NAHC Professional Resources
NAHC is your source of information on working with housing cooperatives. While NAHC encourages its professional members to also join other associations for their profession, often other groups fail to cover the cooperative aspect to the business. NAHC fills that gap, focusing exclusively on issues important to housing cooperatives.
It can be a great benefit for housing cooperatives to use professionals who are familiar with the specific nuances of cooperative housing. For that reason, housing co-ops look for professionals who are members of NAHC and who keep up-to-date on issues important to housing cooperatives. To connect co-ops with experienced cooperative professionals, NAHC will soon offer an online directory of professional members, which lists professionals by service specialty. The directory also helps you network with your peers.
In addition, NAHC can provide you with access to housing cooperatives throughout the nation who may be interested in your services. Inquire about advertising in our publications, exhibiting at the annual conference, or sponsoring an event or program.
We also have the following additional resources for specific professionals:
Attorneys
NAHC offers an Attorneys' Roundtable at each annual conference where attorneys are invited to discuss legal issues and address problems of cooperatives and other professionals concerning housing cooperatives. NAHC's government relations program monitors federal legislation and regulations, and keeps abreast of actions that benefit or affect co-ops.
Accountants and CPAs
The number one concern of housing cooperatives for the last 15 years has been federal tax law. NAHC successfully fought the IRS to have co-ops taxed under Subchapter T rather than Section 277, which would have made revenue earnings taxable. Favorable changes to Section 216 are usually on our legislative agenda.
In addition, the National Society of Accountants for Cooperatives (NSAC) has additional information on special issues related to housing cooperatives. The CPA Journal Online provides a definition of a housing cooperative corporation for tax purposes.
Property Managers
To help foster excellence in the cooperative housing management profession, NAHC sponsors the Registered Cooperative Manager Program, a designation program for cooperative site managers. The Board of Governors has prepared the Code of Ethical Conduct to encourage ethical behavior of cooperative site managers. Click here for current RCMs, the RCM application and instructions. NAHC also maintains relations with other management groups such as NAHMA, CAI, IAGM, and NAHB's RAM program.
In addition, the NAHC annual conference includes a number of topics of value to cooperative housing managers. Managers benefit from NAHC's constant flow of information to boards to help them better manage their role and the manager's role.
Developers, Lenders and Consultants
The Cooperative Housing Bulletin often highlights issues on new cooperative developments. At the NAHC annual conference, a set of workshops is held on development issues. NAHC works for changes to FHA programs to make them easier to use and more relevant to today's marketplace and consumer. Faster HUD processing, higher mortgage limits, and less red tape are our objectives for you. NAHC also works with the National Cooperative Business Association and the Cooperative Development Foundation on an annual Development Forum. And NAHC works with the CHF International to promote overseas volunteer opportunities for professionals.