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[As originally published in Facilities Today] VelieCAM: There is a Better Way When Hurricane Wilma passed through SE Florida in 2005 many associations were surprised with the extra expenses that the insurance companies wouldn’t cover. When we add Wilma to the irrational sky rocketing real estate prices, we |
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have the two main reasons for the large increases in condo and HOA assessments. Like our property taxes, they were not really an issue until the property values began to fall. Having started a real estate career in 2004, I studied and read everything I could on real estate, mortgages, and community associations and earned the accompanying State licenses. While qualifying my buyer clients it usually came down to the same variable numbers in the chart. We could be looking at two of the same houses (or condo complexes) in the same neighborhood and the buyer could qualify to buy one but not be qualified to buy the other. |
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I began to expand my professional library with books and literature from the Community Association Institute’s (CAI) online bookstore with titles like, “Community First!” and “Building Community” and many others because you have to know what an ideal community should look like before you can work towards that end. This knowledge, along with graduate level courses in Organizational Development, Organization Change, Organizational Behavior, made me realize these writers are correct in their conclusions. There is more to it than the physical appearance of a community (although extremely important), because most culture is innate and automatic and includes the feelings, attitudes, and behavior of the people living there. While the economy plunged into recession, the State and Federal Governments fought to contain the factors affecting real estate values, I asked, “Who is helping to contain the escalating community association maintenance fees?” Velie Association Management, LLC was launched in March 2008 with the goal of not only solvency for our managed associations in these rough times, but to cut the expenses while increasing the value the community gets from the management company. Ultimately our goal is to increase the value of the community itself. But along the way, we can work on the hearts and minds of the residents to increase their image of their neighborhood or condo complex. It is human nature to take care of something you respect and are proud of. For more information, please visit our Web site at http://VelieCAM.com. Copyright 2009, Eddie Velie, Velie Community Association Management, LLC |
