A guide to HOA disclosure: Everything you need to know

A good emergency plan is critical to the safety of your Pennsylvania high-rise residents and property. Learn how to create one and execute it today.

Squeaky wheels, the complainers, the busybodies. No matter how you think of them, difficult residents are part of community life. There’s no magic wand or charm to turn your local beast into a beauty, but as board members, you have access to the next best thing: good communication. Communication from the board and management goes a long way toward making dissatisfied residents happy. How? Read on for how you can use communication tips, tools and technology to create a cohesive community and manage difficult residents when needed.
 

Part of your job as a board member is ensuring the safety of residents in your community association. To that end, it’s important to educate homeowners about possible fire risks and the steps they can take to prevent fire hazards in their homes.  Chances are that fire safety isn’t top of mind for residents. However, home fires are more common than most people realize.

Tornadoes are fearsome because of their unpredictable nature. Although there are certain weather conditions that make tornadoes more likely, such as severe summer thunderstorms, tornadoes can also be created by snowstorms and blizzards. They can strike at any time of year and almost any place, even forming on the water and moving onto land.

The risks of not knowing what to look for in a management company are myriad: if you aren’t clear on what you want and need, a company cannot meet those needs. You can get stuck with management that you don’t really want, and no one wants that. 

So you’re meeting – how can you make those meetings effective and efficient? Read on for some tips to make board meetings the best they can be! 

The board members of your community association serve many important leadership functions. Although they may have diverse backgrounds and skill sets, they are all committed to the common goal of bettering your community association, taking actions that ensure its financial health, enhancing property values and improving the lifestyles of the residents. What can happen if you don’t have an effective board treasurer?

As a community association board member, one of your chief responsibilities is to protect the financial interests of your association and your fellow residents. That includes making sure that the association’s reserve and operating funds are carefully managed, protected and invested. Smart decision-making and sound financial stewardship are critical to the association’s long-term financial stability and health. Unfortunately, even the best-intentioned board members may not have the experience or financial knowledge to choose the right banking programs and products to meet their community association’s needs. What should you look for when choosing the best banking program for your association? Read on…

The principles to fiscal fitness and physical fitness aren’t that different: Don’t overindulge. Make smart choices. Keeping your community association’s finances healthy requires care and exercising good judgment. Follow our tips to help you do that.

Community associations can be wonderful. They have amenities that otherwise might not be so close to home, like a community pool, fitness center, golf course or riding trails. Being part of a managed community often means having shared interests with your neighbors, imparting a sense of community that isn’t easy to achieve in an ever-transient world. It means that everyone abides by the same high aesthetic standards. But none of that happens without stable finances, including a balanced budget and a well-funded reserve.