What, Why, How?

I read an interesting article this morning. The article was written by a financial planner and was based on an earlier one in the New York Times. It asserted that most of us are absorbed asking "What" and avoid asking the really important "Why?"

For example, "What am I going to do today?" is a popular question. The unanswered one is "Why am I going to do that?"  I was struck by how true that is.

So many of us become absorbed by the result. We don't always think about the plan and "why" we take specific actions.

Plan + Process = Product

In any endeavor, we can spend a lot of time, energy and resources thinking about the results we want. Some call that result the "Product."  However, there are two preceding steps which are:

• Plan
• Process

The third step, which is the result or outcome of the previous steps, is what some call the

• Product

I know this might appear to be jargon, but if one wants to get a grip on the fundamentals of planning and project management, then getting familiar with the terms is a necessary step. 

Here at BLMH, our board is constantly operating in the question "Why?"  It's a fundamental for any maintenance and financial planning. Those are the primary tasks facing a HOA board. BLMH is not a social club and there are serious decisions to be made. Some of the consequences of these decisions may not show up for years. That includes both the physical, which is to say, the physical condition of the infrastructure of the association, and the financial, which is to say the amount in the reserves and other financial accounts.

This is obvious if anyone delves into the answer to the question "Why are my fees where they are?" Those fees are not the consequence of the actions of the board in 2012 or 2011. However, 5 years does make a big difference. 10 or more years can result in huge fee differences.  A substantial component of our fees is reserves, and as we all should know, 30 years is a long term planning issue. That is the standard duration used by professional reserve planners. 

Where to Begin?

In this planning process and in response to the question "Why?" the board begins with the Illinois Condominium Act (ICA), the Bylaws, Declarations and Rules. These things do provide the framework for the "why." Of course, if a board or board member is oblivious to these documents and what they contain, then one shouldn't be surprised if it gets a bit strange or murky in your association.

The board also has available what currently exists in the association. Those physical assets are what is to be maintained, and are "why" there is a financial plan. 

Why? Because its necessary to take certain steps in order to maintain a community. There are documents that stipulate why a board must take those steps. 

The "Why" is the First Step

Why are we going to build a financial and maintenance plan, particularly one looking 30 years into the future? After all, as individuals we probably won't be here in 30 years. Yes, that's absolutely true for a typical condominium owner. But we're not talking about our personal wants, needs and desires. This is a board issue, one for fiduciaries to consider. Of course, we have similar long term planning decisions to make in our personal lives. Those decisions include retirement planning, accumulating savings for that retirement, long term care issues and so on. Those are really important personal issues and could be the subject of numerous posts. But this post is from the perspective of a condominium association.

The board is a group of fiduciaries who are looking at the entire association. This association has been here for 35 year and it may well be here for another 100 years! We can quibble about the dates, but the board acts as fiduciaries and they must think long term and they must think of the association. For one thing, the ICA says we must maintain the property. We must maintain this community. We must plan for the future. We must put into action the necessary financial steps. In other words, we must set fees and save for reserves.

Owners can take a perspective that an association should be maintained “differently” or is well maintained or not. That’s a different issue. That’s a perspective about both the plan and the process to achieve that plan. As some cynics have said, if you don’t have a plan, any road will get you to where you are going.

It is a fact that some associations "roll the dice" and simply levy special assessments from time to time to handle significant financial issues. That might be acceptable to all of the owners in some associations. However, it certainly isn't acceptable to most of the owners here at BLMH. 

Boards have difficult decisions to make. First, anyone who ever says “We have plenty of money” in an HOA probably doesn’t know what they are talking about. Some may say that, as a means to justify a position they have about fees. For example "We have enough money" is sometimes promoted with a position "Our fees are too high." The fact is, any well run association will have a detailed reserve study and capital expenditure plans. It will have a maintenance plan and it will have the facts and details to back up those plans. If the financial plans are substantiated by the reserve, capital and maintenance budgets, then it is possible to say “We have adequate funding.” That’s as far as a responsible board member can go. Why? Because all of these plans are based on assumptions. They include the “Why” as well assumptions about the state of the association and also assumptions about the future.  This is one of the reasons BLMH has a "contingency fund" which is the equivalent of a homeowners "emergency fund." That association fund isn't excessive, and we can't say that it's adequate. However, it is there in recognition that unexpected and sometimes expensive things do happen, and they are an aid for a board to avoid a special assessment, or juggling funds in other areas; e.g. driveway and roofs. It is a fact that "reserves" cannot be used for day to day maintenance. At best, an association can borrow from reserves, but it must implement another plan to replace any  funds so borrowed.  

"What an inconvenience" some owners may say. Yes, that's true. It’s much easier if one only thinks of themselves because one only has to make plans for oneself. If we fail in those personal plans then we can always apply for Medicaid, food stamps and so on. In extreme cases, we can “walk” and let the bank take our unit. However, there is no government mandated "social umbrella" for associations. If your association fails, it will be entirely on its own. No government and no social organization will come to the aid of your association. If your association fails, then you can expect special assessments and much larger fees, as the hat is passed to the individual owners. Owners are shareholders. They aren't tenants!

If you read this you may wonder "Is this association failing?" Absolutely not. But I can't speak to the condition of other HOAs in the country. There is a checklist to review, and the board of BLMH does review it. Adequate reserves is simply one piece of the financial problem.

So the board is charged, as fiduciaries, to look at taking actions with the best interests of the association in mind for this year and for 30 years into the future.

That's a challenge. It might be impossible for any individual who doesn't think beyond the next paycheck, or next year to apply a mindset different than the one they use in their personal life. Here's a question. How would a board operate if they were each either delinquent or in foreclosure? That is not a rhetorical question but it is a serious one. It's also why there are conventions that restrict board members with personal issues or financial incentives from being involved in certain discussions and votes. I think it's also why it is best to have professional managers involved in the operations of HOAs. There is a need for checks and balances!

That's an extreme question but how many of us have a real, long term financial plan? A plan that predicts what our financial condition will be in 30 years, with inflation, financial setbacks and so on. Not a "rose tinted" plan that expects 10% on our savings accounts, 1% inflation, no recessions and 10% annual wage increases or 5% annual social security COLA increases "forever." I'm talking about a plan grounded in reality and reviewed by experts. A plan that adjusts spending and saving to accomplish that goal 30 years distant. That's what a board is expected to do, with the assistance of management and other professionals.

While doing this, the board comes to a conclusion about this year's finances, and plans in detail for the next 5 years and also come up with a really long term 30 year plan. When owners want to run an association as a popularity contest what do you think happens to those 5-year and 30 year plans? I suggest they get dumped and the emphasis becomes "What are you going to do for ME today!"  That is not to be a part of any serious or credible discussion about "Why." But then, owners are voters and we may vote for good things today with the expectation that "someday" someone else will deal with the problems, or "we'll worry about that in 5 years."

Individual owners can ask "Why did I buy here." They can ask "Why do I have to pay a monthly fee." They may also ask "Why are the fees what they are?" They should also ask "Why am I here and what kind of a difference will I make while I am here?"

The board takes a different perspective. That includes less of the "Me" and  "My unit" and more of the "How." Yes, an HOA board should ask "Why are we doing these things?" The board can look at the documents previously mentioned and discuss with management the "Why." It is in part due to precedent.

For example, "Why will we allocate funds this year to maintain the property?" It's not simply because the tress, shrubs and so on are there. It's because they have been there for 35 years. Every owner who purchased here drove on our streets, saw the trees, the landscaping, the streams, ponds and waterfalls.  They do so each and every day. They purchased with that as an expectation of what is "normal" here at BLMH. Some still talk about our "award winning" grounds. The board is not here to achieve awards, and that is not a consideration in the day to day operations or how we spend money month in and month out.

The board is here to maintain that "normalcy" that we've come to expect and that some demand.

That's an example of precedent. I think owners do expect the board to take reasonable steps to maintain that "normalcy." Using our landscaping and grounds as an example, that means collecting the necessary fees, saving some for unexpected issues (removal of a dying tree, storm damage, or a water main break, etc.) and then spending sufficiently to maintain the grounds. I can also say it means doing so in an orderly fashion to avoid decay or damage and sudden changes in funding (fees) and spending.  We all want "smooth and steady" and prefer to avoid fits and starts, sudden stops or changes in direction.

The Plan - A Combination of How and What
Once that we are clear about "Why" we are doing things, then the next step is to develop a plan. At BLMH this does not occur in a single step, or in one month. It begins with the annual election here at BLMH. Owners step forward and say "I'm willing to be of service to your association." The unit owners each vote, or not, and ultimately a handful of owners are selected for the board of directors. They are the "lucky" ones who get to deal with the problems.

The board term at BLMH begins with a budget workshop under the guidance of professional management. Consider that for a new board member, this is really a challenge. It doesn't matter how smart one is. There is a lot of information behind the worksheets. We can put the annual budget of this association on two pages. Behind those two pages are thousands of work orders, myriad projects, and the accumulated history and condition of this association of 35 years. And yet, we summarize it in on a couple of pages. I defy anyone to walk in and say "This is simple." But, some have!

The budget workshop builds upon previous budgets and plans. It sets in place a short term plan with a long term component. That plan includes "What" will be done, "How" it will be accomplished and "How" it will be paid for. A good board will also review the reserve study, update it with current information and compare the current reserve funding level to the plan. That should deal with longer term financial issues. With this plan, decisions are made about collecting and spending money for the coming year. It's a challenge, because it's also a goal to keep things steady and that means avoid large fee increases, both today and in the future. If this doesn't appear achievable, the board has the option of adjusting project time lines and running the numbers again to review the impact on fees. But it would be irresponsible to hold fees constant today and plan on large increases "in a few years." It would also be irresponsible not to do sufficient planning. Ignorance might be an acceptable excuse for individual owners (I don't think it is). However, a board is required to look at both the short and long term consequences of its actions. If there are serious financial problems on the horizon, should a board announce them? Why not?

Planning and budgeting has become more difficult and complicated. A few years ago, no one thought about delinquencies or foreclosures. Bankruptcies were few and far between. We didn't know what a "deed in lieu" was, or the legal details of "forcible entry and detainer judgments." We didn't think about such things as "bad debt" and the consequences to association finances. The recession of 2007 ended that. In 2008 some associations tightened up while others partied. Today the parties are but memories.

These annual plans are discussed openly during association meetings at BLMH, are published in the newsletters, and proposed annual budgets are subject to discussion and are mailed to owners. There is an opportunity for owner comment and for the board to reconsider. With the aftereffects of the economy of 2008 and current realities, there remain difficult decisions to be made. Your unit, the infrastructure and the HOAs are not getting younger. It doesn't really matter if one lives in a private residence or a condominium. The building, grounds, driveways, roofs and so on are all aging. Ditto for the furnace, air conditioner, hot water heater and other appliances in your residence. With that aging comes maintenance requirements and decisions about how to allocate funds.

Here at BLMH, we have also completed several reserve studies. These look at both short and  long term issues. A total of three were prepared; two professionally prepared studies looked at each year for the next 30 years. The professionals surveyed the grounds and infrastructure. They looked into details of the budget, interviewed management and the board, and made specific recommendations. Those recommendations included identifying those areas for which money should be collected, saved and spent in a gradual manner to maintain the "normalcy" here at BLMH.

A middle study was completed by a board member (me) and was the subject of a lengthy report to the board and to the management in 2010. That study was prepared after the first professional study and was included in a meeting several years ago. It propelled the board to seek that third professionally prepared study.

The reserve study is an integral and very important part of the "plan of action" for this association.

The board has also made a commitment to take steps to avoid special assessments. One year cannot achieve that. Any board that looks at the  bank balances and this year's bills as the basis of making budgeting and fee level decisions is making a serious mistake.  Boards must think at least 20 years into the future if the pitfalls of short term planning are to be avoided.

The How, or "The Process"
Once a plan is arrived at, the question then becomes "How to achieve that plan?"  That's what some call "the process." It's the many steps, both small and large, and the discussions that led to those decisions, over years.

Let me state that these are not "cast in stone." They are a work in progress, and they are made one at a time, with future goals and present reality all a part of the evaluation.

Any possible plan which is made with integrity is based upon the goal, but there are a lot of circumstances that can interfere with that plan. There are a lot of decisions to be made, each and every month. In a large HOA with reserves we do have options.

Each month, the manager provides the board with a packet. That packet is usually somewhere between 65 and 100 pages in length. That packet asks the question "How?" and each month the board makes decisions to decide "What" we will do to achieve the plan.

That plan includes maintaining goals with the fees we are collecting. That's another way of saying that stability is a goal. And yet, the board has to decide how to do so with things that occur outside the plan and with delinquencies, foreclosures while avoiding special assessments and unusual fee increases!

This happens one month at a time, and one step at a time and year after year.

For example, we do know that we want to complete the roofing and driveway projects in a timely manner. That means avoid the inconvenience of a failed roof for our owners. We do know we can anticipate about 18-20 years of leak free living. But in the past, some roofs have failed in 12 years, and others are apparently going strong at 20!

It could be concluded that generalities are fine for developing a general plan of action. But for specifics, and using this example, any roof that has an "active leak" or other serious problems and has been determined to be near the end of its useful life should be considered a candidate for replacement in the current year. That means that the current plan to replace 6 roofs each year is a tentative one. Yes, we might have to replace more than 6 roofs in any one year. On the other hand, to maintain steady fees, that might not be possible.

Somehow, the board has to navigate the conflicting demands of owners who want dry units and also want fees "to be as low as possible." And, just to make things interesting, let's throw in a few delinquencies and a few foreclosures for good measure!

The Product
Eventually, decisions about the future and current reality coalesce into the present situation. Some call this the "product." What you see when you walk outside your unit and even the roof over your head, is directly the consequence of the planning of the boards in your association. That current reality is "the product."

That product is a result of asking "why" and coming up with a plan which includes the "how" and "what."

In our association, that "product" is not only a result of current planning, but also a consequence of plans made 5, 10 and even 20 years ago.  We most certainly didn't get here because of the decisions of 2012. This association, the "product" is the culmination of the work by the builder and that includes the selection of materials as well as the actual construction techniques used. It is also a result of the age of the property, the maintenance accomplished over decades and the amount of money saved over that period and spent on the property. If you don't save for it, you certainly can't spend it as an association because BLMH for example, doesn't have a wallet full of credit cards. A very few owners have said "No problem, the association can get a mortgage or a loan." Yes it possibly could, and each owner will be responsible for the repayment of their share of that mortgage. That will be due in full at such time as they decide to sell their unit. Does the expression "Mortgaging one's future" sound desirable to you?

I've been told that a couple of decades ago, there were owners complaining "our fees are too high." I definitely know there were more than a few who said this in 2001 and as recently as 2008. It is also true that a couple of decades ago, we didn't have much of a reserve funding program. Are these two things related and was the status of reserves the consequence of owner position and board compliance? Today we do have the advantage of hindsight and the knowledge gained running this association for 35 years. That's also a part of the product.

The good news is this established association is pretty aware of the problems it faces, both internally and externally. The bad news is it took 35 years to get to this particular place in association history. As some would like to say "If I only knew then what I know now!"  But human beings being human beings, we probably would have ignored the sages among us and gone for the "rosy projections."

There was a time when there wasn't a lot of knowledge about the specifics of the reserves. Conveniently, most owners did not ask the difficult questions such as "How much money will it take to replace our roofs, when will that occur and are we saving enough each year to do that?" Likewise, most didn't ask the hard questions about driveways, streets and so on.

I suspect it was probably because they didn't want the "bad news." Some probably  thought "I'll sell in 5-10 years, so why should I care?"

So today, we are where we are.  Our boards do have the knowledge gained in the last 35 years, and they are required as fiduciaries to use it. We also have some additional things to deal with, such as delinquencies and foreclosures. 10 years ago, those were not a problem. Today they are a way of life and common everywhere.

Some owners would like to believe that guiding a large association is like driving an automobile. One simply has to respond to traffic and steer, brake and use the gas pedal. What they fail to understand is that while they are in their automobile, those decisions are made because of roads built by someone else, and an automobile built by someone else. The concern of the driver is only the condition of their automobile. "If I step on the brake pedal, will this automobile stop and if I step on the gas, is there fuel in the tank?"

In fact, in a large association such as ours, we are building the roads. We are, figuratively speaking, installing and maintaining the traffic lights. We deal with the snow plowing and even the condition of the streets.

Many owners don't even think about that.

From a Personal Perspective
I'd suggest most owners in an HOA consider "why" they live there. Why did they make that decision to purchase? If one truly hates where they live, then they should consider moving on. Of course, it is entirely possible that the "grass is not greener over the hill." My experience is that there are no easy answers to difficult questions. There are no quick solutions. There really is no better place "over there." I say that because in my profession I've traveled extensively and spent time in most parts of this country from California to Wyoming to New Mexico to Louisiana to New York and Florida and lots of points in between. I've lived in some places for weeks and others for a year. I'm of the opinion that there are compromises to be made everywhere.

I know exactly why I purchased at BLMH and I'm still here. As I told an owner recently "If I really didn't like it here I would move." There is nothing that forces any of us to live where we are. We may decide we're comfortable where we are, or we might move if someone offered me a specific price for my home or unit. That's my point. If I can say "I would move if I could get $xxx for my unit" then I am acknowledging that being where I am is my decision. I could just as easily decide to move on. I could also simply decide that "This is it" and stop complaining.

I also suggest that owners have a personal financial plan. That plan should be anchored in financial reality. Such reality includes "What is long term inflation?" "Can my budget support cost increases due to inflation, and that includes energy, other utilities, and fees?" "Do I have a realistic financial retirement plan?" "Do I have a plan to deal with unexpected financial expenses?" "Do I have an emergency fund?" "Is my budget sustainable?' and so on.

Of course, the final question is "Does my personal financial plan take into account probable long term financial consequences?"  From my experience, too many people fail to consider that they might be living on this planet for 95 years. If so, can I afford to retire at 62 or even 65? If I should be so lucky as to live for 30 or more years in retirement, will my financial plan deal with it? Can I also deal with financial setbacks and financial surprises?

(C) 2013