Special Reports

Assembling and maintaining a strong team has always been an integral part of running a successful and profitable community association management company. But, with a tight labor market, that can pose a seemingly insurmountable challenge.

“There’s a big shortage of managers right now,” says Ken Bertolucci, president of NS Management in Skokie, Ill. “Part of it is that the business is booming; another is the lack of young people entering community association management.”

Fortunately, there are steps you can take — regardless of the state of the job market — to cost-effectively recruit and retain the employees you need to keep your clients happen and expand your book of business.

In this special report, we explain how you can retool your approach to hiring and take advantage of a generous tax break to offset some of the high costs of recruiting. We’ll also discuss some of the most important lessons for new managers and how management firms can help prevent burnout among their employees. And, finally, we’ll explore the potential risks of relying too much on independent contractors.

We hope this report helps spark some new ideas for recruiting and retaining the best talent so your company can succeed in this challenging post-COVID environment.

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The June 2021 collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium complex in Surfside, Fla., made headlines around the world — and thrust many issues that plague condo and other community associations into the spotlight. The catastrophe, its causes, and its effects already are the subject of intense study, evaluation, and discussion.

“I think the collapse going to have an impact for a long time,” says Ken Bertolucci, president of NS Management in Skokie, Ill.

If a “bright side” can be found, it’s that many associations and boards across the country have had a wake-up call and now are more open than ever to some of the basic — but sometimes costly — practices they should have been implementing all along.

“This tragedy has now become the trigger for all the things we’ve been harping on for years but that have fallen on deaf ears,” says Paul Grucza, director of education and client development at the Seattle-based management company CWD Group, Inc. “It took this to make associations stop, re-think, and adjust.”

In this special report, we explore five issues that your clients may have a new, or renewed, interest in and identify some of the particular areas where they may need to take immediate action to protect themselves and others. We also provide best practices to help them get on track.

Fearful boards are looking to their managers for their expertise and insights in the wake of Surfside. We hope this report helps you beat their expectations.

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In January 2021, a federal district court declined to dismiss an HOA and its management company from a lawsuit alleging liability for an owner’s harassment of another resident under the federal Fair Housing Act and the Indiana Fair Housing Act.

The Indiana case involves what the court called an owner’s "race-based campaign of harassing, taunting, and threatening African American and Latino residents, guests, and contractors," leading to the creation of a racially hostile environment at the HOA. It demonstrates one of today’s biggest, and still evolving, fair housing risks — liability for neighbor-to-neighbor harassment.

In this special report, we explore the latest developments in this and three other particularly high-risk areas. In addition to liability for neighbor-to-neighbor harassment, we dig into liability issues that can arise related to the handling of requests for reasonable accommodations, familial discrimination, and the lack of sensitivity to shifting norms. And we provide fresh advice for heading off liability in a time when discrimination of all kinds is at the forefront of discussion.

It’s up to managers to stay abreast of the issues and share their knowledge with their clients. We hope this report helps.

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Like the Great Recession and other crises before it, the COVID-19 pandemic has cast a bright light on how community association managers and their clients should handle the collection of past due assessments.

High unemployment and mortgage delinquency rates, as well as eviction and foreclosure moratoriums, have put many associations in a difficult position. They want to show compassion to owners suffering through no fault of their own, but they rely on assessments to maintain and repair common property and keep owners safe.

Of course, collections can prove challenging even when delinquencies aren’t skyrocketing. That’s because owners in default tend to fall into one of three categories.

This Special Report provides expert advice on how you can increase the odds of collecting from every kind of debtor you and our clients may encounter. It includes insights on how to improve collections during both regular times and those periods when developments such as COVID-19 threaten the finances of wide swaths of owners.

Regardless of where you’re located, or how long you’ve been in the business, the same types of problems tend to crop up over and over, don’t they?

It’s not the big emergencies that make you pull your hair out, but the everyday hassles that start to grate when you get lots of people living together in the same community. Things like pet issues. And smoking. And the other chronic niggling nuisances that, over time, become a real pain in the neck.

Which is why we’ve pulled together this Special Report specifically about managing these sorts of challenges.

Strong relationships with your community association clients are always important — but not always easy — to maintain. When times are tough economically, you can’t afford to lose clients, but even when finances are robust, an unhappy client or former client can cause trouble for your future prospects.

That doesn’t mean, though, that managers have to settle for rocky treatment from clients that are overly demanding, unappreciative, or even abusive. Concessions can be made for exceptionally trying times, of course, but wouldn’t you rather develop solid, productive, and mutually satisfying relationships with your clients?

This exclusive Special Report aims to help you do just that. It provides valuable guidance on how to identify and land the right clients, establish and enforce boundaries, manage poor conduct, and leverage happy clients.

Start creating the business and the client relationships you want and deserve today.

More than 60 percent of American states have legalized some form of marijuana since 1996, and the legislatures in many of the holdouts have recently considered doing so. Those states with legal marijuana have seen it rapidly commoditized, with new businesses such as delivery services cropping up and becoming a part of homeowners’ daily lives.

Not surprisingly, the proliferation of pot has begun to have repercussions for community association managers, both as property managers and employers. Whether you live in a state where marijuana is fully legal, partially legal, or on the cusp of some degree of legalization, you need to know what that means on the ground.

This Special Report takes an in-depth look at some of the most pressing marijuana-related issues for community association managers and their clients and provides expert guidance on how to mitigate the associated risks.