intricacies of FISP.