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HOA's have long been taking advantage of the American people and their dream to own a home and make it their own to raise their families. HOA's have become dictators telling people when they can have friends over and what can be kept on their property. In these times where home sales are plummeting, homeowners are trying to do things to increase interest in their homes and an HOA is a turn off to new homebuyers. You may ask why? Because of all the rules. Such as you cannot keep your $250k motorhome or $35k boat in your own driveway. You have to put up a storage that has the same coloring as your home. People that buy expensive homes that are in an HOA are not keeping trash or broken down items in their yards. HOA's are just another way for more control over free Americans
I just bought a new place and, at this point in my life, would only buy if there's an HOA (for many of the reasons already listed in this thread). And condo and other HOA-linked sales are very strong where I am.
Living in a condo community with an HOA that doesn't enforce A-N-Y rules and restrictions. Oh, yea their written out in black and white but they're a joke! I have a neighbor who parks on the lawn because they don't have a driveway. They argue with us constantly that we should open our driveway to them even though they don't maintain it. Taken pictures and written notes about parking on the grass because it looks like an eyesore and dumpy. Board members and the HOA don't care!!! Just hand us your check every month and we don't know you and that the problem exists. Turning a blind eye to whatever the owner is doing. Can't wait to move out because this place is going down hill really fast.
For the past ten years I've been living in a condo community that supposedly prides itself on the beauty of the grounds. They go so far as to say "Park Like Setting". In the area I live the owner of one of the units has no driveway and helps themselves to ours without any type of permission: written or verbal. The owner of this unit pushes their weight around too much. The HOA and Board Members have turned a blind eye to the new owner allowing them to park on the lawn and paint their wraparound deck and porch a horrible mustard color. The Board Members themselves aren't to be spoken to: they remain untouchable to the "commoners". There are five pages of rules and over fifty pages of restrictions that are a total joke! And one of those rules is: No parking on the community grass. Do not use owners driveways without permission. Also, the "original" owners that are still kicking around, tell owners to disrupt and bully the lives of the "good" people in the community. Realtors boast the community as the "cream-of-the-crop" and "premium" living with ocean views. About fifty-nine percent of the time the gates have issues from not going up when leaving and not coming down (being stuck in the open position). Intimidation not to say anything bad about the community by the "original" owners places an owner on the "hit, hate, and black" list.
How bizarre. They should either allow dogs, or not. But, in my last HOA situation, no animals at all were allowed then it turned out these "emotional support" animals showed up in droves. So, the "no pets" went out the window.
I read your whole other HOA thread and enjoyed it. I'm not going to complain about our current HOA since we have no desire or talent to be on The Board. I would rather pay a 3rd party....it has been a great deal of work for our Board here....(being foreigners).
Aren't ALL pets emotionally supportive, though? I mean that is a key reason human beings keep animals as pets.
In all my years of severe and at times crippling anxiety I never had an "emotional support" animal or service animal. Honestly I found the idea of caring for one even more anxiety producing since I had enough trouble taking care of myself at the time.
Living in a condo community with an HOA that doesn't enforce A-N-Y rules and restrictions. Oh, yea their written out in black and white but they're a joke! I have a neighbor who parks on the lawn because they don't have a driveway. They argue with us constantly that we should open our driveway to them even though they don't maintain it. Taken pictures and written notes about parking on the grass because it looks like an eyesore and dumpy. Board members and the HOA don't care!!! Just hand us your check every month and we don't know you and that the problem exists. Turning a blind eye to whatever the owner is doing. Can't wait to move out because this place is going down hill really fast.
What is the purpose your monthly checks then? Are there things the board does take care of? If you're leaving soon, probably not worth it, but maybe you could try getting together a bunch of neighbors equally outraged and frustrated to refuse to line pockets for no work done.
In the area I lived in, just outside the city limits, there was a block of lovely big custom houses on what I would guess are 1 1/2 - 2 acre lots.
Right in the middle of the block, one of the homeowners fenced his land into little bitty electric fence pens and filled them with huge pigs. The land was covered with little pens and I estimate over 100 pigs crammed onto the property in little pens.
The zoning in that area allowed farm animals, just as every other property outside the city limits allowed farm animals.
Every other house on the block had a for sale sign on it. I had to wonder if those people who couldn't sell their expensive house were still happy that they bought a house with no HOA.
(and that is how an HOA protects home values, by keeping out the pig farmers, for those of you who can't understand how that works)
Additional: most HOA's don't allow pigs, some do. My family passed on a lovely house because the HOA had a three dog limit. We were laughing about it because under the HOA rules, we couldn't have four dogs but we were allowed to have five pigs, or five cows, or five noisy donkeys.
You have to read the rules before you buy and decide, before you buy, if you can live with the rules as they are written.
In the area I lived in, just outside the city limits, there was a block of lovely big custom houses on what I would guess are 1 1/2 - 2 acre lots.
Right in the middle of the block, one of the homeowners fenced his land into little bitty electric fence pens and filled them with huge pigs. The land was covered with little pens and I estimate over 100 pigs crammed onto the property in little pens.
The zoning in that area allowed farm animals, just as every other property outside the city limits allowed farm animals.
Every other house on the block had a for sale sign on it. I had to wonder if those people who couldn't sell their expensive house were still happy that they bought a house with no HOA.
(and that is how an HOA protects home values, by keeping out the pig farmers, for those of you who can't understand how that works)
Sounds like a lack of research and zoning issue, not an HOA or lack of issue.
Like I have said on many threads on here, if the demand for HOAs are so great, then local governments would not have to mandate them.
Aside from that though, there is hardly an argument in the world against a normal, well run HOA. The arguments come when they deviate outside of that, start interpreting rules in their own way, start singling out people and enacting selective enforcement, and go down a war path of costly legal expenses over what amounts to a trivial issue.
In the area I lived in, just outside the city limits, there was a block of lovely big custom houses on what I would guess are 1 1/2 - 2 acre lots.
Right in the middle of the block, one of the homeowners fenced his land into little bitty electric fence pens and filled them with huge pigs. The land was covered with little pens and I estimate over 100 pigs crammed onto the property in little pens.
The zoning in that area allowed farm animals, just as every other property outside the city limits allowed farm animals.
Every other house on the block had a for sale sign on it. I had to wonder if those people who couldn't sell their expensive house were still happy that they bought a house with no HOA.
(and that is how an HOA protects home values, by keeping out the pig farmers, for those of you who can't understand how that works)
There are ways of dealing with bad neighbors that don't involve empowering a group of tyrants to control the lives of residents. Police complaints, Lawsuits, Social Shaming...
When we were looking for lots to build on, we drove through many non-HOA neighborhoods. This one is established and well kept. There are houses that have an RV or boat on their property. I don't consider them an eyesore. Their houses and yards are landscaped beautifully. The boats and RVs are pretty spectacular. Damn! Makes me want one.
This. I don't consider expensive trucks, RVs and boats to be eyesores. I have a 35 foot Rockwood travel trailer than cost $45k. It's gorgeous in and out. Anyone thinking it's an eyesore is a moron, as far as I'm concerned. I have a parking pad for it at home, though it's not there very often as we keep it at a campground much of the year. But when I do have it home to clean it, maintain it, and make sure it's ready to go, I'd not want some busybody telling me it's ugly and fining me for having it. It certainly doesn't drop your property value to have it temporarily parked on MY property (especially if you're not in an active sale process). Hell, it looks nicer and is in better shape than a lot of people's houses... lol!
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Personal choice. Thank goodness we still have those options.
Problem is, that's going away. As more and more houses in areas reasonably close to jobs are getting/have HOAs, it makes it hard to have a decent job and find a home with a decent commute that isn't an HOA property anymore.
I'm also a automotive hobbyist, and I have nice cars. But I keep them that way by working on them myself, and I'll do that either in the garage with the garage door open (for natural light and so I can walk around the car easily) or even in the driveway. It's not often, but it's not never, either. And no, there's no cars up on blocks... I've worked on the neighbor's cars occasionally and they like having someone handy around that can save them time and money. Couldn't do any of this in an HOA neighborhood. My house is the largest and nicest in the neighborhood, too. Don't need an HOA to keep it that way, either.
Some people are micromanagers, and others want to be micromanaged. I'm neither. But I'm seeing my freedom to choose being eroded on a yearly basis. And yes, a well run, low cost HOA that does a good job of managing the shared space is fine, for those that want that. It's when they get new people on the board that add rules or re-interpret them and cause issues over unimportant things (Front door color, how many minutes a garage door can be open in a row, exact height of the grass in your front yard, etc.), that's when they go bad, and they seem to go bad on an alarmingly regular basis. As is shown in this thread a LOT of people want to micromanage others.
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HOA's are only rent collectors
I've worked on the neighbor's cars occasionally and they like having someone handy around that can save them time and money. Couldn't do any of this in an HOA neighborhood. My house is the largest and nicest in the neighborhood, too. Don't need an HOA to keep it that way, either.
