Condo administration cost (HOA dues)?

[ncbill]

6% here but it is a townhome community so everything done outside is the responsibility of the HOA which needs a property manager to handle landscaping, pool maintenance, sidewalk/pavement repair (private road), etc.

 

[Souschef]

Please forgive me for getting long winded, but after being Treasurer of an HOA for 25 years, I have some experience.
In general, there are 2 kinds of developments; in Florida they are mostly apartment style condos. In other places, like mine, they are townhouse developments, where each unit has an entrance to the outside.
In general, the HOA fees cover management, common area utilities and maintenance, repairs, and a reserve.
The reserve covers money set aside for future replacement of items,depending on their life, such as roofs, fences, pool equipment, etc.
If an HOA does not have adequate reserves, every time something big needs replacement, there has to be a special assessment.
In the case of the condo collapse in Florida, the homeowners dithered for years about making necessary repairs, and we know the result.

 

[slowsaver]

We are having a tough time getting people to volunteer for the HOA board, and it looks as if we may have to hire a professional management company instead of our DIY approach.

If so, it will obviously raise our monthly dues, so I would appreciate hearing with others pay. If it's enough, it may induce some to decide volunteering would be in their best interests

If you have a professional management firm for your HOA, can you tell me about how much they cost per homeowner?

It will be some percentage of your monthly payment, and you may not have an exact budget breakdown that shows it, but a ballpark figure would be great.

Our HOA management company charges us $1,207.50 per month. There are 36 units, so it's about $33.50 per unit per month. The total dues are $322 per month per unit.

They charge extra whenever we ask them to do anything beyond the minimum. We also have to have 2 or 3 volunteer board members, who attend 4 meetings per year. The meeting is run by the HOA management company.

So, if you're having a hard time getting people to volunteer for the board -- a management company doesn't really help. You still need board members. If you can't get enough board members, then the HOA goes into "receivership" and you have to hire a lawyer to join the board (at lawyer-prices). This condo is in California, so YMMV.

 

[Murph]

I’m the board president for a 21 unit condo association. We pay $315/mo for our HOA mgt company (Knoxville area). While that’s low, be mindful that you get what you pay for. And the manager assigned to you makes a big difference.

 

[Cerys]

Besides the issue of paying for the professional management. Changing to one often means (to my cynical mind) that the costs for landscaping, lawn mowing, snow removal, pool maintenance, etc., etc. ALL rise ~10% as a hidden cost due to a sudden need to change to the companies the management "prefers".

Late husband and I owned a janitorial company, working exclusively at condominium HOA’s. We went through several property management changes, and we stayed with the properties.

One of the last companies that came on board was a total maintenance company and they did, after a year find a way to get rid of us.

And I was happy about it. Their way of managing a property was to do nothing as the place fell apart and then blame everybody else. Including us, for maintenance issues. The board called them out on that one. We cleaned, we didn’t fix. They only lasted a year and a half. At that point I was embroiled in my husband’s terminal diagnosis and closed the business.

 

[RobbieB]

I've been an owner in one HOA townhouse development and a renter in another. The differences between the 2 were staggering.

#1 Huntington Beach, CA supported 2 pools, 2 hot tubs, a clubhouse with a pool table, a basketball court as well as all the courtyards and landscaping and charged $50/mo

#2 Pleasanton, CA, had no pools, no hot tubs, did have a BB court in the middle of the "common area" and charged $230/mo.

The water damage from the leaking roof was evident in the upstairs rooms in #2. I guess they waited too long to fix the roof and now had a massive upcharge to pay the bill.

Number 2 is why I'll never do HOA.

 

[sheehs1]

My second home is a condo.(low rise, no elevators, has pool) There are 108 condos. Our annual revenue/budget is $450,920. We pay the Management Company $27,550 a year. This is 6.1% of revenues/budget.
Our monthly dues are $365/mth for each unit=$4,380/year/owner
$27,550 to the Management company divided by 108 units = $255/yr/unit
$255/unit/yr divided by $4380/unit/yr = 5.8% of the HOA fee per unit/yr

Management Company manages the complex subject to the HOA Board decisions, handles the financials and bill paying, reserve studies, other maintenance and lawn care contracts, construction contracts subject to Board approval, attends the quarterly meetings, sends out proxies, handles emergencies such as water cut offs, front gate not working, etc.

We have 5 Board Members. I am one of them. We have recently had to form committees because our Management Company lacked attention to a couple of construction projects last year. So we now have a construction committee who oversees construction projects along with the Management Company.

 

[Urchina]

Ours is a 45-unit association with HOA fees of $455 per month.

Last month we paid our professional property management, who handles bookeeping, taxes, insurance, routine and emergency maintenance and repairs, and other assorted sundry issues $1242.00, or $27.60 per unit.

The HOA fees cover all building components / maintenance from the interior finishes out (includes plumbing, roofs, etc.), as well as swimming pool, landscape, collective insurance, parking lot, exterior lighting, and water / hot water / sewer fees.

We also have an active volunteer board that handles oversight of all contractors, the property management agency, and decides on budget.

From the horror stories friends have told regarding their HOA boards making ill-informed decisions or sometimes outright illegal ones, with significant financial repercussions, I consider the counsel we receive from our management firm alone to be utterly worth their cost.

 

[sheehs1]

My second home is a condo.(low rise, no elevators, has pool) There are 108 condos. Our annual revenue/budget is $450,920. We pay the Management Company $27,550 a year. This is 6.1% of revenues/budget.
Our monthly dues are $365/mth for each unit=$4,380/year/owner
$27,550 to the Management company divided by 108 units = $255/yr/unit
$255/unit/yr divided by $4380/unit/yr = 5.8% of the HOA fee per unit/yr

Management Company manages the complex subject to the HOA Board decisions, handles the financials and bill paying, reserve studies, other maintenance and lawn care contracts, construction contracts subject to Board approval, attends the quarterly meetings, sends out proxies, handles emergencies such as water cut offs, front gate not working, etc.

We have 5 Board Members. I am one of them. We have recently had to form committees because our Management Company lacked attention to a couple of construction projects last year. So we now have a construction committee who oversees construction projects along with the Management Company.

I forgot to add that our HOA board is also "volunteer". Had it been a self managed board, I doubt I would have volunteered. The Management Company does the heavy lifting for the operational detail of all financials and common areas, insurance, pest control, etc. For roughly 5% to 6% of revenues, it is worth it.
I recently looked at other condo complexes thinking I might want a larger condo. One had a self managed HOA. They have had 2 yearly assessments the last 2 years of $17,000 per unit and another is expected. I would never buy into a condo complex with a Self Managed HOA.
We set aside anywhere between 20% to 25% of revenues to the Reserve Fund each year, have 1.1 million currently in Reserves and are financially stable. It is built into the HOA fee. Every Realtor I have talked with the last couple of years tells me that is not the norm.

Braumeister, perhaps if a Management Company is hired, more people would volunteer to be on your Board. ?

 

[eytonxav]

I live in a gated community of 106 homes, with front yard maintenance included. We have BOD and a management company. The management company handles all the financial matters and deals with the complexes maintenance with contractors and issue with homeowners. We have extensive common area grounds, two ponds, complex irrigation system, a basketball court, and playground. The management fee is for 2022 is $181/resident.

 

[karen1972]

The cost of the actual management company is $12/door/month (EDIT: thats on 350 units to help understand scale, though builder is still building and I heard it may drop to $8/door/month once we are at 500 units) That service includes them being responsible for
- all money collections
- legal actions
- managing fines
- managing move in/move out (ie transfer of ownership and paperwork needed for closings)
- Web page management (including posting our monthly finance reports, etc)
- Paying the bills, depositing the checks, reconciling, and all financial reports, ensuring tax preparation and auditing.
- Hiring and managing all our contractors for all the services in the community
- Handling maintenance requests, security concerns, etc.
- Consolidating requests for community improvements
- Sending out emails for board meetings, keeping meeting minutes, scheduling a place (as we dont' have one on premise), printing of ballots and ensuring elections are run according to by-laws

I'm sure I'm missing some stuff, but thats the minimum the HOA management company does. We still have a board, but that board is really there to make final decisions, not deal with the day to day of a shingle fell off a roof.

At my last place we did shop around for management companies and that price will vary depending on how much you want them to do as some of them just do money collection, some of them do almost everything (which is our scenario).

 

[ShokWaveRider]

We live in a Gated SFH Development of 600 homes. We do use a Management company but I do not know the cost of them.

We get irrigation, landscaping (Florida so 365 maintenance), road maintenance, tree trimming, park maintenance, 2 community parks, all common area maintenance, 2 Manned guard gates, security patrol. The Club house is a private golf course and is extra, we are not members (Hate Golf).

Total Monthly for that is: $318 per month. We have an elected Board of Volunteers. Management company attends every meeting.

 

[googily]

The second home I just purchased in Wyoming is in an HOA and then a sub HOA of that. It's a large community with lots still being sold and new houses being built, and those pay I think $85 for general common space maintenance. I am in a section of patio homes where we pay $370 total, $85 to the main HOA and then the rest for landscaping, irrigation, snow removal, trash pickup, water and sewer, and then a monthly amount going to the reserve because this sub HOA is responsible for the exteriors of the patio homes--roofs, siding, gutters, and some other things (not windows, alas!). I just closed within the past few weeks so I don't know how well or not well the HOA works, but fingers crossed, since the HOA coverage of all of those things is exactly what I will be in need of since I won't be here all year. (Have seen the landscapers at work and the trash has been picked up, at least!)

It's on a golf course, but club membership--which would include the beautiful pool and tennis courts--is separate.

 

[sroby2020]

Our HOA went with a management company about 20 years ago. However, their still must be volunteer residents to be on the board of the HOA. The 2 are mutually exclusive. We still have problems getting volunteers. The Management company handles the collections, payments, deed violations, and other legal issues. Volunteers must still approve homeowner architectural requests.

 

[badatmath]

I don't live in a condo but the HOA management company fee per year is about $175 (out of my normal dues).