Reserve Study

[djyamyam]

For those of you involved with an HOA, are there professional companies out there that will do a reserve study for a resort? We have a smaller independent resort that has a decent reserve but I'm wondering if there is a way of checking to see if we have enough reserve money put away. I recognize the amount of the reserve depends on such things as the size, age, etc of the resort.

 

[Dave M]

Yes, there are firms that do the studies. Most often, they are structural engineering firms. Your property manager shuold be able to give you some suggestions for good firms in the area.

 

[timeos2]

For those of you involved with an HOA, are there professional companies out there that will do a reserve study for a resort? We have a smaller independent resort that has a decent reserve but I'm wondering if there is a way of checking to see if we have enough reserve money put away. I recognize the amount of the reserve depends on such things as the size, age, etc of the resort.

Yes, but like everything you get what you pay for. I've seen classy looking reports that really said nothing (cookie cutter information not really representative of the specific resort thus not of great value) while another that cost twice as much was loaded with photos, detailed information and really gave a great summary of what would be needed at the resort going forward. All still tend to look at replacing not upgrading (as that is the key reason for a reserve study) so they are not 100% perfect for planning but are, if well done, a great jump off point. Every timeshare Association should have one at least every few years to know they are on track.

 

[djyamyam]

Yes, there are firms that do the studies. Most often, they are structural engineering firms. Your property manager shuold be able to give you some suggestions for good firms in the area.

Actually, they can't because they weren't aware that there are firms out there that do this. Hence, my original posting.

So if we find the engineering firm. What exactly do we tell them to do? With a structural engineering firm, we're looking at foundation stuff, roofing, etc. No soft good stuff?

 

[MattC]

You might also consider a good Architectural Firm!!

MattC

 

[Lee B]

Here are some of the things that a condo has to anticipate. You can get estimates from contractors for each. They generally can tell you how many years between jobs and how many years until the next one. Factor in a little inflation, if that's still likely, and you get a yearly contribution for each.

1. Roof replacement
2. Repaint the building
3. Concrete spalling repair
4. Parking lot resurfacing
5. Barbeque replacement
6. Doors & windows
etc.

This isn't rocket science. If the resort is small, the board can do this with telephone calls. If it is big, the board should hire a firm to protect itself. Ask the associations of nearby resorts for suggestions.

 

[Carolinian]

RCI or II can recommend companies that do reserve studies and have experience with timeshares. When the resort I was on the board of did one, we used a company recommended by RCI. Have your manager talk with the exchange company account representative.

A reserve study will take every component of the resort, its current age, the expected lifetime of each, and the expected cost of replacement of each at the end of its useful life. Then, they do the math. If you find one that another resort has done, you can probably collect the information yourself and compile it inhouse. You will want to look at one that has been done professionally, as some of the things that went into it, I would not have thought of. As to anticipated cost in the future, they took today's cost of each item and applied a percentage for inflation, so again this is something you could compile inhouse.

Several OBX resorts ended up way ahead of the reserve game thanks to extensive repairs after hurricanes. For several of older resorts, they were down long enough that they had to meet new building codes, which even meant new wiring and plumbing, paid for by insurance, so they ended up almost like new resorts. Some resorts had that good fortune only as to some units but not the whole resort (Dunes South, for example).

 

[Tia]

http://www.reservestudy.com/questions.html

Someone here posted this link in a past thread.