July 21, 2025 • 36 mins
Does Self Managing an HOA take a toll on you? HOA Assist is here to help struggling board members!
✅ Learn More About HOA Assist! 👉 https://www.hoa-assist.com/
HOA Assist helps self-managed associations reduce board burnout, improve continuity, and save money without switching to full-service management. In this episode, Robert speaks with Mitch Gassen about how their hybrid solution empowers volunteer boards to lead without the overwhelm!
Chapters From Today:
00:00 Should HOA Board Members be Compensated?
00:33 Introduction to Mitch Gassen of HOA Assist
03:02 How to get HOA Board Member Candidates on a Self-Running Association?
06:47 Why is burnout so common in volunteer HOA boards?
09:06 What are the real responsibilities of board members?
12:07 How can HOAs balance rule enforcement with community?
14:22 What do new homeowners often misunderstand about HOAs?
17:18 What does HOA Assist offer and where do they work?
19:33 Ad Break - Community Financials
20:25 Who benefits most from HOA Assist’s services?
21:18 What’s Mitch Gassen’s background in HOA management?
22:26 Why are so many associations still self-managed?
24:35 What are the three pillars of HOA Assist's services?
27:13 How does HOA Assist ensure continuity and consistency?
28:47 What kind of cost savings can HOAs expect?
30:29 When is HOA Assist a better choice than full service?
34:27 How can boards reach out and get started with HOA Assist?
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.
Mitch Gassen (00:00):
I think board members should be compensated in
(00:02):
some way, shape or form, and I'mhappy about that conversation,
or like, you know, lobby forthat to happen. Because I don't
think a lot of people reallyrealize how much time and effort
these board members put into itand get drugged through the mud
in doing so, right?
Announcer (00:17):
HOA Insights is brought to you by five companies
that care about board members,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 (00:33):
Welcome back to Hoa insights, common sense, for
common areas. I'm RobertNordlund, and I'm here today for
episode number 115 with aspecial guest I've corresponded
with for years. So today we havewith us on the program Mitch
Gasson of HOA assist. They're acompany dedicated to making sure
the benefits of associationliving outweigh the challenges
(00:53):
by providing cost effective,limited financial management and
board member support services.
HOA assist, by its name, is acompany that lowers the time
commitment and liabilityexposure of board members
managing their association allon their own. We're aware that
many of our listeners are fromself managed associations, and
we wanted to have Mitch on theprogram to give you a sneak peek
(01:14):
at the level of support that cantake a big burden off your
shoulders for a minimal cost.
Well, last week's episode number114 was another conversation
with regular co host Julieadamen on the cycles that we see
pro and con in an Association'shistory. If you missed that
episode or any other priorepisode, take a moment after
(01:37):
today's program to listen fromour podcast website, Hoa
insights.org or watch on ourYouTube channel, but 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 mugthat I have here. It's one of my
(01:57):
favorites with a deterioratedproperty, and the board members
are talking about the budget.
And I got that mug from ourmerch store, which you can
browse through from our Hoainsights.org website, or the
link in our show notes, andyou'll find we have some great
free stuff there, like boardmember zoom backgrounds and some
specialty items for sale, likemy mug. So go to the merch
(02:17):
store, download a free zoombackground, take a moment, look
around, find the mug you'd likeand email me at
podcast@reserves.com with yourname, shipping address and mug
choice, mentioning episode 115mug giveaway, and if you're the
10th person to email me, I'llship you that mug free of
(02:38):
charge. Well, we enjoy hearingfrom you responding to the
issues you're facing at yourassociation. So if you have a
hot topic, a crazy story,actually, we hear plenty of
those, or a question you'd likeus to address, you can contact
us at 805-203-3130, or email usat podcast@reservestudy.com and
(02:58):
this episode was prompted by Pamfrom Dallas, who asked, we're
doing okay running ourassociation by ourselves, but
being self managed makes it hardto get board member candidates.
We feel stuck. Any ideas, let'sget right to it. Mitch, welcome
to the program. And how wouldyou respond to Pam? Yeah,
Mitch Gassen (03:22):
thanks for having me. It's good to be here Robert
and connect with you on this. Iguess the first thing I would
say to Pam is give me a call.
Robert Nordlund (03:32):
Good for you, because you own a business.
Mitch Gassen (03:36):
It's a great question. So the board member
burnout and lack of volunteerismis a real thing that a lot of
communities struggle with. Iwish that there was a way to
have a one size fits all answerfor for PAM and and all the
others out there. Unfortunately,every community is just so
(03:57):
different. You've all have yourown kind of set a DNA, and
there's no situations exactlythe same. But hopefully
something that would berelatively helpful for PAM is to
kind of promote the why, whyserving on the board? It
basically gives them a voice,right? Letting the homeowners
know that if you want change tohappen, this is the best way to
(04:20):
make it happen. You know, youdon't need to be an expert. You
just need to be someone whocares about your association.
Those are the people that canmake a difference. And you know,
maybe you've had people thathave served on the board before
and just don't want to come backto the board. Maybe you have new
homeowners. Sometimes it's it'sokay to start there and look for
a newer homeowner in thecommunity that might want to get
(04:41):
involved, but it's definitely ait's a tough recipe because,
because you don't really knowwho's who has served, who hasn't
served, maybe they just wantnothing to do with with serving.
I moved into this communitybecause I don't want to do
anything. I want to be hands on.
Robert Nordlund (04:56):
Aren't aren't condos, carefree, yeah.
Mitch Gassen (05:00):
Yeah, yeah. And so, Pam, I don't know if this
helps you or not. I certainlyhope it does in some way, but I
would say reinforcing the why ofwhy it's important to serve on
the board, having a sneak peek,a look under the hood of what
the association is actuallyspending their money on those
homeowners, oftentimes, when itaffects when it affects their
(05:20):
pocketbook, they're going to bea lot more interested in serving
on the board and reallyunderstanding what they bought
into, why they get what they getor don't get what they get based
on what the association isbudgeted for. Just gives them a
lot more visibility behind thescenes, and hopefully encourages
them to want to get a little bitmore involved?
Robert Nordlund (05:42):
Well, I want to follow up with at least a couple
of questions here. You talkedabout board member burnout, and
from what I hear, it's burnout,and there's burden. You feel the
burden before you get burnedout. And if you're in a self
managed Association, you're onthe board, you're running the
association, you're a what, onearmed paper hanger. You've got
(06:04):
so many things you're trying toaccomplish, and you already have
a job, and now you got a halftime job. If you're trying to
get someone to and you're tiredbecause you're burdened, then
you're going to have a hard timefinding someone else from your
association to want to take yourjob because you describe it, and
they're going to say, Nope, Iwant to do that, and that can
(06:24):
lead to the burnout. So it seemslike what you offer is a way for
board members to spend less timeworking on the association, and
so they can maybe have ahealthier board member
situation, board memberpopulation. Get new people on
the board. Is that a part ofwhat
Mitch Gassen (06:47):
what you see?
Yeah, it's a good way to put it.
They feel burdened before theyburn out, for sure, especially
with it being an unpaidposition. I have things to say
about that that maybe a lot ofgovernment documents don't agree
with but I think board membersshould be compensated in some
way, shape or form, and I'mhappy to have that conversation,
or like, you know, lobby forthat to happen, because I don't
(07:10):
think a lot of people reallyrealize how much time and effort
these board members put into it,and get drugged through the mud
in doing so, right?
Robert Nordlund (07:18):
You just took me back 30 some years, our
listeners, I think, know mystory, I bought a condominium,
and that got me into thecommunity association world and
eventually into the business. Wehad a board member who was so
frustrated with how poorly we'rebeing served by the associate by
(07:41):
our management company that shequit being a board member and
started a management companythat was her way to get paid for
what she was already doing. Shewas so frustrated that, darn it,
the manager should be doingthis. The manager should be
doing this. Manager should bedoing this. Why am I doing this?
And she said, I can't be paid,at least in California law or
our governing documents, and soshe started a management
(08:03):
company, and we were her firstclient. That was interesting
little twist, and I hadn'treally thought of it that way.
Mitch Gassen (08:10):
Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of homeowners don't
really quite understand just theamount of work that the board
really does, and they're doingit because they want to protect
their asset. They want toprotect the value of what
they've bought into. There's badapples out there. Everybody
knows that, but I would say thevast majority of bad apple the
(08:31):
association are bad apple boardmembers. There are board members
that maybe get on the boardbecause they have an ax to
grind, or there's just, youknow, the wrong motive. But
homeowners that are listeningthat's very few and far between,
most out there are simply doingit for a couple of different
reasons. One, they actuallycare. They truly care about the
(08:54):
place that they live and theywant to make it better. Or two,
they got stuck there, and theyhaven't found a way to get off
the board. Yeah, yeah.
Robert Nordlund (09:03):
Who can I offload this job to?
Mitch Gassen (09:06):
Yeah, it's probably one of those two
things. But the reality of itis, here you are, right. You're
on the board, and you know what?
What do you do? You'recommunicating with vendors.
You're communicating withhomeowners. You are approving
budgets. You have a lot ofresponsibility, according to the
governing documents, to run thebusiness of the HOA. And I think
(09:26):
that's that's where sometimespeople maybe miss the mark. Is
thinking of it as anorganization, a small
organization, that that needs tobe run that way. Because if it's
not you can, you can getsidetracked and go off, off
course, uh, relatively quickly.
But again, you're relying onvolunteers that maybe don't have
(09:50):
that expertise in in theirprofessional career, of of
running an organization likethat. So they're, they're up
against a lot. I oftentimes seethat when a. Homeowner who is
frustrated ends up serving onthe board their their tone
changes pretty quick that, oh, Ididn't realize we had to do all
this. And oh, I realized wedidn't have money to pay for
that well.
Robert Nordlund (10:09):
And then there's the oh, they aren't
stealing. Oh, that is what theinsurance costs nowadays. It's a
Mitch Gassen (10:17):
humbling experience for for the
homeowners, for sure. And again,there are homeowners that have
probably got on the board andfound some of those things that
have been wrong, which isunfortunate,
Robert Nordlund (10:28):
good for them, because that's a change of
leadership that's going toimprove the association.
Mitch Gassen (10:32):
Yep, yep. It's It's definitely one of those
things where, if you are ahomeowner, volunteering is worth
your time for sure, even if it'sfor a short period of time,
maybe it's just one term. Youknow, you have some board
members that have been doing itfor 1020, years. Plus, that's
okay, that's great. But I dothink that homeowners should, at
least, like I said, kind of peekunder the hood for at least a
(10:56):
term, just to understand, youknow, what's really happening
behind the scenes, so they havea better idea. Well,
Robert Nordlund (11:03):
I still think we come from a culture of a lot
of people grew up with theirparents either owned their home
or they knew about rentals. So Iowned a home or was in an
apartment, and there's stillthis cultural change of, well,
we co own it. It's not anapartment where somebody else
manages and we pay the rent tosomebody else. It's well, these
(11:24):
are our expenses. This is ourcommunity. If we want to, we can
decide to replace that 20 yearold sign out front that no
longer looks so sharp. If wewant to, we can open the pool
may 15 instead of Memorial Day.
If we want to. There's so manythings they can decide that
because it's all of a sudden,their eyes open up. It's Our
(11:46):
Community. We can do thismission. Want to follow up, but
you said running the business ofthe association and not getting
distracted. Are you talkingabout another one of the
unfortunate stereotypes of boardmembers who are just chasing
rules and fines and things likethat, or where were you? What
were Yeah,
Mitch Gassen (12:07):
yeah. There's definitely some board members
that are running theircommunity, and it almost feels
to homeowners like they've,they've now. They live in a
prison of of where they boughtinto like, you know, and you
can't have, you know, you'regoing to get a violation and a
letter if you can see this muchof your trash can on the side of
(12:27):
your house. Is that against therules of the HOA? Sure, it might
be. But is it? Is the juiceworth the squeeze to to notify
that homeowner and find them forthat probably not. You know.
It's, it's one of those thingsthat there is some balance
that's required. You know,there's nothing like poking a
new homeowner in the eye andsending them a bunch of
violations when they've neverbeen to this community, rather
(12:50):
than just saying, Hey, I'm notsure if you knew. These are kind
of the guidelines that we go byhere. You know, we don't want
to, we don't want to cause anyissues with a brand new
homeowner, because that happensall the time, too. Someone moves
into an HOA from a prior HOA.
Well, we used to be able to dothis at my old home. It was an
HOA. Well, you can't do thathere. They're all different, and
the way that they're governed isalso different. There's a lot of
(13:13):
ingredients to these. The soupof what makes up an HOA and how
they're run.
Robert Nordlund (13:20):
Ooh, I like that. The soup of what makes an
HOA run. Hey, you also saidsomething very early about if
they want to change something,and it's got to be fundamental
that they care about theassociation. And we've talked
about the four C's, and that'syou need to for board members.
What makes a good board member?
Board members need to care. Theyneed to be curious what is going
(13:42):
on. They need to be courageousto make the decision, and they
need to communicate thatdecision. You also triggered a
couple more thoughts. What theyneed, what they do, they need to
do consistently, but yet, whenyou were talking about the juice
isn't worth the squeeze. Theyneed to keep in mind that we are
building community here. This isnot a rules type place. This is,
(14:05):
let's be humans, let's beneighbors. Is this the place
that we want to live in? Again?
It's It's Our Community. It'snot someone's power trip because
they lost out on being seventhgrade class president and they
still have a chip on theirshoulder as a
Mitch Gassen (14:22):
grown up. Yeah, it's a good way to put it. And
oh, yikes. And you're right.
You're definitely right. Youhave there are times when, you
know, it can be unfortunate tohave someone that is so rules
driven that they just can't letanything go and and it makes it
no longer fun or worth it tosome people to to live in their
(14:50):
community, because they feellike they always have, you know,
a set of eyes on them andthey're always watched. That is
a bummer, because HOAs were.
Really in, you know, in aperfect world, we're talking
about being able to, kind ofprotect yourselves from
situations where HOAs aren't inexistence. Like, for example, at
(15:14):
my home, I live in a greatneighborhood. I love my
neighborhood. 100 yards, maybe150 yards down the road, five,
six houses down. Beautiful home.
Literally got painted like apurple I should find it on, on
on Google, it's, it's just ashame, right? It's just a shame.
Luckily, I can't see itnecessarily from, from where I'm
at. But that stuff doesn'thappen. I feel bad for the
(15:37):
people that live right next toand across from, from this
person, the purple house? Yeah,it's a beautiful home, and it's
just a bummer that it's purple,this goofy looking purple color.
And so those are really thetypes of things that the HOAs
protect you from, being able totake down trees that are dead so
(15:58):
they don't fall on someone'sproperty and hurt or kill
somebody. I mean, there'sprotections in the H in the HOA
that are there for a reason, andit's not always bad I guess if I
had a message to the homeowners,it's not always a bad thing,
yeah,
Robert Nordlund (16:13):
well, I would argue it's a good design for
community living. It lowerscosts because it's economies of
scale. It's less expensive toyou talked about a tree. It's
less expensive to trim the treesfor a 50 unit Association than
you as a single homeowner, needto hire a tree trimmer to tree
(16:33):
your one or two trees at yourhouse. The economies of scale
are great. And in a communityassociation, you can, you can be
1/30 1/20 1/50 1/200 and you canown a pool or two. You pop in
the pool in the summer. Allthese things are they are great.
And I think the vast majority ofcommunity associations are rich
(16:54):
places to live. And I want totalk about that. I want to get
to the topic at hand, but we'reenjoying the background without
being too sensitive, because Idon't want people to know, drive
to your neighborhood and lookfor the purple house. Tell me
about HOA assist. Where in thecountry are you? And does it
(17:17):
matter?
Mitch Gassen (17:18):
Our office is located in the west Metro of the
Twin Cities in in Minnesota. Sothis is home for us, but it
really doesn't matter where,where we work with our clients.
Currently, we are in 18 or 19states and growing, which is
(17:39):
great, so it doesn't matter. Youcan be right in our backyard, or
you could be on the other sideof the country. We can still,
you know, potentially worktogether if it's if it's a good
fit,
Robert Nordlund (17:49):
right? Because you are not sending a manager to
be there at the board meetingyou are. I feel like, is it
right to say the backbone ofrunning, helping run the
operations?
Mitch Gassen (17:59):
Yeah, that's a good way to put it. Basically,
what we wanted to do is, is,there's two ends of the
spectrum. Is we wanted to bridgethe gap between full service
management over here and thoseclients, you know, determining,
do I want to go the full serviceroute? Do I want to go the self
managed route? And how can HOAassist bridge the gap without,
you know, being a burden on onthe association's pocketbook at
(18:23):
the same time, and so that'skind of how HOA assist was born,
is is filling that particulargap. I'm always the first one to
tell people on a sales call thatalthough we work well for a lot
of communities out there, wewouldn't work well for others,
and I'm fine with that. We arenot for every Association. There
is a reason that managementcompanies exist, and that's a
good thing. There arecommunities that need that those
(18:44):
services, absolutely. There arecommunities that do really well,
completely on their own too, butthere's extra burden and
liability with that, and HOAAssist is is here to help those
communities remove that burdenand liability from those that
are that are self managedcurrently, actually, a vast
majority of our clients arecoming from kind of downsizing,
(19:06):
from a management company to toHoa assist to offset certain
costs in the industry right now.
Thank you
Robert Nordlund (19:12):
for sharing that. I'm looking at the time
here, and I want to take a quickbreak, so let me get back to
that and find out where HOAassist fits into the market. Why
it fits there, who it serves.
But at this point in time, let'stake a quick break to hear from
one of our generous sponsors,after which we'll be back to
hear more common sense forcommon areas. Is your
Russell Munz (19:33):
HOA or condo self managed and you don't want to
work as hard volunteering? Areyou full managed and looking to
save money, or are you lookingto split the accounting from a
manager's role for betterservice, let community
financials handle the monthlyaccounting for you. We collect
dues, pay bills, producefinancial reports, include
portals and help with othersupport services, all while
providing awesome service. We'dlove the opportunity to help you
(19:54):
make your community accountingstress free with our industry
leading systems and expert team.
Visit. Our website,communityfinancials.com to learn
more,
Robert Nordlund (20:04):
and we're back.
Well, Mitch, you spoke just amoment ago about how this kind
of bridging the gap fills a needbetween self managed and full
service, and how it's not theright fit for everyone. But talk
to me about that someassociations scaling down and
some association scaling up.
Mitch Gassen (20:25):
Basically, what ends up happening is we find
that there's these communitiesthat end up working with us are
in two different categories. Youcan't afford it, the full
service route, the traditionalroute, or you find that it's
maybe not 100% necessary foryou. Sometimes, you know, some
sort of combination of the two,the ones that are currently full
service end up with kind of talkabout the soup of ingredients,
(20:51):
on how, on how we got here. Theykind of end up going, maybe
they've had a lot of managerturnover. Maybe they've had a
lot of management companychanges over the last few
Robert Nordlund (21:03):
years. Let me stop you right here, because
this speaks a little bit to yourbackground that I know of, but
our audience doesn't know of. Soyou come from a family business
background that involved fullservice management, right? Yes,
sir. Yeah. Okay. So tell ouraudience about that. Yeah.
Mitch Gassen (21:18):
So my granddad, Reggie, he started gas, and
company located here in the TwinCities. It's a full service HOA
management company. He startedgas, and back in 1969 still in
business. Today, my dad ownsgas, and today, I ended up
working there before we startedHOA assist as a as a property
manager for two or three years.
And my business partner as well,Daniel, worked right alongside
(21:42):
me at gas and as a manager. Andthe two of us, just over the
years, just got to talking somuch about the industry and
things that we were noticing. Sowe kind of created this, this
idea to to try to attack thismarket of of these self managed
type of associations, and that'skind of how HOA assist was born.
(22:03):
Was through a study I rememberback in 2016 maybe or 2018 from
Cai, the Community AssociationInstitute, that showed that
about 35 to 40% of all communityassociations across the country
were self managed, which was ahigher number than I thought it
was going to be with the lensthat I had at the time.
Robert Nordlund (22:27):
Your lens was, associations are professionally
full management,
Mitch Gassen (22:32):
right? Okay, so then it was, Why? Why are there
so many that that aren't andcome to find out, you know, it's
either too expensive or notneeded. So that's really what
ended up happening, was how weended up bridging the gap. How
can we package somethingtogether that allows board
members to not do everything ontheir own, but not not cost the
(22:53):
community so much money? So Ialways tell people the three
main pillars of what we're goingto do is, is going to be your
financials. So all the monthlyreporting and accounts payable,
accounts receivable, that stuffthe board members don't have to
worry about. You don't have togo knocking on doors to get you
know, your neighbors,association dues payment every
month, and all that kind ofthing. You don't have to worry
(23:15):
about that. And you shouldn'thave to worry about that board
member, not a debt collector.
The next one would be ourtechnology package. So giving
these boards and thesehomeowners, these communities, a
full service portal, right, amanagement system that helps
them, you know, run livereporting, see their bank
account balance live, seetransactions, live, submit
(23:37):
requests, make payments. Mishmakes it a lot easier for these
board members by piggybackingoff of what we can offer, then
going out into the market justgetting this on your own as a
small
Robert Nordlund (23:50):
community.
Yeah, it's a standalonemanagement package, yeah.
Mitch Gassen (23:54):
And then the last one is kind of your admin and
back office type of service. Soyeah, I always tell boards we
kind of provide a little bit ofa shield between you and the
homeowners, which a lot ofboards really love, so that if
homeowners have questions orphone calls, they can call our
team. They don't have to becalling and emailing and
stopping board membersthroughout the community. We are
(24:16):
kind of their first line ofdefense, whether that be
mailings, e blasts, emails tohomeowners, violations, general
inquiries, all that stuff getsfiltered through my team first,
which allows the board to beable to focus more on board
member tasks. Well,
Robert Nordlund (24:35):
I don't think the word is lead, yeah, yeah.
They're able to lead rather thando, yeah. That's very, very
cool.
Mitch Gassen (24:42):
Really. The main difference, I guess, at that
point, would be removing thephysical body of the management,
of the manager, from the got it.
Okay,
Robert Nordlund (24:49):
all right.
Well, I took you on a heck of atangent. There you were talking
about the difference betweenfull service and finding a spot
where you could scale it down,and you basically created it.
Created. What you saw was aneed, and that's fantastic. Talk
to me from the other end of thescale, and scale it up, from a
self managed association wherethey are, they tired or we
(25:10):
talked talked about earlier,burdened, burned out. This gives
them a life lifeline.
Mitch Gassen (25:21):
Yeah, yeah.
They're essentially just lookingfor help that they that they
don't have, or sometimes it'ssomebody that maybe has been
doing self management within thecommunity that's moved out or
passed on, and the board membersthat are left don't know how to
pick up the pieces, so then theygo and search for a company to
help them fill that void that'snow inside of the the board
(25:43):
member or the community. Sorry.
And so the people that scale upthat look for our services
oftentimes are saying, you know,we we need professional help
because one of the big sellingpoints, or one of the big
reasons that we are important toall of our associations, really,
(26:06):
is the consistency over theperiod of time. Meaning, if
you're a self managed board,you've had Mary doing it one way
for a few years, and then you'vehad Barb doing it one way for a
few years. Now you have Garydoing it one way. And, you know,
fast forward five to 10 yearslater it you could have the
(26:27):
information there somewhere, butyou might have it in an Excel
file over here and, and, youknow, legal pad over here, and
some basement, yeah,
Robert Nordlund (26:39):
for 2020 18 and 2019, it was in that green
notebook that's in the closet,
Mitch Gassen (26:45):
right? And so when you transition to a company like
HOA assist, all that stuff isgoing to be way more consistent.
So as board members change overtime, the meat of the community,
especially when you talk aboutthe financials, stays
accessible. It's being done byprofessionals. And it's, it's,
(27:05):
it's there for the homeowners ifthey request it, because they
Robert Nordlund (27:08):
have the right to I gotta stop you here with
another C word, continuity.
Yeah,
Mitch Gassen (27:13):
definitely this.
This also plays a major rolewhen you when you talk about
bank accounts, because therehave been times that I've helped
our current clients file claimswith the state for unclaimed
funds, meaning a board memberhas moved out of the community
or stopped serving, but theydidn't take themselves off of or
transfer being a signer on theassociation's bank account to
(27:36):
the new board members. Yeah. Andso now fast forward, you have
these funds that haven't beenaccessed, or this account that's
been dormant. Essentially, thestate will take those funds, and
now you have to file a claim totry to get it back. And it's a
it's a process, it's a pain. Andso that doesn't happen when
you're with HOA assist either,because as board members change,
(27:56):
we hold the master signaturecard on behalf of the
Association. That doesn't meanwe could do whatever we want
with your money. It just meansthat when Robert is no longer a
board member and Mitch now isMitch is the one that approves
expenses when Robert used to bebut I don't have to change
signer cards
Robert Nordlund (28:17):
because Robert has moved to Palm Springs or
Fort Lauderdale or somewherelike or something he's out here.
Yeah, okay, and that comes backto what you said at the very
beginning. This is not the rightthing for everyone, and it
sounds like what you've providedis a continuum between the
professional management that isgood for some associations.
(28:40):
You've got this in between leveland what do you call it?
Financial only, or because it'smore than financial only,
Mitch Gassen (28:47):
it is, I'm glad you brought that up. You know,
we our service level and ourcontract is basically a
financial service fee. We're nota management company. We don't
pretend to be one. We don't callourselves that because that's
not who we are. So we arefinancial services and then
(29:07):
some. So I don't, I don't knowthe exact name, I would say that
our company name does a decentjob. We assist the boards,
right? We are HOA assist, and sothere's a lot of different
things that are involved withthat, but I would say that, you
(29:28):
know, if I had to put it in asilo, based on what the industry
would call me, it would befinancial services
Robert Nordlund (29:37):
got it okay, and for the board Members
listening and trying to figureout where this all fits. You
were talking earlier that whatyou provide is hopefully a lot
of value, and that is what kindof percentage of full service
fees?
Mitch Gassen (29:54):
Yeah. So as a general rule, obviously there's
outliers on on either side ofthe bell curve in regard. Hard
to pricing. So if you'recurious, board members, please
contact me. I'd be happy to chatwith you about it. What I've
noticed is it's about a third orso, a quarter to a third of what
you would expect to pay a fullservice management company,
yeah,
Robert Nordlund (30:13):
and for some of you associations, that may mean
a bunch more money than you'veever paid because you've been
self managed for someassociations that may be a bunch
less than you've been paying forsomething that you're capable of
doing and that
Mitch Gassen (30:29):
you or you might be already doing it yourselves.
Board member, maybe you were inthe category of being frustrated
with your management companybecause you've had X amount of
managers, and you're trying totrain the new manager now and
for the third time, and you'rejust like, I'm already managing
the property. Why am I paying X?
I should be paying why?
Robert Nordlund (30:46):
Right? I know more than they do, and I'm
handling the emails. So yeah,when the management company is
stumbling, because, again,management companies are,
they're trying to do a good job,I give them that. But we know
you clients, you're nonprofits,so you're very cost sensitive,
price sensitive, and so salariesand there's turnover, and that's
(31:07):
just part of life in themanagement company world. This
just provides a little morechoices for the board members.
And boy, I ache for those boardmembers who are feeling
burdened, that are on the vergeof burnout. And I think again,
we spoke about it offline. Yougave me some price point
examples. The price point to beable to help that burdened board
(31:30):
member who's thinking, how am Igoing to ever get someone to
replace me? I don't have anytime. I'm I had a job. I want to
be retired. The price point. Youit's very attractive. And I
imagine, okay, let me dosomething else. I imagine
there's other companies in thisworld in between that offer,
(31:52):
okay, yeah, so it's not, it'snot just you in the entire
United States.
Mitch Gassen (31:56):
No, I think there's a lot of other companies
that do a great job of, okay, ofkind of being in the middle. The
way that I look at it is,there's 350 plus 1000
associations in the country. Weall swim in such a large pond
that, you know, if we allservice our portion of the
market, everyone's going to bedoing just fine. And, you know,
(32:19):
it's, it's big enough for all ofus to to be in. So you know, if
h away assist, call me if h wayassist feels like a great fit,
awesome. If not, maybe there'sanother company out there, but
at the end of the day, we justtruly don't want these board
members to not want to serve andbetter their communities because
(32:43):
of things that we could helptake off of their plate. No
Robert Nordlund (32:46):
more struggling is what I'm writing here that
just that just breaks my heart.
When you come in, are youfinding that you rescue some
associations, or are you indeedassisting?
Mitch Gassen (33:00):
I love that. It's a little bit of both, but I
would say we've definitely beenon some rescue missions. I will
tell you that there have beensome, some full blown rescue
missions over the years, but Iwould say most of them are we're
assisting. We work with somephenomenal boards that we value
tremendously. They value ustremendously. It works really,
(33:22):
really well. And you know, wework in tandem, for the most
part, with with our board toassist them.
Robert Nordlund (33:30):
I can imagine that a good fit is a great
thing. Well, thank you, Mitch,It's great talking with you and
having you on the program. Anyclosing thoughts to add at this
time? Yeah,
Mitch Gassen (33:39):
no, it's great to great to be on it. It's always
fun to connect and and talkabout these types of things.
It's something that we're bothpassionate about, right? So, you
know, it's, it's easy to havewhat, 60 minutes go flying by
and feel like you're only
Robert Nordlund (33:53):
20% Wait, wait, wait, did we do 60 minutes? No,
that's not 60, okay,
Mitch Gassen (33:57):
45 or whatever it is. Anyway, time flies. You
know, if I would just say, ifyou are a community that is full
service managed and you'relooking to maybe save money,
feel free to reach out. I'd bemore than happy to have a
conversation with you. Same goesfor if you're currently self
managed and you're looking forsome additional assistance,
(34:17):
that's what we're here for. So Ireally appreciate you, Robert,
having me on it's, it's, it'sgreat to talk about it all, and
hope to do it again.
Robert Nordlund (34:27):
Fantastic.
Well, everyone, if you'd like toget in touch with Mitch, you can
visit their company's website atHOA dash assist.com and you
mentioned that you're notgeographically limited, and
that's a great thing abouttechnology nowadays and again.
Likewise, thanks for respondingto my email and bringing this
from an email conversation to aconversation that we can share
(34:48):
with this podcast audience allacross the country. I hope you
learned some HOA insights fromour discussion today that helps
you bring common sense to yourcommon areas. We look forward to
having you. Join us for anothergreat episode next week.
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Light you.
I think board members should be compensated in
(00:02):
some way, shape or form, and I'mhappy about that conversation,
or like, you know, lobby forthat to happen. Because I don't
think a lot of people reallyrealize how much time and effort
these board members put into itand get drugged through the mud
in doing so, right?
Announcer (00:17):
HOA Insights is brought to you by five companies
that care about board members,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 (00:33):
Welcome back to Hoa insights, common sense, for
common areas. I'm RobertNordlund, and I'm here today for
episode number 115 with aspecial guest I've corresponded
with for years. So today we havewith us on the program Mitch
Gasson of HOA assist. They're acompany dedicated to making sure
the benefits of associationliving outweigh the challenges
(00:53):
by providing cost effective,limited financial management and
board member support services.
HOA assist, by its name, is acompany that lowers the time
commitment and liabilityexposure of board members
managing their association allon their own. We're aware that
many of our listeners are fromself managed associations, and
we wanted to have Mitch on theprogram to give you a sneak peek
(01:14):
at the level of support that cantake a big burden off your
shoulders for a minimal cost.
Well, last week's episode number114 was another conversation
with regular co host Julieadamen on the cycles that we see
pro and con in an Association'shistory. If you missed that
episode or any other priorepisode, take a moment after
(01:37):
today's program to listen fromour podcast website, Hoa
insights.org or watch on ourYouTube channel, but 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 mugthat I have here. It's one of my
(01:57):
favorites with a deterioratedproperty, and the board members
are talking about the budget.
And I got that mug from ourmerch store, which you can
browse through from our Hoainsights.org website, or the
link in our show notes, andyou'll find we have some great
free stuff there, like boardmember zoom backgrounds and some
specialty items for sale, likemy mug. So go to the merch
(02:17):
store, download a free zoombackground, take a moment, look
around, find the mug you'd likeand email me at
podcast@reserves.com with yourname, shipping address and mug
choice, mentioning episode 115mug giveaway, and if you're the
10th person to email me, I'llship you that mug free of
(02:38):
charge. Well, we enjoy hearingfrom you responding to the
issues you're facing at yourassociation. So if you have a
hot topic, a crazy story,actually, we hear plenty of
those, or a question you'd likeus to address, you can contact
us at 805-203-3130, or email usat podcast@reservestudy.com and
(02:58):
this episode was prompted by Pamfrom Dallas, who asked, we're
doing okay running ourassociation by ourselves, but
being self managed makes it hardto get board member candidates.
We feel stuck. Any ideas, let'sget right to it. Mitch, welcome
to the program. And how wouldyou respond to Pam? Yeah,
Mitch Gassen (03:22):
thanks for having me. It's good to be here Robert
and connect with you on this. Iguess the first thing I would
say to Pam is give me a call.
Robert Nordlund (03:32):
Good for you, because you own a business.
Mitch Gassen (03:36):
It's a great question. So the board member
burnout and lack of volunteerismis a real thing that a lot of
communities struggle with. Iwish that there was a way to
have a one size fits all answerfor for PAM and and all the
others out there. Unfortunately,every community is just so
(03:57):
different. You've all have yourown kind of set a DNA, and
there's no situations exactlythe same. But hopefully
something that would berelatively helpful for PAM is to
kind of promote the why, whyserving on the board? It
basically gives them a voice,right? Letting the homeowners
know that if you want change tohappen, this is the best way to
(04:20):
make it happen. You know, youdon't need to be an expert. You
just need to be someone whocares about your association.
Those are the people that canmake a difference. And you know,
maybe you've had people thathave served on the board before
and just don't want to come backto the board. Maybe you have new
homeowners. Sometimes it's it'sokay to start there and look for
a newer homeowner in thecommunity that might want to get
(04:41):
involved, but it's definitely ait's a tough recipe because,
because you don't really knowwho's who has served, who hasn't
served, maybe they just wantnothing to do with with serving.
I moved into this communitybecause I don't want to do
anything. I want to be hands on.
Robert Nordlund (04:56):
Aren't aren't condos, carefree, yeah.
Mitch Gassen (05:00):
Yeah, yeah. And so, Pam, I don't know if this
helps you or not. I certainlyhope it does in some way, but I
would say reinforcing the why ofwhy it's important to serve on
the board, having a sneak peek,a look under the hood of what
the association is actuallyspending their money on those
homeowners, oftentimes, when itaffects when it affects their
(05:20):
pocketbook, they're going to bea lot more interested in serving
on the board and reallyunderstanding what they bought
into, why they get what they getor don't get what they get based
on what the association isbudgeted for. Just gives them a
lot more visibility behind thescenes, and hopefully encourages
them to want to get a little bitmore involved?
Robert Nordlund (05:42):
Well, I want to follow up with at least a couple
of questions here. You talkedabout board member burnout, and
from what I hear, it's burnout,and there's burden. You feel the
burden before you get burnedout. And if you're in a self
managed Association, you're onthe board, you're running the
association, you're a what, onearmed paper hanger. You've got
(06:04):
so many things you're trying toaccomplish, and you already have
a job, and now you got a halftime job. If you're trying to
get someone to and you're tiredbecause you're burdened, then
you're going to have a hard timefinding someone else from your
association to want to take yourjob because you describe it, and
they're going to say, Nope, Iwant to do that, and that can
(06:24):
lead to the burnout. So it seemslike what you offer is a way for
board members to spend less timeworking on the association, and
so they can maybe have ahealthier board member
situation, board memberpopulation. Get new people on
the board. Is that a part ofwhat
Mitch Gassen (06:47):
what you see?
Yeah, it's a good way to put it.
They feel burdened before theyburn out, for sure, especially
with it being an unpaidposition. I have things to say
about that that maybe a lot ofgovernment documents don't agree
with but I think board membersshould be compensated in some
way, shape or form, and I'mhappy to have that conversation,
or like, you know, lobby forthat to happen, because I don't
(07:10):
think a lot of people reallyrealize how much time and effort
these board members put into it,and get drugged through the mud
in doing so, right?
Robert Nordlund (07:18):
You just took me back 30 some years, our
listeners, I think, know mystory, I bought a condominium,
and that got me into thecommunity association world and
eventually into the business. Wehad a board member who was so
frustrated with how poorly we'rebeing served by the associate by
(07:41):
our management company that shequit being a board member and
started a management companythat was her way to get paid for
what she was already doing. Shewas so frustrated that, darn it,
the manager should be doingthis. The manager should be
doing this. Manager should bedoing this. Why am I doing this?
And she said, I can't be paid,at least in California law or
our governing documents, and soshe started a management
(08:03):
company, and we were her firstclient. That was interesting
little twist, and I hadn'treally thought of it that way.
Mitch Gassen (08:10):
Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of homeowners don't
really quite understand just theamount of work that the board
really does, and they're doingit because they want to protect
their asset. They want toprotect the value of what
they've bought into. There's badapples out there. Everybody
knows that, but I would say thevast majority of bad apple the
(08:31):
association are bad apple boardmembers. There are board members
that maybe get on the boardbecause they have an ax to
grind, or there's just, youknow, the wrong motive. But
homeowners that are listeningthat's very few and far between,
most out there are simply doingit for a couple of different
reasons. One, they actuallycare. They truly care about the
(08:54):
place that they live and theywant to make it better. Or two,
they got stuck there, and theyhaven't found a way to get off
the board. Yeah, yeah.
Robert Nordlund (09:03):
Who can I offload this job to?
Mitch Gassen (09:06):
Yeah, it's probably one of those two
things. But the reality of itis, here you are, right. You're
on the board, and you know what?
What do you do? You'recommunicating with vendors.
You're communicating withhomeowners. You are approving
budgets. You have a lot ofresponsibility, according to the
governing documents, to run thebusiness of the HOA. And I think
(09:26):
that's that's where sometimespeople maybe miss the mark. Is
thinking of it as anorganization, a small
organization, that that needs tobe run that way. Because if it's
not you can, you can getsidetracked and go off, off
course, uh, relatively quickly.
But again, you're relying onvolunteers that maybe don't have
(09:50):
that expertise in in theirprofessional career, of of
running an organization likethat. So they're, they're up
against a lot. I oftentimes seethat when a. Homeowner who is
frustrated ends up serving onthe board their their tone
changes pretty quick that, oh, Ididn't realize we had to do all
this. And oh, I realized wedidn't have money to pay for
that well.
Robert Nordlund (10:09):
And then there's the oh, they aren't
stealing. Oh, that is what theinsurance costs nowadays. It's a
Mitch Gassen (10:17):
humbling experience for for the
homeowners, for sure. And again,there are homeowners that have
probably got on the board andfound some of those things that
have been wrong, which isunfortunate,
Robert Nordlund (10:28):
good for them, because that's a change of
leadership that's going toimprove the association.
Mitch Gassen (10:32):
Yep, yep. It's It's definitely one of those
things where, if you are ahomeowner, volunteering is worth
your time for sure, even if it'sfor a short period of time,
maybe it's just one term. Youknow, you have some board
members that have been doing itfor 1020, years. Plus, that's
okay, that's great. But I dothink that homeowners should, at
least, like I said, kind of peekunder the hood for at least a
(10:56):
term, just to understand, youknow, what's really happening
behind the scenes, so they havea better idea. Well,
Robert Nordlund (11:03):
I still think we come from a culture of a lot
of people grew up with theirparents either owned their home
or they knew about rentals. So Iowned a home or was in an
apartment, and there's stillthis cultural change of, well,
we co own it. It's not anapartment where somebody else
manages and we pay the rent tosomebody else. It's well, these
(11:24):
are our expenses. This is ourcommunity. If we want to, we can
decide to replace that 20 yearold sign out front that no
longer looks so sharp. If wewant to, we can open the pool
may 15 instead of Memorial Day.
If we want to. There's so manythings they can decide that
because it's all of a sudden,their eyes open up. It's Our
(11:46):
Community. We can do thismission. Want to follow up, but
you said running the business ofthe association and not getting
distracted. Are you talkingabout another one of the
unfortunate stereotypes of boardmembers who are just chasing
rules and fines and things likethat, or where were you? What
were Yeah,
Mitch Gassen (12:07):
yeah. There's definitely some board members
that are running theircommunity, and it almost feels
to homeowners like they've,they've now. They live in a
prison of of where they boughtinto like, you know, and you
can't have, you know, you'regoing to get a violation and a
letter if you can see this muchof your trash can on the side of
(12:27):
your house. Is that against therules of the HOA? Sure, it might
be. But is it? Is the juiceworth the squeeze to to notify
that homeowner and find them forthat probably not. You know.
It's, it's one of those thingsthat there is some balance
that's required. You know,there's nothing like poking a
new homeowner in the eye andsending them a bunch of
violations when they've neverbeen to this community, rather
(12:50):
than just saying, Hey, I'm notsure if you knew. These are kind
of the guidelines that we go byhere. You know, we don't want
to, we don't want to cause anyissues with a brand new
homeowner, because that happensall the time, too. Someone moves
into an HOA from a prior HOA.
Well, we used to be able to dothis at my old home. It was an
HOA. Well, you can't do thathere. They're all different, and
the way that they're governed isalso different. There's a lot of
(13:13):
ingredients to these. The soupof what makes up an HOA and how
they're run.
Robert Nordlund (13:20):
Ooh, I like that. The soup of what makes an
HOA run. Hey, you also saidsomething very early about if
they want to change something,and it's got to be fundamental
that they care about theassociation. And we've talked
about the four C's, and that'syou need to for board members.
What makes a good board member?
Board members need to care. Theyneed to be curious what is going
(13:42):
on. They need to be courageousto make the decision, and they
need to communicate thatdecision. You also triggered a
couple more thoughts. What theyneed, what they do, they need to
do consistently, but yet, whenyou were talking about the juice
isn't worth the squeeze. Theyneed to keep in mind that we are
building community here. This isnot a rules type place. This is,
(14:05):
let's be humans, let's beneighbors. Is this the place
that we want to live in? Again?
It's It's Our Community. It'snot someone's power trip because
they lost out on being seventhgrade class president and they
still have a chip on theirshoulder as a
Mitch Gassen (14:22):
grown up. Yeah, it's a good way to put it. And
oh, yikes. And you're right.
You're definitely right. Youhave there are times when, you
know, it can be unfortunate tohave someone that is so rules
driven that they just can't letanything go and and it makes it
no longer fun or worth it tosome people to to live in their
(14:50):
community, because they feellike they always have, you know,
a set of eyes on them andthey're always watched. That is
a bummer, because HOAs were.
Really in, you know, in aperfect world, we're talking
about being able to, kind ofprotect yourselves from
situations where HOAs aren't inexistence. Like, for example, at
(15:14):
my home, I live in a greatneighborhood. I love my
neighborhood. 100 yards, maybe150 yards down the road, five,
six houses down. Beautiful home.
Literally got painted like apurple I should find it on, on
on Google, it's, it's just ashame, right? It's just a shame.
Luckily, I can't see itnecessarily from, from where I'm
at. But that stuff doesn'thappen. I feel bad for the
(15:37):
people that live right next toand across from, from this
person, the purple house? Yeah,it's a beautiful home, and it's
just a bummer that it's purple,this goofy looking purple color.
And so those are really thetypes of things that the HOAs
protect you from, being able totake down trees that are dead so
(15:58):
they don't fall on someone'sproperty and hurt or kill
somebody. I mean, there'sprotections in the H in the HOA
that are there for a reason, andit's not always bad I guess if I
had a message to the homeowners,it's not always a bad thing,
yeah,
Robert Nordlund (16:13):
well, I would argue it's a good design for
community living. It lowerscosts because it's economies of
scale. It's less expensive toyou talked about a tree. It's
less expensive to trim the treesfor a 50 unit Association than
you as a single homeowner, needto hire a tree trimmer to tree
(16:33):
your one or two trees at yourhouse. The economies of scale
are great. And in a communityassociation, you can, you can be
1/30 1/20 1/50 1/200 and you canown a pool or two. You pop in
the pool in the summer. Allthese things are they are great.
And I think the vast majority ofcommunity associations are rich
(16:54):
places to live. And I want totalk about that. I want to get
to the topic at hand, but we'reenjoying the background without
being too sensitive, because Idon't want people to know, drive
to your neighborhood and lookfor the purple house. Tell me
about HOA assist. Where in thecountry are you? And does it
(17:17):
matter?
Mitch Gassen (17:18):
Our office is located in the west Metro of the
Twin Cities in in Minnesota. Sothis is home for us, but it
really doesn't matter where,where we work with our clients.
Currently, we are in 18 or 19states and growing, which is
(17:39):
great, so it doesn't matter. Youcan be right in our backyard, or
you could be on the other sideof the country. We can still,
you know, potentially worktogether if it's if it's a good
fit,
Robert Nordlund (17:49):
right? Because you are not sending a manager to
be there at the board meetingyou are. I feel like, is it
right to say the backbone ofrunning, helping run the
operations?
Mitch Gassen (17:59):
Yeah, that's a good way to put it. Basically,
what we wanted to do is, is,there's two ends of the
spectrum. Is we wanted to bridgethe gap between full service
management over here and thoseclients, you know, determining,
do I want to go the full serviceroute? Do I want to go the self
managed route? And how can HOAassist bridge the gap without,
you know, being a burden on onthe association's pocketbook at
(18:23):
the same time, and so that'skind of how HOA assist was born,
is is filling that particulargap. I'm always the first one to
tell people on a sales call thatalthough we work well for a lot
of communities out there, wewouldn't work well for others,
and I'm fine with that. We arenot for every Association. There
is a reason that managementcompanies exist, and that's a
good thing. There arecommunities that need that those
(18:44):
services, absolutely. There arecommunities that do really well,
completely on their own too, butthere's extra burden and
liability with that, and HOAAssist is is here to help those
communities remove that burdenand liability from those that
are that are self managedcurrently, actually, a vast
majority of our clients arecoming from kind of downsizing,
(19:06):
from a management company to toHoa assist to offset certain
costs in the industry right now.
Thank you
Robert Nordlund (19:12):
for sharing that. I'm looking at the time
here, and I want to take a quickbreak, so let me get back to
that and find out where HOAassist fits into the market. Why
it fits there, who it serves.
But at this point in time, let'stake a quick break to hear from
one of our generous sponsors,after which we'll be back to
hear more common sense forcommon areas. Is your
Russell Munz (19:33):
HOA or condo self managed and you don't want to
work as hard volunteering? Areyou full managed and looking to
save money, or are you lookingto split the accounting from a
manager's role for betterservice, let community
financials handle the monthlyaccounting for you. We collect
dues, pay bills, producefinancial reports, include
portals and help with othersupport services, all while
providing awesome service. We'dlove the opportunity to help you
(19:54):
make your community accountingstress free with our industry
leading systems and expert team.
Visit. Our website,communityfinancials.com to learn
more,
Robert Nordlund (20:04):
and we're back.
Well, Mitch, you spoke just amoment ago about how this kind
of bridging the gap fills a needbetween self managed and full
service, and how it's not theright fit for everyone. But talk
to me about that someassociations scaling down and
some association scaling up.
Mitch Gassen (20:25):
Basically, what ends up happening is we find
that there's these communitiesthat end up working with us are
in two different categories. Youcan't afford it, the full
service route, the traditionalroute, or you find that it's
maybe not 100% necessary foryou. Sometimes, you know, some
sort of combination of the two,the ones that are currently full
service end up with kind of talkabout the soup of ingredients,
(20:51):
on how, on how we got here. Theykind of end up going, maybe
they've had a lot of managerturnover. Maybe they've had a
lot of management companychanges over the last few
Robert Nordlund (21:03):
years. Let me stop you right here, because
this speaks a little bit to yourbackground that I know of, but
our audience doesn't know of. Soyou come from a family business
background that involved fullservice management, right? Yes,
sir. Yeah. Okay. So tell ouraudience about that. Yeah.
Mitch Gassen (21:18):
So my granddad, Reggie, he started gas, and
company located here in the TwinCities. It's a full service HOA
management company. He startedgas, and back in 1969 still in
business. Today, my dad ownsgas, and today, I ended up
working there before we startedHOA assist as a as a property
manager for two or three years.
And my business partner as well,Daniel, worked right alongside
(21:42):
me at gas and as a manager. Andthe two of us, just over the
years, just got to talking somuch about the industry and
things that we were noticing. Sowe kind of created this, this
idea to to try to attack thismarket of of these self managed
type of associations, and that'skind of how HOA assist was born.
(22:03):
Was through a study I rememberback in 2016 maybe or 2018 from
Cai, the Community AssociationInstitute, that showed that
about 35 to 40% of all communityassociations across the country
were self managed, which was ahigher number than I thought it
was going to be with the lensthat I had at the time.
Robert Nordlund (22:27):
Your lens was, associations are professionally
full management,
Mitch Gassen (22:32):
right? Okay, so then it was, Why? Why are there
so many that that aren't andcome to find out, you know, it's
either too expensive or notneeded. So that's really what
ended up happening, was how weended up bridging the gap. How
can we package somethingtogether that allows board
members to not do everything ontheir own, but not not cost the
(22:53):
community so much money? So Ialways tell people the three
main pillars of what we're goingto do is, is going to be your
financials. So all the monthlyreporting and accounts payable,
accounts receivable, that stuffthe board members don't have to
worry about. You don't have togo knocking on doors to get you
know, your neighbors,association dues payment every
month, and all that kind ofthing. You don't have to worry
(23:15):
about that. And you shouldn'thave to worry about that board
member, not a debt collector.
The next one would be ourtechnology package. So giving
these boards and thesehomeowners, these communities, a
full service portal, right, amanagement system that helps
them, you know, run livereporting, see their bank
account balance live, seetransactions, live, submit
(23:37):
requests, make payments. Mishmakes it a lot easier for these
board members by piggybackingoff of what we can offer, then
going out into the market justgetting this on your own as a
small
Robert Nordlund (23:50):
community.
Yeah, it's a standalonemanagement package, yeah.
Mitch Gassen (23:54):
And then the last one is kind of your admin and
back office type of service. Soyeah, I always tell boards we
kind of provide a little bit ofa shield between you and the
homeowners, which a lot ofboards really love, so that if
homeowners have questions orphone calls, they can call our
team. They don't have to becalling and emailing and
stopping board membersthroughout the community. We are
(24:16):
kind of their first line ofdefense, whether that be
mailings, e blasts, emails tohomeowners, violations, general
inquiries, all that stuff getsfiltered through my team first,
which allows the board to beable to focus more on board
member tasks. Well,
Robert Nordlund (24:35):
I don't think the word is lead, yeah, yeah.
They're able to lead rather thando, yeah. That's very, very
cool.
Mitch Gassen (24:42):
Really. The main difference, I guess, at that
point, would be removing thephysical body of the management,
of the manager, from the got it.
Okay,
Robert Nordlund (24:49):
all right.
Well, I took you on a heck of atangent. There you were talking
about the difference betweenfull service and finding a spot
where you could scale it down,and you basically created it.
Created. What you saw was aneed, and that's fantastic. Talk
to me from the other end of thescale, and scale it up, from a
self managed association wherethey are, they tired or we
(25:10):
talked talked about earlier,burdened, burned out. This gives
them a life lifeline.
Mitch Gassen (25:21):
Yeah, yeah.
They're essentially just lookingfor help that they that they
don't have, or sometimes it'ssomebody that maybe has been
doing self management within thecommunity that's moved out or
passed on, and the board membersthat are left don't know how to
pick up the pieces, so then theygo and search for a company to
help them fill that void that'snow inside of the the board
(25:43):
member or the community. Sorry.
And so the people that scale upthat look for our services
oftentimes are saying, you know,we we need professional help
because one of the big sellingpoints, or one of the big
reasons that we are important toall of our associations, really,
(26:06):
is the consistency over theperiod of time. Meaning, if
you're a self managed board,you've had Mary doing it one way
for a few years, and then you'vehad Barb doing it one way for a
few years. Now you have Garydoing it one way. And, you know,
fast forward five to 10 yearslater it you could have the
(26:27):
information there somewhere, butyou might have it in an Excel
file over here and, and, youknow, legal pad over here, and
some basement, yeah,
Robert Nordlund (26:39):
for 2020 18 and 2019, it was in that green
notebook that's in the closet,
Mitch Gassen (26:45):
right? And so when you transition to a company like
HOA assist, all that stuff isgoing to be way more consistent.
So as board members change overtime, the meat of the community,
especially when you talk aboutthe financials, stays
accessible. It's being done byprofessionals. And it's, it's,
(27:05):
it's there for the homeowners ifthey request it, because they
Robert Nordlund (27:08):
have the right to I gotta stop you here with
another C word, continuity.
Yeah,
Mitch Gassen (27:13):
definitely this.
This also plays a major rolewhen you when you talk about
bank accounts, because therehave been times that I've helped
our current clients file claimswith the state for unclaimed
funds, meaning a board memberhas moved out of the community
or stopped serving, but theydidn't take themselves off of or
transfer being a signer on theassociation's bank account to
(27:36):
the new board members. Yeah. Andso now fast forward, you have
these funds that haven't beenaccessed, or this account that's
been dormant. Essentially, thestate will take those funds, and
now you have to file a claim totry to get it back. And it's a
it's a process, it's a pain. Andso that doesn't happen when
you're with HOA assist either,because as board members change,
(27:56):
we hold the master signaturecard on behalf of the
Association. That doesn't meanwe could do whatever we want
with your money. It just meansthat when Robert is no longer a
board member and Mitch now isMitch is the one that approves
expenses when Robert used to bebut I don't have to change
signer cards
Robert Nordlund (28:17):
because Robert has moved to Palm Springs or
Fort Lauderdale or somewherelike or something he's out here.
Yeah, okay, and that comes backto what you said at the very
beginning. This is not the rightthing for everyone, and it
sounds like what you've providedis a continuum between the
professional management that isgood for some associations.
(28:40):
You've got this in between leveland what do you call it?
Financial only, or because it'smore than financial only,
Mitch Gassen (28:47):
it is, I'm glad you brought that up. You know,
we our service level and ourcontract is basically a
financial service fee. We're nota management company. We don't
pretend to be one. We don't callourselves that because that's
not who we are. So we arefinancial services and then
(29:07):
some. So I don't, I don't knowthe exact name, I would say that
our company name does a decentjob. We assist the boards,
right? We are HOA assist, and sothere's a lot of different
things that are involved withthat, but I would say that, you
(29:28):
know, if I had to put it in asilo, based on what the industry
would call me, it would befinancial services
Robert Nordlund (29:37):
got it okay, and for the board Members
listening and trying to figureout where this all fits. You
were talking earlier that whatyou provide is hopefully a lot
of value, and that is what kindof percentage of full service
fees?
Mitch Gassen (29:54):
Yeah. So as a general rule, obviously there's
outliers on on either side ofthe bell curve in regard. Hard
to pricing. So if you'recurious, board members, please
contact me. I'd be happy to chatwith you about it. What I've
noticed is it's about a third orso, a quarter to a third of what
you would expect to pay a fullservice management company,
yeah,
Robert Nordlund (30:13):
and for some of you associations, that may mean
a bunch more money than you'veever paid because you've been
self managed for someassociations that may be a bunch
less than you've been paying forsomething that you're capable of
doing and that
Mitch Gassen (30:29):
you or you might be already doing it yourselves.
Board member, maybe you were inthe category of being frustrated
with your management companybecause you've had X amount of
managers, and you're trying totrain the new manager now and
for the third time, and you'rejust like, I'm already managing
the property. Why am I paying X?
I should be paying why?
Robert Nordlund (30:46):
Right? I know more than they do, and I'm
handling the emails. So yeah,when the management company is
stumbling, because, again,management companies are,
they're trying to do a good job,I give them that. But we know
you clients, you're nonprofits,so you're very cost sensitive,
price sensitive, and so salariesand there's turnover, and that's
(31:07):
just part of life in themanagement company world. This
just provides a little morechoices for the board members.
And boy, I ache for those boardmembers who are feeling
burdened, that are on the vergeof burnout. And I think again,
we spoke about it offline. Yougave me some price point
examples. The price point to beable to help that burdened board
(31:30):
member who's thinking, how am Igoing to ever get someone to
replace me? I don't have anytime. I'm I had a job. I want to
be retired. The price point. Youit's very attractive. And I
imagine, okay, let me dosomething else. I imagine
there's other companies in thisworld in between that offer,
(31:52):
okay, yeah, so it's not, it'snot just you in the entire
United States.
Mitch Gassen (31:56):
No, I think there's a lot of other companies
that do a great job of, okay, ofkind of being in the middle. The
way that I look at it is,there's 350 plus 1000
associations in the country. Weall swim in such a large pond
that, you know, if we allservice our portion of the
market, everyone's going to bedoing just fine. And, you know,
(32:19):
it's, it's big enough for all ofus to to be in. So you know, if
h away assist, call me if h wayassist feels like a great fit,
awesome. If not, maybe there'sanother company out there, but
at the end of the day, we justtruly don't want these board
members to not want to serve andbetter their communities because
(32:43):
of things that we could helptake off of their plate. No
Robert Nordlund (32:46):
more struggling is what I'm writing here that
just that just breaks my heart.
When you come in, are youfinding that you rescue some
associations, or are you indeedassisting?
Mitch Gassen (33:00):
I love that. It's a little bit of both, but I
would say we've definitely beenon some rescue missions. I will
tell you that there have beensome, some full blown rescue
missions over the years, but Iwould say most of them are we're
assisting. We work with somephenomenal boards that we value
tremendously. They value ustremendously. It works really,
(33:22):
really well. And you know, wework in tandem, for the most
part, with with our board toassist them.
Robert Nordlund (33:30):
I can imagine that a good fit is a great
thing. Well, thank you, Mitch,It's great talking with you and
having you on the program. Anyclosing thoughts to add at this
time? Yeah,
Mitch Gassen (33:39):
no, it's great to great to be on it. It's always
fun to connect and and talkabout these types of things.
It's something that we're bothpassionate about, right? So, you
know, it's, it's easy to havewhat, 60 minutes go flying by
and feel like you're only
Robert Nordlund (33:53):
20% Wait, wait, wait, did we do 60 minutes? No,
that's not 60, okay,
Mitch Gassen (33:57):
45 or whatever it is. Anyway, time flies. You
know, if I would just say, ifyou are a community that is full
service managed and you'relooking to maybe save money,
feel free to reach out. I'd bemore than happy to have a
conversation with you. Same goesfor if you're currently self
managed and you're looking forsome additional assistance,
(34:17):
that's what we're here for. So Ireally appreciate you, Robert,
having me on it's, it's, it'sgreat to talk about it all, and
hope to do it again.
Robert Nordlund (34:27):
Fantastic.
Well, everyone, if you'd like toget in touch with Mitch, you can
visit their company's website atHOA dash assist.com and you
mentioned that you're notgeographically limited, and
that's a great thing abouttechnology nowadays and again.
Likewise, thanks for respondingto my email and bringing this
from an email conversation to aconversation that we can share
(34:48):
with this podcast audience allacross the country. I hope you
learned some HOA insights fromour discussion today that helps
you bring common sense to yourcommon areas. We look forward to
having you. Join us for anothergreat episode next week.
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