Free calculator · For HOA boards
What does our management company really cost, and what would self-managing cost instead?
A 120-home community pays its management company $15 per home a month and $2,400 a year in other charges. Self-managed, it would pay $9 a month for software and $1,500 a year for outside help.
The management company costs $24,000 a year and self-managing $1,608, a difference of $22,392 a year, or $186.60 per home. Over five years, with costs rising 3% a year, that is $118,882.
The management side is your fee, per home or flat, for twelve months, plus what else the company bills in a year: meeting attendance, collection letters and other “additional services”. Postage, printing and legal bills passed through at cost go on the self-managed side too, because the community pays them either way.
The self-managed side is a year of software, the outside help a self-managed board still buys (a CPA, an attorney), and, only if you choose to count it, the value of the extra volunteer time.
The difference is shown per year, per home, and over five years with both sides rising at the rate you set.
Every number is one you type. There are no averages in this calculator.
It depends on your contract: some charge per home each month, some a flat monthly fee, and most bill extra services on top. Your contract and the last twelve invoices give the real number, which is what this calculator asks for.
In cash, usually, because the management fee is replaced by software and occasional outside help. It moves work to the board, which is why the calculator lets you count volunteer time if you want to.
Most still buy a CPA for the tax return or a yearly review, legal advice when it is needed, and insurance. Put what you would buy in the outside-help box.
In the fee schedule of the contract and on the invoices: look for lines billed “as needed” or as “additional services”. Add a year of them.
Rebel HOA is $9 a month for the whole community, any size. A person on the board approves everything it prepares.