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In early 2020, our firm was hired to prepare a reserve study for an unremarkable 136-unit, 12-story condominium in south Florida. It was the kind of association you could drive right by without noticing, not much different from all the othe…
In our current environment of steeply rising costs, it’s more important than ever to safeguard your reserves to ensure that your association has sufficient funds available for immediate and future capital projects. Unfortunately, many assoc…
A recent article on a real estate website posed a common question: What’s the best way for a condo board to collect unpaid common charges? The author of the article - presumably an attorney - gave some pretty good advice…and some not so g…
Like baseball players, condo and co-op owners are often creatures of habit. Settled into their units, they’re used to costs rising over time, but on a regular and predictable basis. That means once a year - usually in January - and by a co…
The Community Associations Institute (CAI) estimates that 74 million Americans live in communities managed by homeowners associations, of which condos account for 35% to 40%. That’s a lot of people - many of whom may be in for a nasty shock…
One truism of home ownership is that there is always something that needs to be fixed or upgraded. That’s true in condo and co-op communities as well, both large and small. There’s always a roof to replace or a boiler to upgrade, or a lobby…
The vast majority of co-op and condominium boards are well intentioned and work diligently with their management and accountants to draft and monitor their annual budgets—and recalibrate them as necessary. Despite their best efforts to keep…
According to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the median annual property tax paid by homeowners was $2,578 in 2019, or 1.03 percent of home value - not a huge percentage on average, but many households pay far more than this bas…
When a homeowner, landlord, or co-op corporation needs to fund a large capital project, they have the option of securing a loan with their real estate. In all those cases, a conventional mortgage - a loan secured by real property - is the m…
It’s a question we’re asked all the time: "Can we use reserves to cover an operating fund shortfall?" Under normal circumstances, our standard response would be an emphatic “No!” -- because reserves are for major repair and replacement proj…