Community Association Management Companies: Unlocking a Better Neighborhood

Given everything that has happened to the global economy in recent years, many homeowners have seen their home values ​​plummet. People are abandoning the “Buy it and flip it” mentality and are instead approaching a home purchase with the mindset that they will be living in the purchased home for a long time. Since the quality of life is influenced in part by the location of the house, homeowners now recognize that they need to maintain their community. Homeowners come together to form a Home Owners Association (HOA) to provide community association services, working with developers, builders, owners and contractors to keep the community in good condition.

In many cases, homeowners feel overwhelmed or unqualified to serve on an HOA board. To ensure the neighborhood continues to be effectively monitored, they will be outsourcing some of their responsibilities to a community association management company. When choosing which services to outsource, board members should focus on responsibilities that are too time-consuming or complicated for board members to perform on their own. Community association services to outsource include:

Customer Service Responsibilities

When a homeowner has a complaint, he or she wants to feel that the complaint has been heard and will be rectified. Board members often find it difficult to address neighbor issues without allowing existing relationships to suffer. A community association management company will put a trained professional on the spot where neighbors can go when they have a problem. This allows your issues to be addressed in a more timely manner, by a professional who is properly trained to resolve resident issues.

Financial management

It is crucial that a community has sufficient financial resources available to pay for community association services. The main source of financial resources is the monthly due, so neighborhoods that have too many delinquent taxpayers will not be able to provide the necessary resources to keep the community in optimal condition. On-site professionals provided by community management companies are adept at collecting these debts from homeowners because, unlike board members, they have time to chase down delinquent payers. These professionals can also work with defaulters to set up a payment plan. Additional financial management responsibilities these professionals can handle include creating a budget and monitoring day-to-day expenses.

community maintenance

The main reason residents pay the HOA is to address the upkeep of common areas within the community. Parking lots, sidewalks, playgrounds, pools, and landscaping need proper maintenance to keep the community safe and visually appealing. Community association management companies help locate vendors to maintain these areas, accepting bids, monitoring the contractors and paying them each month. A good community association management company will already have established relationships with certain contractors, allowing the community to purchase their services at a discount.

These are just a few of the many community association services that an association management company can more effectively provide to a community. Smart HOA board members should recognize that these businesses hold the key to unlocking a better neighborhood.