With the holiday season upon us, the annual change of calendar won’t be far behind – and that means it’s time for your Homeowner’s Association (HOA) to adopt one or more meaningful resolutions for the coming New Year. This should not be just a lip-service discussion, though; it should be something that brings real value to the organization and represents a legitimate improvement or enhancement over the way your HOA has operated in the past. One of the most worthwhile resolutions that you might adopt in this vein is to prepare a Management Plan – or to have one implemented on your behalf by HOA management specialists.
What Should be Included in an HOA Management Plan?
A good Management Plan for your HOA should be a document that provides your Board with visibility into situations that need to be addressed, as well as the optimum time for addressing them. It should be a Birds-Eye View of your overall status and should take into account such issues as a reserve study, your reserve projects schedule, contract renewal dates, scheduled meeting dates, and budget notice dates among others, and it should map these out over the course of the entire coming year.
This approach ensures that everyone on the Board can see when particular issues will need to be dealt with, and it should assure they get proper attention at the most opportune time of year. For instance, searching for a new Head Landscaper in June is generally not advisable, since it is the peak of the landscape season and leaves your new contractor behind in their work even before they start. On the other hand, conducting a Landscaper search during the late fall and winter will yield far more helpful results, because a greater number of prospective candidates are available to consider and bid your contract.
General Planning Considerations
Even before any specific issues are addressed, it might be a useful exercise to have your HOA members think about a few fundamental questions, which could then serve as a guideline for further specific planning.
Is everyone in the Association familiar with the organization’s legal structure and organizational chart?
What exactly is the financial condition of our Homeowner’s Association, and is some level of planning necessary to address this condition?
Apart from financial resources, what other kinds of resources are available to the HOA, (e.g. people, amenities, etc)?
Which values and conditions are of the greatest importance to our membership, and how do we intend to implement these? Does the association seek to maintain premier landscaping or limit expenses by curtailing added spending?
What kinds of conditions are currently present in the general community, and do any of these conditions need to be encouraged or reversed?
By treating these questions, your HOA members will have good mental preparation for addressing specific issues through proper planning, so they can be resolved in the most advantageous way. The very best time of year to consider issues for the coming year is sometime in advance of the New Year, and that’s why a solid Management Plan can be so effective. By looking at the big picture now, and planning for timely issue resolution, major problems later can be either minimized or avoided altogether.
Can Anyone Help With Planning?
At Wise Property Solutions, we make a point of removing all the issues and complicated details of HOA administration, so that your members can relax and enjoy the community which they belong to. Why not make it your New Year’s Resolution to contact us at your earliest convenience, so that the coming year can be worry-free for your HOA.