As the 2012 federal legislative fiasco over the debt ceiling—as well as any number of other spending bills proposed since then—demonstrated, balancing a budget can be like pulling teeth. Balancing a condo or HOA community's budget can some…
Preparing the annual budget is by no means an easy task. Those charged with preparing condominium or HOA budgets will soon begin reviewing costs, gathering data and projecting expenses for the coming year. Communities, businesses, individu…
These days, just about everyone is cutting back on spending, whether to make ends meet, save for something special or a rainy day, pay off debt or fund their retirement. Consumers are cutting coupons, looking for deals and keeping a cl…
If you want to find out about the history of a town, region or country, head to a museum or look it up on the Internet. If you want to find out about your family’s history, look at your photo album, whether it’s in a book or online. And…
The foundation of any properly run co-op or condo building rests on residents paying their monthly maintenance fees on time and in full, with no delays or delinquencies. Unfortunately, because of the lingering effects of the Recession …
A major building rehabilitation for a large condominium community included impact-resistant replacement windows, at a six-figure cost for materials alone. The owners’ association advanced money to the contractor to buy the windows. When…
It’s the same dilemma that single-family households across the U.S. are facing: What bills need to be paid immediately and what bills can wait? And should we stretch ourselves thin, taking more out of our bank accounts to pay for privat…
Unless you have a degree in accounting, your first board meeting could come as a bit of a shock. You probably knew board members oversee the finances of your association but who knew there were so many records to produce and filing dea…
In December 2008, the National Bureau of Economic Research announced that the United States was in a recession that had started back in December 2007. The official announcement was old news for most Americans. Most financially…
For a crystal-clear picture of how an association is doing, there are few better lenses than the community's budgets and financial reports. From an investment perspective, they show the association board, property managers, the unit ow…