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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.

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.

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.

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.

Do you escape to warmer weather down south once there’s a chill in the air and the leaves start to turn? If you’re a snowbird (or Winter Texan!), you need to know how to protect your home up north while basking in the southern sunshine

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.

Dale Young, director of portfolio management at FirstService Residential, and other industry experts reveal the common characteristics of effective and functional boards.

Having a swimming pool, a fitness area, or even a place to hold rooftop parties for residents are perks that can make any community stand out. But how does a community association board handle and operate those features?

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.

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.

Developing a comprehensive HOA communications strategy during this pandemic will help your board members and management team inform the community in a timely manner.

Thriving HOA committees have typically attributed “success by committee" as a factor for their growth. But what are actual HOA committee roles and responsibilities?

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.

Like it or not, we have become very dependent on our technology. Whether it’s a cell phone, tablet or computer, our devices enable us to stay connected, conduct business and access information anywhere, anytime. Yet as convenient as these devices may be, cyber security is simply not a priority for the majority of tech users—despite the increased prevalence of cyber attacks. In part one of our two-part series, we look at why cyber security is so important to community associations. We also provide important steps that residents in your community can take to protect their technology so that sensitive information doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.

In part one of this two-part series, we discussed the importance of cyber security to your community association and the steps that residents can take to protect themselves and their association. In this article, we look at your board’s responsibility in preventing cyber attacks.

As a Board member, you want your building’s lobby to be aesthetically pleasing and inviting, but also safe and functional – after all, as the hub of your building, it provides essential services and can even become a social gathering place for residents and guests. So if your building lobby isn’t as attractive or functional as it could be – and doesn’t portray the impression you’d like it to – we have some suggestions that can help.

For a growing number of community associations across the United States and Canada, statute changes are making electronic voting a possibility for boards. If your state or province permits online voting – or will soon – does that mean that your board should make this option available to homeowners in your community?

If you live in a pet-friendly community, it’s essential that your association board set boundaries to keep order within your community. Many of the issues that become problems in pet-friendly communities have very little to do with the pets – after all, they can’t clean up after themselves.

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.

You’ve just been elected to your HOA or condo association board. Congratulations! Now you can celebrate...with some time back in the classroom.

Every board of directors, whether for a Fortune 500 company or your community association, needs a great secretary. The secretary is responsible for maintaining those records accurately, including meeting minutes, bylaws and membership records.

Parking is one of the most common challenges for homeowners associations (HOAs). It seems, regardless of the type of community, the same parking situations happen to us all. To help keep misunderstandings and violations to a minimum, follow these five tips to manage your HOA’s parking policy.

You are serving on a homeowner association (HOA) or community association board and discussing hiring a new lawn care provider. Seems simple enough, right? Oh, except that there is a bitter divide between several members arguing about two competing companies.

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.