Client Location: Michigan
Number of Buildings: 3
Number of Units: 281
Year(s) Built: Late 1990’s, Early 2000’s
First Reserve Study with Building Reserves: 2013
Number of Reserve Study Updates with Building Reserves: 3
Service Level(s) Received: Level I, Level II
This HOA had worked with Building Reserves for three reserve studies prior to their 2024 update with site inspection. Given their high component count, they had to prioritize their projects and determine what they needed to plan for more immediately, without losing sight of their long-term funding needs.
Their engineer discussed their reserve components individually before inspection, to better understand how the board plans to address maintenance and replacement scheduling. Each component required careful consideration and this board kept detailed notes on the maintenance completed on each of their reserve components. With a combination of the age, useful life, impact on safety and security, how desirable a component was, and the condition of the component found in the inspection, every component got our proprietary Building Reserves Priority Score and Priority Rating.
Once the report was completed, the board had an opportunity to review our recommendations for each component and review two key areas of the report that were going to be particularly useful to them: the priority rating and scoring pages, and the Cashflow Years 0-5 pages. With the 0-5 year cashflow, they are able to see what near-term projects we recommend they budget for. They can start to request bids far ahead of the work that they need done, because they have a guide to the major projects that they need completed. On the priority pages, they get to see what items may fall into medium or low priority and determine if they need to move those projects out a year or two to make room to move some of the higher priority projects forward.
We offer support for our reports once they are complete, and the engineer on this project had an opportunity to review and discuss the report with the board after it was complete. This is a critical component of communicating not only the value of different aspects of the report, but also changes to the report in the time that they have worked with us.
After they had time to fully review the report, they came back to their engineer with a few adjustments that they wanted to make: considering additional upcoming projects, earlier replacement of some of some aesthetic projects, and adjusting the funding recommendations accordingly. This is common practice and ensured that this client was not left with a report that felt unfinished.
Lengthy reports can be cumbersome, but with distinct report sections and clear and concise information for each component, our report served this client to address their most immediate concerns. Key sections of the report narrowed the focus of what is really needed on the property and helped the board make actionable decisions. We had the opportunity to tailor the report to the specific priorities of the association and, ultimately, deliver a foundational strategic document that will serve them until their next reserve study update.
Managing a long list of capital projects? Let us help you prioritize. Schedule your reserve study consultation with Building Reserves today.
