The Best Banking for a Homeowners Association

We all love shopping for locally-sourced goods, and I am certainly no exception. As a major “foodie,” you can count on me dunking myself in SPF 50 and heading to the local farmer’s market on the weekends so that I can squeeze different fruits and vegetables to pretend I know what a good firmness is. I will even spend the extra ten bucks to buy local honey from a vendor who wears more scarves than Johnny Depp. Buying local feels good, but there are times that you may want to consider other options. Not everything I own was bought local. You can be certain that I have a phone in my pocket that was shipped to 14 different countries for assembly before I bought it, and half the furniture in my house sounds like it shares a name with a Viking warship (thanks, Ikea!). So when it comes to banking for your Homeowners Association, let me give you a few reasons why choosing a national expert, like Union Bank, is the best choice for your association. 

1) Not all banks specialize in Homeowners Associations: I know this may come as a shock to some people, but not all banks are the same, and Community Association Banking is incredibly complex. RealManage partners with a bank that is highly specialized in HOA’s and has systems in place to ensure that all payment applications and rules from your association apply to every single payment. Also, no other management company puts the community declarations into the banking configurations like we do. Why is this important? It means that each payment is entered flawlessly so that the association does not have to worry about little mistakes that the smaller banks frequently make.

2) A bank that specializes in homeowners associations knows how to handle user error: This is a bit of industry jargon, but when someone mails their assessment check without a coupon or any other type of information, it is called a “No Doc.”  With smaller banks and other management companies, the bank has to get in touch with management to find out who the check belongs to, creating a bunch of additional work while slowing down the process. If you are a RealManage client, you can breathe easy knowing that we have all of the lots/units loaded into the system ahead of time; which allows for an entirely automated process and eliminates the problems that a “no doc” creates. I have an extensive portfolio of communities, and I can tell you that people send in their checks with no documentation all the time, and we are the only management company that has a no doc system in place to make sure this does not affect your association.

3) We have exclusive software with a bank that specializes in HOA’s; which allows for faster, more reliable service: We have written code so that our software is directly on the bank's  computers that enable them to process payments faster and with fewer mistakes, which is then updated quicker and more reliably. At the end of the day, we are dealing with other people’s money, and we owe it to them to make sure all of our transactions are fast, reliable, and accounted for. With software integration, we can reconcile all accounts at 2 AM every night, where you are lucky to get that every month from anyone else.

Association banking is so complex that it only makes sense to trust an expert to handle the community funds, and making mistakes with someone’s money is a sure way to get a community, or a homeowner riled up. So take my advice and get your salsa and pumpernickel from the locals, but your banking from a national expert.