Moving to Lee Summit. Discouraged with HOA's (Independence, Lee's Summit: appointed, real estate)

[mississippiblonde]

We will be moving to Lee's Summit from Iowa. We have lived in NC, IL, IN, and Iowa and have never encountered HOA's. We were excited to take advantage of boating on all of the lakes, but after exploring options, many are private with HOA's and RULES, which is probably the thing I'm having the hardest time with. We will bring a teenage daughter with us. Can anyone give advice on where to live where we can enjoy lakes without HOA's? All of the homes are so close together as well. I need trees and nature, and I'm having a hard time getting a vibe between Blue Springs and Lees Summit. Any help is appreciated. Just not sure where we fit. Price range is between $200 and $275, depending on location. Thank you.

[rwiksell]

Originally Posted by mississippiblonde

We will be moving to Lee's Summit from Iowa. We have lived in NC, IL, IN, and Iowa and have never encountered HOA's. We were excited to take advantage of boating on all of the lakes, but after exploring options, many are private with HOA's and RULES, which is probably the thing I'm having the hardest time with. We will bring a teenage daughter with us. Can anyone give advice on where to live where we can enjoy lakes without HOA's? All of the homes are so close together as well. I need trees and nature, and I'm having a hard time getting a vibe between Blue Springs and Lees Summit. Any help is appreciated. Just not sure where we fit. Price range is between $200 and $275, depending on location. Thank you.

Good question. What are your options? Are you trying to stay in eastern/southeastern Jackson County, for the sake of a commute?

A little more information would go a long way. All the best!

[mississippiblonde]

Trying to stay in Lees Summit, or Blue Springs, for the schools for my daughter. Husband's job is central Lee Summit, so it seems anywhere in those areas would be no more than a 20 minute drive for him which is okay.

[TabulaRasa]

I did not have to belong to an HOA when I lived in Lee's Summit (2009-2012).

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by mississippiblonde

We will be moving to Lee's Summit from Iowa. We have lived in NC, IL, IN, and Iowa and have never encountered HOA's. We were excited to take advantage of boating on all of the lakes, but after exploring options, many are private with HOA's and RULES, which is probably the thing I'm having the hardest time with. We will bring a teenage daughter with us. Can anyone give advice on where to live where we can enjoy lakes without HOA's? All of the homes are so close together as well. I need trees and nature, and I'm having a hard time getting a vibe between Blue Springs and Lees Summit. Any help is appreciated. Just not sure where we fit. Price range is between $200 and $275, depending on location. Thank you.

I don't live there anymore, but I still know Blue Springs and Lee's Summit very well. It sounds like you like the outdoors lifestyle of the area. You won't be disappointed. Lakes everywhere and even the non-recreational lakes are nice just for the scenery. Much of the area feels like you are in mid Missouri, not typical suburbia.

I'm not sure I would worry about HOAs too much in the Jackson County suburbs. Most are pretty passive and many are inactive. A lot of people have boats, jet skis, etc and the area leans blue collar, so most HOA's generally line up with that lifestyle and are in place to keep people doing basic upkeep or keep them from doing stupid things. You don't really hear a lot of negative stories from this area's HOAs like you do in some other parts of metro KC.

Blue Springs and Lee's Summit are both great places to live. Lee's Summit is more affluent overall, but Blue Springs has a lot of really nice areas too. The older part of Blue Springs (central area) is more modest. Not much of Blue Springs is very run down though. Both cities have very good suburban retail and restaurants options very near full occupancy (so very little retail blight). Plus, both suburbs sort of share the Independence Center retail area in SE Independence where there are millions of sq ft of retail including a large Bass Pro Shop and many other destination type retail and entertainment options. If you work downtown, both have good express bus service to the city.

If you don't like HOAs, you might look more at Blue Springs. LS is building up more via large subdivisions while BS has a lot of large lot developments, especially on the north side of the city and the far south side. Most of those houses will be well over 300k though.

You won't be able to get into most newer areas for under 275k and the affluent areas will be way beyond that. New construction for under 275k will likely be tract housing and tiny yards. There are some nice new developments around Flemming Park with new homes with lots of trees and bigger lots, but you will be in the 350's.

In that price range, check out established areas like these in BS:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Bl...!4d-94.2816148

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Bl...!4d-94.2816148

Or these in LS:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Bl...!4d-94.2816148

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Bl...!4d-94.2816148

[lepoisson]

Could you meet with a realtor to find homes in neighborhoods without HOAs? Lee's Summit has many older neighborhoods which seem to be without HOAs in many cases.

[mississippiblonde]

Thank you so much for your responses. We are working with a realtor. He is just flooding our email with listings though. I'm not sure he understands what we're looking for. I will check out the links provided. We definitely want a home with nature. I NEED mature trees or water in my back yard, and this is an opportunity for us to get a location we are excited about. If I have to move somewhere I'm not excited about, I don't want to pay much for it. I would rather have disposable income to travel and help out my grown sons with expenses from college. We love the idea of living on a lake, but strongly dislike all of the rules in areas such as Raintree and Lakewood. I just can't live somewhere where I am told I can't plant a tree, or put in a small pretty garden, or have a party with guests parking in the street. With other moves, we have just found the best school in the city and bought a home in that school district. There are so many good high schools for my daughter that my choices are vast. I guess that's a good problem to have, but more stressful with house hunting. I'm just not sure yet where we fit.

[IC_deLight]

Originally Posted by mississippiblonde

Thank you so much for your responses. We are working with a realtor. He is just flooding our email with listings though. I'm not sure he understands what we're looking for. I will check out the links provided. We definitely want a home with nature. I NEED mature trees or water in my back yard, and this is an opportunity for us to get a location we are excited about. If I have to move somewhere I'm not excited about, I don't want to pay much for it. I would rather have disposable income to travel and help out my grown sons with expenses from college. We love the idea of living on a lake, but strongly dislike all of the rules in areas such as Raintree and Lakewood. I just can't live somewhere where I am told I can't plant a tree, or put in a small pretty garden, or have a party with guests parking in the street. With other moves, we have just found the best school in the city and bought a home in that school district. There are so many good high schools for my daughter that my choices are vast. I guess that's a good problem to have, but more stressful with house hunting. I'm just not sure yet where we fit.

You will probably find that real estate agents will be either ignorant or intentionally misleading on the HOA issue. They may hide the fact there is an HOA or downright tell you there isn't one when in fact there is. They might try to defend by claiming the "HOA fees are low" as if that justifies the control over the property that you are trying to purchase. It doesn't. They will sometimes use bullying tactics such as asking "well what is it that you want to do that your neighbors wouldn't approve of". One comeback is "being able to use and enjoy your property without getting your neighbors approval to begin with". Rest assured if you do purchase the property and are unhappy, the real estate agent's response is going to be "sell if you don't like it" - a convenient and lucrative result for the trade group of real estate agents but very expensive for you.
It can be difficult to do but spend time looking for non-HOA property. You'll avoid perpetual liens that can never be paid off, never ending increasing assessments, drivebys from HOA and management company spies looking to profit from accusations of "violation", the litigation vortex, having to grovel to people to get permission to build something or otherwise use your property, nastygrams in your mailbox, threats of fine and foreclosure, junk fees and charges demanded by management companies, and a litany of other bad things that exist only because of the existence of an HOA.

[mississippiblonde]

Thank you for your response. Yes our realtor seems ignorant about HOA's. I would think there HAS to be a master list somewhere that lists communities, HOA's, limitations and amenities. However, he says no such list exists. That is what I'm trying to avoid, someone telling me I can't put in a small garden, or plant a tree, or paint my house. The amenities that I'm finding with HOA's are things I wouldn't use, like a clubhouse or tennis courts. I will keep looking.

[anninkc]

I know what you mean. We were looking in a different part of KC, but kept hitting HOA's that said we couldn't build fences!!! We found out that someone got fined $10K just for trimming tree branches .... ????? Plus one estate where you couldn't have trampolines!!! How ridiculous. We've settled in a neighbourhood that does have a HOA, but seems pretty easygoing and not just flat out ridiculous. I can't be paying a coupla hundred grand for a property that I own and have some bunch of fools (or snobs) telling me how I can and can't run my own yard. Outrageous.