Preparing for and overseeing a homeowner association’s finances are perhaps the most important board responsibilities. It takes money and careful planning to maintain and preserve common area property. One of the best forecasting tools is a “reserve study” is needed to identify common element components, their useful lives and cost of repair or replacement. Unlike the weather, this is one forecast that actually happens pretty much as predicted.  Reserve plans cover a 30 year projection period so that roofs, decks, fences and other long lived and expensive components can be included. They analyze several aspects of the components: