A CAI-designated Reserve Specialist will review the financials of the association. Reserve fund balances and interest rates are evaluated. Current and past annual budgets are reviewed to identify trends and differences in reserve funding.

The association's operating budget is closely evaluated to determine whether specific projects are funded through the operating budget or capital reserve budget. This is extremely important in setting up an accurate reserve study, both to prevent "funding gaps" and to prevent doubly funding projects in both budgets.

Your reserve specialist will accurately define the parties responsible for all capital assets located on your property (association, homeowner, utility company, local municipality, etc.) Association legal documents are reviewed, and past practices and precedents are discussed.

‍A Responsibility Matrix is provided within your reserve study.

Your reserve specialist will gather information on past and future capital projects. We "dig deep". Beyond identifying replacement times and ages, we inquire about maintenance practices and preventative care. We ask how spaces are utilized and the varying occupant load for each building space in order to assign useful lives that are specific to each component of your property. We collect vendor information, service contract data, and property inspection reports in order to identify factors that may not be visually apparent during a property inspection. We collect data on past project costs and review specifications for completed projects whenever available.

All component quantities are either hand measured or gathered through architectural drawings if available. All reserve specialists are experts in reading and analyzing architectural drawings. All equipment and materials are inspected for actual specification tags whenever available. Our in-depth property inspections include hundreds or thousands of photographs, all of which are reviewed and archived. All data in your reserve study is thoroughly reviewed by a team of industry-specific experts prior to shipment.