Close to 30% of Americans live in a property governed by a condo board, homeowners association (HOA), or other community association—more than 70 million people. These associations are generally responsible for property upkeep, enforcement of community rules, and acting as a go-between for residents when disputes arise. Most people have a good or at least neutral experience with their condo board or HOA, but not everyone does.
If you find yourself in serious conflict with a condo board or HOA and get to the point where the normal channels (discussion, showing up at meetings, or even running for a position yourself) can’t solve the problem, you might contemplate a lawsuit. If common areas aren’t being maintained, or repairs aren’t being done, that might seem like your only option—but suing your condo board or HOA is often not your most effective option, and there might be better avenues to explore.
Thanks to pop culture depictions of attorneys and a constant stream of headlines, there’s a tendency to think you can (and should) solve every problem with a lawsuit. Lawsuits can certainly be an effective way to get relief of various kinds—but they're also an expensive, slow, and totally not guaranteed way to seek change or redress.
This is especially true when it comes to suing your HOA or condo board, because of something called the business judgment rule. This rule requires judges hearing a suit to favor the condo board or HOA as long as they believe they are acting in good faith and with a reasonable belief that their actions are for the good of the community—and proving otherwise can be tough. The specific laws governing your community association will vary, but in general this guideline makes winning a lawsuit against your community association very challenging.
Instead of spending a lot of time and money on a lawsuit you may very well lose, the better way to deal with a condo board or HOA that is either derelict in their duties or actively harming your property is to remove problematic board members—or replace the entire board altogether. This is usually a less challenging option because there will be language in the governing documents of the association (the Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions or CC&Rs) that outline exactly how to do this. Most states require that these governing documents include mechanisms for calling a special meeting (usually via petition signed by a majority of property owners). This can be done even if your condo board is dodging accountability by claiming to lack a quorum every time a regular meeting is called, a tactic bad condo boards sometimes use to maintain their control.
Here’s the basic steps you’ll need to take:
Read bylaws. Review those governing documents so you know how your association is set up. Pay particular attention to two things: Automatic removal criteria and how to force a vote. Most bylaws include certain requirements for board members, including a minimum number of meetings they have to attend and their ownership status at the property. These can potentially provide a straightforward way to remove board members without the need for a lengthy process—but first you have to know what those criteria are.
Contact your neighbors. If you can’t see any easy way to push bad board members out the door, you’ll need to bone up on the removal procedures outlined in your bylaws. These will vary from state to state and association to association, but in general, removing a board member (or an entire board) requires a vote involving all the property owners. That means your first step is to meet with everyone and make sure you have the necessary support.
Next, you’ll need to call a special meeting of the condo board or HOA to hold a vote. If your board is being cagey about calling meetings because they know the residents are up in arms, you can usually force a meeting by getting a majority of owners to sign a petition.
Be ready. If you’re planning to remove the entire board, it’s a very good idea to have candidates lined up to replace them. This will minimize the chaos and delays, as well as the chance that the board members you just worked hard to remove don’t simply resume their seat when no one runs against them.
Keep in mind that if your association overtly works to prevent organizing your fellow owners like this (by imposing fines on distributing flyers, for example, to try to stop owners from organizing), it’s pretty clear evidence of bad faith, which would probably negate the business judgment rule protections and make a lawsuit a slightly better risk.
Working to remove a community association takes a lot of time and effort no matter what route you take—but if your property is being adversely affected by mismanagement or malfeasance, you really don’t have a choice. If that’s where you are, break out those bylaws before you call an attorney.
Finding a place to live is becoming increasingly stressful. Not only are rents rising—the average rent in the United States is now almost $2,000 per month—but renting a place can be an overwhelmingly complex process. There’s the application (and the application fee), proving your income, providing references, and enduring all manner of checks and intrusive questions, with zero guarantee that you’ll actually have a place to live at the end of it.
The stress of securing a roof over your head leads most people to forget one simple fact: You need to be checking out your potential landlord, as well. Knowing that your landlord is routinely on a list of the worst landlords in your city, for example, is key information that can help you make this important financial decision. But even if your possible landlord isn’t quite that bad, you should run a background check on them so you know what you’re dealing with. And while you’re at it, you should run a check on yourself to make sure they’re seeing accurate information when deciding whether you’re a good risk for the rent.
Forewarned is forearmed, so your first order of business when looking for a home to rent is to find out what potential landlords will see about you. The last thing you want is to find the perfect place to rent only to be rejected for mysterious reasons. And just like credit reports, your rental history report can contain inaccuracies that can affect your ability to get past a rental application, so checking them should be your first order of business.
Landlords use a variety of companies for this service, including the big credit report companies TransUnion (SmartMove), Equifax (TotalVerify), and Experian. Other companies that provide rental history reports include RentPrep, First Advantage, Verifirst, and E-Renter. All of these companies charge a fee to provide the reports, but the good news is that under the same law that gives you access to your own credit report every year for free, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you can request a free copy of your rental history report. Since you have to contact each company individually to request one, your best strategy is to ask any potential landlord what company they use to screen tenants and then request your report from there (it’s also a good idea to get free copies of your credit reports, while you’re at it).
If you find any errors on your rental history report, you can file a dispute and have the report corrected, just like you do with a credit report. This can take some time, so it’s a good idea to do this the moment you know you’ll be looking for a place to rent.
Once you know that you have a clean renting record and should have no problems getting through an application (or at least know what a landlord might be concerned about so you can be prepared to make a case), it’s time to make sure you’re not about to sign up with a slumlord.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a simple service you can pay for that will conduct a landlord check (that would be too easy), so you’ll have to cobble together information from several sources:
Internet search. The first and simplest thing to do is to Google the property address and the landlord’s name (or the name of the management company). This will turn up any public information about how the landlord runs things. Next, check out review sites where people can leave reviews of landlords and buildings, like Rate My Landlord or WYL. These sites can give you a quick snapshot of what tenants deal with at the property you’re considering.
Public records. Wherever you live, there are property records that can tell you a lot about how a landlord operates. Depending on where you live, some of this information may be online and easily searched up (in New York City, for example, you can look up properties on the Automated City Register Information System [ACRIS]), or you might have to go to your local courthouse to dig through records. But it’s worth the effort, because these records will tell you about code violations, the rate of evictions, lawsuits filed against the landlord or management company, and foreclosure proceedings. If you find a lot of these data points, you should be concerned about trusting this landlord with your living arrangements.
Many municipalities also maintain “worst landlords” lists (again, New York certainly does) which can be a quick and easy way to find out if you’re about to rent from some sort of property demon.
Ask neighbors. The people who already live in a prospective building are your best resource for the current state of affairs there. You can probably learn more from one or two conversations with folks already living there than through days of research.
Your tolerance for red flags in a landlord will be in direct proportion to your desperation to find a place to live, of course, but knowledge is power. If you turn up a lot of complaints, lawsuits, and financial chicanery surrounding a prospective apartment, it might be best to keep looking.
Getting a mortgage when you're self-employed can be more challenging than it is for traditional W-2 employees, but it's absolutely possible with the right preparation. Since you don't have standard pay stubs from an employer, lenders just need sufficient documentation to verify your income. Here are some tips for qualifying for a home loan while self-employed.
Most lenders want to see at least two years of steadily increasing self-employment income. They'll typically ask for your federal tax returns (personal and business) for the past two years to verify your self-employment income. The more years of documentation you can provide showing rising revenues, the better.
A low credit score is always going to affect your ability to qualify for loans at decent rates. And with other forms of income less clear-cut, your credit score carries extra weight for proving your creditworthiness. Most lenders require self-employed borrowers to have credit scores of at least 700.
To keep your credit score high, pay all bills on time, keep credit card balances low, and avoid new large debts before applying.
Lenders calculate your debt-to-income (DTI) ratio by adding your total monthly debt payments and dividing by your gross monthly income. With fluctuating self-employment income, you'll want to keep this DTI below 43% to qualify. That may mean paying down debts before applying.
It may be tempting to write off every possible expense to minimize your taxable income, but that could backfire when trying to qualify for a mortgage. Lenders want to see maximum income to ensure you can repay the loan. If you're eyeing a mortgage this year, avoid writing off more expenses than absolutely necessary.
Beyond at least two years of tax returns, have paperwork ready documenting your self-employment income sources like 1099s, profit/loss statements, quarterly tax payment records, business licenses, client invoices, and more. The more you can document, the better.
Get pre-qualified with several lenders to compare rates and requirements. Meet with local banks, credit unions, and specialized self-employment lenders. You can absolutely qualify for a mortgage as a self-employed borrower—being organized and having good records will make the process smoother.
In so many ways, we’re living in the future. We have wireless internet, artificial intelligence, and holographic KISS concerts. Technology has advanced so fast it’s often difficult to keep up—as soon as you’ve mastered one new paradigm, a dozen others have popped up while you weren’t paying attention.
But not everything in our lives has gotten better—or even changed that much. Your standard water heater, for example, is kind of primitive: It’s a tank of water with a fire underneath, or electric heating elements inside the tank. It’s not terribly complicated or that far removed from a bucket suspended over a fire.
There is a more advanced, modern option: The tankless water heater, aka a “demand” water heater. These fixtures eschew the tank altogether, heating water on demand. Not only are they more energy efficient by as much as 34%, they offer the tantalizing possibility of infinite hot water—and infinitely long hot showers. Despite these benefits, however, a tankless water heater won’t work for everyone or every living situation.
Tankless water heaters can supply infinite hot water in the sense that they don’t rely on a set amount of stored, heated water. But they’re not magic—they can only heat up so much water so fast. Every tankless water heater has a flow rate measured as gallons per minute (gpm), and every fixture that provides hot water (faucets, showers, dishwashers, laundry) has a flow rate as well. Your tankless water heater has to have a flow rate sufficient to supply hot water to all the fixtures simultaneously.
For example, if your family frequently has someone showering (2 gpm) while the washing machine (3 gpm) and dishwasher (2 gpm) are both running, your tankless water heater will need to provide at least 7 gpm. A heater with a higher flow rate will come with a higher price tag—and if you have moments when your hot water usage spikes beyond the normal rate, your tankless water heater might not be able to keep up.
Another factor affecting tankless water heater performance is the temperature rise. This is the difference between the temperature of the water when it enters your home through the pipes and the temperature you want your hot water to be. If your groundwater is 50ºF (10ºC) and you want your hot water to be 120ºF (49ºC), you need a rise of 70ºF (39ºC). If the water temperature coming in drops a few degrees for any reason, your tankless water heater might struggle to provide water that’s hot enough for your needs, especially if you use a lot of appliances and fixtures simultaneously.
That means if you have a large family or use a lot of hot water in your house, a tankless water heater might not be the best choice even if you calculate its capacity carefully. And since tankless models don’t have a stored supply of water and rely on constant intake, any mineral buildup in the pipes or drop in water pressure to your home might result in lukewarm water or not enough hot water to go around. A storage water heater will eventually fill up even with reduced water pressure, and will eventually heat water of any temperature to the desired setting. But if your hot water usage rarely spikes and the temperature rise is manageable, a tankless unit should work well.
Although tankless water heaters are smaller than traditional tank heaters (and you can buy compact units designed for smaller spaces), that doesn’t mean you can necessarily fit one in your existing mechanical space. Depending on the capacity you need, if you have a tight mechanical room or area you might not be able to squeeze one in, leaving you with the option of installing it outside the house or in plain view somewhere else in the house. I personally know someone who had to have theirs installed in their living room, so now they have a huge unit with pipes running everywhere right in the middle of their home. And choosing a more compact unit might mean sacrificing capacity, leaving you with chronically lukewarm water.
It’s best to consult with your plumber or contractor to make sure they can fit a tankless water heater into your home before you commit to one. If not, but you can tolerate having it exposed to guests or mounted outdoors, then a tankless unit will still work for you.
A final consideration with tankless water heaters is the return on investment. Because of their superior energy efficiency, tankless water heaters are often promoted as wise investments—and you will get your money back, eventually. Tankless water heaters can last 20 years or more (more than double the lifespan of a typical storage water heater), and they can save an average family of four about $100 a year on energy bills. If your tankless water heater lasts 20 years, you’ll save $2,000 over its lifetime. The cost of installing one of these units ranges between $1,500 and $3,200 (including labor), so you might get all or at least most of your money back.
But if you’re not planning to stay in your home that long, the investment might not pay off. If you’re planning to sell your home in a few years, a tankless water heater might appeal to some potential buyers, but there’s no data to support the idea that a tankless water heater significantly affects home value one way or another. On the other hand, if you’re in your forever home or have no plans to move any time soon, the combination of infinite hot water and energy efficiency will pay off.
Bathrooms have slowly become one of the most important rooms in our homes. Once a small, single space that people didn’t particularly want to spend a lot of time in, modern bathrooms are luxurious and spacious—and they're multiplying. While the basic modern standard is about two baths for every three bedrooms, we’re living in an era of “toilet inflation,” and it’s increasingly common to have as many bathrooms as bedrooms—or more. Fifty years ago, there were on average two people for every bathroom in a house; today it’s closer to one person per bathroom.
One reason for this is changing layouts: Once en suite bathrooms off of primary bedrooms became common, people needed to add an extra bathroom for guests or other residents. Another is the value a bathroom adds to a house: Although the return on investment (ROI) on an added bathroom is just over 50%, real estate professionals will tell you time and again that more bathrooms mean a higher sale price and more offers when you decide to sell your house.
But the opposite can also be true, believe it or not. While adding a second bathroom or an en suite bathroom in your home probably always makes sense (in terms of lifestyle and ROI), there are some scenarios when it’s actually smarter to remove a bathroom in your house.
You might not have a bathroom-to-bedroom ratio of 16-to-9 like Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, but you can still have too many bathrooms. While house hunters are generally delighted to find plenty of bathrooms in a house, there is actually a point where the number of bathrooms in your home can become a detriment instead of an asset. Each bathroom in your home—whether it’s a half-bath, a spa bath, or lavish suite all its own, represents a portion of cleaning, maintenance, and potential water damage in the home. Even bathrooms that aren’t used regularly have to be cleaned, and not only will you not enjoy cleaning a bathroom you never use, potential buyers won’t like the idea either.
If your home isn’t particularly large, squeezing extra bathrooms into that small space can be counter-productive as well, as it simply underscores the small size of the place, and can result in rooms that feel too small. Having a third bath won’t do you much good if it’s the size of an airplane bathroom—and it could make the adjoining bedroom too small to fit a queen-sized bed.
If you’ve ever watched a TV show about folks hunting for a new home, you’ve probably seen a few moments when folks discover a bathroom in an odd place and react negatively. If you have an extra bathroom right off the kitchen, for example, where guests will be using the facilities three feet away from where the cooking happens, that may be more of a downside than a positive. Removing an awkwardly located bathroom can improve the flow of the house and prevent an immediate bad impression.
Finally, if you have more bathrooms than you need, it’s possible that you could get more value out of your home by removing a bathroom and transforming it into something else that increases the utility, comfort, and value of your home:
That weird powder room off the kitchen might be space better used as a pantry—or making a tiny kitchen larger; in a recent survey, 80% of first-time home buyers considered a walk-in pantry to be “essential or desirable.”
A half-bath located near the entrance that no one ever uses (seriously, how many people are in such a rush they have to dash into a bathroom immediately upon entry?) might be better used as a coat closet
If you have more bathrooms than bedrooms, converting one of the baths to an additional bedroom might make sense. Extra bedrooms add slightly more value to a home than bathrooms, so if your bathroom-to-bedroom ratio is a confusing number like 4-3, changing it to a more comprehensible 3-4 makes a lot of sense.
The take-away is simple: While it might be counter-intuitive, if you have more than enough bathrooms, getting rid of one of them can benefit you in terms of how much you enjoy your home—and how much it’s ultimately worth.