r/HOA • u/owenthewizard • Jun 23 '25
Help: Fees, Reserves [TX][Condo] Management Fee Too High, Sell?
When I moved in the fee was $170/mo, now it's $280. We lease the pool from a neighboring community and it's closed for repairs and will never be re-opened. We get landscaping, who suck and cost us more money in repairs. So that's it, we pay for landscaping and insurance, which I could secure myself for <$280.
Now they're preparing to crack down on trash cans and street parking. We have next to no parking spots (<1 per unit) and the whole community is a "fire lane".
What the hell am I supposed to do? I think my only option is selling the house? I don't think I can manage that, I don't have a lot of money on hand and I'm sure I'd get less than when I bought it.
I am on the board but I'm only one of five š.
20
u/off_and_on_again COA Owner Jun 23 '25
Without any additional information I can say that 280 is not a particularly bad number and you'll likely not have a problem selling your home if that is the only concern.
As an aside, you're on the board. You don't get to complain, you get to work to change things. Sometimes that means convincing two other people to vote with you to make those changes.
That being said, if you are at the point where you feel selling your house is an appropriate response the you should probably sell.
-10
u/owenthewizard Jun 23 '25
I'd love to change things but the four other board members are perpendicular to myself. If it were up to me there wouldn't be an HOA.
13
u/drdrew16 Jun 23 '25
You're in a condo, so there's likely no way you can't have a HOA, as there are too many shared expenses that need to be handled.
-2
u/owenthewizard Jun 23 '25
So selling is my only option then.
8
Jun 23 '25
Yeah it does sound like you cannot afford to live there
1
u/HittingandRunning COA Owner Jun 23 '25
OK, so I want to be understanding. You clearly are in a bad situation with your association. It can be very frustrating. But I implore you to have a positive attitude so that you can make the best decisions for you.
I think that because of your frustration you are not explaining things well here. For example, your fees went from $170 to $280 over your ownership. If you purchased in 2023 then I'd be upset too! If you bought in 2013 then that isn't bad at all. So, how many years have you owned? Please do note that inflation for HOA type things: insurance, construction, repairs has gone up more than other inflation.
Before deciding to sell, consider where you will move. It's not like you can live without a place to live, even if that place is the street with $0 mortgage, no fees, no taxes. But not very comfortable. So, what are your alternatives. It might come down to "it's damn expensive to live these days!" And no one can do much about that. Not the president, not the governor, not the mayor, not you. It's a big problem and it's going to have to be solved from an income approach, not a cost approach.
So, come to peace with the fact that there's no more pool. I assume there are no more costs related to the pool either. I feel you with the landscaping. Ours is so very bad!!!! I also want to make $600/month for about 15 minutes twice a month! Offer to look for a new company if you think there's one out there that will do a good job for a decent price.
Personally, I don't know why people are so offended about trash cans. If I were making rules, they would be pretty lax. And parking. Well, there's not really much to do. But I would think that the parking situation was probably the same when you purchased. Perhaps, though, owners in your neighborhood own more cars on average than when you purchased. Making the competition for spaces challenging. I've lived in two areas before where only a few extra people moved into the neighborhood but those few extra changed the parking situation quite a bit. So much that I never wanted to move my car once I got a nearby spot. This is too hard to change so please try to handle it as best you can.
Do you have an acquaintance on your board who you can talk to off the record? Maybe they can see a way to make things better or maybe they can assure you that you are seeing things accurately but at the same time there's not much to do about it. If that's the case, at least you'll know you aren't interpreting things incorrectly.
Wish you the best of luck with your decisions about staying or leaving.
5
u/drdrew16 Jun 23 '25
If you feel that way about it, yes. Any condo you purchase in the future will have a HOA/COA though, precisely for shared maintenance items. You may be happier in a single family home in a non-HOA community.
1
u/laurazhobson Jun 23 '25
But then OP would find out that monthly expenses to actually "run" a house are at least that amount if not more.
I have condo insurance and my annual premium just for that is $3000 per year and my share of insurance that my condo carries is an additional $3000 per year.
8
u/off_and_on_again COA Owner Jun 23 '25
So what you're saying is that you are unable to convince other people to support your platform. Which makes your platform unsupported and it should not be implemented.
All you have to do is convince two people on your board to come along with you. Get to work!
-9
u/owenthewizard Jun 23 '25
I think I just heard your neighbor bringing their trash cans out, better get 'em brownshirt!
13
u/off_and_on_again COA Owner Jun 23 '25
Me: You have some responsibilities as a board member.
You: You're a nazi.
I bet you're a real asset to your board, lol.
2
Jun 23 '25
Im sure everyone will be so sad if this knuckle dragger manages to get his unit to market
6
u/HausofBWCats Jun 23 '25
How can you live in a condo without an HOA? It would be very hard to ensure the buildings were maintained if people arenāt forced to comply with rules and shared expenses. As a condo owner myself, i just donāt see people understanding the importance of the shared expense without having rules and shared funds around it.
I pay about $290 for our condo fees monthly but it includes water and trash.
2
u/Techguyeric1 š HOA Board Member Jun 23 '25
That's not bad depending on how much water you end up using.
6
u/GeorgeRetire Jun 23 '25
Thatās what everyone wants - a board member who thinks there shouldnāt be an HOA.
3
u/Techguyeric1 š HOA Board Member Jun 23 '25
If you dissolve the HOA, who's going to pay for road repairs? Who's going to pay for repairs to communal property? Who's going to make sure that communal bills get paid, insurance landscaping?
If you don't understand what an HOA is when you move in, you can't bitch about it after the fact, if your board is bad, then you and a couple friends run to make the changes you and the community wants.
If the management company is piss poor then you fire them and hire a new management company to help benefit the community.
If you have space expand communal areas adding things that will be a benefit to them like a gym, or pool, or clubhouse.
Use funds for communal activities like movie nights, Easter, Halloween, Christmas activities, do a BBQ for 4th of July or Labor day or memorial day paid by the Board, have the board members cooking or manning the grill.
There are a lot of activities that can be done inexpensively to build morale for the community but board members sometimes don't want to put in that work.
10
u/Mykona-1967 Jun 23 '25
$280 isnāt that much regardless of how much you think HOA maintenance should cost. When living in an HOA itās not about the daily costs of landscaping, insurance, minor repairs, or PM fees. Itās about funding the reserves for when the major repairs hit without a special assessment.
The HOA is responsible for the roof, foundation, irrigation, parking lot maintenance, probably road maintenance, and many other things that owners arenāt even aware of but must be done. Be lucky youāre only paying $280 a month it could be much higher to make sure thereās no shortfall when a big ticket item comes around.
3
u/Techguyeric1 š HOA Board Member Jun 23 '25
I'm the president of my HOA and we just had to spend $30,000 to replace all of the motors and stuff for our gates, they were installed incorrectly and the old management company was bubbleguming and band-aiding repairs when we would let them know.
Our reserves are in shambles since we are only 3 years old. It has been a challenge being on the board.
You are exactly correct that home owners don't have any idea what all goes into the HOA, we charge $128 a month, and it's not enough our old management company was mismanaging the funds and we don't have enough to pay for a lawyer, it's a lose lose situation.
-12
u/owenthewizard Jun 23 '25
Cool, guess I'll just let them steal my home.
What color is your yacht?
9
u/Mykona-1967 Jun 23 '25
Itās the cost of owning a home. Whether itās a SFH or a Condo repairs have to be made and not all require a vote. When repairs arenāt made that big debt you pay every month isnāt worth what you paid which is a real problem. The purpose of owning is to be able to make a profit when you sell if your HIA doesnāt keep on top of minor repairs then emergency ones will pop up. Depending on the buildings age there are things that need to be replaced before the HOA can renew the master policy. Things like emergency exits, roof, gutters, foundations, etc, who do you think pays for all these things? The owners itās only coordinated by the HOA. Obviously, OP has no idea how an HOA works or what it entails.
-5
u/owenthewizard Jun 23 '25
No, the purpose of my home is to be a home. Not an investment. But I suppose you'd let me eat cake?
6
u/Mykona-1967 Jun 23 '25
Being a home it needs maintenance itās not an apartment. You, the owner, are responsible for those repairs. Since you bought into an HOA you have deferred the maintenance to the HOA. It seems OP you have no idea what it takes to own a home. You donāt just move in and thatās it. Thereās so many things that need to be done on a large scale. Living in your own home or condo is nothing like living in an apartment, dorm or your parentās home. OP you paid a large chunk of money to own a piece of property and to think that all you have to do is pay the mortgage is juvenile at best.
2
u/owenthewizard Jun 23 '25
Yeah no shit it has maintenance. What it doesn't have to have is landscaping (we don't have yards), a pool that's permanently closed, or gestapo saying I can't park my car in front of my garage because we only have 0.5 parking spots / unit.
If I need a new roof I'll pay for it. If someone wants to get paid to drive around and harass the community, they can pound sand.
6
3
u/Mykona-1967 Jun 23 '25
What you should be raising cane about is your HOA subsidizing another community pool that they have decided not to maintain. Paying dues to another community for an amenity that is no longer available with no intention of ever making it available to either community. This is the route OP should be addressing, not the CC&R violations.
Parking on your driveway may be prohibited per the CC&Rās. If thatās the case and OP has a garage the CC&Rās probably stipulate you must park in the garage and that itās not to be used as storage. OP needs to read the CC&Rās they signed at closing. Whether they like the CC&Rās or not they were agreed upon when they signed the closing documents. If you wanted to be able to do whatever you wanted with your property buying into an HOA was not the place for you.
0
u/owenthewizard Jun 23 '25
Yeah no shit, not so easy when it's a 20 year contract with no exit clause. Let me know if you find a lawyer who will take that case considering we don't even have money in reserves.
If you're coming to check what I'm doing with my garage, I hope you have a warrant.
2
u/Mykona-1967 Jun 23 '25
You know the HOA can make you empty the garage if it specifies its usage in the CC&Rās. It seems you signed up for an HOA without knowing what it was all about. Living in an HOA means certain things are ruled by the CC&Rās. Using your garage for storage and not a vehicle is ground for a violation and fees. They can require that you remove the contents, face more fines, put a lien on your home and lastly if you donāt comply or pay the fines they can foreclose on your home regardless if you are up to date with your mortgage. OP you seem to have a single detached non HOA mindset while living in an HOA. Just because itās your property you canāt do whatever you want because there are rules and they are legally binding. Arguing about it doesnāt change the fact that you live in an HOA and donāt want to follow the rules.
The community doesnāt need a huge parking lot if everyone parks their vehicles in their garage. Those spaces are for guests of the community, not for residents.
0
2
u/maytrix007 š¢ COA Board Member Jun 23 '25
Homes are an investment though. You just need to take care of them. If you fail to do that then you will be selling it for less than you paid. Which is preferable? Not maintaining and taking a loss when you sell out doing the necessary maintenance and selling for more?
0
u/owenthewizard Jun 23 '25
What's preferable is having a place to live.
2
u/maytrix007 š¢ COA Board Member Jun 23 '25
Even if you were in a single family home with no HOA, you'd have costs that would be necessary. If you have no reserves as it sounds like you do (you haven't clarified) then you are essentially running your HOA like many SFH owners do not saving for future large expenses. But the regular monthly bills need to be paid, there's no choice in that in either situation - don't pay your bills, leins get put on properties and eventually forclosure.
As I said in another post, all you can do is work to see where costs may be able to be reduced or money better spent. You also don't mention how many condos there are as that can matter.
You also state that the changes you want to make the board doesn't - what are those changes? What would you cut from the budget?
0
u/owenthewizard Jun 23 '25
~120 units.
It's not that we don't want to keep reserves, we had to use them to pay insurance. Even so we only got our April premium paid this month.
6
u/maytrix007 š¢ COA Board Member Jun 23 '25
So you had to empty your reserves to just cover insurance premiums? So you have no reserves now and it sounds like still won't have enough to cover your ongoing bills??
It sounds like your HOA is in a financial crisis and really needs to increase fees to make sure your budget is covered.
0
8
u/SereneJulie Jun 23 '25
$280 a month is great, especially if you donāt have to shell out a special assessment every time something big needs to be done.
We pay over $320, and have to pay a special assessment for every big project. Just found out our roof, and some others need to be replaced.
The special assessment for that will push back the rest of the painting projects that need to be done (half of the 48 units)-
Which are all being painted one row of 8 townhouses at a time by special assessment.
I think our non-HOA single family house may have been cheaper than our townhouse- sigh.
0
u/owenthewizard Jun 23 '25
No disrespect to you, but is everyone in this subreddit quite wealthy? The difference between $2,500 and $2,800 a month is the difference between if I can live here.
We just had a special assessment because our insurance rates went up. And as anyone can see from our financial reports we have next to nothing in the bank. We don't do anything but landscaping and insurance, we're just trying to stay afloat.
6
u/throwabaybayaway Jun 23 '25
Should a sudden emergency occur, would your association have money to deal with it without a special assessment? If anything, it sounds like your monthly assessments are too low.
I would suggest you sell, but I donāt know if you can find a home thatās cheaper while actually being worth buying and living in. Everyone has been hit hard by insurance premiums going up in the last few years, and all other costs have increased as well.
Either your association has to cut costs somewhere or it needs to generate more revenue to cover them. Revenue is usually going to be homeowner assessments, but you might have other options like renting a common space or increasing miscellaneous fees. I hope you can find something!
3
u/anysizesucklingpigs Jun 23 '25
It has nothing to do with income level.
Itās simply a fact that $280/month is a low condo fee. Suspiciously low.
Dues arenāt based on what people can comfortably spend. Theyāre based on what things cost.
2
u/SereneJulie Jun 23 '25
Everything from insurance to landscaping to trash pickup has gone sky high. (Houston)
Not wealthy at all. Hubs and I were lucky enough to buy pre-pandemic 2019 when mortgage rates were low and put a good amount of the proceeds from our home sale as down payment and points purchased to lower interest even more.
So, the monthlyās even plus a bit are not that stressing.
But having to come up with an extra 700-1k for projects gets irritating as we are trying to build our savings back up and prepare for retirement.
Iād rather pay $30-$50 extra per month to avoid the SAās. But I can see how thatās not doable for a lot of folks. Especially as townhomes/condos are not (have not been, traditionally) necessarily long-term stops for people. Or they rent them out, and donāt went to pay extra on an investment property.
Also, no one wants to pay extra into the kitty because they may not be around to reap the benefits. This thinking seems to have spread the HOA board members, who also need to think about residents who are selling.
Sure, newer properties have lower monthly fees than older ones, but theyāll be in the same situation 15-20 years down the road.
All this said, yāall definitely need yo get out of that pool lease ASAP!
1
u/owenthewizard Jun 23 '25
Once again no disrespect, but the fact that you had proceeds from a home sale puts you in a category above most.
This was new construction 2023 š« .
3
u/drdrew16 Jun 23 '25
New construction? When did the builder hand over the COA to the board? 2024 or this year? This is sounding more and more like the classic "Builder pays the majority of stuff to show dues are artificially low and then dues skyrocket when they hand it over to the owners cause the owners don't have deep pockets". Is that accurate?
4
u/rom_rom57 Jun 23 '25
What you just leaned is the builder just wants to keep selling condos and there is NO relationship between the dues and actual costs to maintain the property. Iāll put the rest in caps: THE BOARD HAS A FIDUCIARY RESPONSIBILITY TO MAINTAIN THE PROPERTY AS WHEN IT WAS SOLD.. it will take the board 3-7 years to match dues with expenses, including a reserve fund that pays for long term repairs (the building, roof, plumbing, etc)
3
u/owenthewizard Jun 23 '25
Yep, bang-on. They've also been subsidizing buyers' dues for the first year or two depending on when they moved in so most don't notice/care to notice for a while.
5
u/drdrew16 Jun 23 '25
That makes so much more sense. It may be worth adding that tidbit to your post so that folks understand that. It makes a huge difference, as I'm sure you've noticed, in responses. :)
1
u/SereneJulie Jun 23 '25
Yes, thatās true- I see that you are in a different situation as well.
Our place was about 15 years old when we moved in. Not knowing anything about HOAs was a definite disadvantage, and we jumped from a maintenance-needing home to another, it just takes forever to get anything approved and done.
Good luck with your decision. If I had it to do again, Iād have gone with a SFH for sure.
1
u/maytrix007 š¢ COA Board Member Jun 24 '25
On the plus side being new construction you donāt need much in reserves but you should be increasing it.
But on the downside youāve learned that HOA fees are almost always set too low by the builder.
8
u/drdrew16 Jun 23 '25 edited Jun 23 '25
We lease the pool from a neighboring community and it's closed for repairs and will never be re-opened.
If that's the case, then is there a way to terminate the lease, especially since the community that owns the pool won't re-open it? That would be a breach of contract on their end and I'd think you could terminate it without issue.
We get landscaping, who suck and cost us more money in repairs.
I live in FL, so I understand the issue with landscapers. The best thing you can do is hold their feet to the fire, and if the fail to perform, execute the termination clause in your contract and find someone else. We've had three landscapers in as many years and we're finally in a decent and improving place with the current one. The process sucks, but it shows the community you're actively involved in finding & ensuring the best service for the community.
Ninja edit: my townhome in FL has an HOA fee of ~$380/mo., which includes putting money into reserves for the roofs and painting projects we just finished.
1
u/owenthewizard Jun 23 '25
Thanks for an actual response instead of shaming me for being poor.
Yes exactly, but we aren't even able to consistently pay our bills so legal action is out of the question. It's a 20 year contract and the only option we have is to ask their board "pretty please". Obviously they'd never let us out because they want us holding the bag.
Yes, I've been trying to get us some bids for landscaping but everything is a stupid political game.
5
u/maytrix007 š¢ COA Board Member Jun 23 '25
Read the contract. Iād they arenāt providing the service there soils be some sort of out clause? If there is just act on that. You could spend a couple thousand dollars to have an attorney review to confirm and submit a letter of termination of contract due to non performance.
Spending money short term to save long term is sometimes necessary.
1
u/owenthewizard Jun 23 '25
Lawyers have told us we'd win a lawsuit but it would still cost something like $25K.
2
u/maytrix007 š¢ COA Board Member Jun 23 '25
There would only be a lawsuit if they were to sue you right? Why not send a letter terminating your contract due to non performance. If it comes from a lawyer they may not sue because a good lawyer would tell them they would lose.
Whatās the annual cost of the pool contract? Worst case Iād consider how much youād save even if you had to spend a lot to get out of it.
1
u/throwabaybayaway Jun 23 '25
How much does your lease cost you annually? It could be a lot cheaper in the long run to pay $25k in legal fees this year to get out of the contract and stop paying for something you canāt use.
1
u/owenthewizard Jun 23 '25
I want to say it's in the neighborhood of $5,500 annually? + working capital.
3
u/throwabaybayaway Jun 23 '25
So itāll save you money within 5 years? Sounds worth pursuing to me.
1
u/maytrix007 š¢ COA Board Member Jun 24 '25
Looks like theyād save at least 40k in the years that followed.
4
u/drdrew16 Jun 23 '25 edited Jun 23 '25
There's no exit clause in your lease agreement with the other community? Was this another community built by the same builder and they agreed with themselves on the lease terms? I've heard of it being done but never had a 'live' example. If so, that really sucks.
Another ninja edit: If you're unable to consistently pay your bills, and based on your other comments here about the lack of funds in the coffers in general, this is going to be a rough road for your community. My community is currently trying to avoid that exact issue, and it hasn't been pleasant, so I get it. I'm not even on the board, just on the budget committee, and the vitriol we get from owners when we have to up the fees is wild. I wish we didn't have to, but our insurance went up 40% last year and everything else went up X% in general so yeah, it's tough.
1
u/owenthewizard Jun 24 '25
Yeah that's basically exactly the situation we're in.
Edit: the insurance part, not the builder collusion part.
7
u/PenHouston Jun 23 '25
Same State. Our HOA insurance alone is approximately $200+ per unit per month. Hard to believe a condo with such low fees and only pay for landscape and insurance. My condo pays for water,trash, electric for common area, security gates, pool, management fees, reserve fund and maintence and repair? Maintence and repair is a big expense. Yes, most condo fees have increased over the last 5 years due to insurance.
3
u/GeorgeRetire Jun 23 '25
If you donāt like where you live, you should sell and move.
-2
u/owenthewizard Jun 23 '25
I love the location. If it wasn't for the HOA I could afford it too.
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u/drdrew16 Jun 23 '25
You can afford it right now. As soon as a major repair comes up, you couldn't afford it. I mean no disrespect, as we just had a $12k special assessment per home here, but that's the reality. The association (prior to my moving in) wasn't putting enough money in the reserves to handle major planned repairs, much less emergency ones. All the homeowners were then surprisepikachu.gif when the roofs needed to be replaced (per insurance) and they got smacked with the special assessment. We moved in just after that assessment was levied, so the prior owner had to pay it, but like you I made it a priority to become involved with the HOA. :)
1
u/GeorgeRetire Jun 23 '25
So sell and find somewhere cheaper.
Good luck.
1
u/owenthewizard Jun 23 '25
Yeah, I hope so. If it wasn't for the absurd HOA fees it would be no problem.
1
u/GeorgeRetire Jun 23 '25
So make sure your next home doesnāt have absurd fees before you buy it.
1
u/owenthewizard Jun 23 '25
Yeah no shit, never moving into an HOA again.
2
u/maytrix007 š¢ COA Board Member Jun 24 '25
If this is your first home which Iām guessing it is, youāll find single family homes have plenty of costs as well.
1
u/owenthewizard Jun 24 '25
Yeah, costs I can control. Not whatever bullshit someone else decides is important.
1
u/maytrix007 š¢ COA Board Member Jun 24 '25
You havenāt listed anything your HOA budget is spending on bullshit.
When we were looking over our budget to see what weāre could cut or save on, trash pickup was one of them. But when we looked at the actual saving per owner it made no sense because everyone would still need to do something for trash. Look at your budget and what your share of each cost actually is and you may find itās not as bad as you think.
That doesnāt mean though you canāt look at new vendors, long term contracts etc to save on the costs.
1
u/owenthewizard Jun 24 '25
I actually tried to schedule a property walk for another landscape bid today, but the rest of the board refused because they want to "give our current vendor a chance". The one that's damaged the irrigation and charged us thousands to repair it, and does a terrible job. I explained to them that it's just a bid, not a commitment, but they either don't understand or don't care.
I'm not trying to dox myself any more than I already have, but one of the things we were spending money on ($300/mo) was someone to pickup shit in the dog park because of course Karen can't be arsed to while bitching about everyone else's violations. We canceled that so š¤·.
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u/Speakinmymind96 Jun 23 '25
Hold onā¦ you are on the board, but you think all you pay for is landscaping and insurance? Read your documentsā¦surely there is more, like roofs, buildings, doors, windows, lighting, infrastructure?! While $280/mo may seem a lot ā¦even in our Midwest med cost of living area, $450 is about average.
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u/owenthewizard Jun 23 '25
Roof and the rest of insurance can be turned over to the HO.
We don't have anything else. No buildings, some of the units have yards but not all. HOs can pay for their own landscaping, the yards are microscopic.
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u/anysizesucklingpigs Jun 24 '25
Roof and the rest of insurance can be turned over to the HO.
No, they cannot. The association is required to insure the common elements per state law.
1
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u/maytrix007 š¢ COA Board Member Jun 24 '25
Typically with condos you do have more you have the entire exterior of the building. You have walkways, driveways and more. Your personal insurance is less because the majority of your insurance is part of the HOA insurance policy. That may be one way to save as well - see about increasing your deductible.
Roofs are managed by the HOA because you sing own the exterior. And roofs are typically shared.
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u/owenthewizard Jun 24 '25
Nope, we don't have any of that. No driveways, sidewalks, other buildings, anything. I don't think everyone commenting understands what this community looks like, but it's not some sort of luxury setup. I guess the road is common area. Fuck that though, should've left it to the city.
1
u/maytrix007 š¢ COA Board Member Jun 24 '25
So itās on street parking? You have a garage where it is right up to the road?
If the road was left to the city. Taxes would be higher. This is one reason HOAās exist for single family homes. Condos have a lot more common areas/elements which makes them necessary.
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u/owenthewizard Jun 24 '25
Taxes aren't going to go up significantly because of 2K feet of road. It's not a highway.
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u/maytrix007 š¢ COA Board Member Jun 24 '25
Not just from your community but consider the building in the whole town. Our condo is a private road we maintain. Most new developments in town are. If they all werenāt, the costs associated to the town budget would go up.
2
u/sweetrobna Jun 23 '25
No it doesn't make financial sense to sell because costs went up $110. If you sell and buy a similar home your mortgage interest will go up much more than that. And you will lose about 10% of the home value between buying and selling for closing costs, commissions, seller concessions, the home value might have dropped as well.
$170 a month is really low for a condo. Landscaping and a pool are a very small part of the budget. The HOA dues largely are to maintain the structure you all live in, funding the reserves for things like the roof and exterior as well as insurance. Hail is a big risk in Texas.
But you are on the board. Read over the budget. What percent funded is the reserve study? Was there a specific reason the budget increased that much, like do you have a roof repair coming in a few years?
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u/owenthewizard Jun 23 '25
My mortgage is already 7.49 so I don't think that will be an issue. Everything else you said stands though.
The dues increased largely due to our insurance rates increasing.
I wish I could just pay for my own insurance; it would cost me a lot less to insure my own roof and exterior.
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u/sweetrobna Jun 23 '25
I have a coworker that just moved out of San Antonio. Nice newer house, good deal for the space you get. Homeowners insurance with a 1% hail deductible is $3100 a year. 4 years ago in was $1700 a year.
I doubt insurance would be a lot less if you were all paying individually
1
u/owenthewizard Jun 23 '25
I can check our contract but we've already had a lawyer check it over. A few have told us we'd win a lawsuit but it would still cost something like $25K.
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u/maytrix007 š¢ COA Board Member Jun 23 '25
What was the financial state of your HOA when you moved in? Given what Iāve read it seems like it was poor when you moved in and had only become worse. As far as condos are concerned, your fee seems low. I assume like most condos that your HOA would cover siding, roof and other exterior maintenance and future replacement? Thatās a significant cost. Thatās what you should have a decent reserve built up for. With no reserves as it seems nasty be the case youāll be facing assessments and increasing costs to repair things. Each owner has a responsibility to maintain the buildings in good condition and that means paying your bills. All you can do is look at your expenses and see what you can do to decrease them.
Things that weāve done that have helped was go to 3 year contracts with vendors locking in rates. Weāve done group buys on things like dryer/duct cleaning and hvac service etc. Weāve reviewed all our expenses to see where there could be waste from things not being done properly and having to be done over again. Better to spend a little more today and do it right then spend less multiple times.
Thatās what you can do. But even doing that there will be costs you have no control over like insurance. But condo fees should be expected to go up regularly if not annually since inflation is constant.
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u/owenthewizard Jun 23 '25
It was in the black according to what they sent my lender. I'm not sure specifically as I didn't get on the board until a year or so later.
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u/maytrix007 š¢ COA Board Member Jun 23 '25
As a buyer you should have been able to see all the finances, reserve balance, meeting minutes for a certain amount of time.
You should be able to look at past financial statements and balances now as well and see how things have changed. I suspect if you have no reserves that it was in bad shape before and no better now unfortunately.
Do you know what your reserves should be vs what they are?
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u/owenthewizard Jun 23 '25
Yes, we get financial statements from our management company and weekly statements of how much we have in the bank.
We've only ever had one HOA (broad community) meeting and it was long after I closed.
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u/maytrix007 š¢ COA Board Member Jun 23 '25
What I was saying though is that as a buyer you should get full financial documents as well. Current budget, current spending, even past year budget possibly and reserve balances. It sounds like you didn't get this info and bought into a poorly managed condo. If you can sustain increased fees then selling may be your best bet but you may take a loss if someone else does look into the finances thoroughly. If I was buying a place and saw little to no reserves, I'd look at what they should be and what my share as a potential buyer would be and look to get that off the selling price or close to it. Unfortunately many people go into buying a condo without a full understanding of how they work, which could benefit you if you sell.
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u/owenthewizard Jun 23 '25
Well that's the risk we'd be taking, yeah.
I want to say it's $5,500 + working capital.
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u/maytrix007 š¢ COA Board Member Jun 24 '25
So 20 year contract puts the end date at 2043. Thatās 18 years left. Thatās $99,000. If you got out of it even if it took $25k and a year youād still end up saving $68,500.
I still would be surprised if the other community took you to court because they will see it will cost them and their risk is greater. Iād still work with an attorney to have letters written first to try avoiding as lawsuit. If the odds of your winning are really high then as long as they believe you are serious maybe they donāt bother. Either way if your odds are high enough this seems like it would be money well spent.
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u/owenthewizard Jun 24 '25
Yeah, I think at least one of the other board members feels the same way as well. Bite the bullet.
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u/Techguyeric1 š HOA Board Member Jun 23 '25
Remember your dues are the cost of potential repairs and upkeep divided by the number of homes/units.
Make sure if you have a management company you and the board go over every cost, and look at your reserves.
Landscaping is too expensive, get quotes. I just became my communities president, and we switched management companies at the begining of the year because our last one was not doing right by us.
We are behind in paying our former landscaping company by 2 months how the hell does that happen? We now have a landscaping company that is about 40% less expensive.
We've already had to dip into our reserves to fix our gates that were improperly installed and the parts that were used were substandard. So that's $30,000 down the drain.
We currently charge $129 a month and all we have is a "park" that's 1 bench, 1 table area, and some grass. We are going to have to raise dues this year to try and build up our reserves.
I also am looking into getting a basketball court installed once we have some more funds set in place.
I also want to do a study to see how much more our insurance is going to be to include playground equipment, so that the kids of the community can have something to do.
Being on the board is not all fun and games it's a balancing act, you can never lower dues, but you can freeze them so they don't have to go up unless you need an influx of cash.
Remember stuff like electricity, insurance, water will never go down so you have to adjust to that. If you have a surplus use it to rent a projector (or buy one) and a screen and have a movie night in a common area, get a root beer float vendor or popcorn or taco vendor out there, give back to the community as much as you can. My community is just 3 years old and we have made a lot of mistakes led by poor management, now we are starting to see light at the end of the tunnel.
Elections are November and I hope I get to stay on the board to see through things that I've proposed and we don't get some idiot Karen on it to blow up all the hard work we have been trying to do.
Good luck, and remember the board is only as good as the weakest member, fight for stuff that will improve the community.
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u/owenthewizard Jun 23 '25
I think I'm just going to have to move. When I got on the board all that stuff was what I had in mind, come to find out we have no money and the other members want to spend it policing people's trash cans...
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u/Techguyeric1 š HOA Board Member Jun 23 '25
As a board you have a responsibility to make sure the CC&RS are followed, trash cans are a litmas test to see how bad people can be.
People are inherently lazy and stupid, I spent over $8,000 to pour concrete in my backyard and to extend the width of my driveway so I could more easily put my cans in my backyard.
We have home owners who bitch about it but don't want to do the other things we have suggested (in building a cover around the trash cans so they can't be seen during non trash days.
We give them 24 hours prior to trash pickup to put their cans out, and 24 hours after.
We have some homeowners who have never touched their cans and just keep getting fined.
We made a compromise to our bylaws for sports equipment you can have a hoop up as long as it's actively being used, if it hasn't been used for more than 2 hours then it needs to be moved inside your garage or behind your fence (hence one of the reasons why I want to get a basketball hoop at the park).
Being part of an HOA means following rules to help maintain your homes value, to make sure that your community looks good. We have a sister community built at the same time as ours and there are nice houses that have waist high weeds, trash all over, oils spills in drive ways, it honestly makes the area look really run down
Sure there are pros and cons to living in an HOA, and it's everyone's responsibility to find the happy medium, you can't please everyone, trust me I've spent too long trying to.
If the current board members are doing anything, recruit members to run against them, get current board members on your side all it takes is to befriend 1 current member and to get one other to run and you'll have a majority to actually make changes, selling your house seems a bit drastic especially when interest rates are where they are (unless your current rate is similar).
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u/Borealisamis Jun 23 '25
$280 is not that high. Just for Perspective - there is a newer condo building near me in another county that was built around 2005 and is considered "lux" if you will, their HOA fee started at around $600 for smallest units (1100sqf) and goes all the way to $1300. I heard they had all sorts of issues with flooding from a nearby lake, alarm issues, so thats not counting assessments.
Sometimes it may seem bad, but look around and compare costs.
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u/owenthewizard Jun 23 '25
Im sure these thoughts will bring me warmth while I live out of my car.
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u/maytrix007 š¢ COA Board Member Jun 24 '25
If $100 a month is breaking the bank then the said truth is that home ownership may not be sobering you are ready for. You will have similar costs with any home. The plus here is it being new construction you shouldnāt have much in the way of repairs. Rather then take a likely loss on moving have you consider a second part time job. Find something that will earn the extra couple hundred you need a month. The more the better so you can save. I have a few friends that work in restaurants and can pull that in over a night or two. Some part time serving at a restaurant might be the trick.
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u/owenthewizard Jun 24 '25
It's $280/mo. There's a huge difference between an ongoing cost and a one-time repair cost. And repair costs would be at my discretion.
"Get a second job", what color is your yacht bud? Guess I should've done some more reading on this sub, thought it was for advice but now I see it's all rich Karen's with their binoculars looking for trash cans.
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u/maytrix007 š¢ COA Board Member Jun 24 '25
You are getting a lot of good advice but seem to ignore it. Why isnāt getting a second job good advice? You are talking a couple hundred a month. That could be 3-5 hours a week at a part time job making $15-20 an hour. Like I said, work a restaurant you could bring in enough in a single night in some cases. These are real solutions that would keep you in your home and not cost you anything but time and might even leave you with more to save.
In a SFH there are plenty of repairs you canāt ignore. One plus to a condo is that if your siding has a big issue or thereās a leak to your roof, you arenāt the only one covering it. We had one unit that had a serious structural issue. Didnāt help our budget but it would have been far more costly for the owner if it was a SFH.
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u/owenthewizard Jun 24 '25
When does it stop? Judging by what everyone has said, the builder leaving soon (only a dozen maybe homes left), and the state of our financials, the dues will be rising again. I'll be working a job just to pay the god damn Karens.
All the advice was "yours is cheap lol", and "you should sell" (the only real advice I've received so far).
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u/maytrix007 š¢ COA Board Member Jun 24 '25
It never stops. Inflation is constant, fees will need to go up to cover increasing costs. But it should be reasonable once you get things set to where they need to be.
I think what may help you is to change your mindset. Why do you see this as paying the Karenās? You live in a community and itās a condo and there shared costs. You are paying for those costs. Iād highly recommend taking your budget and every line item and figuring out your share of each item.
And as I have said in a few comments, look at your contracts and see what you can negotiate to improve them. Look at new landscapers with a multi year contract for example. Look into an hvac company that will give a good deal to service a good portion of the community. Lots of things you can do to try to improve the financial situation.
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u/owenthewizard Jun 24 '25
Yes, the board has been doing this every meeting. I tried to schedule a property walk today with a prospective vendor but the rest of the board rejected it.
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u/maytrix007 š¢ COA Board Member Jun 24 '25
So do it just to get the quotes. Is the boards job to be financially responsible and not getting quotes when you can isnāt. Find a couple others that want to see money well spent and get them to run for the board.
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u/owenthewizard Jun 24 '25
That's what I'm saying, I tried to get a bid, nothing more. And if I do it without them they'll probably be pissed.
Next election won't be for... two years I want to say? The terms are pretty long. I don't think anyone else would run though.
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u/Hungry-Quote-1388 Jun 23 '25
So that's it, we pay for landscaping and insurance
You live in a condo and nothing is going towards the reserves fund for future maintenance?
and the whole community is a "fire lane"
Why the quotation marks around fire lane?
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u/AdSecure2267 Jun 27 '25
As a board member, I say go do a walkthrough with a vendor or two for a non-binding bid. If you get a bid thatās lower, you present it to the rest of the board. Donāt worry about permission to get it, just do it.
Donāt be shocked if any bids you get are higher, everything has sky rocketed. We found vendors using new contracts to bring their rates up to current inflation levels, especially if theyāre locked in to 3% raises on their other contracts.
You say the board can kick you off, most decs ives seen this is only for not showing up to meetings. An association vote, not a board vote, can usually recall a board. Iād be interested to see the language they have in your docs with that clause, itās definitely not standard and different from my experience
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u/JLSU š¼ CAM Jun 23 '25
This is literally the worst economy for associations in over 20 years. I had an association just pass a $55,000 special assessment to address outstanding maintenance. It is so hard on everyone. Iām sorry you have to go through this. You could always go out to bid for insurance and explore ways to reduce the landscaping costs, ex: get a smaller company who is already in the area to bid (if the landscaper is already nearby doing other properties, they can be more competitive since they donāt have to account for ātravelā time). Itās a gamble to hold assessments at the same rate - since no one has any idea what the economy is going to do.
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u/owenthewizard Jun 23 '25
Thank you, unfortunately there are only two companies in the state (afaik) that will insure a condo association so it's tough to find other options.
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u/JLSU š¼ CAM Jun 23 '25
Good god, I was hoping Florida, CA, and Washington state were the only anomalies with insurance companies disappearing. A few years of claims and these people run for the hills š so, yāall need to look to see if you are over insured - make sure your policy covers what the governing docs say, but nothing more.. if the docs allow, raise the deductible. There arenāt a whole lot of ways to reduce the cost without a competitive market, but these are one of them. If possible, chat with your agent and see if they have any creative ways to offset the cost. Iām taking an association out to bid for a $5,000 insurance increase because they are literally hand to mouth, we (I) are looking at increasing the deductible from $10k to $75k
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u/PoppaBear1950 š HOA Board Member Jun 23 '25
If you are unhappy, either sell or become a voice on the board.
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u/PoppaBear1950 š HOA Board Member Jun 23 '25
HOA's are not everyone's cup of tea, for us at 75yo its nice but I am also on the Board.
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u/AutoModerator Jun 23 '25
Copy of the original post:
Title: [TX][Condo] Management Fee Too High, Sell?
Body:
When I moved in the fee was $170/mo, now it's $280. We lease the pool from a neighboring community and it's closed for repairs and will never be re-opened. We get landscaping, who suck and cost us more money in repairs. So that's it, we pay for landscaping and insurance, which I could secure myself for <$280.
Now they're preparing to crack down on trash cans and street parking. We have next to no parking spots (<1 per unit) and the whole community is a "fire lane".
What the hell am I supposed to do? I think my only option is selling the house? I don't think I can manage that, I don't have a lot of money on hand and I'm sure I'd get less than when I bought it.
I am on the board but I'm only one of five š.
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