The CMCA — Certified Manager of Community Associations — is the entry-level credential for homeowner association, condominium and cooperative managers, awarded by CAMICB, the Community Association Managers International Certification Board.
It is a voluntary industry certification, not a state license.
You qualify by passing a prerequisite course (CAI's M-100), documenting two years as a community association manager, or holding an approved state license or credential, then pass a 120-question exam at Pearson VUE.
What is CMCA?
The CMCA stands for Certified Manager of Community Associations.
CAMICB describes it as the only international certification program designed exclusively for homeowner association, condominium and cooperative managers, and as an entry-level credential for that work.
The credential belongs to community association management — the corner of property management where BLS describes community association managers as usually hired by an association's volunteer board of directors, rather than by a rental owner.
What that job involves day to day is covered in our community association manager career guide; this page stays on the credential itself.
The CMCA is a credential, not a state license.
The licensing side is separate, and it varies by state: CAMICB lists eight states with laws regulating community association management — Alaska, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Nevada and Virginia.
What each of those states requires differs, and the range runs from licensing to registration or certification.
Our community association manager license requirements guide follows the state-by-state detail; CAMICB's own advice is to confirm the current rules with your state regulator.
One naming note: the CMCA is not NAA's Certified Apartment Manager (CAM), a separate credential for onsite apartment-community managers.
The acronyms overlap, but the credentials belong to different industries — the CAM is NAA's credential for apartment-community managers, and the CMCA is CAMICB's for association managers.
Who issues the CMCA?
The issuing body is CAMICB — the Community Association Managers International Certification Board.
It is a certification board for the community association industry, and it is separate from CAI, the Community Associations Institute.
The two organizations get confused because both serve association managers.
CAI offers its own professional credentials, including the AMS, PCAM and LSM, and CAI's own page on regulation lists the CMCA as the credential awarded by the separate CAMICB.
You do not have to join anything to hold the credential.
CAMICB states that membership in an association is not required for certification.
Confirm requirements before you apply
Requirements: the M-100 and two other routes
CAMICB gives candidates three ways to qualify to sit for the CMCA exam.
Pass a prerequisite course
Complete and pass an approved prerequisite course on community association management. CAI's M-100 course — The Essentials of Community Management — fits this route, and CAI itself describes passing the M-100 as a first step toward the CMCA.Waive the course with two years of experience
Document at least two years of experience as a community association manager — CAMICB means a manager, not an assistant — and the prerequisite course is waived one time.Hold an approved state license or credential
An active Arizona CAAM, California CCAM, Florida CAM, Illinois CAM or Nevada CAM satisfies the requirement in place of the course.
The experience waiver carries a condition: candidates who test under it and fail the exam must complete the prerequisite course before retesting.
CAMICB also reviews background questions.
The board reserves the right to review a conviction of any nature, from any timeframe, and deny eligibility to test, and it warns that felony convictions for fiduciary crimes — embezzlement, forgery, fraud and theft — can bar applying, reinstating or recertifying.
Budget for the fees alongside the requirements.
Per CAMICB's July 2026 handbook, the exam fee is $360, which covers the application, the exam and the first year of certification; a retake costs $200, the annual service fee is $135 and reinstatement is $200, and every fee is non-refundable.
Course tuition is separate.
CAI listed the M-100 Online Course, Regular Edition, at $679, or $579 for CAI members, as of October 2026.
The CMCA exam
The CMCA exam is a 2.5-hour, 120-question multiple-choice test.
One hundred of the questions count toward your score; the other 20 are unscored pilot questions.
CAMICB draws the questions from six content areas:
- Governance and compliance
- Financial management
- Risk management
- Meetings and events
- Property maintenance
- Contracting
Testing runs year-round at Pearson VUE test centers.
You have one year from application approval to take the exam, and results are reported immediately.
Scoring is scaled: results run from 100 to 800, and 600 is the passing score.
The scaled score is not the percentage of questions you answered correctly.
Retakes have no waiting period and no attempt cap.
CAMICB rotates three exam forms, so a fourth attempt within 12 months is the first to repeat a form; each retake costs $200.
Renewal: the two-year cycle
The CMCA runs on a two-year recertification cycle.
To renew, you complete 16 hours of continuing education on an April 1 or October 1 cycle and pay the $135 annual service fee each year.
The continuing education rules have a few specifics:
- Up to half the CE can be pre-approved in-house training.
- Self-study is capped at four hours per two-year cycle.
- Courses about buying and selling real estate do not count.
- Courses approved for state manager licensing in Nevada, Florida, Connecticut and Illinois are accepted.
Managers who retire from the work can step down rather than lapse: CAMICB offers a CMCA (Ret.) status for a $25 annual fee, and retired status is exempt from continuing education.
What the CMCA is worth
On pay, CAMICB says managers who hold the CMCA earn, on average, 20% more than non-credentialed community association managers, citing a Foundation for Community Association Research survey.
That is the issuer's own figure from the survey it cites, not a wage table verified independently, so weigh it accordingly.
For labelled federal wage data on the occupation, the HOA manager salary page carries the BLS figures with the occupation and release named.
The credential also plugs into the industry's longer ladder.
CAI's AMS requires at least two years managing at least one association, two M-200-level courses and a passing CMCA exam, and CAI's PCAM goes further: five years of experience, all six M-200 courses, a passing CMCA exam, then a scored application and a case study.
What the credential does not do is answer the licensing question.
Where a state regulates community association management, whatever that state requires of managers stands on its own, apart from the CMCA — the reason hiring managers check the state requirements as well as the letters after a candidate's name.
If the credential is your next move, browse the HOA manager jobs board.
Career information, not legal, tax or licensing advice. The CMCA's requirements are CAMICB's to set, and community association manager licensing is each state's to define; confirm current requirements with CAMICB and with your state regulator before you apply, test, hire or renew.