While the “h” in HOA stands for “home,” a homeowner’s association is about much more than the physical housing present in the community. It’s also about shared amenities for community life, including outdoor spaces and onsite amenities. After all, it’s why most people buy into an HOA: to have a sense of community both indoors and outdoors.
Community amenities – maintaining existing ones and adding new ones as needed — are a great way to attract buyers to an HOA. While of course, you want to emphasize basic conveniences that increase the community’s overall appeal, you may also decide that you need to add some “competitive” amenities that will increase property values. Established residents will feel valued and happy about their investments, while prospective new owners and tenants will be more drawn to your community.
Maintaining community amenities can be challenging and expensive, however, and HOAs are often hard-pressed to identify opportunities to improve community amenities most efficiently and cost-effectively.
Some of the best ways HOAs are improving community amenities include:
Outdoor recreation. This is important, particularly if there are many families with children in the HOA, or active retirees. (Though…the outdoor amenities you choose may be different based on your demographics.) Consider using open spaces to create more natural landscaping for walking, sports, outdoor yoga, children’s play, and even picnics. For the latter, many HOAs are choosing to implement barbecue areas with tables to enhance the outdoor enjoyment of spaces.
Child-friendly spaces. Many HOAs are made up of young families, so indoor and outdoor play areas are ideal for keeping children engaged and busy. Outdoor, playgrounds with ample space for children to run and play are ideal. For indoor spaces, game rooms and entertainment centers will be a benefit for families, particularly during the winter or inclement weather.
Pet-friendly spaces. Today, pets are more than pets: they’re members of the family. More than one-third of U.S. families today – 67 percent — have pets. Many HOAs are choosing to designate pet-friendly areas, including enclosed dog parks where dogs can roam free off leash and play. It’s important, however, to choose areas that are well away from residences so the new dog park doesn’t result in noise complaints, and there should be a strictly enforced protocol to ensure everyone is cleaning up after their dogs.
Co-working spaces. With more of the workforce working from home than ever, co-working is becoming an important issue. These are common spaces designated for remote work so that home-based employees can leave their homes but still work nearby without the distractions of family, pets, and background noise. These designated spaces might include tables, workstations, power outlets, and Wi-Fi.
HOAs can choose from a wide array of community amenities. These amenities cost money, so it’s important to choose the features that residents will value, and this means looking deeply into the lifestyle, preferences, and interests of community members.
Paladin Property Management offers management of day-to-day operations for HOA client associations, including maintenance requests, communication, collection of common charges, payment of vendors, bookkeeping, rule enforcement, resale packages, and construction projects, as well as any other routine administrative responsibilities. We offer consulting services to HOAs that are largely self-managed. For more information or to contact us, call 860-395-8863 or visit our website.