By Julie Adamen


According to a 2009 Zogby International poll, 71 percent of homeowners in condominium or homeowners associations rate their overall experience with their community as positive. If the poll numbers are correct, then American community associations are chock-full of happy homeowners. Frankly, I do not doubt those numbers. From my many years in the industry, most homeowners with whom I have had contact are happy, and they are happy because their community association has combined three elements that are important to today's busy people:

• Simplicity of Ownership: For the individual owner, this translates to "less to take care of." People are over-burdened, and many have opted for condos and HOAs because they don't want, or don't have time, to mow the lawn, paint the house, worry about roof repairs or what have you.
• Special Amenities: In a single-family home setting, many people could not afford the amenities-including pools, gyms, golf courses, or clubhouse-offered by a community association or would not have the ability to maintain them.
• Investment Value: Owners want their property to not only retain value, but also to increase in value, and they look to their community association to achieve this goal on their behalf.
                    
The bad news in the poll numbers cited above is that 29% of people who reside in a community association are not happy or have become disillusioned and/or disappointed. The cause for the downturn in their outlook? I believe:

Their expectations of community association living did not match the reality of the experience.

Regardless of whether those expectations are based in reality or not, unmet expectations can lead to much unhappiness. It is my opinion that this is where the trouble starts for dissatisfied owners.
 
 Common myths about community association living

Myth:  All communities are the same. The truth is that each and every community has its own personality. Some associations are like a Golden Retriever: Easygoing, occasionally excitable, and prone to curling up on a comfy sofa. Other communities are more like our collective image of a pit bull: Abnormally aggressive with a tendency to bite anyone or anything that comes too close. If a person is more of the Golden Retriever type, finding themselves in a pit bull community can be unnerving and annoying. If the person is more of the pit bull type, the lack of action and raw emotion in a Retriever community will frustrate them.
 
Potential buyers should research the community before they decide to buy: If there is a club on site, they could have lunch or dinner at the clubhouse, play golf on the course, and by all means talk to existing owners. A wealth of information is available and they'll be a much happier homeowner if they are surrounded by people who are like-minded.
 
Myth: Board members, being neighbors, will welcome any and all input at any time. It's best to go in to community association ownership with the clear understanding that neighbors are volunteering to administer the community as a part-time, unpaid job, and that person or may not have had prior experience in either business or politics. To the homeowner who elects to take an informal approach to problem-solving, this fact may come as a surprise. What could be better, in this homeowner's worldview, than being able to knock on the door of a (board member) neighbor to discuss golf scores and, in the course of the conversation, bring up a complaint about the way the landscapers mow the lawn? Since that board member- and neighbor-has a vested interest, the informal owner is certain they will surely welcome his input and take the steps to make sure the lawn is mowed correctly and to satisfaction. For the board member, a homeowner making a direct appeal is a relatively common scenario. But this dynamic can lead to serious dissatisfaction because the board member neighbor may not agree with the homeowner's views, may not appreciate being disturbed at home about a normal complaint, and in fact may think the lawn looks just fine and the homeowner is a crank.
 
A board or committee member-neighbor may want to be friends and to socialize, but knocking on their door to complain will likely limit positive social interaction. Likewise, discussing a board member's performance with gossipy neighbors is likely to undercut social interactions. Owners should keep politics and complaints to proper channels, respect volunteer time, and let neighbors be neighbors.
 
Myth: The neighbors will all think alike. The fact is that the same neighbor who got the lawn mowed (above) may also be charged with legislating good taste in the community as the head of the Architectural Review Committee. Those neighbors-board or committee members-will be informing through notices from management or other avenues that owners absolutely cannot install, say,  pink flamingoes on their front lawns because if they allows one owner to have pink flamingoes, what's to keep the next folks from wanting plastic gorillas? The bottom line is that these types of issues must be handled with the big picture in mind. They cannot be managed effectively on a case-by-case basis over a long period of time because taking that approach means not only bad precedents, but bad precedent set in cement. Boards and committees must legislate from the macro-, not micro-, perspective.
 
BEFORE anyone buys in to a community, they should evaluate if the association will allow things that are important to them, including such seemingly minor things as car washing in the driveway, nearby RV parking or that display of pink flamingoes. It is vital to understand these restrictions before purchase because they can be stringent and changing them can be incredibly difficult, or for all practical purposes impossible. To head off problems and unhappiness at the outset, association administration (board and management) should make certain that all new owners receive a welcome packet that outlines not only community amenities but also community restrictions.
 
Myth: The association is a democracy. Associations are republics, not democracies. The people who volunteer to serve as board members work for the good of the association as a whole and base their efforts on solid input and reasoned judgment under reasonable time constraints. This means that boards must make some decisions that will be unpopular with some segment of the community. If a representative government (i.e., one that puts everything up to a vote) is the expectation, the new owner will find community living seriously frustrating.
 
If an owner in a community association is frustrated with the republic, managers and board members should urge them to volunteer for the next board position that becomes available. Serving in this capacity will help them understand the issues attached to the macro-administration of the community. Board membership usually makes a republic-believer out of non-believers, and boards and managers are best served by encouraging participation.
 
Myth: Community associations are small so they can quickly integrate new ideas and methods of governance. As a rule, it's wise to understand that community members - especially long-term community members -  like what they have and want to maintain the look and feel of their community. Making changes to what is perceived as valued comes very, very slowly. The slow, careful approach to change reflects the fact that boards and committees continually balance the appropriate, reasoned management of their community with the inherent politics of the community. For example, the board and majority of owners may understand the paint scheme is terribly dated and tired. They may have been informed by real estate agents in the area that home sales would likely rise if the community received a new, updated paint scheme. But while the task of painting is simple, the politics of changing the paint scheme is not. To make a change, in all likelihood the board will be faced with sending out a survey, forming an ad hoc advisory committee, holding a town meeting(s), and sending out emails and mailers in abundance on this subject. What in the business world would take a month can take several months-or even years-in a community association.
 
Despite the unwieldy process, there is value in the slow rate of change in the community association environment. It allows some owners time to adjust, and it can stop a misguided idea from being implemented. Owners should take a breath and be ready for incremental change over time.
 
Myth: Community associations operational  costs are static. No matter what anyone, including the developer says, assessments will increase over time to align with rising costs and this is a good thing. Communities that maintain artificially low dues over long periods of time suffer not only in terms of quality-of-life issues for their owners, but also in terms of declining property values as the under-funded community falls into disrepair. Association dues are like death and taxes: they catch up eventually.
 
Life in a community is enhanced if it is understood by the owners that the environment will change and dues will go up. These facts should be viewed as benefits because they indicate that the board is fulfilling its fiduciary duty to the community to preserve, protect, maintain, and enhance the assets of that community.
 
Myth: Board members, association volunteers  and staff are unresponsive and/or incompetent. Over the years, it has been my experience that new owners in a community association often assume those "in charge"-the board, committee members, and management-have no clue about what they are doing. In truth the valuable volunteers and paid staff who manage our communities are almost always serious, dedicated, and doing the best they can under the difficult circumstances of having politics mixed with friendships and neighbors.
 
New owners should expect the best will and intent from their community administration -board and staff. A good way to get the real bottom line on competence is to review the community's maintenance and reserve status and the value of the homes or units. High marks in those areas often point to continual competence in administration.
 
Myth: There will be a "rogue board." Everyone has heard a horror story about the "condo-zealot" aspect of community associations, and in my 23+ years in the industry I have encountered many individual condo-zealots. On the occasion the zealot was a politically powerful board member, it led to some bad decisions being made by that board. But I have never personally witnessed boards running out of control and illegally forcing the feeble from their homes for $75 in unpaid dues. That type of occurrence, though great fodder for the evening news, is almost unheard of.
 
More common is the case that board members are characterized as zealots or incompetents by what I would term "rogue homeowners." Typically, these homeowners have their own agenda and will do, say, email or write anything to accomplish their goal. They act with vigor and impunity, leaving the board, management and community to ride out the storm. This scenario is by far the most destructive interaction in community associations, leaving everyone with a bitter taste in their mouth. Even more destructive is the long term effect of those negative interactions which typically lead to a lack of willing volunteers for the next time around. This situation occurs far, far more often than the 'infamous' rogue board.
 
Potential and new owners should take what they hear about community associations on the evening news with a heavy dose of skepticism. Zealot homeowners often turn to the press for free publicity to create even more pressure for the passage of their agenda and our sensationalistic, 24/7 news cycle is more than happy to oblige.
 
Myth: The value of the home purchased in n association is guaranteed to increase. As any property owner knows, values can increase, decline, or stagnate. The change in a unit's value is relative to the real estate market in general and not wholly the unit's location in a particular community. A well-run community association will meet market expectations in a good real estate market. On the flip side, a poorly run community association can have a negative effect on property values even in the best real estate market.
 
The new owner pledge. Future community association owners must do their homework. For community living to be a successful experience, it's important to be an informed buyer. Take the time to understand the unspoken contract between owners and board members, which can be summarized as the new owner pledge:
 
I expect that the board in my community association is doing its best with limited time and resources to bring forth and maintain the type of community in which I purchased. I expect to be governed by neighbors in the community because they volunteered for their positions, as I will in the future. I expect those volunteers to govern the community as a whole and not on some micro-level to quiet a squeaky wheel, even if that means no yard art for my home. I expect the board to operate from the information they have at hand, and to obtain more information from qualified experts to make decisions on my behalf. And I expect my community to be dynamic: boards and staff change, and with them so do managerial methods.
 
With that understanding in place, the process usually works out.
 
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