Why on earth would you become president of your HOA?

Although I like to think of myself as sane I was the president of my homeowners association (HOA) for two years. Why? Essentially it was a mess and getting worse and no-one else seemed to notice.

The association had just settled a construction defects lawsuit (I guess this is pretty common in California), for $11.5M out of a claim of ~$18M. Unfortunately, neither the lawsuit nor the finances had been well managed. The lawsuit part of it is complicated. Essentially, the association netted about $6.5M less expenses of about $700K. To add insult, the association's paid financial advisor (also a Board member -- for god's sake!) had lost about $2M (of the $6.5M) on the stock market. The Board at the time, realizing that this was all a disaster, started ripping each other's throats out. It was crazy stuff. The paid financial advisor (a Board member) resigned as advisor amid the uproar but was hired back until a replacement was found -- and then charged with finding a replacement. I know, you couldn't make this stuff up! After 3 months no replacement had been found -- big surprise.

Anyway, at this point I decided to jump on the grenade. Bad idea. My wife had just given birth to our second daughter a month before, so it was pretty unfair to her. But I found it so hard to sit on the sidelines while 160 homeowners had their finances ruined.

I'll say more about what ensued. The up shot for me: I gained a lot of grey hair, learned a lot of lessons -- but lets just say I no longer live in that HOA.