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I said, "why would anyone buy such property", meaning that they have a brain. If they dont, there's no hope for them, regardless of where they live or what they do. I can't help it if people jump into a river and expect to not get wet. Any rational person checks on things beforfe they jump in. Obviously, if it's not allowed, you DONT BUY a house there! sheesh.
... Why would anyone buy property in a place where they can't do what they want with said property?
In our travels, as we settled down in each location we always looked at lots of places for sale. As each Duty station there were always HOAs that we looked at, and every time after reading their covenants we were left thinking: "Why would anyone buy property in a HOA, and pay additional fees, knowing they can't do what they want with their property?"
Now as a retiree, I read these forums and I am shocked by how many people buy property in HOAs.
In our travels, as we settled down in each location we always looked at lots of places for sale. As each Duty station there were always HOAs that we looked at, and every time after reading their covenants we were left thinking: "Why would anyone buy property in a HOA, and pay additional fees, knowing they can't do what they want with their property?"
Now as a retiree, I read these forums and I am shocked by how many people buy property in HOAs.
Often they defend HOAs like that is 'normal'.
"shocked by how many people buy property in HOAs
When you retired from the Navy you were quite young.
You were looking for land and eager to start farming and raising things.
I did that all my working years and when I retired and located 870 miles away, my farming days at age 67 were done with.
I found a nice house, small secluded lot loaded with wildlife, in a scenic area.
I no longer wanted large acreage but I did not want to live in close proximity with a jerk who just because he now owned .4 acres of land he could be obnoxious and do as he pleased.
We have rules and regulations here that I have no problem with and want them enforced.
I would not have wanted those rules and ordinances enforced on me doing my farming years but then I owned enough land that an obnoxious neighbor wasn't that much of a problem
To answer your last sentence, it happens every day.
Ask a code enforcement officer if he is kept busy because people buy in places with restrictions but then think they don't have to abide by them.
Nothing wrong with people having the attitude.........." don't you dare tell me what I can or can't do on my property".........but then don't buy property in areas with codes/restrictions you don't want to abide by.
Yep. Buy something in an area where the balance of "doing what you like" and "neighbors not doing what you don't like" is right for you. Personally, I'd be happy if I didn't have neighbors (or anything else) within 20 miles. But... if you choose to live around other people (as most of us do) then you also choose to accept a certain "give and take" as far as what is acceptable and not acceptable. Sometimes that is with codes, regulations, etc and sometimes it is with HOAs and covenants (personally, I would never subject myself to the latter two).
Yes, there are plenty of people who don't want to go by the rules once they voluntarily buy a home in areas that have such rules. Then the trouble starts with either the neighbors or code enforcement or the police. Just last week a code enforcement officer got shot and killed around here by some dude that didn't think he should have to follow the rules he volunteered to follow. Now he will spend the rest of his life following the rules inside the state penitentiary via force. All the moron would have had to have done is move somewhere that the community would tolerate his lifestyle.
I'm sure the OP has long since found their spot and done the move but I thought I might relate my experience.
I am a self employed web designer who wanted to own land, build non conventionally and get out of the city. I wanted 4 seasons and hope of having water without ridiculous well prices (I sorta got that..LOL)
Missouri offered those things over all. No building codes in most counties, 4 seasons, farming communities and water (But don't disregard rock when it comes to well digging cost... oh man!)
Also for some reason, a well spring of small land sales companies that unlike BillyLand and the lot don't have crazy HOAs or covenants.
So 3 yrs later I am on 16 acres in a shed to cabin conversion planning my earthbag build. I have a shared well in what would in most other states be a subdivision but here is just a grouping of small farms. My only restriction is no mobile homes (RVs ok) and no pitbulls. Done and done.
I have power... and I have internet but from a surprising source. I use PDAnet (an app) and Boost mobile. With the app I can usb tether my phone.. HIDE THE TETHER SO IT'S NOT COUNTED AS HOTSPOTTING AND THROTTLED and because Boost is new to the area the 45 to 65 gigs I use monthly on 4G LTE doesn't get bumped down.
DO NOT DO HUGHESNET! It will cost you dearly... and CenturyLink.. well they made me utter words I never in my life thought would pass through my lips. They actually made me say.. I miss Comcast.
I'm sure the OP has long since found their spot and done the move but I thought I might relate my experience.
I am a self employed web designer who wanted to own land, build non conventionally and get out of the city. I wanted 4 seasons and hope of having water without ridiculous well prices (I sorta got that..LOL)
Missouri offered those things over all. No building codes in most counties, 4 seasons, farming communities and water (But don't disregard rock when it comes to well digging cost... oh man!)
Also for some reason, a well spring of small land sales companies that unlike BillyLand and the lot don't have crazy HOAs or covenants.
So 3 yrs later I am on 16 acres in a shed to cabin conversion planning my earthbag build. I have a shared well in what would in most other states be a subdivision but here is just a grouping of small farms. My only restriction is no mobile homes (RVs ok) and no pitbulls. Done and done.
I have power... and I have internet but from a surprising source. I use PDAnet (an app) and Boost mobile. With the app I can usb tether my phone.. HIDE THE TETHER SO IT'S NOT COUNTED AS HOTSPOTTING AND THROTTLED and because Boost is new to the area the 45 to 65 gigs I use monthly on 4G LTE doesn't get bumped down.
DO NOT DO HUGHESNET! It will cost you dearly... and CenturyLink.. well they made me utter words I never in my life thought would pass through my lips. They actually made me say.. I miss Comcast.
Yeah I know... I was horrified too.
I haven't done the move yet. Need to think things through, such things aren't decided over a matter of few months, not to be costly mistakes. I decided I'll be looking for a conventional/permitted cabin on few acres.
I've considered Missouri. There're a couple of issues with Missouri current laws (which may change) that make it unacceptable for me, but I'm considering neighboring Northern AR, Ozarks instead; it's on my list along with a couple of more states. Soon will head to cross-country trip to explore selected states.
Interesting how this building freedom in rural Missouri contrasts with in-town Missouri; they even did a documentary on a town there with most insane regulations and vicious enforcement of those (people getting arrested over things like their house having old paint or bbq in their yard... mandated screen doors for all, strict height of shurbs, etc. Worse than any most nightmarish HOA).
Thanks for the tip about internet....My understanding is that in rural North AR there're federal grants for companies to provide wireless 10-20mbps internet throughout, and contractors are AT&T and, I think, Century Link. There're also local electrical Coops providing fiber.
One concern about the region I have is with tornados, though from hazard map it seems like several counties that I'm interested in have low tornado risk, while everything around them has high. Don't like the idea of tornado shelters, claustrophobic.
In general regarding "why would people buy property in place with restrictions and then want to violate them"...
First off, there're almost no places left here without excessive, unreasonable and idiotic restrictions.
Well, another side of it is people who lived there before restrictions came about, before some rich "Californians" (or similar) moved in and pushed these restrictions through, for their own interest, to make everything look "upscale" and drive home prices up. So now people are stuck with nonsense they can do without and their ancestors had lived without just fine as well. I had watched a fight of a small community where people lived in older mobile homes, mostly...then a developer put an eye on it (it's in a beautiful nature setting) and tried to push rezoning that basically would either gradually force people out, or force to buy a new manufactured home they couldn't afford (these run expensive now), or build a stick home (which is astronomical in price everywhere now). Luckily they fought the rezoning off, but I'm afraid this is an exception.
Missouri offered those things over all. No building codes in most counties, 4 seasons, farming communities and water (But don't disregard rock when it comes to well digging cost... oh man!)
Curious, since you build non-conventionally do you get to insure in any way? (tornado area).
I decided on a stick-built cabin/small home (can run a lot cheaper than having tiny house built by hired labor), and one thing with this region I'm curious about is home insurance...AR (and Missouri) rank among the highest in nation for home insurance rates. Average home insurance runs 3X higher in AR than in Maine, according to stats... considering the Southern region is kind of poor I wonder how people deal with insuring homes. I run a quote for a random very modest house on the market (in AR) and got twice higher quote from State Farm than for a similar home (and with similar home price) in rural WA or CA. It must be because of tornadoes and wind damage. (may be there're cheap insurance companies operating locally but I wonder if they'd really ever pay anything, State Farm at least has a reputation of paying things)
One hassle about zoning -- I'm used to Western states zoning model, where counties (and they happen to be large territories in the West) establish zoning for rural/out-of-town locations -- some states East have million of townships, within counties, and each has own complicated zoning for rural areas, (sometimes drastically different for neighboring townships). I've been checking out Michigan Upper Penninsula zoning and it's surely a maze to navigate... Northern AR also has townships but seems like they don't issue zoning ordinances, at least in the counties I looked at. I expected MI Upper Penninsula to be more flexible and truly rural, but seems like it got too many regulations (of course most of this is new stuff/pretty new ordinances, seems like some townships have a race on who would regulate more....while they're very economically depressed....go figure).
Now as a retiree, I read these forums and I am shocked by how many people buy property in HOAs.
Often they defend HOAs like that is 'normal'.
One example where HOA could be beneficial in smaller rural lot sizes situation: I've seen crackeads with daily party/drug house evicted by the HOA. Sheriff wouldn't/didn't help there, county had either weak noise regulations or none to speak of. HOA'd also provided nice water system. But other than that, this HOA was nothing but pain and money waste, prohibiting anything from yurts to chickens.
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