Home town cable in tradition (real estate market, foreclosures, HOA fees)

[lgausten]

Home Town Cable now represents 86% of our HOA fee. The residents cannot opt out of it and that includes alarm service, internet and cable TV. So if you want Direct TV or don't want an alarm system, too bad, you are stuck with it because the Tradition HOA signed a contract which lasts for 15 years and has a automatic renewal option. Would anyone believe that? It's true.

[newred5]

Originally Posted by lgausten

Home Town Cable now represents 86% of our HOA fee. The residents cannot opt out of it and that includes alarm service, internet and cable TV. So if you want Direct TV or don't want an alarm system, too bad, you are stuck with it because the Tradition HOA signed a contract which lasts for 15 years and has a automatic renewal option. Would anyone believe that? It's true.

I believe it, the cable company most likely ran all the infrastructure for the developer and that's why the long term deal ..the renew option most likely has an out for the HOA , find out and make sure its used

[aridon]

Hometown Cable is a joke, ripoff and we don't miss living in Traditions. We were fortunate to sell just as it was tanking in there. What a mess that place turned out to be.

If you want to pay for good amenities go to PGA. If you want to have reasonable HOAs with decent amenities go to Lake Charles or one of the other places in SLW. If you want to get screwed on HOA fees among other things go to Traditions.

[FlaLadyB]

It's not tanking in Tradition. Gee the cable service is causing that? really. The alarm service was wired in to the house at construction as are many homes all over. It doesn't go anywhere unless you have it monitored. The fees haven't changed a lot in several years and are based, as are any HOA fees, on bills.

PGA doesn't even have Internet. Thats because the community is much older. But they have other fees. They also have septic tanks on some properties, their own water company with only one person answering the phone, and 2 HOA,s just like Tradition.

Lake Charles is nice, the amenities are very minimum, (one pool for everyone) and the houses there are old too. It ALSO does not have Internet. From what I read the homeowners are trying to boot out their HOA leaders.

The grass is NOT always greener on the other side

[aridon]

Originally Posted by FlaLadyB

It's not tanking in Tradition. Gee the cable service is causing that? really. The alarm service was wired in to the house at construction as are many homes all over. It doesn't go anywhere unless you have it monitored. The fees haven't changed a lot in several years and are based, as are any HOA fees, on bills.

PGA doesn't even have Internet. Thats because the community is much older. But they have other fees. They also have septic tanks on some properties, their own water company with only one person answering the phone, and 2 HOA,s just like Tradition.

Lake Charles is nice, the amenities are very minimum, (one pool for everyone) and the houses there are old too. It ALSO does not have Internet. From what I read the homeowners are trying to boot out their HOA leaders.

The grass is NOT always greener on the other side

Learn to read. I never said it was only the cable co there causing it. Just that the cable company sucked. I also mentioned the high dues in tradition as being a problem given most of the those communities don't have nearly the amenities to justify the high fees. Traditions is still a mess with plenty of supply of homes on the market and still well below what people put into them when they were built. Plenty of empty homes just sitting on the bank rolls. The entire commercial area is poorly designed as well, expensive and quite small. You more or less have to take transportation there so you end up paying big bucks for all this community space that you have to take your car to use and then share it with all the peasants that don't have to pay anything to use it. Yeah, real solid planning there. Maybe in the next 100 years they'll get those other 10k homes built they were planning and maybe the dues will come down to something a little more reasonable for what you get.

PGA and Lake charles, and the plethora of other communities don't have internet? 75mbs here and just about everywhere in PSL through Comcast. $49 for75mbs internet, if you want an X1 DVR with all the channels $99 (INCLUDES INTERNET and TV) no promo rate. I doubt hometown cable has nearly the same HD selection or decent equipment and likely is much more in cost. Reliability has been excellent.

PGA has some of the nicest amenities and if your dues are going to be around $400 a month you might as well get some amenities for your money. There are communities in traditions close to that cost for HOA that don't even have their grass cut and a crappy gate that is open half the time. You talked about Lake Charles having one pool, lets compare that one pool to the tiny puddle in the estates and some of the other sub divisions in Traditions. LOL you talking about Lake Charle's tiny pool when their hot tub is only slightly smaller than some of the pools in Tradition. No other amenities either. Real bargain. Then you could look at PGA and just the indoor pool there and gym much less all the other stuff and see why the dues are what they are here.

Lake Charles is pretty well run from what I know. HOA drama is quite common in every community. They have one large pool with a very large hot tub, tennis, basketball etc. gates, guards and include lawn care for $172 a month or so last I checked. That is a bargain. Again, if you want more you can pay double that and move to PGA or you can pay double that and move to traditions for nothing more and in many cases much less. There are other communities with nice homes and reasonable dues all around SLW. Traditions simply isn't worth it.

You remind me of the Realtor that lived down the street from me in the Estates. She was harping about how the homes there were going to be worth 1m in 10 years. She looked at me like I had 3 heads when I told her she would be thankful to get what she paid for it in 10 years and told me I was nuts for selling my home. I wonder how her foreclosures went?

Traditions is a mess for many reasons. Hometown cable isn't even on the radar as to why that area will continue to struggle.

[FlaLadyB]

The fees are average for what you get, I read just fine... and NO those other communities dont have Internet in their charges because you have to pay those fees to someone on top of the HOA fees. Tradition gives you 70 channels included for everyone. If you want to add on HD or premium channels you pay for that. In other communities you pay for ALL of you Internet yourself and that can reach 90 to 150 a month depending on what you get.

There are not a lot of homes on the market and less and less of any are in foreclosure anywhere now. We are actually short on houses to sell all over.

I've never said anything about 10 years from now.. I dont have a crystal ball. I did say something in the 2005-07 years about please don't let this keep going.... but nobody listened. If you bought your house then, you didnt listen either.

but...if you're gone now, why the whining?

[aridon]

Originally Posted by FlaLadyB

The fees are average for what you get, I read just fine... and NO those other communities dont have Internet in their charges because you have to pay those fees to someone on top of the HOA fees. Tradition gives you 70 channels included for everyone. If you want to add on HD or premium channels you pay for that. In other communities you pay for ALL of you Internet yourself and that can reach 90 to 150 a month depending on what you get.

There are not a lot of homes on the market and less and less of any are in foreclosure anywhere now. We are actually short on houses to sell all over.

I've never said anything about 10 years from now.. I dont have a crystal ball. I did say something in the 2005-07 years about please don't let this keep going.... but nobody listened. If you bought your house then, you didnt listen either.

but...if you're gone now, why the whining?

Actually you didn't read. That is ok though.

I addressed the cost specifically of internet. Many communities include expanded basic type cable. I'd argue most communities in SLW have Comcast bundled in the dues.

Tell me what 75mbs Internet and all the stations (minus HBO like stations) and HD cost with Hometown with a DVR? You can't get it on the website. No promo rate just the cost. With Comcast it is $99 and not a promo. That is both TV and Internet.

I never claimed you said it. I said you sound like a neighbor of mine. Unless you were my neighbor that means I wasn't referring to you. Again, reading comprehension.

What community do you live in by the way? You jump to the defense of Traditions all the time. You must have a vested interest there.

[FlaLadyB]

I have no vested interest in Tradition, and I did live there for 6 years and liked it. I moved because I could no longer put up with a next door neighbor, who still lives there, who has a mental problem. Once second she is all nicey nicey and the next a raging maniac. I just couldn't put up with it anymore.

I am now in Magnolia Lakes in SLW.. and like it there. No total nut case as a neighbor.

[newred5]

--------The entire commercial area is poorly designed as well, expensive and quite small. You more or less have to take transportation there so you end up paying big bucks for all this community space that you have to take your car to use and then share it with all the peasants that don't have to pay anything to use it. ---------

I just resent being called a peasant ..

[JimT7406]

The annual costs of living in Tradition has been and continues to be their downfall. While the real estate market rebounded nicely, almost nothing happened in Tradition. New home construction remains spotty with DiVosta homebuilders opting to build a new community on Becker Road versus inside of Tradition and Minto staking out an area inside of Townpark to build a 55 plus community in hopes of boosting their sales. Commercial development also failed to pick up in Tradition with almost all the new development going to Saint Lucie West.
High HOA fees added to the annual CDD fee and property taxes and impact fees in the 20k range for new construction have all combined to effectively shut down a rebound inside of Tradition.
As to Hometown Cable fees, their fees are unjustifiably high. Last time I checked, you as an individual could get similar cable, internet and alarms services all cheaper than the bulk rate you are forced to pay through Tradition, Further, likely there is nothing but yearly increases on the horizon as the individual HOA's cannot negotiate with Hometown directly as their contract is with the master association not the individual HOA's. I have not had Hometown in years and at that time their cable system was light years behind their competitors and if HD is still not included in the basic rate that it is even worse than I thought.
Tradition looks nice but that is not enough. Unless you absolutely needed to own a brand new home and could care less about the annual costs or resale values then go buy in Tradition but if you do care about those things then I would buy in a Saint Lucie West community that fits your needs all day everyday. It is not even a close call.