That is all

Agreed. I’m glad my new neighborhood doesn’t have one. We only have a fairly loose set of covenants.

Don’t leave us hanging! We need detail, man.

When I bought the house it was requirement #1, no HOA of any kind.

We have some volunteer bullshit that the older folks are all into. They go to each other’s homes for events and eat cheese and crackers and drink wine. It’s blu hair city. A neighbor has gone before. Twice a year they leave the pamphlet and I just throw it in the recycles.

My neighbors seem to think we have one though. When I put up my panels they asked if it was allowed. Same thing when I had the carport put in out back. I think people are conditioned into it, even when their own got damn house and neighborhood doesn’t have one. I mean city ordinances sure. I had to get panels inspected by the city building inspector as well as the electrical certification. I just couldn’t imagine some bullshit third party telling me what I can and cannot do with property I own.

I am very much looking forward to moving out of suburbia to rural country where the HOA is called fuck you.

HOA? We don't even have zoning!

I live in a village. I'm directly across the street from the Post Office and I have neighbors on both sides of me within 25 yards.

Nothing behind me but 5 miles of trees, streams and ponds, so there's that. My back yard is 4 acres of it.

I ran a flock of sheep in that back yard for 25 years, still keep a flock of chickens there.

I've built/rebuilt/repaired cars, trucks, tractors and motorcycles in my driveway and garage. I've shot various varmints and even done a little target shooting, tho I keep that to a minimum so as not to be a dick.

I have never had a complaint from neighbors nor ever had the gendarmes drop in to question my activities.

I love it here.

The last two homes I owned were in HOAs. The first was a nightmare of poorly written CC&Rs, and stupid people on the board. Ignorance, stupidity, busy bodies, and not minding your own business usually rule the HOAs.

Second home had an HOA and it was really chill. It was only there to make sure the property values stayed high. Not enough of the lots had been built upon, so the guy that owns all the property and started the subdivision is the king of the HOA. He’s a really smart and reasonable guy. Once 80% is occupied, he will hand over the keys of the HOA, and the shitshow will begin.

The house we bought last year is two blocks from the old house. It’s a small section of property right between the two subdivisions that make up The Crossroads at Mingus. We don’t have an HOA. I guess there was one back in the 90’s when it was built, but has since been dissolved.
Our lots are 1/4 acre (square lot) and on what used to be a “highway”. Now the real highway is a half mile away and this is just a nice backstreet. We look out to the East and have a beautiful view of Sedona and the sunrise. Across the street is a church, and their landscaping/parking lot. It’s a pretty perfect home and I can do as I wish, and as long as the town of Clarkdale approves, no one can say anything.

I've lived in an HOA for 17+ years at this point.

When I first moved in, they were getting carried away and citing everyone. Then a law was passed that allowed people to sue their HOA for $100.00, no lawyers on either side of the lawsuit.

That got rid of the assholes in the HOA and now common sense prevails and it works as it was intended with no heartburn except for people who let their property get REALLY run down.

I love our HOA

Just passed covenants limiting the amount of rentals allowed in the hood

Almost as bad as threads with no context.

as a contrary opinion, I can't imagine spending $1M for a property in an area without an HOA. Over the years I have seen too many neighborhoods negatively impacted by one asshole.

Like them, don't like them, personal choice, as is buying a home under an HOA, if you don't like them, why would you buy in an HOA subdivision.

It's similar to those that buy near a gun range and bitch about shooting noise, or in the path of an airport and bitch about plane noise. If that bothers someone, don't buy there...

quote:

Hoa’s suck

Then apathy swallows

If normal, reasonable people are too apathetic to:

attend the HOA meetings then there is no other voice except that of the busybodies on a power trip

make the sacrifice to serve on the HOA board of directors (BOD) then the BOD will fill up with busy bodiess on a power trip and it'll make everyone's lives miserable. Every normal, reasonable person should serve on their BOD once and nobody should serve on it twice.

to read what they are signing then it's their own GD fault. Don't even get me started on the people with the lack of integrity on living up to what they signed.

I've mentioned it several times over the years, but in Alaska I was part of a recall of our BOD. I had never attended a meeting (i.e. apathetic), but all of the sudden everybody started getting nasty grams written by lawyers. Turns out everyone's apathy had allowed the BOD to become filled with busy bodies on a power trip who didn't apply the CC&Rs to themselves, would open gates and wander through people's backyards, would turn trivial items into thousands of dollars in legal bills, and didn't even follow legal counsel advice on complying with state laws. The recall was successful and myself, a realtor, a lady I can't remember her occupation, and a minister took over. We started treating people as neighbors rather than subjects (i.e. talk first not send letter from attorney), settled lingering dispuits, and started to build community (HOA meetings in BOD members house not miles away, annual picnics, etc). It was extra work on our part, but the neighborhood reputation changed from realtors saying don't buy there to the point that I easily sold for a healthy gain when I headed off to Canada.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: tatortodd,

My hoa is toothless in dealing with one homeowner who won’t follow the rules and openly defies the board. We don’t have $100k to spend on a lawsuit with this person so all it takes is one person to ruin it. We may as well not have an hoa. On top of that, the hoa forced me to plant trees according to the cc&r’s, but it appears I am the only one conforming. Whenever this is brought to the hoa/board it is dismissed - I have no recourse. Part of the problem is the property management company who do their best to keep their position intact but are not very helpful when an issue needs to get resolved.

I just moved from the same HOA Todd is in, not bad other than the pretty high annual dues, and our section was the highest because we had a staffed gate.

The base HOA fees weren't bad, but we had a gate/guard addition & the HOA covered our internet & security costs.

ETA: They were pretty non-invasive. In 5 years I only got 2 notices.
1 for Christmas lights up past the designated remove by date
1 for a trailer in the driveway

Both easy resolution with a phone call.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
It's similar to those that buy near a gun range and bitch about shooting noise, or in the path of an airport and bitch about plane noise. If that bothers someone, don't buy there...

I'm of the opinion that people who buy near a gun range or an airport do so for financial reasons.

They buy cheap (because nobody wants to live there) and then immediately start trying to get the range or airport shut down.

If they succeed, they'll turn an enormous profit on the deal.

I lived with the near-constant headache of a power-tripping HOA for 12 years. Even when the residents revolted, ousted the insane HOA President that was the leader of the pack, and replaced like 2/3 of the board with seemingly sane folks, it quickly went right back to how it was before, just under a different administration.

I made the mistake of sitting on the HOA board for a term after this shake-up, and saw how powerless one "normal" person can be when facing a majority of nit-picking busybodies, and just how quickly some folks who started out sane turned into power-tripping tyrants when provided just a modicum of perceived authority.


Therefore, one of the top criteria when buying my new house was NO HOA.

I'm looking forward to retiring in a few more months and moving out of state. Starting to work with realtors in Idaho looking for a new place, and right at the top of my requirements list is "NO HOA!"

I've lived in both and to be honest I've never had a single issue with any of the HOA's. They are certainly on the ass of the people who think they take care of their property but don't.

With that said I'm sure there are plenty of them loaded with "Karen's" that are a pain in the ass.

I'm living the dream currently, got suckered into being on the Board...

The suck until you need them. Useful in places where there’s no zoning. They’re fine as long as long as officers don’t get the political disease of power fever. Especially in an all volunteer HOA. Don’t go nuts looking for small temporary violations.

How do the assholes get elected? Power trippers are drawn to them like flies. They get elected because most people are unwilling to volunteer. Most people find an excuse not to get involved, then bitch and criticize incessantly. “ I’ve got a life” they’ll say. Then expect others to do the work.

I served because I was asked because of road maint experience, so I tried to fix potholes with the meager budget. Finally got a bellyful of complaining by residents who couldn’t get off their ass to help.

The architectural control committee was constantly busy with deed restriction violations. Glad I wasn’t on that committee. “Its my property! I should be able to park my junk car with 4 flats and an oil leak as many years as I want! Waddaya mean I can’t build a 2 story metal fab shop in my vacant next door lot? My Car up on blocks for 2 years? Not your business! Chartruse and purple fence paint? So what.”

You agreed to the deed restrictions when you signed the papers. You read them right? It’s a contractural agreement.

Wanna put your car up on blocks in the front yard? Buy unrestricted property. Don’t buy in an HOA if you don’t like the deed restrictions.

Our HOA is a low cost deal, just 42bux a month.
I'm on the board and I really don't give a shit about what other residents do to their property, within reason, of course.

My concern is the common areas, weeds, junk and such. I take photos and sent them to the HOA office. Any thing else outside the common areas, I deal with the city which gives me good results.

My next door neighbor (rental) operates a business from his driveway, which doesn't bother me, but got him cited by the HOA honchos.