This is about the easiest decision—the closest thing to a no-brainer—a co-op or condo board of directors will ever need to consider: what to do with vacant space. Install storage lockers. If you already have storage lockers, in…
Thanks to its tropical climate, erratic weather changes are nothing new to Southern Florida residents. There are cold fronts from November through March, and if that’s not enough, the hurricane season is kind enough to coincide with the…
It’s the same dilemma that single-family households across the United States are facing: How much money can we afford to pay for the services we want? And should we stretch ourselves thin, taking more out of our bank accounts to pay fo…
Despite what film noir and gritty nocturnal crime dramas would have us believe, sunny venues and beach vistas are as fertile grounds for criminal activity as dark alleys and deserted piers—especially those typically referred to as “whit…
As Hurricane Wilma churned across southeast Florida on October 24, 2005, four maverick residents of a coastal Pompano Beach condominium under a mandatory evacuation order opted to stay. They brought along some booze, broke into the off…
As the economy sputters along and unemployment rates remain steady at more than nine percent, there isn’t call for celebration. Whereas the real estate market was also lumped in with these aforementioned Great Recession causalities, in …
It's no secret that HOA board members are often forced to balance the interests of individual residents against those of the community as a whole—and that can make prioritizing projects and community budgets a tricky task indeed. The re…
One of my young daughter’s favorite YouTube clips involves an elaborately decorated house, whose thousands of colored Christmas lights were programmed to flicker, strobe, wave, and blink to the tune of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s har…
There’s nothing quite like making a first impression. For those living in condominiums or homeowner associations in South Florida, a great deal of creating this important impression is often out of a resident’s hands, so it’s necessary …
In the first few years of this new century, the view was pretty rosy; it seemed like property values would do nothing but rise forever. Monthly HOA meetings actually attracted crowds. HOA boards even had extra money in their budgets. …