A reserve study is a long-term capital plan for a property, its infrastructure, and surrounding assets. A reserve study provides an in-depth analysis of a property’s physical condition, as well as an evaluation of the financial health of the property’s reserve funds. A reserve study includes a detailed list of property components that are commonly owned and maintained, including component quantities, ages, conditions, and useful lives. A reserve study will recommend replacement times for each capital asset, dependent upon component conditions and available funding. A long-term funding plan is established to offset the costs of repairing and/or replacing the various property components, and the reserve study will provide recommendations on how to best fund future capital repairs and replacement projects.
A professional reserve study is one of the most proven, cost-effective ways to increase the market value of your property.
Interested in a Reserve Study Proposal?
Interested in a Reserve Study Proposal?
A CAI-designated Reserve Specialist will review the financials of the association. Reserve fund balances and interest rates are evaluated. Current and past annual budgets are reviewed to identify trends and differences in reserve funding.
The association's operating budget is closely evaluated to determine whether specific projects are funded through the operating budget or capital reserve budget. This is extremely important in setting up an accurate reserve study, both to prevent "funding gaps" and to prevent doubly funding projects in both budgets.
Your reserve specialist will accurately define the parties responsible for all capital assets located on your property (association, home-owner, utility company, local municipality, etc.) Association legal documents are reviewed, and past practices and precedents are discussed.
A Responsibility Matrix is provided within your reserve study.
Your reserve specialist will gather information on past and future capital projects. We "dig deep". Beyond identifying replacement times and ages, we inquire about maintenance practices and preventative care. We ask how spaces are utilized and the varying occupant load for each building space in order to assign useful lives that are specific to each component of your property.
We collect vendor information, service contract data, and property inspection reports in order to identify factors that may not be visually apparent during a property inspection. We collect data on past project costs and review specifications for completed projects whenever available.
Construction inflation rates are one of the biggest variables when determining how much an association should budget. All construction inflation rates are location-specific and are based reliable cost indexes.
Interest earned on your invested reserves is another variable that can considerably affect projected budgets. We calculate the actual weighted average of all invested reserves to ensure an accurate, reasonable projection.
Actual Clients Served
A BUILDING RESERVES reserve study is easy for everyone to understand. All recommended replacement times are supported by high quality photographs illustrating the condition of each component.
It is easy for everyone to understand the definition of all components and to understand replacement schedules. Our reports include photographs that clearly describe each component as well the associated replacement cycle... all on one single easy-to-read page.
Reserve studies that include text and numbers that are completely separate from photographs are difficult to understand.
It is important to make sure you have enough money for what truly matters. We create a customized, prioritized funding plan to ensure that you have enough money available when HIGH priority projects come due.
All projected replacement times are based upon actual quality of installation, quality of materials, frequency of use, plus many more complex property-specific variables. Most reserve study providers use standardized useful life charts to determine replacement times.
We base replacement times upon actual observed conditions. This is simply more accurate!
We document and archive high-resolution photographs of your property over time. This allows you to clearly understand AND SEE the rate of deterioration that is specific to your property. We can accurately predict replacement times and remaining useful lives based upon actual documented changes.
All replacement costs are derived from reliable resources. Most of our replacement costs are based on actual capital projects that have been completed at near-by properties similar in scale and scope. We utilize an in-house proprietary database of replacement costs of actual past capital repair and replacement projects. We do not solely use average replacement costs from standardized cost tables. All unit costs are custom tailored to your specific property.
Interested in a Reserve Study Proposal?