Governance AI for Self-Managed HOAs

The unsexy SaaS printing cash from rules, money, and anxiety.

About one-third of U.S. housing sits inside community associations—373,000 associations managing 77.1 million residents and collecting $120.9 billion in annual assessments. (iProperty Management) These associations are tiny governments with tax-like revenue, elections, enforcement hearings, and the power to fine homeowners. Most are run by three volunteers and an inbox that never stops.

The opportunity: turn volunteer HOA governance into software that becomes the system of record. At 500 communities paying $149-$499/month, you're at $1.8M ARR. At 2,000 communities within three years, you're at $7.2M ARR with 80%+ margins. That's less than 2% of the self-managed market.

This only works if you nail three unsexy execution challenges: (1) legal precision in notice/hearing workflows, (2) pain-killing onboarding for chaotic boards, and (3) channel distribution through HOA attorneys and CPAs who touch dozens of boards per year. Get those right, and you're building a defensible cashflow machine. Skip them for "AI vibes," and you're building liability wrapped in software.

The category isn't speculative. The HOA property management software market measured $9.5B in 2023 and is projected to hit $18.0B by 2032 at 7.1% CAGR. (Allied Market Research) The problem: incumbents like AppFolio, Buildium, and Yardi optimize for management companies, not volunteer boards. Their sales economics make $2K-$6K ACV deals with committees that meet monthly unattractive. You're carving a niche inside a validated, growing market—not inventing one.

The supply side keeps creating your customers. In 2024, 67% of new single-family home starts were inside HOA communities—651,873 new HOA-attached homes in a single year. (Ruby Home) Every new subdivision comes with a volunteer board that will need proper controls within 18 months.

An HOA looks like a neighborhood with bylaws. Under the surface, it's amateur hour managing serious money with weak internal controls. South Carolina's 2025 HOA complaint report shows a 19% jump in complaints year-over-year. The breakdown: failure to enforce covenants (17.3%), maintenance/repair disputes (15.1%), and ignored records requests (9.3%). (SC Consumer Affairs) The 434 complaints generated 846 discrete concerns—process failures cluster because one dispute exposes multiple governance breakdowns.

The fraud signals are worse. Auditors flag vendor kickbacks, inflated invoices, payments to ghost vendors, and unauthorized reserve transfers as the dominant patterns. A Nevada HOA uncovered a $1.3 million kickback scheme involving a landscaping contractor and board members. (JS Morlu) This is classic "weak controls + pooled funds" failure mode.

The real problem lives in controls, not payments

The HOA tech aisle already exists. Payments, portals, announcements—commoditized at $0.40–$0.65 per door per month. (Smartwebs)

The actual pain lives in workflows nobody wants to touch:

Rules interpretation. What does the CC&R actually say about fence height, rental restrictions, paint colors? Boards spend hours digging through PDFs, then make inconsistent calls that trigger "selective enforcement" lawsuits.

Vendor spend controls. This is where fraud lives. HOA board members awarding contracts to vendors who promise kickbacks. Payments to non-existent companies. Inflated invoices split with complicit treasurers.

Notice deadlines and records. The stuff that turns into subpoenas. California's Davis-Stirling Act mandates specific records access. Florida's sunshine laws require open meetings. Miss a 14-day notice requirement before a fine, and you've violated state law—homeowners can file complaints, demand audits, or sue for selective enforcement.

Your wedge isn't a vibe-based AI property manager. It's an internal controls system disguised as an HOA assistant.