Meet Sylvia Powell

Sylvia Powell is part owner of Powell Management and an active community association manager (CAM) throughout Southern Florida. As a manager, her portfolio consists primarily of HOAs, including master associations, as well as a business development and condo associations.

We first met Sylvia when she employed various website and portal providers across her properties, making tracking and updating information for each community time consuming and difficult.

Meet Sylvia Powell

Avoiding Pitfalls When Choosing an HOA Website Provider

In the past, Sylvia and her teams always let their associations choose their own vendors, including websites and software.  However, this became an issue when Florida law regarding association websites and portals began to change.

Suddenly, Powell Management was rushing to contact each provider, ensuring services would continue and they could meet the new Florida regulations regarding member access.  It was at this point she began trying to find one provider that could support her while exceeding her association’s expectations.

Avoiding Pitfalls When Choosing an HOA Website Provider

What was the experience like, looking for a website and association software provider?

Honestly, it was quite stressful.  We quickly started researching online, as well as looking at the providers we were currently using.  We had trouble not only getting hold of some companies we were thinking of trying, but even some of the companies we were currently using.

My work days are usually booked solid either on location, driving to a location, or supporting one of my PMs. In my world, when a street lamp goes out or a website is potentially going down, we hear about it immediately.  So when I reach out, I either need to have a quick response online or a voice on the other end of the phone line.

I think before I even saw the product, that’s what grabbed me about HOA Start.  The fact that there is someone I can reach just by calling, not a voicemail or recorded prompts.

Beyond that, even as a project manager, I just didn’t know what I didn’t know.  We’re experts in our field, and we keep abreast of changes to appropriate laws and regulations.  It’s stressful and chaotic when something happens that is out of our control.  I suddenly had half of my associations out of compliance with their websites, and we weren’t quite sure how to resolve the issue, or even necessarily what the specific issues were.

Being able to lean on HOA Start as our experts on all things websites and software allowed us to make a quick and easy transition.

Don't Just Take Our Word For It

Whether a manager of multiple associations or a board member for your own, your providers should take as much pride in your association as you do.  From the hands on focus we provide through support to the continued development of features associations ask for, HOA Start cares about your success.

We want you to understand your options, and if we’re not the best fit for you, we will find you who is.  Let us know your needs, or try a completely free trial to test our software against theirs!

Don't Just Take Our Word For It
One thing we ran into was wanting to utilize our accounting and finance tracking software, but also having that kept within our HOA’s software. This isn’t something we had previously done, but figured it was worth a shot requesting. HOA Start said they would take a look, but I was personally stunned when they informed us the work was underway. Today, we happily have our finances and website software all wrapped up as one."
Sylvia Powell, Powell Management

What hiccups have you encountered along the way? What value have the websites brought?

We have not experienced many hiccups yet.  The value to us was immediately obvious, as it was the value it brought to the association members.  The voting system was so simple that one of our associations was finally able to have at large positions filled that had been empty for a year, simply out of the difficulty in reaching quorum.  We now had official email addresses for our community leaders, on time payments went up, we were even able to sell tickets online for our master association events, which has always been a huge headache where we pay at least one if not two other vendors normally.

 

 

There really wasn’t much of a learning curve or difficulties.  One thing we ran into was wanting to utilize our accounting and finance tracking software, but also having that kept within our HOA’s software.  This isn’t something we had previously done, but figured it was worth a shot requesting.  HOA Start said they would take a look, but I was personally stunned when they informed us the work was underway.  Today, we happily have our finances and website software all wrapped up as one.  It’s great to be able to get feedback from our communities, and pass that along to HOA Start knowing that they take that information into consideration and are always working on new things.