We're planning an initial show and tell meeting with our community in a week to present a draft reserve study, coming back for final approval and requesting an increase in condo fees in May. Despite all the work we've put into this, being all amateurs, we still have some major questions. Any input from this group would be appreciated! I believe we would be willing to share our study at least privately to others in a similar boat - we've certainly benefited from being able to look at others' studies.

I've read the document from the Province of Ontario about planning reserve studies, and I don't understand all the implications of choosing a funding model - from fully funded to baseline funded. If we choose baseline funded we're at more risk of not having funds on hand should something come up unexpectedly... but if we do fully funded we risk putting a lot of money into low-yield investments?? Is that what it boils down to?

Exterior paint - in or out? I've just re-read all the messages on this list, and that seems to be controversial. The reserve studies we've looked at from other communities do include exterior paint in the replacement reserves, and the California document lists it as a replacement reserve item. Sharon, I see you've argued for it belonging properly to maintenance reserves - even if the paint interval is quite long. Which brings me to my next question...

Assumptions about interest earnings and construction inflation - we have been working on this study without official professional help, but we have consulted privately with an experienced person in a property management company, and he advised us to choose the same rate for our inflation assumption and interest earnings assumption. From reading messages on this list, I sense that this is too optimistic - what have others assumed?

Another paint question - I notice HardiePlank siding has been mentioned here before - that's what we have, and our neighbouring cohousing community has it too, done by the same builder in 2000, and they are still on track to repaint at about a 15 year interval. Report from them is no repainting has happened yet, 9 years in, and they believe their paint to be in good condition. Our buildings were painted in 2005-2006 and are doing well except for a few spots with water damage, but that has been covered for free for us so far. We were thinking of proposing a 12 year interval based on the information we've been able to gather, but clearly any large deviation to this affects our budget greatly as it's one of our biggest expenses. Any further thoughts or experiences about Hardieplank beyond what has already been mentioned on the list?

Thanks for any help! -Rosemary