New Professional Service Providers

Developed by a treasurer, built for HOA members!

Still submitting paper checks to your HOA? Reserves poorly managed or insufficiently funded? Repairs taking forever? We feel your pain. Dials is paving the way to eliminate poorly managed reserves, manual check processing, and old methods of bookkeeping among HOA members.

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Dials automates the most time-consuming task in HOA management: collections. Starting at just $25/ month, we provide a complete collections platform that invoices members, reminds them to pay, and offers payment via direct bank debit (no more checks).

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We work with your existing bank and can have you set up in one day. Sign up today!

David Albrecht (707) 653-6039 david@dials.com dials.com

Since 1991, Giuliani Construction and Restoration is recognized as the Bay Area’s full-service restoration solution.

Family owned and operated, Restoration to Repairs Made Simple. The trusted choice of an extensive network of industry partners, serving the South Bay, East Bay and Greater San Francisco Bay Area.

Restoration-to-Repairs Made Simple!

• Water

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Our fast-response, outstanding service level and quality craftsmanship is available 24/7. We look forward to working with your community!

Alicia Perez Sales & Marketing Manager (833) 3-DRYOUT

aperez@giulianiconstruction.com giulianiconstruction.com

As a onestop shop in asphalt, concrete, and fencing services, DRYCO offers the capacity, skills, and equipment required to execute all asphalt jobs, concrete construction, whole-site building projects, and fencing tasks in the San Francisco Bay Area, Greater Sacramento, and California’s Central Valley region.

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DRYCO works with property managers, homeowners’ associations, general contractors, engineering consultants, and building owners to keep their most valuable assets protected and maintained.

Mike Herold

(510) 248-9477 mikeh@dryco.com dryco.com

Communities often suffer from dysfunctional management. This can present itself in a variety of ways, such as poor financial oversight and reporting, lack of follow-through, or inadequate communication. All of these can leave communities and their leaders feeling frustrated and overwhelmed.

With HOA Organizers as your partner, our nationally-certified managers will guide you with a clear roadmap to success. Our customized platform provides accurate and timely financial reports available to Board members 24/7. Comprehensive and frequent updates are provided without Boards having to ask. Our experts anticipate community needs, taking a proactive approach to maintenance, compliance, and large projects. By maximizing technology, we deliver consistent communication tailored to your association.

When you make the choice to partner with our team, we invest in you from day one. Our streamlined transition process has every detail covered, making it stress-free and simple for everyone involved.

Do you want to be confident that your community’s needs are being addressed? Do you want accomplishment, pride and peace of mind to be the cornerstone of your community? Partner with the premier management company throughout California. Contact us today!

Matt Meadors, CMCA, AMS

Serving Communities Throughout California (833) 4-HOA-ORG matt@hoaorganizers.com

HOAOrganizers.com

Continued from page 6 of the 2023 HOA megatrends: 1. Systemic Inflation, 2. Chronic Labor Shortages, and 3. Community Mental Health Awareness.

Reading the articles in this issue of the Echo Journal helped me to crystallize what appear to be three major trends that could, if not properly anticipated and managed, cause great harm to HOA communities.

A megatrend causes a structural or systemic shift in the nature of the business environment and results in a permanent change in the fundamental assumptions of the business environment. Because of the significance of the change, every HOA board should prepare their communities at the operational level to optimize their budgets, their long-term planning, and the vitality of their communities.

The 2023 HOA megatrends are found as underlying threads in the articles featured in this Echo Journal. Now that they’re identified, boards should include these realities in their planning. Good environmental visioning will result in better assumptions and improve planning to deal with the change. A solid long-term plan built on good assumptions can minimize community disruption and potentially propel the HOA to be a leader for positive change.

We challenge our readers to look for the megatrends in the articles in this Echo Journal. The trends are not necessarily explicit, but they are apparent when one looks for them. The result will be a richer and, hopefully, more insightful read. However, it is not for this issue to explore the trends more deeply. That is best left for another time, and maybe another article, workshop, or Echo Board Members Club discussion.

Here are some examples from the writing that support the above assertion.

In his article “Association Management: High Tech vs. High Touch,” author David Albrecht discusses labor shortages and the need for every board to consider greater utilization of HOA management technology. It is challenging to find qualified, affordable workers in almost any field. In the HOA business, shortages of skilled labor are particularly acute, especially in the trades and community management. This situation is permanently driving costs higher and, worse, leaving some associations without qualified paid managers. The argument advanced by Albrecht is that many HOA tasks should be moved away from high touch and transitioned to technology.

Susan Hawks McClintic, Esq., writes, “Effective meetings are a key element in the health of the community. Ineffective meetings in common interest developments, especially when addressing sensitive topics, can easily devolve into shouting matches, threats, and even news coverage.” Her statement emphasizes the need for HOA boards to actively mitigate the potential threat of emotionally charged meetings by being better managers and ensuring that investments are well-planned, communicated, and affordable for the community.

Author Melissa Bauman, Esq., writes that the global pandemic has “forever changed our lives in nearly every respect, including how people live together and how HOAs are managed.” And as community health frays due to congested and constrained living, boards are being forced, more than ever, to find better, more sensitive ways to govern and to intercede in the mental health concerns of the community.

Each of these authors has touched on at least one of the megatrends influencing a permanent change in how HOA communities are managed. After the pandemic, the world changed forever – and so will living in and managing HOAs. First the board must recognize and understand the three megatrends affecting their leadership reality. Once those are identified and understood, boards must plan to minimize the long-term negative effects on the community and hopefully leverage their decisions for the greater good.

After 50 years, Echo is still here to help communities identify critical areas of change in the industry and help them adapt to these changes. Echo is here to stay and to foster a better quality of life in homeowners associations through education, advocacy, and connection.