While some associations already have their own public face, most rely on a management company. Changing management companies means changing all the contact information and then spending significant funds to notify your residents. It’s a fact that occurs more often than people realize.

What DCAS does differently is we build your community’s own public face which can include:

• its own mailing address
• phone numbers
• web addresses
• and email addresses. All yours to keep!

Associations that have their contact information independent of management companies makes it much easier to switch management companies down the road should the association decide service is not what it should be. Why would we do this you ask? Simple, we’re your vendor, we work for you, and you should never feel trapped if we or any other company working for you is not living up to a promised level of service.

Kinda feels like good old-fashioned customer service to us!

Did you know there’s very few items that need to be stored physically?  Certain things like a copy of your association’s declarations and other governing docs do need a physical copy; however, many other items like architectural applications and other association records can be stored digitally.  Storing records digitally saves on storage expense, makes records requests quick and painless, and helps boards refer to historical data.  If you don’t currently utilize digital storage, we can set up your own cloud storage solution that’s a lot cheaper that you think and consistently backed up too!

You tell us how many licenses you need set up and for who, and we’ll take care of the rest.  Ask us for how to get high quality digital storage for as low as $120 per year.  Like all our other products, we set this up for the association and you keep it as long as you want it regardless of management changes!

All Associations have at least some physical records.  We can securely store your files in a climate controlled environment for a small per box monthly charge.

We’ll reach out to your current manager and facilitate the records transfer via our own company trucks at no charge to you, saving you courier fees.  We will completely document the transfer and then once onsite, we inventory all your physical records.  We’ll provide you with an itemized digital inventory of each box with a box number and then we’ll seal the boxes with security tape prior to storage.

When we provide you with the inventory list, we’ll also provide recommendations on any records we find that are beyond Florida record retention requirements so you have the option to have us permanently destroy them.

We’ll also provide you with recommendations of items we think you could be better served by having a digital copy instead of a physical copy saving you money on physical storage.  Digital copies also makes your records much more searchable and available for official records requests.

It’s very likely that your current management company provides a “portal” for you and your residents to log into.  While this may work, what happens if you ever want to switch management companies?  You guessed it, you’ll likely lose that portal because it’s actually a part of the management company’s website. It’s not actually something you own.

DCAS can create a website that is owned by the association, with an address that is your community’s to keep.  We’ll work with you to discuss your needs and create something really awesome that works for you.  We’ll set up a hosting contract with a company of your choice or make recommendations.

Your own website means you the Association, controls the flow of information – not your management vendor.  Don’t worry, you won’t need to read and respond to every email – we can do that for you but using your email addresses like “manager@reallyawesomehoa.com”.

If you switch management companies – simply change where the email address points.  You’ll have all the documentation do be able to do this!

The owner of DCAS, Marko Dowgal, has personal past experience self-managing his own HOA.  He understands what it takes to juggle management, homeowner communications, and a full-time job.  It’s no easy task and we commend your fortitude!  There are many individual moving parts to an HOA as you know.  If you have an HOA of more than 400 units like he did, you’ll be happy for a on call lifeline when needed.

We offer consulting services on a pay as you go basis.  You shouldn’t have to sign an expensive full service management contract if you only have a question about software to manage violations.  You also shouldn’t have to rely on expensive CPA’s to handle what in most cases is simple bookkeeping if somebody would just help you get started.  Even simple questions to the association’s attorney can run over a thousand dollars.

We can help.  You’ll notice all the services we provide are set up as standalone systems.  There’s a reason for that.  It’s difficult for those “proprietary software” companies to break off an accounting piece, help you set it up, and then set you on your path to success.  We can.  We offer free initial consultations to understand your needs and we can offer no obligation suggestions.

Make DCAS your first call and see how quickly we can set up a self managed accounting system based on QuickBooks, a self-managed Violation system or a Digital Storage based on easy to learn Microsoft solutions.

We can do the hard part and hand over a turn key solution and you own it!  No lifelong commitment.  If you need help or want to make changes, we can jump back in and only bill for the specific task.  We want to see you be successful at self-managing because honestly, who’s going to care more about the community than volunteers who live there?

If you decide you want to take a break from all the fun of self-managing and want us to take over one piece or all of it, you make the call!

The first step in our inspections process is to perform a site visit and make notes for our initial discussion with the board of directors.  We like to get an unbiased initial state of compliance with governing docs.  This allows us to develop meaningful questions for our discussion.  We’ll then set a meeting to meet with all board members in a comfortable and casual setting where we can get everyone’s thoughts on how they believe the current state of the community is.  We will present our findings as they relate to your governing documents and get your feedback and ask the board’s opinions.  We will then take the board’s feedback and type up the inspection parameters that our inspections team will use going forward.

We do this because all communities are different.  There’s a level of “severity” that has to be up to the association, not the manager.  The reason for this is simple.  Nobody wants to live in a community with an oppressive management company applying a cookie cutter approach because that’s their business model.  Remember we work for you – you dictate the parameters.

Your community – your way!

Inevitably, there will be concerns raised from time to time by homeowners and we will provide any homeowners our inspections parameters upon request and remind them they have every right as members to address any concerns at their next board meeting.  We’ll always work to bring people together to find solutions.