Licensing HOA Managers in CO

While I agree CAI has some benefits, I have many issues with the organization, especially in the legislative arena.

For what a company or individuals gets out of the education, the costs are quite prohibitive. To go all the way to a PCAM, you have an investment of $9000.00 with annual fees of almost $400.00. Each course has a price tag of $500.00. IMO, pretty steep.

I feel it is the responsibility of the management companies to insure that there employees and managers are properly training in the roles they play with the associations they represent. The other issue is for private managers working as General Managers for larger or more complex associations.

Then you have the issue of volunteers serving as Board members of self-managed associations. Shouldn't they also have some form of training? There might be more of a risk with a self-managed association, because who really is watching the Board?

I am working on a proposal setting up a department that oversees homeowner associations. There are too many associations and people residing in these communities that have really no voice.

I question bringing up transfer fees. These fees are between the seller/buyer and the management company, not the HOA. I have done hundreds of escrow requests and have had maybe two complaints on these fees.

I am just speaking from experience.

I have been pondering CAI, its history, the history of common interest communities, and the many problems with HOA volunteer boards. I believe the history of HOAs is a chapter in the history of American capitalism at work in real estate. I wonder whether HOAs are so different from City Councils. It is the formation of statutes that allow cities and so city councils to form. Likewise deeds and recordings of governing documents with counties are a large part of why HOAs come into existence.

I wonder if a lot of the problems with HOA boards would be solved by making the director and intense labor officer positions paid. Apathy might go down a lot for a number of reasons. Candidates for boards would run the same way candidates for City Councils run, but on a smaller scale. A humble salary for HOA directors might bring some retirees and so talent out of the woodwork, willing to work like a dog as long as they received some nominal compensation.

Directors of publicly held corporations receive enormous salaries. In lawsuits, members of HOAs are sometimes referred to as shareholders.

For large HOAs, I figure a nominal salary for each director would amount to around 5% of the annual budget. Might the cost-benefit justify such wages?

Some HOA governing documents do allow directors to be paid. Other HOA's governing documents would require an amendment.

Pay depends on where the HOA is, and correlates most with the size of the HOA budget. In LA & the Coachella Valley (Palm Springs), we see $50,000 to past $200,000/ann., which includes bonuses and housing (if any).

See Davis-stirling.com, Management Survey.