2020 Member Survey—The Results Are In

First, a big thank you to everyone who took the time to complete the member survey. We got 697 responses; that’s forty-five percent of our 1528 homeowners, nearly three times the number that responded to our last survey back in 2014.

Analyzing the responses, it seems like we got a pretty representative sampling of homeowners:

• There are 1193 (78%) single-family homeowners versus 335 (22%) townhome/cove homeowners in the Keys. The survey had a 77%/23% split between single-family versus townhome/cove homeowners, pretty much bang on.
• Based on our membership list, 379 (25%) homeowners have a South Lake Tahoe postal address (PO Box or otherwise) indicative of being a full-time resident. The survey had a 69%/27% split between second-home owners versus full-time residents, again, bang on.
• And we had a good sampling of responses across all of the streets that comprise the Tahoe Keys. Not too surprisingly, Venice Dr and Ala Wai Blvd dominated with 112 and 98 responses, respectively. Still, Christie Dr, Tahoe Keys Blvd, Kokanee Way, Inverness Dr, and Aloha Dr each had between 25 and 42 responses. Every street had at least two responses.

Now, onto the results.

People have lived here for quite some time; 50% of respondents have owned and/or lived in the Keys for fifteen or more years:

And of the 476 second-home owners that answered, 89% spend at least one month a year here, with 38% spending 4 or more months of the year here:

No surprise that Summer is a particularly popular time to visit for second-home owners, though most stay throughout the year:

Moving on from second-home owners, 689 respondents answered whether their property had its own dock, 601 (87%) of these said yes. Of those, the vast majority either have no boat or moor just one boat at their dock:

If you said you had a dock, we were interested in whether you rented out any moorings, 71 (12%) homeowners indicated that they did.

It probably comes as no surprise that being on the water and boating access to the lake are the best aspects of owning/living in the Tahoe Keys:

Our well-maintained amenities and facilities and the attractiveness of the neighborhood rounded out the top four. Over 60 respondents commented about what they love about living/owning here; location and views was a common theme, along with the activities one can do in and around Tahoe.

Also, no surprise that the invasive weeds and algae top the list of the worst aspects of owning/living in the Keys. The quarterly assessment fees, vacation home rentals, and the architectural rules and their enforcement rounded out the top four:

As an aside, some homeowners had expressed a concern that the canned options to these questions were of a “leading” nature. I’d like to think that the options were equally leading for both positive and negative aspects of living/owning in the Keys. Also, the options were randomized for each respondent to avoid any bias caused by one option always being first in the list. Just asking for free format responses to questions like these makes it very hard to analyze the responses, hence the canned options. But, don’t worry, the Board of Directors are reading all the open comments that were left as well.

On that front, we got more comments (143) regarding the worst aspects of living/owning in the Keys compared to the best aspects. These comments were quite wide-ranging, but two key themes popped out. The first was related to frustrations about the association rules and/or fees. The second, interestingly, related to issues or concerns arising from homeowners that rent their docks. You’ll be able to read more about these themes when we publish the complete summary (more on that later).

Looking towards our staff and services, our various departments rated between 3.0 and 3.9 on average out of 5.0. So the sentiment trended neutral to agreeing that our staff met or exceeded expectations. The Front Desk Staff & Indoor Pool Attendants ranked best with our Architectural Control Department and Water Quality Weed Harvesting/Skimming fairing worst:

Concerning our amenities, they were rated between 3.2 and 3.9 out of 5.0; overall, respondents felt our amenities were average to above average. Our Indoor Pool rated the best, and no surprise, our Pavilion building placed at the bottom. Interestingly, the Lighthouse Shores Access and Beach ranked the worst; I’m curious to hear what people think we can improve there:

And while many respondents (44%) were neutral as to whether things have improved over the last five years, nearly as many (43%) either agreed or strongly agreed that they had:

That’s all for now; next month, I’ll dig into more of the survey results about what people think can be improved and how they feel about our association rules and fees.

The Board of Directors takes all of your responses very seriously. Over the coming months, we will be making our conclusions and deciding upon the actions we want to take and the direction we want to set moving forward based on this feedback.

Our desire is to discuss this openly during upcoming Regular Board Meetings. We plan to share a complete summary of the survey results with homeowners through the Keys Breeze and TKPOA website, so stay tuned; there is more to come.