How we work
How CondoSignal produces a report.
A versioned, documented scoring framework applied to every document in a resale package. Eight risk categories, cross-references between documents, and explicit source citations for every finding.
The eight risk categories
Every report grades risk across the same eight categories. The scoring rubric for each category is versioned and documented, so the same inputs always produce the same outputs. Categories are not weighted equally — reserve adequacy and insurance structure carry more weight than restrictions and use, because they drive more material financial outcomes for buyers and owners.
- Reserve fund adequacy. Comparison of the reserve study's recommended annual contribution against the operating budget's actual contribution and the current reserve balance.
- Special assessment risk. Pending, approved, discussed, and implied assessments — drawn from the certificate, the budget, and the past 24 months of meeting minutes.
- Insurance coverage. Master policy limits, deductibles, named-storm and water exclusions, loss-assessment exposure, and the implications for HO-6 unit-owner coverage.
- Governance health. Board functionality, minutes quality, disputes, recall efforts, executive-session patterns, and vote documentation.
- Financial stability. Operating budget, delinquency rate, audit findings, year-over-year fee changes, and capital reserves against known obligations.
- Litigation exposure. Pending claims, construction-defect actions, developer disputes, and prior settlements that affect ongoing financial stability or buyer financing eligibility.
- Restrictions and use. Rental restrictions, pet rules, modification approvals, age restrictions, and other CC&R provisions that change what owners can do.
- Buyer fit. The property's risk profile against your situation — first-time buyer, investor, primary residence.
The cross-reference process
Reading any single document in isolation produces an incomplete picture. The most important findings live in the contradictions between documents — the reserve study says one thing, the budget says another, the minutes say a third. Our process is built on three specific cross-references that consistently produce material findings:
Reserve study ↔ operating budget ↔ meeting minutes
The reserve study recommends an annual contribution. The budget shows what the board actually approved. The minutes show whether the gap has been discussed and what funding options the board considered. A persistent gap, combined with deferral language in the minutes, is the leading indicator of a future special assessment.
Master insurance summary ↔ loss-assessment coverage recommendation
The master policy declarations page tells you the building's exposure. The board's recommendation to owners on individual loss-assessment coverage tells you how much of that exposure can flow back to unit owners under a worst-case scenario. The two read together size the right HO-6 policy.
Estoppel or resale certificate ↔ meeting minutes
The certificate discloses what has been formally levied. The minutes show what has been discussed but not yet voted. A clean certificate plus minutes referencing a pending repair project is a different signal than a clean certificate with no pending discussion in the minutes.
Source citations
Every finding in every report includes the source document, the page number, and the quoted text behind the finding. There are no summaries without sources. There are no scores without inputs you can verify. This is intentional — the entire value of the review is the ability to act on it with confidence, which requires being able to check the work in seconds.
See the sample report for the format. Every report uses the same structure.
What we don't do
The clearest signal of what a service is good at is what it explicitly refuses to do. CondoSignal does not:
- Provide legal advice. We surface what the documents disclose. Your real estate attorney is the right person to advise on the legal implications.
- Provide engineering or structural certification. A reserve study or milestone inspection is a licensed engineer's work product. Our report reads what the engineer wrote; it does not replace the engineer's conclusion.
- Issue financial advice or investment recommendations. We help you understand the financial position of an association — not whether buying into it is the right move for your portfolio.
- Replace document review by a real estate attorney. We make the attorney's job more focused, not optional. The right output is a shorter, more targeted attorney call — not skipping the attorney call.
- Chat-style answers. A report is a structured document with severity grades, citations, and cross-references — not a conversation. Chat interfaces lose the structure that makes a review actionable.
See it on your own documents.
Upload your documents. We'll produce a structured risk report in minutes — free, with page citations you can verify.