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Does anyone *not* hate their HOA?

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jlee said:
I'm having a really hard time finding a nice new-ish house without an HOA...are there any that aren't evil? Or do they all have the possibility of becoming evil?

Example
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Mine is great. If anything, they probably don't do enough but I probably prefer for them to be that way as opposed to being too intrusive.

One funny example is our HOA dues. They're $75/year (yes, PER YEAR) and yet, we inevitably have people who don't pay them. I'm sure my HOA calls them regularly to ask for the money, but they obviously haven't taken other action because they decided to try to shame these people into paying by printing their names in our HOA newsletter. The same people have been listed for months.

I'll be honest, I've technically violated my covenant 2 or 3 times, but no one has ever said anything to me and trust me, when I have big bulldozers and trucks at my house, they KNOW something is going on and know I didn't get their permission first. 😀
 
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I grew up in a good one and my parents and sister still live there. All the HOA does is care for the common areas and you can do whatever the hell you want to your property.
 
All HOA's are evil. Anyone who thinks otherwise simply has not had to deal with one enough to realize it yet.
 
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My HOA is $400 a month for a 3 bed/2 bath condo. I really want to find a roommate so they can pay the HOA for me.
 
Mine's not terribad. For now. $150 a year and the forcibly removed a dog from an irresponsible owner a couple weeks ago, have helped with a couple other issues and whatnot so far. Can't complain too much.
 
I'm in a single family house community and the HOA is pretty benign. A couple years back a guy got on the board and tried to make it less benign and he was out the next year. About the only lasting change he was able to make was to get the trash pickup contracted by the HOA rather than the homeowners which kind of pissed some of us off but made the <whining voice>mommies</whining voice> happy.
 
Before they built their home, some friends of mine questioned the builder closely about whether a pool would be built in their subdivision - there wasn't one, and they didn't want one. After being assured that there was no place reserved for a pool and that it wouldn't happen, they bought their plot and built the house.

Two years later, the HOA decided they couldn't live without a pool. So he got elected to the board, and got them to agree to grandfather anyone who didn't want to contribute to the pool. They don't pay for it, and they don't have access keys to it, either. But they have to watch, because when money got tight, the board tried to drag everyone in.

The pool has been vandalized several times, and cost a lot more than planned. There's some resentment towards the members who opted out.
 
I've lived in an HOA community as a homeowner now for 13 years and quite honestly I really have nothing bad to say about the experience.
 
i lived in a townhouse with an HOA and i got a notice because i left our stinky garbage on the driveway, albiet next to the house, instead of the garage. We did not have a lot of room in the garage and we both have cars more on the compact side plus we only did it after a meal like a whole turkey. Most HOA's do not allow clotheslines and in a month or two we will install clotheslines in our new house without association.

The biggest reason anyone should avoid HOA's if the fact that you can get evicted from your house just from not paying HOA fees, even if you paid off your mortgage. That should scare anyone. I was aware of it with the townhouse but dealt with it since i can afford to pay and knew it was not my final home purchase.
 
no issues with mine. They don't hassle us, and they keep the fences painted and greenfields mowed.
 
My father doesn't seem to have any problems with his. I do recall a time though when he had to replace the lights on the front of his garage because someone in the subdivision broke theirs and that model was no longer made. In order for all 200 homes to continue to be identical, EVERYONE had to replace their garage lights. That's just plain retarded. Wild guess: $30,000 wasted just to make sure everyone's lights were identical. Can't have those property values going down. :roll:

RockinZ28 said:
When I buy a home, I'd prefer to not have one though. Don't want people telling me what I can or can't do on my property. And the cost, Jesus. $270/month for HOA fee here.
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Yikes! That's more than my mortgage payment!
 
DrPizza said:
In order for all 200 homes to continue to be identical
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People WANT their houses to be identical?

Ugh, no thanks. Having houses with radically different styling right next to each other is one thing, but a modest amount of difference within a block/subdivision keeps things interesting.
 
purbeast0 said:
god damn $140k for a house of that size.

$140k won't buy you a loft here. crazy how the cost of living varies so much.
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This.
I paid almost that for my 825 SQ FT condo.
I have no problems with our association where I live either. The grounds are well kept and the staff is decent.
 
We don't have them around here. That whole thing is a foreign concept to me. Heck...most people around here rebel against building permits let alone some group of busy bodies trying to control others.
 
I dont hate it but there isnt much love either.
They let assholes park their cars all over the place and play loud music into the wee hours, but if I try to put a window AC in the back of the house or blinds on the side windows they get all hysterical.

About all their really good for is getting lawn mowing service to our common areas and garbage men and such.
 
I'm currently the president of a HOA. All the "me bitches" and freeloaders hate me.

We're not that strict. It's just that some people just have zero common sense. And some people think they are somehow special....like you're infringing on their right to grow and smoke pot in their backyard.
 
Six said:
I'm currently the president of a HOA. All the "me bitches" and freeloaders hate me.

We're not that strict. It's just that some people just have zero common sense. And some people think they are somehow special....like you're infringing on their right to grow and smoke pot in their backyard.
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Lurk much?
Or is this an alternate account?
 
I currently own property in two different "Strata" developments. These are the Canadian version of HOA's. I actually like the Strata councils we have, as they are proactive in preventing problems such as theft and they are very cost concious, so they keep our fees in line.

I'm sure there are bad ones, but the two I deal with are great.
 
jagec said:
People WANT their houses to be identical?

Ugh, no thanks. Having houses with radically different styling right next to each other is one thing, but a modest amount of difference within a block/subdivision keeps things interesting.
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Shoot, modern sub-divisions in Phoenix have about 4, maybe 5, total models. Few hundred homes in the community, and all identical. 🙁

Not exactly sure how this keeps property values up though.
 
We just moved out of our HOA neighborhood. All the houses looked the same and you had to submit a form to the "architectural review committee" if you wanted to plant a tree or add a flagstone walkway etc. They hired a HOA management company to drive slowly around the neighborhood weekly to take repeat photography of the houses to make sure you didn't slip something by them, your weeds were pulled, etc.

Overall the ideas behind an HOA aren't that bad but how it's implemented can be. I really hated the idea I was paying a monthly fee for no real service, just to receive letters (they called them friendly reminders) stating my trash can was left out too long or there were weeds in my yard. Sometimes you would be reading your friendly reminder about weeds while looking at your weed-free yard. Calling the management company would result in them sending you one of their drive by photos with the weeds circled. In most cases it was one way back by the side gate or not in fact a weed at all.

We are currently in the process of looking for a new house in Tucson in non-HOA neighborhoods. Looking at some rundown and funky older homes helps you realize why HOAs came into existence but for my $$ I'm looking for no HOA.
 
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