Getting your player ready...
More than 600 people are expected to attend an all-day conference on homeowner associations on April 29 at the Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum in Lowry.
The Spring Showcase Conference, hosted by the Community Associations Institute -Rocky Mountain Chapter, will be held from 7:15 a.m. until 6 p.m. The CAI a non-profit organization dedicated to providing information, lobbying and education on behalf of the HOA industry.
The cost if $60 for the event, which is open to the public. The conference includes a continental breakfast, numerous educational offerings, access to the exhibition hall and an opportunity to visit with business partners who service the community association industry.
Speakers for the educational sessions are experts who have numerous years of expertise in the HOA industry.
The conference comes at a time when HOAs are being hammered by declining revenues, the housing crisis, foreclosures, and the high state unemployment rate.
HOAs – bottom line
“Running an HOA is like running a business,” said Brian Terhark, president of the Community Associations Institute – Rocky Mountain Chapter, or CAI-RMC. “HOA boards and managers are trying to understand what the impact is to their bottom line for items such as short sales, foreclosures, delinquencies and bankruptcies.”
According to a recent national survey conducted by the Community Associations Institute, more than half of the nation’s estimated 310,000 HOAs are undergoing financial strain. In the CAI survey of more than 1,500 community managers, 54 percent responded that their client associations face “serious” or “severe” problems as a result of the economic downturn.
Colorado HOAs face a myriad of questions, such as:
What is the role of the new Division of Regulatory Agencies HOA Information Office?
How can you secure a loan for your community?
What is the best way to collect delinquent assessments?
How should an HOA plan for natural disasters like a tornado, flood or hail storm?
Volunteer board members, homeowners and industry professionals who face increased challenges from the recession.
“HOAs are like the rest of the country – financial issues need to be addressed,” said Terry Jarrett, president-elect of the Rocky Mountain CAI chapter and CEO of BEST Management, a HOA property management company. “It even goes beyond foreclosures. A lot of homeowners are challenged to pay their assessments. And when you think about it, if some people are not paying their assessments, the burden falls on everyone else.”
In the Denver-area, he says he knows of some small HOAs where the annual dues per homeowner are only $300 to $500, while in some condo projects – such as those with indoor swimming pools – HOA fees can run north of $1,000 a month.
Rock and a hard place
“What I think is that most HOAs are between a rock and a hard place,” Jarrett said. “The amount of money that they need, may not be practical for what people can afford to pay. I think a fairly large number of HOAs are under-funded.”
He notes that the funds are divided into two categories – an operational budget for things such as paying to mow lawns or shoveling snow and the reserve funds. Reserves are similar to rainy day funds – money set aside to cover capital improvements, such as a new roof or boilers.
“In these difficult economic times, it is hard to put enough money in reserves,” Jarrett said. “So if a roof needs to be repaired or replaced, the choices are to levy a special assessment against the owners – and special assessments are never popular – or the repairs just don’t get done. ”
But deferred maintenance and repairs takes a toll on communities, he said. “Places start to really look tacky. Ultimately, it brings down the value of the whole community,” he said.
These are among the type of issues that will be addressed at the April 29th conference, he said.
More information can be found by visiting www.hoa-colorado.org or by calling (303) 951-4973.
