Reserve study services, by level
Three levels of service, and the honest answer is that most associations do not need the most expensive one every year. If the question is more basic — what a reserve study is and what it produces — start there instead. What follows is what each level includes, and when it is the right one.
Which level does our association need?
The question turns on one thing: how much of your existing component inventory can be trusted. If there is no prior study, or the one you have no longer describes the property, the inventory has to be built and that means a site visit. If a sound study exists and the property has simply moved on a year or two, it can be verified or refreshed for considerably less.
A firm that recommends a full study every cycle regardless is selling the same thing four times. A firm that never recommends one is guessing about a property nobody has walked.
Level 1 reserve study: full study with site visit
When it applies. No usable prior study, or the last one is more than five years old.
A full reserve study builds the component inventory from scratch. An analyst walks the property, measures and photographs every reserve component, and records its condition and remaining life. Nothing is carried forward from a previous provider on trust. This is the study a board commissions when it has never had one, when the last one predates work that has since been done, or when the numbers in the existing study no longer describe the property.
What is included
- Site visit with full photographic inventory
- Component schedule built from measured quantities and local installed costs
- Thirty-year funding analysis with all three funding scenarios
- First Findings card within 48 hours of the visit
- Complete written report and the RapidView dashboard
- Maintenance schedule and compliance calendar: the work between replacements, and the inspections that come due whether or not money is set aside
$3,500 to $8,000. Unit count, structure count, and how many distinct components the property carries. See the full price ladder.
Level 2 reserve study: update with site visit
When it applies. A sound study exists, but conditions on the ground have moved.
An update with a site visit verifies an existing study rather than rebuilding it. The analyst walks the property to confirm what is actually there against what the prior study claimed, corrects the conditions and remaining lives that have changed, and rebuilds the funding plan on current costs. It costs less than a full study because the inventory already exists and is being checked rather than created. It is the wrong choice when the prior inventory is itself unreliable, because verifying a bad inventory produces a confident bad answer.
What is included
- Site visit to verify conditions against the existing inventory
- Corrected remaining lives and updated replacement costs
- Rebuilt thirty-year funding plan
- Complete written report and the RapidView dashboard
- Maintenance schedule and compliance calendar: the work between replacements, and the inspections that come due whether or not money is set aside
$2,500. Flat for most properties; complex sites quoted individually. See the full price ladder.
Level 3 reserve study: remote update, no site visit
When it applies. A recent study, a stable property, and a board that needs current numbers.
A remote update rebuilds the funding analysis without a site visit, working from the prior study, the board’s own photographs, and current cost data. It is the annual maintenance option: the year after a full study, when nothing material has changed and the board needs the numbers refreshed for the budget. It cannot find what nobody looked at, which is the honest limit of the service and the reason it is not recommended two years running.
What is included
- Rebuilt funding analysis on current cost data
- Component schedule carried forward with updated remaining lives
- Complete written report and the RapidView dashboard
- Maintenance schedule and compliance calendar: the work between replacements, and the inspections that come due whether or not money is set aside
$1,500 to $2,000. Component count and the quality of the prior study. See the full price ladder.
Transition studies
When it applies. The declarant is handing control to the owners.
Declarant handover: condition assessment of what is being conveyed, plus the reserve analysis. A transition study answers a different question than a routine reserve study: not only what the reserves should hold, but what condition the association is being handed. It is quoted individually because the scope depends on what was built and what records the declarant kept.
From $5,500. Custom quoted. Scope depends on what was built and what records exist.
Reserve studies with a site visit
Two of the three levels include a site visit, and it is the single largest cost difference between them. It is also the most common ambiguity in a competing quote: a proposal that does not say whether someone is coming to the property is not comparable to one that does. Ours says which level it is on the first page, and the price is published before you call.
How often does a reserve study need updating?
Most states and lenders expect a full study every three to five years, with updates in between. Colorado, Florida and the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rules each set their own expectations, and they do not agree with each other. The state and lender guides set out what applies where.
Find out where your association actually stands
Tell us the association name and unit count. We pull the public records and come back with a real number, usually the same day.