Search

Showing 49 - 72 of 600
  • Preventing Cyber Attacks, Part 3: Your HOA’s 4-Step Digital Defense Plan

    Without a doubt, digital technology has made our everyday tasks easier and more convenient than ever. Mobile phones and tablets allow you to pay monthly bills, upload family photos and store important documents in “the cloud” with just a few taps and swipes. Homeowners associations are taking advantage of this pervasive technology in droves, using property management software to expedite resident transactions, sign documents with electronic signatures, and perform tasks more efficiently.
  • 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.
  • 3 Strategies to Keep HOA Assessments Stable and Add Value

    There are often good reasons to raise assessments, but in some cases, you may be able to take a different route. Here are three strategies to help save your HOA money and keep assessments stable.
  • 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?
  • How to run an HOA: 10 habits to improve your community association

    While the start of the new year is typically heralded as the best time to change old habits and commit to new ones, the reality for community associations and their board members is that there’s no time like the present. These 10 changes will help you get your board and your community association on the right track for the rest of the year.
  • Ten 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.
  • A board member's guide to managing an HOA pool

    Many people want to live in a community that has a swimming pool, and if there’s one in yours, you know what kind of value it brings. While it’s great to think of all those hot days when you and your neighbors can enjoy an afternoon in the water, with it comes many responsibilities community association board members must adhere to that go beyond staying cool or keeping in shape.
  • HOA financial management: Tips for greater financial strength

    So what’s the most important aspect of your community? Is it aesthetics? Sense of belonging? Neighbors knowing neighbors? Desirability to home buyers?
  • 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.
  • Twelve tips for spring cleaning in your community

    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.
  • What to expect from your property management company: Services to look for

    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?
  • Active Shooter Training: What Should Your Community Do?

    More than 1.4 million Americans have been killed by gunfire since 1968. Many of those shootings were accidental; some were suicides; some were at the hands of law enforcement officers in the line of duty. But many were not. Mass shootings, meaning that at least three people were killed by gunfire, have become an almost daily occurrence in the United States, with instances increasing each year since 2000, and many instances becoming more deadly. Thankfully, incidents of violence in community associations are rare, but unfortunately, they do occur.
  • After the Storms: A Harvey and Irma Update from Our CEO

    We have a very long road to recovery ahead for both Texas and Florida, for those of us affected by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. In the aftermath of the storms, there are tangible examples of our industry leadership, and in particular, why our ability to immediately leverage the depth of resources we have at our disposal is such a powerful differentiator for us. Here are a few examples of how we leveraged our resources, organization-wide, to ensure seamless service delivery for our clients.
  • Avoiding risks of 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 and short-term rentals: How the sharing economy can affect 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.
  • Communication in the Community: Do you have a plan?

    Is your community always aware of upcoming events, scheduled construction projects and upcoming board meetings? Do they understand their responsibilities and the policies they need to comply with? Clear, effective communication from the board to the residents makes a difference in the overall well-being of any community. Poor communication, on the other hand, is a real problem that can negatively impact your community’s reputation and even your operating budget and property values.
  • Tips to improve community awareness in your HOA

    There’s a big difference between being a busybody and having a general awareness of your neighbors’ regular activities. Knowing their routines enables you to quickly realize when something is awry, especially for residents who live alone. And in a true emergency, that awareness could literally save a life.
  • Property management tips for board members

    Whether you’re a new or current board member, you can avoid major issues and make your term more fruitful, rewarding and, above all, effective by following these 9 tips for board members.
  • Debunking property management company myths

    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%.
Showing 49 - 72 of 600