If you would like to own a home, but you don’t think you can afford it. We can help you reach home ownership. We have a couple of options for you initially. You can use our resources to find neighborhoods where redevelopment funding is available and work directly with those agencies. Or, join the READ MORE CIPOA effort to form groups of people just like yourself, select neighborhoods as a group, and use the group to negotiate with urban renewal funding agencies.
The objective of this initiative is to create a resource, forum and a pathway to home ownership for inner city owner/builders.
–
The mission of this initiative is to repopulate our inner cities with owner occupants and reverse the trends that lead to instability and blight.
–
We intend to use the input from the members of this initiative to influence local, state and federal urban renewal agencies to place a greater emphasis on increasing inner city owner occupancy. And facilitate individual owner/builders in the acquisition and the refurbishing of individual single family homes or apartment buildings as condominiums.
–
The Common Interest Property Owners Association (CIPOA), represents owners who share certain needs and responsibilities related to owning and maintaining a home, but also working with their neighbors to resolve community needs. These owners are part of community associations which are non profit corporations. These corporations are self governed and provide the objectives of the community regarding security, maintenance and the appearance of the common areas.
–
It is this element that we are offering to the residential urban renewal effort.
–
The CIPOA is joining the national effort to encourage more owner occupancy in our inner cities. Our contribution is two fold; First, we want to develop a forum and resource for budding owner/builders and we want to explore whether or not there would be a value to grouping these individuals by targeted neighborhoods or specific streets. There could be funding opportunities for the group that are not available to individual. We know that many localities offer incentives to refurbish certain areas.
Our Founding Members are key to the CIPOA capturing insight from common interest communities across the country. They are voting members of the Founding Members Council, their profiles are viewable by all owners, vetted non-owners and the public, it guides national surveys, polls and advocacy for all common interest property owners and shares this data with policy makers. It sets standards for the personal profiles and a system for grading community profiles. The development of each community’s network and profile will lead to more communications between neighboring communities to identify common needs. The founders will interact with our application developers to create member benefits that can be scaled nationally.
Common Interest property owners represent an estimated 50 million owners in the US. A market of property owners of that size will get the attention of politicians, for sure, but the greatest benefit will come from owners weighing in on proposed and existing laws,
We are looking at limiting the council to 2-3 resident owners in each Community.
Council members receive 33% off the resident owner membership annual dues.
Founding members are featured on the community’s profile page and given special recognition within the CIPOA.
Personal and property crimes are on the rise across the country and community associations are not exempt. Communities grapple with what to do to enhance community security and, help owners understand the risks and secure their homes. But, Community associations fair much better versus single family detached communities, primarily because of their ability to react as a group. We encourage this READ MORE group to connect with as many nearby communities as possible. Or extend your reach by publishing group comments on other social media outlets.
The CIPOA created this forum for owners to share their community solutions and discuss their local issues We also encourage local groups of communities to coordinate their security plans. From forming a neighborhood watch, coordinating with law enforcement,
or synchronizing security feeds, the CIPOA facilitates the process.
We have a number of benefits in mind for common interest tenants, who are prospective owners. We would like to help tenants, not only interact with the resident owners, we also want tenants to access to the same professionals we vet for the owners. So, we have created a special interest group for READ MORE tenants. These tenants are connected to the community they live in, through the rental agreement, but we include them in the communications and information loop.
There are about 9 million common interest properties that are rented in the US today. These rentals offer people an opportunity to live in communities, that are usually populated with a high percentage of owner occupants. Most tenants appreciated the resident owner’s “sense of community”, and felt more secure than apartment living or SFH. Neighbors, resident owners, know which units are rented and watch them for violations of the community rules, but not with the initial intent of initiating a formal violation, but personalizing the reason for such rules. We noted this to be the case far more commonly in “Self Managed” communities vs professionally managed communities. Fairly or unfairly, resident owners are not going to easily accept tenants as part of the community. We are making an effort to change how residents view tenants, generally. However, we also believe that these landlords have an obligation to make sure their tenants will be good community members.
The CIPOA views tenants as future property owners. In fact, about 60% of all current CI Tenants will purchase their first home within 5 years. We want them to have a favorable view of community associations and the industry needs more owner occupants. This begins by inviting them into the social network within the community.
The HOA tenant issue will be mainly resolved with an open dialog between residents, owners and tenants. Our non-resident owner group focuses on helping these owners find the right tenants for the individual community and help avoid issues with the HOA.
Through the resident owners in each community we identify the community priorities regarding the behavior of the residents.
This is a group of owners who volunteer to keep their community’s public profile up to date, add photo galleries and other additions to the profile. This is often the only way for non owners to get a sense of the community and it’s members.
CID governance, maintenance or owner services like real estate are included. Individual professionals, regardless of service type can join the CIPOA. There are conditions, however; no solicitation or advertising, but they must agree to be vetted by the CIPOA. And those who want to provide READ MORE newsletters, host forums or podcasts can become local, regional or national editors. We focus on individual professional profile, not company profiles. Professionals, like community managers, and their team members, CID attorneys, accountants, or other professionals who work directly with the owners are welcome to participate. CID real estate professionals as well.
Although CID service companies cannot advertise on the CIPOA, they can advertise and participate on the CIDpro site, which is a directory or these professionals.
The CIPOA offers a CIDpro designation as well as a published profile- viewable by the all owners, other CID pros, employers, CID Developers and the general public .
–
* Publish a blog and interact with visitors, with the ability to collect followers and send scheduled email newsletters
* Volunteer to help coordinate the development a community’s public profile page- branding on the community page
* Tools to author and publish newsletters and interactive blog pages
* Interact with other CIDpros locally or nationally.
* Link articles or other documents or videos to your profile
–
We want to encourage owners to meet the professionals who serve the community. These professional profiles, articles, forums etc is visible to all owners in the CIPOA as well as the general public.
–
The CIDpro platform is designed for portfolio managers to network directly with CI owners, anywhere in the country. And interact with their professional peers, if you like. This invitation extends to management support staff, as well. We provide the tools to create a public profile and make connections. All managers agree on the importance of promoting a sense of community, but out of necessity “community” takes a back seat to the business aspects and governance of the association.
Interacting with owners, outside of the scope of professional service contracts, provides a more personal connection with the people who can influence the Board of Directors.
We welcome first time buyers, even if you are years away from attempting to purchase a home. We want to chronicle the experience through blogs, images and videos throughout your experience and publish those entries. Your challenges are shared by every new owner.
You may not want to blog about your READ MORE experience to the public, but any images you upload is saved to your private archive.
We help first time common interest buyers reach their goal of ownership in a community association. The platform is designed to extend up to five years prior to entering the market. We help these individuals understand and prepare for a home purchase in a HOA. The platform allows them to choose any community, anywhere in the US and follow that community and local market changes, assessment changes and other issues faced by the community. Buyers can interact with existing property owners, and other members.
Through this group, the CIPOA helps these future owners, prepare themselves for buying their first home. The group links forums, Q&As, articles and tools to test their readiness.
Owning CI properties (as well as other real estate) in a family trust offer many tax advantages and other options for holding property. We created this group to help these trusts manage their portfolio of properties. We recognize that this form of ownership will continue to grow, and will provide READ MORE individuals considering this form of ownership with vetted attorneys who are versed in common interest properties, as well as articles, forums and connections with other trust administrators. Additionally, family trusts can participate in our Owner to Owner (O2O) exchange, to initiate 1031 exchanges or negotiate purchases directly with current owners.
Retiring seniors start planning years in advance of retirement. One of the most important elements that’s considered is real estate. Where will their primary residence be located, downsizing, second homes, investments etc. If these seniors see a common interest property in their plans, we can help. READ MORE Seniors, just like our first time buyer group, can research communities all over the country and follow market changes in these communities. As retirement approaches you will be well prepared to make these changes, in a well organized way. You will be able to communicate directly with resident owners in any community you are following.
This platform encourages seniors to tag as many interesting communities they would like (anywhere in the country) and receive community updates posted by the owners, regarding their community. Once connected with these associations, seniors can interact with the owners, connect socially, plan tours, etc.
Investment portfolio managers who join this group has the ability to tag communities, model types, and locations, months or years in advance of acquisitions to follow/research these markets. They can even place an offer for a home/model in specific communities, so they are alerted when an owner is READ MORE considering placing their home in the owner2owner exchange. All these targets are mapped, along with current holdings for analysis.
All owners use one or more property services. It might be a cleaning service, appliance repairs, plumbers, electricians, etc. This group allows individuals who provide services directly to owners to be vetted, which includes ratings from other owners in the community or neighboring communities. This READ MORE group will grow based on the willingness of the owners to direct their favorite service people to add themselves to this group.
The objective of our CI property exchange is to remove the complexity of purchasing or selling out of state properties. And shorten the turnaround on all elements of the transaction. There are over 26 million common interest residential properties in the US, about 9 million are owned by investors. READ MORE This owner exchange allows them to place their property in the exchange for investors and other owners who are actively looking for replacement properties for a 1031 exchange, or general acquisitions to negotiate directly with other owners. We are not a real estate company, we provide tools for owners to hire a RE professional if desired, but can add or remove their property in the exchange, without representation. The exchange also allows owner 2 owner contracting of short-term property use agreements. We provide this simple arrangement in the exchange, but there are apps that provide for this need, which are rated by our members who have used them. As well as links to ratings sites covering the topic. /p>
Board and committee members will find the governance group useful in finding answers and advice on the challenges of managing communities. Group members come from all over the US and participate in forums on virtually every subject faced by communities. This group is most useful for self managed READ MORE communities, but any individual involved in the governance of the community will find answers to their questions. There are dozens of websites across the country offering board members advice and professional directories, some are free some require subscriptions. This group rates all of those services, as well. But more important for boards is the ability to poll their community on considered or pending changes, in particular assessment increases.
Many local communities are impacted by improvements, changes, or lack of maintenance of municipal infrastructure. This group allows owners from multiple CIDs to join forces and lobby for the changes that benefit their communities. This group can create localized surveys, upload documents and READ MORE reference articles that support their positions. For example, from time to time, owners will find that CI property owners through their association are paying assessments to maintain community infrastructure, at the same time paying property taxes to cover streets and other infrastructure. Owners can explore whether their property taxes have been adjusted to reflect this division in responsibility.
Each State has a set of common interest specific statutes. These laws are created with best intentions, but this industry has very diverse communities, ranging from small associations with less than 10 units with limited common areas to master associations with thousands of homes, collecting READ MORE millions of dollars a year in assessments. A one size fits all solution does not make sense. Logically, the law makers should make sure that these laws take this into consideration. Most of the increase in assessments over the last three decades, is due to added administration costs to comply with new laws which are not applicable to all CIDs in the state. This group could, for example, lobby for the ability of the community members to opt out of specific laws, with a super majority of the owners agreeing. Those who join this group will have access to survey and polling tools, for their own community, which will be combined with other surveys from communities in the state. If an issue has a following, the results of these surveys can be shared with legislators, who support the effort.
With nearly 80% of all new production housing being built within CIDs, the developer group is the single most important special interest. In addition to being the creator of new communities, developers need to keep some level of connection with their developments for up to 10 years. The CIPOA, READ MORE through it’s member owners, track as many elements of the CID industry as possible. From land leaving the Williamson Act to current owners.
Developers use the results of surveys and polls of current CI owners to refine the homes and communities they want to build, and match it to local needs. Additionally, we will track defect litigation activity.
In addition to profiling management and maintenance professionals, we also profile development professionals who help with the planning and development of new communities.
Developers are allowed to brand on the community profile of all of their current and previously developed communities. If you connect with prior developments, you will be able view community updates and concerns.
Developers can also setup new communities on the CIPOA, which is accessible to the general public
*Individuals who participate in our CI buyer group can set a developer preference, which we use to filter for available properties. Additionally, we provide our buyer group with new community profiles in the areas of the country where they would like to own.
This group allows the owners of vacation homes in a HOA or Condo to connect with each other. As this group grows you will be alerted when changes occur in your vacation community. Whether you use this group to develop a vacation home social network, or you are interested in trading, buying or READ MORE selling your home, this group will facilitate your transactions. The Owner to Owner exchange properties can be filtered by any classification of home ownership.
Common Interest Marinas are not uncommon, but the common needs of this group is completely different from the land based associations. This group, like many others, allow the members to connect, interact and conduct transactions. However, the Owner to Owner exchange can facilitate any type of common READ MORE interest .
The property owners need the help of real estate professionals from time to time. This group is for those professionals who want to expand their business through common interest properties.
This group is open to all RE professionals, including lenders, title, attorneys etc, but they must agree to READ MORE collaborate with the property owners, not solicit them. The CIPOA is about scaling solutions, to save the property owner time and money.
The CIPOA promises the property owners that services will be provided by professionals who commit to being transparent
Transaction Block referrals: The CIPOA intends to make professional referrals to members of our Investor group , First-time CI Buyer group and Retiring Seniors Group. Before entering the market, the members of these groups use our platform to ask questions or target and follow specific communities, READ MORE Depending on their questions we provide a vetted professional to answer their questions. These professionals are assigned based our transaction block platform.
The professionals who become CIPOA members (CIDpros) can participate in this member service. We need professional advice experts, they need more fees or commissions; the transaction block, is where we make referrals. It’s called a transaction block, because eventually owners in the block will need professional services; this platform matches the professional with their potential clients. And our owners get to know them before they need their services.
