HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - June 18, 2021
Published: Fri, 06/18/21
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Reader Shares His HOA's Positive Results with Online Payments
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We love hearing good news from our readers.
In this week's tip, we discuss a reader's response to one of our recent articles, Condos/HOAs: Can You Require ACH Payments? Payments to Personal Accounts? (You Didn't Misread That), in which he explains how his HOA has improved on-time payments with an online payment system.
"We had many homeowners request some form of online payment for our semi-annual dues," reports our reader, Michael Thompson, who's been president of the 22-unit gated Cornerstone Homeowners Association in Maple Valley, Wash., for six years.
"I looked into Paypal, but that's a 2.5 percent cost that someone has to pay. We use TeamSnap as an app for managing our HOA, and they want 3.5 percent.
"Turns out that Bank of America will allow us to use Zelle for deposits into our HOA account," he adds. "There's a requirement for an email address. As president of the HOA, I gave them mine. For the first time, we had 100 percent paid on time this year!!!!! Yeah."
We got in touch with Thompson to hear more. He reports that Cornerstone HOA's dues are semi-annual, and they were just raised to $750, totaling $1,500 annually.
"Some of our owners had brought it up," he says, referring to their interest in making online payments. "I'd looked into it a couple of years ago when I just took over, but it wasn't an option. I didn't want to lose the money the online payment systems would charge.
"We could have gotten one of those little Square devices you can plug into your phone," he adds. "I'm also the president of the high school booster club, and we have an auction and dinner dance. We can use the Square device to swipe people's credit card for payment. I think Square changes 1 percent, and you instantly get a notice on your phone telling you the charge went through.
"But I also send my kids money through Zelle," recalls Thompson. "So I called BofA, where our HOA has its checking and reserve accounts, to ask if we could do this for our HOA. They said no problem."
Read about the mechanics of setup, and the results, in our new article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/members/4339.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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The Pros and Cons of Using Today's Tech for Condo/HOA Operations
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Click here for info:
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Can You Pay Back an HOA Loan Out of Reserves?
An HOAleader.com reader asks: "Can an HOA that has a bank loan for reserve expenses repay the principal from the reserve account and interest from the operating account? Or do both principal and interest have to be paid from the reserve account?"
Click here to read full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/members/Can-You-Pay-Back-HOA-Loan-Out-Reserves.cfm
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