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Although I understand the purpose of HOA's and they may serve to protect property values and provide "continuity" in neighborhoods, I personally prefer to live in a non-HOA neighborhood for many of the same reasons above. Since I've lived here, I have re-painted my house, built an addition and a screened porch, replaced my front yard light, replaced my mailbox, done extensive landscaping, put up birdhouses, installed a play structure, built a fence, two patios and a walkway...all without having to get "approval" from anyone other than the City of Raleigh when permits were required. I can even keep chickens and goats on my property if I want to...all in the heart of North Raleigh .
I did a lot of stuff similar to that without having to ask, except.... "Chickens?" I'm consumed by envy.
its no ones business what i do to my house or yard unless they are the ones paying for the mortgage, taxes and insurance. assuming of course it doesn't pose a public health risk
would i do anything that would violate even a fairly strict HOA? probably not. but its not anyone else's business what color i paint my house, if i add a garage, if i want to add a fence (wood, brick, chainlink or otherwise) or plant a tree, install a pool or (god forbid) have a different mailbox. And i certainly shouldnt have to ASK PERMISSION to change WHAT I OWN.
and thats what my issue with them is....
I see your point. And that is why we do have choices.
My choice is that I WANT the HOA. My reasons are:
I don't want to live in a n'hood with someone who has painted their home PINK. I don't want to live in a n'hood where the lady down the street has 25 birdhouses in her front yard! I don't want to live in a n'hood with the lady that has 25 gazing balls in her front yard! Not sure the purpose of a gazing ball is, anyway!!! I don't want to see bloomers hanging from clotheslines! And I do not want to live in the n'hood with folks that get carried away with their mailboxes and get "creative" and will use just about anything on a post and CALL it a mailbox!!!
Vicki
Oh yhea...I don't want to live next door to the guy with the goats either!!!
I see your point. And that is why we do have choices.
My choice is that I WANT the HOA. My reasons are:
I don't want to live in a n'hood with someone who has painted their home PINK. I don't want to live in a n'hood where the lady down the street has 25 birdhouses in her front yard! I don't want to live in a n'hood with the lady that has 25 gazing balls in her front yard! Not sure the purpose of a gazing ball is, anyway!!! I don't want to see bloomers hanging from clotheslines! And I do not want to live in the n'hood with folks that get carried away with their mailboxes and get "creative" and will use just about anything on a post and CALL it a mailbox!!!
Vicki
Oh yhea...I don't want to live next door to the guy with the goats either!!!
But what do ya do with a weak HOA which is common around here and like my neighbor who has not cut his yard all summer has his screens ripped and baby gates up so the dogs do not jump out of the torn screened porch Only to call and write and keep paying the darn dues and baby diapers in the too small pool for the neighborhood. Yep HOAs real wonderful. Oh this one is still run by the developer who still has 4 years until turnover since the damn development cannot sell enough homes to get rid of this moron..
But what do ya do with a weak HOA which is common around here and like my neighbor who has not cut his yard all summer has his screens ripped and baby gates up so the dogs do not jump out of the torn screened porch Only to call and write and keep paying the darn dues and baby diapers in the too small pool for the neighborhood. Yep HOAs real wonderful. Oh this one is still run by the developer who still has 4 years until turnover since the damn development cannot sell enough homes to get rid of this moron..
Some of those issues you can call the city for. I found out the hard way when some vindictive neighbors who didn't like my old tenants called about their grass, garbage cans, etc. and the city almost fined me big bucks.
I see your point. And that is why we do have choices.
My choice is that I WANT the HOA. My reasons are:
I don't want to live in a n'hood with someone who has painted their home PINK. I don't want to live in a n'hood where the lady down the street has 25 birdhouses in her front yard! I don't want to live in a n'hood with the lady that has 25 gazing balls in her front yard! Not sure the purpose of a gazing ball is, anyway!!! I don't want to see bloomers hanging from clotheslines! And I do not want to live in the n'hood with folks that get carried away with their mailboxes and get "creative" and will use just about anything on a post and CALL it a mailbox!!!
Vicki
Oh yhea...I don't want to live next door to the guy with the goats either!!!
i call it character and personality. which i see little of in (many) HOA neighborhoods.
hubby loves a house in landfall (in wilmington) which is notorious for its Rigid HOA. and on a recent visit, we went through the neighborhood and although the homes are all beautiful, as is the neighborhood, it lacks PERSONALITY.
its the epitome of stepford.
good for some folks, but i like a little more diversity in my life :P
This topic seems to come up every couple weeks or so, and invariably the discussion loses any local focus it had within the first few posts.
If there are questions or comments about HOAs in the Triangle area, feel free to include them here. General discussions of HOAs are off-topic and belong in the Real Estate forum. Any further off-topic posts will be deleted by your [cranky] mod.
I'm also from NJ and my advice is to NOT buy into an HOA community. Unless you really want a group of people to be able to dictate every freaking thing that goes on on the property that you own. I'm not sure if people in this area actually believe that without HOAs everyone would litter their lawns with junk cars, paint the house in rainbow stripes and never mow the lawn again, but that seems to be the explanation everyone gives for having an HOA. I'm sure there are plenty that are fine, but do you really want to take that chance? The board can literally make up any rules they want and pretty much get away with it, because the covenants are so broad and open to interpretation, by a board that can fine you at will and the state laws favor the HOA. Nothing like giving a small group of neighbors too much power. Best of luck.
But you are missing one important component that many people overlook...the rights of the homeowner in an HOA. It take a quorum of residents to vote to reverse a rule, remove it, replace it...etc. You can also remove officers from the board. It all depends on how the by laws read. But many of them do give homeowners the tools to fix things if they get out of control. I used to live in a HOA subdivision where we did this with an errant president and changed rules (bylaws/covenants) that were originally set by the builders which no longer protected the homeowners as it should have. It was pretty easy to do. I think there is a lot of misunderstanding out there about HOA's.
Last edited by RaleighLass; 08-04-2011 at 08:13 PM..
Reason: ps, sorry mod, I posted from an earlier message and didn't see your warning until my post went thru
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