Julie Adamen: 0:00

Don't ever walk into an HOA or condominium association and think, oh, this place is just going to be a mess. You know, actually, I would say not necessarily. In fact, CAI's stats are 80% of people who live at a community association are satisfied and happy with what the Association provides. If you have moved into an association, don't go in thinking this is all screwed up. Go in just trying to look for information and see how they operate. And observe for a while. You'll know soon enough how things are going. And in fact, you'll probably go, Hmm, that's pretty well run.

Jennifer Johnson: 0:34

HOA Insights is brought to you by five companies that care about board members, association, insights and marketplace Association, reserves, community financials, Hoa invest and Kevin Davis, Insurance Services, you'll find links to their websites and social media in the show notes.

Robert Nordlund: 0:50

Hi, I'm Robert Nordlund of association reserves,

Julie Adamen: 0:52

and I'm Julie Adamen of Adamen and Inc. And this is HOA Insights, where we promote common sense for common

Robert Nordlund: 0:58

areas. Well, welcome to episode 81 where we're again speaking with management consultant and regular co host, Julie Adamen. Today we'll be talking about the problems with the stereotype of community associations offering inexpensive and carefree home ownership. Yeah. So today we'll be talking about what you can do at your association to begin challenging the attitude and understanding of your homeowners to make them more reality based. We want your association to thrive, and today, we'll be giving you tools to move in that direction. This is a follow up to episode number 80, where we discussed a breakthrough new service called HOA invest.com which handles the management and maximizing of reserve fund investments simply novel and wonderful. They solve the problem that managers and board members are not professional money managers, and make sure you hear it. It's a real time saver, and it can prevent you from leaving money on the table if you missed that episode or any of our other prior episodes. Take a moment after today's program to listen from our podcast website, Hoa insights.org or watch on our YouTube channel, where you can give it a like, and better yet, subscribe from any of the major podcast platforms so you don't miss any future episodes. And those of you watching on YouTube can see the HOA insights mug. I have got

Julie Adamen: 2:19

our merch, and Julie's got it? Oh, there's our picture. Oh,

Robert Nordlund: 2:23

gee, you got a picture? One I did. I've got, I've got a cartoon one. And you can browse through all the options we have at our merch store, from our HOA insights.org website or the link in the show notes. And we have especially items like these for sale and some free board member zoom background, so go to the merch store, find the mug that you like, and I'll give that mug away free to the 10th person to email podcast at reserve, say.com mentioning episode 81 mug giveaway. Well, we enjoy hearing from you responding to the issues you are facing at your association. So if you have a hot topic, a crazy story or question you'd like to have us address. You can contact us at 805-203-3130, or email us at podcast@reservestudy.com and one of those listener questions prompted today's episode Carrie from Santa. Barbara asked our homeowners just don't get that. We are a not for profit business with expenses going up each year, and US board members working many hours to lead the association. It's a real source of conflict. What can we do? So, Julie, let's talk about carefree and inexpensive.

Julie Adamen: 3:40

What's carefree and inexpensive? I don't know anything

Robert Nordlund: 3:43

you know. I should have thought of that in advance. I'm not sure anything is carefree and inexpensive. But that brings us to what you and I were chatting about earlier. It's actually a bit of a trade

Julie Adamen: 3:55

off. It is, it is so it's can be, especially owning a condominium or into a co op, that kind of thing. That can be carefree and that you don't mow the lawns or paint the exterior or anything like that, but it's not free. It can be carefree relatively but it's not free. And I think the big like our gal who wrote in asking about, you know, what can we do? Because they don't understand what we are. That's super common, and it often falls on hate to tell you this board members, but it falls on you to let your folks know how things operated, what you exactly are. And so again, we're back to we talk about communication all the time, but that's really where that starts. Yeah,

Robert Nordlund: 4:40

when I'm talking to friends, they ask what I do, and I talk about how I serve community associations. What's that? Well, I mean condos and town homes, high rises, things like that. And they say, let me tell you about mine. And I say, Well, which one? And they usually say, ABC, management company, and that's the first step, right there, and that's what you're talking about. They don't know. Know even the name of their association all their their only interaction is with the company serving them, the the management company, and that's an incredible missed opportunity.

Julie Adamen: 5:11

It is because they believe, so you see, it's the management company. So they think, well, that's a for profit business, so why are they taking all my money, and why does it have to go up? So that initial misunderstanding of how the community, and frankly, the whole industry, but this, their community in particular, is structured. You know, it's a nonprofit, typically mutual benefit corporation, sometimes they're unincorporated, but nonprofit and but it is still a business. Nonprofit doesn't mean that costs don't go up. Nonprofit just means they don't make any profit, or that there's no cost. Absolutely no it's nonprofit, not no cost. I mean, I think everybody here has given money to nonprofits, the Red Cross, you know, PETA, I know the Humane Society, they've all given money. Well, you think those are nonprofits, yep, but there's a huge organization, and they have to have employees and staff members, and you know, all the infrastructure they have to have, and your community association is really no different that they're none of those companies are supposed to register a profit at the end of their fiscal year, just like the association isn't to but that doesn't mean there's not expenses, and that's what your dues go for. Yeah? Assessments, right?

Robert Nordlund: 6:19

Yeah. And I wonder if there's even another layer of misunderstanding in that when they are thinking only of the management company, they wonder, Well, isn't this just like the apartment that I moved out of? I don't think they have the understanding at all that it is a community association run by a volunteer board of directors, and they are owners. They could just as easily be be the board member making the decision.

Julie Adamen: 6:42

Yes, I think that's very true, because when you come out of that apartment environment, I mean literally, you, you know, you pay your money and you walk in and out and that's it, and they take care of almost everything for you, but yeah, especially if they move from there into into a strict condominium type situation where you're in typically stack units, or, you know that they share common walls, and you're used to living that way, and then, well, I think, don't I just call the superintendent if I need something done. Depends, depends on what you need done.

Robert Nordlund: 7:09

My my sink is leaking. Too bad.

Julie Adamen: 7:10

Go get it. Call your plumber, but they but again, I just is. It's that misnomer that people walk into and they don't. I hate to say educated, because it sounds so condescending. They're not educated. It's not that, they just have never been exposed to it. Because, Robert, you know, I mean, I get this all the time. People say, what do you do? And you tell them, I'm a professional community association consultant. I do X, X, X, X, and they're like, a what? Exactly, yeah, you can make money doing that. Yeah, you could do it. They're like, there's enough business to make money. I mean, it's hilarious. And then when you say, Well, it's a you have to, you know, not say community associations. You say, Hoa. And then their eyes get this big, and they're like, Well, let me tell you about mine. And it's just hilarious. Yeah, yeah.

Robert Nordlund: 7:58

Well, there's, I'm old enough to know that when I was younger, there's something got ingrained in my brain that you either owned your home or you rented your home. And in the intervening timeframe, there's been this new concept developed of co-ownership, where it's a condo, Hoa plan, Development Association, Co Op, all these kinds of things where you're literally co owning, and I still think there's a lot of adults that aren't really getting it, that they they own it, and they feel that they're still renting, and that there's that the other entity out there taking care of it, and they are responsible for it, not Me, and it's us and our budget. So what can we do? And it starts with and you've pressed on this button so many times that we've been together on the show communication. So how do you welcome people? How do you what communication tools do you have at your association? And are you pressing all those buttons at your association? Yes.

Julie Adamen: 9:01

Are you pressing all those buttons? And what buttons can they be? Well, I mean, over the years, I started out managing, I worked for large management company, and I was a portfolio manager. Had several accounts, but the each Association had their own version, because we encourage this of a welcome packet, you know, kind of like the Welcome Wagon, but it's the welcome packet. Usually it's got a lot of paperwork in it, because, especially in those days in the 80s, 90s, you know, everything wasn't done electronically, obviously. So documents, it's a stack and and the problem with that stack over the years is people just don't have time to read it. I mean, they just don't and so, or they don't want to, or they skim it. So and that that has not gotten any better in our world. If you have to send out a letter of any kind, if it's more than two paragraphs, no one's going to read it. They're going to skim it, maybe. So I think there's a lot of different ways to do it. There certainly can be new homeowner orientation, especially if you have a newer development where there's a lot of people closing escrows within a month. So it's a new development. You got new people coming in, and then one. A month, you could have new owner orientation. Sometimes, many management companies will do that for a price. They do, they'll have new member orientation. We were just talking about this, everybody, Robert and I were, and there's a depending on how technologically savvy you are or your community is, frankly, doesn't even take that much. But the new AI tools to put out short videos are astonishingly simple. All you really need is to write the copy and upload it, and they will put a person that looks like a person and all of your points in there. And you can do it's so simple, and then you can take that, you can download them, or you can leave them on a platform and put them on your website. Here's what an HOA is. First of all, the Welcome, welcome. And here's what we're currently doing. And I would do separate videos for each one of those. And for those of you short, two to three minutes, five at the most, I would say, so people can come back, you know, and look at them as they want, and as you know, people don't have a big attention span, especially the younger they get. They don't have and I'm talking people under 50 in particular. I don't mean they're young. They're young to me and Robert, but careful. I know I have just said, just speaking the truth, you and me. I think we're the same age. So anyway, it's just an incredible tool, and I'm not to plug myself here, but if people need help with that kind of thing or the ideas, I can certainly provide that service or to do it for them, actually, but it's not that difficult to do. So I would definitely use those type of tools or and I would say, oftentimes, if you have a management company, especially larger ones, they are set up to make those for you. If you ask for it. Obviously there's going to be a charge. But Isn't it worth it to have a group of homeowners that understand that you're a nonprofit business, that here's what your dues go to, that here's what your budget looks like, and here's how much is going to the landscaping, here's how much goes to the pool maintenance. And it's not just a jumble of, you know, of numbers on a piece of paper. It has to be, I hate to say, but has to be brought out clearly, concisely and in short bits for people to understand. Not understand that. They'll read it. They'll understand it, right?

Robert Nordlund: 12:14

No, I like that. I like the short video. I like the idea of communicating effectively with them. Could it be as simple as the asking that the monthly invoices that go out, the newsletter that goes out, whatever communication goes out, has the letterhead of the association yes at the top, rather than the letterhead of the management company. It absolutely should Yes, little things like that that all of a sudden begin to create the impression that we are ABC villas, and we are known for being on a quiet street, yet close enough to public transportation and close enough to the mall or whatever it is we are known for. And some of the recent things we've done with the budget. Is last year, we resurfaced the asphalt. That's why you enjoy this nice, smooth asphalt. These are the things we're doing with our budget. And what was that? That was 30 seconds, just to let them know, this is us. This is what we're doing here. And courtesy of your board of directors. Joe Susie, yeah, Yvette, exactly what

Julie Adamen: 13:16

I was going to say always. You know, if you're publishing something like that, whether it's your newsletter or your videos, I think it's always good to have the board members name. These are your board members, their name and their picture. They are homeowners, just like you are, and one of these days, you could be a homeowner on that board. So they're not just faceless bureaucrats. That's not what you want you want to be, that they are a real life person trying to make decisions as best they can on behalf of this nonprofit corporation.

Robert Nordlund: 13:46

Okay, we talked a little bit about the background stereotype and what you do. We talked about communication, but let's get back to what you first introduced. Is that idea of it may be carefree, but it's not free. Talk about the trade offs there. Well, you

Julie Adamen: 14:02

know, when you move in, I live in a huge community association. I'm running for the board. I've lost my brains, but I'm doing it. It's relatively carefree. We are an HOA, or, depending on where you are, a PUD planned unit development, but in this state, it's an HOA and the we own our home, but we don't take care of the streets we we own the home and our piece of property, but we don't take care of the streets. Well, personally, the association takes care of the streets, the clubhouses, the restaurants, the pools, the pickleball courts, the lapidary, the, I mean, we have all kinds of clubs that do all these things. Yes, they have a lapidary. They have a huge woodworking thing that they that got woodworkers do. So, yeah, it is really nice, and tennis courts and all that. So I am charge of this part, but that part for me is carefree and that I'm not responsible for taking care of it, but I have to pay for it, because there's always that trade off, right, right? So if, and if you don't want to play. Like this says, and honestly, because we're so big, the dues are really low, for for the for the bang, for the buck, all the things you're getting, all the things you're getting, but we're but overall, we're 5000 units, and we all are reciprocal, so we share the golf courses and all the restaurants and all that stuff. But still, it's, it's quite but it is a trade off. There is, there's no free lunch. I'm gonna sound like my dad, there's no free lunch, and so you're not gonna get all these things for free. You know, you're not. Now, I've take care of my house, but out there, they take care of it, and I certainly enjoy the use of it. I'm a big swimmer, so I'm at the pool five days a week, easy, yeah,

Robert Nordlund: 15:36

well, let's talk about the trade off. Okay, you own your house and you're gonna what? You have your own gardener. You tend the front yard

Julie Adamen: 15:44

again, well, you know, with this, to mow the rocks. So, okay, I'm in Arizona, but no, I do, I do have a gardener come in once a month. Yes.

Robert Nordlund: 15:51

Okay, great. So you are taking care of it. But they have architectural controls because they, yes, they do the community to be consistently in, in their words attractive. So they probably have a color palette. Yeah, we do. So when you want to repaint, you say, I want to repaint. And I've chosen option number two of the color palette, something like that. And I remember something that happened to me 10-15, years ago when I moved into my first plan development HOA home. My wife wanted to paint it a certain color, and I we had a discussion with the architectural committee, and they say it's not on the color palette. And we said, but look how nicely it blends with the tiles on the roof. And you know what? They added it to the color palette. So there is a working relationship. It's not the strict nature. They weren't bad guys. Yeah, it was a rule that architectural control. It does good for the association, but we didn't appeal. And they said, you know, you're right, and they expanded it, yeah, and by golly, we saw some other homes painted that same collar color color A Few Years Later. It's good for the association.

Julie Adamen: 17:07

It sure is. And you know, if you're lucky enough, that was a really fortunate for you. But also, yeah, you know, I think another thing this just brings me something else we were talking about, is that a lot of people, when they move into an HOA, and they know it's an HOA, and they really didn't want to move into an HOA. Because how many times, Robert, have you heard over your career, as much as I have, as I never live in an HOA? Well, I used to say that myself, and now I've lived into and and own a rental in one so and being in the industry, you thinking, Oh, I don't want to do that. But over the years, you realize, and especially now people, because most municipalities are requiring your new build new communities to be HOAs of some sort, because they take that financial burden off of the city or off of the county. You said

Robert Nordlund: 17:55

your association is maintaining the roads, and that's relieves that duty from the city. In the city, yep, 5000 more homes, 5000 more taxpayers, 5000 more revenues. And they don't have to maintain they don't have to expand the road maintenance department. Didn't

Julie Adamen: 18:14

have to make the streets. They didn't have to put in curbs. That's was all done by the developer. So they love that stuff. But back to this is that I think so many people will go into I wrote an article about this, probably, gosh, 15 or 18 years ago, about people moving into an HOA and having a certain mindset, because everybody's seen Seinfeld, right? Seinfeld back in the 90s that Jerry's mom and dad moved to condominium in Florida, and it was just the

Robert Nordlund: 18:40

absolute Yep, but something like that, yeah, something like

Julie Adamen: 18:44

that. That's right. And remember, Jerry said all they need to do is put a fence around it and put insane asylum across the top, yeah? But it was all the stereotypes. But stereotypes do have some, you know, there's some Genesis in reality there, but they put them all in that. And of course, there's never any good news about HOAs on the news. It's always some ridiculous decision somebody made. Like, you know, there's a veteran who's lost a leg who can't fly his flag because it's too big. It just ends up being a mess. But you know, I will tell you, overall, community associations for being run by volunteers are incredibly well functioning, not all the time. But don't ever walk into an HOA or condominium association and think, oh, this place is just going to be a mess. You know, actually, I would say not necessarily. In fact, 80% of CAIS stats are 80% of people who live at a community association are satisfied and happy with what the Association provides. Then there's 20% who are and of course, there's a little small percent of the 20 that is just, well on the nuts side, but we all have that's just, actually, that's just human nature. So it's the 8020 rule. 8020 rule. So I just if you, if you have moved into an association, don't go in thinking this is all screwed up. Go in just trying to look for info. Information and see how they operate. And observe for a while. You'll know soon enough, how things are going. And in fact, you probably go, Hmm, that's pretty well run. Let Ooh, let me look at the reserve study and let me see what kind of money we have. Though you should have probably gotten one in your in your packet when you closed escrow, but you probably didn't look at it. But you want to look at those kind of things. Look at the finances, attend a board meeting that tells a lot about an association, how the board meetings operate, and how much communication comes in and out, and if you see something lacking as a homeowner volunteer, yeah, I mean, do it, it's it's stock, it's part you're part of. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem, or you're just apathetic, and those two things can cross apathetic part of the problem. Yeah, so

Robert Nordlund: 20:46

I got into this industry when I bought a condominium long time ago, and I felt a personal responsibility, that since I was mortgaged up to my eyeballs, I needed to know what was going on with this condominium association. Well, that's your investment.

Julie Adamen: 21:02

You're protecting Exactly.

Robert Nordlund: 21:04

It would be foolish for me to sit by and just hope. And so I went to my first board meeting. And then the rest of the story is, the rest of the story, did

Julie Adamen: 21:13

you get on the board? Did

Robert Nordlund: 21:14

you get on the board? And my Of course, you did board meeting. I thought, Oh, if these knuckleheads can do it. How hard can it be? But we all get on boards for different reasons, and the whole point is understanding that it's not care free. I wasn't mowing the lawn at this condo. I wasn't painting the building, but yet, the Treasurer told us that, hey, the roofs are old. We really need to prepare, and the money's got to come from somewhere. So it may be carefree, but it's not free, and I think right now that's a good time to take a break. We'll hear from one of our generous sponsors, after which we'll be right back with more HOA insights. Is

Russell Munz: 21:58

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Robert Nordlund: 22:29

and we're back. Well, Julie, we're talking about the trade off. It may be carefree, but it's not free. But let's go down the path of what can a board member actually do to help this at their association? Well,

Julie Adamen: 22:43

I think we touched on this previously, but is to ensure, especially if you're managed by a management company, ensure that your Association's name is on the top of everything. It may say, you know, XYZ Association professionally managed by ABC management company. That can be fine, but you want to differentiate that, because many, many new owners, believe it or not, will think the management company is the entity, and not really be aware of the association, or just vaguely aware of it. So that would be the first thing board members, names and pictures on almost everything that you can do. So it becomes real to them that they are just they are a neighbor like you, and look how much time they're spending, or maybe not even that much time, but they're willing to volunteer and become a board member, committee member, that type of thing. I think those two things bring this home to the average homeowner, or especially the new homeowner. And the other thing is, oh, go ahead. You

Robert Nordlund: 23:37

got instead of picture, or in addition to, would you put address unit number 13, 501 stone Street. And I realized, holy moly, I got a board member two houses down. That's cool. I should be nicer when I say hello, because they're putting the time in.

Julie Adamen: 23:53

Yeah, you board members. I know people. I can hear board members going, Oh, I don't want that. Yeah, unfortunately, you cannot be in the witness protection program. When you are a board member, this is a it's, it's a functional job, it's a leadership job, but it's a political job. And I don't mean that in a horrible way. I mean it that you just have to interact with the people who are your constituents. You have to do it if you don't like that. Maybe it's not for you, but it's, it's the truth. You have to, you have to be a member of that community and be an active member. You're going to be attending, you know, the different things that the association may hold, or be a part of different groups, or you're always going to get stopped walking to your mailbox, or, you know, whenever driving your golf cart down the road, someone's going to stop and talk to you. You have to be willing and open to that kind of thing. And you'll find out so much information about what's going on in the community. You kind of keep your finger on the pulse that way.

Robert Nordlund: 24:44

Yeah, I think your 8020 rule is going to be right. In the 80% of the time, people are going to give you a nicer smile or a nicer wave or a thank you, and yes, you're going to hit the 20% that says, Why? Why are our dues going up this year? Whatever it is. And you say, well, and then I. Think you want to touch on this. The last year we paved the streets over here. This year we're going to do this. It all costs money here at our association, we're responsible for those things.

Julie Adamen: 25:11

Yeah, we're all responsible for it. For the board members, it's definitely, it's part of your fiduciary duty, preserve, protect, maintain and enhance now and it's and for the future, not just thinking of the three years you're on the board or the two, it's for the future. And another thing I was thinking that we should do, and boards should always do, is bring to homeowners attention how much stuff is actually getting done and when and why. I mean, even if it's in the past, you know, you say, Well, last year we did X, X, X, and X like, for example, road maintenance, let's say they got, in fact, we just had one of our big roads in here completely, you know, they they stripped the asphalt down by about two inches, and they came in and reasphalted and they just painted the stripes. In the last two days or so. Many owners would think the county or the city did that. It behooves the board to say, No, this came out of our reserve account, and the paid for this. We all paid for it. And yeah, though, and a lot of people may not read the minutes, or may not, you know, attend a board meeting, but they might peek at your newsletter, and so you want to just put in there more than once. This is where we're at, and this is where what we did in the last two months, and this is what's coming up. It never hurts to go over that more than once and just keep adding to the list. I had a wonderful board member, board president years ago, Glen, and he was just a big thinker, great guy. And he called that spin the halo. He's like, always spin the Halo, whether it was whether it's the board, or whether it's for the committee members, or whether it's for staff, all that positive communication that comes out from the Association has a tendency to buoy the members of the association. People want to be a part of something positive. They don't want to be a part of the way, you know, kind of, you know, don't, don't walk your dog here and clean up after your dogs, and don't park there, you know? Yeah, yeah.

Robert Nordlund: 27:01

Well, that's the bandwagon concept, the winning baseball team, the winning football team. You want to, you want to enjoy the winner. And I was thinking when I'm driving, I in California, there's often a highway highway sign, it's orange, that says your tax dollars are your highway dollars at work, something like that. And I'm wondering if an association just have a sign that says your association dollars at work. And you could put that in front of a painting project, in front of an asphalt project, in front of the RE landscaping in front Oh, I like that. Just and people can see us. They're driving in your homeowner association dollars at work. I really like that, and that was generic and very

Julie Adamen: 27:46

inexpensive to do, but it's still that's like a flashing red light to people as they're driving in. They see that, you know, that orange triangle, you know, your HOA dollars at work, you know, questions call here or something. I just, but it's just, I think it's a great thing to

Robert Nordlund: 27:59

do, yeah, but that's all your the button you like to press of communication. Again, the people come in with the stereotype that it's care free and inexpensive and everything costs money. So there is that they've got to have that trade off and that understanding, yes, yes. Exactly, exactly. Okay. How? Okay. So they do this. How big of a stereotype are we fighting? Is this going to take months? Is this going to take years? Is this going to be forever?

Julie Adamen: 28:28

It's going to be forever. I mean, it should be forever, because, and the one thing we do fight in this industry is because board members, the volunteers, they rotate right? And oftentimes management companies will rotate or managers will rotate out. This is a tough business on people, so though many stay in all of the way to retirement, like us, I hope, but other people will rotate in and out. So it's it behooves the board to continually and make a policy to communicate regularly in different ways with with the owners, and whether it's a new management company or you have four new board members out of seven, is that this is a part of our policy, and we're always going to communicate positively. And I would say if you got four new board members out of seven, they probably, if you're communicating positively all the time, they should be understanding on how productive that positive communication was. Otherwise they would not be on the board.

Robert Nordlund: 29:20

I'm writing all this good stuff down. What have we talked about? We've talked about welcoming people appropriately, making sure they know they're in the association. Which takes me to point number two, promoting the association. Don't let the management company take the credit, take the blame, take the responsibility. Promote the association and the board members promote what has been done, and that way people start to make that connection between, Oh, it's getting done, but it's my dollars doing it. Yep, and expect upcoming,

Julie Adamen: 29:50

upcoming stuff too. Yep. Always says, This is what's upcoming next year. This is what we're planning on doing. You know, that's yeah. But then people know their money is. Being spent to make their life better and their real estate more valuable. Expect

Robert Nordlund: 30:05

to be in for the long haul. This is a stereotype, and you're going to get continually, as you said, new board members, and you're going to continually get new homeowners in. And so it's a washing machine cycle. It's a little bit like something that is spinning once you get the concept going, all you can do is spin the flywheel, keep it going, keep the good things going, keep that good news pumping. Keep them homeowners, reminded that it is an association run by boards of directors. All these kind of good things. There's, I think there's a lot of good things you can do. It may be a little more work at the beginning to get that flywheel going, but I think I can do some really good things to fight back on that stereotype. Yeah, he sure can. Okay, well, Julie, as always, it's great talking to you. Any closing thoughts on your side at this time?

Julie Adamen: 30:54

Well, I just we talk about this so often, but I know it's a lot of work, especially for board members. I mean, you're a volunteer, and you got on the board because somebody told you was only going to take an hour a month. And then you found out that wasn't true, but you're there now. And so how do we make this better, not just for you personally, but for the board as a whole, and for the community as a whole? The biggest gap we have, in my opinion, in the industry at this it provides a lot of other things too, but in our industry, is a constant communication gap, and most of everything that goes wrong in a community association, almost everything can be contributed to a lack of communication, causing a misunderstanding. So if there's a communication vacuum, that vacuum is going to get filled up with. Who's ever the next person on next door? And you all know what that is, I know. So if they're on nextdoor.com, that's not necessarily good, and that vacuum is going to get filled, and then all of a sudden you have 50 people going, what? And it's complete falsities. So it's up to you as board members to fill that or cause it to be filled through management or a professional service that does it for you. Can you can get those professional services or write newsletters. I'm talking e newsletters. You all should just be able to communicate continually. If you have the ability, you can utilize AI Artificial Intelligence I'm going to give you. Here's a website you should look at if you have some modicum of being able to deal with the computer. It's not that big a deal. It's called Synthesia. So it's S, Y, N, T, H, E, S, I, a, dot, I O, absolutely astonishing. What they can do for you with just an amount of copy. And then you can have videos up, talk about your community for two minutes, three minutes at a time. Really amazing stuff. If you need some help going through that, I would be available for that

Robert Nordlund: 32:43

fantastic. Yeah, and press all the communication vehicles that you can. I was thinking at my last Association, they had this sign they stuck out in the dirt in the entryway. It said, board meeting Thursday night at 730 but it was just a reminder that I am now entering an association run by volunteer board of directors and just as little things that you can do. Wow, Julie, I we talked about a topic, but I think we spent a lot of time on ideas and action items to our audience. I hope you learned some HOA insights from our discussion today that helps you bring common sense to your common areas. We look forward to having you join us for another great episode next week.

Jennifer Johnson: 33:27

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