Live in a condo or home owner association property? Do you understand the budget?

We are the New Jersey title insurance agent that does it all for you. For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us, Vested Land Services LLC. We can help.

Residents of condominium and home owner association properties are often surprised when they get a notice of a "special assessment."  Special assessments come about because of the need for emergency expenditures arising after a catastrophe, or because the management of the property did not properly budget for repairs and replacements.

This article from Realty Times outlines the budget process; something that should be understood by you, the #homeowner.

HOA Pencil Sharpening: Crunching the Numbers

Now is the time when most homeowner associations count last year's costs and crunch next year's numbers hoping to squeeze blood out of a turnip. Often it's so dry, there isn't even any turnip juice left much less any O positive. But crunch you must. Here are some of the ways to make the cash flow more freely.

Adjust by Inflation. This is a no-brainer. Check the area Consumer Price Index - CPI and raise all budget items by at least that amount. An exception is utilities which often enjoy a larger rate increase based on the utilities the utility companies expect not to sell added to the cost of maintaining antiquated power generation plants plus a fudge factor they hope to slip by the utility rate commission (a bit of budget humor). 

Add a Contingency. A contingency is 5-10% of the total budget which is used to either cover all those things you forgot to include or could not foresee. 

Continue to the full article for more items.  Hope you find it helpful.

For your next title order or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow@vested.com

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Condo rules and regulations got you down? Too much or too little enforcement?

We are the New Jersey title insurance agent that does it all for you. For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us, Vested Land Services LLC. We can help.

This is another great article from Realty Times.  It's all about enforcement of condominium and home owner association (HOA) rule and regulations.  Regulations? They range from flying Old Glory (a Federal law now protects condo unit owners) to young children in the swimming pool.  Each property is different.

Condominium Enforcement: Too Little Or Too Much?

BENNY L. KASS

Question:: I read and enjoyed a recent column that you wrote on condominium living, and especially the part where you said that "many people are becoming quite disillusioned with community association life." I fully expected you would then cover my problem, but you did not. You said people were unhappy with "enforcement, rules and regulations." Although I agree with you, the opposite is also true. I live in a condominium complex where there seems to be no rule enforcement. I have noisy neighbors, neighbors with three cars (for their two-person, one-bedroom condo), neighbors who erect anything and everything on the common elements. The Association does not have the will nor the resources to do anything about these qualities of life violations. The lack of enforcement of the various rules and regulations of my Condominium Association has prompted me to consider selling and moving out. Would appreciate your comments. Sharon.
Answer: Serving as a member of a board of directors of a community association is, to say the least, a very difficult task. You are "damned if you do, and damned if you don't." All too often, competent, responsive boards of directors are faced with a difficult decision -- namely do we enforce our rules or can we ignore some of the minor violations that occur within the community?
More importantly, many boards of directors do not have the resources -- both legal and money -- to properly enforce any violation of the rules and regulations.
Almost every set of community association documents authorizes a board of directors to enforce their own documents. A board can enforce in a number of ways.

To read the complete article go here.

For your next title insurance order or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow@vested.com

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Picture Perfect HOA Reserves - Realty Times

HOA Reserves.

Do you own a home in a condominium or planned development with an association?  The financial health of your association is crucial.  This article from Realty Times give you a good understanding of the importance of a reserve account.

A reserve study identifies a homeowner association's future repairs and replacements like a snapshot in time. Imagine that you could picture the buildings and grounds as they would be in five, ten, even thirty years. A reserve study acts just like that by estimating the useful life of the common elements and the cost to replace them in the future based on current cost adjusted by inflation.

Read the full article at Realty Times

For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us. We can help. Located in Fairfield, #NewJersey, we are the title insurance agent that does it all for you.

For your next title order or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow AT vested.com

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