Soft People Skills on projects with no cash on hand

The goal is to optimize the chances of getting the needed owner votes to build reserves.

Regular presentations to owners by companies that perform reserve studies are essential, in my opinion. The reserve company staff will speak to infrastructure as well as budgeting (read: the need to increase assessments, with exact figures presented, ultimately, probably spread over several years). Take questions. Then be ready: After several months of discussion, the few owners in your condo will either support reserve funding, or they will not. One has to accept when they have done all they could, especially with a tiny association with less than six units, say.

This presentation should be repeated at least once a year, to drive home the point. Repeat and repeat again.

As much as people like to use the phrase "soft skills," it is still just a metaphor. No "soft skills" silver bullet exists. The need to build reserves either sells itself based on an emotion-free presentation of the condition of infrastructure, or it is "no sale."

A HOA is only funded by it's members for it's members. It is a non profit but charitable one. No one can donate for a tax write off.

If your HOA needs something it needs to raise funds by raising dues or special assessment. If you think a loan will save you, then you are not factoring in loan payments to your monthly costs.

Sooner or later your going to have to swallow the hard truth. Volunteering only gets you so far.

I checked it out. Very good. This is a very powerful tool that the OP should wield.

I’d start with reminding people of Surfside – in fact, I posted a link to an article on an upcoming Florida state law that discusses structural reports, their effect on reserves in condo communities – and why a whole lot of people in the Sunshine state have heavy decisions to make. Here’s a link - https://www.hoatalk.com/Forum/tabid/55/forumid/1/postid/369148/view/topic/Default.aspx

As Lori, one of the Florida posters noted, Surfside happened in part because the owners refused to pony up the money for repairs, although they were told (more than once) that problems were developing. No one could have predicted the building collapsing, but when you don’t make plans to expect the worst and hope for the best – or do regular maintenance – things can happen, and life won’t always wait until you’ve moved out.

You said you’re aware of a case where an emergency repair was necessary and all but one helped out except for one owner and now he/she’s being sued. That’s another story you can share with your neighbors. Assuming that association did everything correctly, there’s a good chance this owner will lose and have to pay his/her legal fees, the association’s fees (if they were smart enough to request them if they should win) AND the special assessment. That doesn’t make any sense, but people shoot themselves in the foot like this all the time.

It IS a pain in the butt to consider that you might not be able to go on vacation or buy a new car or even upgrade your refrigerator because your association needs money to pay for new roofing that you’ve put off for 10 years because everyone was screaming about not having the money and assessments “being too high” anyway. I’ve lived in my townhouse community for over 20 years and have learned (sometimes painfully) that homeownership is not, nor has it ever been cheap. When you live in a community where people share in the expenses related to upkeep of the common areas (that you all own), there are times where you have to make difficult decisions and can’t just yell at the board or the property manager. I know you want to be nice about this, but depending on what needs to happen, that may no longer be an option. You can be professional and firm in what you say and should be willing to answer as many questions as are asked.

I’d also share the numbers with the homeowners, along with a little past history -show them how costs have increased since the building was built (that’s as simple as plugging numbers in the inflation calculator – google it and knock yourself out). Encourage people to do their own research and come up with better options – maybe there are some no one’s thought of yet, but also remind them the days of super low assessments and no reserves are gone forever, and starting now, the association budget will be based on reality, not fantasy. After that, people need to make up their own minds and it’s possible some still won’t get it. Good luck to you.

"Socializing" is a poor euphemism for "nagging."

Nagging never works.

Excellent!