What should a board check in its reserve study before budget season?

Before adopting a budget, compare the reserve study with current property and financial records: major components, condition, remaining life, costs, completed work, reserve balance, annual contribution, and the projects expected next.

A source-bounded checklist

Fannie Mae's current reserve-study content list supports checking:

• whether all material common-area components are represented;
• whether condition and remaining useful life still match current information;
• whether repair and replacement costs have an identifiable current basis;
• whether the opening funded reserves reconcile to current records;
• whether annual contributions account for existing reserves and inflation; and
• whether the budget follows the funding plan the board intends to use.

Completed work, new deterioration, changed timing, and unresolved scope should be identified rather than silently carried forward. This checklist is a planning inference from the required study contents, not a claim that Fannie Mae prescribes Ballast's budget workflow.

If financing readiness matters

For a reserve-study substitution, applications dated on or after August 3, 2026 must fund the study's highest recommended allocation and may not use baseline funding. That is separate from deciding whether the study is useful for the board's budget.

Sources

• Fannie Mae Selling Guide B4-2.2-01, Full Review Process, version August 5, 2026 — required reserve-study subjects.
• Fannie Mae Lender Letter LL-2026-03, issued March 18, 2026 — highest-allocation and baseline-method changes effective August 3, 2026.

Primary sources accessed September 11, 2026.