| |
| |
|
Real Estate Information |
|
|
Law & Logic of Homeowner Association Capital Reserves
In October 1999, Oregon was one of the first states that enacted a significant improvement to its Condominium and Planned Community regarding capital reserve planning, a process by which homeowner associations plan and fund future repairs and replacements. For many associations, the process became mandatory although there was an "escape clause" for pre-October 99 Oregon communities. But there's more to reserve planning than The Law. Where statute stops, the Board's "fiduciary" duty kicks in. A "fiduciary" is one who is given the trust or confidence of another. The Board is entrusted with care of the biggest single asset that most people own, their homes. These people have the right to expect the homeowner association to be run like the business that it is...a corporation often responsible for millions of dollars in assets. The reserve study concept was developed during the 1980s as a result of the many aging homeowner associations that found themselves in dire straits due to failure to plan for reserve expenses. The homeowners expected the Board to plan for such events and all too many had no plan other than "dealing with it" when the time came. Well, those "times" came all too soon and inevitability lived up to its reputation. Thus, the obvious need for long range planning came about. Reserve studies analyze and predict the cost and timing of future repairs of association maintained components like roofing, pools, paving, landscaping, painting, fences, decks and other items that have a useful life of between 3 and 30 years. The typical condominium association has between 15 and 30 items that fall under the "reserve" definition. When the repair costs of these 15-30 items are added up, it usually amounts to hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars. This is not chump change. It takes careful planning to accumulate the funds plus know how and when to spend it. That's what reserve planning is all about. Reserve plans require all owners to pay a monthly share of future repairs and replacements. These payments pay for assets that are being used up. If an owner sells, the next owner picks up the monthly share. All owners pay a fair share and no more special assessments! This is as it should be. If you've been thinking there's a better way to manage association assets, there is: It's called a Reserve Study. Whether by law or logic, it's time your homeowner association started doing business like a business. Neda Dabestani-Ryba is a licensed Realtor in Maryland. She is a member of the President's Circle of Top Real Estate Professionals. She can be reached at (800) 536-3806 or visit her website for more information: http://neda.dabestani.pcragent.com/ Prudential Carruthers REALTORS is an independently owned and operated member of Prudential Real Estate Affiliates, Inc., a Prudential Financial company. Equal Housing Opportunity.
MORE RESOURCES: This RSS feed URL is deprecated, please update. New URLs can be found in the footers at https://news.google.com/news
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Tax Assessment/Appraisal: How Do I Know What My Home is Worth? If you are in the home buying or selling market, it's important to understand the difference between tax assessment and appraisal value. Concentrate on the appraisal value because this determines your asking price. Atlanta Georgia Real Estate - Marietta - East Cobb, Roswell, and Alpharetta Whether you're a "move up" home buyer, downsizing, or relocating to the metro Atlanta area, you'll find a diverse range of home styles and price ranges just north of downtown in the Marietta - East Cobb, Roswell, Alpharetta corridor. Featuring affordable single family homes, condominiums, townhouses, and luxury real estate, these communities also offer great schools and unbeatable location. New Home Construction - The American Dream or The American Nightmare? Buying a new home is suppose to be the American Dream. Unfortunately, for many buyers of newly constructed homes it becomes the American Nightmare. What is a Home Inspection? Any Sally and Sam Homebuyer can look at a home and decide whether it is attractive. They might notice it is freshly painted in pleasing colors, has the requisite number of rooms, a cook's kitchen and is located in a location with top schools. Hiring A Contractor - 10 Mistakes To Avoid A very smart attorney I know paid $7,000 for a roof repair, only to have the roof leak the next time it rained. The contractor stalled, made excuses, but never did a thing about it. Important Facts For Home Buyers If you are considering buying a home or have spent many years saving in preparation of buying a home, the questions and process involved in buying a home can be extremely stressful. As exciting as it is to begin looking for your new home, there are many unexpected costs and details to be considered before contacting a real estate agent. How to Build A Rental Property Money Machine If you are looking for a steady, income-producing investment that isn't dependent on the ups and downs of the stock market, rental property is just the investment you're looking for!As lucrative as owning rental property can be, the wrong property can be a bottomless money pit. You need to know how to go about locating property, finding tenants, managing the rental, and how to make your investment profitable. Buying Rental Property - Avoid Sellers Tricks Be careful when buying rental property. We stayed at a motel for a week one winter. Rehab Foreclosed Houses the Right Way and Keep All the Profits! I've been teaching people how to buy foreclosure properties for a long time.And we all make the biggest profits on the deals that we rehab the right way. Buying Beach Houses in New Zealand: Real Estate and Investment Opportunities Buying a beach house in New Zealand offers many possibilities.New Zealand is made up of two main islands, North Island and South Island, giving it miles of coastal lands and perfect beaches to live by. How I Became a Real Estate Investor Recently I closed on the sale of two homes. They were located about a mile apart and had comparable market values. Property Investment - What Future For the Biggest Bubble of All Time? The Economist magazine published a special report in this months issue entitled "House Prices ? After The Fall". Some might call it pessimistic, alarmist, nonsense or worse but only the foolish would choose to ignore the research that comes out of a think-tank with the kind of resources that this highly respected publication has. How to Sell Your Own Home and Save Thousands of Dollars Most people take the easy way out when selling their home and hand the responsibility over to a real estate agent, when in fact the average homeowner is capable of selling their own home.Apart from the satisfaction of making the sale yourself there is the bonus of saving thousands of dollars in agents fees. Realtors: Forget Your Address? It's a large real estate agency, and the company depends on a steady stream of leads. The website is classy, with delightful graphic elements and layout. Ten Creative Financing Techniques Do all the creative financing techniques you hear about really work? Yes, actually. They probably have all worked somewhere for someone at least once. Make Money As A Slumlord Be a slumlord? Okay, I got your attention, now the truth. I really don't recommend that anyone endanger their renters with unsafe housing. Looking into Buying Mobile Homes? To own a home is one of the dreams every common man cherishes, even from the childhood. With hard work and years of savings, he might be able to build or buy a dwelling for him and his family. What is a Predatory Lender? Several months ago, the 3,000-member California Association of Mortgage Brokers (CAMB) created the first real definition to describe the abusive lending practices of predatory lenders. According to the CAMB, predatory lending was described as "placing consumers in loan products with significantly worse terms and/or higher costs than loans offered to similarly qualified consumers in the region for the primary purpose of enriching the originator and with little or no regard for the costs to the consumer. According To Sellers, Silence Isnt Always Golden' When trying to sell a home, silence isn't always golden especially when you're expecting your real estate agent to call. In fact, it's one of the leading complaints among sellers in the real estate market. Home Equity Loans - Beware of Appraisal Fraud A new report by the independent Demos group has revealed what may not be a surprise to many people - corruption is rampant in the home appraisal industry. The bust in the dot-com market of some five years ago has left would-be lenders with a surplus of cash to lend.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 TIGER MEDIA |