quote:

Originally posted by Beancooker:
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.

Yep. The worst offenders tend to be bored, bitter, retired folks who have nothing else to do with their lives but patrol their neighborhood multiple times a day looking for nitpicky violations. They're unhappy and powerless, so they like the feeling of power it gives them.

We're in a 60 acre subdivision with 10 homesites - but only 5 homes are built. There's a HOA of 10 members, but the other 5 live out of state... so the 5 homeowners run and manage the HOA. One 2 hour meeting a year; we talk about the private road and snow removal. The advantage is there's a Design Review Committee that has to approve a new construction home before it's built - regardless of the County approval and permitting. Dues are $400/yr, we have great neighbors; life is good.

There are precious moments when an HOA board of directors on a power trip goes too far and meets Karma.

Several years ago, residents of a neighborhood with an HOA in a small city just east of Dallas started finding parking tickets on vehicles parked on the street. The vehicles were usually visiting friends' cars and were seldom residents' cars parked overnight.

Residents called the police department to find out why they were suddenly ticketing cars. The police replied, "We're not." Upon closer inspection, the residents noticed that the citations were issued by the HOA.

The concerned residents promptly contacted the chief of police, who just happened to live in the neighborhood.

The HOA board flatly told him, "These are our streets and we make the rules."

The police chief politely replied that if the HOA owns the streets, then it also is responsible for street maintenance, water, gas, and sanitation, because those services run either under the streets or on them.

It took about two days for the HOA to realize they FUBT. They backed off, and I think the entire board was gone within months.

quote:

Originally posted by Patrick-SP2022:

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 think you’re looking at a window and mistaking it for a door. The door they use is in the carport full of junk. Said carport is about 50’ from a dumpster. They can’t be bothered to walk that far.

The car is inoperable. Been sitting there for a couple months.

Thanks for the pics. Herd of Javelina. If I recall in my visit to Big Bend many years ago, those wild pigs are noisy, and destructive animals.

Where you live you are probably safe from Nuclear attack. Surprised you have internet.

quote:

Originally posted by sasquatch28:
The covenants and restrictions are likely recorded with the county. Read them and sëe if you can live with them.

This big time

You need to know what you are getting yourself into ahead of time - so no surprises.

And then after you read them - whether or not they are enforced is another matter.

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quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
Thanks for the pics. Herd of Javelina. If I recall in my visit to Big Bend many years ago, those wild pigs are noisy, and destructive animals.

But wait, there’s more! They stink and they dig up your yard!

Yuck. Is the meat edible?

^^^^^^^ I’ve been looking at retirement property in Arizona, particularly around Tucson. I was in AZ last week.

I was quickly informed that Javelinas are not pigs. They are Peccary. Not the same. In AZ they are protected by state law, leave them alone, don’t feed, etc.

LINK

The area I’m looking in seems to be pretty much HOA of some degree from mild to pain in the ass category. I may be able to find home in a non-HOA area. Everyone told me the same, read the rules throughly, completely understand them, and make sure you can live with them. I have friends with a home in a HOA area but it’s very mild, mainly just pays for roads and entrances.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
Yuck. Is the meat edible?

Yes. When you’re processing one you have to be careful to avoid touching or cutting into their musk glands to keep from contaminating the meat with a skunky essence.

They’re omnivores, too FWIW. I generally don’t eat Javelina.

quote:

I generally don’t eat Javelina.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
In a pinch, you know when the Whataburger is closed??

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:

quote:

Originally posted by Beancooker:
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.

Yep. The worst offenders tend to be bored, bitter, retired folks who have nothing else to do with their lives but patrol their neighborhood multiple times a day looking for nitpicky violations. They're unhappy and powerless, so they like the feeling of power it gives them.

This is exactly my experience at the old townhouse. A handful of neighbors had nothing better to do.

There are options to HOAs that are less restrictive or subjective. For example, the developer of my neighborhood placed restrictive covenants on each lot that governed how small a home could be and banned vinyl siding. This prevented someone from coming in and building a junky starter home in a nice middle class neighborhood negatively impacting property values.

Another factor to consider is your city. I’d ask around and see how active their city inspector is for housing violations. My city is very active and cites people routinely that have junky yards like the eyesore shown in arfmel’s post.

On the other hand, sometimes an HOA provides you what you need/want. There is one up the road from me that has a clubhouse, swimming pool, tennis courts, etc. I have an employee that lives in one that does all the yard work. As she and her husband are older, they like that. A lot of people like HOA amenities and are willing to pay for them.

As mentioned, I would have your attorney carefully read all documents related to any HOA you are considering moving into so you know clearly what your rights, duties and obligations are - prior to closing on your home.

Depending on where you want to live, the choice might not be HOA or no HOA.

In my case, it was which HOA I was willing to put up with. As I mentioned in an earlier post, any house that did not come with an HOA attached was either in a really crappy neighborhood, or on the other end of the spectrum, way out of affordable reach.

All the middle-class stuff around here has an HOA, so the only possibility is compromise: of the acceptable houses, which has the least intrusive HOA.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
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.

Try living across the street from said asshole. Apparently, spraying Roundup on the weeds and pulling them after they got the dose to the roots wasn’t quick enough, he wanted them pulled yesterday.

NEVER AGAIN, EVER will I pay for someone to bitch at me. I already have a wife.

IMHO, HOAs are a double edge sword. They do help keep neighborhoods nice. We currently live in one with few restrictions, $35.00 year. No complaints. Previous two were a "whole nuther thing". It got ugly sometimes. I got written HOA approval to change our house color. After an expensive painting job, HOA decided they didn't like it. HOA manager told me he was sending out a crew to repaint our house. It got very heated. Another time we got written HOA approval for a small metal shed in our back yard. HOA denied they had approved it. I kept my shed and house color.

Neighbor across the street installed solar. HOA declared it a violation, told him to take it down, made a big stink about it. Apparently they had not read their own CC&Rs. Solar was exempt.

We did have cars,usually occupied by 3 or 4 senior citizens, driving around looking for whatever they might decide was a violation.

As I said, double edge sword......

Before you jump into a HOA make sure you read all the rules and regulations. Maybe you can live with their rules and maybe not. Me no way for the one I checked out. Rules probably can be found on line. Just enter the name of the place. That's where I found the one I was thinking about. They required a garage, can't park in driveway ,fence with their approval. They control everything.

we live in a fairly old...for the area.. neighborhood with an HOA. I read the bylaws before we bought it.

It says I can't build a watch tower with a 30' antenna mast....damn (nothing over 10' higher than the house)

they gigged me for my back porch needing painting right after I moved in...it did and I did...since then....quiet

Litigated many HOA issues regarding owners, intra-board disputes and third party contractors. No thanks.

All it takes is one bad set of strong personalities and 20 years of peace turns into $150,000.00 of sleeplessness.

One newly elected "leader" or one that has too much time on his/her hands and your property is in peril over pettiness.

For all the benefits, it still puts me off.

I've won cases on the smallest of minutae but, on balance, what a pain for people who just want to live.

Some HOA requirements and perils are much more livable. The details are available on the front end for those who look.

Have an eye-opener and review the actual docs with an attorney and ask him/her to tell you how things could go wrong.