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Your Website is an Investment in
Your Community
Association board members or managers are faced daily with the need to
effectively communicate to member residents. From documents to reports
to announcements, it can be overwhelming to keep up with everything in
a timely and cost-effective manner.
Condo or townhome associations are a little different than traditional
single-unit house community associations. By definition, when you buy
a condominium, you're buying all the space contained within the walls.
The condo unit may be in the form of a townhouse, apartment flat, or even
a detached structure.
With condominiums, an association can oversee exterior elements as well
as common areas. Most condos governed by an association do a good job
at keeping the community looking good. It also regulates garbage collection,
indoor and outdoor water and sewer, a pool and maintenance, taxes on a
common area, inside and outside water and sewer, trash removal and pest
control.
Good Condo Association = Increased Condo Value
 A
good condo association is crucial to maintaining your condo's value. A
condo owner owns the space between the unit's walls; the building itself
and any common space are held by the condo homeowners' association. As
an owner in a complex, you will belong to its association and pay a homeowner's
fee. The association will cover expenses to insure and maintain the property,
so it is important that it is professionally managed and has the funds
to make needed repairs. The type of fixes can vary widely, from fresh
interior paint in the common areas to a new roof, so a condo association's
reserve funds are important.
"If you don't have good management on-site or adequate [financial
reserves], the probability is, if something small happens, they will overlook
it. It might be landscaping or a small crack, but if you overlook those
things, greater problems will tend to occur," says Maurice Veissi,
a regional vice president for the National Association of Realtors and
the president of Veissi & Associates in Miami. "That will detract
from your condo's value."
Take a good look at the association's budget, because this will help
determine the services you will receive, and the assessments you will
be charged. Assessments are generally mandatory and collected monthly,
quarterly or annually. If you don't pay these fees, a lien may be placed
against your property. Find out what the assessments cover and don't cover
(for example, maintenance of common areas and trash collection), and see
how these assessments compare with similar condo associations in your
area. The budget should have a reserve fund for major expenditures. If
not, condo owners may be hit with special assessments for major repairs.
HOA Website Key Benefits
Cost Savings
Have you realized that an HOA website can help reduce your printing,
mailing, postage, and administrative costs plus provide residents 24 x
7 access to your neighborhood information? Communicate effectively with
your fellow residents by posting your newsletters, meeting minutes, official
documents, and forms on your neighborhood website.
Time Savings
The board and committees are all made up of resident volunteers and
everyone has a job and family. Calendar, official documents, request forms,
contact information, and on and on - all these items can be made available
24 hours a day, 7 days a week to owners, real estate agents, lenders,
title companies, prospective buyers or anyone else that has a need to
know. Just think of the time and cost savings to the association by eliminating
the need to duplicate piles of documents! Instead, when documents are
requested, you simply direct them to the association website and let them
copy or print out whatever they want, when they want it!
Automate day-to-day operations including online membership registration
and renewal, meeting sign-up, and on-line newsletter distribution.
No more long tours around the neighbor to distribute notices and newsletters
on mailboxes.
Board and committee members will receive fewer calls at home from residents.
Fast, Effective Communication
In homeowner associations, consistent and effective
communication is extremely important to build consensus, distribute
information, and to keep the gossip mill at bay. Timely manual distribution
of meeting minutes, HOA documents, and newsletters are a driving cost
factor. While printed newsletters have been the norm (and local printers
thank you), the web offers a wonderful alternative to publish newsletters
on-line and eliminate printing, mailing, labeling, and postage costs.
Whether an owner is resident or out of state, communications are fast.
And with an e-mail network, all directors, property managers and committee
members can receive communications simultaneously.
Marketing
Move beyond thinking of your HOA website as an internal communications
device for the current homeowners. The HOA website will also be a terrific
way to market your community to prospective buyers whom are considering
moving to your area and may seriously consider your community. By creating
a website that is appealing and informative for both current and prospective
residents, you will be able to attract new buyers to your neighborhood.
HOA Website Features
Squid Internet websites provide a comprehensive set of features that
are well-designed to help you get your community site set up quickly and
easily, while reducing the need for on-going maintenance.
Features Include:
- On-line Dues Payment
- Secure Password Protected Resident Only Area
- E-mail Distribution Lists
- Maps and Directions
- Downloadable Documents (ARC forms, Covenants & Bylaws, etc.)
- Custom Forms (Address Changes, Service Requests, ARC Requests, Registration)
- Discussion or Message Boards
- Member Directory and Contact Information
- Classified Ads
- Committee Pages and Contacts
- Event Calendar
- Photo Gallery
- On-line Members Area
- Surveys and Polls
What's Different About Squid Internet?
What sets Squid Internet apart from the competition is our professional
quality and service. We do not use special software scripts that leave
you to put your website together on your own. We also do not create overwhelming
neighborhood websites that are cluttered, have lots of features nobody
will use, and is overpriced. Instead, a professional web developer will
not only create a unique website design for your neighborhood, but will
also ensure your site is practical and useful for your neighborhoods needs.
What makes Squid Internet better than the competition?
We thought you would never ask!
- No mass produced website templates. Our web developers will assemble
a creative design for you.
- Not being abandoned to update your website yourself through special
software. We take care of your updates personally. If you have a resident
with some web coding experience, you’re welcome to edit the site
as you need. The websites we design are made with industry standards
and easily expandable. If you need help, we’ll still be here.
- No cluttered and useless pages on your website. We design clean and
appealing websites with information residents, realtors, and prospective
residents need and will use.
- No "one size fits all" website layouts. We will layout the
website based on your desires and needs.
- We’re here to assist you every step of the way - what information
to include on your website and how best to organize it based on our
experience with our other homeowner association clients.
- Full support for your website after the site deployment by phone or
e-mail.
Low-Cost WEB Hosting & E-MAIL
Starting at $19.95 per month, our web hosting and e-mail packages are
reliable and provide lots of features!
Squid Internet understands that your website is critical to smooth communication
within your homeowners association. Rest assured we’ll keep your
website up and running smoothly with a 99.5% uptime. Our world-class data
center partners are industry leaders who combine a host of comprehensive
solutions with unparalleled expertise and cutting-edge technologies with
unrivaled connectivity.
E-mail service from Squid Internet is affordable and very reliable. Our
e-mail service provides both POP e-mail accounts and Webmail service -
where you check your e-mail anywhere (home, work, on the road) and anytime
from the web. Set-up e-mail addresses or e-mail aliases at yourHOA.org
(example you@yourHOA.org) for board members, committee members, or other
volunteers and residents.
Squid Internet's web hosting and e-mail plans represent your best choice
for stability, features, and functionality at a price level that's inline
with your HOA’s needs and budget.
Why Do Some HOA Websites Fail?
Most homeowners association websites that fail are out-of-date and show
little signs of life. They may have started out strong with high resident
interest, but was neglected or forgotten over time.
Common causes are...
- Inexperience - The enthusiastic neighbor willing to gather
information might not have enough computer experience to create a website.
- Poor Design & Layout - Previous web designer (resident
or professional) designed a site that wasn’t user-friendly.
- Creator Leaves - The neighborhood webmaster moves or loses
interest with no one left to replace him/her.
- Not Updated - Updating the website is too hard so it never
changes. Therefore, neighbors loose interest and don't bother to return.
- Not Useful - The website doesn't have enough features to really
make an impact.
Contact Us
Does this sound like a tool that your board members and community could
use? Contact us today for more information and get your neighborhood working
together.
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States Serviced
We offer website design and web hosting to HOAs and other community associations
located in the following states.
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