Condo Association Management Blog

My background is in mortgage lending and banking prior to starting my collection agency. 
 
The best way to determine what you will get the most out of with respect to improvements is to go view some of the upgrades and features that other associations have in your market (young professionals). You will then see what's available in the market place and possibly some ideas on how to stand out. 
 
A word to the wise, you will never (or very, very rarely) receive a dollar for dollar increase in value for improvements made. Improvements to the community should be made for the enjoyment and use of the residents. The idea of adding amenities in pursuit of higher property value is folly. For example, if you go to buy a house and one particular house has a master bath with a double sink and granite counter top, but there are five other houses at or very near the same price as the one you looked at; you will likely buy the one with the double sink and granite. However, when you look at it from the seller's standpoint, they did not recoup the full amount spent on the granite and double sink. I will never recoup my investment in such a thing if I go to sell my house. What it will do is make mine stand out in the eyes of the buyer so I will be at the top of the list. 
 
Your community is the same way. Why would a buyer spend lots of extra money on a unit in your association with higher than average assessments when they can go down the street to buy a unit that is substantially similiar and a very similar price. 
 
Darron Hay 
 
HOA Receivables Management

Thank you Darron. It's very true. We did go out and look at our competition properties (and in Wash DC that's a lot) and found that they tended to have some of the above and there was a specific demand for at least part of the list. That's where the real challenge is coming in - for the same monthly fee or $20 less they can get those things just down the street (in every direction) in a newer property too. Many of our residents have made major upgrades on the interiors of their units - kitchen and bath stuff so thinking do we need to make the outside as competitive as the inside. Overall we have some of the largest units in the area with amazing windows and layout which is our key selling point now... but losing out in the other areas. Tough to balance all of these things isn't it?

I don't know how your bylaws read, but mine say no alterations can be made to the common areas unless there is a 2/3 majority vote by ALL of the owners. My board of directors had a landscaping plan drawn up, and to implement it would have cost $46,000! We only have two buildings or 32 units, and our yearly income is only about $66,000 which we need for operating expenses and replacement projects. The plan had an area for barbecuing complete with cement flooring and three permanent metal / shingled canopies with open-air sides. Each building was to have literally 275 new plantings around it including shrubs and flowering bushes and perennial flowers, including the backside area of the buildings which nobody ever sees. Our maintenance man is incapable of even keeping our grass watered let alone keeping up with watering new plants and bushes that need pruning. If I had wanted a fancy barbecue area, I would have bought into a condo complex that had one in the first place. I could just imagine all kinds of problems with the barbecue area what with noise, foot traffic, trash, visitors' cars, late-night drinking, etc. I would not want to have a condo anywhere near it. This proposed landscaping plan also had three 80-foot by 10-foot "community" gardening areas to be dug up where individual owners could do their own gardening. Can you imagine what a mess that would have been as the summer dragged on and people lost interest, let alone the privacy compromised for those located near the area. The landscaping plan fell through, thank heavens. For some people the status quo is fine, and we don't want our association dues raised and our property changed. All of your ideas sound lovely, really lovely, and I am sure they would make the property look very nice, but people who bought into your association in the first place must be respected. Not everyone loves Disneyland.