Changing HOA Management Company

I am new to all of this so I definitely need some education. We have our annual meeting this September 26th and I am looking at changing our HOA Company. A few of us are finding that association dues have increased dramatically yet services are being cut. How would I go about gathering information on other Associations in terms of their dues and services provided? Would any one be able to speak about this?

Are you on the board? Normally the board makes the decisions on running the HOA, such as hiring/firing the management company. Are you just trying to get comparative info to present to the board at this point? You could try contacting board members in nearby associations, but unless they have a public web site that is easily findable by search engines, that might be hard to do.

Dye,

One thing to keep in mind is that comparing associations is like comparing apples and oranges.

There may be deliquency issues (with assessments), different amenities, self managed vs. MC, strength of reserves, etc.

The best thing, in my opinion, would be to ask for the minutes of the meetings for the past year and view the financial statements made to the Board.

The amount of assessments needed are simple to calculate (for the year):

A) Determine Expenses:

1) List all expected expenses (contracts, utilities, insurance, etc.)

2) Estimate (based on past history) the amount needed for admin costs, legal fees, miscellaneous items, bank fees, financial reviews, etc.

3) Determine (based on the reserve study) how much should be placed into the reserves each year.

4) Estimate (based on the reserve study) the costs of any expected maintenance or repairs that will be done this year.

B) Determine all income other than assessments:

1) Estimate (based on past history) the amount of interest the Association may earn on your bank accounts (or don't count the interest at all if it's a small amount)

2) Estimate (based on past history) the amount of other income the Association may receive for things like Disclosure packages, etc. (don't include monetary penalties for violations, as you should never plan that violations will occur).

3) Determine (based on reserve study) the amount of money that will be transferred from the reserves to pay for the expected maintenance or repairs of capital components.

C) Calculate Assessments:

Add together the items under A (total expenses)
Add together the items under B (total income less assessments)
Subtract total income from total expenses.
The answer is the amount of assessments needed for the year

Divide the amount of assessments needed by number of lots/units to determine annual assessment