Congratulations! You’ve just been elected to the board of directors, and given your first monthly financial packet. Like many new board members, your first thought may be, “This is so confusing. Glad I’m not the treasurer - I don’t have to …
Cash flow is the lifeblood of any multifamily residential community, be it a rental building, co-op, condo, or HOA. However, because the latter three are nonprofit entities, maintaining consistent cash flow is even more critical to their he…
As has been widely reported lately, Fannie Mae, which is under the conservatorship of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has developed a secret blacklist of condominiums, HOAs and co-ops that are ineligible for “conventional financin…
In our current environment of steeply rising costs, it’s more important than ever to safeguard your reserves to ensure that your association has sufficient funds available for immediate and future capital projects. Unfortunately, many assoc…
A recent article on a real estate website posed a common question: What’s the best way for a condo board to collect unpaid common charges? The author of the article - presumably an attorney - gave some pretty good advice…and some not so g…
The Community Associations Institute (CAI) estimates that 74 million Americans live in communities managed by homeowners associations, of which condos account for 35% to 40%. That’s a lot of people - many of whom may be in for a nasty shock…
The Community Associations Institute (CAI) estimates that 74 million Americans live in communities managed by homeowners associations, of which condos account for 35% to 40%. That’s a lot of people - many of whom may be in for a nasty shock…
In a world where the cost of services and goods are generally rising, even in the absence of any substantive inflation, co-op and condominium boards and management are always looking for ways to hold the line on increasing monthly costs. T…
As we’ve reported in previous articles, special assessments are not the only tool condo associations and HOAs have to finance common area improvements and major repairs when needed; there are also loans available in the marketplace to help …
It’s a question we’re asked all the time: "Can we use reserves to cover an operating fund shortfall?" Under normal circumstances, our standard response would be an emphatic “No!” -- because reserves are for major repair and replacement proj…