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Making your high-rise more marketable starts at the top: your rooftop! Under-utilized space can be enhanced to offer improved amenities, increasing property values and improving lifestyles of everyone in the building.

We’ve highlighted four common board blunders and included some practical tips for avoiding them. It’s important to identify these potential blunders early to save yourself and your board time and frustration.

Having a diverse group of opinions and perspectives on your HOA board can be a great thing, but it can also lead to challenges because of conflicting personalities. To set you and your association up for success, here are 6 tips to improve board meeting dynamics.

Humans are social creatures with a deep-seated yearning for connection and community. This is particularly evident in a strata corporation, where a strong sense of community can be the difference between long-standing residency and high turnover.

Undoubtedly, running meetings is one of the most ;challenging parts of being on your strata council. Members sometimes get off track. Disagreements sometimes turn into arguments. Short discussions sometimes become long-winded monologues. Is there anything you can do to make your council meetings more effective?

A maintenance plan is a great tool for organizing and discussing a Strata Corporation’s property repairs and maintenance.

As a council member for your strata corporation, you know that your community depends on volunteers to operate successfully. However, finding residents who are willing to be on your council, join a committee or help at an event can be challenging.

It’s that wonderful time of year! Many of us are shopping online to get that perfect gift for our loved ones. And, for those doing last-minute shopping, we don’t want to have to worry that something will go wrong with our deliveries.

A depreciation report provides an inventory of your Strata Corporation’s common property and assets, their projected 30-year maintenance and replacement cost. It is a useful tool for Strata Councils when it comes to budgeting for capital projects and it also gives transparency for owners and buyers on the building.

Not all strata managers have what they need to give you great service. Learn what it takes to be a great strata manager.

To set you and your association up for success, we’ve pulled together a list of common board blunders and included some practical tips for avoiding them. If you can identify these early, you may save yourself (and your board) from a lot of frustration.

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.

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.

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.

So what’s the most important aspect of your community? Is it aesthetics? Sense of belonging? Neighbors knowing neighbors? Desirability to home buyers?

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.

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.

High summer temperatures bring high electric bills – especially this summer, as heat waves and soaring temperatures continue to blaze across the U.S. and Canada. But FirstService Residential’s innovative FS Energy program is keeping residents cool, curbing electric bills and lowering energy emissions and usage – and it saved $1.5 million in energy costs for NYC residents last summer. Now, the program is rolling out to multifamily buildings in Chicago and Miami.

When a lot of people think about high-rise living, they don’t necessarily jump to the idea of families in high-rises. In many cities, high-rises are still considered the domain of the young and single, or couples without kids or active retirees. The New York Times even ran a piece, in 1987, decreeing that “A High-Rise Is Not a Home for Children.” But today, thanks to a Millennial generation that doesn’t want to commute from the ‘burbs, more and more high-rises are actively courting families as residents.

Preparing your association’s annual budget...it can be a source of stress, but more importantly, it’s a valuable opportunity to ensure the financial well-being of both your association and homeowners. Proper association management hinges on this financial tool for both short-term and long-term planning, so it’s important to follow some guidelines.

Wildfires continue to be a constant and deadly threat across North America, and the risk intensifies with soaring annual temperatures, strong winds and severe drought conditions.

Summer’s longer days mean more time to enjoy warm weather and sunshine, but they also mean higher energy bills. There is a bright side, however: by implementing an energy management program within your community, you can help keep costs down without sacrificing comfort.

Hurricanes can bring tremendous physical destruction and financial ruin to a community association unless policies are put into place to prepare for the storms before they arrive, and to deal with the consequences afterwards. Every board whose association could possibly be impacted by a hurricane must have a hurricane preparedness policy to help maximize safety, minimize risk and ultimately, protect its operating budget too. And just as important as having a policy is communicating the policy to your residents.

Swimming pools are one of the most common, and most desirable, amenities in communities. Making sure to have proper community pool insurance coverage.