I often see people not planning for long-term futures even though they know that in order to protect their investment; you have to have long-term thinking.

When repeated Band-Aid fixes, particularly with termites, no longer suffice, owners and condo associations can find themselves on the hook for some hefty repair and maintenance bills. Sometimes they have to pay in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Increasingly, homeowner groups have to take out loans to soften the blow of high levies.

My experience confirms another point. Deferred and unfunded maintenance is a ticking time bomb. It's easy to understand. What condo owner wants to write a $1,000 or $5,000 check? Some people have been putting repairs off for the last 10 years.

Here's some other information that struck me:

- About 1.7 million of the county's 2.9 million residents live in what are known as common-interest developments, and about 75 percent of those housing communities are condominium complexes or condo conversions

- Nearly two-thirds of developments with homeowner associations are 16 years or older.

These and other factors are converging to create epidemic of needed repairs.

Every day I see the manifestation of deferred maintenance ? the termites have come home to roost, and the stucco and wood members are deteriorating. The proverbial ?excrement? has hit the fan.

Some prime example of deferred maintenance I've been involved with:

Our company completed a project earlier this year of termite tent fumigation and termite dry rot wood repair (on a 440 unit condo complex). For 20 years the home owners where spending $50-&70K a year on Band-Aid spot treatments for termites and spotty wood repair. They finally faced the fact that their complex was being eaten up by termites and dry rot. They did a special assessment of $1500 per house hold ($660.000) and got the project done. After the paint job, the place looks brand new and is termite free with a 3 year service contract at no charge to boot.

If they would have done these 10 years ago it would have been less than half the cost.

The next month we started a similar project. This association had done nothing for 25 years. The 150 unit complex will cost $65,000 to tent fumigate, and $550,000 to repair the damaged wood. If they would have spent the $65,000 ten years ago they would only be looking at about $90,000 in repairs.

I could go on and on giving countless examples of these types of horror stories.

But, the point is, pay now or REALLY pay later.

Get your properties assed by a good qualified company like Hi-Tech Termite and find out where you stand with termites and dry rot. It costs nothing to get peace of mind.