Associa CEO John Carona Joins Building Texas Show to Discuss HOA Management and European Expansion

Dallas-based Associa, the world's largest manager of homeowners associations, is expanding into Europe, according to founder and CEO John Carona in a recent interview on The Building Texas Show. Carona, a former Texas State Senator, joined host Justin McKenzie at the company's Richardson headquarters to discuss the company's 49-year journey from a two-person startup to a 24,000-employee global operation, the misunderstood role of HOAs in Texas, and plans for international growth.

Carona started Associa roughly 18 months after graduating from the University of Texas at Austin, where he worked three jobs to put himself through school. 'We started out with just two employees, myself and one rather elderly assistant who I loved dearly,' he told McKenzie. 'And from that we built this twenty-four thousand employee operation.' The growth came 'one client at a time,' organically at first, and increasingly through acquisition. Associa has now acquired more than 200 separate companies and adds another 25 to 30 management firms in a typical year.

Much of the episode aimed to set the record straight on homeowners associations. Carona made a financial case for HOAs, noting that property values in communities with mandatory HOAs have been shown repeatedly to grow at a faster rate than those outside them. 'The most important thing homeowners associations do is they preserve the value for the owners themselves by adding some degree of conformity, some reasonable rules and regulations,' he said. He also addressed friction, citing surveys showing that just north of 95% of residents appreciate the experience. 'Now, four to five percent out there feel otherwise. And it's our job as a management company to try to address the issues that those four to five percent bring up.' Associa now surveys every board of directors it represents three times a year to catch problems early.

Asked what sets Associa apart, Carona pointed to technology and training. 'We live in the Amazon age. People want more for less, and there's nothing wrong with that,' he said. 'That same technological application applies with community associations, and we have to be able to do a better job, a more timely job, and do it for lower dollars.' Associa operates 340 branch offices across the United States, serving 44 of the 50 states. Employees have voted the company a national best place to work for nine consecutive years, an achievement Carona singled out: 'Nothing makes me prouder than that.'

Associa recently acquired the number two operator in Spain, its first large international purchase, and expects to be the number one operator in that market by the close of December. Carona described it as the opening move in a three-to-five-year rollout across Europe, with the UK, France, and Italy on the list and inbound interest already arriving from Germany. 'Whatever they call them, the procedure and the type of service is more or less the same,' he said, noting that terminology varies by country, such as 'stratas' in parts of Canada.

For homeowners buying into Texas's booming triangle, Carona's closing advice was blunt: scrutinize transportation, location, and build quality, because Texas does not license builders. 'From time to time, bad actors can come on the scene.' The full episode is available now on The Building Texas Show.