Are HOAs worth it?

ProDarwin said:

Duke said:

ProDarwin said:

<--- I wish I had one.  I'll definitely consider one next time, or closer into the city where ordinances have more of an effect.

I predict this will be the single pro-HOA comment in this entire thread.

Possibly.

 

Let me point out that I'm not talking about extreme HOA.  But the $25/month hoa that tells people not to park on the lawn, not to paint their house bright purple, maintains the neighborhood entrance sign, and just generally keeps people from being douchebags?  Would love one.

What's wrong with parking on your lawn?  Its your lawn, if you want to destroy it, go for it.  There are usually laws in place to deal with inoperative or unlicensed vehicles that typically just need to be called in for code violations to resolve, if talking with your neighbors doesn't already solve it.

Why can't you paint your house the color you want?  Ever look at the colors they used on houses from the Victorian period?  If they want a loud, garish color, who are you to dictate what they do with their property?  There are historic districts in many towns and cities that deal with proper colors and other changes for historic homes, your tract home is not historic, so go nuts.

That said, HOA's that pay for a community center/park that has a pool/hot tub, game room, etc.  I'm all for.  Ones that help maintain the sidewalks and yards?  Gravy.  Saves me having to do it.  The issue is that inevitably it often starts out with good intentions and morphs through people who want to live in the World of the Stepford Wives where everyone conforms to their and only their vision of what a good neighbor is and looks like.

Things like: 

Not being able to park your work van/truck in front of or in the driveway of your own home.  This has been applied to people like plumbers or painters, etc. and yet not people like Police or Sherrifs, etc.  Both are good for the community in their own way, but because the Blue Collar guy has worked hard enough to buy into their paradise, they don't want people to know they exist.  These rules often grew from existing codes about parking trailers or RV's in your driveway.  Again, a good neighbor would ask about it occasionally and maybe even help them keep it clean or help them move it instead of hiding behind some group of rules.

Not being able to use curtains of your choosing.  This happened to my wife when she lived with her Mom.  She had red curtains on the inside of her bedroom window, she loves the color red.  They were in front of the normal blinds.  They were told to remove them because they were against the rules.  Meanwhile the covered deck behind their condo had plastic spoons holding the plastic roof panels in place.  So much for it being a "model" home.

Having to move your garbage cans off the curb immediately or keeping them hidden from view.  Of all the things to worry about, this is just petty nonsense.

Do you want to know why Ford put a "quiet" mode on the new Mustang?  Exactly this sort of stuff.

If your neighbors need these types of rules to be "good' neighbors?  I'd question whether its them or you that has the issue.

Bottom line:  Before you move into a place with an HOA, get a hold of the rules and read them and if you choose to move in there, get involved with the meetings and groups and stay involved or you can easily find yourself on the wrong side of things.

The few that I've been associated with have been horrible, so I guess the answer to your question depends on the HOA. I had one where my neighbor was on the committee and would frequently measure how high my grass was.  One day when my truck was in the front yard for a half hour while I unloaded a fridge I got a citation for parking in my yard.  Nobody cared about the LS engine block sitting in front of my garage though.  My other neighbor reseeded his lawn (which needs to get established before cutting) but of course they gave him all kinds of grief about it.

One other house I was in didn't affect me much since they did the mowing and landscaping, but you couldn't park a car on the street for more than 24 hours.  So every day I had to check my tires for chalk marks and move whatever car 10 feet.  They didn't care that it didn't have an engine and was covered with a blue tarp held down by bricks on the hood and trunk, but by golly you only had 24 hours in one spot.

In a third place they said that any boats or RVs must be parked behind a fence.  So anyone in the neighborhood who bought a boat just bought an 8' section of fence from HD and leaned it up against the front in the driveway.

In my experience, HOAs are a bunch of rules designed to make the place look pretty, but they're rules made by people who don't have the experience to know which rules to make.  I'm sure their 24 hour parking rule was designed to prevent derelict cars like mine, but it was worded improperly.  The RV/boat/fence rule was just so poorly executed that it just made things worse.

I guess part of why mine works is theres only 26-27 houses in my neighborhood and at least 4 houses have car guys including me, an LS powered RX7, and some kind of drag car.   

There is mandated rotation of positions and they actually have to ask people to do the jobs.    Hell, I was asked in my first meeting. (I declined)

Each situation will be different, there is no global answer. They can be good about making sure your neighbors dont do trashy things or annoying things. (like have a bloody rooster!) But if its run like the gestapo, it wont be a good thing.  

I think it really depends on what YOU want and what the HOA wants.

I want the freedom to choose for myself.  I choose to keep my property nice, but I don't want anyone else telling me THEIR definition of nice.  If I don't have the time to mow my lawn this week because my mom is in the hospital, I don't need some HOA writing nasty letters.  If I am remodeling my kitchen and I want a dumpster in my driveway that doesn't get picked up for a month I want that freedom.

The entire reason I bought my own property is because I wanted MY OWN PROPERTY.  In many ways, an HOA is all the responsibility of property ownership with all the headache of renting.  Its exactly the opposite of why I bought my own house.

But I can understand if someone chooses to live in a place where that specific HOA prevents the kind of riff-raff they don't like.  My bestie lives in a development like that.  They want the pretty house with the paper route and street lamps and taking off your shoes at the front door kind of place.  I prefer the greasy garage, beer in the fridge, put your feet on the coffee table, kind of place.

HOA's.  Suck.  Any questions?

We live in one now, because it's best for the kids.  Being in a self contained subdivision means tons and tons of kids, so it's easy for my kids to go out and find someone to play with.  And I will give our HOA credit, as HOAs go, they're fairly permissive.  Not only do they allow me to put up crazy Xmas lights, they encourage it and have a contest.  But they still do the "you must get permission to paint your house, mow your lawn to 3.1415" high, trash cans must be shoved up your shiny happy place by Tuesday morning..." crap.  I can't wait until we're empty nesters...we're leaving.

I would personally pay extra to not live in an HOA place. Did it once. Would not consider doing it again. 

I don't have any issues with our HOA.  They take care of snow removal, garbage pickup and maintain the pool, tennis courts, clubhouse and volleyball court, in addition to the entryways to the neighborhood.

Standard stuff, no trucks/trailers/boats parked for long term.  A few days are fine.  Don't leave trash out, make sure your house/yard looks tidy, etc, etc.

Honestly its not intrusive at all, those that would have issues with it I wouldn't want as neighbors.

Stefan said:

ProDarwin said:

Let me point out that I'm not talking about extreme HOA.  But the $25/month hoa that tells people not to park on the lawn, not to paint their house bright purple, maintains the neighborhood entrance sign, and just generally keeps people from being douchebags?  Would love one.

What's wrong with parking on your lawn?  Its your lawn, if you want to destroy it, go for it.  There are usually laws in place to deal with inoperative or unlicensed vehicles that typically just need to be called in for code violations to resolve, if talking with your neighbors doesn't already solve it.

Why can't you paint your house the color you want?  Ever look at the colors they used on houses from the Victorian period?  If they want a loud, garish color, who are you to dictate what they do with their property?  There are historic districts in many towns and cities that deal with proper colors and other changes for historic homes, your tract home is not historic, so go nuts.

This.  This is what is wrong with it.  This was my neighbor's front yard last year.  Let me also mention that this is a 1/4 acre lot neighborhood.  Things are relatively dense.  Property values tend to take a dump when you have a neighbor that does something like this.  County code enforcement doesn't care.  I am *just* outside the city limits (see my first post).  If I lived where code violations were taken more seriously, I would happily go that route over an HOA.

That guy was just an all around unpleasant neighbor to be around (for many reasons aside from that truck), and thankfully is gone now.  HOAs keep people like that away.

Do I care about the paint?  Not too much.  Noise?  Yes.  General trash all around their yard? Yes.  Obnoxious behavior?  Yes.  I try to be very considerate to my neighbors.  I *hope* they do the same, but there is no guarantee they will.  An HOA can help.

In reply to ProDarwin :

here's where we differ. If you want your place to look like hell, go for it. I worry about my place, you worry about yours. I guarantee you that the people that don't take care of their place will be gone long before me. 

That and I prefer my nearest neighbor to be at least 1/2 mile away. 

Never, ever, ever again.  berkeley HOAs. 

What is an HOA?  

In reply to lateapexer :

Homeowners Association 

In reply to thatsnowinnebago :

I prefer to call them House Nazi's.

In reply to ProDarwin :

If you think that HOA's protect you from shiny happy person neighbors, you're wrong.  They just are replaced with people who can work the system against you.

You can't regulate good neighbors.  Period.

Money doesn't fix a lack of good taste or propriety.

Our’s cost $25/yr and is voluntary.  It started as a garden club for the ladies.  Nobody bitches at you about anything.  There are no HOA rules, but there are corn ants for the neighborhood.? Thing is, there is nobody to enforce them.  The HOA can’t afford to take anybody to court. 

My wife owns a house in a small neighborhood that has a fascist HOA.  We are trying to clean the house up to sell that they stopped by to ask my wife how long the trash container was going to be there.  It had only been there a few days and was totally full at that time, so obviously it was going somewhere soon. 

I will never live in another neighborhood with one.  They are not car guy friendly.

I don't think they can be all that common in Ontario. I've owned several properties and never heard of them. Doesn't appeal in the least. 

Our HOA has annual elections, so if there is a tool on it, the rest of us have the ability to toss them.  So far, it has worked for us.  I have built the deck I want, put in the sidewalk I want alongside my house, landscaped how I want, and built an Exocet in my driveway / garage.  No complaints.  And they keep the property values up in other ways, plus plant awesome flowers every spring.  

That said, when the daughter moves on to college in a couple years, the plan is to move out of a subdivision onto more property.  Outside of HOA ville.

We have a HOC. Or, Homeowner Club. It's voluntary. About 75% of the neighborhood pays $30/yr to keep the common areas and entrances mowed. Every year or so someone posts up on the neighborhood FB page about turning the club into an association. The amount of derision those that suggest it attract is kind of funny. 

The Homeowners' Association - now you can buy a house and have a landlord too!

Stefan said:

In reply to ProDarwin :

If you think that HOA's protect you from shiny happy person neighbors, you're wrong.  They just are replaced with people who can work the system against you.

You can't regulate good neighbors.  Period.

Money doesn't fix a lack of good taste or propriety.

They might not prevent you from living next to an a-hole, but they will keep his property in somewhat nice condition. 

I've honestly never seen a HOA community with the level of trash my neighbors currently have. 

Hoas are like apple products. They're great if you're ok doing everything how.they want it done. They're simple, and generally, the can be beneficial. 

Occasionally they like to meddle behind the scenes, can randomly stop working or become less efficient, and can be comparatively expensive. And God forbid you want to modify some E36 M3 you paid for, or use your E36 M3 in any other way than they intended. 

Like everything in this world they are mostly a compromise.  If there are no local zoning rules in place to keep your neighbor from opening a junk yard it may be a good idea. Make sure you see a copy of the rules before you put any money down so you know what you are up against.  Our previous house was in an HOA neighborhood and it was generally pretty laid back. It's main purpose was to take care of the common areas and road upkeep. There was some changeover of the board every year to keep it from becoming a dictatorship . We had about 300 houses in the neighborhood and pretty much every  year the same 6 people whined about something that was trivial and when they were offered a solution,  could not be bothered to participate in fixing what they complained about. IMO unless it is your only choice, look for somewhere you can do your own thing without big brother forcing their ideals on you.

I live with an HOA. Fees are $50/yr, most of which gets spent on our annual BBQ. This winter I got a notice about having my trailer parked in the yard. The rule is very clear and I got by for 18 years. Turns out a couple of folks with large RVs were what prompted the notice and several homes were notified for infractions. I pointed out a couple of more who were breaking the same rule (one was the HOA VP) and watched to see who complied. The President is a decent guy and it's a sucky job. I told him I would comply, BUT if others didn't my trailer will reappear come spring. He was OK with that and two motorhomes haven't moved all winter. Otherwise , I get left alone to grind and weld on cars in my garage with the doors open (there's a rule against that) and we all mange to get along while ignoring some of the dumber rules.

HOA are perfect if your goal is to not live next to someone like me