HOA Website -- What do most of you do?

Started by SuzanneM3 • 17 replies • 1958 views

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SuzanneM3 (Florida)
Posts: 5

Posted:

Our HOA Board has finally agreed that we need a Website. Mostly we'd like one to post rules and regs, By-Laws, etc. But it would also be nice to have a discussion forum area, a place where forms could be filled in and submitted, have the capability to do short surveys of contractors, and possibly allow homeowners to pay association dues via the site.

I've found several sites on the www who do HOA website development and hosting. In addition, our current property manager also provides this service. My concern with using the existing property manager is that if we change companies we're back to square one and have to start all over again.. right?

Would like to find out how some of the members on this board approached this i.e., did you pay for someone to develop the site and then have them maintain it? Do you pay for development and then maintain it yourself? If so, how difficult is that? Or do you have your property manager maintain your site?

Talk about your successes and problems. Can you recommend the company you used?

Thanks in advance for your consideration of this request. We are still in the embryonic stage with this and I'd sure like to get it right!

JimW8 (California)
Posts: 14

Posted:

we go through our management co which their parent compaany has web site all ready design and up and running- the reason we did this is to relieve anybody on hoa board to worry about it. we hand the updates to management company to update this. people come and go from the board and we wanted to make it be self sufficent when no ones does

JimW8 (California)
Posts: 14

Posted:

RichardP13 (California)
Posts: 1,767

Posted:

I built the site for our HOA in California. It doesn't take much to do and very easyy to maintain. It took me about 2 to build from scratch and just a few minutes a week to maintain. The domain name cost $10 a year and the hosting I use cost $7 a month for as many sites as I want. It also comes with 1200 email accounts.

RobertR1 (South Carolina)
Posts: 5,164

Posted:

Suzanne,
My e-mail is [email protected] Contact me there and I will send you our site, built and maitained by owner for 65 unit condo. Now board approved and paid for with webmaster under oversight of board, but with a wide latitude. Works great, seems active with hit counter, but who knows, postings increase when e-mail blasts are put out. We have owners section that contains finacials, blog, etc. Can be expanded and if got a few teenagers running around, this stuff is a snap for them to do. Ours was born out of dissent with Boards methods, that board gone, new board expanding usage of site, undoubtably the future wave of administrative functions of the associations, little by little.

TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,059

Posted:

Suzanne,

We built our own using volunteers. I'm currently the webmaster (volunteer position) and it's easy to set up and maintain. Hardest thing is actually deciding what you want on it.

If you want more info feel free to contact me via e-mail and I'll send you more info as well as the site address. [email protected]

Tim

DanielH1 (California)
Posts: 482

Posted:

Before I was on the Board, a Board Member volunteered to do our site. The web site quality and functionality has generally been poor.

It's one thing that I hope to address in 2010: hire one of those HOA web site companies and have them do it.

DanielH1 (California)
Posts: 482

Posted:

I haven't used them but I've investigated:

Wild Apricot
http://associations.wildapricot.com/

HOA Wiki
http://www.hoawiki.com/

(HOA Wiki appears to be down so that's not great.)

HOA Software, Inc.
http://www.hoa-software.com/

(HOA Software appears defunct.)

I'm planning to investigate:

MyHOAHelper
http://www.myhoahelper.com/

Association Voice
http://www.homeowners-association-software.com/

DanielH1 (California)
Posts: 482

Posted:

Oh, and, of course, the host of these discussion forums:

Community123.com
http://www.community123.com/

RobertR1 (South Carolina)
Posts: 5,164

Posted:

Yikes,
I can see this one heading to: what you should put on website?

This is tougher than building one I suspect Have had the conversation before here and if I recall we stopped thread by agreeing to disagree about certain
features. And of course there seems to be bigger media attention to transparency and actually opening up information that was traditionally always restricted in HOA's.

SteveM9 (Massachusetts)
Posts: 3,699

Posted:

We use Google.

And.... its free.

Gmail: 25 GB email storage per account and powerful spam filtering
Google Calendar: Shareable calendars
Google Docs: Real-time multi-person docs editing (post live excel files as they happen)
Google Sites: Publish to your own web site
Blogger: Publish your own blog
Youtube: Post video messages from the BOD or President online
Google Voice: Sign up for an emergency number to be forwarded to the phone number of whom ever you choose. Never have to change the number.

I could go on forever..... google has everything.

SteveM9 (Massachusetts)
Posts: 3,699

Posted:

Quote:

what you should put on website?

We put everything on the web site. Dues, bills, bank account balances, docs. Everything is transparent. Its not your money, its the home owners. If you want to hide what your doing, your proubably doing something that is not in the interest of the home owners or illegal and you should be replaced.

MicheleD (Kentucky)
Posts: 4,491

Posted:

No, it's the association's money. Once you send it in, it's the association's money.

But since members are also stakeholders, they have a right to full transparency.

But it's no longer your money. That's why the check is made out to the Association.

SuzanneM3 (Florida)
Posts: 5

Posted:

Thanks everyone for your input. But we're getting off point with the "what should go on the website" question.

I'm more interested in hearing about your successes (or failures) in developing a HOA website. Specifically, the process you used to build your site, companies used, associated costs, etc.

Thanks!

JackieB (California)
Posts: 198

Posted:

We are using Community 123.com.......and love it. We have had it for 2 years +
and Doug's suggestions in creating it were invaluable.
It's nice to give back........with this being a free website for us BOD members, and the info it brings us.
Thanks Doug.

KellyM3 (North Carolina)
Posts: 2,239

Posted:

The less expertise you have for maintaining a website, the more your focus should on ease-of-use. It will make your web mastering more enjoyable.

I built our HOA's website and post articles from time to time as well the monthly meeting agendas and even our upcoming 2010 budget plan.

I placed a community "forum" on the site but no one has used it. Another board member likes to philosophize about HOA and neighborhood stuff - as well as write - so I made him a small place to write a column.

Getting a website set up is much more challenging than the "work flow" it takes to maintain and add content to it.

Google "Edgehill Farm" and you'll find our neighborhood website.

MarvinA2 (Missouri)
Posts: 3

Posted:

I have maintained a HOA website for 5 years. What should go on the site? Almost anything the meembers want. Better yet.. will read.
We list our board adn officers. committees, what they do, and the contact persons. info about oiur pool, pool rules. pond, payground, clubhouse, clujbhouse rentals. We have a calendar for all our events, clubhouse rentals. We post our covenants and any amendmenets. We also post our minutes of all Diector's, special, annual, and monthly meetings. We have a communications section where homeowners can sign up for e-mails about any neighborhood watch news, and events. We post our newsetter adn past issues there as well. We have a page of special links liek schools, city hall, utility companies, weather, road conditions, things like that. WHAT do you think your homeowners will actually go to your site to see? You can always change it

JamesC (Maryland)
Posts: 282

Posted:

SuzanneM3
Simply look to the left of your posting.
We had talked for years about having our own site, but would never come to a consenses about how it would be constructed, or who would maintain it.
Because it was free for the first three months, and without telling my fellow board members I contacted community123.com and had them build our website.
Nothing was said about my doing it on my own, because it cost us nothing, and within one month we had forty-seven email registrations from the community. Now we have well over one-hundred.
We have had Community123.com for two years, and Doug, is the greatest.
Never had any bad experiences, and we would never consider changing.

Jim

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