A Broken Mirror: Why HOA Homeowners Have No Reflection
In most sectors—government, business, even healthcare—performance is measured by comparison. Cities benchmark service costs. Corporations disclose earnings and executive pay. Consumers compare prices and reviews before buying even a $100 product.
But when it comes to homeowners’ associations (HOAs)—which govern over 370,000 communities and collect $100+ billion annually in dues—there are no reliable benchmarks:
No standard for HOA dues.
No vendor cost comparisons.
No reserve funding benchmarks.
No tracking of complaint trends.
This isn’t just a data gap—it’s a governance failure that leaves homeowners flying blind.
Why Benchmarking Matters
Comparative benchmarking empowers owners to ask basic, consequential questions:
Are our HOA dues reasonable?
Are we overpaying for legal services or landscaping?
Are our reserves underfunded compared to similar communities?
Is our board managing resources more—or less—effectively than others?
Right now in Nevada, homeowners can’t answer these questions.
There’s:
No state database of HOA dues.
No central registry of vendor costs.
No way to compare election practices, budget growth, or enforcement trends.
Each HOA exists in a silo—a black box of governance where performance is hidden and comparisons are impossible. This isolation doesn’t protect homeowners—it protects dysfunction.
(Related: HOA Budgets: Why Homeowners Often Have No real Say)
Opaque Costs, Real Consequences
The absence of comparative data leads to inflated costs, vendor favoritism, and—in extreme cases—fraud.
Consider the 2013 Benzer scandal, where dozens of Las Vegas-area HOAs were infiltrated by a criminal enterprise that:
Rigged elections,
Installed puppet board members, and
Funneled contracts to corrupt vendors.
Homeowners were defrauded of millions—and had no way to spot the warning signs, because they had no reference point to recognize inflated fees or manipulated governance.
Even without criminal activity, structural blindness causes real harm:
$1,000 landscaping at one HOA might cost $4,000 next door—with no tool for comparison.
Reserve studies may be dangerously underfunded—with no standard to measure adequacy.
Legal fees can balloon without explanation—hidden in opaque billing.
Owners approve budgets without knowing if they’re getting value.
This problem is especially evident when it comes to management costs, often the single largest operating expense in an HOA’s annual budget. A $15-per-door monthly management contract in one HOA might cost $35 next door, with no clear difference in service levels or deliverables—and no database or benchmarking system to reveal that disparity.
Yet homeowners and buyers have no way to know. And that disconnect undercuts the entire rationale behind HOA living.
Most people buy into an HOA because they believe it will protect and preserve property value through professional management and stable governance. But if buyers can’t evaluate what they’re paying for—who manages the community, how much they charge, or how well they perform—then that promise becomes hollow. We’re asking people to make the largest investment of their lives while hiding how that investment will be managed. That makes no sense.
Other Sectors Are Ahead
Cities, counties, school districts, and hospitals already publish detailed performance and cost data.
The hospital industry is the closest parallel to HOAs—both handle:
Large budgets,
Complex operations, and
Captive consumers with limited choices.
Hospitals must now publicly report:
Procedure costs,
Infection/readmission rates,
Patient satisfaction, and
Staffing levels.
Consumers can compare this data through Medicare’s Hospital Compare, Healthgrades, and various state-run websites. These disclosures weren’t voluntary—they were mandated by law because public trust depends on transparency.
So why do we accept total opacity from HOAs—the entities that govern our property, collect assessments, and set daily rules?
Nevada Law: No Tools for Comparison
Nevada’s HOA transparency framework is minimal and outdated:
Budgets, contracts, and reserve studies are not published online.
NRS 116.31175 limits record access to case-by-case requests, subject to delay and redaction.
No database tracks HOA dues, vendor pricing, or complaint patterns.
No standardized budget or reserve formats exist for side-by-side comparison.
Compliance is procedural, not substantive—leaving owners with no metrics to evaluate performance.
A Path Forward: Build the Benchmarking Infrastructure
NVHOAReform proposes statewide HOA benchmarking, managed by the Nevada Real Estate Division (NRED) and codified through a proposed HOA Transparency Act.But the truth is, much of this reform doesn’t require new legislation—only the will to act.
NRED Can—and Should—Act Now
The Nevada Real Estate Division (NRED) already collects significant HOA data through required filings and complaint investigations. Yet this information remains locked behind agency walls, inaccessible to the very owners who fund the system.
Every homeowner in a common-interest community pays an annual $5 per-unit fee to support the Office of the Ombudsman. For a half-million homes, this generates over $2.5 million annually—yet homeowners see little tangible benefit beyond limited dispute resolution and regulatory pamphlets.
Imagine if even two more dollars per unit were invested annually in a public benchmarking system. That $1 million would fund interactive dashboards, vendor cost databases, and redacted complaint summaries—tools that empower owners to ask better questions, compare performance, and hold boards accountable. It would be one of the most cost-effective public transparency investments Nevada could make.
The Power of AI: Low Cost, High Impact
Thanks to recent advances in artificial intelligence, extracting insights from large datasets is no longer expensive or time-consuming. AI tools can:
Scan budgets, reserve studies, and contracts for key metrics;
Identify patterns in complaints and enforcement actions;
Standardize unstructured data for fair, side-by-side comparisons.
What used to require teams of analysts can now be done with software that costs less than a single legal invoice. Data isn’t the problem. Lack of initiative is.
Nevada already collects the raw material. What’s missing is a commitment to transparency—and a modest investment in tools that make that transparency useful.
Step 1 — Statewide HOA Performance Database (Amend NRS 116.665)
Track and publish:
annual dues per unit by HOA.
reporting of major vendor costs (legal, management, landscaping).
reserve study health and percentage of funding.
redacted complaint data and enforcement outcomes.
All in an interactive, searchable dashboard.
Step 2 — Public Benchmarking Portal
Allow homeowners, buyers, and realtors to:
Compare dues, contract rates, reserve funding, and complaint history.
Identify cost or governance outliers.
Evaluate communities before purchase.
Step 3 — Protect Homeowners & Support Good Boards
Benchmarking:
Shields honest boards from false accusations.
Encourages efficiency and best practices.
Builds trust through visible, justifiable decisions.
Benchmarking isn’t just about catching abuse. It’s about rewarding efficiency
This Is Not Radical
We already demand benchmarking in:
Hospitals,
Public schools,
Local governments, and
Publicly traded companies.
Why should HOAs—governing millions of Americans and billions of dollars—remain a data-free zone?
Take Action
The lack of comparative HOA data is a policy choice—one Nevada can change.
Support our proposal to amend NRS 116.665 and pass the HOA Transparency Act.
Together, we can:
Give homeowners tools to hold boards accountable,
Spot fraud before it happens, and
Strengthen HOA governance for everyone.
