Eclipse Community Management

We're growing! Eclipse is hiring a Regional Manager to help lead our team.

If you're an experienced community association manager ready to step into leadership, this role is focused on mentoring and supporting a team of Association Managers.

• $100,000 to $115,000
• Hybrid, home-based within our Ohio and Northern Kentucky service area
• Health, dental and vision from day one
• 401(k) with a 4% match and about four weeks of PTO
• CAI membership and credential costs fully covered

Know someone who'd be a great fit? Search "Eclipse Community Management" on Indeed to apply, or send us a message here.

Last week our president, Chris Vecchi, was back on Capitol Hill for his second year at CAI's Congressional Advocacy Summit, meeting with the offices of Representatives Greg Landsman and Warren Davidson and Senators Bernie Moreno and Jon Husted on behalf of our communities.

The conversations covered several CAI priorities, with two front and center:

Disaster relief. Making sure association roads and common areas are not left out of federal debris removal after storms like the 2019 Memorial Day tornadoes. The bill has strong bipartisan support, and we are pushing for a House floor vote.

Condo mortgages. Asking for more time before Fannie Mae's new reserve standard takes effect in January, so condominium owners can keep selling and refinancing while boards adjust.

Great conversations, strong interest, and relationships we will keep building. The full recap, plus a short checklist for boards, is on our blog.

Capitol Hill Recap: Advocating for Community Associations Eclipse met with congressional offices on FEMA disaster relief for association roads and more time on Fannie Mae's new condominium reserve standard.

After the Memorial Day tornadoes in 2019, FEMA obligated about 9.67 million dollars for debris removal across Ohio, including roughly 6.37 million in Montgomery County and 2.34 million in Greene County.

None of it reached a community association. Federal rules do not allow reimbursement to a private organization for clearing its own property, and federal debris money only reaches a private road if a city or county requests it, does the work, and FEMA approves it in advance.

This Thursday I am on Capitol Hill for CAI's 2026 Congressional Advocacy Summit. Three issues, and what each means here:

Disaster relief. Two bills would begin to fix the above. Association roads carry ambulances, fire trucks and school buses and are paid for entirely by assessments.

Condo lending. Fannie Mae's condominium rules tightened in August and tighten again in January. Roughly 5,400 associations nationwide are already on the ineligible list, and nobody tells an association when it lands there. Most find out when a neighbor's sale falls through.

Insurance. Ohio rates rose 36.4 percent from 2019 through 2024, and Ohio set a state record with 74 tornadoes in 2024. Master policies are priced off those same storms.

Most of the communities we manage on the Ohio side of the river sit in two congressional districts, represented by Greg Landsman and Warren Davidson, and Ohio is served by Senators Bernie Moreno and Jon Husted. We are working to build their support for the disaster bills that matter to our associations.

If you are on a board and want something raised, message me before Thursday.

Full post: https://eclipsecommunities.com/capitol-hill-advocacy-ohio-community-associations/

Today the Great American Relay arrives at the World Trade Center.

It left the Flight 93 Memorial in Pennsylvania on September 5. Over seven days and 565 miles, runners carried a baton across seven states and Washington DC in 122 legs run firehouse to firehouse. This is my fifth year running it, and Eclipse Community Management is proud to sponsor the event this year. I am leading one of the final legs into lower Manhattan.

The relay benefits the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, started by the family of FDNY firefighter Stephen Siller. Stephen had just finished his shift that morning when he heard a plane had hit the North Tower. He went back for his gear, found the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel closed, and ran through it on foot with sixty pounds on his back. He never came home. The foundation his family built has since delivered more than 2,000 mortgage free homes to Gold Star families and the families of fallen first responders.

2,977 lives. 343 FDNY. More than 400 more lost since to illness from that work.

One ask. Sometime today, do something kind for someone who cannot repay it. No need to tell anyone.

https://eclipsecommunities.com/great-american-relay-tunnel-to-towers-september-11/

A twelve year old comes down the main drive at twenty miles an hour, no helmet, front wheel up, friend on the back. That is the email boards are getting this year, and the worry behind it is that somebody's kid is going to get badly hurt.

The data says residents are right. Children hurt on e-bikes are hospitalized more than twice as often as kids on regular bikes, and 97.3 percent of the children treated for e-bike injuries were not wearing a helmet. Most crashes are falls, not collisions with cars.

Two things boards usually get wrong.

First, the association is less exposed than most boards assume. The legal duty is to keep the property in reasonable condition, not to supervise how children play on it.

Second, the rule most boards write first is the one that causes real trouble. Age based restrictions and adult supervision requirements for common areas are the most frequently prosecuted rules in fair housing, and settlements have run into the millions.

The version that works is about conduct, not age. Helmets for everyone riding. A speed limit. No stunt riding. Owners responsible for their family and guests.

https://eclipsecommunities.com/kids-e-bikes-scooters-association-rules/

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"We already got three bids. Why would we pay somebody else on top of that?"

Here is the honest answer. Your board is not a roofing expert. Neither is your management company. Eclipse is not either.

Boards assume somebody is checking the work. All three of the usual somebodies say in writing that they are not.

→ The manufacturer inspects for itself. GAF’s guarantee: its inspections "are limited to a surface inspection only, are for GAF’s sole benefit."

→ The building department is very likely not coming. Ohio’s enumerated building inspections do not include roof covering, underlayment, flashing, or ice barrier.

→ The contractor’s supervisor works for the contractor.

So who verified that what was specified is what got installed? On most association projects, nobody.

Roofing is just the clearest example. The same gap runs through paving, facades, balconies, and mechanical plant.

https://eclipsecommunities.com/owners-agent-condominium-capital-projects/

"We already got three bids. Why would we pay somebody else on top of that?" It is a fair question, and it has a specific answer.

→ Neither Ohio nor Kentucky licenses general contractors. On a multimillion dollar capital project, the party running the whole job needs no state license. The plumber does.

→ A mechanic’s lien for common element work attaches to every unit in the community under ORC 5311.13(C), apportioned by ownership percentage.

→ Certificates of insurance confer no rights. Only the endorsement does, and the one that covers a leaking new roof is not the one most boards collect.

An owner’s agent is the only party at the table whose sole job is protecting the association.

https://eclipsecommunities.com/owners-agent-condominium-capital-projects/

Eclipse spent August 20 at the CAI Central Ohio Chapter Trade Fair at the Hilton Polaris in Columbus, alongside more than fifty exhibitors. The event sold out, and proceeds went to Honor Flight Columbus. 🤠

Regional Manager Nate Thompson, CMCA, AMS and Association Manager Marcus O'Neal spent the day with board members, managers, and service providers from across Central Ohio.

Trade shows look like a day of handshakes. What actually comes out of them is the network a board benefits from later: the roofer who shows up on time, the engineer who writes a defensible reserve study, the attorney who genuinely practices association law.

Ohio has roughly 8,850 community associations and more than 1.6 million residents living in them. The professional infrastructure around that responsibility is what CAI builds, and it is why we keep showing up.

Nate's full post covers what CAI membership delivers, what the credentials behind the letters actually mean, and how board members can join their chapter too.

https://eclipsecommunities.com/cai-central-ohio-trade-fair-2026/

Most boards assume the law tells them how to hire a contractor. It does not..

Ohio gives boards broad authority to sign contracts and sets no bidding requirement, no dollar threshold, and no requirement that the contract even be in writing. Kentucky planned communities have no governing statute at all.

Two facts worth knowing before the next project goes out to bid.

1. Only five trades carry an Ohio state contractor license: HVAC, refrigeration, electrical, plumbing, and hydronics. Roofers, pavers, painters, and landscapers have no state license to check.

2. Under ORC 5311.13(C), an unpaid subcontractor on a common element project can place a lien that attaches to every unit in a condominium, even a subcontractor who never had a contract with the association.

Our latest post covers what actually protects a board: insurance verification, Notices of Commencement, lien waivers, disclosed conflicts, and seven things to put in place before the next contract is signed.

https://eclipsecommunities.com/vendor-selection-procurement-boards/

Reserve planning is one of the few board decisions that gets made whether or not the board makes it. 🏘️

The roof will need replacement in ten years whether the association funds for it or not. What a board decides each budget season is not whether that money gets spent. It is who pays it, and when.

Ohio law already requires it. ORC 5311.081(A)(1) and ORC 5312.06(A)(1) both call for reserves adequate to repair and replace major capital items without special assessments, and a waiver only holds for one year at a time. Northern Kentucky condominiums carry their own replacement reserve obligation.

And as of 2026, lenders are checking. Fannie Mae retired the Limited Review process on August 3, and beginning with loan applications dated January 4, 2027, Full Review condominium budgets need a replacement reserve line of at least 15 percent of assessment income. A current reserve study is the alternative path.

Our latest post walks through what Ohio and Kentucky actually require, what changed with Fannie Mae, and six things boards should settle before budget season.

https://eclipsecommunities.com/reserve-planning-board-responsibility/