Our free winter storm checklist has been flying off the shelf, if a PDF can do such a thing. One page, twelve boxes, and managers grabbed it faster than anything we've offered before. That tells me something. Boards and managers already have plenty of binders. What they want is a short list they can pull out on a Saturday morning before the rain shows up.
So why is a reserve study guy handing out maintenance checklists? Our job is to figure out when the large expenses are coming and help a community save for them. But every one of those forecasts leans on something we can't control from our desks, and that's whether anybody is taking care of the place.
Useful life assumes someone is paying attention
Here's what I mean. When we say a roof should last 25 years, we're picturing a roof that gets some attention. Somebody cleans the gutters. Somebody checks the flashing. Somebody calls the roofer when there's a drip in the hallway closet, not after the ceiling stain is the size of a pizza. Skip all that and the roof isn't going to read our report and stick to the schedule. You might get 18 years. And those lost years don't just vanish. They come back as a replacement that shows up early, before the money is ready for it.
Before I did reserve studies, I spent years as a carpenter and then a contractor, mostly on remodels and restorations. I opened up a lot of walls. Buildings almost never fail all at once. They go at the weak spots. A clogged downspout dumps water against the siding. The water gets behind it, then into the sheathing, then the framing. What could have been ten minutes on a ladder becomes its own line item and a board vote.
Maintenance is the cheapest money an association will ever spend. The trouble is it never looks dramatic in the budget, so it's the first thing people want to trim. But skipped maintenance doesn't go away. It comes back as replacement, and it usually brings a deadline with it.
Protecting what you own is part of the plan
We talk a lot at SMA about Reserve Plan Resilience. Put simply, a good reserve plan isn't one that barely stays above zero on paper. It's one that still works when real life gets involved: a wet winter, rising costs, a component that gives out years before anyone expected.
Most people hear that and assume resilience just means saving more. Saving matters, sure. But the other half is taking care of what the community already owns. Every year you add to a component's life is a year you don't have to pay for its replacement. That eases the pressure on the reserve fund, keeps contributions steadier, and makes a special assessment less likely. A decent maintenance plan quietly carries part of the load.
It cuts the other way too. If a property keeps wearing out early, the reserve study ends up chasing it. Every update pulls projects forward and the funding plan scrambles to keep up. I've sat in those budget meetings. Nobody leaves happy.
Simple things, done on time
Maybe it's the pilot in me. In aviation you live by the checklist, literally. It doesn't matter how many hours you've logged or how many times you've walked around that airplane. You pull out the list and check every item, every flight. Pilots aren't forgetful. We've just learned that the one step you skip is usually the one that bites you, and good habits beat a good memory every time.
A checklist for your community works the same way. It turns "we should really do that" into something a real person does on a real date. Clear the drains in the fall. Walk the property after a heavy storm. Take a picture of any damage, jot down the date, and let your manager know. And if the same leak shows up twice, pay attention. That's a pattern, not bad luck.
Those notes help us too. When a board hands us its repair history at the next update, we get a much clearer picture of what's going on out there. A roof that's been patched three times in two years is telling us something an age chart never will. That's how a reserve study stays honest about the building it's describing.
So here's my ask. Pick one checklist and put it on the calendar. Give a copy to your manager or your maintenance vendor. Bring it up at the next board meeting. It costs next to nothing, and it protects the most expensive things your community owns.
If you haven't grabbed our free StormReady checklist yet, you can download it here. And if it's been a while since your reserve study was updated, give us a shout. We're glad to help you see where things stand.
Erik Sundquist, RS, is Managing Partner of SMA Reserves.
