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I recently bought some rural land in a subdivision. Of course, you never really own land like people used to. There is always some kind of restriction such as public rights to rivers, minerals, etc. A home owner's association (HOA) sometimes imposes even more stringent restrictions on your land: no swine, no junk, etc. But, whenever I tell someone I have a HOA, they make a face and say how much they hate them. Why? I only pay $300/year for a HOA and it keeps my property value up. I don't want my neighbor piling junk on his property, running a pig farm, operating a business, etc.
To each his own. Owning in the country is always a crap shoot regarding what is going to go up next. Tire burning plant or whatever, maybe nothing. That's a choice some people make vs. being told what they can't do with their own property.
Personally I don't see the point of being in the country if your in any kind of rule making incorporated whatever. Why not just live in a nice suburb neighborhood in town? What are you getting from being in the country with a HOA and its neighbors other than a long commute?
I would never live with an HOA. I like freedom to do what I want and not being told what to do. I've heard too many horror stores with HOA, not to mention the costs to the home owner.
We told our realtor when we started looking for houses - "If there is an HOA, we aren't interested." I guess that's what comes from growing up in the country before there was such a thing in the country, and now we live in a small town. We do have deed restrictions such as "No Horses or other farm animals", but we have one of the larger lots (just under a half acre) and I know better.
several years ago while looking online at properties I found one I liked and it said HOA fee $150.
I wrote to the realtor asking What is an HOA fee?
I had never heard of it before, in spite of having studied Real Estate. [shows how old I am I guess]
I had heard of Condo fees but never thought that you would have such a thing on a private house.
I also would NEVER buy anything that had HOA. I am a FIRM believer in private property RIGHTS. The right to quiet enjoyment of your property. Everywhere you look these days someone is trying to railroad over them.
I also would NEVER buy anything that had HOA. I am a FIRM believer in private property RIGHTS. The right to quiet enjoyment of your property.
Which vanishes when your neighbor decides to put in a CAFO or a scrap metal yard.
HOAs cover quite a lot of ground - the CCR/HOA for the area I live in says that the lots are residential and need to stay that way (there are some exceptions for certain home-based businesses), all homes shall have a septic system and that structures need to be stick-built and can't be trailers or mobile homes. The HOA part just says that neighbors agree to chip in every 5 years and get the gravel roads regraded and graveled.
There are some HOAs that prohibit fences, regulate the color houses can be painted, don't allow cars to be parked on the street or in the driveway and all kinds of stuff.
HOAs cover quite a lot of ground - the CCR/HOA for the area I live in says that the lots are residential and need to stay that way (there are some exceptions for certain home-based businesses), all homes shall have a septic system and that structures need to be stick-built and can't be trailers or mobile homes. The HOA part just says that neighbors agree to chip in every 5 years and get the gravel roads regraded and graveled.
Which is fine for right now, although if you're rural and without zoning regulations, then I'm surprised the lots are so small you'd care what someone is living in. Defining it as "stick built" also prevents other building styles such as post and beam, straw bale, ICF, or SIP, instead of having a definition of permanent structure (which would provide the same restriction on trailers/mobile homes).
That's the crux of the problem, most HOA regs are badly written, which means that under certain conditions (which inevitable occur) someone can enforce their perception of what a community should look or how it behaves like by leveraging those badly written regulations. For instance prohibiting firearm ownership, house color, requiring lawns or prohibiting vegetable gardens the list is enormous in the ways HOA's have attempted to control the behaviors of people or the appearance of their property.
Many times people think a HOA is a good idea because it prevents some of the things you mentioned. However rationally many of the issues are already covered by local, state or federal law. If you are zoned residential, then a CAFO cannot be set up, nor a junkyard. If you're not zoned residential, then IF there is a business built, you still have normal channels of recourse to ensure that it does not affect you adversely.
Yep to each his won but I see alot of those who gripe about their neighbors more and more on this forum. Soemthing for everyone. Afterall HOAs and even gated communities came about for a reason.Alot of that reason is the failure odf coded governamnt to be able to enforce those codes to any real extent that people see all the time.Mnay do not awant to lve near someone unkeep ;junk yard really or see it happen next person who moves in.
I think my exact feeling is I want others to live by them, but I don't want to. I'm in a neighborhood with a lapsed HOA..there are no fees. There was never a pool or club house to maintain. ALMOST everyone keeps a lovely yard and maintains their house, but a few are causing the neighborhood to look a bit unkempt. I wish the HOA would exert some force with a few of the homeowners.
On the other hand, I would not enjoy having someone else dictate what I plant, or what color my front door should be.
We bought in a semi rural neighborhood. We specifically stated "No HOAs" - this little town has it's own restrictions, we thought we'd be fine.
We need to replace the fence on one side though because one of the neighbors piles metal up against it - from our view, it looks like a junk yard. But he built fences where the city could see in from the road to avoid the fees. *sigh* What a jerk. But he's entitled to be a jerk. And if the metal leaning up against the fence and damaging it happens to find it's way to a recycling center, well, he'll have to prove it was there in the first place (It's been there since just after we moved in, he can't see it from his house, so claims it's 'not a problem').
Everyone, it seems, has one of "THOSE" neighbors. If we lived in an HOA, we could have him fined. But I've lived in HOAs and I know that if you get even ONE power-hungry, bored mean retiree with no life because his wife left him and his kids hate him, you can end up being fined into debt for weeds less than 1" tall or going out to dinner and not retrieving your trash cans until 7:15pm.
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