Texas HOAs and Community Associations

Most Americans may not be aware of how much growth is ocurring in the great state of Texas.

The Texas economy is improving, diversifying, and attracting more people move to TX to work and live.

And this is happening as cities cut back on services due to civic debt, inability to service, and rising costs. Affluent Texas is not immune to these problems. Texas housing developers and community leaders look to launch a homeowners associations to protect their communities, assets and residents and enhance community lifestyles.

More Associations Forming

Texas already ranks 3rd for most homeowners associations in the nation, about 44% vs associations in California and Florida. With the migration out of California and other high tax states, Texas could see more new HOAs forming than anywhere else in the years ahead. Chart courtesy of CAIonline.org.

Texas Property Owner Associations

Texas refers to HOAs as property owners associations or POAs. POAs are organizations often created by real estate developers to  protect the character, quality and value of a particular neighborhood, community or shared building. There is no state governing body for associations, however the Texas Property Code and the Texas Residential Property Owners Protection Act are the legislative rules for association boards and managers to observe. 

If you're buying a home in Texas, your deed will indicate whether you're within a POA and have the name of the association in it.

The state offers a catalog of association managers and their licenses on Texas Real Estate Commission Website.  

Developers of new housing communities must have management teams to operate them including boards to communicate and enforce the community bylaws, keeping the community safe, and protecting the value of homes and community property. Local governments don't have this same focus.
You can read more about them at the Texas.gov  website, and at the Texas.public.law website .

You can find more details about Texas POA operations, POA Law, documentation, and other helpful information at Patent Title law offices.

Association management companies need training, certification and licensing. A POA must obtain and file a management certificate which provides transparency to homeowners and the public about the association.

If you are a residential developer or are considering creating a new property owners association for your community, you should hire a Texas lawyer to guide you on setting it up legally. The law and compliance are big issues in association management today due to handling finances, physical risks, liabilities, and in meeting Texas's own corporate regulations.  Read more on that at the Murray Lobb Attorney's Website. 

Why all the Interest in Forming HOAs in Texas? 

The growth might be fueled by new housing communities being built in booming cities such as Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, and Houston. And Texans want great communities to live in.  Traditional developers build basic communities where local governments provide basic community services such as utilities, street cleaning, trash removal and policing.

From there on, property owners associations must deliver the extra services to bring community life up to the standards modern Texan's expect.

What Texan homeowners want from their POA is:

• responsible, cost efficient management
• strong financial management skills to keep homeowner dues down and prevent losses
• strong community planning skills to avoid unexpected assessments
• development and management of valuable community amenities
• enforcement of bylaws to control negative, dangerous or damaging behavior
• transparency and good communications in meetings and activities 

Expectations go much further than this of course.

What to Look for in Your POA Management Firm?

After you create your HOA board of directors, you may look to hire a management firm to handle the day to day management.

Here are a few tips:

1. Research the company's services, skills, experience and talent, particularly the licensing and experience of the lead manager. Their website should be transparent about their service offer, who they are, and what their promise is to you.
2. Verify their license, and understand what Texas POA licenses ensure, so you know your liabilities and their responsibilities. Ascertain their staff and service capabilities.  Do they offer the maintenance, bylaw enforcement and violation tracking you'll need?
3. Ensure they have a complete, dedicated community association platform dedicated to HOA business. Their software choice says everything about their professionalism.  Integrated systems prevent a lot of monkey business with the books, transaction safety, friction from trying to make legacy software work, and to give you complete transparency about your expenses and how they're conducting their work. Their software is a huge value add for you.
4. Review and question their local real estate market knowledge, equipment/building/amenities maintenance knowledge, and normal Texas POA bylaws so they can advise you on legal, expense, and risk assessment.
5. Ask to review their communications procedures and how transparent they have been and promise they will be. Review all areas where fraud and secrecy might occur. Ask about their board and resident communication challenges.  Review their digital communications tools since much is being done via mobile devices and online platforms.
6. Ask for client references and visit their past or current clients to gauge how successful they were and what issues had to be overcome, and which were never overcome.

Lacking all the above, the company may not live up to expectations and could represent significant financial risk.

Find out more about launching an HOA or POA in Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina or South Carolina.

Comprehensive Management Systems Remove the Friction and Increase Resident Satisfaction

This is why a powerful property owner association management software platform is vital.

A platform provides every management function you'll need from HOA/POA dedicated accounting to maintenance management. You might also enjoy extra features such as online dues payments, meeting voting and polling, violation management, secure document storage and sharing, and a complete management dashboard.

ManageCasa™ as an example, simplifies and streamlines management, and you'll find out why that's so important.

The fact is, setting up your property owner association software and website is complicated. You'll be glad to choose ManageCasa™ and have the support of our CSR's and training services.

The best point about using ManageCasa™, is that we're not distracted with thousands of customers. We can provide much better support and assistance to you.

Chat with our sales team now at 415 800 1245 to discuss your needs and challenges. We're here to help.