Making Your Self Managed HOA Appealing to Home Buyers

For self managed HOAs, the power to bring new home buyers into the community is in your hands.

With a younger demographic of tech-savvy Millennials interested in buying homes in the suburbs, how you attract new homeowners is more important than ever. After all, this newer generation of buyers is doing their real estate research online long before they step foot in a community.

There are plenty of positives from which HOAs can draw.

In 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the housing market experienced a boom. Many Millennials were reaching an age where they were ready to buy homes, and the market became supercharged in part by the fact that many began working from home and were reevaluating their living spaces.

HOAs Are Growing in Popularity

Statistics show that the popularity of HOA communities is on the rise, accounting for tens of millions of homeowners’ properties of choice. In fact, about 77% of completed homes and 73% of sold homes built for sale are managed by an HOA.

There will always be certain aspects of a planned community that will attract new residents as well as those that will deter them from buying a home in your neighborhood.

Self managed HOAs can be even more attractive to homeowners. Because self managed HOAs don’t need a third-party property manager, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars per year, these HOAs can put more money into the community. 

Many self managed HOAs also use HOA management software to help streamline accounting, communication, record keeping, and other community management needs.

Here are a few of the ways you can make your self managed HOA more appealing to home buyers and keep your community growing.

Table of Contents:

1.      Giving Your Self Managed HOA Curb Appeal

2.      Self Managed HOAs Can Offer Lower Costs

3.      How Software Gives Self Managed HOAs a Leading Edge

Giving Your Self Managed HOA Curb Appeal

One of the most immediate benefits of self managing your HOA is that you have more funds freed up to reinvest in the community and can offer more front-end value to potential residents.

Upkeeping shared spaces can bring more curb appeal to your community. Pressure washing, painting, and repairing shared-space structures, adding shade or improved lighting to common walkways and gathering spaces, and professional landscaping can all boost the attractiveness of a neighborhood.

Adding new amenities or upgrading existing ones can also help add potential value. Some popular amenities include community swimming pools, sports and recreational facilities, parks, pet areas, and club houses.

Some other potential upgrades include charging stations for electric vehicles, community wi-fi in shared facilities, security equipment and barrier upgrades, and on-site guards protecting the community and overseeing entry points.

Self Managed HOAs Can Offer Lower Costs

If you can offer a potential new resident the home of their dreams in a community that provides more value at a lower price point, you’ve already set yourself up for success. Third-party managed neighborhoods may struggle to offer the same cost savings as self managed associations.

Savings from self management, especially when budgeted efficiently using HOA accounting software, can translate to lower dues for homeowners—without having to sacrifice other parts of the budget.

However, it can also be useful to consider what the cost of dues should include. This helps reduce the hassle of what homeowners have to deal with every day. For instance, dues might include landscaping and yard maintenance, sewer, trash, and recycling. This means fewer individual bills for residents to deal with and less for them to worry about overall.

Finding and investing in the right HOA insurance can also lead to savings down the line to cover things like liability and property damage, and to avoid having to strap homeowners with hefty special assessments.

Finally, investing in newer, greener technology can have the dual benefit of long-term cost savings and making the community more attractive to your eco-friendly future residents.

Some examples include:

• Solar panels for homes and common areas
• Solar water heating for pools and other amenities and shared spaces
• Wind power generators for homes or as shared resources
• Energy-efficient appliances
• Rain barrels for gardening

Keep in mind that governing documents may limit how green energy solutions are implemented. However, switching to renewables can save you money in the long run, meaning you can pass that savings on to residents. Lower utility bills will mean home buyers aren’t soaking up that cost in their monthly dues. 

Some other environmentally-friendly ways to help reduce the cost of utilities are to keep up with potential leaks in water lines and other needed repairs that could be leading to increases in utility bills over time.

How Software Gives Self Managed HOAs a Leading Edge

The right HOA management software can give self managed associations a wide range of tools to streamline both their day-to-day operations and how they set and achieve short and long term goals.

HOA software is designed to handle robust budgeting and general accounting needs, while also giving community managers a wide range of other management tools, including: 

• mass billing for all units in your community
• digital dues collections
• financial analytics and reporting
• tracking and enforcing fees for violations
• vendor and unit data management
• communication with residents

The perfect software should help you meet financial and community goals, improve collection rates, and drive revenue and value to your community. 

Software lets board members do all this without having to pay the high cost of hiring a third-party manager.

PayHOA software offers a central hub for all your community data, with tools to streamline accounting and community management tasks. Plus, PayHOA is trusted by over 7,000 HOAs just like yours. Try us for free.

PayHOA offers an HOA management software solution for HOAs of any size or managerial priorities. To find out if PayHOA fits all your HOA management needs, try our software free for 30 days.