Tips for Making Homeowners Feel Included in HOA Decisions

Do the homeowners in your community feel included?  Creating a strong sense of community is probably the most essential part of running an HOA. It takes a multitude of people, duties, and time to make a community feel connected. If the focus isn’t centered around building a community, it becomes easier for homeowners, boards, and managers to feel disconnected. This cold fact is perhaps one of the biggest reasons why so many people across the country butt heads with their HOA. 

It’s challenging to support decisions made by board members or managers if you had no say in the decision. Issues such as these create distrust within a community and inevitably turn many people away. Making sure everyone in the community is heard and kept in the loop raises morale and boosts satisfaction at every level. Throughout this article, we discuss a few helpful tips to help you build and maintain a sense of community.

Keeping the community in the loop

An HOA is usually a bit of a melting pot. From retired couples to young parents, various types of people share the same space. Keeping so many people from different walks of life updated in an HOA can sometimes be a daunting task. A lot goes into keeping people informed, from gathering info to ensuring the same message is shared with everyone in the community can be time-consuming.

Community software such as TownSq can allow for simultaneous communication with everyone in the community.  This type of software allows for direct communication through messages and announcements.  When an HOA utilizes software like TownSq, everyone knows that is the place to find information about the community. This eliminates the need for boards and managers to rely on email, phone calls, or direct mail. It’s all in one convenient location on a mobile device or computer.

HOA software gives everyone the opportunity to be entirely in sync with the other community members, which will lead to a stronger sense of community within the HOA.

Utilizing a digital voting system

Another simple way to build a sense of community is using a digital voting solution. This creates a collaborative environment for homeowners, board members, and managers to decide on various important topics from anywhere.

With digital voting, members now have a say in how the community is run and thus feel more connected to the community. Often in an HOA, there is a disconnect between those making rules and the members who ultimately chose to live within the community's guidelines. By allowing your community to participate in online voting, they will feel included and also heard.

In-person events

Creating events for members to meet in a more casual setting is an easy way to bring people closer together.  Arranging hubs and social groups that meet regularly could also be an excellent way to bring the community closer and create an environment where people of many different backgrounds feel safe and comfortable.

Advanced communication

Ensuring that your community is notified promptly for important meetings or community decisions is another way to increase community involvement.  When you schedule an HOA meeting, for example, send out an announcement in advance and a reminder before the event.  With advanced notification to homeowners, you allow them time to get the meeting on their schedule.  HOA software can simplify these types of tasks.  With TownSq, you can create an announcement or event with critical information that can be sent out to all from an app.

Community Polls

Another great way to make residents feel included is by conducting polls.  Ask the community's input regarding what days work best for meetings or fun community decisions (like when to host the annual picnic).  Polls may feel insignificant but can go a long way to increasing engagement and allowing residents to feel included.  Polls are also less formal and a good first step to get the pulse of the community.

Create a committee

Creating a committee of homeowners that represents the community's voice is an excellent way to read how the community is feeling.  These selected members can bring important topics or concerns to the leaders.  Having a direct channel to understand homeowners will allow community members to feel heard and increase morale within the community.

Creating a sense of community and building a rapport between homeowners, boards, and managers when making decisions is increasingly important as time goes on. When HOA’s use community software, the entire HOA comes together and feels included in their community. If you are interested in seeing how TownSq accomplishes these feats for communities everywhere, book a demo with us below.

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