# Nestingbird — Full Documentation for LLMs

> Nestingbird is HOA software built for self-managed boards — everything a management company does, in one place. Founded in 2020, it serves condo and townhouse associations with assessments and dues, annual budgets with 30-year reserve projections, formal meetings and votes, community polls, document management, compliance, and maintenance planning. Pricing is free forever on the Community plan, pay-as-you-go for occasional extras, or $25/month flat for Autopilot ($250/year prepaid, about 17% off), with no per-unit fees and no volume tiers.

## About

Nestingbird was founded in 2020 by Nathan Jones, a condo owner and board treasurer in Chicago who needed a better way to manage his building. After inheriting binders of paper, untracked assessments, and a lapsed insurance policy, he built the tool he wished existed. Nestingbird is designed for self-managed condos and property managers alike — replacing spreadsheets, email threads, and scattered documents with a single platform.

### Mission

Help every HOA operate with transparency, compliance, and confidence — without spending thousands on legacy software, whether the board self-manages or works with a management company.

## Features

### Ask Birdie (AI Assistant)
- AI assistant trained on your building's own documents — bylaws, insurance policies, meeting minutes, and financial reports
- Answers board questions in plain language with citations to the exact document and section (grounded in your documents — no hallucinations, no generic advice)
- Cross-document reasoning: connects financials, meetings, bylaws, and insurance to answer questions a single document can't
- Spots policy conflicts and tracks how documents change over time
- Multilingual — ask and receive answers in English, Spanish, Arabic, Polish, Tagalog, or Chinese
- Available on every plan (20 responses free on Community, unlimited 24/7 on Autopilot)
- Auto-generated FAQ built from the association's own uploaded documents — pre-answers the ~40 questions owners ask most (pets, parking, trash, noise, move-in rules, assessments, meetings, insurance claims, resale, and governance), cites its source, and refreshes automatically whenever a new document is uploaded (Autopilot; Community sees a locked preview)

### Budgeting & Reserves
- Build annual budgets from real spending data (categorized bank transactions)
- Plan capital projects years ahead with inflation-adjusted cost estimates
- Calculate reserve contributions automatically based on planned projects
- Board approval workflow with two-thirds majority voting
- Shareable budget reports (PDF or live link)
- Category-level and payee-level budget breakdowns

### Collections & Payments
- Auto-generated monthly invoices based on approved budget and ownership percentages
- Online payment via credit card, ACH, or check (Stripe processing); check instructions are configured once and render automatically on every invoice email
- Board-configurable payment methods — accept cards + ACH, or disable card payments per building (ACH-only)
- Owner-selected autopay day, 1st through 5th — the invoice stays due on the 1st and only the draft date moves, so a payday can land before the money does
- Board-configurable processing fees — absorbed by the building by default, so owners pay exactly their assessment, or added to the owner's payment at checkout
- Late notice automation on a fixed platform calendar — overdue invoices flip to past due on the 10th and the board gets the report the same day; owners still behind are chased on the 20th
- Special assessments with board approval and automatic unit-level invoicing
- Owner ledger with complete payment history per unit
- Fine issuance and enforcement tracking

### Governance
- Meeting scheduling with agenda planning and minute recording
- Built-in video conferencing (no Zoom or Google Meet needed)
- AI-powered meeting transcription and minute generation
- Board elections with nominations, voting periods, and documented results
- Budget voting with formal audit trail
- Recurring meeting schedules with automatic reminders
- Community polls with anonymous voting and real-time results

### Maintenance & Building Health
- Track 9 building system categories: HVAC, plumbing, electrical, elevator, roof, fire safety, structural, common areas, and more
- Service history logging with receipts and notes
- Automatic maintenance reminders when service is due
- Capital project planning integrated with budget reserves
- Building inspection report upload with AI-extracted findings
- Building Health Score — free assessment across 6 dimensions (financial transparency, governance, reserve health, compliance, maintenance planning, community engagement)

### Documents & Compliance
- Central document repository for bylaws, insurance, minutes, financial reports, amendments, and notices
- Upload via email forwarding, drag-and-drop, or during onboarding
- AI-powered document classification, text extraction, and key detail identification
- Resale disclosure packet generation, assembled to each state's requirements — currently Illinois (Section 22.1 disclosure) and Washington (resale certificate)
- Insurance policy tracking with expiration reminders
- Secure document sharing via role-based links

### Financials & Reports
- Automatic bank transaction import via Plaid (read-only connection)
- CSV import for boards without a bank connection — Date, Description, Amount, Account columns (plus optional Memo), checking and savings in one file, optional starting balances, duplicate detection, and honest partial-import reporting (rows imported, duplicates, skipped and why)
- AI-powered transaction categorization that learns your patterns
- Monthly expense reports with operating and reserve balance tracking
- Spending breakdown, spending trends, and income vs. expense reports
- Budget vs. actual comparison
- Balance sheets and exportable CSV/PDF reports
- Eight financial reports in total: income statement, balance sheet, income vs. expense, spending by category, budget vs. actual, aged receivables, general ledger, and trial balance
- Aged receivables bucketed current / 1–30 / 31–60 / 61–90 / 90+ per unit, with a trailing-twelve-month collection rate
- General ledger and trial balance for the year — every transaction under the account it posted to, and the balances proving the books balance; the standard starting point for an audit
- Monthly owner statement where every total traces to rows an owner can point at: transfers between the association's own accounts are not recorded as income, and uncategorized spend is named instead of hiding in a subtotal
- Payee tracking across all transactions

### Physical Mail
- Compose a letter in-app — rich-text body, PDF preview, saved drafts (drafts are free)
- Address verification, print, and mail handled end to end — the board never touches an envelope
- Per-piece delivery tracking: submitted → printed → mailed → in transit → delivered, plus returned/failed states with a reason
- Certified mail and certified + electronic return receipt, each with a tracking number
- Meeting notices, budget approval notices, and election notices can mail alongside the email, to all owners or the board only
- Unmailable owners (no address on file) are flagged in the composer before you pay, not after
- Multi-recipient mailings are atomic — a batch either sends complete or not at all
- Pricing: standard letter from $1.66/piece on Community (+$0.20/extra page, +$8.50 certified, +$12.00 certified with return receipt); 200 standard pieces/month included on Autopilot

### Board Inbox & Announcements
- One email address for the association — a custom alias the board chooses — that stays the same when the board changes
- Every message sent to it is saved in a shared Inbox every board member can read, and forwarded to each board member's own email
- Attachments are kept with the message they arrived on
- Reply from Nestingbird; the owner's reply threads back into the same conversation
- Sent mail and received email in one list, with unread messages and search by subject or sender
- Email announcements to all owners, the board, or specific people, sent in the association's name with replies going to the board inbox; no postage
- Official notices routed per owner: by email to owners who consented to electronic delivery, by mail to everyone else — one notice, one record
- Owners can unsubscribe from association email; the board sees who has, so it can reach them by mail or directly

### Mobile Experience
- Fully mobile-friendly in the browser — works on any phone, no app store download required
- Phone-first resident experience: balance at a glance, pay dues in two taps, autopay with saved payment methods
- Searchable document library with inline PDF preview, download, and share
- Payment history with receipts and monthly financial statements
- Maintenance request submission and status tracking
- Focused on the owner essentials — the full board toolkit remains desktop-first

## Pricing

Nestingbird offers two plans — both with unlimited units and unlimited residents — plus pay-as-you-go a la carte add-ons on top of the free plan. There are no per-unit fees and no volume tiers: the platform-fee rate is the same at any collection volume, though the amount charged scales with what is collected. Platform fees are what Nestingbird charges; Stripe's processing fee is separate, and by default the building covers it so owners pay exactly their assessment, unless the board switches it to residents at checkout.

- **Community** (Free forever): Assessment collection (platform fee 1.2% card / 1% ACH), manual invoicing & reminders, manual transaction import & historical reporting, budgeting & reserve studies, member & unit management, meetings with minutes, board elections, document storage & search, Building Score, insurance, maintenance & meeting reminders, Ask Birdie AI assistant (20 responses free, then $10/50), video meetings with AI minutes (1 free, then $5 each), resale/seller disclosures for Illinois & Washington (1 free, then $25 each), Document Mailbox (20/month), physical mail (certified, tracked, from $1.66/piece), fines & violation tracking, member request tickets, Board Inbox, community polls with anonymous voting, localization (6 languages).
- **Autopilot** ($25/mo flat, or $250/year prepaid — about 17% off; pays for itself at ~90 homes): Everything in Community, plus automated bank connection via Plaid with automatic transaction import, automated recurring invoicing & collections on schedule, automated accounting — rules-based categorization & ongoing monthly financial reports, accrual-based financial reporting by default, lower platform fees (1% card / 0.8% ACH), pre-filled 1120-H tax return PDF for easy IRS filing, Ask Birdie — unlimited 24/7 AI assistant, an auto-generated FAQ built from your own documents, unlimited resale & seller disclosures (Illinois & Washington), unlimited video meetings with transcripts & AI minutes, Document Mailbox — unlimited document imports, 200 included pieces of physical mail per month, and priority email support.

### A La Carte (Community plan)

These features are included free in limited quantities on Community. Additional uses are pay-as-you-go — no subscription required:

- **Extra video meeting**: $5/meeting — video call with transcript and AI-summarized minutes.
- **Extra resale / seller disclosure**: $25/document — board-approved resale disclosure packet (Illinois & Washington).
- **Extra Ask Birdie responses**: $10/50 responses — 24/7 AI assistant for bylaws, budgets, and board decisions.

Current pricing is available at https://nestingbird.co/pricing

## Supported Languages

Nestingbird supports 6 languages:
- English (default)
- Spanish (Español)
- Arabic (العربية)
- Polish (Polski)
- Tagalog
- Chinese (中文)

## Technical Details

- **Platform**: Ruby on Rails 8.0.1 web application
- **Frontend**: Hotwire (Turbo & Stimulus) with Tailwind CSS
- **Payments**: Stripe Connect for assessment processing, with per-building controls for card acceptance and who covers processing fees (owners at checkout, or absorbed by the building)
- **Banking**: Plaid for read-only bank account connection and transaction import
- **AI**: OpenAI for document embeddings and categorization; Anthropic for natural language features
- **Video**: 100ms for built-in video conferencing
- **Hosting**: Fly.io (United States)
- **Email**: Postmark for transactional email

## Help Center

Full help center available at https://nestingbird.co/help

### Getting Started
- [I Just Took Over My HOA Board — Now What?](https://app.nestingbird.co/help/articles/i-just-took-over-my-hoa-board-now-what)
- [Understanding Your Building Health Score](https://app.nestingbird.co/help/articles/understanding-your-building-health-score)
- [Setting Up Your Units](https://app.nestingbird.co/help/articles/setting-up-your-units)

### Budgeting & Finance
- [Understanding Your Reserve Fund](https://app.nestingbird.co/help/articles/understanding-your-reserve-fund)
- [Creating Your Annual Budget](https://app.nestingbird.co/help/articles/creating-your-annual-budget)
- [Planning Capital Projects](https://app.nestingbird.co/help/articles/planning-capital-projects)
- [Connecting Your Bank Account](https://app.nestingbird.co/help/articles/connecting-your-bank-account)
- [Categorizing Transactions](https://app.nestingbird.co/help/articles/categorizing-transactions)
- [Financial Reporting](https://app.nestingbird.co/help/articles/financial-reporting)

### Collections & Payments
- [Managing Member Invoices & Dues](https://app.nestingbird.co/help/articles/managing-member-invoices-dues)
- [Setting Up Autopilot Collections](https://app.nestingbird.co/help/articles/setting-up-autopilot-collections)

### Documents & Compliance
- [Uploading Bylaws & Governing Documents](https://app.nestingbird.co/help/articles/uploading-bylaws-governing-documents)
- [Managing Your Insurance Policy](https://app.nestingbird.co/help/articles/managing-your-insurance-policy)
- [Enabling Resale Disclosures](https://app.nestingbird.co/help/articles/enabling-22-1-resale-disclosures)
- [How AI Organizes Your Documents](https://app.nestingbird.co/help/articles/how-ai-organizes-your-documents)

### Governance & Meetings
- [Scheduling & Running Board Meetings](https://app.nestingbird.co/help/articles/scheduling-running-board-meetings)
- [Setting Up Board Elections](https://app.nestingbird.co/help/articles/setting-up-board-elections)
- [Creating a Recurring Meeting Schedule](https://app.nestingbird.co/help/articles/creating-a-recurring-meeting-schedule)

### Maintenance
- [Tracking Building Systems](https://app.nestingbird.co/help/articles/tracking-building-systems)
- [Uploading Inspection Reports](https://app.nestingbird.co/help/articles/uploading-inspection-reports)
- [Planning Capital Improvements](https://app.nestingbird.co/help/articles/planning-capital-improvements)

### Members & Communication
- [Transferring Unit Ownership](https://app.nestingbird.co/help/articles/transferring-unit-ownership)
- [Managing Owner Requests](https://app.nestingbird.co/help/articles/managing-owner-requests)
- [Using Comments & Discussions](https://app.nestingbird.co/help/articles/using-comments-discussions)

## Free Tools

- [Reserve Study Calculator](https://nestingbird.co/reserve_study_calculator): Free 30-year reserve fund projection tool. Enter your HOA's reserve balance, contributions, and expenditures to compare five funding strategies — fully funded, minimum threshold, 5% annual increase, 10% annual increase, and current plan. Shows per-unit monthly cost, special assessment risk, ending balance, and percent funded for each strategy. Includes an interactive chart and key insights panel.
- [Building Health Score](https://nestingbird.co/building_score): Free assessment that evaluates your HOA across six dimensions of operational health — financial transparency, governance, reserve health, compliance, maintenance planning, and community engagement.
- [Free Condo Building Profiles for Illinois Listing Agents](https://nestingbird.co/for_agents/): Free tool for Illinois condominium listing agents, used right when the listing agreement is signed, long before an offer. The agent fills a short form: building address, unit, seller, association name, optional listing date, the board president's contact, and up to five questions of their own. Nestingbird emails the president a link (no account, no password). The president uploads whatever documents the association has (declaration and bylaws, rules, budget including spreadsheets, insurance, minutes). Nestingbird's AI reads them and pre-fills the building facts buyers ask about, grouped as building and renting (total units, how many are rented, rental cap or waiting list, minimum lease term, short-term rental ban), living there (pets and pet limits, smoking, parking, storage, move-in rules and fees), money (monthly assessment range and what it covers, special assessments, planned projects and how they are funded) and legal and insurance (pending lawsuits, master insurance, HO-6 requirement, FHA approval), and drafts answers to the agent's own questions. Every suggestion shows the quoted passage it came from. The president checks or edits each answer, chooses which documents the agent may download (rules and governing documents on by default; financials, minutes and insurance off by default), and shares; the agent gets a page with the snapshot and the shared documents. It is explicitly not the Section 22.1 resale disclosure (765 ILCS 605/22.1): nothing is signed or certified. Free for the agent and the board. When the unit goes under contract, the attorneys request the official 22.1, which the board can prepare in Nestingbird pre-filled from the profile ($25, or included on the Autopilot plan). Illinois only; agents in other states are asked to email support@nestingbird.co. The page also includes a copy-and-paste heads-up note agents can send the president, and an FAQ.

## Free Documents

Downloadable reference documents for self-managed HOA and condo board members, published alongside the HOA Essentials video series. Every document is ungated: no email address, no account, no signup, and no interstitial. Each is available as a fill-in Excel workbook — with formulas, dropdowns, and print setup — and as a printable PDF generated from that same workbook, so the two versions cannot drift. Both are hosted directly on nestingbird.co. Documents are grouped into three topics — governance (documents, meetings, and board authority), money (budgets, assessments, and vendor costs), and operations (insurance, maintenance, and running the year).

- [Free Documents index](https://nestingbird.co/resources): The full catalog of free cheat sheets, checklists, and worksheets for HOA and condo boards, grouped by topic, with a one-line summary and intended audience for each.
- [Governing Documents Cheat Sheet](https://nestingbird.co/resources/governing-documents-cheat-sheet): A fillable worksheet for board members who need to know what their own governing documents say. Establishes the four-document hierarchy — declaration (CC&Rs), articles of incorporation, bylaws, and rules and regulations — and the rule that when two conflict, the higher one controls, so a board-passed rule cannot override the declaration. Covers the six sections that decide most questions: maintenance responsibilities (what the association maintains versus the owner); assessment authority (percentage interest, whether the board can raise regular dues without an owner vote, any cap on an increase, and how large a special assessment the board can levy alone before it must go to the owners); voting thresholds (ordinary decisions, declaration amendments which typically require a supermajority of all owners rather than of those present, and unanimous-consent items); meeting requirements (frequency, owner notice, quorum); board elections (nomination, term length, staggered terms); and board authority (what the board decides alone versus what goes to the owners). Also includes an eight-row amendments tracking table — an amendment supersedes the original text, and amendments recorded before a board member's term still bind the association, making them the most commonly missing documents in an inherited file — and a section on state statute, which in many states caps annual regular assessment increases without a member vote regardless of what the declaration permits. Audience: new board members who inherited a stack of documents nobody explained, and owners trying to determine what their association can and cannot do. Formats: Excel workbook, PDF.
- [New Board Member Document Checklist](https://nestingbird.co/resources/new-board-member-document-checklist): A request list, ordered by what to ask for first, for anyone newly elected to an HOA or condo board. Money first, because it is the fastest read on the association's condition: twelve months of bank statements, the current and prior year budgets, outstanding invoices, the reserve account balance, and the date of the last reserve study — noting that no reserve fund is the most urgent finding available, and no monthly financial statements the second. Then governing documents: the declaration and every recorded amendment (obtainable from the county recorder of deeds when the association itself lacks them), bylaws, articles of incorporation, and currently enforced rules, with maintenance responsibilities, assessments, and voting thresholds broken out as the sections most often needed. Then insurance: the full master policy rather than the lender-facing certificate, confirmation the policy has not lapsed, exclusions, how the premium is paid, and claims history. Then vendor contracts with costs and expiry dates, past inspection reports, capital improvement history, and the deferred maintenance list. Closes with setting up a shared folder and a forwarding board email address, and a copy-paste request email covering the entire list in one dated request. Includes Requested and Received tracking columns. Audience: newly elected board members with no handover. Formats: Excel workbook, PDF.
- [Board Coverage Template](https://nestingbird.co/resources/board-coverage-template): A worksheet that divides small-board work by area of focus rather than by officer title, on the argument that titles exist for state filings and do not allocate labour. Three areas, each with five rows: financial awareness (every member able to state the reserve balance unaided, view-only bank logins for all members, the budget in a shared spreadsheet, a monthly one-page snapshot of operating balance and reserve balance and delinquencies, and someone verifying the monthly reserve transfer occurred); maintenance and vendor responsiveness (a shared vendor list with authorization thresholds, renewal dates calendared with 60-day reminders, and a board-agreed spend limit any single member may authorize — checked first against the declaration and bylaws, which frequently already specify one); and owner communication (a single forwarding board email, association business off personal accounts, a 48-hour response norm, documents in one shared folder, and minutes stored board-wide). Each row takes a named owner and a backup; the workbook auto-flags any unowned row as NOBODY. A separate shared vendor list covers fifteen common services with contract start, renewal date, reminder status, annual cost, authorized approver, spend limit, and a total annual vendor spend. Audience: small self-managed boards where titles were assigned but work was never divided. Formats: Excel workbook, PDF.
- [Management Company Fee Schedule Checklist](https://nestingbird.co/resources/management-company-fee-schedule-checklist): A pricing worksheet built on the premise that a per-unit management rate is a door charge and not a comparable quote, since companies unbundle differently. Lists 22 line items to price in writing, each with the specific question to ask: base management fee and whether it is per unit or flat, monthly financial reports, annual tax filing, audit or financial review (often excluded and separately required by bylaws), additional and annual meetings, vendor coordination (per incident or percentage — a percentage giving the manager a financial interest in costlier repairs), after-hours emergency calls and the definition of after hours, printing and postage for statutory owner notices, owner statements and invoicing, collections and delinquency handling, lien filing and release, resale and disclosure package preparation and who retains the fee, site visits and inspections, onboarding or setup fees, technology or owner portal fees, insurance certificate tracking, legal coordination, bank and lockbox and payment processing including retained interest or rebates, contract termination fee, and required notice period. Unit count is entered once and per-unit rows multiply out to an annual total. A second sheet compares the management company total against self-management across ten cost lines — including the ones self-managed boards typically omit: bookkeeping, tax preparation, audit, document and communication tools, legal review, amortized reserve study, and the statutory postage that does not disappear — and converts the management total to a cost per unit per month for comparison against the quoted rate. Closes with a copy-paste email requesting the complete schedule in writing plus confirmation that no other charges apply. Audience: boards evaluating management proposals, and boards already under contract who have never totalled what they pay. Formats: Excel workbook, PDF.
- [8 Mistakes Self-Audit](https://nestingbird.co/resources/8-mistakes-self-audit): Eight yes/no diagnostic questions drawn from mistakes made by a treasurer of a self-managed association, each paired with one corrective action and a Done column. The questions: whether any board member can state the operating balance, reserve balance, and delinquencies without looking them up; whether money is transferred to reserves monthly on a schedule against a savings plan rather than being left in checking; whether a capital plan and inspection schedule exist rather than a list of things that have already broken; whether anyone checked the declaration's maintenance responsibilities section before the association last paid for a repair, given that covering one owner's repair creates an expectation for all; whether maintenance effort goes to prioritized work on major systems rather than to whatever is most visible; whether the board has put an actual number and date in front of owners when assessments need to rise, since delay enlarges the eventual increase and produces special assessments; whether the next board could operate from shared records if the current member stepped down tomorrow; and whether work is genuinely shared or one person is carrying it and considering resignation. Identifies the common root as operating without systems rather than negligence. Audience: boards functioning well enough that nothing appears urgent. Formats: Excel workbook, PDF.
- [Meeting Agenda Template](https://nestingbird.co/resources/meeting-agenda-template): A fill-in agenda for an HOA or condo board meeting, structured in the five sections a well-run meeting follows and designed to be filled in during the meeting so it doubles as the minutes. A header records the association, date, location, the date notice was sent (with the note that whichever notice period is longer — statute or bylaws — governs) and the number of board members needed for quorum. Section one, call to order, takes attendance and asks whether quorum was met before any motion is possible; without quorum the meeting is informational only and no votes may be taken. Section two, approval of previous minutes, is one motion with corrections recorded first. Section three, old business, lists items postponed from a prior meeting with the decision needed. Section four, new business, lists decisions to vote on rather than topics to discuss — the rule being that anything that is not a decision is an update and belongs in an email — with a column for whether background material was sent to owners. Section five, open forum, prints the three ground rules (three minutes per speaker, comments addressed to the board rather than to other owners, and the board's right to answer or take an item under advisement for a later agenda) and logs each owner's topic and the board's response. A closing block records whether an executive session was held and its general reason, and confirms any closed-session matter was voted on in the open meeting. Every business row carries motion-by, seconded-by, vote, outcome and action-item-with-owner columns. Audience: board members running their first meeting, and boards whose meetings run long and decide nothing. Formats: Excel workbook, PDF.
- [Budget Worksheet](https://nestingbird.co/resources/budget-worksheet): A fill-in HOA budget worksheet built on the rule that operating expenses are forecast from actuals while the reserve contribution comes from the reserve study. A header takes the association, fiscal year start, unit count and the date of the last reserve study (an old study understates the need because it inflated toward a total that stopped being right). The operating section lists insurance, utilities, landscaping, cleaning, general maintenance, accounting, legal and blank rows, each with last year's actual, this year's forecast, a computed variance, a check that a minimum 3% inflation increase was applied, and notes for vendor quotes and renewal dates; a subtotal, then a contingency of 5 to 10% of operating computed from an entered percentage, then an operating total. The reserve section puts the monthly contribution the study calls for beside what was actually contributed last year, annualised, and computes the shortfall — every dollar that does not go in returns later, larger, and all at once as a special assessment. A whole-budget section totals operating and reserves and derives the monthly assessment per unit. The four budget pitfalls from the companion video appear as yes/no checks: rounding to a number that feels right, forgetting inflation, skipping the contingency, and treating the reserve contribution as optional. A calendar section works backward from the fiscal year start through the board's adoption vote at a properly noticed meeting, the owner copy sent some days before the vote, the notice window the bylaws or state require (fifteen to thirty days is typical), any state owner-rejection threshold for assessment increases, the completed draft with a one-page summary of what changed and why, and the date to begin pulling bank statements and vendor quotes. Audience: treasurers inheriting a budget nobody has updated in years, and boards building one from scratch. Formats: Excel workbook, PDF.

## Product Pages

- [Home](https://nestingbird.co)
- [About](https://nestingbird.co/about)
- [Pricing](https://nestingbird.co/pricing)
- [Budgeting](https://nestingbird.co/features/budgeting)
- [Collections](https://nestingbird.co/features/collections)
- [Governance](https://nestingbird.co/features/governance)
- [Maintenance](https://nestingbird.co/features/maintenance)
- [Documents](https://nestingbird.co/features/documents)
- [Financials & Reports](https://nestingbird.co/features/reports)
- [Physical Mail](https://nestingbird.co/features/mail)
- [Board Inbox & Announcements](https://nestingbird.co/features/inbox)
- [Help Center](https://nestingbird.co/help)

## Comparisons

- [Compare HOA Software](https://nestingbird.co/compare): Side-by-side comparisons of Nestingbird and popular HOA management tools. Covers features, pricing, and who each tool is built for.
- [Nestingbird vs PayHOA](https://nestingbird.co/compare/payhoa): Both are full HOA management platforms. PayHOA offers a wide feature set with paid service add-ons. Nestingbird starts at $15/mo and is a focused alternative with AI document processing, a Building Health Score, and flat pricing.
- [Nestingbird vs AppFolio](https://nestingbird.co/compare/appfolio): AppFolio is built for large property management companies. Nestingbird is built for self-managed HOA boards. Compare features, pricing, and fit.
- [Nestingbird vs Buildium](https://nestingbird.co/compare/buildium): Buildium serves property management companies. Nestingbird serves self-managed HOA boards. Compare budgeting, reserve planning, and AI document processing.
- [Nestingbird vs HOA Express](https://nestingbird.co/compare/hoa-express): HOA Express gives your community a website. Nestingbird gives your board financial management, AI document processing, reserve planning, and a building health score.
- [Nestingbird vs Condo Control](https://nestingbird.co/compare/condo-control): Condo Control focuses on resident communication. Nestingbird focuses on board finances. Compare reserve planning, AI document processing, and building health scoring.
- [Nestingbird vs HOALife](https://nestingbird.co/compare/hoalife): HOALife handles announcements and calendars. Nestingbird handles your board's finances, governance, and compliance.

## Blog

- ["Our Building Is Too Small for HOA Software" (No, It Isn't)](https://nestingbird.co/blog/our-building-is-too-small-for-hoa-software/): A rebuttal to the common belief that small HOAs (six units, no staff, informal operations) don't need software. Argues that compliance obligations don't scale with building size: state resale disclosures (Illinois's 22.1, Washington's resale certificate) and lender condominium questionnaires have identical requirements whether you have 6 units or 160, and producing those answers under closing-deadline pressure is a scramble without organized records. Covers why small buildings have the same maintenance obligations (and lose institutional memory faster when their one volunteer leaves), why "minimal activity" usually means minimal tracking rather than minimal need (a $15K roof repair is $150/owner across 100 units but $2,500/owner across 6), and deconstructs the three real meanings of "too small for software" — can't justify the cost (most platforms charge per unit; Nestingbird's Community plan is free with no per-unit fees or resident limits), not enough complexity (conflates volume with obligation), and "we can handle it" (true until the one person holding everything leaves). Written by Nestingbird founder Nathan Jones based on his experience as board president of a 16-unit building.
- [How to Build a Reserve Fund When Your HOA Has Never Had One](https://nestingbird.co/blog/how-to-build-a-reserve-fund-when-your-hoa-has-never-had-one/): A step-by-step guide to building an HOA reserve fund from scratch. Covers how to establish your operating baseline from bank statements, identify upcoming capital projects and recurring maintenance, calculate the assessment increase needed (including inflation adjustment), get owner buy-in through transparent financial reporting, and keep reserve funds separate from operating accounts. Includes practical advice on contingency budgeting, the 70% funding benchmark, and how redirecting management company fees can offset assessment increases. Written by Nestingbird founder Nathan Jones based on his experience taking a 16-unit building from zero reserves to fully funded repairs without a single special assessment.
- [Does Your Small HOA Actually Need a Management Company?](https://nestingbird.co/blog/does-your-small-hoa-actually-need-a-management-company/): An honest evaluation of whether small HOAs (under 30–40 units) need a management company. Covers what management companies actually do (financial management, admin support, maintenance coordination, rule enforcement, on-site staffing), when they make sense (50+ units, on-site staff, complex amenities), and when they don't (small buildings paying $10K–$15K/year for pass-through service). Includes a practical audit framework for evaluating your current arrangement and calculating the cost-per-unit opportunity cost of management fees vs. reserve contributions. Written by Nestingbird founder Nathan Jones based on his experience firing his 16-unit building's management company and redirecting the fee into reserves.
- [What Nobody Tells You About Special Assessments](https://nestingbird.co/blog/what-nobody-tells-you-about-special-assessments/): A first-person account of the hidden costs of HOA special assessments beyond the dollar amount — the months of board member time organizing votes, tracking payments, following up with neighbors, and managing contractor timelines. Covers the full collection lifecycle, why formal collection policies protect both the board and neighbor relationships, the difference between financially struggling owners and unresponsive ones, how automation removes the board member from routine enforcement, and why funded reserves eliminate the need for special assessments entirely. Written by Nestingbird founder Nathan Jones based on his experience as board president of a 16-unit building in Chicago.
- [The Illinois 22.1 Disclosure: What Your Board Needs to Have Ready](https://nestingbird.co/blog/the-illinois-22-1-disclosure-what-your-board-needs-to-have-ready/): A comprehensive guide to Section 22.1 of the Illinois Condominium Property Act (765 ILCS 605/22.1). Covers the statutory disclosure categories boards must provide when a unit is resold: governing documents, unit account statements, anticipated capital expenditures, reserve fund status, financial statements, insurance information, pending litigation, alterations and compliance, and contact information, plus the association's collection policy from January 1, 2027. Also covers the separate lender questionnaire that accompanies most sales. Written by Nestingbird founder Nathan Jones based on his experience handling 22.1 disclosures as board president of a 16-unit building in Chicago.
- [Selling an Illinois Condo? How the 22.1 Disclosure Actually Works](https://nestingbird.co/blog/selling-an-illinois-condo-how-the-22-1-disclosure-actually-works/): The seller and listing agent's guide to Section 22.1 of the Illinois Condominium Property Act (765 ILCS 605/22.1), the companion to the board's guide. Explains that the 22.1 is a package of up to ten items the condo board assembles from its own records, not a single document to download. The statute puts the duty on the seller to obtain it and make it available to the buyer; the association's principal officer must furnish it within 10 business days of a written request (30 days before a 2023 amendment). Any fee is optional: the statute doesn't require one, it only caps what the association may charge the seller (a reasonable fee covering direct costs, at most $375 and indexed to inflation, plus $100 for rush service within 72 hours). Walks through who does what, starting before any offer (the listing agent asks the board for building facts at listing; then, once the unit goes under contract, the seller's attorney requests the 22.1 in writing, board assembles, buyer's attorney reviews, questions route back through the seller's attorney), why the contract's own dates create the real time pressure, and the usual causes of delay: an unclear principal officer, scattered documents and amendments, no financial statement ready, deciding what counts as anticipated capital expenditures, and the separate lender questionnaire. Points out that the building questions listing agents already ask at listing draw on the same records as the 22.1, so having the board gather those documents once, before the 22.1 lands, gives the 22.1 a head start; Nestingbird's free building profile for Illinois listing agents does this; the profile is not the 22.1, but the board can prepare the official 22.1 from it once the unit is under contract. Written by Nestingbird founder Nathan Jones, who handled four 22.1 requests as board president of a 16-unit Chicago building.
- [You Just Got Elected to Your HOA Board. Now What?](https://nestingbird.co/blog/you-just-got-elected-to-your-hoa-board-now-what/): A step-by-step guide for new HOA board members covering what to assess on day one, how to organize finances, insurance, and governance documents, and the common pitfalls that catch first-time board members off guard. Written by Nestingbird founder Nathan Jones based on his experience taking over a 16-unit condo board in Chicago.
- [What You Can Do With Nestingbird Before Spending a Dollar](https://nestingbird.co/blog/what-you-can-do-with-nestingbird-before-spending-a-dollar/): A comprehensive walkthrough of the Nestingbird Community (free forever) plan for new HOA boards. Covers unit and member setup with role-based access (board vs. owner views), assessment collection via Stripe (platform fee 1.2% card / 1% ACH on the free plan), manual invoicing workflow, manual transaction import for historical reporting, budgeting tools and reserve study planning, document storage with searchable archive and Document Mailbox (20 imports/month free), Ask Birdie AI assistant (20 free responses against uploaded governing documents with source citations), governance tools (meetings, board elections, community polls with anonymous voting), one free video meeting with AI-generated transcription and minutes, and fines/violation tracking. Explains the three upgrade reasons for Autopilot ($25/mo): automation (automated bank sync via Plaid, recurring invoices, auto-categorization, monthly reports), unlimited access (Birdie, video meetings, resale disclosures, document imports), and lower fees (1% card / 0.8% ACH). Written by Nestingbird founder Nathan Jones.
- [Every Way Your Board Talks to Owners, Now in One Place](https://nestingbird.co/blog/every-way-your-board-talks-to-owners-now-in-one-place/): Product announcement for Nestingbird's board communications. Every association gets its own email address (custom alias in Settings); everything sent to it lands in a shared Inbox every board member can read, attachments included, and is forwarded to each board member. Replies sent from Nestingbird thread back into the same conversation. Boards email all owners, the board, or specific people in the association's name with replies going to the board address; no postage, with a monthly allowance of 100 emails plus 4 per unit on the free plan and ten times that on Autopilot. Owners can unsubscribe from association email and the board sees who did. Official notices go by email to owners who signed an e-delivery consent and by mail to the rest, with an automatic paper copy when a notice email bounces. Physical mail (standard or certified, optional return receipt, tracked to delivery) from $1.66/piece on the free plan, 200 standard letters/month included on Autopilot. Written by Nestingbird founder Nathan Jones.

## Contact

- Support email: support@nestingbird.co
- Website: https://nestingbird.co