HOA Management Blog

This is the second post in a three-post series. Read the first post Real Questions from Members with Answers from an HOA Manager.

We get quite a few questions from many different Association members and members of the HOA board of directors. Each Association is unique, but more often than not your Association has at some point in the past – or will in the future – experience questions similar to the real-life issues addressed below. Continue reading to see if any of these real-life questions and expert answers from an HOA manager apply to your Association.

As an HOA board member you're faced with issues in your homeowner’s association day in and day out. Sometimes you have questions that you don’t know the answer to or scenarios where you aren’t sure how to respond. Odds are, other board members are in the same boat. We’ve compiled some questions we’ve recently received and provided expert answers from an HOA manager. Read them below and maybe you’ll be able to relate.

You don’t want to be that guy (or gal) do you? You know the one – unreliable, uninformed, and unmotivated. It seems like every Association or organization has this type of person that everyone just puts up with or secretly doesn’t like at all. Do yourself a favor: look at the following list and be honest with yourself. If you do any of these things, maybe it’s time to change or step down. If you can think of a fellow HOA board member who does this, maybe you could help them!

In any organization meetings often seem like a necessary evil. Many people feel like they go to meetings to discuss what they met about at the last meeting or that they simply turn to mayhem and nothing gets resolved. But it doesn’t have to be this way, especially in your homeowner’s association.

Planning for future repairs and maintenance costs of common areas in the homeowner’s association is one of the most important jobs of an HOA board – and also one of the most neglected. Sometimes, boards are just short-sighted, focusing on the essentials that need to be done in the association now. While today is important, tomorrow must not be forgotten.

One issue that makes it difficult for boards to plan for the reserves is the pushback they receive from current homeowners because they have a hard time seeing how assessments for future projects will benefit them now. Learn how a reserve study protects owner value for both future and current homeowners in the association in the article excerpt below.  

If you’re a member of an HOA board, one of the reasons you chose to hire a property manager to help your community association is because you can’t keep up with all of the information you need to know. New and updated laws, reserve studies, annual meetings, trends, and resources are all things you need to have in your board member resource bucket, but can be very overwhelming. You trust your HOA manager to give you good and accurate information, but how do you know it really is legit?

Whether you’re out of town or out of commission, you can still attend the homeowners association board meetings by tuning in online. This is not to be confused with a meeting via email, this is not allowed.

Building community among residents in your homeowners association can be a challenge. People have busy schedules, won’t commit to attending events, or simply don’t want to be bothered. However, if you host a gathering and nail it, then they’ll be more apt to attend next time, start getting to know their neighbors, and maybe even start to show interest in getting involved on a committee.

An HOA management company can help homeowners association boards in many ways and work with nearly every budget. Two of the most obvious are assisting with financials and collecting delinquent HOA fees. There are also some ways your board members may not have thought of.

Many HOA boards don’t realize that their homeowners association can benefit from HOA management services without breaking the bank. You don’t always have to hire a full-service management company to provide every service – many services you can choose a la carte to fit the budget you have to work with.  

Two of the most important areas that hiring a management company can help with are assisting with financials and collecting delinquent HOA fees.