HOA experiences/stories

I've been part of three HOA's never and issue...   but I've never lived in a high rent area.

SVreX (Forum Supporter) said:

Dieselboss15 said:

In reply to SVreX (Forum Supporter) :

when your done let me know how that blows over

There won't be any getting "done". It's never gonna start. 
 

I moved into a neighborhood where people live similarly to me. I am an asset to the neighborhood. I've improved my property, and the value of it and of others. 
 

My point is that the issue is much more nuanced than "HOA or no HOA". It's important to know the details and how it is implemented, not just whether an HOA exists. 
 

My neighborhood covenant was written 40 years ago. It's a $30 fee, and it's voluntary. The neighborhood has made exceptions and set precedents for a very long time. I live exactly like my neighbors and do not create eyesores (worse than theirs).  There won't be any enforcement or issues. 
 

$500K homes that are all less than 2 years old with a $250 per month HOA fee?  Yeah, THAT neighborhood will rake you over the coals. 

This is probably the best post in the thread. It is easy to say HOAs are bad. I specifically avoided them myself. But they're not all bad. They do have their benefits, but if you're considering a home in one, you need to make sure that the benefits are actually benefits. 

Our POA hired and fired two management companies in the last two years. Several residents wanted to start a civil war over the nasty letters that the hired management companies send out. They still haven't hired a third. Mrs. Snowdoggie used to go to all the meetings. She doesn't now. Our neighbor, a really nice guy who is a retired lawyer married to a State Court Judge who also drives a Corvette, used to be on the board. He isn't now. Said he doesn't want to deal with all the anger. There was also another bloody civil war last summer over people not living in the neighborhood jumping the fence to use the pool. More yelling and screaming at the meetings. 

I still see jet skis, boats and RVs parked in driveways and even on the street against all the rules. I see golf carts parked in front lawns and being driven everywhere. Kids drive their ATVs and dirt bikes in back alleys, on streets and all over the place quite illegally. Did I mention that I am over 60 and still ride my dirt bike around the neigborhood too? 

I get away with parking my motorhome and my Sea Doo in the driveway. 

Welcome to Texas. 

"HOAs are terrible"

That's like saying women are terrible, or marriage is terrible, or beer is terrible.

Sure there's some terrible beer, but...

In reply to SVreX (Forum Supporter) :

Truth.  I just avoid them because there is A) no real way to determine if you are buying in an area with a "good" HOA, and B) I can't really control whether or not the HOA will morph into an entity that will no longer support an enjoyable living experience for me.

In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :

I have no problem with avoiding them. Makes sense. 
 

I would say that I have NEVER seen a 40 year old HOA morph into ANYTHING. 

I will also say that most times someone bitches about an HOA it's because they didn't ever read their covenants or do any due diligence. They don't understand where they live or what they bought. My neighbor didn't even know we had an HOA. That's pathetic. 

Often that is the case.

I just don't like the fact that certain rules exist.  It makes no difference to me if they are never enforced, they CAN be.  The speed limit on the way to work is 55.  Most people drive 80.  I have never seen a cop on that stretch, but the law is still the law.  If one decided to set up a trap there, the 30 years of driving 80 and getting away with it means very little with a $300 fine and higher insurance rates.

I nearly ventilated the poor guy the HOA sent out to inspect everyone's chimney caps without sending letters or emails notifying people.

I'm home on a random Tuesday and hear someone walking around on the roof, wtf. The next door neighbors had someone break in through an upstairs window in the middle of the day so there was no messing around. 
 

The management company also sent me a letter stating that my tree had grown within 12" of either the house or the fence and I needed to remedy it. They didn't say which tree was deemed too close, and never returned my call when I asked if they knew the trees were planted within 12" of the fence. 
 

I'm absolutely certain that HOA people are the same ones who sat at the front of the class in grade 5 and said "teacher, you forgot to give us homework".

For those of you who live in a HOA community and actually like it. Do you also phone the police and ask them to follow you around when you drive, just to be sure you're not breaking any laws?

SVreX (Forum Supporter) said:

I will also say that most times someone bitches about an HOA it's because they didn't ever read their covenants or do any due diligence. 

Replace HOA with insurance, or basically any contract, Terms of Service, etc.

I do find the contrast between this thread and "if you were a king for a day" thread interesting.

Car thread, the level of control desired on what people buy and how people use vehicles would make the worst HOA jealous of the control........yet those same people here act like ANY HOA is the literal gestapo patrolling the neighborhood.

Interesting cognitive dissonance.

SVreX (Forum Supporter) said:

"HOAs are terrible"

 

That's like saying women are terrible, or marriage is terrible, or beer is terrible.

 

Sure there's some terrible beer, but...

All people are awful in some way, including me. In my story, it was an awful person using the HOA as a weapon. If the HOA is there, it can be used against me. 

That said- your post that included this line was very good: "My point is that the issue is much more nuanced than "HOA or no HOA". It's important to know the details and how it is implemented, not just whether an HOA exists."

Knowing the limits on the HOA is important. I'm sure I wouldn't mind one that maintained a sign out in front of the development, but anybody that trys to tell me what color I can paint my house can get stuffed. 

z31maniac said:

 

I do find the contrast between this thread and "if you were a king for a day" thread interesting.

Car thread, the level of control desired on what people buy and how people use vehicles would make the worst HOA jealous of the control........yet those same people here act like ANY HOA is the literal gestapo patrolling the neighborhood.

Interesting cognitive dissonance.

Could be that the "king for a day" thread is an absurd premise and got absurd results, while an HOA is real.

In reply to ShawnG :

I fail to see your correlation.  So you're saying that anyone who likes living in a HOA community automatically defaults to going around gathering violations in the neighborhood and calls the police?

I like my HOA.  I don't bitch to the HOA about my neighbors.  Everyone does a good job here about not parking rusted out piles of garbage on their yard, or letting the weeds grow waist high, etc, etc. 

Some HOA's go overboard.  Some don't.  If you want to have a junkyard at your property, don't buy in an HOA community, just like if you don't want to hear airplanes, don't buy a house along the flight path of the airport.

Ultimately the thing you need to think about with an HOA is that you are buying a part of a community. You become part of that community, and you share ownership of that community. HOA can allow you to take ownership in it. It can also allow NIMBYs to take ownerhsip of it. Gotta make sure you find the balance. This is both good and bad. And sometimes, zoning takes care of it for you. Sometimes, an HOA stops people from lighting a riding mower on fire on purpose on their driveway. As awesome as that is, and as fast as I'd be running for a camera and a beer to watch it burn, I would not be happy living in an area where something like that was commonplace. 

I've personally never lived where one was necessary. I rented in one for a while - it involved upkeep of the park. That was it as far as I could tell. I have passed on houses because of neighbors. That means that the value of a house dropped because of the neighbors. . I'm all about you do you, let me do me - but you doing you sometimes impacts me negatively. I'm not going to put myself in that position. And an HOA can also be that - this is the nuance. 

I specifically made sure we didn't buy in one, because in my area, the only HOAs are also PITAs. But I wouldn't inherintly rule them out. Someday though, I'm gonna have a house on a big chunk of land and everyone else can go berkeley themselves. Until then, I have to be a conscientious neighbor. 

I think the dissonance on the issue of HOAs has to do with this weird attitude about what they are. 
 

We all have this weird legalistic attitude about what authority is. It's in our DNA. It's part of being human. Some legalistic people find guidelines safe and comfortable. They tend to use guidelines as bludgeons to try to control other people. 
 

On the other end of the spectrum are the people rebel against authority. They want no one controlling them. They take comfort in "freedom" from guidelines and structures. Yet they use this freedom in a very legalistic way to still try and control other people. The mantra is usually something like "Those people who love rules shouldn't be allowed to control me". Which is in actuality STILL trying to control other people. I fall into this second category. So do many of you. 
 

Here's what people miss. An HOA is NOT a legal entity nor system. It is NOT a set of laws, nor even a set of rules. An HOA is an agreement between people who choose to live in the same neighborhood. It's a promise. It is guided by a set of Covenant Restrictions to a deed.  It's the deal I made with my neighbors when I bought the property. Like a marriage covenant. 
 

Anyone who buys a piece of property with a covenant deed restriction and then chooses to play by a different set of rules has broken the covenant. They really don't have the right to blame the Nazi rule enforcer lady for asking them to keep up their end of the bargain which they agreed to when they bought the property. 

In reply to SVreX (Forum Supporter) :

Troof!

I have had some run ins with my HOA.  Nothing I got mad about.  We worked it out and they were actually lenient on a few items when it was discussed.

I wanted a shed in my backyard.  According to the covenants, I can't actually have one because the rule is you can't see if from the street.  Unfortunately, I live on a corner lot...  the fence isn't allowed to be tall enough to cover the shed.

I talked with the HOA and they allowed me to have a shed.  It needed to blend in as well as possible OR be made out of the same materials as the house.  House is orangeish brick.  I'm not building a brick shed....

They helped me pick a color and I got the shed built, installed, and I painted it.  No problems!

They do need everybody to submit any painting they want to do to the HOA.  It's kind of a pain, but it also stops people from painting their house the same colors as their favorite sports team (just happened, people had just moved here, didn't read the covenants).  They had 2 weeks to repaint it....

In reply to wvumtnbkr :

Jesus! Were they Seahawks fans?

Not to disparage the topic but I have a front seat spot to Pacific Garbage Patch level littering, prostitution, drive bys, fake police chases ( they're not allowed to so they fake it ), drug addiction, homelessness, saw one teenager being hunted by a group of other teenagers, a ten year old twerking a 'victory dance' when a dozen cops bum rushed the hunted girl and arrested her because she picked up a garden rake to defend herself, more angry near violent domestic disputes than you shake a garden rake at. On and on and on.

I don't even bother calling 911 anymore especially as it just leads to greater calamity.

I'll never live in an HOA but I can see the attraction.

BTW you're not buying a house under $500k.

nutherjrfan said:

BTW you're not buying a house under $500k.

Huh?

I've bought many.  The most expensive house I've ever bought was well less than half that. 
 

There's a lot of variation in different parts of the country. 

A house under $500k where I live needs to have a cat driven thorough it.

Realestate here is berked to put it mildly.

ShawnG said:

A house under $500k where I live needs to have a cat driven thorough it.

Realestate here is berked to put it mildly.

$500k in my neighborhood won't even get you a house on the lake. Texas used to be cheap. 

At least I get to live where people go on vacation.

B.C. stands for Bring Cash.

In reply to SVreX (Forum Supporter) :

In this zip code. 20020. I couldn't find one a few weeks ago. 

In reply to SVreX (Forum Supporter) :

Well I found one.

Oops.

The back fence is the Safeway parking lot.

That elevated view from the front step is on the back of a gas station that almost always has a cop on standby.

I forgot Walmart paid an almost $2m fine to get out of the new condo/retail bldg in the photos due to politics.

And take a look at the crime heat map in the listing.

Prices are silly here too. Single family homes that is.

I do have one pertinent question.

Are HOAs hard to reselll?

Like as in Co-Op hard to resell?

If not live for the amount of time to avoid the tax penalty then find another nearby that has a different reputation.

I'd say no.

HOA neighborhoods would be hard to resell to the GRM crowd, but in general a large percentage of buyers want them.