HOA Strategic

(Helpful for HOA boards?) -- the ability to see potential problems. To see what might go wrong before something bad happens...to keep problems at bay. (Goes without saying, nowadays) -- Emails can get you in a mess. Your choice of words in memos and online, too. You don't want to think about it when you're volunteering on an HOA board. You're volunteering!! Who wants to work so hard on words? But they do cause problems. And misunderstandings. And angst. Even lawsuits. (Speaking of words) --  "Fuzzy, terrible writing" is "costing American businesses nearly $400 billion every year," reports the Daily Beast. "Poorly written emails and documents...can result in lawsuits," according to a Georgia newspaper, The Monticello News. These costs slip up on organizations like homeowner associations and their property management companies. (Yes, there's good HOA news!) -- About a homeowners association saving "millions of gallons of water wi...

Finance? Forget about finance. Definitely was not my thing. I was always at odds with numbers, we just didn't gel. I'd zone out in math class. But all that changed, oddly enough, when I was elected to an HOA board. Crunching numbers for the HOA, being involved in financial planning, became actually fascinating. That's the thing about volunteering in an HOA community. You can expand your knowledge and expertise. As I say in my booklet, HOA Over Easy , getting comfortable with numbers was like earning a mini-MBA degree.  --Harvey Radin (For more about this post, contact hoastrategic@gmail.com)