Brittany Kelley
BUDA — The Whispering Hollow and Garlic Creek homeowners associations (HOA) in Buda worked with Goodwin Management for a combined total of more than 10 years before severing their contracts, due to what the respective board presidents claim were financial and communication failures that led to thousands of dollars lost.
HOA board members are volunteers that serve as a voice of the community, while Goodwin is a property management company that is entrusted with key items, explained Garlic Creek HOA board president Jeffrey Morales. According to Goodwin vice president Mark Kegley, Goodwin “acts at the direction of the board of directors, not independently of it. Under the management agreements with both of these communities, service contracts required association approval and routine maintenance spending was capped at a limit set in the agreement, with limited exceptions for emergencies. Our policy and practice is that contracts are executed only with board approval or under authority the board has granted through the management agreement.”
Whispering Hollow HOA board president Amanda Wallis has been president for three years, while Morales has been president for five. Although the pair began looking into their accounts with Goodwin at separate times, both found the same answer: their finances were being mismanaged, they claimed.
As a board president with extra time, Wallis shared that she initially wanted to learn more about the processes, in order to answer questions from residents, so she started looking into the finances and discovered balances that were declining. Because of this, Wallis began requesting everything from invoices to contracts and made several findings. Whispering Hollow had been paying vendors they never met, some of which she stated was money spent on “foolishness,” like paying someone $55 per month to change the batteries on the clock at the pool or lowering and raising the flag for $120.
These were contracts that were approved only by Goodwin, claimed Wallis. According to the board presidents, each contract required board approval, though the management company either proceeded without approval or without contracts entirely.
One example was when Morales was alerted at the beginning of the year when a landscaper reached out to ask for a missing payment: “I said, ‘I’m sorry, let me look into it.’ Then, we also found out that they hadn’t had a legitimate signed contract with us for three years because Goodwin didn’t do it … according to the landscapers, they kept telling them, ‘Oh, it’s okay. Don’t worry. We don’t need one.’ So, these guys hadn’t had a pay raise in three-plus years.”
A representative from the landscaping company noted that it would take multiple attempts of communication and months before they received payment.
“Timely payment depends on invoices being properly addressed and submitted and on new vendors completing required setup documentation. Paying vendors accurately and on time is a priority in every community we manage,” supplied Kegley.
Wallis had a similar experience when employees from a gutter company, an electrician and a landscaper reached out to her over the past year asking for payment.
In an email thread with the vice president of Goodwin, Wallis shared her frustration with multiple vendors not receiving payment on time: “We’ve been told that checks are cut 2–3 times per week, but that clearly isn’t aligning with what’s actually happening. Vendors are going 4–6 weeks at best before receiving payment and we are constantly being asked when they can expect it. This should not be happening. The board should not be in a position where we are having to chase down payments or provide updates to vendors on behalf of the management company. That responsibility should be handled internally and efficiently.”
The vice president stated that he would “dive in to see what is occurring,” though the payments continued to be delayed.
Other fees were also stacking up, said Morales. He claimed that the company was continuously placing “stupid violations” on residents. For example, he stated that Goodwin staff would drive around in the morning and see a piece of furniture on the lawn — which Morales stated a family was attempting to sell on Facebook — and they would mark them down to be mailed a violation. Oftentimes, the furniture would be gone by the end of the day, so no letter was needed to begin with.
These violations add up, stressed Wallis, who stated that the board was “noticing [that] the [HOA] pays the $25 up front and then, the homeowner reimburses that. Goodwin was keeping $17 of it and we only got back $8. So, we were [losing] money,” she explained. “We were always ending up short.”
Additionally, Goodwin was supposed to be paid $2,481 a month, said Wallis, but, with all the added fees, they were paying approximately $5,000 per month, revealed an invoice for Whispering Hollow.
“[All] policy and practice is that fees are disclosed before they apply and every charge billed to an association is itemized in the financial statement packages provided to the board each period. These charges are tied to services actually performed or costs actually incurred,” Kegley stated.
Goodwin’s actions also directly affected the livelihoods of residents at Garlic Creek, said Morales. He alleged that the company would add thousands of dollars in fees onto residents late on dues payments. Furthermore, they would write letters to credit agencies without HOA permission, sometimes even threatening to or actually placing liens on homeowners, he alleged. This resulted in a lawsuit settlement with one resident, who, although did have legitimate violations, was threatened with a lien without the proper procedures by Goodwin.
The HOA’s lawyer advised the association that “there [were] some areas of risk and potential weaknesses in the association’s position (primarily in relation to owner’s Breach of Contract claim in the drafted Petition) including, but not limited to the following: the association's failure to hold regular board meetings pursuant to the association's bylaws, and in accordance with Texas Property Code, Section 209.0051, particularly prior to levying fines for violations and suspending the owner’s common areas/facilities access/use privileges; the association's failure to post its Fine and Enforcement Policy on the association's website as is required under Texas Property Code, Section 209.0061; the general lack of board meeting minutes and, in particular, meeting minutes concerning violation enforcement — fine levying and suspension of the owner’s common areas/facilities access/use privileges; that the association applied a $275 charge for notice of lien to the assessment account on 7/11/25 when no such lien existed; and that the association does not have any copies of violation notices/letters that were mailed to the owner prior to 2022.”
Morales claimed that these were responsibilities held by Goodwin, though he tried several times to remedy the issues to no avail.
These liens have a long-lasting effect, said Garlic Creek resident Michael Stephens. He stated that a lien was placed on his house in 2024 for a reason he is still not privy to. The lien should have never been placed, said Morales, as it required board approval.
Two years later, Stephens noted that several credit card accounts have been shut down and his credit score has decreased, due to Goodwin not removing the lien, despite Morales reaching out and requesting them to do so.
The management company claimed in an email to Morales that filing liens on the HOA’s behalf was allowable. However, Kegley noted that, “As managing agent, Goodwin administers a delinquency management process on the association's behalf. That process is communicated to the board of directors and boards retain authority over how it applies in their community.”
These decisions, which were made without warning, also occurred at Whispering Hollow, as Wallis recalled a request for foreclosure over a few missed payments.
“[A resident] only owed $300, but by the time [Goodwin] added on all their late fees and everything, it came to an amount of where it was thousands, over a $300 bill. I was like, ‘Nope. Get rid of it all.’ They wanted me to sign off on foreclosing,” said Wallis. “I’m not doing that. That’s insane for $300.”
Morales stated that the final straw that led to leaving the management company in June was finding out that a $100,000 certificate of deposit (CD) had been transferred out of their account to Goodwin.
According to an email thread with the bank, the CD was originally opened in 2018. When Garlic Creek attempted to close out the account in May 2026, they were told that the CD was closed Aug. 14, 2025, and a cashier’s check was issued for $101,889.99 to Goodwin.
In addition to this money, Morales stated that nearly all of the money from fiscal year 2025 was spent, despite having no major projects. Garlic Creek is estimated to bring in approximately $400,000 a year, if each resident pays the required dues, said the board president.
Although Goodwin no longer manages the Garlic Creek association, thus being limited in its ability to comment on specific matters, Kegley shared information about typical operations, including that movements between bank accounts are routine and part of managing an association's finances.
Kegley added that, “common examples include ensuring the operating account can cover vendor and utility obligations on time and funding reserve accounts from operating funds as provided in the board-approved annual budget.”
Shortly after Garlic Creek’s departure, Whispering Hollow followed suit, effective July 1. However, the surprises didn’t stop, said Wallis.
The board discovered that, along with mismanaging finances, Goodwin wasn’t even complying with its basic requirements, such as inspecting the property. Wallis stated that she found out that the red box to reach out to first responders in emergencies and the Knox Box that allows them access to the property were not working property, after contacting the Buda Police Department.
“[We] find out it’s not even working, but we’re paying for it every month, which was $200-something for something that doesn’t work that [they] should be testing. The property manager is supposed to come out every month and inspect the property. That’s part of their contract,” said Wallis. “They should have known a long time ago that this wasn't working.”
Months after ending their contracts, both HOAs are still experiencing the effects of Goodwin. Garlic Creek has less than 50% of what is supposed to be in their reserves, forcing them to instead rely on HOA due payments from residents. This has resulted in the community struggling to pay bills.
Whispering Hollow is in a similar situation, said Wallis, who noted that the association is now operating at a $12,000 deficit each month.
“That’s over $100,000 that we’re going to now be negative in our next budget. So, it’s like we will have no choice now [but] to raise our dues, which pisses me off because if [Goodwin] would have been budgeting, doing our budget correctly, this wouldn’t be happening. This is not fair to our members,” Wallis emphasized.
Furthermore, during the transition to a new management company, the community association manager from Goodwin contacted the Whispering Hollow board to note that there were “$60,000 in vendor invoices pending payment that cannot be processed until additional funds are made available. The current operating account balance is [negative] $426.”
The board members were confused, as none of the numbers aligned with statements they had previously received. Some of the dates for past due payments were listed as far back as April 2025, said Wallis.
As a result, she shared that the board members are now completing tasks that were previously fulfilled by vendors, such as pest control and taking out trashcans, because of the financial situation that Goodwin has left the association in.
“I should be a full-blown alcoholic by now [with] just the stress they caused,” said Wallis, encouraging others to be more involved in their management company. “The stuff that they do without your knowledge is crazy. I feel like boards should be more proactive … after learning everything, I feel like it’s great for boards to be knowledgeable and to know the ins and outs of things and ask questions [to] make sure that the management company is doing what they should be doing.”
Morales shared that Garlic Creek is now looking into an audit of expenditures over the last four years to find out if there were any other discrepancies. Wallis stated that Whispering Hollow is planning to do the same in the coming months.
