SURVEYS AND POLLS?

An Opinion By Jan Bergemann

Published December 16, 2025

We often read about surveys and polls used to show an opinion is correct and the survey/poll proves the point.

Sorry to burst the bubble, but a poll/survey is only as good as the folks conducting it. It always depends on who you are asking – and the result you want to achieve.

Let’s take a look at the latest polls used by the industry (Community Association Institute) to show that Homeowners’ Associations are liked by about 80% of all owners with property in HOAs. That’s mostly the result if you only ask CAI members.

I could easily create a poll that would show that about 95% of all owners are unhappy with their HOA and would like to see it dissolved.

CCFJ created in 2008 a very comprehensive survey. We used Florida’s main newspapers to distribute this survey and received more than 1000 responses from owners of property in HOAs. You can see the survey and the results at CCFJ HOA SURVEY 2008.

The folks responding answered all kinds of questions, not just about their satisfaction about the HOA they were living in, but as well about the reforms they would like to see enacted. The responses were amazing – and we for sure didn’t ask a “selected” category of owners unlike some other folks who conducted surveys/polls at the same time.

With other words: Our survey created results that were totally opposite to the results of the CAI survey!

So, if you read the quoted results of surveys and polls please take it with a grain of salt and always consider who hopes to benefit from the survey/poll results.