Buying House in Herndon/Sterling/Leesburg with no HOA?

[AnnCsonka]

Someone mentioned looking for older neighborhoods in the area to be likely to avoid HOAs – good idea.

Some of the “Sterling problems” are non-issues within the TOWN of Herndon. Forest Ridge is real close to Herndon, depending on where your husband’s job is actually located. People often say they live “in Herndon” and Herndon postal addresses cover places both outside of and within the TOWN of Herndon
(another consideration).

Homes within the town boundaries also enjoy some "little things" with big advantages such as economical municipal refuse/recycling/leaf collection services, twice-a-year "cleanups" that will pick up large items like discarded furniture and appliances, rapid police response time, sense of community and accessible local govt. Also, town-wide zoning regs. do provide some “protections” without the picky stuff of many HOAs. Zoning regulations limit RVs, commercial vehicles etc that can be parked in neighborhoods (with or without HOAs). Town zoning ordinances are reasonable and are pretty well-interpreted for the public on their website.

Many older neighborhoods in town do not have HOAs. See Town maps: [url]http://www.herndon-va.gov/Content/Government/GIS/SubdivisionsandHOAMap_04.pdf[/url]
Both Herndon & Leesburg have useful websites.
Herndon’s home page: [url=http://www.herndon-va.gov/]Town of Herndon[/url] general new resident info is at the “Living” tab. Some of this is familiar because it’s in Fairfax Co where u r already.

RE HOAs: We live in a great neighborhood that has no HOA – but there are advantages to having HOAs also. As someone said, quite a few HOAs are pretty laid back.
WHY would someone seek a non-HOA home? Easy. One reason would be to grow flowers/shrubs/trees in a yard without the absolute requirement for excessive lawn grass. Another would be colors of everything on your house, specific mailboxes, etc. But be aware that both Leesburg and Herndon have “Heritage” or “Historic” zoning districts, where all properties (even “non-historic” may have separate rules for things like additions, etc.

Best advice is always walk the neighborhoods, talk to people, look up stuff on the internet.

BTW, though there are a few older or young unattached folks, our older neighborhood is now full of young families and little kids . . . fun to watch the new gens!