CAI-NE Annual Condo Conference & Expo
October 2011
The annual CAI-NE and Condo Media Condo conference and expo will deliver a full day of FREE seminars and vendor show with indusrry business partners who can address all you condo questions and needs.

FHA Approval Process Not the Nightmare
By: Nena Groskind
July 2011
When the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) adopted new standards for condominium loans, many industry executives predicted major headaches, at best, and chaos, at worst, as community associations sought to obtain or renew the certifications required to make units in their communities eligible for FHA financing. For the most part, those fears have not been realized.

Fuel Economy - Community Associations Feel the Pinch as Gas Costs Continue to Rise
By: Nena Groskind
June 2011
Filling an automobile gas tank today is an out of body experience; the dollar figures scrolling wildly across the purchase column seem totally disconnected from the amount of gasoline that is flowing much more slowly into the car. Unless you don¡¦t have a car, or don¡¦t drive it, the rising cost of gasoline has been hard to ignore. In mid-April, when this article was filed, the national average was around $3.76 per gallon and the Department of Energy was predicting that prices were more likely to rise above $4.00 than to fall below $3.00 by year-end. But it isn¡¦t just the cost of operating a car that has been rising as crude oil has blazed past the $100/barrel mark. The cost of petroleum-based products ¡V and there are a lot of them ¡V has been rising as well, and so has the cost of anything that has to be transported from one place to another. Food, clothing, fertilizer, building supplies, cleaning products and everything in between are costing more than they did a few months ago, and community associations are feeling the impact, as those rising costs squeeze already tight budgets even more.

Smooth or Bumpy - Transition from Developer to Owner
By: Nena Groskind
May 2011
A new condominium development charts many milestones: The approval of the construction plans, the ground-breaking, the sale (or pre-sale) of the first units, among them. But the life of a new condominium community arguably begins at transition, when the developer transfers control to the owners. Some of these transitions are seamless. The developer leaves, the board elected by owners takes over, and they all live happily ever after. And then, there are the not –so-smooth transitions  the ones that bring surprises (most of them unwelcome) for owners, along with a raft of challenges and headaches they didn’t anticipate.

Reward vs. Risk - Internet Makes Associations More Efficient and Increases Risk
By: Nena Groskind
April 2011
Community associations haven’t been among the first (or second or third) to embrace new Web-related technologies, but slowly and with varying degrees of enthusiasm, they have been joining the Internet parade. Many, if not most, associations now have their own Web sites; even the smallest communities are communicating regularly via e-mail; a growing number allow owners to make payments on-line; some sponsor on-line chat rooms and a few are venturing into the social media realm, creating Facebook pages and opening Twitter accounts.