Reserve planning, explained for the people who actually run HOAs.
Plain-language guides on reserve studies, funding, and capital projects — written for volunteer boards, not accountants.
Four guides, in order
Each guide is a short sequence of articles. Read them in order and you’ll understand your reserve study better than most of your board.
HOA fundamentals
You joined the board, or you're about to. This guide covers what an HOA actually is, the documents that give it power, and the duties you take on when you accept the seat — in about twenty minutes.
Reading your reserve study
The reserve study is the most important document your association owns and the least read. This guide takes you through it end to end: every section of the document, the one number that measures your community's health, and how to tell a careful study from a careless one.
Funding your reserves
Every board argues about dues. This guide replaces the argument with numbers: how much your community should actually hold, where the money lives, what underfunding costs, when a special assessment is the honest answer, and the new lending rules that make all of it every seller's problem.
Projects and operations
The reserve study tells you what will need work. This guide is about actually running it: board meetings that decide things, a maintenance plan that prevents surprises, a project calendar you can defend, and a budget the community understands.
How to read your HOA reserve study
Open your reserve study next to this guide and you'll be able to read every section: what the component list is telling you, what percent funded actually measures, and where the 30-year table says you run out of money.
Your current reserve balance divided by the fully funded balance, expressed as a percentage. Below 30 percent is widely treated as critical; 70 percent and above as healthy.
Browse the glossary →What your state requires of your reserves
Reserve study requirements, update intervals, and funding disclosure rules — one plain-language page per state, verified against the statute before it’s published.
See all 50 states →Reading about it is step one. Step two takes about a minute.
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