Condos Townhomes and Home Owner Associations: How to make your investment safer
This detailed book is written to help board members learn basic financial principles that will protect and preserve owner s investments and eliminate the need for special assessments. Aimed at promoting financial soundness within community associations, this book focuses primarily on the importance of reserve studies and reserve funding. The message is supported with information that goes beyond a discussion of reserves. It also touches on the areas that underlie and affect reserve funding: budget development, preventive maintenance, cost projections and estimates, collections, effective board functioning and the value of good management.Contains multiple charts and diagrams illustrating various reserve systems for condominiums, homeowner associations, high-rise buildings and conversions. Loaded with examples, checklists and sample documents.Community Asscociations Institute © 2010--Community Asscociations InstituteBetter training of board members bolsters associationPatrick Hohman was president of his aging brick condominium community in Louisville, Ky., when he realized the property needed serious renovation. Winter utility costs were up 250 percent over a four-year period, but monthly assessments stayed the same. The buildings, which date to the 1940s and 1950s, were due for pricey window replacements and attic insulation. That was just the start. A long-range plan was needed as well.At first Hohman s fellow board members resisted his ideas. They didn t see the need. But Hohman, a technical writer, issued a series of illustrated memos to explain such concepts as how reserve funding saves money in the long run and how building components work. Eventually the board came around. The initial improvements were made, and the association is now following a 30-year reserve study.Hohman expanded his memos and recently published a colorful 264-page board training manual, Condos, Townhomes and Home Owner Associations: How to Make Your Investment Safer (Amazon, $39.95). The book details how to create a financially strong community and includes sample budgets, reserve studies and maintenance checklists for various building types. Hohman s Web site, CondoHOAinfo.com, offers 19 free mini-training videos.Association living won t go away on this crowded and aging planet, said Hohman. There will be more associations and more board members who need to be trained about how to operate their properties. Good financial stewardship is the only way they ll survive economically.Copyright Â© 2010, The Chicago Tribune--Chicago Tribune