Florida has the highest concentration of HOAs in the country, with 67% of homeowners belonging to an HOA. Living in a community with an HOA can keep your property value high, increase your satisfaction with your neighborhood amenities, and reduce neighborhood disputes.

That said, the success of your HOA comes down to the effectiveness of your community association management. If you're on the board of community association management, a lot rests on your shoulders.

Today, we're going to talk about the best tips to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your community association management. From finding the best vendors to answering community complaints quickly, we've got you covered.

Read on for five tips for efficient and effective community association management.

1. Develop a Sizeable Reserve Fund

One of the key roles that community association management fulfills is handling the finances of an organized community. As a board member, you're likely familiar with the day-to-day expenses that HOA fees cover. This can include things like community maintenance and the upkeep of amenities as well as community events.

If you're only raking in enough to cover these regular expenses, you're vulnerable to emergencies. With Florida's volatile weather patterns, this can include damage caused by tropical storms and hurricanes. It can also include vandalism or other forms of crime and violence that could impact your community without notice.

It is important to develop a large reserve fund to rely upon in emergencies. Ideally, you want to set aside 30% of homeowner fees to build up your reserve fund. Without one, you will have to call upon homeowners to cover emergency costs, which will leave your community frustrated and impact the trust they have in your management skills.

2. Hire the Best Vendors

One of the appeals of living in a community with community association managers is the reliability of vendors to take care of the neighborhood. Vendors include any landscapers, maintenance workers, or professional cleaners you hire to keep the properties and amenities in tip-top shape.

The goal, when hiring these vendors, is to strike a balance. You need to find contractors who are within budget but provide consistent and reliable services and a positive experience for homeowners.

If community members have expressed discontent with any of your vendors, it's time to go back to the drawing board. Remember, these community members are trusting you to take their money and spend it wisely.

3. Address Issues Head-On

No matter how far you believe your rules are, you're going to encounter conflicts. Some community members may take issue with a new rule or regulation you're enforcing. Neighbors may get into disputes that you have to weigh in on.

By the time these issues reach you, they've likely been a problem for a few days or weeks. Don't let them continue to fester or leave your community members feeling ignored and alienated.

Instead, make sure that you have a consistent conflict resolution plan to call upon quickly. This conflict resolution plan should involve negotiation, with community association management acting as the mediator. The faster you address the conflict, the less likely it is to devolve into a legal issue.

4. Reinforce HOA Policies Consistently

If you're new to community association management, you may not realize that legal issues can arise when HOAs are run carelessly. If you start reinforcing policies inconsistently, you become vulnerable to discrimination lawsuits. For example, this can occur when:

• homeowners don't have equal access to amenities

• homeowners are held to different landscaping or remodeling standards

• some homeowners' complaints are ignored while others are addressed

• you take sides in a dispute rather than negotiating a mutually agreeable outcome

There will always be community members who choose to ignore your rules and regulations. There will also always be community association managers who don't enforce the rules in a consistent manner. Get out of the habit of letting some rule-breaking slide and reinforce all policies in a gentle but firm way.

5. Invest in Auditing

As we've mentioned already, you're in charge of two important things: financial management and resource usage. You set the budget, you hire the vendors, and you call on those vendors as you see fit. It doesn't take long for financial and resource management to spiral out of control, even when you think everything is going smoothly.

This is where auditing comes in handy. At least once a year, perform an audit of your finances and resource distribution. Make sure that you account for:

• all of the fees collected from homeowners, including the percentage allocated to the reserve fund

• an increase or change in prices from your vendors

• whether or not your vendors are performing a satisfactory job

• compliance with local, state, and federal tax laws

In most cases, it makes sense to hire a third-party auditing service to handle this job for you. This ensures an honest and professional assessment of the state of your finances and your ability to continue growing your community.

Mosaic Services Can Improve Your Community Association Management

It's clear that Florida homeowners prefer living in a managed community. However, they will only be satisfied if they have reliable community association management. With these tips, you can improve your community association management and become more effective and efficient.

Looking for professionals to step in and improve your community? Mosaic Services is proud to offer community association management services for Florida neighborhoods. We provide long-term planning, 24/7 neighborhood communication, contract negotiation, and more.

To learn more about how we can help, book your free consultation today.