As predicted

Last night we had our big HOA meeting. In the past these were held at the presidents home, this time it was at the community center of the park where I play pickleball. This was the largest meeting I have been involved in but still only maybe a little more than half of the 30 homes in the neighborhood were represented. The board members were up on a “stage”, facing the rest of the audience. The household that has been the impetus for the board to discuss enlisting a property management firm was not in attendance which I predicted to several people. They appear to be the type of people that prefer to exist mostly hiding behind phones and keyboards.

The meeting went well from my perspective. There was some prolonged periods of Q & A of both us board members and the representative for the property management company. There was some push back about using a management company but I think the major concerns were addressed, most notably that if we ever decide we don’t want to use them all it requires is 30 day written notice. We also received assurances that the fees we would pay them would be more or less locked in, addressing fears of a bait and switch scenario where fees steadily increase over time.

The meeting ran close to two hours long but was productive. The next challenge will be trying to get some different people in the neighborhood to volunteer for the board as we potentially have three spots that will be open due to resignation. With only 30 households there is not a large pool to select from. I came away from the meeting feeling more positive that the road ahead will be less rocky than 2025 has been thus far.