There are several ways a homeowner association (HOA) can reduce costs, increase efficiency, and add property value to the homes in the community. As an HOA manager, you can assist your clients with these endeavors. HOA managers often act as trusted advisors to the association’s board members, so your input can help guide their decisions for improving the HOA.
Why is it important for you to know how HOAs can increase property value, improve efficiency, and reduce costs? When your clients thrive, so does your association management business. Helping the HOAs you manage to become better communities will reflect positively on your company. This boosts your reputation and helps you attract more clients.
Here are several ways an HOA can reduce costs, increase efficiency, and add property value. By helping your clients implement these steps, you’ll ensure that their communities function smoothly and grow.
Review Monthly Expenditures and Annual Budgets
It’s important for an HOA to keep its costs low. Fewer expenses mean that the association won’t have to increase monthly dues or charge assessments. Cost-saving efforts also keep the association in good financial health so the board doesn’t have to draw from its reserve fund.
There are several ways you can help your clients reduce their costs. First, review the HOA’s monthly expenditures and its annual budget. Identify how the association is spending its money so you’ll have a baseline reference point.
We recommend using CINC Systems’ association accounting platform for this. CINC can automatically generate financial reports, which are full of valuable data about the HOA’s budget. You can organize these reports to reflect specific time periods or expense categories and send them to board members by email.
Once you’ve used CINC Systems to get the HOA’s financial snapshot, you can look for any areas where the association is spending too much money. Then, you can advise the board on a strategy to reduce these costs.
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Assess Insurance and Other Operating Costs
Using financial data about the HOA’s budget and expenditures, you can assess how much the client is paying for liability insurance and other operating costs. This may include monthly services like utilities for common areas, waste disposal, monthly maintenance, and private security.
The HOA can reduce costs and increase efficiency by streamlining these services and eliminating unnecessary perks. For example, if the HOA provides free WiFi for a shared community space, you may be able to help the client save money by downgrading to a less expensive internet package.
Switch to Cloud-Based HOA Management Software
Next, we recommend switching to cloud-based HOA management software like CINC Systems. This gives your business numerous benefits, which transfer to your clients’ HOAs. Using cloud-based software is a great way to reduce costs, increase efficiency, and help HOAs add property value for several reasons.
For example, cloud-based software can replace traditional software like spreadsheets and calendars. You can use it to create an online web portal for the HOA’s residents, where they can pay fees and submit work orders electronically. Cloud-based software saves time and increases efficiency.
Being cloud-based means that the client’s data is stored online, rather than existing on a single computer or harddrive. This enables managers and board members to access data remotely from any location. It also helps you go mobile, so you can manage your client’s association anywhere.
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Revise Contracts with Service Providers
Next, you can help your clients improve their community by revising contracts with service providers. Look at the relationships your client has with its vendors, such as businesses that provide repairs or landscaping. Often, the terms of these contracts can be revised to cut costs for the HOA.
If a vendor isn’t open to renegotiating, you can help the HOA find a new service provider and solicit bids from potential businesses.
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Install Solar Panels
Often, the measures that reduce costs and increase efficiency also add property value to the HOA’s homes. One of the best ways to do all three is to install solar panels.
Despite the initial expense, solar panels help the HOA save costs over time because they can provide power to common areas and streetlights. This means the association won’t pay hefty utility bills. Additionally, solar panels can help the HOA qualify for state or local tax incentives.
Because solar panels are also great for the environment, they improve property value. The client’s HOA becomes a more desirable community and attracts new homeowners.
Make Changes to Landscaping
Similarly, making changes to landscaping increases the HOA’s property values and lowers expenses. One of the many reasons why people choose to live in a community with an HOA is that the HOA guarantees a certain standard for aesthetic qualities, like landscaping.
By improving the landscaping in community areas, you’ll help your clients’ HOA improve property values overall. You can also implement changes to save money, such as installing drought-resistant plants that require less water.
Optimize Maintenance Schedules
When it comes to efficiency, one of the biggest problems for many HOAs is the maintenance schedule. You’ll be able to help the associations you manage to become much more efficient by improving this.
Using CINC Systems to create an online web portal for work orders, you’ll be able to organize work orders by priority, submission date, and category. This enables you to schedule work much more efficiently. For example, you can schedule all electrical work to be done in a single day, instead of paying for an electrician to make separate trips throughout the week.
Help Your Clients Get More from Their HOA with CINC Systems
Using CINC Systems is one of the best ways to help your clients’ HOAs reduce costs, increase efficiency, and add property value. Our cloud-based association management software platform includes several key features that make it easier than ever to manage an HOA, including built-in accounting features.
To see how CINC Systems can make a difference for you and your clients, click here to try a free software demo.
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