Take It To The Board with Donna DiMaggio Berger

Send us Fan Mail Florida community associations always need money for maintenance, repair, and capital improvement projects, but especially now with new safety laws in place, and Brewster Cole , First Vice President of Valley National Bank, is “the man with the money." Brewster has spent 16 years lending money to condominiums, co-ops, HOAs, and country clubs, and has carved an impressive nich...

Send us Fan Mail Is living in a community association the right fit for everyone? In this second of two installments, host Donna DiMaggio Berger speaks with Marisa DiLenge , founder of the DiLenge Real Estate Team. She has been a licensed real estate consultant since 1992. She is also a member of the National Association of Realtors, a member of the Masters Brokers Forum of Broward County, a membe...

Send us Fan Mail Is living in a community association the right fit for everyone? In this first of two installments, host Donna DiMaggio Berger speaks with Marisa DiLenge , founder of DiLenge Real Estate Team. She has been a licensed real estate consultant since 1992. She is also a member of the National Association of Realtors, a member of the Masters Brokers Forum of Broward County, a member of...

Send us Fan Mail Can you imagine getting 99 people to agree on the same sofa? That is similar to the tasks that lie before Brian Steele , Director of Operations at East Coast Facilities. Among other services, the company provides landscaping to residential communities throughout Florida. In this episode of Take It To the Board, host Donna DiMaggio Berger and Brian discuss how landscaping for commu...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Take It To the Board, host Donna DiMaggio Berger speaks with Becker Shareholder Joy Mattingly , who oversees Becker’s collection and foreclosure practice. Joy is an experienced litigator who represents all types of associations in collecting the delinquent assessments needed to fund the community’s essential services. She’s a graduate of University of Florida’s...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Take It to the Board, host Donna DiMaggio Berger speaks with Dennis J. Eisinger , who founded Eisinger Law in 1996 and serves as the firm's managing partner. For the past four decades, he has represented all types of community associations throughout Florida, as well as developers, financial institutions, and private equity clubs. He's Board Certified...

Send us Fan Mail Florida's current property insurance industry is in crisis, and it’s one that has been years in the making. Private insurers are exiting the state at alarming numbers and Citizens is once again becoming the only option for many community associations.  In Part 2 of this podcast episode, host Donna DiMaggio Berger and Andrea Northrup , Vice President and partner at Insurance O...

Send us Fan Mail Florida's current property insurance industry is in crisis, and it’s one that has been years in the making. Private insurers are exiting the State at alarming numbers and Citizens is once again becoming the only option for many community associations.  Host Donna DiMaggio Berger and Andrea Northrup , Vice President and partner at Insurance Office of America, Florida's la...

Send us Fan Mail Many task forces were convened in the aftermath of the Surfside tragedy, including one by the Florida Bar. All of those task forces urged the passage of new laws pertaining to reserve funding and engineering. However, the 2022 Legislative Session in Florida concluded on March 11 with none of those reforms being passed. Host Donna DiMaggio Berger and Yeline Goin , Becker Senior Att...

Send us Fan Mail It’s common knowledge that Florida is one of the hottest markets in the U.S. – whether you’re considering a personal lifestyle upgrade or a new environment for your business. But that influx of people and industry, coupled with the state’s numerous sunny days, is a recipe for an extreme heat event and can spell disaster for an unprepared infrastructure. Host Donna DiMaggio Berger...

Send us Fan Mail Shoddy workmanship, whether in a new build or a retrofit, is the bane of any shared ownership community. And trying to avoid or recover from a bad construction job is one of the most important responsibilities a community association board can shoulder. Host Donna DiMaggio Berger and seasoned construction attorney Patrick Howell swap in-the-trench anecdotes about renovations gone...

Send us Fan Mail With crime on the rise across the U.S., safety is a leading reason most people believe a shared ownership community is the best housing option. But featured guests Kevin Van Middlesworth (Founder, CEO) and Phil Huber (VP, Client Relations) from Platinum Group Security are quick to remind host Donna DiMaggio Berger that residents themselves play a vital role in keeping a neighborho...

Send us Fan Mail In the community association world, nothing pits neighbor against neighbor faster than outdoor holiday decorations. Donna and Andrew wade into the hell of holiday décor complaints and challenges to offer thoughtful solutions that just might help both board members and residents enjoy the festive season as a true community. Get insight into Andrew's time-place-manner approach...

Send us Fan Mail If you thought property management centered on overseeing the upkeep of a property or building, you’re not alone in that misconception. According to Otto Freund, serving as a community association manager (CAM) is, instead, all about managing people and providing quality customer service to both the association board and the property’s residents or owners. And, while Otto’s last n...

Send us Fan Mail Are volunteer community association board members at the top of your thankful-for list? They are for Donna DiMaggio Berger, who counts their tremendous service during (and in what we hope are the waning days of) the pandemic right up there with the love and support of her friends and family. This special mini-episode explores this and other items on Donna’s gratitude list - and ex...

Send us Fan Mail If you’ve watched HGTV’s home renovation shows or any of YouTube’s million+ room makeover videos, you probably have an opinion about what makes a beautiful space. But you might be surprised to learn that aesthetics are only part of the challenge when tackling a community association property improvement project. Donna and Patty take the gloves off in their candid conversation abou...

Send us Fan Mail From building your workplace culture to breaking up with those who don’t fit into it, employing human beings is complex. Donna and Jamie continue the employment law conversation with an examination of the purpose and necessity of employee handbooks, the morass of legal guidelines requiring compliance, and the best way to create and protect a safe work environment, Along the way, t...

Send us Fan Mail Does your community association hire people? If so, you’ll definitely want to l isten in as Donna and Jamie discuss the complicated network of federal, state, and, in some cases, municipal laws that protect both employers and employees – and outline the consequences of mistakenly thinking those laws don’t apply to you. From the clarity of applying the salary test to the murkiness...

Send us Fan Mail If you’re one of Florida’s 18K+ community association managers or a board member to one of the state’s 60K+ shared ownership communities, you know the FLCAJ. Or do you? Donna and Michael put the publication under a microscope, discussing what it really takes to create and release over 100 pages of educational content that outlines how a process works, offers money-saving strategie...

Send us Fan Mail Wondering just how responsive a city commissioner can be? Or what it is that they actually do? Donna and the Commissioner demystify the role of elected officials in community association management and encourage volunteer board members to tap into this resource to maintain their own sanity in the face of shared ownership challenges. The conversation explores the Commissioner’s suc...

Send us Fan Mail Host Donna DiMaggio Berger and featured guest Robert Nordlund are determined to reframe the general perspective on reserve funding. Board members and residents alike are guaranteed to gain a greater appreciation of the purpose and practical management of reserves and how necessary these funds can be to avoid expensive special assessments and enhance the value of the entire communi...

Send us Fan Mail Community association board members and managers often swap ‘war stories’ about being ‘in the trenches’ when dealing with the pressures of overseeing their communities. Host Donna DiMaggio Berger puts these catchphrases into perspective with featured guest Chris Ayoub , combat veteran and president of a national property management company. T he duo seeks to remove the stigma comm...

Send us Fan Mail Even as children, enforcing the rules that kept games playful didn’t always make you very popular with your peers. Association board members and managers will tell you that, when it comes to maintaining a community of adult homeowners, not much has changed since those playground days. Donna and Howard help association leaders embrace this unpopular segment of their service and out...

Send us Fan Mail Contrary to what the uninitiated might think, serving the legal needs of a community association board is NOT all about overweight dogs and contentious board meetings. It is a nuanced, complicated area of law that touches on many niches – real estate, land use and zoning, intellectual property, labor, even criminal. So, if you’ve ever considered saving a few dollars by asking your...

Send us Fan Mail Think COVID-19 Shield Laws will safeguard your community association from claims of  negligence? Host Donna DiMaggio Berger and featured guest David Ramsey aren’t so sure. This special episode emphasizes that the only real protection against pandemic-related liability is to consistently uphold the highest standard of care – even in the face of owners' fury – and reminds board...