What does a property management company do for an HOA?

What exactly does a property management company do for a homeowners association and how does that role support boards, homeowners, and the community as a whole? In this episode of the ProTalk Property Management Podcast, we sit down with an industry expert with decades of hands-on HOA experience to break it all down.

We dive into the day-to-day responsibilities of HOA property management, clarify common misconceptions, and answer HOA-specific questions that boards and homeowners often ask. From financial oversight to maintenance coordination and resident communication, this conversation offers practical insight into how professional management helps communities run smoothly.

Whether you’re an HOA board member, homeowner, or industry professional, this episode delivers clear answers and expert perspective on the value of professional HOA property management.

Conversations and insights on property management across the real estate industry, including apartment rentals, student housing, manufactured housing, and commercial properties.

Questions or topic ideas? Contact us at podcast@rentpmi.com

Transcript

Crystal 0:00

Hello and welcome to the very first episode of Pro Talk Property Management. I'm your host, Crystal Mathis, and today we're looking into an important question that many HOA board members and homeowners ask. And that is, what exactly does a property management company do for an HOA? And to help us answer that question, I'm joined by our guest, Donna Faith. Donna is the Vice President of Association Management at Property Management Inc., she holds a degree in international business, along with multiple industry certifications, and brings over a decade of experience in association management. Donna, thank you for being the first guest and welcome to the show. Terrific. Thanks for having me, Crystal. Before we begin, I really wanted to take a moment and ask you about your journey, about how you got into property management and more specifically association management.

Donna 0:54

Um, terrific. I actually started out in hospitality, managing hotels, and there comes a point in time where you just don't want to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, no holidays, no nothing. Uh so I I switched a little more into HR and human resources, moved, needed a job, and somebody said, Hey, you ever, you know, work in HOAs? Have you ever heard of uh the Community Asian Institute? You should research this. You you might be really good at it. And I was like, mmm, okay, I'll look at this website. And boom, career change. I've been doing it ever since. So word of mouth to check out a website really started your career. Yep. I went in for a job uh interview, and um it was kind of a office management work with the company kind of entry level. Hey, I got little kids, I just need a job, you know, overqualified probably for it. And they're like, oh, well, we have this other position. What do you think? And I'm like, I know nothing about this. And they're like, oh, go to this website, do a little research, and then you give me a call, see what you think. And uh, I was like, why not? You know, property management is so customer service, hospitality based, and people forget that. Um, which is why I think, you know, I've succeeded in this role. Nobody grows up saying to their parents, Hey, I want to work in association management when I get older. Like people don't even know what it is. Half the time people don't even even know they live in an association, let alone I want to manage them when I grow up.

Crystal 2:31

That's so true. And it actually brings me to my first management question, which is what are the top reasons an HOA decides to hire a property management company?

Donna 2:41

I think one is time. You know, HOAs are in most cases nonprofit corporations, and there's rules and laws, and nobody wants to, you know, dedicate their free time. They're volunteers, generally unpaid, and not everybody has that that skill set and and the knowledge. And I think there's also a bit of liability, too. Like not everybody realizes that people get sued all the time and they're doing financials and sometimes HR and project management. Like they just it's a lot. That it is a lot. Uh who would get sued? Like the the HOA board? I th there's definitely liabilities against boards. You know, here's my plug for uh directors and officers insurance. Sometimes people just don't agree with the decisions a board makes, you know, whether they feel that they're not following you know the recorded documents of the community, or it generally comes down to bad decisions where they just don't understand how it works. I've never seen a board like maliciously do something, but having that professional guidance in the background of a management company saying, oh, you know, that that's not uh in alignment with with your documents or state statutes is really invaluable. It's a very involved answer, and there's a lot going on with that one question. That one question. Yeah, I know I think I should shorten these answers. A little too talkative today.

Crystal 4:17

Well, moving on, I want to build more on that last question with a follow-up question. When a self-managed HOA comes to you, what gaps do you typically see?

Donna 4:28

Uh record keeping by far. There's a lot of changes that happen. Homeowners make re submit requests to change the way their property looks or you know, violation compliance. People are issuing fines, but do they have the proper documentation uh to go with it? Financial reporting. If you're a volunteer that's not an accountant, you know, generally accepted accounting principles like they they don't know. So um definitely documentation and and financial reporting are big.

Crystal 5:06

Is the documentation unorganized or is it handwritten or is it not being recorded at all?

Donna 5:12

Generally it's very limited record keeping, or they don't know what they should have kept. You know, the meeting minutes are critical, year-end financials are big. Um we find a lot of no official contracts with vendors. It's you know, a handshake or an email, and and we kind of go back and clean that up.

Crystal 5:34

So you kind of take what they have and you rewrite it or you put it into your systems?

Donna 5:39

Often, you know, it might be going back to a vendor and you know getting a certificate of insurance, taking the handwritten document and actually, you know, getting a contract. It's for the association's protection. And sometimes they'll have meeting minutes with some notes, and we'll help them go and actually write the formal policy and document it and make sure it's distributed, those kind of things. It's a lot of work. Yeah. It's a lot of work. You come in and you're looking at all these pieces of paper and trying to put it together, and sometimes you find things you're like, well, you really probably uh sorry, shouldn't have done that. Like, or you can't do that, or these policies that you've put into place just aren't gonna hold up in court.

Crystal 6:24

I mean, who knew that HOA division was kind of like a Sherlock Holmes of piecing together all these clues to put together what happened and recreating that so that they have proper documentation?

Donna 6:35

I I'd have to say one of one of the best things um that I've been involved with recently is with development, you know, land development, being able to get in on the ground floor of working with attorneys and developers and helping to write their documents. And granted, the attorney writes them, but to be able to review them and be like, hey, these are the situations that we're seeing in management now really help us if you address things like capital contribution fees, electric bikes, you know, some of these things go like 70 miles an hour. Uh so that's that's really a fun thing too, is getting in early with these developers and helping create the future of communities.

Crystal 7:21

When you get into the early development, is there an HU board you deal with? Or are you dealing with you know the county or the developer's construction?

Donna 7:30

So, you know, it it really starts out with the developer and you know their land use plan and not involved in that aspect. But when we first take on management with a developing community, it truly is the developer, the declarant of the community that we work with. They make all of the decisions until so many homes are are built, and then they slowly start trickling in homeowners because of course they have to make all the decisions when none of the homes are sold. So it's a great relationship to start to have with the developer and learn the community and make sure those documents are in place from the beginning.

Crystal 8:09

That's such a huge advantage to having a property management company being involved from the start is to have that documentation from the developer or the construction cute crews and when the boards get going to know who, when, what, where already as the community starts to grow and build.

Donna 8:28

Yeah, it's it's great for trust with the developer. One of the challenges we've seen is when the developer transitions completely off of the board and is no longer making decisions. We found often the property manager, the association manager is the first person they cut thinking that the association manager makes the decisions. You know, we're telling the homeowners what to do or what the rules are, but we don't make those decisions. So if there's ever a time when the homeowners are unhappy with the developer and now the developer's done, they're stepping away, it's it's common for the management company to be like the scapegoat or angry at them because we bring the news to them and they're like, we don't like you, we want to go someplace else. So it's um it's kind of a daunting task to communicate the needs and wishes of the developers when sometimes the homeowners just don't want to hear it.

Crystal 9:25

Do the residents get upset with you when you're just communicating generally no.

Donna 9:30

Often management companies change because they're unhappy for some reason. And the the thing we find most is they're they're not responsive. They don't return our calls. You know, board members say to me, I'm getting stalked at the mailbox. I don't want to be afraid to check my mail because a homeowner is gonna come up with an issue and say, you know, uh, I've tried to report this to the management company and I haven't heard back. So put a lot of procedures into place where they can reach out to to PMI and get responses, whether it's electronically or through the portal or through the phone. It's like weird. Half the world out there wants answers right there on the portal or electronically, and the other half, you know, really want to call and talk to somebody. So I think that's one of our benefits is that we do have customer service people here.

Crystal 10:19

So by having a property management company, you're creating a buffer between the HOA board members and the homeowners.

Donna 10:27

Yes. My my favorite thing to tell boards is if you get that complaint at the mailbox or while you're walking the dog, don't feel like you're passing them off if you tell them to reach out to the management company. Just say, hey, that way your concerns are recorded or on file and your needs can get communicated with the entire board, not just me walking down the street.

Crystal 10:46

Oh wow. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, yeah.

Donna 10:49

I wouldn't want that. Don't bother me, bother them. That's what they're here for. Like, you're a volunteer. Like, what are you gonna remember? Right. And you're like, oh, well, do I recognize them? Do I know their name? What street do they live at? So give the board members their life back.

Crystal 11:07

Yeah. So this is a a general HO question, but are all boards volunteers?

Donna 11:12

The the majority of ones I see are are volunteers. It's written in their documents often that they have to be, you know, homeowners in the community. There are a few older associations that we see that they can get paid or discounts on their assessments. But in general, especially the documents written today, it tends to be written written in them that they cannot be paid. Like they're not allowed to receive any compensation for it. But you know, across the country, you know, there's different trends, but here locally in Pennsylvania, very, very few are getting compensated for their time.

Crystal 11:50

And then with that in mind, what's the biggest challenge an HOA has uh right now?

Donna 11:56

I think the biggest challenge is probably apathy. You know, people don't want to be told what to do with their home. They're busy, they have a lot on their plate, they don't get involved. You know, they're not coming to annual meetings. You were struggling to get volunteers to be on the board. They also have a bad rap. I mean, there was what the the insurance commercials out there is like, oh, your grass is too high, your mailbox is too big. People don't understand that we don't want to come on site and look for compliance issues. It's more work for us. We don't want to document it, you know, take photos, send letters, send emails. We get it. It's more work for us than the homeowners calling us yelling, you know, well, why did you bother? Don't you have anything better to do? And it's like, I'm sorry, but we were hired to help maintain property values. And curb appeal is huge in property value. It gets the worst, I think, is one of the worst parts of the job. You know, you're going around looking and people are yelling at you, what are you doing out there? You're like, just checking off the property, and you kind of keep moving along.

Crystal 13:07

That's where that customer service interactions that you were talking about is is so important to be able to handle those situations.

Donna 13:14

Yeah, and you know, I don't know how many times it's been like, hey, you know, your pumpkins are still out and they're rotten and it's May.

Crystal 13:23

And they're like, Why are you spending all this time sending me a letter about pumpkins?

Donna 13:27

Don't you have anything better to do? Um, I mean, just but a lot of times you, your first thought is when the homeowner walks out and you're looking at something like needs to be corrected. You know, having that conversation or being like, oh, you know, we've emailed or talked on the phone before. You know, is everything going okay? I see you got these pumpkins out. You know, and sometimes it's as easy as they just need to get to the curb. Or you run into kids and they're like, Oh, my parents passed away and there's bigger stories and you know, to have that kind of human aspect of it. We're not out here to be mean. We're just like, let us know. And that's something I really wish homeowners would know is we're here to help. We don't only work for the board. Yes, the board gives us direction, but we're here for the homeowners too. If the homeowners have concerns or complaints, it's our job to take them to the board. If the homeowners are complaining to the board, then the board's gonna, you know, potentially end the contract with the management company. And so many, I think, management companies forget that, and I'm I'm very cognizant not to, that we work for the homeowners just as much as the board. Our goal is for the community at large to be a great place to live.

Crystal 14:45

So a property management company would be beneficial to both the board and the residents because you have that communication between.

Great Association Management Experiences

Donna 14:53

Yeah, and there are lots of times when homeowners call in and they don't like a board decision, and we don't have the the emotion behind it that we can turn around and say, Well, this is the thought process, and here's why, and be able to give the flip side to help alleviate tensions potentially behome between homeowners and the boards. Like, hey, the board didn't do this to be a pain in your butt. They're not trying to make your life miserable. Yeah. And neither's the management company either. Like, we're not we're not looking to make life harder. We want to make sure that you're safe, secure, protected, and enjoy where you live.

Crystal 15:30

We've talked a bit about the issues you've seen, but what about the positive experiences where a homeowner or board member has come to you and been happy to have a property management company on their side?

Donna 15:43

Absolutely. Tragedy strikes. And unfortunately, from my experience, the tragedy in associations generally is fires. And it hopefully nobody, either professionally or personally, has to deal with that. So having somebody who's experienced and that property manager to come out and kind of handle it and rebuild and work with vendors and insurance companies and getting claims paid. And I'm gonna say the evil word, COVID. I think our communities were were really benefited by having professional management, whether it's common space amenities and just learning how to be safe and get vendors in awesome thing that I really loved. My best attended annual meetings were the random ones that were held on site in the common space where we said, bring your lawn chairs, and we did them outside. And I don't know if it was because they were more casual or because they didn't have to get in their car, but people saw us out their window and they were like, Oh, okay, you know, I'll grab my lawn chair. And I think they were happier, and maybe just because they got to see people. And I I don't know, maybe maybe I should try to get more communities to go back to those those lawn chair meetings because people didn't complain as much. Which is odd because during COVID, everybody complained about everything. They're all home looking out their windows, they know exactly what the landscaper's doing if they happen to come. But those were some some real wins, along with just people saying, Hey, thank you. We get phone calls like, oh, I got a letter in the mail, I didn't pay my bill. And people don't understand that the association managers sometimes we spend 20 minutes on the phone with them hearing about their sons not coming home for Christmas or their their elderly. We we do a lot of um a lot of therapy. Let's add that to our hats. You know, we're helping with insurance, we're helping with project management, painting and driveways, you you name it, and then we're turning around kinda sometimes just the extra friend or the sounding block.

Crystal 17:59

Just listen and well, you're like so many individuals in one. Like we we started this conversation, I was thinking Sherlock Holmes, now I'm thinking Sigma Freud.

Donna 18:09

We we try really hard. You know, I would love for boards to to take away a couple things is we're here to help. You know, we touch a lot of things. And when I hear, we hired you, you worked for me, you're gonna do what I tell you to do. It's like you also hired us for professional guidance.

Crystal 18:29

Having professionals with lots of experience and knowledge giving you guidance sounds like a huge benefit to having a property management company. And I wanted to circle back to something you mentioned briefly before, which was property values and ask what does what specifically does a property management company do to help increase or maintain property values?

Donna 18:51

Sure. Um it's multiple facets, compliance issues, making sure that you don't have 50 piles of shoes on a rack outside or debris. So a lot of curb appeal. You're working with the vendors, the landscape contracts, making sure that they're adequately funded and planning for the future. So there isn't deferred maintenance, especially in condominiums. People are trying to get loans, and as the public is getting more intelligent, they're looking to see like how much money is saved. What does the future look like five years from now? Am I going to be getting all these special assessments and and extra bills? And also when people hear of a community that has events or that kind of community spirit, and people saying this is a great place to live, it gets out. A lot of people relocate because of jobs or other things. But a lot of people stay local, they're looking for a bigger home for their family, and and word gets out when someplace is great, it doesn't spread as much as the negative stuff. But people know, oh, this this place is well run, or the homeowner's. Seem happy or wow, they do Halloween parades and the kids dress up, and I want to be a part of a community like that.

Crystal 20:06

Oh yeah. There's a um an HOA community right by my house, and we go trick-or-treating there every year because it is insanely phenomenal. I mean, it is wild. It's like everything you see in a movie about Halloween. Last year there were people on horses walking around. Wow. You know, the it's an incredible experience. So I understand exactly what you're talking about. And that's when I'm like, man, I wish I lived in an HOA because this Halloween time is insane back here.

Donna 20:34

Yeah, we we help um coordinate and and get word out to the community. And that sounds like a spectacular event, but I want to give uh recognition to where it's re deserved. A lot of those events are put on by a committee or a few homeowners that that enjoy doing that kind of stuff and want to make it special. Um, and then the the role of the management company is to communicate with the board and have to get the word out. But absolutely when those incredible things happen, I bet it's a few wonderful residents that really make it happen.

Crystal 21:11

And when that happens, if there's a committee, like a like an events committee, do they like meet with the board and talk about this? Do they meet with with you to talk about this or both?

Donna 21:21

That's usually a combination of both. They will sit down um and kind of have a plan. This is what we want to do. Here's you know how much we're looking to spend. Um, they'll share it with the board, and the board will be like, yes, no, we're okay with this. Um sometimes they'll bring up additional concerns, like you said, we'll give our feedback of what we've seen in other communities, and then they usually let the committee run with it, and the the board gives their seal of approval, and you know, we just help coordinate where we can, answer questions, and a huge part uh and benefit of having a management company is we have the resources to get the word out. You know, whether you know, text messaging, email, some communities have I call them the robocall feature where you get this phone phone call with the recording saying, Hey, this is what's going on. Now we've got Christmas Caroling. Oh, right. Christmas, you know, I I listened to to one of them the other day. Due to the 12 degree temperatures, we're postponing Christmas caroling a few days.

Crystal 22:27

It's great.

Donna 22:28

Oh my gosh, that sounds so fun. It's like, you know, hey, if you're interested in volunteering for caroling this year, contact so and so, and then you know, they get 10 or 12 carolers and they just go door to door in the community. And I just don't see that happening so much in the communities that aren't associations.

Crystal 22:47

Right, right. And even if they're associations but don't have a property management company, they may put this on, but no one shows up to to do caroling or anything because they don't they don't know about it.

Donna 22:57

It yeah, it is much harder to communicate, you know, like they're purchasing subscriptions to other platforms or you know, buying their own software. And there's there's so many benefits to living in a community. Um, you know, even myself, I lived in one and I was like, oh, well, let's try something different. And I purchased one that was outside of the community. And I'm like, wow, that one house, or you know, the neighbor uh next door with their grass three feet high, and I'm calling the township. And and even though a lot of those things are township rules anyway, there's something special about the community.

Crystal 23:34

That's a great answer. And I want to expand on this topic just a little more and talk specifically about financials. When you start managing a new community, do you notice any room for financial improvement?

Donna 23:47

I think most self-managed boards, you know, understand the value of record keeping and they're paying their bills and um they're collecting the assessments. Where we bring the real value is making sure they have the policies and procedures in place. Do you have a late fee? Are you charging late fees? Are you collecting interest? Do you have a mechanism for collecting past due assessments? If you currently are doing something, is it recorded and documented somewhere? And often there are paths that the board members can take or implement to bring in additional revenue that they may not be aware of. So having somebody that can understand their documents and what's written in them and what potential opportunities they have, I think is is a big win. We get what we need, but sometimes the understanding or what more they can do to benefit them, they have no way of knowing. And do you help them with any long-term planning? Our benefit to long-term planning on the financial side is we have the resources to engineers and companies that do reserve studies that look at the community and help them come up with plans on the useful life of their components. And they'll give us a good idea of how much we should be putting aside each year for these events. So when the time comes, they have the money to do them. So that's a benefit of management companies, is we've got those relationships. We also have continuity um with transitions between boards. You know, that property manager knows what the board did in the past, they know why it was done. Uh it's real common for, you know, after an annual meeting, a new board comes in and they want to change everything. And it's like, okay, these are some great ideas. Let me share with you why the previous board chose this. And does it make sense to change your policies every year? Homeowners don't really like that. So background information is helpful, especially if you have a good management company that you've been with for years. We've got old old records. Continuity's great. But on the flip side, a lot of people will reach out and say, I'm looking for a new management company, because there's just been so much turnover. Earlier in the podcast, we talked about nobody's really going out there saying, I want to be an association manager. So it is hard to find good people. So turnover can be high because we do everything. You know, like you name it, you know, we we dabble in it, and that's not for everybody. So, you know, people come and they say, I want a company like PMI that's been around for all these years, that's been managing associations. Some companies are new to the industry and association management, they're like, We want long-term. We don't want to have a new manager every year. Because every time you get a new manager, you kind of have to reteach them. But one thing I've recently been seeing here um at PMI is we have incredible managers, some of them 20 years. Wow. And sometimes if you spend 10, 15, 20 years with one community, uh, it starts to get a little stagnant. Like the fun's not there, the excitement of new ideas. So if you've got a great management company, you know, consider that every now and then a change up might be great, a fresh set of ideas. So while that's like a number one reason that I'm seeing lately is I'm getting a new manager all the time. It's um training the manager, you know, consider if you've got a great management company partner, and even if you love your your manager, that sometimes a change up is a good thing. It's just an interesting thought out there. Yeah, fresh ideas are critical.

Crystal 27:44

For sure. Fresh eyes, new thoughts, new ideas. I mean, things are changing right now in the world of AI and tech, it things are changing almost every day.

Donna 27:52

Oh yeah, tell me about it. I'm constantly looking for ways to improve our technology and and talking to vendors and where's AI gonna take us? How do how do I leverage AI but keep my customer service? But when somebody's online at 3 a.m., give them what they want. So I'm really proud to say that we've been we've been focusing on technology and advancements for for our divisions. What have you done in the world of like AI and tech? We, you know, last year we we did some software changes and they're very AI focused. So we've we've managed to implement things where we can triage incoming questions, load documents up, kind of like a research assistant. Uh a lot of it right now is on the back end, things that homeowners don't see that make us more efficient and able to more accurately and more quickly respond to items. In the future, you know, we're looking in the next two months to be able to add you some AI assistance to the portal where if they log in and it's 2 a.m. and they have a question and they don't want to look through the document and find the page, they'll just be able to type in their questions and get some self-service answers. And you know, people might think, oh, well, the management company, like they're not doing anything for us anymore. But getting all of that data-specific information into artificial intelligence and coding or teaching or stuff that's way beyond my knowledge level, like it's actually a bit of work. Yeah, yeah, training AI doing. You know, be like, oh well, this management company isn't doing anything. Well, well, yeah, we are like you're training a new employee. It is it is exactly like training a new employee.

Crystal 29:33

Right, right.

Donna 29:33

And our goal is let's create efficiencies, let's give the homeowners what they want. Right.

Crystal 29:38

It sounds like you're doing a great blend of AI and tech and being available really 24-7 with AI, but also giving that customer service and that friendly face when they call.

Property Management, Inc. is awesome

Donna 29:48

Absolutely. You know, that one of the best things we've ever done is add customer service staff that their job is to sit by the phone and answer those calls. And people really like it. And when you get that right employee with the personality that understands, like sometimes people just want to vent or they want to talk or they're lonely. That one 15-minute conversation, which sometimes backs up a line, is that one homeowner that says, you know what, PMI is awesome. Like you know what I mean? Like they care. Right, right. And we do care. I hope that shines through in all of our interactions.

Crystal 30:25

What do you think are the biggest misconceptions homeowners might have for HOAs or property management companies?

Donna 30:34

We really don't enjoy compliance. We don't want to send out violations, we don't want to send out late notices, we don't want to go to collections. Like we understand that 90% of the time things aren't not done because they don't want to or out of laziness. We don't want the communication to come across as nasty or uncaring, but at the same time, you know, state statutes, we have to warn you that you may get fined. This is in your documents, you have the right to appeal. And when you start kind of getting some of that legally stuff in there, they sound intimidating, they sound mean, even in collection practices. This is an attempt to collect a debt. We we know that most people aren't paying their bills because they don't feel like it. Right. We don't want to call you to get you to pay, we don't want to send you these letters. And that's another big win, you know, with some of our customer service people. We've changed some of our stuff where we're starting to do more of those personal phone calls internally. And even if we're not collectors, there's all, like I said, all sorts of rules uh that follow that, is to just be able to call and say, Hey, did you know this is past due? Are you getting our emails? Can I help you get on the portal? Can I help you set up auto pay? Is there something you need from us?

Crystal 31:58

Yeah, that sounds more comforting as a homeowner to be talking with with your team, somebody that they've trusted and that they've known since they've moved into their house, uh, presumably, versus getting that call from an outside debt collector that's very robotic sounding.

Donna 32:13

And sometimes that's the craziest thing. You call somebody and they're like, we haven't owned that in four months. And you're like, oh, uh okay. Like, give us some more information on this. When did you settle? Who was your settlement company? We don't have any record of resale certificates being ordered or that this change was made. And then we go back to super sleuth mood and calling a settlement company, reaching out to a realtor, like, who's this owner? Help me find them, and just sending a letter through the postal service to somebody who doesn't live there that might never get it, versus this phone call somebody picks up and be like, Oh, I recognize this caller ID from you know when we lived here. Let's see what's going on. Maybe they want to give me money back. I'm gonna answer this. You know, so the the many hats, and again, what's the value of a management company? These volunteer board members, they they don't have time for that. You know, and a lot of times it's hard for them to separate their friendship and their caringness and their good nature for their their community. We got this trash can rule and they know they're elderly and they struggle doing this, or oh, they're on vacation for a week, so let's not send this compliance notice. And it's like, well, I can't not do for them just because you happen to know who they are and that they're on vacation. You you know, sometimes you plan ahead. You have people get your mail for you while you're gone or walk your dog, it's you know, talk to somebody and have them pull your cans for you. So it's it's hard to be kind and neighborly and want to help as a board member, but recognize you might be in a community of 400. Who knows how many of these trash can issues are on vacation? I can't be like, well, I didn't send a notice to them because board member Joe said, Oh, they're on vacation, give them a pass. Right, right. So it helps take some of the the personalists out of it when you have somebody else to to look at the bigger picture and and be able to provide consistency. And one thing you'd mentioned earlier that I wished people know, when your your managers on site walking the property and looking at items, we don't know who lives where. So when you call me and tell me you're being targeted, we have no idea who you are, what your background is, where you went to school, where you work, how many kids you have, how many pets you do or don't have. We we know nothing. We look at an address, we don't walk around with a list of oh, so-and-so lives here and this is their balance, and like no. Wow, we don't we don't have time for that.

Crystal 35:03

Yeah. Wow. This conversation has been very eye-opening for me. Oh, I can talk forever. Because you love it. I could tell, I can see that on your face. I know people can't listening can't see that, but I can tell you really enjoy what you do and telling these stories that you have and just all of this knowledge and experience. And I think most of the general public, whether you're a homeowner, somebody in property management and not HOA specifically, or an HO board, I don't think that they knew could grasp how much you actually touch and do. I mean, I think they think that you're just collectors, you know, or or issuing letters. But you're talking about the police. Right. You're talking about events and having conversations between on both sides, helping the homeowners and helping the boards, and do deep diving on what issues have happened there or information that's missing. I don't think most people would understand that if you're not in a property management association division of how much you actually do.

Donna 36:03

Yeah, and even in the real estate world, you know, whether you're realtors or in land development or builders, find the the local reputable companies like PMI and call us and ask questions. You know, what can you tell me about this community? What are the rules like? If you've got a client out there that, you know, is big into gardening and you're showing them homes in an HOA where they say you can't touch anything outside, don't you dare plant. It's okay to to reach out to us and ask questions and get opinions. Last thing you want to do is sell somebody a home and they move in and they're unhappy because they didn't get the rules. They didn't, they didn't have everything.

Crystal 36:43

Right. And then they want to move out of your community. And they could have been a And that's more work for me. Now that you mentioned that, if somebody buys a home in a community, do they go through you? Do they go through the realtor? How does that process work?

Donna 36:58

So once the home goes under contract, their realtor will generally reach out. They're required to order a resale certificate, and that document has to contain certain information based on PA state statute, you know, whether or not it's part of a master association, if there's violations, how much money's in the bank accounts? Does the homeowner owe anything? Tons of questions. And they get copies of the financials and they get copies of the documents. Those documents are the essentially the rules of the community. And my experience is most people don't read them. They they get the cover page, and to be fair, sometimes it might be several hundred pages worth of documents. Right. So I recommend if they've got a rules and regulations section, which not every community has, but flip through those rules, make sure that they make sense to you, and none of them are deal breakers. And the second part is a lot of them also have maintenance responsibility charts. Take a quick glance for expectations of who's responsible for what. Sometimes realtors show so many different properties in different communities that they get confused. I don't think most of them are trying to lie to you to sell you something. They say, oh, everything's covered. Well, yes, everything's covered, but they're not gonna come power wash your milde siding. So look at look at the little pieces or call. Like, there's nothing wrong with getting a resale certificate and wanting to be an educated buyer. Call the management company that issued it. Ask some questions. Hey, this is something I want to do. Are they gonna let me put a fence up out back? And that's a big thing. A lot of HOAs don't allow fencing.

Crystal 38:42

Right.

Donna 38:42

Or it has to be a certain height or a certain color. Like if you've got a dog, you know you want this house and you're gonna need a fence. And as a no-fense community, find that out now, not after you move in. So even if you're not an owner, use this as a resource, as a potential buyer or somebody in the industry.

Crystal 39:01

Helping to acclimate new homeowners is such an important benefit to partnering with a property management company that most people probably don't think about.

Donna 39:10

That's a huge benefit against self-management because nobody wants to put their personal name and phone number out there. Be like, hey, call me for any random question you might have. No, no, no. Please call the management company.

Crystal 39:27

And while we're talking about that and we're just about out of time, I wanted to ask you one more very important question, which is what should an HOA look for when choosing a property management company?

Donna 39:39

I think longevity, consistency. When did they get into this industry? Uh it's becoming more and more popular now that people who traditionally haven't been in association management are saying, Oh, we're gonna add this in, we're gonna offer it, if they haven't been doing it for a long time, or if they think Oh, we manage rental properties. This is an easy transition. It's not. It's a whole other ballgame. So make sure they're being run by people that are credentialed and trained in community associations. Believe it or not, there are laws that have to be followed that these communities have to go by. And like you said, a good association manager is hard to find. Yes. So if somebody's only been doing association management for two or three years, unless they have a great pool of experienced people, then everybody on that team is learning and doesn't have the experience of the question that pops up to have a whole team of people that have been doing it for 20 years where you can holler around or talk to your coworkers and be like, well, this is how this community did it, and this, this, and we've tried this, and this hasn't worked. Like, yeah, I think that's really huge. How long has that management company been focusing on associations specifically? Because it is absolutely nothing like managing rentals. Yeah, when you're looking for the management company, look for longevity. Are they kind of in your area? I do think that's important. And they don't have to be like right there, but it's helpful. PMI does a lot of local or local to where the staff live. Like we want to be part of the community. My uh my daughter's best friend lives in a community that I managed who happened to meet her while I was doing something at the pool for them, and on a Saturday driving on my way to Target, and they were I don't know 10 or whatever at the time. It's like, hey, hi, how are you? You know, like we're we're a part of these communities. Our friends live in them. And and that makes a big difference. Because you care. Because we care. Yeah. We do care. Yeah. That's misconception number one. My manager doesn't care. We care a lot.

Crystal 41:51

If you listen to this podcast, the one thing to to walk away with is your HOA manager, uh property management company, does care. They care about the community, they care about the homeowners, they care about the board, they care about the longevity. And that really awesome to hear. I mean, if if you especially if you're living in one of in in a homeowner's association, to have somebody that really kind of has your back. Yeah. But Donna, I really wanted to thank you for being here and going through all this and answering all my questions.

Donna 42:20

It was so much fun to feel like somebody was actually interested in what I had to do every day. My kids don't want to hear about it at the dinner table. They're like, no, mom.

Crystal 42:31

Well, that's why I really wanted to invite you to to be on the podcast because HOA management, like you said previously, is kind of a side division almost. Like you said, a lot of property management companies are just getting into this. So to hear your perspective and really enlighten everybody has been just wonderful. So thank you. Thank you.

Donna 42:50

Well, I hope you have me back. I can bring up all sorts of conversations and maybe some funny stories for you anytime. Lots of fun.

Crystal 42:57

So if you have any questions for Donna or interested in her management services, you can email us at podcast at rentpmi.com. That's r-n-tpmi.com. You can also follow her on LinkedIn. Donna, you're on LinkedIn, right?

Donna 43:13

I am on LinkedIn. Donna Faith, I'm there. I pop up, I assume. Never searched myself, but yes, I am there.

Crystal 43:21

And if you'd like to know more about Property Management Inc., you can visit mgmtpmi.com. And thank you again for being here and sharing your expertise. It was really interesting and fascinating to hear about your Sherlock Holmes, your Sidney Croix, your all of these things. Like in I need a bigger hat rack. Yeah, you really do.

Donna 43:41

Awesome.

Crystal 43:42

But thank you all for listening. We'll see you next time.

Donna 43:45

Yeah, absolutely.

Crystal 43:46

Thank you.