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HOA Maintenance Responsibilities, Capital Improvements, and Useful Life: Is Your HOA Prepared?
Is your maintenance job turning into a capital improvement? Are you ready for a big capital improvement expenditure? Read on to get answers to your top questions about maintenance, capital improvements and useful life. -
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. -
How Well Does Your Community Management Company Communicate?
How well does your community management company communicate? The answer to this question is at the heart of client satisfaction. A good community management company will engage you using a variety of tools and communication channels. Here are some ways your property management company should be connecting with you. -
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 -
Preventing Cyber Attacks, Part 1: How Residents Can Protect Your HOA
Ignorance is not bliss, especially when it means potentially leaving your homeowners association (HOA) at risk of a cyber attack. And that’s exactly what you’re doing if you don’t recognize that your HOA is as much of a target as any other small business. -
Reserve Funds, Assessment or Loan: 3 Ways to Pay for Capital Improvements
Strategic capital improvements lead to better property values. Read on to see the three ways to pay for them and their pros and cons. -
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. -
Tips for Keeping Homeowners Engaged in Your Community Association
Regardless of the size of your community, or where it’s located, there is always one thing that every community association board and committee needs: resident volunteers. However, volunteers are often a scarce resource. Here are some tips to combat apathy. -
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. -
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? -
Creating and enforcing HOA rules: A step-by-step guide
They say that good fences make good neighbors. Rules can work the same way – putting the right parameters in place can help keep everyone happy. Too few rules result in anarchy, and too many rules start to feel onerous to residents. -
What to look for in a property management company
Let’s face it: being a board member of your homeowner association isn’t easy. Neither is self-managing your property. For many boards, hiring a professional property management company is the best decision they’ll make for their community. -
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. -
FAQs for annual meeting and HOA special meeting notice
Annual and special meetings can have their own set of rules and needs. Read on to learn more about these two important types of meetings for your HOA or condo association board. -
HOA Meetings: What to do and how to prepare
Regardless of how you feel about them, board meetings are more than just something your community association chooses to do. They are something your community association must do. Board meetings are crucial to the governance of your community association. If they aren't run effectively, chances are your association won't function well either. -
What Makes a Great Board Member
Dale Young, director of portfolio management at FirstService Residential, and other industry experts reveal the common characteristics of effective and functional boards. -
Renter and tenant communication: Why it matters to your association
Does your board and management team communicate to the renters in your community? If no, why not? In communities where renters makeup a significant portion of the residents, they are often overlooked by the people running the community. -
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. -
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? -
Understanding board and property management company communication
As a board member, you want your community to grow and thrive. Having a vision for your community—the aesthetics of it, its reputation, the kinds of programming it offers and amenities it provides—is critical to its long-term well-being. A well-crafted vision will transcend board and resident turnover and keep your community on track.