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Ask Slashdot: Software To Visualize, Manage Homeowner's Association Projects?
New submitter jishak writes: I am a long time Slashdot reader who has been serving on an homeowner association (HOA) board for 7 years. Much of the job requires managing projects that happen around the community. For example, landscaping, plumbing, building maintenance, etc. Pretty much all the vendors work with paper or a management company scans the paper, giving us a digital version. I am looking for suggestions on tools to visualize and manage projects using maps/geolocation software to see where jobs are happening and track work, if that makes sense. I did a rudimentary search but didn't really find anything other than a couple of companies who make map software which is good for placing static items like a building on a map but not for ongoing work. There are tools like Visio or Autodesk, which are expensive and good for a single building, but they don't seem so practical for an entire community of 80 units with very little funds (I am a volunteer board member). The other software packages I have seen are more like general project management or CRM tools but they are of no use to track where trees are planted, which units have had termite inspections, etc.
I am looking for tools where I could see a map and add custom layers for different projects that can be enabled/disabled or show historical changes. If it is web based and can be shared for use among other board members, property managers, and vendors, or viewable on a phone or tablet, that would be a plus. I am not sure how to proceed and a quick search on Slashdot didn't really turn anything up. I can't be the first person to encounter this type of problem. Readers of Slashdot what do you recommend? If I go down the road of having to roll my own solution, can you offer ideas on how to implement it? I am open to suggestions.
I am looking for tools where I could see a map and add custom layers for different projects that can be enabled/disabled or show historical changes. If it is web based and can be shared for use among other board members, property managers, and vendors, or viewable on a phone or tablet, that would be a plus. I am not sure how to proceed and a quick search on Slashdot didn't really turn anything up. I can't be the first person to encounter this type of problem. Readers of Slashdot what do you recommend? If I go down the road of having to roll my own solution, can you offer ideas on how to implement it? I am open to suggestions.
https://www.mapbox.com/
Not exactly proect management oriented, but could be an easy bolt on to Trello or your project management tool of choice
"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on." - Sir Winston Churchill
You know that's not legal, right? The FCC has rules against restricting the erection of antenna on your property:
https://www.groundedreason.com...
Reduce the HOA powers as quickly as feasible, reduce the HOA activities to the bare minimum required to maintain common areas.
I was in an HOA neighborhood for 10 years, the first 7 were cool - the last 3 were a living hell as busybodies took over the board and started spending the dues on enforcement activities that generated fines to pay for pet projects. I've been gone for 5 years now and I understand that the place is still bouncing in and out of HOA hell: calling in the sheriff to oversee vote counts, etc. And, all the while, only about 30% of the neighborhood even gets involved in the proceedings - they're 90% upset about the results, but can't be bothered to show up at 7pm on a Tuesday to try to straighten out what "will of the majority" actually means.
Try QGIS ( https://qgis.org/en/site/ )
Radio Amateurs don't have the same legal protection. Yet. But given that television antennas are protected, discriminating by the sort of content carried is a legally problematical stance.
Bruce Perens.
We have the usual annual reports with lots of tables of numbers. I'd like to create graphs or pie charts to put into perspective costs of various things. Better illustrate the money pits of real vs imaginary. Some claim we can save lots of money with energy efficient lights but is it really the water costs. Letting the landscape turn to dirt will save water bill but letting value of property decrease not such a good thing. How much can be saved by reduce watering lawns? Maybe not that much. Probably most important is to locate units with dripping faucets or leaky toilet flaps that continually waste water. Yes, I know we all should know how to read financials but I think most cannot (look at most people's spending habits, and majority of companies and govt agencies).
Important vs urgent: Putting off lots of miscellaneous repairs that many seem urgent but maybe not important. Better to put money into something important like a new roof to replace 30 year old roof instead constantly chasing water leaks every time it rains.
Seems to me software is easy, it is the decisions like people complain about security and vandalism but not willing to pay special assessment or significantly raise monthly dues to pay for gated access and security guards.
mfwright@batnet.com
I'm one of those other people, and it sounds pretty bad.
I didn't think plants on stairs was a common thing, but I've lived in an apartment building where a tenant thought it was absolutely necessary to "liven up the place". I figured it was fine to add a personal touch in one's living area. Just one small potted flower at the top of the stairs, then one at the bottom, then a few more... then my grandmother came to visit, and couldn't get up the stairs to my apartment.
My opinion has changed. It's not fine. Keep your stuff in your space, or at least make absolutely sure it's not going to interfere with anybody else in any way. Perhaps there could be some kind of group to represent the other people living in the same area... some kind of Dwellers' League, or maybe an Association of Inhabitants?
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
Speaking as an HOA board member who tries not to suck, I think there are several common motivations for someone to join an HOA board. From best to worst:
1. To help solve problems and keep your building/neighborhood from turning into a dysfunctional shithole.
2. To attend meetings and socialize, and feel at least somewhat important/relevant to your community.
3. To revel in the awesome power of forcing your neighbors to do follow your command, and hassling them if they don't obey.
If you drive out the type-1 people, or if you are a type-1 person and don't join your HOA board or attend HOA meetings (because HOA's suck!) then you leave the HOA's voting positions open for the other types of people to fill. At best you'll get a bunch of 2's and the HOA will become a social club (possibly entertaining but mostly useless); at worst, enough 3's will show up to make everyone's life miserable.
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
While their offerings look like they are an enterprise company, I will for sure take a look at their ArcGIS Apps Community. Maybe they have a partner who is consumer focused. Thanks for the response.
So you will probably want a database and you also mentioned requirements suited to a GIS. I would set up PostGIS. PostGIS is Postgresql with an add-on for assisting in the storage of geographic elements. And it's all open source! GIS used to be a messy prospect with lots of files in different formats in lots of directories. Now that PostGIS has arrived, you can store all of your data in the database. This is nice because you have the power of a relational database to manage what you can view. You can do queries that result in Maps. Others have mentioned QGIS. QGIS plays nicely with PostGIS. You can start with the database, add in QGIS and later if you need to create a website you can add on open source Leaflet which lets you create interactive maps using JavaScript.
That was the turning point of my life--I went from negative zero to positive zero.
Jeremi
You are absolutely right. I showed up at a board meeting in 2011 to complain about the grass behind my unit dying. The board at the time appointed me their treasurer and empowered me to do something about it. People love to complain about the job their board does but they never want to do it themselves. I have been re-elected or re-appointed every year because once people discover what has to be done, they just abruptly quit. I don't even bother campaigning other then sending the required candidate statement. I have only lost in one year. That year the entire board was all newcomers. They quickly landed themselves in hot water and after people quit they came back and asked me to rejoin the board. I didn't boast or give anyone a hard time. I just showed up, did my job and taught my fellow board members the things they don't know. I enjoyed the time off while I was gone and look forward to the day when there is a full board of people who want to serve that I am no longer needed. The best piece of advice I can give to anyone is this:
Most people just want to be heard and understood. A little bit of empathy goes a long way to solving most problems.
If you don't like the job we do, feel free to join the board and do it better. If you won't volunteer or provide constructive feedback, we can't help you.
There's lots of those, here's one open source example.
http://www.openmaint.org/en
I spent years living in an HOA and now, thankfully, am free of their clutches.
My observations:
1) In theory they have benefits - keep the common areas clean, no rusty cars on the front lawn, etc. In practice, the HOA's are just a pain in the ass.
2) When you buy a home in an HOA community you think you "own" the home - but you don't. You sign over the right to have the HOA levy fines and sanctions against you if you fail to follow one of their many rules and regulations. If you choose to challenge the ruling you have to take them to court, at your expense. The HOA court fees will be paid for from HOA dues.
3) You give them the right to tell you what kind of trees you can plant, what color you can paint your house, what you can keep in your driveway and in some cases what you store in your backyard.
4) Unlike mortgage interest, HOA dues are not tax deductable.
5) Unlike mortgage interest, HOA dues never go down. They always go up.
6) If someone lodges a complain against you the HOA will not tell you who made the complaint. This immediately pits you against everyone that lives there. Any one of them could have made the anonymous call.
Oh - just go with MS Project :-)
I'm a developer that's worked with HOA management for a decade. I've developed an HOA-specific web CRM (MySQL/MariaDB based) that can help with what you need (extractable data available in various formats through web portals that you can put into Excel or any of the GIS tools mentioned by other posters - Excel is my recommendation). There are also many commercial packages for HOA management (TOPS, AV, Yardee, Caliber come to mind) that can help with project tracking, but they tend to lock-in your data (the idea is that you're perpetually stuck using that software and can never get a DB dump), often aren't web based, and are usually too expensive for a single HOA.
But... the problem you'll encounter is that, unless you are willing to spend more money and personally have the discipline to constantly do the work to properly categorize each project (inspection, landscaping, plumbing, roofing, electrical, etc) and each update for each project in the CRM, which is a lot of additional work for you AND your vendors, neither your vendors nor your management company will do it for you. There's no ROI for them, and an 80-unit hands-on board with (self-admittedly) little money is too much hassle for too little return. What do they have to gain from this tracking except for board members trying to tell them how to do their job and hassling them about progress? If you're too much hassle, your vendors will drop you and move onto another community until the hands-on board members move out, are ousted, or quit in desperation and your HOA comes begging for management.
Your job as a board member is not "managing projects that happen around the community" as you say. It is to hire competent vendors and/or a management company that manage these project details and then let them do their job to get to the end result. There's an old adage about the cost of service "if you watch," "if you help," and "if you tell me how to do my job." When vendors bid on a project, most HOAs look for lowest cost, but some ask for the moon - to get the end result you seek (the value of which is dubious imo) you'll need to raise dues and pay your vendor/manager more to spend the extra time interacting with you. Do that first and then worry about which software to use.
1. To help solve problems and keep your building/neighborhood from turning into a dysfunctional shithole.
2. To attend meetings and socialize, and feel at least somewhat important/relevant to your community.
3. To revel in the awesome power of forcing your neighbors to do follow your command, and hassling them if they don't obey.
You forgot the most important:
4. Your HOA has an awesome ability to screw you financially.
2 ways to do this: Enter into bad contracts, and/or don't do the required maintenance so your investment literally rots.
I was president of an 80 unit condo HOA for 8 years. I never had any trouble keeping up with the work being done, it was much easier than keeping up with my project schedule at work..
Tools? Project software (MS Project et al) if you really need to schedule stuff. Libreoffice Draw is a Visio clone that does everything I've asked of it.
Use Quickbooks for accounting and MS Office files loaded with VB scripts for all your custom computing needs. Be sure to browse using IE with Flash Player and JRE installed. Save bandwidth by only running updates monthly. HTH!
>:-)
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
"One meter or less in diameter or is located in Alaska"
You failed to read that thoroughly - that applies to SATELLITE ANTENNAS.
and P2P and a few other things. I've read it in great depth in order to get stupid antenna rules removed from past HOAs I've been in.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.