Residential co-op, condo, and HOA board members volunteer to help manage day-to-day life in their building or community, allocating their time to actively participate in decisions that affect the place they call home. They oversee crucial a…
It’s a constant refrain in multifamily governance and management: open, transparent communication between boards, managers, and residents is vital to running a building or HOA effectively and equitably. Unresponsive, disconnected leadership…
Q. I was a member of our three-person association condo board for approximately one year. I resigned after I realized the other two people were having secret meetings and making decisions without my input, and bringing their 2-to-1 vote t…
With many associations currently earning significant interest income on their reserve accounts, it may come as a surprise that associations have to pay federal income taxes on that income. Even more surprising is that the applicable tax rat…
Managing or administering a multifamily community like a condo, HOA, or co-op building is a lesson in balancing diverse, sometimes conflicting interests and priorities for the collective good. In buildings and associations where residents l…
If you picture a specific American city in your head, what do you see? Its buildings, most likely. Cities come to be known and represented by their iconic buildings, one part often standing in for the whole: think the Empire State or Chrysl…
Back in the spring of 2017, a Boston couple was brutally murdered in their penthouse apartment in a high-end condominium building. The perpetrator was a former employee of a company that supplied concierge services to the condo, and so knew…
Over the past few years, nearly all property owners, including shared interest communities, have seen sharp increases in their insurance premiums. That costs have spiraled and coverage gotten harder to obtain is obvious; the questions are, …
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 ass…
There’s no such thing as too much education—and that’s especially true in the realm of multifamily property management. Keeping one’s skills sharp and knowledge base both broad and current is a must for all management professionals, regardl…