Found perfect house-with HOA-Advice needed

[carolinahereicome]

Reading CC&R's is good, it will tell you all the rules and regulations. Get the meeting minutes and read them thorougly as well. It will tell you what is happening within the condo community, who has issues, repairs to the complex and how they are performed etc. Also, check tenants vs actual homeowners that live in the complex. If there are alot of sales within the complex that could be a red flag. Why are they selling? Also, do they keep the grounds in good shape. Is the complex amply insured. How much money do they have in savings for emergencies. Check the budget and how money is spent for the complex. I am not a big fan of HOA as they can be very restrictive. The whole point of home ownership in my opinion is freedom to make your home the way you want it to be. If conforming to others perceptions of how a community should behave and look is dificult with you make sure you don't move into a place that is micromanaged to the point that you are living like a stepford wife/person.

Good luck.

[Petunia16]

We live in a small house in a nice area of los angeles. No HOA. But... we've had more problems with people on city council digging up old ordinances and deciding to enforce them. One such ordinance... over 50 years old... you cannot have a fence in your front yard. Period. Hundreds of fences had to come down. Homeowners fought it, but many fences came down. 4 years later, new council member and they dropped the fence thing. I bet Home
Depot and fence contractors were thrilled with all the new fence construction!
Also... our neighbor decided that our little 13' vintage travel trailer was bringing down their property value so we had to move it or get fined... over the Thanksgiving holiday. Still don't know which neighbor (coward! hehe). My point is... you will run into problems everywhere you go, lots of land, hoa or not. Reading over the hoa's covenants will help but it's no guarantee. If you have the time, get on the board, but don't let that power get to you

btw... my mother's HOA drafted a formal letter saying her birdbath needed to be drained because of the Hanta virus. The person that complained lived next door.

[ducter]

Seems like most HOA'a have issues. People cant comprimise so we are starting to live in a legally controlled world.

I have seen many starter or middle homes trying to become upscale like a 500k subdiv with a crazy HOA. Also I have seen some try and add pools! I say try because finally homeowners stood up and said no, many then sold their homes at the same time driving down values.