How is your homeowner's association doing? Is everything running easily and smoothly? Do you have interested members at each HOA board meeting? Is your reserve fund fully funded? What would you do if you were faced with a lawsuit or an unexpected project? If you answered no to any of these questions or don’t know the answer at all, below are 5 reasons you should consider hiring an HOA manager this year.
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.
Finding members in your homeowners association who want to volunteer on the HOA board can be hard – finding a member to step up and become the board president is even harder. So, what do you do when the current president passes away, you don’t have a lot people in your community involved with the board, and your current board members are concerned that hiring an HOA manager will only cause the company to take over the Association?
When an HOA board is hiring or evaluating an HOA management company it’s important to look at the big picture. The skill set that your homeowner’s association is looking for or may need will differ from others, but in general an HOA manager should possess leadership skills, communication skills, administration skills, and also be backed by a company who offers support in these areas.
The HOA board is responsible for protecting, maintaining, and enhancing the Association, but this is difficult to do on its own. Board members willingly volunteer their time and resources to make sure their community is a pleasant place to call home. If it’s not run effectively, then it won’t be a pleasant place at all.
Since HOA board members are volunteers, they don’t always have the time or expertise to make sure the Association is being run properly. This is where an HOA management company comes in.
There is often a member of the HOA board who doesn’t recognize that the Association needs help beyond what the Board can do on its own. Sometimes the hard part is convincing other members of the board to invest the time and resources available to hire a manager and how it will benefit the Association in the long run. So, what will help make your case when making the suggestion to hire a management company? We’ve spelled it out for you below.
Being a volunteer board member is a big responsibility. There are decisions to be made, meetings to attend, budgets to build, and concerns to address. If your HOA board is at a place where members are feeling overwhelmed and over-committed, then it’s time to bring in some help.
You’re the President of the HOA board in your community and you’re wise enough to know that you’re in way over your head - but you like a challenge and you’re ready to meet it head on. You’ve read your governing documents and know how to keep a basic balance sheet, but that doesn’t mean you understand the CC&Rs or know the difference between the operating and reserve budgets.
If your HOA board has decided to hire a management company to help with the day-to-day running of the homeowners association, it’s important to review the contract and pay close attention to what the management company is actually contracting to do.
Just like any other business agreement, the Association will be entering into a contract agreement with the management company and there are some important questions the Board should ask before signing on the dotted line.
