Why Your HOA Still Runs Separate Systems for the Gate and the Pool

Your gate uses RFID vehicle decals. Your pool uses a key fob. Your gym uses a different key fob. Your clubhouse uses a reservation system that doesn't talk to any of them.

Four systems. Four databases. Four vendor contracts. And when a property sells, someone has to manually deactivate credentials across all four.

This is the norm in community association management. It shouldn't be.

How We Got Here

Gate access systems were built by security companies. Pool and gym access systems were built by access control hardware vendors. HOA management software was built by accounting companies. None of them talked to each other because they were solving different problems for different buyers.

The general manager bought gate software from the security consultant. The facilities manager bought pool access from the hardware installer. The treasurer picked HOA software based on accounting features.

Reasonable decisions made independently. But the result is a community running four disconnected systems with four resident databases that drift out of sync within weeks.

The Property Transfer Problem

This is where it gets expensive.

When a home sells in your community, you need to:

1. Deactivate the seller's gate RFID decal
2. Deactivate the seller's pool key fob
3. Deactivate the seller's gym access card
4. Deactivate the seller's clubhouse reservation account
5. Remove the seller from the resident directory
6. Update the assessment billing account
7. Set up all of the above for the new buyer

That's seven steps across four systems. In a community with 200 property transfers per year, someone is doing this 1,400 times. And every time they forget a step, a former resident has active access they shouldn't have.

I've seen communities where sellers still had active pool fobs six months after closing. Not because anyone was negligent — because nobody could track deactivation across four separate systems.

What Unified Amenity Access Looks Like

Imagine one resident database that controls everything: the gate, the pool, the gym, the clubhouse, the tennis courts.

One credential per resident — whether that's an RFID card, a fob, or a mobile pass. It opens the gate AND the pool gate AND the gym door AND the clubhouse. When a property transfers, you deactivate one record and every door closes automatically.

The technology exists. Access control hardware from vendors like Brivo, Openpath, and Salto already supports centralized management. The gap is on the software side — no HOA management platform has built the integration layer to tie gate access and amenity access into a single resident database.

Until now, communities had to choose: gate software that doesn't manage amenities, or amenity hardware that doesn't manage the gate. The answer shouldn't be "pick one." The answer should be one platform that does both.

The Cost of Staying Disconnected

For a 2,000-home community with a pool, gym, and clubhouse:

Vendor costs:

• Gate access system: $200-400/month
• Pool access hardware + software: $150-300/month
• Gym access system: $100-200/month
• Clubhouse reservation system: $50-100/month
• Total: $500-1,000/month for four systems that don't share data

Staff time:

• Property transfer deactivation (4 systems × 200 transfers/year × 15 min): 200 hours/year
• Resident credential sync (fixing mismatches, re-issuing fobs): 50 hours/year
• Vendor management (4 contracts, 4 support queues): 25 hours/year
• Total: 275 hours/year of administrative work

Security risk:

• Active credentials after property transfer: estimated 8-15% of former residents still have some form of active access
• Untracked guest access to amenities (no shared guest pass system)
• No unified audit trail for incident investigation

What Boards Should Ask Their Vendors

If you're evaluating HOA management software, ask these three questions:

1. "Does your platform control both gate entry and amenity access from a single resident database?" If the answer involves the words "integration partner" or "third-party," they're stitching together the same disconnected systems you already have.

2. "When a property transfers, how many steps does it take to deactivate all access?" The right answer is one. Click deactivate on the property record, and gate, pool, gym, and clubhouse access all revoke simultaneously.

3. "Can a resident use one credential for the gate and all amenities?" If residents need a vehicle decal for the gate, a fob for the pool, and a card for the gym, you're still running parallel systems — you just put a software wrapper around them.

The Path Forward

Unifying gate and amenity access isn't a technology problem anymore. It's a vendor selection problem.

The community associations that consolidate first will save thousands in redundant vendor costs, hundreds of hours in staff time, and close the security gaps that come from disconnected databases.

The ones that wait will keep paying four vendors, running four systems, and hoping nobody forgets to deactivate a pool fob when a property sells.

Your community deserves one system, one credential, one database. The technology is ready. The question is whether your current vendors are.