Can we negotiate HOA management fees?

Yes, and Boards do it far less than they should. The management fee is a quoted price in a competitive market, not a published tariff, and firms expect movement — particularly on a community with clean books, a functional Board, and low delinquency, which is genuinely cheaper to service.

The base fee is usually the least productive place to push, though. A company that cuts it by eight percent has to make it back somewhere, and the somewhere is the ancillary schedule you did not read. More productive targets: getting meeting attendance included rather than billed, capping the annual escalator or tying it to CPI, striking the auto-renewal, getting the fee schedule attached as an exhibit so it cannot change unilaterally, and fixing the price for the full initial term.

The strongest position is having real alternatives. A Board with three comparable proposals in the same format is negotiating; a Board with one is asking for a favor.

Do it before you sign. Once the agreement is executed, the only leverage left is the notice period.