Here are some creative initiatives your condo board can take on with your condo association.
Leverage the Condo Association with Direct TV.
Maybe your property has a mix of cable and internet providers and can leverage group buying power through the condo association or HOA. If properly wired, Direct TV can have all residential units feed from one satellite dish, eliminating the satellite dish skyline and wiring mess in and on top of your condominium building. You have to call Direct TV’s MDU Division (Multi-Dwelling Unit) for this kind of deal. I think its worth checking out. Here is the link to the Direct TV MDU webpage Direct TV MDU.
Use a Condominium Association Credit Card
Pay condo association bills on time while helping with the cash flow by charging it. Go through the condo association vendor list and find out who takes credit cards. If your vendors accept credit cards, your condo association can rack some points over the year that can be redeemed at place like Home Depot for new community grill. If you’re a small condo association, American Express provides great financial reporting at the end of the year that will certainly help you keep the books.
Collect Condo Fees from Credit Cards
Your condo association can do this through most banks. This is a great way to collect total funds needed for larger capital assessments. It’s another way to increase your condo association reserves and minimize accounts receivable and default risk.
Secure an HOA Loan or Condo Association Loan
Regardless what your condo reserve or budget looks right now, every condo association should have one have a HOA Credit Line. The cost is nothing or minimal to open a HOA Credit Line and it’s becoming more acceptable practice for condo associations and home owner associations to use one. Current HOA loan rates can be anywhere from 6.5% to 8% and condo associations usually have a choice of amortization schedules. HOA loans and lines of credits are usually secured by the right to assess condo owners.
Take your Condo Association on a Green Initiative
How can this be a bad thing? There is a plethora of content available on the Internet on how to go green, but basically it’s about energy conservation in our condo buildings, which I’m sure we can all do greener. Maybe switch from oil to gas or other alternative energy sources, use faucets and toilets that use less water, put in energy saving light bulbs – they’re more expensive, but will last a lot longer.
Start a Condo Association Website
There are many different condo association website service providers that specialize in hosting condo websites and all you need to do is update it on a regular basis. A condo association website will help raise the property value and enhance communications with condo boards and condo owners.
Start your own Condominium Association Loyalty Program
This is interesting – I stumbled upon this the other day: www.condoperks.com. Evidently this service combines a condo association website with a shopping portal, where as condo association members make purchases at affiliated retailer, the condo association gets a percentage of the sales. Looks like its only available in few metropolitan cities right now and they’re still growing their business concept. They're definitely worth keeping an eye on.
