How HOA Management Can Prepare for Warmer Weather

The summer solstice has passed. The fireworks of the Fourth of July are a distant echo. The dog days of summer are officially upon us. Some of us are already itching for the cool relief of autumn, while others want to squeeze every last drop out of these final summer months. With a little preparation, HOA management can prepare community facilities to serve residents during the hottest days of the year.

Maintaining a community is a challenging feat. HOA management must keep the peace between residents, track dues and maintenance requests, and keep all shared facilities in tip-top shape. When it comes to facility maintenance, each season comes with its own needs and challenges. But, with a little planning and a lot of organization, your community will be beautiful and usable year-round.

Preparing the Pool Area for Summer

Who doesn’t love sitting by the pool with a cold drink or popsicle in hand? But, excessive trash, funky smells, or rundown equipment can ruin this experience. Ensure your pool is ready for summer before you swing those gates open to your guests.

Regular maintenance and repairs of pool facilities are of the utmost importance. Procrastinating pool maintenance or cutting corners can harm this investment for your community, leaving your guests dissatisfied with HOA management. 

Many of your residents likely chose your community and were willing to pay higher dues to access a clean, beautifully maintained pool in the summer. Not fulfilling this part of the deal can cause a plethora of issues with the pool, such as:

• algae, bugs, and small animals living in the water
• clogged water filter 
• unbalanced pH leading to sore eyes and green hair
• slimy pool tiles and slippery pool decks 

This not only results in angry community members, but it ultimately leads to a decrease in the pool’s lifespan, resulting in replacing the entire pool earlier than you should. 

Regular pool maintenance can easily slip your mind, even with the best intentions. Employing a technology-driven solution can assist with scheduling and tracking pool maintenance tasks. 

When seeking a solution for your pool maintenance woes, look for technology that:

• enables completion of work order forms
• features a sharable pool maintenance schedule 
• provides automated pool maintenance reminders

Employing a technology solution frees up volunteers’ time and mental load while ensuring your pool stays beautiful for residents to enjoy. 

Revamping Landscaping and Outdoor Spaces

While a pool can be a huge draw to homeowners, it’s not the only one. Beautifully maintained outdoor spaces and landscaping affect homebuyers’ decisions regarding the value of their homes, the curb appeal, and the quality of life. Who wouldn’t want their evening stroll to be through deliciously scented flowers and gorgeous hedges? Letting flowers die, and outdoor spaces grow weedy can cause your community residents to wish they lived somewhere else. 

Beautiful and intentional landscaping goes beyond curb appeal. It can offer your community serious benefits such as:

• Preservation of the natural world: incorporating trees and plants into your community’s design creates a healthy balance for butterflies, birds, and other creatures that also call your community home.
• Happier residents: studies have shown that living around plants improves memory and concentration, decreases depression, encourages physical activity, and helps people have a more positive outlook and better relationships.
• Community enhancement: creating inviting outdoor spaces urges residents to gather with their families, friends, and each other, providing the welcoming neighborhood environment homebuyers seek.

These benefits come with a cost. Maintaining landscaping and outdoor spaces takes work. Shrubs and hedges must be pruned and shaped. Weeds must be pulled. Flowers must be watered. Like pool maintenance, these tasks add up and can easily become unmanageable for your board volunteers. 

Once again, a technology solution can make things easier for HOA management. When shopping for technological assistance in maintaining your beautiful outdoor spaces, look for software that:

• streamlines communication with landscapers
• allows you to pay vendors 
• tracks maintenance schedule and progress online

Finding a centralized hub where you can make and track payments, schedule maintenance tasks, and communicate with vendors and residents alike will make life easier for HOA management.

Updating Clubhouse Facilities

As temperatures climb to three digits, we can all use somewhere to escape from the heat. Don’t forget to freshen up your clubhouse or other shared indoor spaces for a comfortable, welcoming, and relaxing space to gather and host community events.

To maintain a clubhouse that sets your HOA apart from other communities, focus on both interior and exterior upgrades and maintenance like:

• cleaning the interior rooms, regularly wiping down surfaces, vacuuming, sweeping, and mopping the floors
• checking bathrooms often for supplies, cleaning mirrors, toilets, sinks, and other surfaces
• picking up trash outside the facility and cleaning windows

The change in seasons is also a great time to tackle some larger maintenance projects that are less frequently needed like:

• deep cleaning carpets and polishing hardwood floors
• professionally cleaning upholstery
• inspecting pipes, drains, vent hoods
• painting exterior and interior walls

Once more, technology can greatly improve your scheduling, delegating, and tracking of these many tasks. Look for HOA management software that can:

• maintain a schedule for renovations and track associated costs
• communicate with homeowners about projects and seek input on clubhouse improvements
• track invoices and pay vendors for maintenance tasks you need to outsource

Offering Outdoor Recreation Opportunities 

In addition to encouraging community gathering with thoughtful spaces and events, offering outdoor recreation to your residents can build community, make residents happier and healthier, and make your HOA community more desirable for homebuyers. 

Popular activities include:

• hiking
• golfing
• kayaking 
• bird watching
• fishing
• tennis

Some outdoor activities, like fishing, kayaking, and golfing require special facilities that your community may or may not have access to. If you do have a lake or golf course, you’ll want to have it in good shape for the beginning of summer and maintain it often as people use it more frequently in the warmer months. 

Other activities, like bird watching or even a sunset yoga class, can be implemented anywhere and bring people together, lifting their spirits. These small investments in your community can greatly bolster your reputation and resident satisfaction with HOA management.

Simplifying Summer Activities with HOA Management Technology

Summer is a time for kicking back, relaxing, and enjoying being with friends and family, not being buried under paperwork and constantly putting out fires due to equipment breaks and upset residents. HOA management software can manage everything all year round. 

A comprehensive platform, like PayHOA, can help you:

1. Simplify event management.

The software can manage your events with online registrations, communication tools, and shared calendars. Residents can book the clubhouse, pool, or playground for a private party online, and spaces will never be double-booked.

2. Monitor all your maintenance needs.

Use HOA management software to track maintenance requests, create work orders, pay vendors, create maintenance schedules, and more. 

3. Improve the security of common areas.

As a member of your HOA management team, you want your residents to have fun this summer, but you want to avoid common summer injuries. HOA management software can generate reports on security-related incidents, provide notifications in case of an emergency, and help you monitor all your common areas, leading to a fun and safe summer for all.