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Would love feedback on gated communities of 50 or less homes...pros and cons..thanks
You mean the McMansions in Suburbias???
In my small town we have zero condos/townhomes/mcmansions of any sort... 100% SFH or farms.
I do know of another town nearby that have a gated community (with that little checkpoint building at its gates) I think they are only about 20 or less homes in that gated estate... but they are more million dollar min. mansions / tract? (NOT Mcmansions on that 3rd acre plot, side by side) built on at a minimum of 3 ++ acres apart.... but still maintained by a HOA/CC&R (with golf privileges and other club house amenities that you have to drive at least a few miles to... not within the same home compound like McMansions usually have that you can walk to).
A gated community is a notice that a repairman/contractor/laborer can charge you more for services.
Some gated communities are not real gated but just have an appearance of exclusivity. They consequently invite thieves and do not have the security to prevent them from entering. Many times the gates are open and thieves enter as landscape laborers.
Some Gated community charge excessive homeowners fees that are not warranted but just for the semblance of being special. Homeowners fees are not tax deductible. However, some scheming homeowners associations set themselves up as special taxing district and put the homeowners fees on the county tax, so it is tax deductible.
In these coming days, as we become more aware of the fraud and corruption of the stock market and greed in capitalism, a gated community is a place that when the masses revolt, we will know where to find you.
We don't have gated communities around here, thank goodness.
Last year we were driving in VA and made a wrong turn. Wound up by a little booth with a guard! He let us go in and turn around--I guess that must have been a gated community. What a joke--we were laughing. People PAY for this? For a guy to stand there in a little booth like a guard at Buckingham Palace? Are these people really THAT important?
I guess it would depend on what exactly you want in a rural home. We prefer a rural life in part to avoid on-going HOA type restrictions and expense. We have a gate across our driveway, but I don't think this is what you are talking about. The problem to me is that 50 houses is a big enough barrel to have at least one bad apple in it. And with a gated HOA "community", you are tied in to that bad apple, like it or not...
The only place I've seen these communities in quantity is in Florida. In many other states I've seen the front gates wide open. Some had no gatehouse and many had a gatehouse that was there for looks as there was no guard or drop down gate.
Why do people want gates at all? Do they live in that bad an area that they really need this kind of protection? I could see a fence or gate around your own property for privacy but why a gate around an entire community? Just move to a regular town.
Maybe the OP should post the question in the Florida forum instead of this one.
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