Sharry Fassett: 0:00

It's always a process with a new board. Always, you have to get to know each other. To be quite honest, I'm I'm a strong female personality, and that's not always the easiest for some men to to handle. My board members have been awesome, and in our, it's a process. We do have people who maybe don't agree with the direction this board is going, but I would say 85% of the homeowners here are happy.

Announcer: 0:36

A regular highlight of the HOA Insights podcast is our Board Heroes feature, where we dedicate one episode each month to celebrate the remarkable efforts of HOA board members. To us, a board hero is one of the 2 million elected volunteers who deserve recognition for excelling in a role that often goes unnoticed. Today, we're excited to spotlight one of these exceptional board heroes and share their inspiring story. If you match our definition of a board hero or know someone who does? Please reach out to us. Our contact details and those of our sponsors are provided in the show notes.

Robert Nordlund: 1:06

Welcome back to HOA Insights, Common Sense for Common Areas. I'm Robert Nordland, and I'm here today for episode number 178 with a board member I've been corresponding with for months, trying to find a good time for her to tell her story. It's really nothing unusual. The normal problems of a 25-year-old property coming to grips with its common area deterioration. Yet, how the board deals with these issues and the homeowners is going to be different at every association. So, the story is always interesting. Well, if you're a new listener, we're here weekly with episodes to help you with the hard work of being a board member, week after week we bring you fresh content from our regular co-hosts, insurance expert Kevin Davis, or management and leadership expert Julie Adamon, or sometimes subject matter experts, or like today, one of the board heroes we are proud to celebrate. You can catch all of our prior episodes on our website, hoa insights.org on any major podcast platform or on our YouTube channel, and if you like the show, by all means subscribe and join us in our mission to improve board member leadership all across the country, one association at a time. Now, subscribers and positive reviews boost the show's location in search engines, and that makes it easier for more board members to find the Common Sense for Common Areas podcast and get hold of a rescue line to help them with their association. Well, if you haven't been to our website hoainsights.org, you'll find we have some great merch for sale, like the mug I have here on my desk reminds me of how much I get a kick out of doing this podcast, and we have some great free stuff there, like board member Zoom backgrounds that you can download for free for your next online meeting. It's worth a quick visit. Well, we enjoy hearing from you, responding to the issues you're facing at your association. So, if you have a hot topic, a crazy story, or a question you'd like us to address, you can contact us at 805-203-3130, or email us at podcast at hoa insights.org. But today's episode is on me. Sharry Fassett is a board member at her condo association in Arizona. She's a podcast listener, and she's one of those people that reached out to me and said,"Robert, I've got a story. So let's hear from Sharry. Welcome to the program.

Sharry Fassett: 3:29

Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here.

Robert Nordlund: 3:32

Well, it's great. Thanks for being one of those people that says, "Hey, I've got something going on at my association. Is it worth sharing some of the lessons that I've learned, and I I really enjoy that. So tell me, how long have you been a homeowner at your association?

Sharry Fassett: 3:49

At this association, I've been 10 years.

Robert Nordlund: 3:53

Okay, tell me more. So you you're a second timer or third. You've done this before.

Sharry Fassett: 3:57

Yes, yes, I was on the HOA board at a plant community, which is very different than a condo. Now I'm in a condo community for 10 years before that.

Robert Nordlund: 4:08

Okay, so you've done this before, you've done it again, and again, and again, and again. Okay, good. And you were on the board at the plant community, right? Yes. Okay, for some of our listeners, they would call that a HOA, single family homes. Okay, but you're in a condo now, and you've been a board member before, also.

Sharry Fassett: 4:32

Yes.

Robert Nordlund: 4:32

What drives you to be a board member?

Sharry Fassett: 4:36

I don't know. I I I guess it's I basically care. I care about the community I live in. I obviously care about my investment, my legacy that I'm going to leave my family when I pass. So I want to maintain my my investment in the community. But I care about the people. When I see things not going well, sometimes. I can't help myself, and I-if I think I can help, I jump in. I

Robert Nordlund: 5:03

like that. I got involved at my association forever ago because I realized I was mortgaged up to here, and I couldn't let this real estate investment of mine sag. I needed to do everything I could to make it appreciate, to maximize, because I was I was riding on this thing, okay. How long have you been on the board at this place?

Sharry Fassett: 5:29

I think I got on about nine months after I moved in, and

Robert Nordlund: 5:33

right first election,

Sharry Fassett: 5:35

yes. Okay, and then I at some point stepped down because I had some family issues to to live to live with and deal with. Then I would then I got back on. I ran again and got back on when things had cleared up. And then I filled in again for some an unfilled position. Somebody stepped down. I filled their term. And this last time was three and a half years ago when I said I would step in for six months and help when someone stepped down, and I'm still here.

Robert Nordlund: 6:11

On one hand, it sounds like there's a healthy rotation of board members. It's not like you were there for almost 10 years and everyone else is almost there for 10 years? You've got a rotation of board members. Tell me about well, how many board members are there at your place? Okay,

Sharry Fassett: 6:27

we have five now.

Robert Nordlund: 6:29

Well, were there not five?

Sharry Fassett: 6:31

That one time there was three.

Robert Nordlund: 6:34

Oh yikes, that gets kind of thin. Okay, so when there was some holes, you volunteered to step in, and you've been helping. Tell me about how the board has evolved over the years with different personalities. How has the leadership really changed there?

Sharry Fassett: 6:54

Okay, it's it's changed a lot. When I first came here, one of the reasons I got active was the first board meeting I went to was a screaming match that lasted till 1130 at night and I was I was blown away I'd never seen anything like it and and so I thought you know this is not the way boards should run so now it is a very. It's on Zoom, so there are no more of those kinds of things going on.

Robert Nordlund: 7:28

Why did Zoom keep it from being a screaming match?

Sharry Fassett: 7:31

You know, I'm not sure. I I can tell you that when you're in person in a crowded room and things get heated, sometimes some personalities want to take over the room. They won't quit talking. With Zoom, it's a little bit easier to set manageable expectations. Please talk about this once, then give everybody else a chance. And I think there's also something about the attendees being on camera. You are, everyone is looking at you. Say what you want in a respectful way and listen in a respectful way. And so I've noticed a real change in the decorum, but it also could have been the leadership changes. I have a real desire to keep things civil and a real desire to make things transparent and open, and listen to every homeowner because that is their one chance, really, to speak to the community. So I really want everybody to feel like they like they have that opportunity.

Robert Nordlund: 8:37

Yeah, you got me thinking now that in a lot of board meetings, there's an audience. There's the homeowners, and often a board in the front or on a couch or something. So there's the them and the us, and I wonder if that creates a potential for adversarial adversarial relationship. Rather than on Zoom, it's almost like you're in a big circle and you're all looking each other in the eyes. Is that maybe one of those just the physical dynamic? And I, yeah, and I can also imagine someone getting heated and standing up and that kind of stuff, and you lose a lot of that physical ability to communicate when you're on Zoom, because like you and I here, we're just chest up, and I'm not going to stand up, or you're going. My head's going to get out of the camera, that kind of stuff. So I, I wonder. But okay. Well, of interest, I'll

Sharry Fassett: 9:34

just add a point here: is that the Arizona legislature has just now told property management companies, they want to see more in in-person meetings, and so now we are required to have our annual meeting be in person. What we're doing is having we've gone to a hybrid, so we do both. We do Zoom and in person for. Annual meeting.

Robert Nordlund: 10:00

Do you have the ability to have a group of homeowners on site, or do you go to a local public library, or where do you meet?

Sharry Fassett: 10:10

So far, it's been in the clubhouse, and we're fine.

Robert Nordlund: 10:14

Okay, how many people? So your association has roughly 100, a little over 100 units. 119

Sharry Fassett: 10:21

homeowners and. we get probably about 30 at the annual meeting.

Robert Nordlund: 10:27

That's healthy. Often I hear of 10 people just sign their proxy and throw that in. So roughly, I guess that's a quarter of the total 3060, 120, yeah,

Sharry Fassett: 10:45

and sometimes more.

Robert Nordlund: 10:47

Very nice. How about for a monthly meeting? Do you you still have them in the clubhouse with a camera?

Sharry Fassett: 10:53

No, we have them in Zoom.

Robert Nordlund: 10:55

Okay, monthlies are in Zoom.

Sharry Fassett: 10:57

We get about 20 at 20. If if there's a hot issue, we might get more, but I would say 22 maybe.

Robert Nordlund: 11:09

Annual is 30. Okay, good. I still think that's probably a pretty healthy level. Okay, you tempted us with at the beginning you didn't like the the way the board meetings were being run, there was animosity, anxiety. We've talked here on the show about how the level of incivility has gone up since COVID. You're smiling for everyone not watching on Zoom. Talk to me about that.

Sharry Fassett: 11:36

Yes, COVID changed a lot of things, including making people go to Zoom and also decreasing their comfort level in social situations, it's it's been a really interesting impact on everything in life. I I think if I was younger, I'd write a book, and that would be it. I'm at

Robert Nordlund: 11:59

an age where how do I say this? My my kids are passed out of college, and so there. I have younger nephews and nieces that have been in college in these last few years, and to think of paying that amount of tuition to sit and do their college meeting or college classes via Zoom-that just hurts because there's so much that you learn just in the dynamic of being around each other. And I remember one of the first concerts my wife and I went to must have been 20. See, COVID was 2020, so maybe it was 2021. We started going back to concerts, and the people behind me were just talking, and we were just amazed. And I was like, "Have you forgotten how to behave in a social setting? We are at a concert. You don't talk like I wanted to, you know, take a mute button and press pause or stop, and you just can't do that, but you're right. Interesting dynamics. Okay, so

Sharry Fassett: 13:03

well, I can give you just one little example. I was I was the in home school teacher for my granddaughter, and who was in I think fifth grade or so about that time.

Robert Nordlund: 13:15

So that's just a responsibility that you took on.

Sharry Fassett: 13:17

Yes, and

Robert Nordlund: 13:18

cool, good for you.

Sharry Fassett: 13:19

And before the teachers learned how to manage Zoom, they didn't know how to manage the whole thing, so it was a mess. It was the year she learned to play violin. Imagine trying to teach a child to play a violin on the internet.

Robert Nordlund: 13:35

Yeah, you can't pull your fingers like this. No, like that. No, like that. Not that way. The other way,

Paige Daniels: 13:42

yeah,

Robert Nordlund: 13:42

that's got to be tough. And you're sitting there listening to it all.

Sharry Fassett: 13:46

Yeah,

Robert Nordlund: 13:46

I played the trumpet for years and years and years, and usually once a year they'd need a few brass players to sit in with the orchestra for the Christmas concert or something like that. And in the early years, that was really hard because squeaky violins to this day really bug me, and so a fifth grader learning the violin brings back some tough memories. Okay, why was there tension and yelling not just because of personalities, but what lit the fuses of the people at the meeting? Were there things going on at the association.

Sharry Fassett: 14:21

Are you talking about when I first came here, or

Robert Nordlund: 14:26

tell me? Tell me what the bumps. Yeah, it's always

Sharry Fassett: 14:29

money.

Robert Nordlund: 14:30

That could be the summary of this episode.

Sharry Fassett: 14:32

Where's the money? Where did it go? What did you do with it? Why don't we have it? Why wasn't this Done, and we want more.

Robert Nordlund: 14:44

Okay, so in this last three and a half years, what are the kind of things that you and the rest of the board have been wrestling with, big projects wise?

Sharry Fassett: 14:52

Oh my gosh! Well, there have been several. The first one, after I shortly got off the board, I. I go. I went back into the invoices because, as a returning board member, you go back to get the feel where you are in the organization, what's going on.

Unknown: 15:07

Yep.

Sharry Fassett: 15:08

Found the water bills were sky high. Started digging. Found we have nine water bills at this association.

Robert Nordlund: 15:16

Okay, nine different meters.

Sharry Fassett: 15:18

Yes, and so located it to the pool clubhouse area. Kept thinking, no, this can't be. the The usage had gone from 50,000 gallons a month to over 200,000 gallons a month, worse than winter. And what was going on? Well, there was we had to get a pool leak company in, and we found four pool leaks. We had to drain the pool, repair the repair the pool, fill it back up, make sure it was okay. I knew nothing about any of that. It all had to be researched and consultants hired. I mean, we hired a great leak company, so that was the first thing. And and six months later, the pool surface started cracking, and that was a that's a violation for county ordinances. And county runs our pool license, gives us our pool license. It started cracking probably from the exposure.

Robert Nordlund: 16:15

Oh, when you had drained it.

Sharry Fassett: 16:16

Yes, and and and we're you know we were doing the repairs. It failed early, but out of warranty, of course. Anyway, we had to redo the pool completely, restore the pool, restore the pool deck because some of the leaks were under the deck. That was the first thing, so that was the first unexpected thing.

Robert Nordlund: 16:38

Yeah, when you start adding, well, good for you to catch something that was gradually creeping up on you-the leak-and then you had a surprise. The pool got expensive, and not only the pool resurfaced, but when you add the deck to it, was that a six-figure project or

Sharry Fassett: 16:55

not? Not not not quite. Maybe not 100,000. Yeah. Okay. It did all add up, and it all was not planned. So there was there was that, and I will say that the board before me, before I came in, had noticed the the water bills going up, and unfortunately had not correctly diagnosed the problem. They had thought it was the irrigation and turned off the irrigation in the summer, and we lost 140 plants. So now, now we also had to restore the landscape. We're still doing that a little bit at a time.

Robert Nordlund: 17:35

Yeah. So you had to figure out which of the nine meters was getting expensive, and someone guessed it was landscaping, and they didn't research it because I'm imagining the pool in the clubhouse was a different meter than the landscape meter.

Sharry Fassett: 17:50

Yes. Yeah.

Robert Nordlund: 17:51

Darn, darn. So close, but that's a swing and a miss.

Sharry Fassett: 17:56

They they saw it and they tried to do the right thing. And honestly, I will never criticize another board member. I think everyone gets on the board and they try their best to operate in a very difficult world. If you don't diagnose the problem correctly, you're you're going to cost more money.

Robert Nordlund: 18:15

I like that to diagnose the problem correctly. It was a good first guess to think that gee we're throwing all the water on the landscape, and my guess would have been you've got a landscape line that's broken, and so rather than just going spray, spray, spray, you've got a geyser somewhere, and that's a good way to lose a lot of water.

Unknown: 18:36

Yes, it is.

Robert Nordlund: 18:37

So good first guess, but a swing and a miss. What else? There's got to be more that was going on.

Sharry Fassett: 18:43

Next thing that happened was we got a we were following our reserve study and we were we yes and we were prepared to do a coating of our flat roof. We had the money in reserves for it, and when we asked for a proposal, we got a report back from our roofer that all the roofs needed replacing tile and built-up roofs. All of them were failing, and so that was quite quite a surprise. And then we found out that there had been a study done five years earlier that told the board that, but it happened at the same time that COVID hit. That they got the report. They were busy trying to figure out how to have meetings. Did we have to shut down the pool? Everybody was afraid if they went outside, they were going to die, get this disease, and die. I mean, at a horrible time.

Robert Nordlund: 19:45

Oh yeah.

Sharry Fassett: 19:45

And so it was lost. So we we said we'll have the study done again. We had the study done again. It verified that that's, and then we hired a consultant, a roofing consultant. Okay, I like

Robert Nordlund: 19:57

those two things. Let me slow you down.

Sharry Fassett: 19:58

Yes,

Robert Nordlund: 19:59

you already. Earlier about one of the key things was diagnose the problem correctly. So you did exactly that. You got a professional subject matter expert to double check and confirm. And then not only that, but when it came down to do the project, you got a consultant because we're only board members. What do we know?

Sharry Fassett: 20:20

That's right. I don't go on roofs.

Robert Nordlund: 20:22

That's fair. My

Paige Daniels: 20:23

age.

Robert Nordlund: 20:24

That's fair.

Sharry Fassett: 20:25

Yeah. So we're actually in the process of that. We've we've now designed. We've had the roof designed. We've had we've had gone through a bidding process, and we're in the process of selecting our vendor. So that's where we are with that. But at the same time, we also got notice. We had changed fire service providers. Now, anybody that has sprinkler systems, which in Scottsdale almost everybody does now, understands that twice a year we get inspections that are required by the city, and I was familiar with that, and we did them regularly, and then you fix things. What we didn't know was that when your property is 25 years old, it it kicks in another inspection, and that is that someone must either test or change out all the sprinklers inside the units. Now we have over 2000 sprinkler heads, so you can imagine that the cost is is is going to be substantial. But here's here's the other piece that that hit everybody. You know, nobody knew about it. Our property management company didn't know about it. Our reserve study guy didn't know about it. So it hadn't been reserved for. We didn't know it was coming. It hit us just right upside the head. So, so every we had this new fire service company, and somebody goes,"They're just trying to make money.

Robert Nordlund: 21:53

Yeah, this

Sharry Fassett: 21:54

this isn't real. This is not real. Why doesn't anybody know about it? And so suspicion. So there's suspicion, and so turns out they were real, and they were which takes

Robert Nordlund: 22:05

us back to diagnose the problem correctly.

Sharry Fassett: 22:07

Yes.

Robert Nordlund: 22:08

Okay.

Sharry Fassett: 22:09

We we even talked to the city about it, and

the city here's the thing: 22:12

the city enforces the other fire regulations. They don't have the manpower to enforce going into every unit and checking the sprinklers, right? They don't have it, so they don't want any part of that part. But they will enforce you if you don't do what your fire service guy tells you to do. So we had to face the choice: do we test at a cost of 30 some 1000 a few sprinklers from each system, which was 119 sprinkler heads, or do we replace all of them just outright, and that was I think the cost on that was 110,000. So it was a choice that the board had to make, and the board decided that we were going. It was more cost effective to change them all out at 110,000, because if you did that, you were good for 25 years. If you tested and failed, you had to do it anyway. And if you tested and passed, you had to do it again in 10 years. So the the math is there.

Robert Nordlund: 23:10

And we're talking about life safety. And when you're talking about life safety, well, when you're, yeah, that's where you want to spend money, Sharry. This is absolutely been fantastic. What I'm seeing is I like the way your board is looking at things. I like the attitude that you come in with. You're talking about you want to keep things civil and transparent. That's going to come in as important later when we talk about this, I like you talking about diagnosing the problem correctly, but you've got a handful of problems here, and the question is, why are you still a board member and why haven't you been recalled? So we will get to that after we take a break, but it's time now to take a break to hear from one of our generous sponsors. After which, we'll be back with more common sense for common areas.

Paige Daniels: 24:02

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Robert Nordlund: 24:33

And we're back. Well, Sharry, during the break, I was noticing that you are smiling, and the stories you've been telling of problems growing again to our audience. That's not surprising. That's kind of real life. But how are you holding up? How are you dealing with the pressure of more projects, more expenses? How are you doing with this?

Sharry Fassett: 24:57

Honestly, I'm getting tired. And I I approach my 80th birthday next year, at the same time that my term is over, and my intention is to retire at that point. So I've been very very open with the board and preparing them. They are taking more leads in in projects, and they're excellent. One man is taking the lead on the roofs. One man is taking-he's financial guy and excellent. He's taking. We're working on money issues, and we have a gentleman who owns his own remodeling companies. Excellent building consultant. We have an engineer on our on our board, so I'm blessed with good people.

Robert Nordlund: 25:45

Sounds like some professionals that you're able to say. Let me show you how I've been looking after this and handing it off because the association is going to be there long after you or I are involved, and so I like that idea of you wanting to hand it off in better condition than it was when you started, how's the relationship with the homeowners? You seem to be rolling with the punches, the pool, the roofs, the fire sprinklers. How are the homeowners doing? Because I trust that you're communicating clearly that hey folks, this is real. We need the money. How's that relationship going? Is it strained, or are they understanding it is what it is?

Sharry Fassett: 26:33

Well, let me give you an example with the fire sprinklers. Like I said, there was some distrust. You know, these people are just ripping us off. We don't need to do this. We even had a homeowner that threatened to go to court over it. At one point, we had made the decision to to replace them all at 110,000. The board got was had open discussion again.

Robert Nordlund: 26:55

Monthly board meeting, open discussion.

Sharry Fassett: 26:57

Yes, correct. And I said, look, the homeowners are not comfortable with this decision. We've got to back up and revisit this. We had more education, we had more discussion, and it was clear that the homeowners didn't weren't there. So we are testing. That's what we're doing. We so we reversed our decision, and we're testing. We just finished collecting all the sprinklers, and you talk about homeowners, what the relationship is. I went every time they went into a home. I went with the team to like the sprinkler heads. I watched everything that happened. I kept track. I was there every day.

Robert Nordlund: 27:38

Okay, so it's not just a bunch of guys with logoed shirts doing something. The homeowner was peaceful because Sharry, their board member, was there in their unit, giving some kind of assurance that this is legit.

Sharry Fassett: 27:57

Correct, and and that I was watching out for their place. Many of them are are seasonal homeowners, so they weren't here. They would give me their codes or whatever. I told them once we are done with your unit, those codes go away. I do not retain.

Robert Nordlund: 28:12

And you've probably built up that level of trust over years.

Sharry Fassett: 28:16

I I hope so.

Robert Nordlund: 28:17

Well, they gave you their code to their unit,

Sharry Fassett: 28:20

so that's how we handle that, and I think for the for the most part, our homeowners. I always believe in telling them what I know when I know it. But I also don't speculate what if if we can get back to the roof issue. People right away, as soon as they heard this, well, how much is that going to cost us? I don't know yet. We need to design the roof. We need to interview. We need to get bids. We have a process to go through. I'm not going to guess. I'm not going to give people fodder to to gossip about. I want them to know what I know, and I communicate everything I know that way.

Robert Nordlund: 28:57

You've told us about you. How are you in the board? Are you working together effectively as a team? Are you on the same page, same style, things like that?

Sharry Fassett: 29:09

With my board members,

Robert Nordlund: 29:10

yes,

Sharry Fassett: 29:10

it's always a process with a new board. Always, you have to get to know each other. To be quite honest, I'm I'm a strong female personality, and that's not always the easiest for some men to to handle. My board members have been awesome, and in our, it's a process. We do have people who maybe don't agree with the direction this board is going, but I would say 85% of the homeowners here are happy.

Robert Nordlund: 29:44

That's a good number. Okay, and I say this

thinking about the numbers: 29:49

you can outvote 15% It's expensive. You've had a lot of things there going on, and at every association, I've asked different people. What's your gage of the percent of people that never should have bought into a condominium association, and that's usually single digits, three to 5% something like that. So there will always be people that don't like what you're doing. So we have to let go of that. But boy, to have roughly 85% of the people on your side, that shows that you've been-I want to say-doing the right things and building a lot of political capital. Is that the right word to say? Political capital.

Sharry Fassett: 30:29

I have to say, we we work very hard at it, and I think people know that this board cares, and we listen, and we do care.

Robert Nordlund: 30:39

You got me writing a lot of notes here. We talk about here on the show sometimes the 4c's, where you need to care, you need to be curious. I like your idea of diagnosing the problem correctly. You need to be courageous, but I liked what you said about you don't just act like a bull, battering forward with respect to the sprinklers. You had a, you felt the temperature of the water, and you came back. Okay, so courage, enough courage, and enough courage to say, let's revisit that, and then communication to just to be able to say, and like you said before, I don't know enough yet. I'll tell you as much as I know. Then my brain is going to well. What more would you want from a board member? Is that pretty fair about what's going on there?

Sharry Fassett: 31:34

Yep, I think I think you've got the four CDs are exactly right. Exactly right. I

Robert Nordlund: 31:40

still need to ask, what's happening with the homeowners? Every time there's something going wrong, you need more money. So, have the homeowners? Has it been special assessments? Has it been raised assessments? What really has been able to fund all these projects?

Sharry Fassett: 31:57

We've been very fortunate because prior to me coming on the board, we had a board that was very fiscally conservative, and they managed to hold on to reserves very well. So we had that in place to start with. However, the worst is yet to come as as soon as we find out in terms of what the roofs are going to cost, and we have an idea now. And as soon as we pick a vendor, we'll know exactly. We're redoing the reserve study. We have updated the reserve study every year, trying to make it tight, trying to make it correct, because it's real easy to forget to update your reserve study when you do a major project. It's important that you. It might be early. It might be a little bit late, but you need to adjust your reserve study and

Robert Nordlund: 32:51

rebalance things.

Sharry Fassett: 32:52

Correct. Correct.

Robert Nordlund: 32:53

I should say I don't know, but I don't think your association is a client of ours. Is that correct?

Sharry Fassett: 33:00

That's correct. We we've had the same person for 20 years.

Robert Nordlund: 33:04

We would love to tempt you, but what I like is Sharry's just telling the way it is. It really is valuable. It's not like she's trying to make me happy, and we don't have a sweet inside deal here going on. But yeah, your reserves are going to be the biggest expenses you pay for.

Paige Daniels: 33:22

Yes. Okay.

Robert Nordlund: 33:23

So, are you have you kind of leaked the idea that it may be special assessment time?

Sharry Fassett: 33:30

Oh, it's not really leaking. I've been really honest with the homeowners up front. We don't have the money. We're going to have to find the money, and we're working on it. We're working on different ideas, and and like I said, I've got a great financial guy on my board. I've got a real sound board, and I think we'll come up with with what works. Our motto is the highest and best for our community. The highest we can get, the best we can get for our community overall. That means some people aren't going to get what they want here. Some people aren't going to get that, but we will be the highest and best here, and that's what we aim for.

Robert Nordlund: 34:07

You've got a motto to go along with the name of your association. This is what we do. This is how we do things, and then you demonstrate it, and you have done that same thing consistently over time. And I guess I'm not surprised after hearing all this that you have the kind of people who would say, "Yeah, you can get into my unit. Can you stay there while they're in? And you say,"Yeah, I'll be there while you're in.

Sharry Fassett: 34:32

Will you sweep the floor?

Robert Nordlund: 34:36

Did I turn the dryer on? Can you that kind of stuff. Punch the dishwasher for me. Get that going. No, I I like that. It's hard being a board member. It's expensive to the association to hit the 25 year mark. A lot of projects happen around that time period. But you seem to be, and you spoke right at the beginning about you like. Civil and transparent, and that goes such a long way. Thank you, Sharry. It's great having you on the program to help our board member audience see that while challenges are commonplace, you can deal with them. It's important to try to keep your cool, deal with problems as they come, and kind of summarize my notes. Diagnose the problem correctly. Consider several points of view. Don't chase unanimity. You're probably never going to have unanimity. Any closing thoughts to add at this time?

Sharry Fassett: 35:31

No, I just encourage everybody to participate in in your community and participate as a board member. Be ready to learn. You you need you'll learn a lot.

Robert Nordlund: 35:41

A lot. Well, I thank you for what you're doing for your association. I think the homeowners there are lucky to have you on the board.

Sharry Fassett: 35:48

Well, thanks.

Robert Nordlund: 35:49

But I'm tickled that you are working with the other board members to make sure it's a smooth transition, as it is your time to step away.

Unknown: 35:57

You

Sharry Fassett: 35:57

start mentoring the day they get on the board that you start mentoring.

Robert Nordlund: 36:01

Yeah, I got a twinkle in my eye because I have a feeling that you've got five board members now, and probably one of them is going to step off or something, and they're going to say, "Sharry, can you come back? It'll be just for six months.

Sharry Fassett: 36:13

My family doesn't even believe me anymore that I'm going to retire. I keep saying I'm going to retire, and they say we don't even believe you anymore. Yeah,

Robert Nordlund: 36:20

well, you're doing a great thing, and when you say retire, what you're doing is making a whole lot of people a whole lot of money by maximizing property values at your association. There's a lot of value to that. Sharry, it's fantastic to have you on the show. To our audience, we certainly 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.

Announcer: 36:50

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