Our-Story

After completing his Business degree at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Stephen Martin learned the inner workings of community property management by working for two prominent firms in the 2000’s. In his late 20s, and in the midst of the recession, Stephen Martin parlayed his job as a property manager into a niche business - calculating costs, and reserve fund planning for common interest community associations. SMA California was born, and at the age of only 30, hisfledgling business started to take off.

During his downtime, the 6-foot-4 dynamo was a fitness fanatic who loved tennis, CrossFit, working out and running races, including the Bay to Breakers. In 2012, he was celebrating the May 20 race in typical San Francisco fashion, wearing a bright-green wig as he gathered with friends dressed as troll dolls at Golden Gate Park. They were hanging out with a group of strangers when someone abruptly ended the Santa Clara man's promising future with a single punch. The blow from one of the strangers knocked Martin to the pavement, and he never regained consciousness. On a tragic Friday that soon followed, after being removed from life support, this perpetual motion machine of a human being died at San Francisco General Hospital.

In the midst of a construction slowdown Erik Sundquist began working with Stephen to help grow the fledgling company. Erik’s extensive background in construction coupled with knowledge of labor & materials costs,poised Stephen Martin & Associates (SMA California) to expand it’sreach in the reserve study arena. After the tragic events of 2012 Erik vowed to continue to honor Stephen’s legacy by taking control of the company now known simply as SMA Reserves. It was Stephen’s original vision of utilizing cutting edge technology to provide affordable, easy to read and understand reserve studies. This vision forms the foundation of the company’s motto “expertly prepared-simply presented”.

As we continue growing into Stephen’s original vision of what SMA could become, we have always sought to stay true to his ideas and the basic tenets of what he believed.