November 25, 2024 • 34 mins
Think HOAs are carefree & inexpensive? Join Robert & Julie as they course-correct this common HOA myth, highlighting communication tips & financial realities.
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Are you under the impression that HOAs are inexpensive and carefree? Think again. In this episode, we challenge this common HOA myth and provide practical strategies for board members and homeowners to improve understanding and engagement.
Julie Adamen and Robert Nordlund emphasize the importance of consistent communication, tools like welcome packets, and new homeowner orientation sessions. They discuss strategies for promoting transparency, educating homeowners about association finances, and using AI-powered short videos to enhance community communication. Learn why board member visibility and accessibility are key to fostering trust and why consistent communication is essential to bridge gaps in understanding.
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Chapters
00:00 The HOA Stereotype Isn’t True
03:18 Listener Question - How to Curb Homeowner’s Thoughts That HOAs are Inexpensive
04:40 Clarifying the Non-Profit Nature of Community Associations
08:50 Effective Communication and New Homeowner Orientation
14:02 The Tradeoffs of Being in a “Carefree” HOA That Isn’t “Free”
21:58 Ad Break - Community Financials
22:29 What Board Members Can Do to Help New Owners Understand the Costs of Associations
29:20 Long-Term Efforts to Change Perceptions
The views & opinions expressed in this program are those of the Hosts & Guests, intended to provide general education about the community association industry. The content is not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual or organization. Please seek advice from licensed professionals.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Julie Adamen (00:00):
Don't ever walk into an HOA or condominium
(00:03):
association and think, oh, thisplace is just going to be a
mess. You know, actually, Iwould say not necessarily. In
fact, CAI's stats are 80% ofpeople who live at a community
association are satisfied andhappy with what the Association
provides. If you have moved intoan association, don't go in
thinking this is all screwed up.
Go in just trying to look forinformation and see how they
(00:24):
operate. And observe for awhile. You'll know soon enough
how things are going. And infact, you'll probably go, Hmm,
that's pretty well run.
Jennifer Johnson (00:34):
HOA Insights is brought to you by five
companies that care about boardmembers, association, insights
and marketplace Association,reserves, community financials,
Hoa invest and Kevin Davis,Insurance Services, you'll find
links to their websites andsocial media in the show notes.
Robert Nordlund (00:50):
Hi, I'm Robert Nordlund of association
reserves,
Julie Adamen (00:52):
and I'm Julie Adamen of Adamen and Inc. And
this is HOA Insights, where wepromote common sense for common
Robert Nordlund (00:58):
areas. Well, welcome to episode 81 where
we're again speaking withmanagement consultant and
regular co host, Julie Adamen.
Today we'll be talking about theproblems with the stereotype of
community associations offeringinexpensive and carefree home
ownership. Yeah. So today we'llbe talking about what you can do
at your association to beginchallenging the attitude and
understanding of your homeownersto make them more reality based.
(01:21):
We want your association tothrive, and today, we'll be
giving you tools to move in thatdirection. This is a follow up
to episode number 80, where wediscussed a breakthrough new
service called HOA invest.comwhich handles the management and
maximizing of reserve fundinvestments simply novel and
wonderful. They solve theproblem that managers and board
(01:44):
members are not professionalmoney managers, and make sure
you hear it. It's a real timesaver, and it can prevent you
from leaving money on the tableif you missed that episode or
any of our other prior episodes.
Take a moment after today'sprogram to listen from our
podcast website, Hoainsights.org or watch on our
(02:04):
YouTube channel, where you cangive it a like, and better yet,
subscribe from any of the majorpodcast platforms so you don't
miss any future episodes. Andthose of you watching on YouTube
can see the HOA insights mug. Ihave got
Julie Adamen (02:19):
our merch, and Julie's got it? Oh, there's our
picture. Oh,
Robert Nordlund (02:23):
gee, you got a picture? One I did. I've got,
I've got a cartoon one. And youcan browse through all the
options we have at our merchstore, from our HOA insights.org
website or the link in the shownotes. And we have especially
items like these for sale andsome free board member zoom
background, so go to the merchstore, find the mug that you
(02:44):
like, and I'll give that mugaway free to the 10th person to
email podcast at reserve,say.com mentioning episode 81
mug giveaway. Well, we enjoyhearing from you responding to
the issues you are facing atyour association. So if you have
a hot topic, a crazy story orquestion you'd like to have us
address. You can contact us at805-203-3130, or email us at
(03:10):
podcast@reservestudy.com and oneof those listener questions
prompted today's episode Carriefrom Santa. Barbara asked our
homeowners just don't get that.
We are a not for profit businesswith expenses going up each
year, and US board membersworking many hours to lead the
association. It's a real sourceof conflict. What can we do? So,
(03:31):
Julie, let's talk about carefreeand inexpensive.
Julie Adamen (03:40):
What's carefree and inexpensive? I don't know
anything
Robert Nordlund (03:43):
you know. I should have thought of that in
advance. I'm not sure anythingis carefree and inexpensive. But
that brings us to what you and Iwere chatting about earlier.
It's actually a bit of a trade
Julie Adamen (03:55):
off. It is, it is so it's can be, especially
owning a condominium or into aco op, that kind of thing. That
can be carefree and that youdon't mow the lawns or paint the
exterior or anything like that,but it's not free. It can be
carefree relatively but it's notfree. And I think the big like
(04:15):
our gal who wrote in askingabout, you know, what can we do?
Because they don't understandwhat we are. That's super
common, and it often falls onhate to tell you this board
members, but it falls on you tolet your folks know how things
operated, what you exactly are.
And so again, we're back to wetalk about communication all the
time, but that's really wherethat starts. Yeah,
Robert Nordlund (04:40):
when I'm talking to friends, they ask
what I do, and I talk about howI serve community associations.
What's that? Well, I mean condosand town homes, high rises,
things like that. And they say,let me tell you about mine. And
I say, Well, which one? And theyusually say, ABC, management
company, and that's the firststep, right there, and that's
what you're talking about. Theydon't know. Know even the name
(05:01):
of their association all theirtheir only interaction is with
the company serving them, thethe management company, and
that's an incredible missedopportunity.
Julie Adamen (05:11):
It is because they believe, so you see, it's the
management company. So theythink, well, that's a for profit
business, so why are they takingall my money, and why does it
have to go up? So that initialmisunderstanding of how the
community, and frankly, thewhole industry, but this, their
community in particular, isstructured. You know, it's a
nonprofit, typically mutualbenefit corporation, sometimes
(05:32):
they're unincorporated, butnonprofit and but it is still a
business. Nonprofit doesn't meanthat costs don't go up.
Nonprofit just means they don'tmake any profit, or that there's
no cost. Absolutely no it'snonprofit, not no cost. I mean,
I think everybody here has givenmoney to nonprofits, the Red
Cross, you know, PETA, I knowthe Humane Society, they've all
(05:54):
given money. Well, you thinkthose are nonprofits, yep, but
there's a huge organization, andthey have to have employees and
staff members, and you know, allthe infrastructure they have to
have, and your communityassociation is really no
different that they're none ofthose companies are supposed to
register a profit at the end oftheir fiscal year, just like the
association isn't to but thatdoesn't mean there's not
(06:15):
expenses, and that's what yourdues go for. Yeah? Assessments,
right?
Robert Nordlund (06:19):
Yeah. And I wonder if there's even another
layer of misunderstanding inthat when they are thinking only
of the management company, theywonder, Well, isn't this just
like the apartment that I movedout of? I don't think they have
the understanding at all that itis a community association run
by a volunteer board ofdirectors, and they are owners.
They could just as easily be bethe board member making the
(06:41):
decision.
Julie Adamen (06:42):
Yes, I think that's very true, because when
you come out of that apartmentenvironment, I mean literally,
you, you know, you pay yourmoney and you walk in and out
and that's it, and they takecare of almost everything for
you, but yeah, especially ifthey move from there into into a
strict condominium typesituation where you're in
typically stack units, or, youknow that they share common
walls, and you're used to livingthat way, and then, well, I
(07:04):
think, don't I just call thesuperintendent if I need
something done. Depends, dependson what you need done.
Robert Nordlund (07:09):
My my sink is leaking. Too bad.
Julie Adamen (07:10):
Go get it. Call your plumber, but they but
again, I just is. It's thatmisnomer that people walk into
and they don't. I hate to sayeducated, because it sounds so
condescending. They're noteducated. It's not that, they
just have never been exposed toit. Because, Robert, you know, I
mean, I get this all the time.
People say, what do you do? Andyou tell them, I'm a
(07:31):
professional communityassociation consultant. I do X,
X, X, X, and they're like, awhat? Exactly, yeah, you can
make money doing that. Yeah, youcould do it. They're like,
there's enough business to makemoney. I mean, it's hilarious.
And then when you say, Well,it's a you have to, you know,
not say community associations.
You say, Hoa. And then theireyes get this big, and they're
(07:53):
like, Well, let me tell youabout mine. And it's just
hilarious. Yeah, yeah.
Robert Nordlund (07:58):
Well, there's, I'm old enough to know that when
I was younger, there's somethinggot ingrained in my brain that
you either owned your home oryou rented your home. And in the
intervening timeframe, there'sbeen this new concept developed
of co-ownership, where it's acondo, Hoa plan, Development
(08:20):
Association, Co Op, all thesekinds of things where you're
literally co owning, and I stillthink there's a lot of adults
that aren't really getting it,that they they own it, and they
feel that they're still renting,and that there's that the other
entity out there taking care ofit, and they are responsible for
it, not Me, and it's us and ourbudget. So what can we do? And
(08:44):
it starts with and you'vepressed on this button so many
times that we've been togetheron the show communication. So
how do you welcome people? Howdo you what communication tools
do you have at your association?
And are you pressing all thosebuttons at your association?
Yes.
Julie Adamen (09:01):
Are you pressing all those buttons? And what
buttons can they be? Well, Imean, over the years, I started
out managing, I worked for largemanagement company, and I was a
portfolio manager. Had severalaccounts, but the each
Association had their ownversion, because we encourage
this of a welcome packet, youknow, kind of like the Welcome
Wagon, but it's the welcomepacket. Usually it's got a lot
of paperwork in it, because,especially in those days in the
(09:23):
80s, 90s, you know, everythingwasn't done electronically,
obviously. So documents, it's astack and and the problem with
that stack over the years ispeople just don't have time to
read it. I mean, they just don'tand so, or they don't want to,
or they skim it. So and thatthat has not gotten any better
in our world. If you have tosend out a letter of any kind,
if it's more than twoparagraphs, no one's going to
(09:44):
read it. They're going to skimit, maybe. So I think there's a
lot of different ways to do it.
There certainly can be newhomeowner orientation,
especially if you have a newerdevelopment where there's a lot
of people closing escrows withina month. So it's a new
development. You got new peoplecoming in, and then one. A
month, you could have new ownerorientation. Sometimes, many
management companies will dothat for a price. They do,
they'll have new memberorientation. We were just
(10:07):
talking about this, everybody,Robert and I were, and there's a
depending on how technologicallysavvy you are or your community
is, frankly, doesn't even takethat much. But the new AI tools
to put out short videos areastonishingly simple. All you
really need is to write the copyand upload it, and they will put
(10:27):
a person that looks like aperson and all of your points in
there. And you can do it's sosimple, and then you can take
that, you can download them, oryou can leave them on a platform
and put them on your website.
Here's what an HOA is. First ofall, the Welcome, welcome. And
here's what we're currentlydoing. And I would do separate
(10:48):
videos for each one of those.
And for those of you short, twoto three minutes, five at the
most, I would say, so people cancome back, you know, and look at
them as they want, and as youknow, people don't have a big
attention span, especially theyounger they get. They don't
have and I'm talking peopleunder 50 in particular. I don't
mean they're young. They'reyoung to me and Robert, but
(11:08):
careful. I know I have justsaid, just speaking the truth,
you and me. I think we're thesame age. So anyway, it's just
an incredible tool, and I'm notto plug myself here, but if
people need help with that kindof thing or the ideas, I can
certainly provide that serviceor to do it for them, actually,
but it's not that difficult todo. So I would definitely use
(11:29):
those type of tools or and Iwould say, oftentimes, if you
have a management company,especially larger ones, they are
set up to make those for you. Ifyou ask for it. Obviously
there's going to be a charge.
But Isn't it worth it to have agroup of homeowners that
understand that you're anonprofit business, that here's
(11:50):
what your dues go to, thathere's what your budget looks
like, and here's how much isgoing to the landscaping, here's
how much goes to the poolmaintenance. And it's not just a
jumble of, you know, of numberson a piece of paper. It has to
be, I hate to say, but has to bebrought out clearly, concisely
and in short bits for people tounderstand. Not understand that.
(12:12):
They'll read it. They'llunderstand it, right?
Robert Nordlund (12:14):
No, I like that. I like the short video. I
like the idea of communicatingeffectively with them. Could it
be as simple as the asking thatthe monthly invoices that go
out, the newsletter that goesout, whatever communication goes
out, has the letterhead of theassociation yes at the top,
rather than the letterhead ofthe management company. It
(12:35):
absolutely should Yes, littlethings like that that all of a
sudden begin to create theimpression that we are ABC
villas, and we are known forbeing on a quiet street, yet
close enough to publictransportation and close enough
to the mall or whatever it is weare known for. And some of the
recent things we've done withthe budget. Is last year, we
(12:58):
resurfaced the asphalt. That'swhy you enjoy this nice, smooth
asphalt. These are the thingswe're doing with our budget. And
what was that? That was 30seconds, just to let them know,
this is us. This is what we'redoing here. And courtesy of your
board of directors. Joe Susie,yeah, Yvette, exactly what
Julie Adamen (13:16):
I was going to say always. You know, if you're
publishing something like that,whether it's your newsletter or
your videos, I think it's alwaysgood to have the board members
name. These are your boardmembers, their name and their
picture. They are homeowners,just like you are, and one of
these days, you could be ahomeowner on that board. So
they're not just facelessbureaucrats. That's not what you
(13:38):
want you want to be, that theyare a real life person trying to
make decisions as best they canon behalf of this nonprofit
corporation.
Robert Nordlund (13:46):
Okay, we talked a little bit about the
background stereotype and whatyou do. We talked about
communication, but let's getback to what you first
introduced. Is that idea of itmay be carefree, but it's not
free. Talk about the trade offsthere. Well, you
Julie Adamen (14:02):
know, when you move in, I live in a huge
community association. I'mrunning for the board. I've lost
my brains, but I'm doing it.
It's relatively carefree. We arean HOA, or, depending on where
you are, a PUD planned unitdevelopment, but in this state,
it's an HOA and the we own ourhome, but we don't take care of
the streets we we own the homeand our piece of property, but
we don't take care of thestreets. Well, personally, the
(14:23):
association takes care of thestreets, the clubhouses, the
restaurants, the pools, thepickleball courts, the lapidary,
the, I mean, we have all kindsof clubs that do all these
things. Yes, they have alapidary. They have a huge
woodworking thing that they thatgot woodworkers do. So, yeah, it
is really nice, and tenniscourts and all that. So I am
(14:45):
charge of this part, but thatpart for me is carefree and that
I'm not responsible for takingcare of it, but I have to pay
for it, because there's alwaysthat trade off, right, right? So
if, and if you don't want toplay. Like this says, and
honestly, because we're so big,the dues are really low, for for
the for the bang, for the buck,all the things you're getting,
(15:07):
all the things you're getting,but we're but overall, we're
5000 units, and we all arereciprocal, so we share the golf
courses and all the restaurantsand all that stuff. But still,
it's, it's quite but it is atrade off. There is, there's no
free lunch. I'm gonna sound likemy dad, there's no free lunch,
and so you're not gonna get allthese things for free. You know,
you're not. Now, I've take careof my house, but out there, they
take care of it, and I certainlyenjoy the use of it. I'm a big
(15:30):
swimmer, so I'm at the pool fivedays a week, easy, yeah,
Robert Nordlund (15:36):
well, let's talk about the trade off. Okay,
you own your house and you'regonna what? You have your own
gardener. You tend the frontyard
Julie Adamen (15:44):
again, well, you know, with this, to mow the
rocks. So, okay, I'm in Arizona,but no, I do, I do have a
gardener come in once a month.
Yes.
Robert Nordlund (15:51):
Okay, great. So you are taking care of it. But
they have architectural controlsbecause they, yes, they do the
community to be consistently in,in their words attractive. So
they probably have a colorpalette. Yeah, we do. So when
you want to repaint, you say, Iwant to repaint. And I've chosen
option number two of the colorpalette, something like that.
(16:13):
And I remember something thathappened to me 10-15, years ago
when I moved into my first plandevelopment HOA home. My wife
wanted to paint it a certaincolor, and I we had a discussion
with the architecturalcommittee, and they say it's not
on the color palette. And wesaid, but look how nicely it
(16:36):
blends with the tiles on theroof. And you know what? They
added it to the color palette.
So there is a workingrelationship. It's not the
strict nature. They weren't badguys. Yeah, it was a rule that
architectural control. It doesgood for the association, but we
didn't appeal. And they said,you know, you're right, and they
(16:56):
expanded it, yeah, and by golly,we saw some other homes painted
that same collar color color AFew Years Later. It's good for
the association.
Julie Adamen (17:07):
It sure is. And you know, if you're lucky
enough, that was a reallyfortunate for you. But also,
yeah, you know, I think anotherthing this just brings me
something else we were talkingabout, is that a lot of people,
when they move into an HOA, andthey know it's an HOA, and they
really didn't want to move intoan HOA. Because how many times,
Robert, have you heard over yourcareer, as much as I have, as I
(17:28):
never live in an HOA? Well, Iused to say that myself, and now
I've lived into and and own arental in one so and being in
the industry, you thinking, Oh,I don't want to do that. But
over the years, you realize, andespecially now people, because
most municipalities arerequiring your new build new
(17:48):
communities to be HOAs of somesort, because they take that
financial burden off of the cityor off of the county. You said
Robert Nordlund (17:55):
your association is maintaining the
roads, and that's relieves thatduty from the city. In the city,
yep, 5000 more homes, 5000 moretaxpayers, 5000 more revenues.
And they don't have to maintainthey don't have to expand the
road maintenance department.
Didn't
Julie Adamen (18:14):
have to make the streets. They didn't have to put
in curbs. That's was all done bythe developer. So they love that
stuff. But back to this is thatI think so many people will go
into I wrote an article aboutthis, probably, gosh, 15 or 18
years ago, about people movinginto an HOA and having a certain
mindset, because everybody'sseen Seinfeld, right? Seinfeld
back in the 90s that Jerry's momand dad moved to condominium in
(18:38):
Florida, and it was just the
Robert Nordlund (18:40):
absolute Yep, but something like that, yeah,
something like
Julie Adamen (18:44):
that. That's right. And remember, Jerry said
all they need to do is put afence around it and put insane
asylum across the top, yeah? Butit was all the stereotypes. But
stereotypes do have some, youknow, there's some Genesis in
reality there, but they put themall in that. And of course,
there's never any good newsabout HOAs on the news. It's
always some ridiculous decisionsomebody made. Like, you know,
(19:06):
there's a veteran who's lost aleg who can't fly his flag
because it's too big. It justends up being a mess. But you
know, I will tell you, overall,community associations for being
run by volunteers are incrediblywell functioning, not all the
time. But don't ever walk intoan HOA or condominium
association and think, oh, thisplace is just going to be a
(19:26):
mess. You know, actually, Iwould say not necessarily. In
fact, 80% of CAIS stats are 80%of people who live at a
community association aresatisfied and happy with what
the Association provides. Thenthere's 20% who are and of
course, there's a little smallpercent of the 20 that is just,
well on the nuts side, but weall have that's just, actually,
(19:48):
that's just human nature. Soit's the 8020 rule. 8020 rule.
So I just if you, if you havemoved into an association, don't
go in thinking this is allscrewed up. Go in just trying to
look for info. Information andsee how they operate. And
observe for a while. You'll knowsoon enough, how things are
going. And in fact, you probablygo, Hmm, that's pretty well run.
(20:09):
Let Ooh, let me look at thereserve study and let me see
what kind of money we have.
Though you should have probablygotten one in your in your
packet when you closed escrow,but you probably didn't look at
it. But you want to look atthose kind of things. Look at
the finances, attend a boardmeeting that tells a lot about
an association, how the boardmeetings operate, and how much
communication comes in and out,and if you see something lacking
as a homeowner volunteer, yeah,I mean, do it, it's it's stock,
(20:32):
it's part you're part of. Ifyou're not part of the solution,
you're part of the problem, oryou're just apathetic, and those
two things can cross apatheticpart of the problem. Yeah, so
Robert Nordlund (20:46):
I got into this industry when I bought a
condominium long time ago, and Ifelt a personal responsibility,
that since I was mortgaged up tomy eyeballs, I needed to know
what was going on with thiscondominium association. Well,
that's your investment.
Julie Adamen (21:02):
You're protecting Exactly.
Robert Nordlund (21:04):
It would be foolish for me to sit by and
just hope. And so I went to myfirst board meeting. And then
the rest of the story is, therest of the story, did
Julie Adamen (21:13):
you get on the board? Did
Robert Nordlund (21:14):
you get on the board? And my Of course, you did
board meeting. I thought, Oh, ifthese knuckleheads can do it.
How hard can it be? But we allget on boards for different
reasons, and the whole point isunderstanding that it's not care
free. I wasn't mowing the lawnat this condo. I wasn't painting
(21:35):
the building, but yet, theTreasurer told us that, hey, the
roofs are old. We really need toprepare, and the money's got to
come from somewhere. So it maybe carefree, but it's not free,
and I think right now that's agood time to take a break. We'll
hear from one of our generoussponsors, after which we'll be
right back with more HOAinsights. Is
Russell Munz (21:58):
your HOA or condo self managed, and you don't want
to work as hard volunteering.
Are you full managed and lookingto save money, or are you
looking to split the accountingfrom a manager's role for better
service, let communityfinancials handle the monthly
accounting for you. We collectdues, pay bills, produce
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(22:20):
stress free with our industryleading systems and expert team,
visit our website, communityfinancials.com to learn more,
Robert Nordlund (22:29):
and we're back.
Well, Julie, we're talking aboutthe trade off. It may be
carefree, but it's not free. Butlet's go down the path of what
can a board member actually doto help this at their
association? Well,
Julie Adamen (22:43):
I think we touched on this previously, but is to
ensure, especially if you'remanaged by a management company,
ensure that your Association'sname is on the top of
everything. It may say, youknow, XYZ Association
professionally managed by ABCmanagement company. That can be
fine, but you want todifferentiate that, because
many, many new owners, believeit or not, will think the
(23:04):
management company is theentity, and not really be aware
of the association, or justvaguely aware of it. So that
would be the first thing boardmembers, names and pictures on
almost everything that you cando. So it becomes real to them
that they are just they are aneighbor like you, and look how
much time they're spending, ormaybe not even that much time,
but they're willing to volunteerand become a board member,
(23:26):
committee member, that type ofthing. I think those two things
bring this home to the averagehomeowner, or especially the new
homeowner. And the other thingis, oh, go ahead. You
Robert Nordlund (23:37):
got instead of picture, or in addition to,
would you put address unitnumber 13, 501 stone Street. And
I realized, holy moly, I got aboard member two houses down.
That's cool. I should be nicerwhen I say hello, because
they're putting the time in.
Julie Adamen (23:53):
Yeah, you board members. I know people. I can
hear board members going, Oh, Idon't want that. Yeah,
unfortunately, you cannot be inthe witness protection program.
When you are a board member,this is a it's, it's a
functional job, it's aleadership job, but it's a
political job. And I don't meanthat in a horrible way. I mean
it that you just have tointeract with the people who are
your constituents. You have todo it if you don't like that.
(24:15):
Maybe it's not for you, butit's, it's the truth. You have
to, you have to be a member ofthat community and be an active
member. You're going to beattending, you know, the
different things that theassociation may hold, or be a
part of different groups, oryou're always going to get
stopped walking to your mailbox,or, you know, whenever driving
your golf cart down the road,someone's going to stop and talk
to you. You have to be willingand open to that kind of thing.
(24:38):
And you'll find out so muchinformation about what's going
on in the community. You kind ofkeep your finger on the pulse
that way.
Robert Nordlund (24:44):
Yeah, I think your 8020 rule is going to be
right. In the 80% of the time,people are going to give you a
nicer smile or a nicer wave or athank you, and yes, you're going
to hit the 20% that says, Why?
Why are our dues going up thisyear? Whatever it is. And you
say, well, and then I. Think youwant to touch on this. The last
year we paved the streets overhere. This year we're going to
(25:04):
do this. It all costs money hereat our association, we're
responsible for those things.
Julie Adamen (25:11):
Yeah, we're all responsible for it. For the
board members, it's definitely,it's part of your fiduciary
duty, preserve, protect,maintain and enhance now and
it's and for the future, notjust thinking of the three years
you're on the board or the two,it's for the future. And another
thing I was thinking that weshould do, and boards should
always do, is bring tohomeowners attention how much
(25:33):
stuff is actually getting doneand when and why. I mean, even
if it's in the past, you know,you say, Well, last year we did
X, X, X, and X like, forexample, road maintenance, let's
say they got, in fact, we justhad one of our big roads in here
completely, you know, they theystripped the asphalt down by
about two inches, and they camein and reasphalted and they just
painted the stripes. In the lasttwo days or so. Many owners
(25:55):
would think the county or thecity did that. It behooves the
board to say, No, this came outof our reserve account, and the
paid for this. We all paid forit. And yeah, though, and a lot
of people may not read theminutes, or may not, you know,
attend a board meeting, but theymight peek at your newsletter,
and so you want to just put inthere more than once. This is
(26:16):
where we're at, and this iswhere what we did in the last
two months, and this is what'scoming up. It never hurts to go
over that more than once andjust keep adding to the list. I
had a wonderful board member,board president years ago, Glen,
and he was just a big thinker,great guy. And he called that
spin the halo. He's like, alwaysspin the Halo, whether it was
(26:37):
whether it's the board, orwhether it's for the committee
members, or whether it's forstaff, all that positive
communication that comes outfrom the Association has a
tendency to buoy the members ofthe association. People want to
be a part of something positive.
They don't want to be a part ofthe way, you know, kind of, you
know, don't, don't walk your doghere and clean up after your
(26:57):
dogs, and don't park there, youknow? Yeah, yeah.
Robert Nordlund (27:01):
Well, that's the bandwagon concept, the
winning baseball team, thewinning football team. You want
to, you want to enjoy thewinner. And I was thinking when
I'm driving, I in California,there's often a highway highway
sign, it's orange, that saysyour tax dollars are your
highway dollars at work,something like that. And I'm
(27:21):
wondering if an association justhave a sign that says your
association dollars at work. Andyou could put that in front of a
painting project, in front of anasphalt project, in front of the
RE landscaping in front Oh, Ilike that. Just and people can
see us. They're driving in yourhomeowner association dollars at
(27:42):
work. I really like that, andthat was generic and very
Julie Adamen (27:46):
inexpensive to do, but it's still that's like a
flashing red light to people asthey're driving in. They see
that, you know, that orangetriangle, you know, your HOA
dollars at work, you know,questions call here or
something. I just, but it'sjust, I think it's a great thing
to
Robert Nordlund (27:59):
do, yeah, but that's all your the button you
like to press of communication.
Again, the people come in withthe stereotype that it's care
free and inexpensive andeverything costs money. So there
is that they've got to have thattrade off and that
understanding, yes, yes.
Exactly, exactly. Okay. How?
Okay. So they do this. How bigof a stereotype are we fighting?
(28:23):
Is this going to take months? Isthis going to take years? Is
this going to be forever?
Julie Adamen (28:28):
It's going to be forever. I mean, it should be
forever, because, and the onething we do fight in this
industry is because boardmembers, the volunteers, they
rotate right? And oftentimesmanagement companies will rotate
or managers will rotate out.
This is a tough business onpeople, so though many stay in
all of the way to retirement,like us, I hope, but other
people will rotate in and out.
(28:50):
So it's it behooves the board tocontinually and make a policy to
communicate regularly indifferent ways with with the
owners, and whether it's a newmanagement company or you have
four new board members out ofseven, is that this is a part of
our policy, and we're alwaysgoing to communicate positively.
And I would say if you got fournew board members out of seven,
(29:11):
they probably, if you'recommunicating positively all the
time, they should beunderstanding on how productive
that positive communication was.
Otherwise they would not be onthe board.
Robert Nordlund (29:20):
I'm writing all this good stuff down. What have
we talked about? We've talkedabout welcoming people
appropriately, making sure theyknow they're in the association.
Which takes me to point numbertwo, promoting the association.
Don't let the management companytake the credit, take the blame,
take the responsibility. Promotethe association and the board
members promote what has beendone, and that way people start
(29:43):
to make that connection between,Oh, it's getting done, but it's
my dollars doing it. Yep, andexpect upcoming,
Julie Adamen (29:50):
upcoming stuff too. Yep. Always says, This is
what's upcoming next year. Thisis what we're planning on doing.
You know, that's yeah. But thenpeople know their money is.
Being spent to make their lifebetter and their real estate
more valuable. Expect
Robert Nordlund (30:05):
to be in for the long haul. This is a
stereotype, and you're going toget continually, as you said,
new board members, and you'regoing to continually get new
homeowners in. And so it's awashing machine cycle. It's a
little bit like something thatis spinning once you get the
concept going, all you can do isspin the flywheel, keep it
(30:26):
going, keep the good thingsgoing, keep that good news
pumping. Keep them homeowners,reminded that it is an
association run by boards ofdirectors. All these kind of
good things. There's, I thinkthere's a lot of good things you
can do. It may be a little morework at the beginning to get
that flywheel going, but I thinkI can do some really good things
to fight back on thatstereotype. Yeah, he sure can.
(30:48):
Okay, well, Julie, as always,it's great talking to you. Any
closing thoughts on your side atthis time?
Julie Adamen (30:54):
Well, I just we talk about this so often, but I
know it's a lot of work,especially for board members. I
mean, you're a volunteer, andyou got on the board because
somebody told you was only goingto take an hour a month. And
then you found out that wasn'ttrue, but you're there now. And
so how do we make this better,not just for you personally, but
for the board as a whole, andfor the community as a whole?
The biggest gap we have, in myopinion, in the industry at this
(31:18):
it provides a lot of otherthings too, but in our industry,
is a constant communication gap,and most of everything that goes
wrong in a communityassociation, almost everything
can be contributed to a lack ofcommunication, causing a
misunderstanding. So if there'sa communication vacuum, that
(31:39):
vacuum is going to get filled upwith. Who's ever the next person
on next door? And you all knowwhat that is, I know. So if
they're on nextdoor.com, that'snot necessarily good, and that
vacuum is going to get filled,and then all of a sudden you
have 50 people going, what? Andit's complete falsities. So it's
up to you as board members tofill that or cause it to be
filled through management or aprofessional service that does
(32:02):
it for you. Can you can getthose professional services or
write newsletters. I'm talking enewsletters. You all should just
be able to communicatecontinually. If you have the
ability, you can utilize AIArtificial Intelligence I'm
going to give you. Here's awebsite you should look at if
you have some modicum of beingable to deal with the computer.
(32:22):
It's not that big a deal. It'scalled Synthesia. So it's S, Y,
N, T, H, E, S, I, a, dot, I O,absolutely astonishing. What
they can do for you with just anamount of copy. And then you can
have videos up, talk about yourcommunity for two minutes, three
minutes at a time. Reallyamazing stuff. If you need some
help going through that, I wouldbe available for that
Robert Nordlund (32:43):
fantastic.
Yeah, and press all thecommunication vehicles that you
can. I was thinking at my lastAssociation, they had this sign
they stuck out in the dirt inthe entryway. It said, board
meeting Thursday night at 730but it was just a reminder that
I am now entering an associationrun by volunteer board of
directors and just as littlethings that you can do. Wow,
(33:04):
Julie, I we talked about atopic, but I think we spent a
lot of time on ideas and actionitems to our audience. I hope
you learned some HOA insightsfrom our discussion today that
helps you bring common sense toyour common areas. We look
forward to having you join usfor another great episode next
week.
Jennifer Johnson (33:27):
You've been listening to Hoa insights,
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(33:48):
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(34:10):
of providing general educationabout the community, association
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Don't ever walk into an HOA or condominium
(00:03):
association and think, oh, thisplace is just going to be a
mess. You know, actually, Iwould say not necessarily. In
fact, CAI's stats are 80% ofpeople who live at a community
association are satisfied andhappy with what the Association
provides. If you have moved intoan association, don't go in
thinking this is all screwed up.
Go in just trying to look forinformation and see how they
(00:24):
operate. And observe for awhile. You'll know soon enough
how things are going. And infact, you'll probably go, Hmm,
that's pretty well run.
Jennifer Johnson (00:34):
HOA Insights is brought to you by five
companies that care about boardmembers, association, insights
and marketplace Association,reserves, community financials,
Hoa invest and Kevin Davis,Insurance Services, you'll find
links to their websites andsocial media in the show notes.
Robert Nordlund (00:50):
Hi, I'm Robert Nordlund of association
reserves,
Julie Adamen (00:52):
and I'm Julie Adamen of Adamen and Inc. And
this is HOA Insights, where wepromote common sense for common
Robert Nordlund (00:58):
areas. Well, welcome to episode 81 where
we're again speaking withmanagement consultant and
regular co host, Julie Adamen.
Today we'll be talking about theproblems with the stereotype of
community associations offeringinexpensive and carefree home
ownership. Yeah. So today we'llbe talking about what you can do
at your association to beginchallenging the attitude and
understanding of your homeownersto make them more reality based.
(01:21):
We want your association tothrive, and today, we'll be
giving you tools to move in thatdirection. This is a follow up
to episode number 80, where wediscussed a breakthrough new
service called HOA invest.comwhich handles the management and
maximizing of reserve fundinvestments simply novel and
wonderful. They solve theproblem that managers and board
(01:44):
members are not professionalmoney managers, and make sure
you hear it. It's a real timesaver, and it can prevent you
from leaving money on the tableif you missed that episode or
any of our other prior episodes.
Take a moment after today'sprogram to listen from our
podcast website, Hoainsights.org or watch on our
(02:04):
YouTube channel, where you cangive it a like, and better yet,
subscribe from any of the majorpodcast platforms so you don't
miss any future episodes. Andthose of you watching on YouTube
can see the HOA insights mug. Ihave got
Julie Adamen (02:19):
our merch, and Julie's got it? Oh, there's our
picture. Oh,
Robert Nordlund (02:23):
gee, you got a picture? One I did. I've got,
I've got a cartoon one. And youcan browse through all the
options we have at our merchstore, from our HOA insights.org
website or the link in the shownotes. And we have especially
items like these for sale andsome free board member zoom
background, so go to the merchstore, find the mug that you
(02:44):
like, and I'll give that mugaway free to the 10th person to
email podcast at reserve,say.com mentioning episode 81
mug giveaway. Well, we enjoyhearing from you responding to
the issues you are facing atyour association. So if you have
a hot topic, a crazy story orquestion you'd like to have us
address. You can contact us at805-203-3130, or email us at
(03:10):
podcast@reservestudy.com and oneof those listener questions
prompted today's episode Carriefrom Santa. Barbara asked our
homeowners just don't get that.
We are a not for profit businesswith expenses going up each
year, and US board membersworking many hours to lead the
association. It's a real sourceof conflict. What can we do? So,
(03:31):
Julie, let's talk about carefreeand inexpensive.
Julie Adamen (03:40):
What's carefree and inexpensive? I don't know
anything
Robert Nordlund (03:43):
you know. I should have thought of that in
advance. I'm not sure anythingis carefree and inexpensive. But
that brings us to what you and Iwere chatting about earlier.
It's actually a bit of a trade
Julie Adamen (03:55):
off. It is, it is so it's can be, especially
owning a condominium or into aco op, that kind of thing. That
can be carefree and that youdon't mow the lawns or paint the
exterior or anything like that,but it's not free. It can be
carefree relatively but it's notfree. And I think the big like
(04:15):
our gal who wrote in askingabout, you know, what can we do?
Because they don't understandwhat we are. That's super
common, and it often falls onhate to tell you this board
members, but it falls on you tolet your folks know how things
operated, what you exactly are.
And so again, we're back to wetalk about communication all the
time, but that's really wherethat starts. Yeah,
Robert Nordlund (04:40):
when I'm talking to friends, they ask
what I do, and I talk about howI serve community associations.
What's that? Well, I mean condosand town homes, high rises,
things like that. And they say,let me tell you about mine. And
I say, Well, which one? And theyusually say, ABC, management
company, and that's the firststep, right there, and that's
what you're talking about. Theydon't know. Know even the name
(05:01):
of their association all theirtheir only interaction is with
the company serving them, thethe management company, and
that's an incredible missedopportunity.
Julie Adamen (05:11):
It is because they believe, so you see, it's the
management company. So theythink, well, that's a for profit
business, so why are they takingall my money, and why does it
have to go up? So that initialmisunderstanding of how the
community, and frankly, thewhole industry, but this, their
community in particular, isstructured. You know, it's a
nonprofit, typically mutualbenefit corporation, sometimes
(05:32):
they're unincorporated, butnonprofit and but it is still a
business. Nonprofit doesn't meanthat costs don't go up.
Nonprofit just means they don'tmake any profit, or that there's
no cost. Absolutely no it'snonprofit, not no cost. I mean,
I think everybody here has givenmoney to nonprofits, the Red
Cross, you know, PETA, I knowthe Humane Society, they've all
(05:54):
given money. Well, you thinkthose are nonprofits, yep, but
there's a huge organization, andthey have to have employees and
staff members, and you know, allthe infrastructure they have to
have, and your communityassociation is really no
different that they're none ofthose companies are supposed to
register a profit at the end oftheir fiscal year, just like the
association isn't to but thatdoesn't mean there's not
(06:15):
expenses, and that's what yourdues go for. Yeah? Assessments,
right?
Robert Nordlund (06:19):
Yeah. And I wonder if there's even another
layer of misunderstanding inthat when they are thinking only
of the management company, theywonder, Well, isn't this just
like the apartment that I movedout of? I don't think they have
the understanding at all that itis a community association run
by a volunteer board ofdirectors, and they are owners.
They could just as easily be bethe board member making the
(06:41):
decision.
Julie Adamen (06:42):
Yes, I think that's very true, because when
you come out of that apartmentenvironment, I mean literally,
you, you know, you pay yourmoney and you walk in and out
and that's it, and they takecare of almost everything for
you, but yeah, especially ifthey move from there into into a
strict condominium typesituation where you're in
typically stack units, or, youknow that they share common
walls, and you're used to livingthat way, and then, well, I
(07:04):
think, don't I just call thesuperintendent if I need
something done. Depends, dependson what you need done.
Robert Nordlund (07:09):
My my sink is leaking. Too bad.
Julie Adamen (07:10):
Go get it. Call your plumber, but they but
again, I just is. It's thatmisnomer that people walk into
and they don't. I hate to sayeducated, because it sounds so
condescending. They're noteducated. It's not that, they
just have never been exposed toit. Because, Robert, you know, I
mean, I get this all the time.
People say, what do you do? Andyou tell them, I'm a
(07:31):
professional communityassociation consultant. I do X,
X, X, X, and they're like, awhat? Exactly, yeah, you can
make money doing that. Yeah, youcould do it. They're like,
there's enough business to makemoney. I mean, it's hilarious.
And then when you say, Well,it's a you have to, you know,
not say community associations.
You say, Hoa. And then theireyes get this big, and they're
(07:53):
like, Well, let me tell youabout mine. And it's just
hilarious. Yeah, yeah.
Robert Nordlund (07:58):
Well, there's, I'm old enough to know that when
I was younger, there's somethinggot ingrained in my brain that
you either owned your home oryou rented your home. And in the
intervening timeframe, there'sbeen this new concept developed
of co-ownership, where it's acondo, Hoa plan, Development
(08:20):
Association, Co Op, all thesekinds of things where you're
literally co owning, and I stillthink there's a lot of adults
that aren't really getting it,that they they own it, and they
feel that they're still renting,and that there's that the other
entity out there taking care ofit, and they are responsible for
it, not Me, and it's us and ourbudget. So what can we do? And
(08:44):
it starts with and you'vepressed on this button so many
times that we've been togetheron the show communication. So
how do you welcome people? Howdo you what communication tools
do you have at your association?
And are you pressing all thosebuttons at your association?
Yes.
Julie Adamen (09:01):
Are you pressing all those buttons? And what
buttons can they be? Well, Imean, over the years, I started
out managing, I worked for largemanagement company, and I was a
portfolio manager. Had severalaccounts, but the each
Association had their ownversion, because we encourage
this of a welcome packet, youknow, kind of like the Welcome
Wagon, but it's the welcomepacket. Usually it's got a lot
of paperwork in it, because,especially in those days in the
(09:23):
80s, 90s, you know, everythingwasn't done electronically,
obviously. So documents, it's astack and and the problem with
that stack over the years ispeople just don't have time to
read it. I mean, they just don'tand so, or they don't want to,
or they skim it. So and thatthat has not gotten any better
in our world. If you have tosend out a letter of any kind,
if it's more than twoparagraphs, no one's going to
(09:44):
read it. They're going to skimit, maybe. So I think there's a
lot of different ways to do it.
There certainly can be newhomeowner orientation,
especially if you have a newerdevelopment where there's a lot
of people closing escrows withina month. So it's a new
development. You got new peoplecoming in, and then one. A
month, you could have new ownerorientation. Sometimes, many
management companies will dothat for a price. They do,
they'll have new memberorientation. We were just
(10:07):
talking about this, everybody,Robert and I were, and there's a
depending on how technologicallysavvy you are or your community
is, frankly, doesn't even takethat much. But the new AI tools
to put out short videos areastonishingly simple. All you
really need is to write the copyand upload it, and they will put
(10:27):
a person that looks like aperson and all of your points in
there. And you can do it's sosimple, and then you can take
that, you can download them, oryou can leave them on a platform
and put them on your website.
Here's what an HOA is. First ofall, the Welcome, welcome. And
here's what we're currentlydoing. And I would do separate
(10:48):
videos for each one of those.
And for those of you short, twoto three minutes, five at the
most, I would say, so people cancome back, you know, and look at
them as they want, and as youknow, people don't have a big
attention span, especially theyounger they get. They don't
have and I'm talking peopleunder 50 in particular. I don't
mean they're young. They'reyoung to me and Robert, but
(11:08):
careful. I know I have justsaid, just speaking the truth,
you and me. I think we're thesame age. So anyway, it's just
an incredible tool, and I'm notto plug myself here, but if
people need help with that kindof thing or the ideas, I can
certainly provide that serviceor to do it for them, actually,
but it's not that difficult todo. So I would definitely use
(11:29):
those type of tools or and Iwould say, oftentimes, if you
have a management company,especially larger ones, they are
set up to make those for you. Ifyou ask for it. Obviously
there's going to be a charge.
But Isn't it worth it to have agroup of homeowners that
understand that you're anonprofit business, that here's
(11:50):
what your dues go to, thathere's what your budget looks
like, and here's how much isgoing to the landscaping, here's
how much goes to the poolmaintenance. And it's not just a
jumble of, you know, of numberson a piece of paper. It has to
be, I hate to say, but has to bebrought out clearly, concisely
and in short bits for people tounderstand. Not understand that.
(12:12):
They'll read it. They'llunderstand it, right?
Robert Nordlund (12:14):
No, I like that. I like the short video. I
like the idea of communicatingeffectively with them. Could it
be as simple as the asking thatthe monthly invoices that go
out, the newsletter that goesout, whatever communication goes
out, has the letterhead of theassociation yes at the top,
rather than the letterhead ofthe management company. It
(12:35):
absolutely should Yes, littlethings like that that all of a
sudden begin to create theimpression that we are ABC
villas, and we are known forbeing on a quiet street, yet
close enough to publictransportation and close enough
to the mall or whatever it is weare known for. And some of the
recent things we've done withthe budget. Is last year, we
(12:58):
resurfaced the asphalt. That'swhy you enjoy this nice, smooth
asphalt. These are the thingswe're doing with our budget. And
what was that? That was 30seconds, just to let them know,
this is us. This is what we'redoing here. And courtesy of your
board of directors. Joe Susie,yeah, Yvette, exactly what
Julie Adamen (13:16):
I was going to say always. You know, if you're
publishing something like that,whether it's your newsletter or
your videos, I think it's alwaysgood to have the board members
name. These are your boardmembers, their name and their
picture. They are homeowners,just like you are, and one of
these days, you could be ahomeowner on that board. So
they're not just facelessbureaucrats. That's not what you
(13:38):
want you want to be, that theyare a real life person trying to
make decisions as best they canon behalf of this nonprofit
corporation.
Robert Nordlund (13:46):
Okay, we talked a little bit about the
background stereotype and whatyou do. We talked about
communication, but let's getback to what you first
introduced. Is that idea of itmay be carefree, but it's not
free. Talk about the trade offsthere. Well, you
Julie Adamen (14:02):
know, when you move in, I live in a huge
community association. I'mrunning for the board. I've lost
my brains, but I'm doing it.
It's relatively carefree. We arean HOA, or, depending on where
you are, a PUD planned unitdevelopment, but in this state,
it's an HOA and the we own ourhome, but we don't take care of
the streets we we own the homeand our piece of property, but
we don't take care of thestreets. Well, personally, the
(14:23):
association takes care of thestreets, the clubhouses, the
restaurants, the pools, thepickleball courts, the lapidary,
the, I mean, we have all kindsof clubs that do all these
things. Yes, they have alapidary. They have a huge
woodworking thing that they thatgot woodworkers do. So, yeah, it
is really nice, and tenniscourts and all that. So I am
(14:45):
charge of this part, but thatpart for me is carefree and that
I'm not responsible for takingcare of it, but I have to pay
for it, because there's alwaysthat trade off, right, right? So
if, and if you don't want toplay. Like this says, and
honestly, because we're so big,the dues are really low, for for
the for the bang, for the buck,all the things you're getting,
(15:07):
all the things you're getting,but we're but overall, we're
5000 units, and we all arereciprocal, so we share the golf
courses and all the restaurantsand all that stuff. But still,
it's, it's quite but it is atrade off. There is, there's no
free lunch. I'm gonna sound likemy dad, there's no free lunch,
and so you're not gonna get allthese things for free. You know,
you're not. Now, I've take careof my house, but out there, they
take care of it, and I certainlyenjoy the use of it. I'm a big
(15:30):
swimmer, so I'm at the pool fivedays a week, easy, yeah,
Robert Nordlund (15:36):
well, let's talk about the trade off. Okay,
you own your house and you'regonna what? You have your own
gardener. You tend the frontyard
Julie Adamen (15:44):
again, well, you know, with this, to mow the
rocks. So, okay, I'm in Arizona,but no, I do, I do have a
gardener come in once a month.
Yes.
Robert Nordlund (15:51):
Okay, great. So you are taking care of it. But
they have architectural controlsbecause they, yes, they do the
community to be consistently in,in their words attractive. So
they probably have a colorpalette. Yeah, we do. So when
you want to repaint, you say, Iwant to repaint. And I've chosen
option number two of the colorpalette, something like that.
(16:13):
And I remember something thathappened to me 10-15, years ago
when I moved into my first plandevelopment HOA home. My wife
wanted to paint it a certaincolor, and I we had a discussion
with the architecturalcommittee, and they say it's not
on the color palette. And wesaid, but look how nicely it
(16:36):
blends with the tiles on theroof. And you know what? They
added it to the color palette.
So there is a workingrelationship. It's not the
strict nature. They weren't badguys. Yeah, it was a rule that
architectural control. It doesgood for the association, but we
didn't appeal. And they said,you know, you're right, and they
(16:56):
expanded it, yeah, and by golly,we saw some other homes painted
that same collar color color AFew Years Later. It's good for
the association.
Julie Adamen (17:07):
It sure is. And you know, if you're lucky
enough, that was a reallyfortunate for you. But also,
yeah, you know, I think anotherthing this just brings me
something else we were talkingabout, is that a lot of people,
when they move into an HOA, andthey know it's an HOA, and they
really didn't want to move intoan HOA. Because how many times,
Robert, have you heard over yourcareer, as much as I have, as I
(17:28):
never live in an HOA? Well, Iused to say that myself, and now
I've lived into and and own arental in one so and being in
the industry, you thinking, Oh,I don't want to do that. But
over the years, you realize, andespecially now people, because
most municipalities arerequiring your new build new
(17:48):
communities to be HOAs of somesort, because they take that
financial burden off of the cityor off of the county. You said
Robert Nordlund (17:55):
your association is maintaining the
roads, and that's relieves thatduty from the city. In the city,
yep, 5000 more homes, 5000 moretaxpayers, 5000 more revenues.
And they don't have to maintainthey don't have to expand the
road maintenance department.
Didn't
Julie Adamen (18:14):
have to make the streets. They didn't have to put
in curbs. That's was all done bythe developer. So they love that
stuff. But back to this is thatI think so many people will go
into I wrote an article aboutthis, probably, gosh, 15 or 18
years ago, about people movinginto an HOA and having a certain
mindset, because everybody'sseen Seinfeld, right? Seinfeld
back in the 90s that Jerry's momand dad moved to condominium in
(18:38):
Florida, and it was just the
Robert Nordlund (18:40):
absolute Yep, but something like that, yeah,
something like
Julie Adamen (18:44):
that. That's right. And remember, Jerry said
all they need to do is put afence around it and put insane
asylum across the top, yeah? Butit was all the stereotypes. But
stereotypes do have some, youknow, there's some Genesis in
reality there, but they put themall in that. And of course,
there's never any good newsabout HOAs on the news. It's
always some ridiculous decisionsomebody made. Like, you know,
(19:06):
there's a veteran who's lost aleg who can't fly his flag
because it's too big. It justends up being a mess. But you
know, I will tell you, overall,community associations for being
run by volunteers are incrediblywell functioning, not all the
time. But don't ever walk intoan HOA or condominium
association and think, oh, thisplace is just going to be a
(19:26):
mess. You know, actually, Iwould say not necessarily. In
fact, 80% of CAIS stats are 80%of people who live at a
community association aresatisfied and happy with what
the Association provides. Thenthere's 20% who are and of
course, there's a little smallpercent of the 20 that is just,
well on the nuts side, but weall have that's just, actually,
(19:48):
that's just human nature. Soit's the 8020 rule. 8020 rule.
So I just if you, if you havemoved into an association, don't
go in thinking this is allscrewed up. Go in just trying to
look for info. Information andsee how they operate. And
observe for a while. You'll knowsoon enough, how things are
going. And in fact, you probablygo, Hmm, that's pretty well run.
(20:09):
Let Ooh, let me look at thereserve study and let me see
what kind of money we have.
Though you should have probablygotten one in your in your
packet when you closed escrow,but you probably didn't look at
it. But you want to look atthose kind of things. Look at
the finances, attend a boardmeeting that tells a lot about
an association, how the boardmeetings operate, and how much
communication comes in and out,and if you see something lacking
as a homeowner volunteer, yeah,I mean, do it, it's it's stock,
(20:32):
it's part you're part of. Ifyou're not part of the solution,
you're part of the problem, oryou're just apathetic, and those
two things can cross apatheticpart of the problem. Yeah, so
Robert Nordlund (20:46):
I got into this industry when I bought a
condominium long time ago, and Ifelt a personal responsibility,
that since I was mortgaged up tomy eyeballs, I needed to know
what was going on with thiscondominium association. Well,
that's your investment.
Julie Adamen (21:02):
You're protecting Exactly.
Robert Nordlund (21:04):
It would be foolish for me to sit by and
just hope. And so I went to myfirst board meeting. And then
the rest of the story is, therest of the story, did
Julie Adamen (21:13):
you get on the board? Did
Robert Nordlund (21:14):
you get on the board? And my Of course, you did
board meeting. I thought, Oh, ifthese knuckleheads can do it.
How hard can it be? But we allget on boards for different
reasons, and the whole point isunderstanding that it's not care
free. I wasn't mowing the lawnat this condo. I wasn't painting
(21:35):
the building, but yet, theTreasurer told us that, hey, the
roofs are old. We really need toprepare, and the money's got to
come from somewhere. So it maybe carefree, but it's not free,
and I think right now that's agood time to take a break. We'll
hear from one of our generoussponsors, after which we'll be
right back with more HOAinsights. Is
Russell Munz (21:58):
your HOA or condo self managed, and you don't want
to work as hard volunteering.
Are you full managed and lookingto save money, or are you
looking to split the accountingfrom a manager's role for better
service, let communityfinancials handle the monthly
accounting for you. We collectdues, pay bills, produce
financial reports, includeportals and help with other
support services, all whileproviding awesome service. We'd
love the opportunity to help youmake your community accounting
(22:20):
stress free with our industryleading systems and expert team,
visit our website, communityfinancials.com to learn more,
Robert Nordlund (22:29):
and we're back.
Well, Julie, we're talking aboutthe trade off. It may be
carefree, but it's not free. Butlet's go down the path of what
can a board member actually doto help this at their
association? Well,
Julie Adamen (22:43):
I think we touched on this previously, but is to
ensure, especially if you'remanaged by a management company,
ensure that your Association'sname is on the top of
everything. It may say, youknow, XYZ Association
professionally managed by ABCmanagement company. That can be
fine, but you want todifferentiate that, because
many, many new owners, believeit or not, will think the
(23:04):
management company is theentity, and not really be aware
of the association, or justvaguely aware of it. So that
would be the first thing boardmembers, names and pictures on
almost everything that you cando. So it becomes real to them
that they are just they are aneighbor like you, and look how
much time they're spending, ormaybe not even that much time,
but they're willing to volunteerand become a board member,
(23:26):
committee member, that type ofthing. I think those two things
bring this home to the averagehomeowner, or especially the new
homeowner. And the other thingis, oh, go ahead. You
Robert Nordlund (23:37):
got instead of picture, or in addition to,
would you put address unitnumber 13, 501 stone Street. And
I realized, holy moly, I got aboard member two houses down.
That's cool. I should be nicerwhen I say hello, because
they're putting the time in.
Julie Adamen (23:53):
Yeah, you board members. I know people. I can
hear board members going, Oh, Idon't want that. Yeah,
unfortunately, you cannot be inthe witness protection program.
When you are a board member,this is a it's, it's a
functional job, it's aleadership job, but it's a
political job. And I don't meanthat in a horrible way. I mean
it that you just have tointeract with the people who are
your constituents. You have todo it if you don't like that.
(24:15):
Maybe it's not for you, butit's, it's the truth. You have
to, you have to be a member ofthat community and be an active
member. You're going to beattending, you know, the
different things that theassociation may hold, or be a
part of different groups, oryou're always going to get
stopped walking to your mailbox,or, you know, whenever driving
your golf cart down the road,someone's going to stop and talk
to you. You have to be willingand open to that kind of thing.
(24:38):
And you'll find out so muchinformation about what's going
on in the community. You kind ofkeep your finger on the pulse
that way.
Robert Nordlund (24:44):
Yeah, I think your 8020 rule is going to be
right. In the 80% of the time,people are going to give you a
nicer smile or a nicer wave or athank you, and yes, you're going
to hit the 20% that says, Why?
Why are our dues going up thisyear? Whatever it is. And you
say, well, and then I. Think youwant to touch on this. The last
year we paved the streets overhere. This year we're going to
(25:04):
do this. It all costs money hereat our association, we're
responsible for those things.
Julie Adamen (25:11):
Yeah, we're all responsible for it. For the
board members, it's definitely,it's part of your fiduciary
duty, preserve, protect,maintain and enhance now and
it's and for the future, notjust thinking of the three years
you're on the board or the two,it's for the future. And another
thing I was thinking that weshould do, and boards should
always do, is bring tohomeowners attention how much
(25:33):
stuff is actually getting doneand when and why. I mean, even
if it's in the past, you know,you say, Well, last year we did
X, X, X, and X like, forexample, road maintenance, let's
say they got, in fact, we justhad one of our big roads in here
completely, you know, they theystripped the asphalt down by
about two inches, and they camein and reasphalted and they just
painted the stripes. In the lasttwo days or so. Many owners
(25:55):
would think the county or thecity did that. It behooves the
board to say, No, this came outof our reserve account, and the
paid for this. We all paid forit. And yeah, though, and a lot
of people may not read theminutes, or may not, you know,
attend a board meeting, but theymight peek at your newsletter,
and so you want to just put inthere more than once. This is
(26:16):
where we're at, and this iswhere what we did in the last
two months, and this is what'scoming up. It never hurts to go
over that more than once andjust keep adding to the list. I
had a wonderful board member,board president years ago, Glen,
and he was just a big thinker,great guy. And he called that
spin the halo. He's like, alwaysspin the Halo, whether it was
(26:37):
whether it's the board, orwhether it's for the committee
members, or whether it's forstaff, all that positive
communication that comes outfrom the Association has a
tendency to buoy the members ofthe association. People want to
be a part of something positive.
They don't want to be a part ofthe way, you know, kind of, you
know, don't, don't walk your doghere and clean up after your
(26:57):
dogs, and don't park there, youknow? Yeah, yeah.
Robert Nordlund (27:01):
Well, that's the bandwagon concept, the
winning baseball team, thewinning football team. You want
to, you want to enjoy thewinner. And I was thinking when
I'm driving, I in California,there's often a highway highway
sign, it's orange, that saysyour tax dollars are your
highway dollars at work,something like that. And I'm
(27:21):
wondering if an association justhave a sign that says your
association dollars at work. Andyou could put that in front of a
painting project, in front of anasphalt project, in front of the
RE landscaping in front Oh, Ilike that. Just and people can
see us. They're driving in yourhomeowner association dollars at
(27:42):
work. I really like that, andthat was generic and very
Julie Adamen (27:46):
inexpensive to do, but it's still that's like a
flashing red light to people asthey're driving in. They see
that, you know, that orangetriangle, you know, your HOA
dollars at work, you know,questions call here or
something. I just, but it'sjust, I think it's a great thing
to
Robert Nordlund (27:59):
do, yeah, but that's all your the button you
like to press of communication.
Again, the people come in withthe stereotype that it's care
free and inexpensive andeverything costs money. So there
is that they've got to have thattrade off and that
understanding, yes, yes.
Exactly, exactly. Okay. How?
Okay. So they do this. How bigof a stereotype are we fighting?
(28:23):
Is this going to take months? Isthis going to take years? Is
this going to be forever?
Julie Adamen (28:28):
It's going to be forever. I mean, it should be
forever, because, and the onething we do fight in this
industry is because boardmembers, the volunteers, they
rotate right? And oftentimesmanagement companies will rotate
or managers will rotate out.
This is a tough business onpeople, so though many stay in
all of the way to retirement,like us, I hope, but other
people will rotate in and out.
(28:50):
So it's it behooves the board tocontinually and make a policy to
communicate regularly indifferent ways with with the
owners, and whether it's a newmanagement company or you have
four new board members out ofseven, is that this is a part of
our policy, and we're alwaysgoing to communicate positively.
And I would say if you got fournew board members out of seven,
(29:11):
they probably, if you'recommunicating positively all the
time, they should beunderstanding on how productive
that positive communication was.
Otherwise they would not be onthe board.
Robert Nordlund (29:20):
I'm writing all this good stuff down. What have
we talked about? We've talkedabout welcoming people
appropriately, making sure theyknow they're in the association.
Which takes me to point numbertwo, promoting the association.
Don't let the management companytake the credit, take the blame,
take the responsibility. Promotethe association and the board
members promote what has beendone, and that way people start
(29:43):
to make that connection between,Oh, it's getting done, but it's
my dollars doing it. Yep, andexpect upcoming,
Julie Adamen (29:50):
upcoming stuff too. Yep. Always says, This is
what's upcoming next year. Thisis what we're planning on doing.
You know, that's yeah. But thenpeople know their money is.
Being spent to make their lifebetter and their real estate
more valuable. Expect
Robert Nordlund (30:05):
to be in for the long haul. This is a
stereotype, and you're going toget continually, as you said,
new board members, and you'regoing to continually get new
homeowners in. And so it's awashing machine cycle. It's a
little bit like something thatis spinning once you get the
concept going, all you can do isspin the flywheel, keep it
(30:26):
going, keep the good thingsgoing, keep that good news
pumping. Keep them homeowners,reminded that it is an
association run by boards ofdirectors. All these kind of
good things. There's, I thinkthere's a lot of good things you
can do. It may be a little morework at the beginning to get
that flywheel going, but I thinkI can do some really good things
to fight back on thatstereotype. Yeah, he sure can.
(30:48):
Okay, well, Julie, as always,it's great talking to you. Any
closing thoughts on your side atthis time?
Julie Adamen (30:54):
Well, I just we talk about this so often, but I
know it's a lot of work,especially for board members. I
mean, you're a volunteer, andyou got on the board because
somebody told you was only goingto take an hour a month. And
then you found out that wasn'ttrue, but you're there now. And
so how do we make this better,not just for you personally, but
for the board as a whole, andfor the community as a whole?
The biggest gap we have, in myopinion, in the industry at this
(31:18):
it provides a lot of otherthings too, but in our industry,
is a constant communication gap,and most of everything that goes
wrong in a communityassociation, almost everything
can be contributed to a lack ofcommunication, causing a
misunderstanding. So if there'sa communication vacuum, that
(31:39):
vacuum is going to get filled upwith. Who's ever the next person
on next door? And you all knowwhat that is, I know. So if
they're on nextdoor.com, that'snot necessarily good, and that
vacuum is going to get filled,and then all of a sudden you
have 50 people going, what? Andit's complete falsities. So it's
up to you as board members tofill that or cause it to be
filled through management or aprofessional service that does
(32:02):
it for you. Can you can getthose professional services or
write newsletters. I'm talking enewsletters. You all should just
be able to communicatecontinually. If you have the
ability, you can utilize AIArtificial Intelligence I'm
going to give you. Here's awebsite you should look at if
you have some modicum of beingable to deal with the computer.
(32:22):
It's not that big a deal. It'scalled Synthesia. So it's S, Y,
N, T, H, E, S, I, a, dot, I O,absolutely astonishing. What
they can do for you with just anamount of copy. And then you can
have videos up, talk about yourcommunity for two minutes, three
minutes at a time. Reallyamazing stuff. If you need some
help going through that, I wouldbe available for that
Robert Nordlund (32:43):
fantastic.
Yeah, and press all thecommunication vehicles that you
can. I was thinking at my lastAssociation, they had this sign
they stuck out in the dirt inthe entryway. It said, board
meeting Thursday night at 730but it was just a reminder that
I am now entering an associationrun by volunteer board of
directors and just as littlethings that you can do. Wow,
(33:04):
Julie, I we talked about atopic, but I think we spent a
lot of time on ideas and actionitems to our audience. I hope
you learned some HOA insightsfrom our discussion today that
helps you bring common sense toyour common areas. We look
forward to having you join usfor another great episode next
week.
Jennifer Johnson (33:27):
You've been listening to Hoa insights,
common sense for comment areas.
If you like the show and want tosupport the work that we do, you
can do so in a number of ways.
The most important thing thatyou can do is engage in the
conversation, leave a questionin the comments section on our
YouTube videos. You can alsoemail your questions or voice
memos topodcast@reservestudy.com or
(33:48):
leave us a voicemail at805-203-3130, if you gain any
insights from the show, pleasedo us a HUGE favor by sharing
the show with other boardmembers that you know. You can
also support us by supportingthe brands that sponsor this
program. Please remember thatthe views and opinions expressed
in this program are those of thehosts and guests with the goal
(34:10):
of providing general educationabout the community, association
industry. You want to consultlicensed professionals before
making any important decisions.
Finally, this podcast wasexpertly mixed and mastered by
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