quote:

Originally posted by zipriderson:
I live in a 50 home community with a common area. The HOA makes sure its maintained, snow cleared, well lit, etc.

It's a new community - on the outset there was a Design Review Committee that was somehow created. I joined, and let it be known that it's not our place to tell others what color fence they must erect, of if they could use mulch instead of rocks in their landscaping. This committee was disbanded within a year.

68 in ours. Our HOA is concerned per the by-laws only the commons area and the pond. No more, no less. Any and all other issues are the city's responsibility. We don't care what you park on your property, what you put up as an outbuilding nor what color you paint anything.

I’ll post some pics tomorrow of my jim-dandy neighbor’s houses in my non-HOA neighborhood.

As promised:





The house in the 2nd pic has been like that for nearly 3 years. Open ditches in the yard. Mixer sitting out front. The surprising thing is that nobody has stolen the mixer.

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

All HOA’s will be different, so if a property interests you, do your research on the bylaws before you leap. I live in an older neighborhood with an HOA that is laid back. All the properties have between 2.3 and 2.5 acres, affording privacy. We use the collected dues money for road upkeep almost exclusively (repairs and snow removal). The bylaws are pretty loose as well- I can hunt the back side without neighborly heartburn. Structures and fences within a certain distance from property lines only have to signed off on by that sides neighbor.

Yes, there are plenty of HOA’s that are peopled by nazi’s. Ask for and closely read a copy of the bylaws of any you place might be interested in buying.

I live in an HOA neighborhood and glad I do. I never understand folks who complain about the HOA who live here, did yo not read the covenants before you moved in? You're required to sign and accept them at closing.

If you're in an urban area and care about your property values, an HOA can be helpful. On the other hand if you dont care about your home value and plan to live there forever and want to paint your house purple, not so much.

Two streets over from us the homes were built at the same time, same builder. They let their HOA go years ago, now those homes are worth about 60% of ours. We tell folks if you want to park an RV on cinder blocks in your front yard, to move over two streets.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
The biggest problem with HOAs is owner apathy. The average homeowner doesn't:

care enough to read what they're signing at closing then bitches about it

attend annual HOA election meeting then bitches that the board is full of the wrong type of people

Interestingly, the biggest problem with NOT having an HOA is also owner apathy. Not the average, but some homeowners don't:

• Give a crap how overgrown their lot is
• Limit themselves to one nice out building but built multiple pieces of crap, or have a cheap metal building that's falling down
• manage to distinguish between one untility trailer under a deck, etc. vs. a yard and street full of construction equipment, broken down cars and old dead mowers
• etc. etc. etc.

I'm not a fan of getting a note about the grass clippings being left in the street (yeah, that happened....) but I am a fan of not gambling my largest single investment on the people immediately around me not being inconsiderate idiots or slobs. I've seen family and friends in the situation where they simply cannot sell their home due to the crazy next door, actually have a SIL in that situation now.

I also get that if you want to have some property and do whatever the hell you want with it that should be your right and encourage folks to take advantage of that.

For me, in the tight confines of normal suburbia, relying on others doing the right thing seems a fools errand.

If you are considering a move into an HOA neighborhood, do your research. Ask for a copy of the deed restrictions. If they are not acceptable, don’t buy the property. What’s restrictive to one man won’t be to another.

I’m glad I have an HOA here that seems to have an acceptable set of restrictions. It keeps residents from permanently parking junked cars in the yard, opening businesses and painting their houses chartruse and purple.

One co-worker lived in an anal retentive HOA that dinged him every time he left his garage door open for more than a couple of hours. That’s too much.

You have to read the agreement to know.

My neighborhoods agreement doesnt' have anything about approving sheds or additions, or mowing the yard, etc. Our yard is mostly weeds and moss and wild violets and I cut it when I feel like it. Ours just says you can't raise livestock or chickens in your backyard and a few other very normal things. We've been there 21 years and never heard anyone say anything about any neighbor. No big deal at all.

I've lived in HOA communities for 34 years, no big deal to me. First was a townhouse in NJ, it was fine, very few issues with them or them with me. last 15 years we've been in Utah, 65 lots in the association. We pay our dues and don't bother with the HOA or them with us. We knew going in to read the CC&Rs, ours are very liberal, not much restraint.

This is true. Read ALL rules and regulations. Make sure you agree to all of them as they will give you a citation anytime they feel like doing so. Before you buy, you can ask the HOA "in writing" if there are any exceptions you want to negotiate.

Before we purchased our house, we needed a corner lot where we can park our RV. We also need to install RV gate, and paver driveway. Prior to making our offer to purchase, we sent a certified written letter to the builder and the HOA of our intentions on the property. I even sent samples of our plan, pictures and drawing. BOTH the builder and HOA gave me an APPROVAL, in writing. After we moved in, we knocked down the small front gate and had a contractor build a wider gate and another contractor to build the paver driveway. We got 2 Notice of Violations within a week of starting the project. I went to the HOA meeting and presented the written approvals.

quote:

Originally posted by maxdog:
If you are considering a move into an HOA neighborhood, do your research. Ask for a copy of the deed restrictions. If they are not acceptable, don’t buy the property. What’s restrictive to one man won’t be to another.

ATTN: Arfmel. Am anxiously anticipating pictures of Jerkwater homes.....

Avoid if possible. The boards turn over and new rules are made all the time. Essentially anyone can moan about anything and get a few others to agree; then before you know it the minority loudmouths get what they want because the board just wants to shut them up. Many board members are incompetent self-important megalomaniacs.

Find a good stable neighborhood - the city has rules to prevent most objectionable things.

If the:

city,
county,
state, &
federal governments don't provide you enough busy bodies that want to tell you how to live your life on your property, please, by all means, voluntarily add the most intrusive, busy body level of control out there...

Mark

My current place has an HOA. The rules aren’t bad..there appears to be little supervision’s and it seems until 80% of the properties the realtor runs the HOA...

In my. Old place in NC, the developer ran the HOA....no dues but only bylaws...I bought the last lot in the development...after ten years of development only one guy was a violator...it was nice to have the HOA tell him to ceases and desist putting a pool on the edge of the property of his neighbor...and to quit burning trash in a pile...and to move the old cars that don’t run..and to quit parking his cars all over the neighbors yard..and Well you know how this goes...

Thanks for the perspectives. It's interesting to get an idea of one of these if you haven't lived in one.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
ATTN: Arfmel. Am anxiously anticipating pictures of Jerkwater homes.....

They’re now in my post above. The young couple with the carport full of junk had a herd of javelina living in the crawlspace under their house until a couple of months ago, I sweaterGod. I had to put up a fence to keep the damn things out of my yard, where they liked to come to take a crap at night.

This is a five minute walk from the county courthouse and city offices. And the elementary school.

So much for the idea that local government will hold people’s feet to the fire as far as keeping their property up.

I live in a large neighborhood with a HOA and fairly comprehensive deed restrictions. My advice is to read and understand whatever HOA rules and deed restrictions would apply to you and then ask yourself whether you want to live by them (and live in a place where others have to live by them, too). You can’t control the temperament of the people on the HOA but they have no power except that in the rules so I would measure your decision that way.

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:

They’re now in my post above. The young couple with the carport full of junk had a herd of javelina living in the crawlspace under their house until a couple of months ago, I sweaterGod. I had to put up a fence to keep the damn things out of my yard, where they liked to come to take a crap at night.

This is a five minute walk from the county courthouse and city offices. And the elementary school.

So much for the idea that local government will hold people’s feet to the fire as far as keeping their property up.

In the first picture, the license plate hanging by one fastener is a nice touch.
It looks like the stairs to get to the front door of the house are missing. Am I seeing that correctly?

I have been in an HOA neighborhood fir the last 15 years. When we were looking for a house recently, one of the requirements was that it has an HOA. I like that they are the yard police and keep the neighborhood looking nice. The girl across the street hadn’t weeded her yard for quite some time. The HOA left her a note and she weeded the yard.
We live and have lived in communities that have very small yards and if they aren’t kept up, the neighborhood looks like crap in no time.
That said, it is a PITA if the HOA is bored and overzealous. I have a friend that lives in an HOA community and his HOA is a PITA. It’s a bunch of nit picky old folks who have nothing to do but complain.

Before I bought this house, I stopped in and knocked on a few doors and spoke with the neighbors. I asked them about the HOA. I received five responses that were pretty similar. “They mind their business as long as your yard isn’t full of weeds, and your trash can is brought back off the street within a day.”

quote:

Originally posted by DaveL:
My advice is to read and understand whatever HOA rules and deed restrictions would apply to you and then ask yourself whether you want to live by them (and live in a place where others have to live by them, too). You can’t control the temperament of the people on the HOA but they have no power except that in the rules

It's not just the written covenants. HOA board member temperament plays a huge part.

Covenants might say something like "Yards shall be kept free of weeds". And that seems fine on its face.

A reasonable board member understands that it's impossible for a yard to be 100% free of every single weed 24/7/365, no matter how good the owner's weed treatment regiment. They only take action when a yard is getting out of control.

An unreasonable board member gets outraged at every crabgrass blade or dandelion sprout they spy on their 3x a day neighborhood-wide yard patrols.

Get just enough unreasonable people together on a board to get a majority and it becomes a nightmare for the property owners, despite the seemingly reasonably-written covenants.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:

An unreasonable board member gets outraged at every crabgrass blade or dandelion sprout they spy on their 3x a day neighborhood-wide yard patrols.

Get just enough unreasonable people together on a board to get a majority and it becomes a nightmare for the property owners, despite the seemingly reasonably-written covenants.

This right here. That’s why I did a neighborhood walk, and knocked on door and spoke with people prior to buying.