A Tale of Two Property Owner Association Websites

See how one landowners association in Colorado turned to eXcelisys for help when its website got hacked and how one Florida association is leaning on eXcelisys to make updates to its website to comply with new state laws.

Tale #1 – Sheep Creek Landowners Association – A Mountain Community in Southern Colorado

In 2014, the Sheep Creek Landowners Association found itself up a sheep creek without a developer to paddle its troubled website to safety. The association’s board did everything right – they built a Joomla site in-house, then contracted with a maintenance company to provide updates for security purposes.

Everything was going well until April 2014 when Sheep Creek’s internet service provider suspended the site and plucked it offline because of suspicious activity. Turns out, the maintenance company did not provide any maintenance or updates, leaving the Sheep Creek website vulnerable to attack. 

Seeking help, Sheep Creek hired eXcelisys to sort out the issues. In a quick fix, eXcelisys cleansed the site and got it back online; however, the damage was so eXtreme eXcelisys worried about future vulnerabilities because the malware prevented developers from updating Joomla to the latest, most secure version. Instead of investing time (and money) to scrub every nook and cranny of code and complete the updates manually, eXcelisys suggested a fresh start via a migration to WordPress.

One unique feature included on the Sheep Creek website is the live camera and weather feed, which residents rely on during the snow season to check weather conditions and ensure safe travels in and out of the area.

In the years since the website rebuild, Sheep Creek has relied on eXcelisys HOA eXpertise to provide regular web maintenance, updates and tech support. For Sheep Creek, the investment has paid off — the eXcelisys-built Sheep Creek website has been stable and unhacked since its launch in 2016.

Not only that, eXcelisys provides “as-needed” support for the Sheep Creek website. Like many property owner associations and HOAs, the Sheep Creek community is run by a Board of Directors and countless volunteers. As such, Sheep Creek web administrators come and go and sometimes have little eXperience working with websites. The transition goes smoothly, though, because eXcelisys is there to guide the new “webmasters” in their admin duties and get them up to speed on WordPress so they can post content like board minutes, community announcements, governing documents and so forth. 

For the past four years, Christy Keenan has been the Sheep Creek web administrator. Keenan said she appreciates being able to lean on eXcelisys WordPress developer Shane Glover when she needs assistance. “He’s so easy to contact and get hold of, so good at helping and problem-solving.”

Keenan praised Glover’s guidance. For eXample, in August he helped resolve an issue with a Sheep Creek member who was having trouble re-setting a password to access a members-only, password-protected area of the site. After some digging, Glover found an email authentication issue and he helped Keenan resolve the problem to get the community member access.

Over the years, Sheep Creek has benefitted from eXcelisys eXpertise in several areas:

  • Tech guidance: eXcelisys provides advice for decisions like signing up for the most favorable web hosting plans and installing the most helpful WordPress plug-ins.
  • Troubleshooting: Sheep Creek runs a live camera feed for residents to check the snowy mountain conditions and ensure safe travels in and out of the area. The webcam, linked to the website, has issues from time to time – i.e., weather widgets break or new cameras with new IP addresses need to be linked to the site.
  • New content: In 2018, Sheep Creek wanted a facebook logo and link added to the web navigation menu to direct users to “like” and “join” the association’s facebook page to share pictures and post messages. Sheep Creek requested the addition and eXcelisys added it.
  • Security: eXcelisys runs monthly maintenance checks to ensure the WordPress site and all eXtensions stay updated, functional and secure.

When asked about the pros and cons of working with eXcelisys Keenan said, “I can’t think of any cons.”

Tale #2 – Epping Forest – A Residential and Recreational Community in Northern Florida

In 2017, Epping Forest came to eXcelisys seeking help with a login issue involving its members-only website. Epping Forest had built the site years earlier and used it as an internal tool to share information with residents. eXcelisys fixed the issue and gained Epping Forest’s trust as its go-to web support company. 

Fast forward to 2024 when Epping Forest found itself in need of a web developer to assist with site updates mandated by new state legislation. In 2024, the Florida legislature passed a couple of new laws aimed at increasing transparency and accountability within HOAs and condo associations. The new laws require online posting of governing documents, including articles of incorporation, bylaws, covenants, annual budgets, board meeting agendas and so forth. 

Epping Forest webmaster and board member Bob Coffee is working to ensure his community’s website meets the requirements of the new legislation. In doing so, he has turned to eXcelisys for help. For eXample, Coffee asked eXcelisys to add a new tab – “Contracts, Documents and Financial Information” – to the web menu along with a corresponding page and set it up as a blank template he could work with.

eXcelisys WordPress developer Shane Glover added the page, headings and document names requested by Coffee, then made a quick, step-by-step video showing Coffee how to edit the page and attach the appropriate documents. This process makes it quick and easy for Coffee to make updates without having to fuss with web formatting. 

Luckily, for Epping Forest, there’s not a ton of web work to be done. “We have 85 percent of what we need,” said Coffee, who plans to keep using eXcelisys to refine the current site to meet the new guidelines. 

Tale #3 –  This has yet to be written. This tale involves YOUR partnership with eXcelisys. We think it’s called “Tranquility Lane.”

For volunteer-run homeowner and condo association boards, building and maintaining a website can be time-consuming. Just as you turn to professionals when you need a new roof, you can rely on a professional web-development company like eXcelisys when your website needs a new feature – or remodel. Outsourcing web development allows volunteer HOAs to focus on community-building activities instead of devoting time to complex technical tasks.

For anyone who has served on a property association board, you know there is plenty to do. Let us take care of the website because websites don’t manage themselves. Links break, updates fail, sites get hacked and server PHP updates from webhosts can disrupt a site. Do you want to deal with that? When you work with eXcelisys, help is always on the way.

 

If you need help fixing, updating or maintaining your HOA or condo association website, contact eXcelisys today. Our solution consultants will be happy to discuss your HOA website needs. Let us build and maintain your website so you can focus on the important things in life.