May 12, 2025 • 38 mins
Learn how HOA boards can navigate priorities, politics, and community differences with better communication and proactive decision-making.
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Navigating the complexities of HOA board management requires balancing priorities, understanding community differences, and communicating clearly. In this episode, Robert and Julie discuss how boards can overcome political divides, bridge cultural differences, and set priorities that reflect the needs of their communities. Julie explains why proactive communication, clear goals, and community events are key to reducing conflict and building trust!
Chapters:
00:00 How do community priorities shape HOA board decisions?
01:24 Why is enforcing rules for the sake of it a mistake?
03:10 Can cultural differences create tension in HOAs?
04:40 How do newcomers' expectations clash with established HOA norms?
06:22 Why is communicating board priorities so important?
08:14 What happens when boards fail to share their long-term goals?
09:47 How do property values depend on clear communication and priorities?
11:33 Why do homeowners sometimes feel left out of decision-making?
17:22 How can setting clear priorities reduce community conflicts?
19:08 What are the dangers of keeping assessments low without reserve planning?
21:30 Why is it risky for boards to ignore long-term maintenance?
23:00 Ad Break - Community Financials
25:01 What role does cultural diversity play in HOA expectations?
32:14 How can board members manage cultural clashes with grace?
35:11 Final thoughts on communication, community unity, and peaceful management
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):
You know, enforcing rules just for
(00:01):
enforcing rules sake. I mean, Iknow you have to do that.
Frankly, I would argue that'spart of your fiduciary duty, but
there's one way to do it, andthere's another, and the other
is going to be far moresuccessful than the one way do
things, or else again,especially if you're in a
community that hasn't done a lotof rules enforcement over the
years, which unfortunately, isreally, really common. HOA
Announcer (00:23):
Insights is brought to you by five companies that
care about board members,association, insights and
marketplace, associationreserves, community, financials,
Hoa invest and Kevin Davis,Insurance Services. You'll find
links to their websites andsocial media in the show notes.
Robert Nordlund (00:38):
Hi, I'm Robert Nordlund of Association
Reserves,
Unknown (00:41):
and I'm Julie Adamen of Adamen Inc, and this is HOA
Insights, where we promotecommon sense for common
areas. Welcome to episode number105 where we're again speaking
with management consultant andregular co host, Julie Adamen.
Today we'll be talking aboutyour priorities, the stated and
the unstated ones, and how theyaffect the decisions you make on
(01:02):
a regular basis. We want you tobe aware of the implications of
your priorities, because we wantour listeners to have
associations that thrive. Lastweek's episode number 104
featured a great conversationwith Attorney Ed Hoffman on the
rise of incivility betweenhomeowners boards and their
managers. It's something thatyou need to be aware of, because
(01:23):
right now it's affecting justabout every Association.
Bringing peace to yourassociation takes some
purposeful strategies. So if youmissed that episode or any other
prior episode, take a momentafter today's program to listen
from our podcast website, Hoainsights.org, or watch on our
YouTube channel, but better yet,subscribe from any of the major
(01:45):
podcast platforms so you don'tmiss any future episodes. Well,
those of you watching on YouTubecan see the HOA insights mug I
have. I think Julie has one too.
Got mine right here. Got mymerch, and you can get that from
our merch store, which you canbrowse through from our HOA
insights.org website, or thelink in our show notes. And
(02:05):
you'll find that we have somegreat free stuff there, like
board members zoom backgroundsand some specialty items for
sale, like these mugs. So go tothe merch store, download a free
zoom background, take a momentlook around, find the mug that
you'd like and email me atpodcast@reserves.edu.com with
your name, shipping address andmug choice, mentioning episode
(02:26):
105, mug giveaway, and if you'rethe 10th person to email me,
I'll ship that mug to you freeof charge. Well, we enjoy
hearing from you responding tothe issues that you're facing at
your association. So if you havea hot topic, a crazy story, we
get some of those, or a questionyou'd like us to address. You
(02:46):
can always contact us at805-203-3130, or email us at
podcast at reserve, study.comand today's episode comes from a
question submitted by Charlesfrom Boise, who stated, a lot of
out of towners live in ourcommunity. Some want things to
(03:07):
be like where they came from.
Some of us, long time Idahoresidents, have other priorities
and sensibilities. It's dividingour community. Is this common?
And for this question, we wantedto have Julie help us with the
answer. So Julie, what would yousay to Charles from Boise? I'd
Julie Adamen (03:29):
say, Charles, yes, that is common, whether it's
people coming in from out ofstate, and in your case, in
Idaho, I lived in the PacificNorthwest for a long time, you
probably have a lot of peoplecoming in from Washington,
Oregon and California, and a lotof those folks have very, very
different sensibilities. That'swhy they moved to Idaho. But
they oftentimes kind of want tobring that baggage with them. So
(03:52):
yes, that's very common, very,very it's baggage. Well, I mean,
you know, it's the way they it'sthe way they think, it's, it's
just, it's a different lifestyleand, and I think people, they
don't necessarily mean to comeacross that way. I mean, some
do, of course, but I think a lotof people just don't realize
there's such a culturaldifference, and they kind of
have to ease into the culturaldifferences and realize that
(04:14):
everything's not going to be theway it was back in Van Nuys. So
I think it's, I have empathy forwhat you're going through, but I
do think there's ways to addressit. Okay,
Robert Nordlund (04:23):
well, let's talk about that priorities. I
don't think, well actually, Ithink having differences is
actually a very good thing. Itgives a blend to the
association. Homogeneousassociation is probably a boring
place. It's not necessarily agood place, but diversity gives
some richness. But what are ourboard's priorities? And we've
(04:46):
talked before about having amission and vision statement.
How is this different from that,or the same as that? Well,
Julie Adamen (04:53):
I want to say that what Charles was it, Charles? Is
that his name, anyway, fromCharles? Yes, this Charles.
Yeah. What he said? Was hisquote was, Idaho residents said
they have other priorities andsensibilities. So let's take,
let's isolate the sensibilitiesfor the time being, and let's go
to the priorities like you weretalking about. I think because
people come in from other areas,and, you know, they don't
(05:15):
necessarily have to be, youknow, the Californians or the
Washingtonians or the Oregoniansmoving in, it could be people
from other countries. I mean,places that are incredibly
diverse. I mean, if you'reanywhere that you have a lot of
diverse people. I mean, like inthe Bay Area, Seattle area has
it. I mean, Los Angeles has it.
So you have people who are fromcountries all over the world,
(05:35):
and that's a serious meltingpot. And that can be everything
from different language,different I have a whole chapter
in my board classes online thattalk about that people, they
could, you know, they'recompletely different. You have
different foods, you havedifferent mores, you have just a
dip, even different languages.
(05:57):
So, so anyway, I think, but whateveryone can focus on, and what
a board can focus on are itspriorities. So what are the
priorities of the board in aparticular time frame? So could
have long term goals andobjectives, or you could just be
doing like a priority of themonth, excuse me, like we were
talking about before we went onair. But I think the biggest
(06:20):
problem is the board has theirpriorities, and they know what
they're going through and whatthey're going to do, but they
don't necessarily communicatethat to the homeowners. And now
I'm not saying if you know, aswe were saying, if this month's
priority is, well, we're gettingthe asphalt redone, but that
bleeds into the next month.
That's still your priority, butyou come back to those stated
priorities that you have givenyour homeowners, and I really
(06:41):
encourage boards to do that. Sowhether it's every board meeting
or once a quarter, or whatever,you send it out in the
newsletter, meaning the E blast,or it's on your website, or it
is a typical snail mail oldtime, one to do, I would let the
homeowners know there's anythingwrong with that, not that
there's anything wrong with thatat all. A weird but you need a
stapler. Bob.
Robert Nordlund (07:07):
Do I even have staples? Yeah, exactly.
Julie Adamen (07:10):
So talk about kicking it old school there. But
anyway, no matter how you do it,I think that the if the board
communicates with the owners andthe residents on what its
priorities are for the coming Xamount of time. I mean, I'd say
you need to have goals andobjectives every single year.
You need to say we're going toget these three major things
done, and then there's a couplesmaller things we're going to
try and get done. And this ishow we're going to approach it,
(07:32):
and this is the time frame Iencourage you to do that. I will
say you should all do that. Iknow everyone doesn't. You've
got time constraints and allthat kind of thing. But if you
do that, and you stick to thatas best you can, to the plan and
communicate, to communicate tothe owners that plan, the
priorities of the plan and wherewe are at each month or quarter
(07:55):
or whatever you're doing withthat, it goes a long way for
people to understand where theboard is at and where the
community is going. You are theleaders of the community. You
have to tell the community whereit's going, and you have to
bring them along with you. Andof course, what are your
priorities? You know, are theyrules enforcement? Are they
social events? Are they, youknow, whatever are they, you
(08:18):
know, remedial repairs that needto be done? There's all kinds of
I mean, it's a communityassociation. We could say all of
the above, but I think it's goodto focus on those and let
everyone know what you're doing.
And for the people that comefrom out of state, it's a good
way for them to go. Okay, now Isee where these guys are going,
and I don't have to go there andtell them we did it this way,
where we used to live. If youtell them what your priorities
(08:39):
are. Try to bring them alongwith you. Well,
Robert Nordlund (08:45):
I think there's this, and you said it very
quickly, but you talked aboutthe board knows, but do the
homeowners know? And let's givethe Board members credit that.
Let's say they're multi yearboard members. They've got a
good thing going on. They'retaking good care of the
association, but the homeownersare wondering, I think it's
going to be a real big step inthe right direction, a real
(09:06):
positive aspect, if the board iscommunicating that, because if
the homeowners know that theassociation is in good hands and
things are getting taken careof, then you don't have that
absence of information whichcauses anxiety. And we've talked
about it before. Nature abhors avacuum. Vacuum, yes, start, if
you can have and I just startedwriting things down here. You
(09:28):
talked about it, the annualcalendar of things to focus on.
First thing I start with, frommy background, is reserve
projects. Is this going to be abig year or little year? Are we
doing anything at all, or issomething simple. We're just
replacing the pool furniturethis year. Something hopefully
simple, or is it a big roofproject? The board needs to know
(09:48):
that. And they've got, what arethe other things that are
calendared? They've got the taxfilings. They've got the budget.
That is a season. There'sprobably landscape that is. The
spring into the summer. There'sthese different things that you
want to be able to hit on. Oh,and there's, hopefully you have
some social events, maybeMemorial Day, Fourth of July,
(10:09):
Labor Day. That takes someplanning. So there's some
seasonality. And I'm thinking,we live our life on seasons our
kids go to school, that's aseason we watch football or
baseball or soccer orbasketball, March Madness,
basketball, hockey. I'm probablyleaving some things out. But,
(10:33):
yeah, basketball, there's bothsides. But boy, the the richness
of being able to say, ifsomeone's saying but, you know,
but something's looking shabbyover here to be able to say,
Yeah, no worries. That's on thecalendar for June. Every year,
at June, we catch up on all ourmaintenance. If there's a gate
that is not closing, boy, wewalk around and maintenance gets
(10:58):
stuns in in June, hopefully youdo the emergency stuff that week
or that day, but to be able togive assurance and Kevin, I can
hear Kevin's voice now saying,just low the temperature,
temperature. Yeah, that's Kevin.
We both listen to Kevin. Yeah.
That's just fascinating to beable to get ahead of it, and
(11:20):
that so many times you've talkedabout the pressing the
communication button, can't doit enough.
Julie Adamen (11:26):
No, there's no, really no such thing as over
communication in our industry.
And you know the for the boards,I know it's often challenging
for them to I mean, especiallyif you are still in the
workforce, if you're notretired, you're still in the
workforce. You maybe you've gotkids at home. You know, your
life is really busy. I get it,and I think that's kind of what
happens. A lot of people falloff on that. They're like, well,
they want to know they need tocome to a board meeting. Well,
(11:47):
by the time they figure it outand they come to the board
meeting, they're probably madabout something because you're
not doing this proactivecommunication. It's too late.
It's too late that time it isand they're already mad. And
even if you've already done itand taken care of it, they still
have that emotion level thatKevin right here. They still
have that emotion level that'sup here. And it takes a while
for that to dissipate, or itdoesn't dissipate, and they find
(12:10):
something to turn that anger on.
I would say it's incumbent uponboard members to be really
cognizant of how much thatcommunication of your priorities
as a board to the homeowners, toto get that to the homeowners.
And you know something, and canwe talk about the sensibilities
part for a minute? Because hesays they don't have our
(12:31):
sensibilities, okay? And I getwell, that's because culturally,
your sensibilities are probablycompletely different. Not
everybody's, but you definitelywill have that. I hear that from
people in Texas. They're like,Oh my god, the Californians came
in and they want to do it justthe way they did there. And
they're like, you moved to Texasto get away from that. And
there's so so two sides of it.
I'm in Arizona now, and I hearthe say, exact same thing. Oh,
(12:53):
all these people from Californiacame and moved in. So not I'm a
Californian, so I I'm gonna bagon my own people there. So I've
lived there for quite a while,but I am native, but I think as
boards, you're going to have todeal with that. That is a fact
of the reordering of what'sgoing on in our country. People
are voting with their feet, andthey are and they're moving out
(13:15):
of places they don't want tolive and moving into places they
do want to live interesting redand blue states, red and blue
states, and the I kind of livein a purpley state, but I'd say
it's actually more red thanblue, but still, it's completely
different culturally than whereI was previously living. In
Washington State, totallydifferent and definitely
different to California, forsure. But I think for the boards
(13:37):
you got this is going to happen,and you kind of have to be ready
for it. Personally, I think youfeel like, oh my god, you know
you're coming over here andtelling us how to do things, but
you just got away from how theywere doing things. I think that
kind of some sort of notnecessarily an outreach, in the
sense that, you know, there'sgoing to be some of those people
who are, in your view, prettyreasonable. They move there for
(14:00):
the right reasons, but, youknow, maybe they don't
understand how things are reallyworking around here. And I would
say, bring them into theprocess. Bring them in to maybe
not a board seat, because it maynot be one open, but get them on
to a communications committee,or get them to help you just
every now and then, so you couldcreate a relationship with the
most reasonable among them, andwhen they have that positive
(14:23):
experience that you're trying tounderstand where they're coming
from, and then you'll be have achance to communicate where the
board and this community hasbeen all this time, and now
we're just bringing in these newpeople, and we're All adjusting.
You're adjusting, they'readjusting. So I think you you
really don't have a choice,because it's not going to
(14:44):
change. I'm sorry, but it's not,it's the elephant in the room.
Introduce it. Okay, if there'sthe elephant, introduce the
elephant. And bring those peopleinto the process as much as you
possibly can. You're
Robert Nordlund (14:57):
talking about adjusting there. And I.
Remembered for a year we livedin a a condominium. We rented a
condominium while we werewaiting for we did a major
remodel on our house. And I livenext to a very pleasant guy that
was our next door neighbor. Andevery, let's call it Tuesday,
(15:20):
garbage can. Day, he would bringhis garbage can in and he would
wash it out. And I alwaysthought that was interesting. I
asked him why, and he says he'salways washed out his garbage
can when it was empty. Andsensibilities can be trivial.
They can be significant, butit's just those little things
that I never saw anyone wash outa garbage can, and maybe I'm the
(15:44):
minority, but yeah, there's allthese different things, but the
more we practice tolerance, Ithink the better it's going to
be for us all, because if we getstuck in we want it our way, we
like it our way. We expecteveryone to do it our way, then
we become a siloed society, andthat's not good. And we've got a
(16:06):
lot of different people herefrom a lot of different places,
with different languages, withdifferent ways that they grew
up, doing things birthdayparties that are small, birthday
parties that are large, whateverit is you got me, you got me
really thinking on that, but Iwant, I want to get back to
priorities. I want to encourageour audience to think we are
(16:29):
diverse and it's going to justget more diverse as we have
people continuing to movearound. More people working from
home. Their company is inDallas, but they don't even live
in Dallas. They live inTennessee, or they live in
Maine, or whatever it is, orthey live in Maine half the year
and they live in a warmer statethe other half of the year.
(16:50):
We've become portable, and sowe're going to have to learn how
to see people differently. Oh, Ihaven't seen Joe in a while. Oh,
that's right, it's summertime.
He's not here in the summer, orwhatever it is. And now I'm
thinking, I know someone who Ionly see six months of the year,
because in the cold, six monthsof the year he's in Palm
Springs. Yeah, that's it's justthe reality. I want to talk
(17:11):
about priorities and again,almost like sensibilities, but
stereotypes. I think ouraudience here is aware. The
stereotypes are that boardmembers are mean. Board members
are focused on fines. They'refocused on rules. How can we
address the priorities and tellthe owners? How can we make it
(17:37):
clear that that's not all we dohere at this association.
Julie Adamen (17:41):
Well, you could do other things other than that.
That's what you can do. Andthat's true. The stereotype is,
and you all know from various TVshows or commercials, you know,
here's here's Karen, the boardpresident. She's out there with
her. She's measuring the lawn.
We see how high it is with aclipboard. That's right. And
unfortunately, some of that iswarranted, that things like that
(18:01):
do happen. I'm not going to saythey don't. Stereotypes are
there for a reason. They arethere for a reason, but
sometimes they kind of growbeyond their they're beyond
their reality, right? But italways makes a good story, and a
lot of people do feel that way.
I mean, we could talk about thethe, oh, that survey that came
out that we talked about acouple times a couple of shows
(18:23):
ago, yeah, that's people wereoverall. They don't think you
should live in an HOA, except ifyou drill down to the survey,
almost all of them said wereally like our property values
here, and then all the houseshave to be kept up. But there
you are, right there. That'sthat's their sensibilities or
their priorities. My priority isthe dues are too high, and the
boards don't know what they'redoing and but the other part is,
I really like living herebecause the landscape looks
(18:45):
good, or whatever. It's just,it's a funny thing. So people
have these two parts that theyalways want to deal with in
HOAs, but one of the partsalways is the board doesn't know
what they're doing, or they'respending too much money, or they
don't do anything but send outfines. So how do you combat
that? You combat that by doingother things, and you combat
that by, especially if you'rethe type of association that has
(19:09):
gone for years and years withoutreally enforcing anything. I was
just talking to someone aboutthis. What do you stand for?
What do you see? Yeah, actually,you know who I just talked I was
talking to my son who works fora management company, and they
got a large account, and nothinghad really been followed up on
in a very long time. And so theboard president initially wanted
(19:31):
to, we got to send this stuffout. Send it out right away,
tell them they have 30 days toclean up. Well, this place has
been gone on for a couple ofyears without anyone really
doing anything. And you know,you want to kind of soft pedal
that you don't really want tocome out and say, clean it up
within 30 days, even though it'sbeen there for four years. You
want to send out the first thesoft notice. Hey everybody. We
want to let you know that thisis what we're planning on doing
(19:53):
this year. And we know it hasn'tbeen done before, but this is in
an effort to increase ourproperty. Values.
Robert Nordlund (20:01):
That's why I want to, I already started to
write that down. Why? Yeah,because we don't have a rule
just because we're mean. Youknow, everyone out of the pool
at 10 o'clock. It's the why?
Because we, here at Happy Valleyvillas are try to be a peaceful,
welcoming community. We have, weask everyone to be out of the
pool by 10 o'clock at night. Ityou got to have the why in
(20:23):
there.
Julie Adamen (20:25):
You do. And actually people will understand
the why. I mean, they may goabout it at first, but they
really do understand the why. Soforcing rules just for enforcing
rules sake. I mean, I know youhave to do that. Frankly, I
would argue that's part of yourfiduciary duty. But there's one
way to do it and there'sanother, and the other is going
to be far more successful thanthe one way do things, or else.
(20:47):
Again, especially if you're in acommunity that hasn't done a lot
of rules enforcement over theyears, which, unfortunately, is
really, really common. Andagain, it's the same thing with
the people who come from otherplaces. You know, they don't
know why you do thingsnecessarily in Idaho, and why
that's different than what we doin, you know, in San Francisco
or in Seattle or Boston or,yeah, it's usually people west
(21:10):
coast, people that are havemoved to Idaho and up and around
that area. I know because welooked at, we looked at moving
there, ended up settling onArizona. The differences that we
are, we have this. It's only, asRobert said, it's only going to
get with more diverse. And, youknow, another reason it's going
to get more diverse is theadvent of AI and the jobs that
(21:31):
that is going to take over andpeople having to be in their
office. I mean, there will bepeople who have to be in the
office. And I, as a businessowner, I think that's a really
smart thing to do. But there aregoing to be a lot more people
that do different things andjobs that we don't even know
about yet. I mean, we just don'tknow. So if you look in the next
10 years, for those of us whoare piano on the backside of the
(21:55):
backside of 60, almost to 70,careful, closer to 70 than 60. I
can't believe it, but anyway,but for those of us on that end,
it's actually, and often we'rethe ones who are board members,
right? It's usually, oftenpeople who have time because
they're working part time, orretirees or something like that.
But you have to understand, thisis what's coming down the pike.
(22:16):
There's no getting away from it.
So how are we going to manageit? Are we going to manage it by
climbing up and telling people,no, we don't do it that way.
Because Are you going to say,well, this is why we do this
this way in this area or in thiscommunity, and what are you and
it's going to take somepoliticking on your part, for
sure, but asking people why theythink the way they think, I
(22:38):
think it's okay. I just say, Whydo you think we should do it
that way? And really listen tothem? You may learn something,
you may blow it off, but thefact that you listened those
people walk away with a reallygood taste in their mouth about
the community, right?
Robert Nordlund (22:55):
So much of it is allowing people to have their
say, Make allow them to feelheard. You know, I I spent X
$100,000 to buy a home in thiscommunity. I want to have a
voice in this place and to allowthem to be heard. Well, Julie,
looking at the time here, I wantto make sure we take time to
take a break to hear from one ofour generous sponsors. After
(23:17):
that, I want to get back totalking about priorities, the
written ones and the unwrittenones and how they affect life at
our association. Okay, so we'llbe back in just a moment with
more common sense for commonareas. Is your HOA
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Robert Nordlund (24:01):
and we're back well before the break, we want
to talk about moving into whatare the priorities that you do
have? And what's interesting isthe actual priorities and your
unspoken priorities, the onesthat are there that you just
haven't articulated. So in thebreak, I was talking with Julie
about what I've heard fromKevin, and he talks about the
(24:23):
priorities you need to have justto stay well insured, is to care
for the common areas, and wecall that maintenance and
reserve projects, collectingassessments, which means running
the association. The business ofrunning the association, you've
got to have money for theassociation to function right,
and enforcing the rules. Sothat's what Kevin would say. And
(24:44):
Julie, right before the break,you talked about some
associations that haven'tenforced the rules, and my guess
is those are the associationsthat chafe at that rule
management stereotype, andthey've just kind of abdicated
that role, right? A
Julie Adamen (25:00):
lot of times that's what happens, is that
they just and it is a lot ofbother, and you can get a lot of
grief for it. I've worked withassociations, consulted to them
who have had this problem, andtried to help them out of it.
But, you know, I find that thereason they don't, for the most
part, is, yes, they don't wantthe grief. Or two, they're the
(25:20):
kind of homeowner that got onthe board and they had had rules
and rules enforced against them,something they had done they
should have been doing, orparked the car on blocks, or
whatever. It doesn't matter. Andthen they get on the board and
they're like, No, we're notenforcing that stuff, which is
way against your fiduciary duty.
So Kevin is really he's welltaken, especially since he's in
the insurance field. I mean,these are the things he has to
look at all the time, right? Andthose are the right things, and
(25:42):
those are priorities. And that'sthe basic priority, collect
assessments, do the maintenanceand pay, I'd say, pay the bills.
Yeah?
Robert Nordlund (25:52):
Well, there's collect the money and pay the
money. Yeah, right. That's
Julie Adamen (25:55):
those things you have to do. But those are those
absolutely have to be yourpriorities, oftentimes unwritten
priorities. There we go, writtenones. So let me ask you this, if
your association hasn't raisedassessments in five years, and
you are only 20% funded on yourreserves, and you're cutting
(26:16):
services because you're not havedon't have enough money to pay
for that, though you haven'tsaid it your priority is Robert
low
Robert Nordlund (26:26):
monthly assessments. Low monthly
assessments are changing yourpool service from twice a week
to once a week, changing yourlandscaper from twice a week to
once a week, only because youwant to pay half the money, only
because you're trying to keepthe assessments at the same as
they are last year, and you'renot looking for what's it take
to make our community inviting?
How much are you damaging homevalues when half the time the
(26:49):
grass is too long, half the timethe flowers aren't trimmed and
blooming and blossoming, itdoesn't look inviting. You're
shooting yourself in the foot,but yeah, I think that's the
biggest unwritten priority thatwe see. Literally, we can see
every day, every day. Yeah, it'snot a board that has it written
(27:12):
down, but when you're doingthat, the homeowners see it, and
you may think that you're doingit in their best interest, but
what are you saving them 50bucks a month? But in saving
them 50 bucks a month, if you'relosing 10 and 20 and $50,000 in
home value, you're shootingyourself in the foot.
Julie Adamen (27:32):
Not only that, you're actually you're breaching
your fiduciary duty. I'm, Iwould argue, absolutely.
Robert Nordlund (27:37):
Yeah, governing documents say that you are
empowered and have theresponsibility to collect
assessments, to pay for thebills of the association, to
sustain the association. Andthat's not just the monthly
bills that you receive in themail or receive via email.
That's the roof deterioration,the asphalt deterioration. These
things are real costs. That isin my world. That's my pet
(28:01):
peeve. Boards who are holding onso tight to last year's
homeowner assessment rate, andthey think that that is their
objective. And I rail againstthat. I Yes. Whole episode, just
going down that path just
Julie Adamen (28:20):
go off. And yes, absolutely they that happens a
lot. Now I do want to recognizethat, especially in certain
areas of the country, but prettymuch most associations have been
affected by the increase ininsurance costs, which have just
been onerous or to the pointwhere you can't get it. It's
pretty bad. So I do, I haveempathy for that. I do
(28:42):
understand that. But settingthat aside, though that's a
there's an elephant in the room.
Setting that elephant aside forthe time being, is that still,
if you, if your associationdoesn't look inviting, and your
property values are going down,I mean, well, in this in
Australia, where they have theycalled strata management, right?
Their HOA work is strata. That'swhat they call it. But good
(29:04):
that, I think that originallycomes from high rises, but I
think they refer to all HOAs asstrata, do they not?
Robert Nordlund (29:10):
I, I believe so. I think so too. We it's
strata there, just likecondominium here, whether it's,
yeah, tall or short or town homeor mid rise or whatever, I
Julie Adamen (29:20):
think that's correct. But you know, we will
hear from
Robert Nordlund (29:24):
some of our, I hope we hear from some of our
our International Australia.
Listeners, yes,
Julie Adamen (29:30):
education, folks, yeah, please. But the manager,
so if they have a professionalmanagement company manager, most
of them do, and especially thosehigh rises in cities, the
manager's salary is often basedon how much the property values
are, which actually kind ofmakes sense, if you want,
because you've got the personwho is really driving that boat
(29:52):
on behalf of the board, butthey're driving that boat and
using all their professionalwisdom and expertise to keep the
community whether it's a high.
Rise or mid rise or or cardhomes. It doesn't matter, keep
it on that track of continuallyimproving, so preserving,
protecting, maintaining andenhancing the community and
there, that's the board'sresponsibility. But if they farm
(30:13):
that out to a manager,management company, those folks
and that can be remunerated onthe SAL on the price of the
units. So based upon how much,if it's gone up 5% management
company gets an increase. So Ithink they still do it that way.
If I'm not, please people let meknow. I think it's a great way
to get compensated. I
Robert Nordlund (30:33):
would love to hear from our Australian
listeners. I want to get spend alittle bit of time talking
about, what are these otherthings? Because the board has a
lot to do. We talked about thethree priorities, caring for the
common areas, maintenance,sustainability, collecting the
assessments and paying thebills, enforcing the rules.
(30:53):
Those are real jobs that have tobe done. Do them with a heart,
do them with sensibility, whereyou can collect assessments.
Maybe give a payment plan tosomeone who's in a bad spot. You
figure it out, you work it out,but have a heart, but make sure
that you are demonstrating thatyou're looking at so many other
(31:16):
things. And just during ourconversation here, we talked
about landscaping. Maybe Aprilis landscaping month, maybe. And
I'm going with a maybe December31 fiscal year end. Maybe
September is budget month. Maybeone of the other things, vendor
contracts, you spend one month ayear, where you just go all
(31:38):
through your vendor contracts.
Investments are your reservesgetting the right maximum
return, and are there any thingsyou need to roll over your bank
balances, your operating versusreserve balance, your reserve
projects? Do you have a longlist or a short list? Are you on
track delinquencies, not onlyour delinquencies, but is our
delinquency policy keeping upwith technology. And, you know,
Julie Adamen (32:02):
I like the idea of making them like this is, this
is reserve month. This is, youknow, and I think that's a
really interesting I neverthought of it that way, Robert,
till you brought it up before westarted this. But that would be
a really great communicationtheme. If you have priorities
every month. And obviously, ifthey need to be changed because
of certain circumstances, that'sfine. It's not in stone. And if
(32:23):
you have that to the homeownersat the beginning of the year,
saying, Okay, this is, this iswhere we're going this year. And
it's January, it's snow removalmonth, or what, or whatever it
is, you know, if you, of course,if you're in the desert, that's
golf month. And yes, but change,and it can either be something
that has to do with theAssociation, or, let's say
you're going to have a socialevent. So it's February. There's
(32:46):
nothing else that really needsto go on. So this is Valentine's
month, or whatever it is,balance. And then for Louisiana,
yes, exactly. And so don'tforget, for all the physical
things that you absolutely haveto do, I want to encourage
boards to think there are socialthings you can do, and it
doesn't have to be a ginormouswhoop dee doo, but there are
(33:06):
social things and you can thinkabout and talk about, or maybe
have a party, or a block party,whatever time of year that is,
and the association ponies upsome money, maybe, or everyone
has to pay 10 bucks when theywalk in. And you will be
surprised how many people willpay to do that kind of thing.
When you are showing people yourpriorities, whether they are
this is reserve month or this isbudget month, so all the
(33:28):
homeowners know what you'reworking on, and they, if they
come to the board meeting, theywant to ask you about the
budget, and you can say, well,we're in progress. Things are
looking pretty good, you know,we won't know what assessments
are going to be. Or if it's, youknow, if it's a fun month, if
it's, you know, September, it'sBack to School Month. Maybe we
do something for that. When youare telling people that you're
doing the physical things thatneed to be done, as the as the
(33:51):
board, as the stewards of theassociation, we got this, we got
the budget, and we've got, youknow, yada yada, all this. But
we also have heart, just likeRobert said, we have heart. This
is Back to School month, or
Robert Nordlund (34:02):
maybe we adopt a back to school cause, and
we've purchased 15 backpackscome with your supplies. We're
gonna stuff 15 backpacks for thenew kids at the local elementary
school, or whatever it is, orthe fundraiser for the local
high school football team. Ilove that. See, I got a couple
(34:23):
more here. Did I saydelinquencies? Focus on your
delinquencies, your delinquencypolicy, architectural approvals.
Are they still relevant? Arethey worded appropriately? So
many things. When you see thatwe have a balance here at the
Community, I'm realizing it.
That's the kind of community Iwant to be a part of.
Julie Adamen (34:43):
Yeah, and people want to be a part of something
positive when they are viewingthe board as being competent and
aware of what's going on in thecommunity, as well as aware of
where it's going on outside,like you just said, like the
fundraiser, like for the for thefootball team Texas. I'm looking
at you Friday Night Lights. Iwant to see. Some of that kind
of thing. If they need uniforms,or whatever needs to happen, you
(35:03):
can make that happen, and itbrings people around a common
purpose that does not have to dowith we gotta raise news, or we
gotta get, you know, enforceeverything. It
Robert Nordlund (35:13):
unites the community. Yes, I like that so
much and it and we've talkedbefore about how when you're
doing things positive, you gethigher board meeting attendance.
You get board candidates who areconstructive. You get committee
people who would like to help.
They know they want
Julie Adamen (35:31):
to be a part of the process. If it's positive,
people want to be a part of thatprocess. Yeah.
Robert Nordlund (35:36):
And if the maintenance walk through is May,
they can do that in May. They'llhelp with a maintenance walk
through. They'll check I got thegates. I will check every all
five gates. And boy, that issuch an easy project. I'm
getting psyched. I'm about readyto go out and look for some
gates in my association here.
Julie, as always, it's greattalking with you. Any closing
(35:58):
thoughts to add at this time,no,
Julie Adamen (36:02):
not too many. But I do want to let people know
that I have a series of onlineclasses for board members,
online courses. You go to mywebsite, which is Adam and dash
inc.com, or just google me, andyou'll find my website. Go to
education, and there's fourhours worth of information in
there for you to take. And I'dlove to know what you think
about it.
Robert Nordlund (36:21):
It's good stuff every way we can with free
podcasts. Our company haswebinars. Julie has board member
training. We're trying to helpyou. Yeah, well, here, here in
the podcast, we hope that we'reproviding you some HOA insights
from our discussion that helpsyou bring common sense to your
common areas. Well, thank youfor joining us today, we look
(36:41):
forward to bringing many moreepisodes to you, week after week
after week. We're going to behere. We're going to have great
guests, interesting topics, andit would be great to have you
join us on a regular basis. Sospread the word. See you next
week.
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You know, enforcing rules just for
(00:01):
enforcing rules sake. I mean, Iknow you have to do that.
Frankly, I would argue that'spart of your fiduciary duty, but
there's one way to do it, andthere's another, and the other
is going to be far moresuccessful than the one way do
things, or else again,especially if you're in a
community that hasn't done a lotof rules enforcement over the
years, which unfortunately, isreally, really common. HOA
Announcer (00:23):
Insights is brought to you by five companies that
care about board members,association, insights and
marketplace, associationreserves, community, financials,
Hoa invest and Kevin Davis,Insurance Services. You'll find
links to their websites andsocial media in the show notes.
Robert Nordlund (00:38):
Hi, I'm Robert Nordlund of Association
Reserves,
Unknown (00:41):
and I'm Julie Adamen of Adamen Inc, and this is HOA
Insights, where we promotecommon sense for common
areas. Welcome to episode number105 where we're again speaking
with management consultant andregular co host, Julie Adamen.
Today we'll be talking aboutyour priorities, the stated and
the unstated ones, and how theyaffect the decisions you make on
(01:02):
a regular basis. We want you tobe aware of the implications of
your priorities, because we wantour listeners to have
associations that thrive. Lastweek's episode number 104
featured a great conversationwith Attorney Ed Hoffman on the
rise of incivility betweenhomeowners boards and their
managers. It's something thatyou need to be aware of, because
(01:23):
right now it's affecting justabout every Association.
Bringing peace to yourassociation takes some
purposeful strategies. So if youmissed that episode or any other
prior episode, take a momentafter today's program to listen
from our podcast website, Hoainsights.org, or watch on our
YouTube channel, but better yet,subscribe from any of the major
(01:45):
podcast platforms so you don'tmiss any future episodes. Well,
those of you watching on YouTubecan see the HOA insights mug I
have. I think Julie has one too.
Got mine right here. Got mymerch, and you can get that from
our merch store, which you canbrowse through from our HOA
insights.org website, or thelink in our show notes. And
(02:05):
you'll find that we have somegreat free stuff there, like
board members zoom backgroundsand some specialty items for
sale, like these mugs. So go tothe merch store, download a free
zoom background, take a momentlook around, find the mug that
you'd like and email me atpodcast@reserves.edu.com with
your name, shipping address andmug choice, mentioning episode
(02:26):
105, mug giveaway, and if you'rethe 10th person to email me,
I'll ship that mug to you freeof charge. Well, we enjoy
hearing from you responding tothe issues that you're facing at
your association. So if you havea hot topic, a crazy story, we
get some of those, or a questionyou'd like us to address. You
(02:46):
can always contact us at805-203-3130, or email us at
podcast at reserve, study.comand today's episode comes from a
question submitted by Charlesfrom Boise, who stated, a lot of
out of towners live in ourcommunity. Some want things to
(03:07):
be like where they came from.
Some of us, long time Idahoresidents, have other priorities
and sensibilities. It's dividingour community. Is this common?
And for this question, we wantedto have Julie help us with the
answer. So Julie, what would yousay to Charles from Boise? I'd
Julie Adamen (03:29):
say, Charles, yes, that is common, whether it's
people coming in from out ofstate, and in your case, in
Idaho, I lived in the PacificNorthwest for a long time, you
probably have a lot of peoplecoming in from Washington,
Oregon and California, and a lotof those folks have very, very
different sensibilities. That'swhy they moved to Idaho. But
they oftentimes kind of want tobring that baggage with them. So
(03:52):
yes, that's very common, very,very it's baggage. Well, I mean,
you know, it's the way they it'sthe way they think, it's, it's
just, it's a different lifestyleand, and I think people, they
don't necessarily mean to comeacross that way. I mean, some
do, of course, but I think a lotof people just don't realize
there's such a culturaldifference, and they kind of
have to ease into the culturaldifferences and realize that
(04:14):
everything's not going to be theway it was back in Van Nuys. So
I think it's, I have empathy forwhat you're going through, but I
do think there's ways to addressit. Okay,
Robert Nordlund (04:23):
well, let's talk about that priorities. I
don't think, well actually, Ithink having differences is
actually a very good thing. Itgives a blend to the
association. Homogeneousassociation is probably a boring
place. It's not necessarily agood place, but diversity gives
some richness. But what are ourboard's priorities? And we've
(04:46):
talked before about having amission and vision statement.
How is this different from that,or the same as that? Well,
Julie Adamen (04:53):
I want to say that what Charles was it, Charles? Is
that his name, anyway, fromCharles? Yes, this Charles.
Yeah. What he said? Was hisquote was, Idaho residents said
they have other priorities andsensibilities. So let's take,
let's isolate the sensibilitiesfor the time being, and let's go
to the priorities like you weretalking about. I think because
people come in from other areas,and, you know, they don't
(05:15):
necessarily have to be, youknow, the Californians or the
Washingtonians or the Oregoniansmoving in, it could be people
from other countries. I mean,places that are incredibly
diverse. I mean, if you'reanywhere that you have a lot of
diverse people. I mean, like inthe Bay Area, Seattle area has
it. I mean, Los Angeles has it.
So you have people who are fromcountries all over the world,
(05:35):
and that's a serious meltingpot. And that can be everything
from different language,different I have a whole chapter
in my board classes online thattalk about that people, they
could, you know, they'recompletely different. You have
different foods, you havedifferent mores, you have just a
dip, even different languages.
(05:57):
So, so anyway, I think, but whateveryone can focus on, and what
a board can focus on are itspriorities. So what are the
priorities of the board in aparticular time frame? So could
have long term goals andobjectives, or you could just be
doing like a priority of themonth, excuse me, like we were
talking about before we went onair. But I think the biggest
(06:20):
problem is the board has theirpriorities, and they know what
they're going through and whatthey're going to do, but they
don't necessarily communicatethat to the homeowners. And now
I'm not saying if you know, aswe were saying, if this month's
priority is, well, we're gettingthe asphalt redone, but that
bleeds into the next month.
That's still your priority, butyou come back to those stated
priorities that you have givenyour homeowners, and I really
(06:41):
encourage boards to do that. Sowhether it's every board meeting
or once a quarter, or whatever,you send it out in the
newsletter, meaning the E blast,or it's on your website, or it
is a typical snail mail oldtime, one to do, I would let the
homeowners know there's anythingwrong with that, not that
there's anything wrong with thatat all. A weird but you need a
stapler. Bob.
Robert Nordlund (07:07):
Do I even have staples? Yeah, exactly.
Julie Adamen (07:10):
So talk about kicking it old school there. But
anyway, no matter how you do it,I think that the if the board
communicates with the owners andthe residents on what its
priorities are for the coming Xamount of time. I mean, I'd say
you need to have goals andobjectives every single year.
You need to say we're going toget these three major things
done, and then there's a couplesmaller things we're going to
try and get done. And this ishow we're going to approach it,
(07:32):
and this is the time frame Iencourage you to do that. I will
say you should all do that. Iknow everyone doesn't. You've
got time constraints and allthat kind of thing. But if you
do that, and you stick to thatas best you can, to the plan and
communicate, to communicate tothe owners that plan, the
priorities of the plan and wherewe are at each month or quarter
(07:55):
or whatever you're doing withthat, it goes a long way for
people to understand where theboard is at and where the
community is going. You are theleaders of the community. You
have to tell the community whereit's going, and you have to
bring them along with you. Andof course, what are your
priorities? You know, are theyrules enforcement? Are they
social events? Are they, youknow, whatever are they, you
(08:18):
know, remedial repairs that needto be done? There's all kinds of
I mean, it's a communityassociation. We could say all of
the above, but I think it's goodto focus on those and let
everyone know what you're doing.
And for the people that comefrom out of state, it's a good
way for them to go. Okay, now Isee where these guys are going,
and I don't have to go there andtell them we did it this way,
where we used to live. If youtell them what your priorities
(08:39):
are. Try to bring them alongwith you. Well,
Robert Nordlund (08:45):
I think there's this, and you said it very
quickly, but you talked aboutthe board knows, but do the
homeowners know? And let's givethe Board members credit that.
Let's say they're multi yearboard members. They've got a
good thing going on. They'retaking good care of the
association, but the homeownersare wondering, I think it's
going to be a real big step inthe right direction, a real
(09:06):
positive aspect, if the board iscommunicating that, because if
the homeowners know that theassociation is in good hands and
things are getting taken careof, then you don't have that
absence of information whichcauses anxiety. And we've talked
about it before. Nature abhors avacuum. Vacuum, yes, start, if
you can have and I just startedwriting things down here. You
(09:28):
talked about it, the annualcalendar of things to focus on.
First thing I start with, frommy background, is reserve
projects. Is this going to be abig year or little year? Are we
doing anything at all, or issomething simple. We're just
replacing the pool furniturethis year. Something hopefully
simple, or is it a big roofproject? The board needs to know
(09:48):
that. And they've got, what arethe other things that are
calendared? They've got the taxfilings. They've got the budget.
That is a season. There'sprobably landscape that is. The
spring into the summer. There'sthese different things that you
want to be able to hit on. Oh,and there's, hopefully you have
some social events, maybeMemorial Day, Fourth of July,
(10:09):
Labor Day. That takes someplanning. So there's some
seasonality. And I'm thinking,we live our life on seasons our
kids go to school, that's aseason we watch football or
baseball or soccer orbasketball, March Madness,
basketball, hockey. I'm probablyleaving some things out. But,
(10:33):
yeah, basketball, there's bothsides. But boy, the the richness
of being able to say, ifsomeone's saying but, you know,
but something's looking shabbyover here to be able to say,
Yeah, no worries. That's on thecalendar for June. Every year,
at June, we catch up on all ourmaintenance. If there's a gate
that is not closing, boy, wewalk around and maintenance gets
(10:58):
stuns in in June, hopefully youdo the emergency stuff that week
or that day, but to be able togive assurance and Kevin, I can
hear Kevin's voice now saying,just low the temperature,
temperature. Yeah, that's Kevin.
We both listen to Kevin. Yeah.
That's just fascinating to beable to get ahead of it, and
(11:20):
that so many times you've talkedabout the pressing the
communication button, can't doit enough.
Julie Adamen (11:26):
No, there's no, really no such thing as over
communication in our industry.
And you know the for the boards,I know it's often challenging
for them to I mean, especiallyif you are still in the
workforce, if you're notretired, you're still in the
workforce. You maybe you've gotkids at home. You know, your
life is really busy. I get it,and I think that's kind of what
happens. A lot of people falloff on that. They're like, well,
they want to know they need tocome to a board meeting. Well,
(11:47):
by the time they figure it outand they come to the board
meeting, they're probably madabout something because you're
not doing this proactivecommunication. It's too late.
It's too late that time it isand they're already mad. And
even if you've already done itand taken care of it, they still
have that emotion level thatKevin right here. They still
have that emotion level that'sup here. And it takes a while
for that to dissipate, or itdoesn't dissipate, and they find
(12:10):
something to turn that anger on.
I would say it's incumbent uponboard members to be really
cognizant of how much thatcommunication of your priorities
as a board to the homeowners, toto get that to the homeowners.
And you know something, and canwe talk about the sensibilities
part for a minute? Because hesays they don't have our
(12:31):
sensibilities, okay? And I getwell, that's because culturally,
your sensibilities are probablycompletely different. Not
everybody's, but you definitelywill have that. I hear that from
people in Texas. They're like,Oh my god, the Californians came
in and they want to do it justthe way they did there. And
they're like, you moved to Texasto get away from that. And
there's so so two sides of it.
I'm in Arizona now, and I hearthe say, exact same thing. Oh,
(12:53):
all these people from Californiacame and moved in. So not I'm a
Californian, so I I'm gonna bagon my own people there. So I've
lived there for quite a while,but I am native, but I think as
boards, you're going to have todeal with that. That is a fact
of the reordering of what'sgoing on in our country. People
are voting with their feet, andthey are and they're moving out
(13:15):
of places they don't want tolive and moving into places they
do want to live interesting redand blue states, red and blue
states, and the I kind of livein a purpley state, but I'd say
it's actually more red thanblue, but still, it's completely
different culturally than whereI was previously living. In
Washington State, totallydifferent and definitely
different to California, forsure. But I think for the boards
(13:37):
you got this is going to happen,and you kind of have to be ready
for it. Personally, I think youfeel like, oh my god, you know
you're coming over here andtelling us how to do things, but
you just got away from how theywere doing things. I think that
kind of some sort of notnecessarily an outreach, in the
sense that, you know, there'sgoing to be some of those people
who are, in your view, prettyreasonable. They move there for
(14:00):
the right reasons, but, youknow, maybe they don't
understand how things are reallyworking around here. And I would
say, bring them into theprocess. Bring them in to maybe
not a board seat, because it maynot be one open, but get them on
to a communications committee,or get them to help you just
every now and then, so you couldcreate a relationship with the
most reasonable among them, andwhen they have that positive
(14:23):
experience that you're trying tounderstand where they're coming
from, and then you'll be have achance to communicate where the
board and this community hasbeen all this time, and now
we're just bringing in these newpeople, and we're All adjusting.
You're adjusting, they'readjusting. So I think you you
really don't have a choice,because it's not going to
(14:44):
change. I'm sorry, but it's not,it's the elephant in the room.
Introduce it. Okay, if there'sthe elephant, introduce the
elephant. And bring those peopleinto the process as much as you
possibly can. You're
Robert Nordlund (14:57):
talking about adjusting there. And I.
Remembered for a year we livedin a a condominium. We rented a
condominium while we werewaiting for we did a major
remodel on our house. And I livenext to a very pleasant guy that
was our next door neighbor. Andevery, let's call it Tuesday,
(15:20):
garbage can. Day, he would bringhis garbage can in and he would
wash it out. And I alwaysthought that was interesting. I
asked him why, and he says he'salways washed out his garbage
can when it was empty. Andsensibilities can be trivial.
They can be significant, butit's just those little things
that I never saw anyone wash outa garbage can, and maybe I'm the
(15:44):
minority, but yeah, there's allthese different things, but the
more we practice tolerance, Ithink the better it's going to
be for us all, because if we getstuck in we want it our way, we
like it our way. We expecteveryone to do it our way, then
we become a siloed society, andthat's not good. And we've got a
(16:06):
lot of different people herefrom a lot of different places,
with different languages, withdifferent ways that they grew
up, doing things birthdayparties that are small, birthday
parties that are large, whateverit is you got me, you got me
really thinking on that, but Iwant, I want to get back to
priorities. I want to encourageour audience to think we are
(16:29):
diverse and it's going to justget more diverse as we have
people continuing to movearound. More people working from
home. Their company is inDallas, but they don't even live
in Dallas. They live inTennessee, or they live in
Maine, or whatever it is, orthey live in Maine half the year
and they live in a warmer statethe other half of the year.
(16:50):
We've become portable, and sowe're going to have to learn how
to see people differently. Oh, Ihaven't seen Joe in a while. Oh,
that's right, it's summertime.
He's not here in the summer, orwhatever it is. And now I'm
thinking, I know someone who Ionly see six months of the year,
because in the cold, six monthsof the year he's in Palm
Springs. Yeah, that's it's justthe reality. I want to talk
(17:11):
about priorities and again,almost like sensibilities, but
stereotypes. I think ouraudience here is aware. The
stereotypes are that boardmembers are mean. Board members
are focused on fines. They'refocused on rules. How can we
address the priorities and tellthe owners? How can we make it
(17:37):
clear that that's not all we dohere at this association.
Julie Adamen (17:41):
Well, you could do other things other than that.
That's what you can do. Andthat's true. The stereotype is,
and you all know from various TVshows or commercials, you know,
here's here's Karen, the boardpresident. She's out there with
her. She's measuring the lawn.
We see how high it is with aclipboard. That's right. And
unfortunately, some of that iswarranted, that things like that
(18:01):
do happen. I'm not going to saythey don't. Stereotypes are
there for a reason. They arethere for a reason, but
sometimes they kind of growbeyond their they're beyond
their reality, right? But italways makes a good story, and a
lot of people do feel that way.
I mean, we could talk about thethe, oh, that survey that came
out that we talked about acouple times a couple of shows
(18:23):
ago, yeah, that's people wereoverall. They don't think you
should live in an HOA, except ifyou drill down to the survey,
almost all of them said wereally like our property values
here, and then all the houseshave to be kept up. But there
you are, right there. That'sthat's their sensibilities or
their priorities. My priority isthe dues are too high, and the
boards don't know what they'redoing and but the other part is,
I really like living herebecause the landscape looks
(18:45):
good, or whatever. It's just,it's a funny thing. So people
have these two parts that theyalways want to deal with in
HOAs, but one of the partsalways is the board doesn't know
what they're doing, or they'respending too much money, or they
don't do anything but send outfines. So how do you combat
that? You combat that by doingother things, and you combat
that by, especially if you'rethe type of association that has
(19:09):
gone for years and years withoutreally enforcing anything. I was
just talking to someone aboutthis. What do you stand for?
What do you see? Yeah, actually,you know who I just talked I was
talking to my son who works fora management company, and they
got a large account, and nothinghad really been followed up on
in a very long time. And so theboard president initially wanted
(19:31):
to, we got to send this stuffout. Send it out right away,
tell them they have 30 days toclean up. Well, this place has
been gone on for a couple ofyears without anyone really
doing anything. And you know,you want to kind of soft pedal
that you don't really want tocome out and say, clean it up
within 30 days, even though it'sbeen there for four years. You
want to send out the first thesoft notice. Hey everybody. We
want to let you know that thisis what we're planning on doing
(19:53):
this year. And we know it hasn'tbeen done before, but this is in
an effort to increase ourproperty. Values.
Robert Nordlund (20:01):
That's why I want to, I already started to
write that down. Why? Yeah,because we don't have a rule
just because we're mean. Youknow, everyone out of the pool
at 10 o'clock. It's the why?
Because we, here at Happy Valleyvillas are try to be a peaceful,
welcoming community. We have, weask everyone to be out of the
pool by 10 o'clock at night. Ityou got to have the why in
(20:23):
there.
Julie Adamen (20:25):
You do. And actually people will understand
the why. I mean, they may goabout it at first, but they
really do understand the why. Soforcing rules just for enforcing
rules sake. I mean, I know youhave to do that. Frankly, I
would argue that's part of yourfiduciary duty. But there's one
way to do it and there'sanother, and the other is going
to be far more successful thanthe one way do things, or else.
(20:47):
Again, especially if you're in acommunity that hasn't done a lot
of rules enforcement over theyears, which, unfortunately, is
really, really common. Andagain, it's the same thing with
the people who come from otherplaces. You know, they don't
know why you do thingsnecessarily in Idaho, and why
that's different than what we doin, you know, in San Francisco
or in Seattle or Boston or,yeah, it's usually people west
(21:10):
coast, people that are havemoved to Idaho and up and around
that area. I know because welooked at, we looked at moving
there, ended up settling onArizona. The differences that we
are, we have this. It's only, asRobert said, it's only going to
get with more diverse. And, youknow, another reason it's going
to get more diverse is theadvent of AI and the jobs that
(21:31):
that is going to take over andpeople having to be in their
office. I mean, there will bepeople who have to be in the
office. And I, as a businessowner, I think that's a really
smart thing to do. But there aregoing to be a lot more people
that do different things andjobs that we don't even know
about yet. I mean, we just don'tknow. So if you look in the next
10 years, for those of us whoare piano on the backside of the
(21:55):
backside of 60, almost to 70,careful, closer to 70 than 60. I
can't believe it, but anyway,but for those of us on that end,
it's actually, and often we'rethe ones who are board members,
right? It's usually, oftenpeople who have time because
they're working part time, orretirees or something like that.
But you have to understand, thisis what's coming down the pike.
(22:16):
There's no getting away from it.
So how are we going to manageit? Are we going to manage it by
climbing up and telling people,no, we don't do it that way.
Because Are you going to say,well, this is why we do this
this way in this area or in thiscommunity, and what are you and
it's going to take somepoliticking on your part, for
sure, but asking people why theythink the way they think, I
(22:38):
think it's okay. I just say, Whydo you think we should do it
that way? And really listen tothem? You may learn something,
you may blow it off, but thefact that you listened those
people walk away with a reallygood taste in their mouth about
the community, right?
Robert Nordlund (22:55):
So much of it is allowing people to have their
say, Make allow them to feelheard. You know, I I spent X
$100,000 to buy a home in thiscommunity. I want to have a
voice in this place and to allowthem to be heard. Well, Julie,
looking at the time here, I wantto make sure we take time to
take a break to hear from one ofour generous sponsors. After
(23:17):
that, I want to get back totalking about priorities, the
written ones and the unwrittenones and how they affect life at
our association. Okay, so we'llbe back in just a moment with
more common sense for commonareas. Is your HOA
Russell Munz (23:30):
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Robert Nordlund (24:01):
and we're back well before the break, we want
to talk about moving into whatare the priorities that you do
have? And what's interesting isthe actual priorities and your
unspoken priorities, the onesthat are there that you just
haven't articulated. So in thebreak, I was talking with Julie
about what I've heard fromKevin, and he talks about the
(24:23):
priorities you need to have justto stay well insured, is to care
for the common areas, and wecall that maintenance and
reserve projects, collectingassessments, which means running
the association. The business ofrunning the association, you've
got to have money for theassociation to function right,
and enforcing the rules. Sothat's what Kevin would say. And
(24:44):
Julie, right before the break,you talked about some
associations that haven'tenforced the rules, and my guess
is those are the associationsthat chafe at that rule
management stereotype, andthey've just kind of abdicated
that role, right? A
Julie Adamen (25:00):
lot of times that's what happens, is that
they just and it is a lot ofbother, and you can get a lot of
grief for it. I've worked withassociations, consulted to them
who have had this problem, andtried to help them out of it.
But, you know, I find that thereason they don't, for the most
part, is, yes, they don't wantthe grief. Or two, they're the
(25:20):
kind of homeowner that got onthe board and they had had rules
and rules enforced against them,something they had done they
should have been doing, orparked the car on blocks, or
whatever. It doesn't matter. Andthen they get on the board and
they're like, No, we're notenforcing that stuff, which is
way against your fiduciary duty.
So Kevin is really he's welltaken, especially since he's in
the insurance field. I mean,these are the things he has to
look at all the time, right? Andthose are the right things, and
(25:42):
those are priorities. And that'sthe basic priority, collect
assessments, do the maintenanceand pay, I'd say, pay the bills.
Yeah?
Robert Nordlund (25:52):
Well, there's collect the money and pay the
money. Yeah, right. That's
Julie Adamen (25:55):
those things you have to do. But those are those
absolutely have to be yourpriorities, oftentimes unwritten
priorities. There we go, writtenones. So let me ask you this, if
your association hasn't raisedassessments in five years, and
you are only 20% funded on yourreserves, and you're cutting
(26:16):
services because you're not havedon't have enough money to pay
for that, though you haven'tsaid it your priority is Robert
low
Robert Nordlund (26:26):
monthly assessments. Low monthly
assessments are changing yourpool service from twice a week
to once a week, changing yourlandscaper from twice a week to
once a week, only because youwant to pay half the money, only
because you're trying to keepthe assessments at the same as
they are last year, and you'renot looking for what's it take
to make our community inviting?
How much are you damaging homevalues when half the time the
(26:49):
grass is too long, half the timethe flowers aren't trimmed and
blooming and blossoming, itdoesn't look inviting. You're
shooting yourself in the foot,but yeah, I think that's the
biggest unwritten priority thatwe see. Literally, we can see
every day, every day. Yeah, it'snot a board that has it written
(27:12):
down, but when you're doingthat, the homeowners see it, and
you may think that you're doingit in their best interest, but
what are you saving them 50bucks a month? But in saving
them 50 bucks a month, if you'relosing 10 and 20 and $50,000 in
home value, you're shootingyourself in the foot.
Julie Adamen (27:32):
Not only that, you're actually you're breaching
your fiduciary duty. I'm, Iwould argue, absolutely.
Robert Nordlund (27:37):
Yeah, governing documents say that you are
empowered and have theresponsibility to collect
assessments, to pay for thebills of the association, to
sustain the association. Andthat's not just the monthly
bills that you receive in themail or receive via email.
That's the roof deterioration,the asphalt deterioration. These
things are real costs. That isin my world. That's my pet
(28:01):
peeve. Boards who are holding onso tight to last year's
homeowner assessment rate, andthey think that that is their
objective. And I rail againstthat. I Yes. Whole episode, just
going down that path just
Julie Adamen (28:20):
go off. And yes, absolutely they that happens a
lot. Now I do want to recognizethat, especially in certain
areas of the country, but prettymuch most associations have been
affected by the increase ininsurance costs, which have just
been onerous or to the pointwhere you can't get it. It's
pretty bad. So I do, I haveempathy for that. I do
(28:42):
understand that. But settingthat aside, though that's a
there's an elephant in the room.
Setting that elephant aside forthe time being, is that still,
if you, if your associationdoesn't look inviting, and your
property values are going down,I mean, well, in this in
Australia, where they have theycalled strata management, right?
Their HOA work is strata. That'swhat they call it. But good
(29:04):
that, I think that originallycomes from high rises, but I
think they refer to all HOAs asstrata, do they not?
Robert Nordlund (29:10):
I, I believe so. I think so too. We it's
strata there, just likecondominium here, whether it's,
yeah, tall or short or town homeor mid rise or whatever, I
Julie Adamen (29:20):
think that's correct. But you know, we will
hear from
Robert Nordlund (29:24):
some of our, I hope we hear from some of our
our International Australia.
Listeners, yes,
Julie Adamen (29:30):
education, folks, yeah, please. But the manager,
so if they have a professionalmanagement company manager, most
of them do, and especially thosehigh rises in cities, the
manager's salary is often basedon how much the property values
are, which actually kind ofmakes sense, if you want,
because you've got the personwho is really driving that boat
(29:52):
on behalf of the board, butthey're driving that boat and
using all their professionalwisdom and expertise to keep the
community whether it's a high.
Rise or mid rise or or cardhomes. It doesn't matter, keep
it on that track of continuallyimproving, so preserving,
protecting, maintaining andenhancing the community and
there, that's the board'sresponsibility. But if they farm
(30:13):
that out to a manager,management company, those folks
and that can be remunerated onthe SAL on the price of the
units. So based upon how much,if it's gone up 5% management
company gets an increase. So Ithink they still do it that way.
If I'm not, please people let meknow. I think it's a great way
to get compensated. I
Robert Nordlund (30:33):
would love to hear from our Australian
listeners. I want to get spend alittle bit of time talking
about, what are these otherthings? Because the board has a
lot to do. We talked about thethree priorities, caring for the
common areas, maintenance,sustainability, collecting the
assessments and paying thebills, enforcing the rules.
(30:53):
Those are real jobs that have tobe done. Do them with a heart,
do them with sensibility, whereyou can collect assessments.
Maybe give a payment plan tosomeone who's in a bad spot. You
figure it out, you work it out,but have a heart, but make sure
that you are demonstrating thatyou're looking at so many other
(31:16):
things. And just during ourconversation here, we talked
about landscaping. Maybe Aprilis landscaping month, maybe. And
I'm going with a maybe December31 fiscal year end. Maybe
September is budget month. Maybeone of the other things, vendor
contracts, you spend one month ayear, where you just go all
(31:38):
through your vendor contracts.
Investments are your reservesgetting the right maximum
return, and are there any thingsyou need to roll over your bank
balances, your operating versusreserve balance, your reserve
projects? Do you have a longlist or a short list? Are you on
track delinquencies, not onlyour delinquencies, but is our
delinquency policy keeping upwith technology. And, you know,
Julie Adamen (32:02):
I like the idea of making them like this is, this
is reserve month. This is, youknow, and I think that's a
really interesting I neverthought of it that way, Robert,
till you brought it up before westarted this. But that would be
a really great communicationtheme. If you have priorities
every month. And obviously, ifthey need to be changed because
of certain circumstances, that'sfine. It's not in stone. And if
(32:23):
you have that to the homeownersat the beginning of the year,
saying, Okay, this is, this iswhere we're going this year. And
it's January, it's snow removalmonth, or what, or whatever it
is, you know, if you, of course,if you're in the desert, that's
golf month. And yes, but change,and it can either be something
that has to do with theAssociation, or, let's say
you're going to have a socialevent. So it's February. There's
(32:46):
nothing else that really needsto go on. So this is Valentine's
month, or whatever it is,balance. And then for Louisiana,
yes, exactly. And so don'tforget, for all the physical
things that you absolutely haveto do, I want to encourage
boards to think there are socialthings you can do, and it
doesn't have to be a ginormouswhoop dee doo, but there are
(33:06):
social things and you can thinkabout and talk about, or maybe
have a party, or a block party,whatever time of year that is,
and the association ponies upsome money, maybe, or everyone
has to pay 10 bucks when theywalk in. And you will be
surprised how many people willpay to do that kind of thing.
When you are showing people yourpriorities, whether they are
this is reserve month or this isbudget month, so all the
(33:28):
homeowners know what you'reworking on, and they, if they
come to the board meeting, theywant to ask you about the
budget, and you can say, well,we're in progress. Things are
looking pretty good, you know,we won't know what assessments
are going to be. Or if it's, youknow, if it's a fun month, if
it's, you know, September, it'sBack to School Month. Maybe we
do something for that. When youare telling people that you're
doing the physical things thatneed to be done, as the as the
(33:51):
board, as the stewards of theassociation, we got this, we got
the budget, and we've got, youknow, yada yada, all this. But
we also have heart, just likeRobert said, we have heart. This
is Back to School month, or
Robert Nordlund (34:02):
maybe we adopt a back to school cause, and
we've purchased 15 backpackscome with your supplies. We're
gonna stuff 15 backpacks for thenew kids at the local elementary
school, or whatever it is, orthe fundraiser for the local
high school football team. Ilove that. See, I got a couple
(34:23):
more here. Did I saydelinquencies? Focus on your
delinquencies, your delinquencypolicy, architectural approvals.
Are they still relevant? Arethey worded appropriately? So
many things. When you see thatwe have a balance here at the
Community, I'm realizing it.
That's the kind of community Iwant to be a part of.
Julie Adamen (34:43):
Yeah, and people want to be a part of something
positive when they are viewingthe board as being competent and
aware of what's going on in thecommunity, as well as aware of
where it's going on outside,like you just said, like the
fundraiser, like for the for thefootball team Texas. I'm looking
at you Friday Night Lights. Iwant to see. Some of that kind
of thing. If they need uniforms,or whatever needs to happen, you
(35:03):
can make that happen, and itbrings people around a common
purpose that does not have to dowith we gotta raise news, or we
gotta get, you know, enforceeverything. It
Robert Nordlund (35:13):
unites the community. Yes, I like that so
much and it and we've talkedbefore about how when you're
doing things positive, you gethigher board meeting attendance.
You get board candidates who areconstructive. You get committee
people who would like to help.
They know they want
Julie Adamen (35:31):
to be a part of the process. If it's positive,
people want to be a part of thatprocess. Yeah.
Robert Nordlund (35:36):
And if the maintenance walk through is May,
they can do that in May. They'llhelp with a maintenance walk
through. They'll check I got thegates. I will check every all
five gates. And boy, that issuch an easy project. I'm
getting psyched. I'm about readyto go out and look for some
gates in my association here.
Julie, as always, it's greattalking with you. Any closing
(35:58):
thoughts to add at this time,no,
Julie Adamen (36:02):
not too many. But I do want to let people know
that I have a series of onlineclasses for board members,
online courses. You go to mywebsite, which is Adam and dash
inc.com, or just google me, andyou'll find my website. Go to
education, and there's fourhours worth of information in
there for you to take. And I'dlove to know what you think
about it.
Robert Nordlund (36:21):
It's good stuff every way we can with free
podcasts. Our company haswebinars. Julie has board member
training. We're trying to helpyou. Yeah, well, here, here in
the podcast, we hope that we'reproviding you some HOA insights
from our discussion that helpsyou bring common sense to your
common areas. Well, thank youfor joining us today, we look
(36:41):
forward to bringing many moreepisodes to you, week after week
after week. We're going to behere. We're going to have great
guests, interesting topics, andit would be great to have you
join us on a regular basis. Sospread the word. See you next
week.
Announcer (36:58):
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