Planning for roofs, fences and paving

Open Budget and then What is coming, or find it on the More page. It answers one question: which parts of the neighborhood reach the age where they normally need replacing, how many, and what that costs.

Start with the build year

In Settings, put in roughly the year the homes went up. That is enough to fill the page in, because everything without a recorded replacement year is assumed to be original. The page labels that assumption clearly, so nobody mistakes it for a survey.

Record real years as you learn them

On any home, open When were things last replaced here? and enter the years you know. Each one you add replaces an assumption with a fact, and the totals get truer. You do not need them all, and you do not need them now.

Where the prices come from

We will not invent a replacement price. Each thing is priced one of two ways: the largest single amount your association has actually paid in that category, taken from your own cost records, or a figure you type in after getting a quote. If you have paid for a roof before, the page offers that number and you accept it with one press. Anything with no price is counted but left out of the money, and the page says which ones.

Why the largest and not the average

An average mixes a four hundred dollar patch with a full tear-off and describes neither. The largest amount you have paid is closer to what a replacement costs. If most of your recorded jobs were small repairs it will still be low, so a real quote always beats it.

What it cannot tell you

An operating statement does not contain your reserve balance, so this page never claims to know what your reserve fund holds. It shows what your statement says you have budgeted and spent on this kind of work, and leaves the balance to your management company or your bank statement.

It is not a reserve study

A reserve study is a professional engagement with somebody inspecting your property. This is arithmetic on numbers you already have. Its job is to tell you whether that conversation is overdue.