Honest Pricing
We don't invent fees. Every charge on your invoice maps to real work or a real cost, here's exactly what you'll pay for, and what you'll never pay for.
Every Fee Has a Reason
Most boards have been burned by management companies that pad invoices with fees that don't correspond to anything real, "technology surcharges," "project oversight fees," "administrative handling," "after-hours response." These aren't charges for work. They're revenue dressed up as services.
We built Freedom around a different principle: every line item on your invoice should be traceable to real work we did, a real cost we paid on your behalf, or a real service you opted into. If we can't explain a charge in one sentence that ends with "because we did X" or "because the post office charged us Y", we don't charge it.
That rule covers the entire pitch. Below, we walk through every type of fee you'll see from us, and why each one exists.
The Five Things You'll See on Your Invoice
And exactly what each one is.
Your base management fee
Covers the ongoing work of managing your community: your dedicated manager, board meeting attendance, monthly financials, covenant enforcement and property inspections, vendor coordination, the resident portal, virtual meeting platform for hybrid/remote board and owner meetings, 24/7 emergency response, standard communications, and more. It's disclosed up front in your management agreement, doesn't grow mid-year, and doesn't carry hidden subcategories.
Optional add-on services
Things we offer, but you only pay for if you want them. The most common is our e-voting platform, a flat-rate annual add-on that includes unlimited votes (board elections, amendment ratifications, special assessments, anything your board wants to put to a vote), fully integrated with your owner portal so residents don't need a separate login. Dedicated community websites are another common add-on. When you opt in, the price is disclosed up front; when you don't, you don't see the line item.
Pass-through costs
Real outside expenses we paid on your behalf, bulk mailing postage, commercial print jobs, individual violation-letter postage and mailing supplies, domain hosting for opt-in community websites. Each one is itemized on your invoice. Where there is real per-mailing handling work, the actual stuffing, addressing, and processing of individual letters, we add a small administrative charge that reflects the staff time it takes. We don't add an admin charge to every pass-through (general vendor coordination is already part of your base management fee), and when an admin charge applies, it's a modest fraction of the underlying cost, not the 15–25% markup that's common in our industry. The underlying vendor cost is never inflated.
One thing worth highlighting: for violation letters, the work that produces the letter, the property inspection, the documentation, the enforcement decision, is already part of your base management fee. The only thing we pass through is the actual postage and mailing supplies. Some management companies charge $15–$25 per letter as a separate "inspection fee," effectively monetizing enforcement. We don't, because inspections are core management work, not an upsell.
One-time transition fee
When we take over from a previous management company, there's real upfront work: collecting financial records, reviewing vendor contracts, importing homeowner data, setting up bank accounts, introducing ourselves to your vendors, and more. It typically takes 30–45 days and involves multiple staff. We charge a transparent, one-time fee for that work, written into your management agreement so the dollar amount is fixed before you sign, not sprung on you after. After that, you never see it again.
Delinquent-owner fees (charged to the owner, not the association)
When an owner falls behind on assessments, two things get passed on to that specific owner, not to the association's budget. First, a notice of late assessment fee on each delinquency notice, which offsets the very real increase in phone calls, emails, and service requests that delinquent accounts generate for our staff. Second, a collections administrative fee, which we only collect when the account is ultimately resolved, it covers the extra work of coordinating with the association's attorney, gathering ledgers and supporting documentation, responding to payoff requests, and processing the resolution. Paying owners never see these fees. They exist specifically so the cost of delinquency falls on the accounts causing it, not on the neighbors who pay on time.
Fees That Are Just Revenue in Disguise
These are all real charges that real management companies levy, and that fail the "every fee has a reason" test. Each one is either revenue invented from nothing, or a cost that belongs in the base management fee and shouldn't be itemized separately.
No Project Percentage Fees
We never take a cut of your capital projects. A $200,000 roof replacement costs you $200,000, not $200,000 plus a management markup. Your reserves fund your community, not our margins.
No Technology Surcharges
The owner portal (which satisfies Florida's statutory community-website requirement for HOAs of 100+ parcels under FS 720.303(5) and applicable condo recordkeeping), email blasts, document storage, online payments, e-voting login integration, and the virtual meeting platform are all included in the base fee. Technology is how we do the job, not a separate line item. Standalone third-party community websites are a separate opt-in add-on because they require their own hosting and upkeep, but they aren't required for compliance.
No After-Hours Fees
24/7 emergency response is part of the service. A burst pipe at 2 a.m. doesn't come with a surcharge, you reach a real person without a meter running.
No Meeting Attendance Fees
Every meeting in your contract, board meetings, annual meeting, budget meeting, is included. We don't invoice per meeting, and we don't bill for prep time on meetings we're already committed to.
No Invented 'Administrative' Fees
No file-review fees, no document-request fees, no 'processing' surcharges on routine work. If it's part of managing your community, it's in the management fee.
No Per-Letter 'Inspection' Fees
Property inspections are included in the base fee. Some companies charge $15–$25 per violation letter as an 'inspection fee' on top of postage. We pass through only the actual mailing cost plus a small admin add-on, no invented inspection charge.
No ARC Application Processing Fees
Architectural review is part of running a community, not a revenue stream. Many companies charge owners $25+ every time they submit a request to paint their house or add a fence. We include ARC coordination in the base fee, so owners aren't nickel-and-dimed for following the rules.
What Your Management Fee Covers
Everything on this list is included in your base monthly fee. None of it will ever show up as a surcharge, add-on, or line item.
E-voting platform is a separate opt-in add-on, see category 2 above.
Get Your Custom Quote
Every community is unique. Tell us about yours and we'll send you a proposal with our base fee, which add-ons make sense, and what pass-through costs to expect. The one-time transition fee is fixed in the management agreement itself, so it's locked in writing before you sign anything.
Request a ProposalNo obligation. No pressure.
Freedom vs. Typical PE-Owned Firms
Line by line, how our pricing actually differs.
| Line Item | Freedom | Typical PE Firm |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly management fee | Competitive, disclosed up front | Often competitive up front, then padded |
| Project percentage fee | Never | 5–10% of every capital project |
| Technology / software surcharge | Never | Common ($5–15 per unit per month) |
| After-hours emergency fee | Never | Common |
| Meeting attendance fee (contracted meetings) | Never | Common |
| Catch-all "administrative fee" | Never | Common |
| Architectural (ARC) application processing fee | Never | Common ($25+ per application) |
| Violation letter | Postage + mailing supplies only (inspection is in base fee) | $15–25 per letter as a separate "inspection fee" |
| Pass-through cost markup | Small, disclosed, reflects real staff time | 15–25%+ hidden markup |
| Transition / onboarding fee | One-time, disclosed up front | Often hidden or undisclosed |
| E-voting platform | Opt-in add-on (pay only if you want it) | Usually bundled and marked up |
The Short Version
Every fee the association sees will either be our base management fee, an add-on service you opted into, a real outside cost we paid on your behalf, or a one-time transition fee written into the management agreement before you signed it. Delinquent-owner fees are billed to the delinquent account, never to the association's budget, so paying owners never subsidize the extra work created by accounts in collections. Every single line item will have a name that describes exactly what it's for.
If that's the kind of relationship your board is looking for, we'd like to write you a proposal.
We'll tell you our base fee, which add-ons make sense, and what pass-through costs to expect. The one-time transition fee is written into the management agreement itself, so the dollar amount is locked before you sign.