Component inventory
Every shared asset the association is responsible for — with quantity, remaining life, and replacement cost.
What is a reserve study?
A reserve study is a long-term planning tool that inventories a community’s major common-area assets, assesses their condition, and forecasts the cost of repairing and replacing them over time — then compares that forecast against the reserve funds the association is collecting.
Reviewed by Aaron LombardoLast reviewed
§ 01On site, then the model
At North Star Reserves, it starts on site. We physically inspect your community’s assets — roofs, paving, siding, elevators, pools, and the rest — checking for safety issues, water damage, and each component’s quality, condition, and quantity. From there we build a 30-year projection of repair, rehabilitation, and replacement costs and measure it against incoming membership dues. The result is a financial model that shows whether your current funding keeps pace with what’s coming, and what to adjust if it doesn’t. It answers the two questions every board has: what will need work, and when — and are we saving enough to pay for it without a special assessment?
§ 02What it contains
Inventory, condition, and a funding plan.
Condition assessment
What we saw on site. Photographs, measurements, and notes a board can defend.
Funding model
Whether current contributions keep pace, and what to adjust if they do not — in scenarios, not a single frozen table.
§ 03Who it is for
Boards, managers, and anyone who has to explain the number.
If you sit on a board, manage associations, or own a specialty property, the study is how you stop guessing. See For Boards, reserve study services, or a sample report.
§ 04Questions
A reserve study is a long-term planning tool that inventories a community’s major common-area assets, assesses their condition, and forecasts the cost of repairing and replacing them over time — then compares that forecast against the reserve funds the association is collecting. At North Star Reserves, it starts on site. We physically inspect your community’s assets — roofs, paving, siding, elevators, pools, and the rest — checking for safety issues, water damage, and each component’s quality, condition, and quantity. From there we build a 30-year projection of repair, rehabilitation, and replacement costs and measure it against incoming membership dues. The result is a financial model that shows whether your current funding keeps pace with what’s coming, and what to adjust if it doesn’t. It answers the two questions every board has: what will need work, and when — and are we saving enough to pay for it without a special assessment?
A budget covers the year you are in. A reserve study covers the decades after it — when roofs, paving, elevators and mechanicals come due, and what it will cost when they do. The two documents should talk to each other: the study tells you what the reserve contribution line in the budget needs to be, and the budget is where that decision actually gets made. Boards get into trouble when the reserve line is set by what feels affordable this year rather than by what the components are going to demand, because the gap between those two numbers compounds quietly.
A physical inspection of the property, a component inventory, a condition assessment of each asset, a 30-year funding model measured against what you currently collect, and a board-ready deliverable written so a homeowner can follow it. Then the part that matters most: we present it at your board meeting, walk through the model, and stay available through the funding decisions. Consulting is included rather than billed hourly, so a board can call in year three when something fails early. It is not a file we drop and leave.
Any association responsible for replacing shared assets — which is nearly all of them. Some states require a study on a set cadence and others say nothing at all, so the legal answer depends on where you are. The practical answer does not: if your association owns roofs, roads, elevators or amenities, those things are wearing out on a schedule whether or not anyone has written it down. The study is how a volunteer board finds out what that schedule is before it arrives.
Four weeks from the site inspection to the report in your hands, and we put money behind that — the 4/10 Guarantee means your report within 4 weeks of inspection, or 10% off your invoice. The clock starts at inspection rather than at signing, so the scheduling conversation is worth having early, particularly if you are working toward a budget deadline.
§ 05When you are ready