Category: Association Operations

Talk of “green” homes and buildings these days often evokes images of roof gardens, solar panels, and even wind turbines humming in the background. For most condos and HOAs however, “going green” comes incrementally, in much smaller mea…

 The emergence of environmental problems and the corresponding need to reduce  carbon emissions, combined with tough economic conditions worldwide, is leading  more multifamily residential communities to work toward conserving energy and  …

 Real estate professionals, developers and builders are all reporting the same  thing: today’s homebuyers who are looking for maximum value are asking for more than granite  countertops and hardwood floors. They want energy savings and gre…

 When one thinks of Princeton, New Jersey, the first thing that comes to mind is  the Ivy League university that put the town on the map—and with good reason. Perennially ranked in the top handful of colleges in the  country and with an en…

Many directors serving on the boards of co-op corporations and condominium communities assume that once they have secured the appropriate coverage for their properties, their problems are largely over. Unfortunately, problems in the in…

No matter what the profession or position, it’s difficult to work where you live. For condo and HOA board members, that can certainly be the case. These volunteers must make decisions that impact not only the bottom line, but their frie…

Though often responsible for millions of dollars in property and charged with the oversight of complex building functions, few co-op/condo board members are real estate professionals. Board members are resident volunteers who come from …

Most condo and HOA residents understand that there is a board protecting the interests of their community and individual owners—they’ve probably taken part in numerous board elections, served on committees or volunteered on behalf of th…

Unlike individual apartment owners’ insurance coverage, most co-ops, condos, and HOAs’ insurance policies are pretty standard—they include homeowners’ insurance, liability, and umbrella coverage. Usually, a building’s common areas—such as…

The economic crisis has affected many individuals, businesses and markets—the real estate and job markets, to name just two particularly nasty examples. Until now, one of the few industries that didn’t seem as deeply impacted was the ins…