Deed restrictions...looks like fun. (Tampa, Orlando: fit in, foreclosure, renter)

[jackacc]

My wife and I are moving to Tampa this month and have begun to search a little harder for homes. I started digging deeper into the HOA laws and deed restrictions on some of the communities we liked. The Eagles and Cheval being 2 of them.

I was mainly concerned about keeping my motorcycle. The last time I lived in FL it was in Boynton Beach in a townhouse complex and they would not even let a motorcycle in the front gate, not for a second. So I wanted to be sure I could own a motorcycle wherever we end up.

Well I got to talking with a few of the property managers in different places and there are alot more rules than I thought. The Eagles said motorcycles were allowed as long as I keep it parked in the garage not in the yard, that is fine of course. Cheval said she "thought" they were not allowed but then pointed me to the website where I was supposed to read 1500 pages of jargon to figure it out for myself. I want her job... just refer refer refer...

Anyway, in my discussions and readings, I could not believe how strict some communities are with not parking in your driveway, putting the cars in the garage, no parking on the street ever. What if I have all my family in town? Are we supposed to park everyone at the Publix and shuttle them? Watering the lawn was apparently a huge deal because they restrict how much you can water but then fine you if your grass is not a lush green.

No pickup trucks at all inside some communities, no basketball hoop in the driveway unless you put it away every night...the list went on.

I'll tell you, it is feeling more like a jail sentence now than a nice place to live. I understand that some communities without rules have boats parked all over the lawns and broken down cars on blocks everywhere. It is just sad. Where I live now in PA is beautiful and has no rules. We all just take care of our properties through pride of ownership. Noone calls the HOA on me if my car is *eek* left in the driveway overnight. They even said you can only have as many cars as will fit in your garage! Really? Am I going to let someone tell me how I can live?

Rediculous... in my opinion... but apparently necessary to keep things nice and that is just sad.

[annesg]

Yeah, I've never lived in the stricter communities for just that reason--even though we don't have a motorcycle or a basketball hoop

There are plenty of communities for everyone--you just have to decide whether you are willing to put up with lots of rules to have a certain house or not! There are certainly less rigid communities around!

[jackacc]

Oh yes, we are on the hunt! Today was eye opening. I thought those restricted communities just regulated mainly what color you painted your home or how many things you can plant in your yard, keeping "stuff" off the front lawn, etc... not how many cars you can own! That is really invasive to me.

We will find something that fits.

Heritage Harbor and The Eagles seem nice so far and HH has great amenities too. I don't mind conforming a little bit but if I am paying for a home, I want to feel like I have a say in what I can do.

[bentlebee]

I think you did a good job. I wish more people would do this. That would save the HOA a lot of money and many home owners a lot of anger with their neighbors.
Many people only start mowing after they receive a letter, etc.
In our community small trucks are allowed and how many cars fit the driveway that is the amount you can have. Most people have a 2 car garage so 4 cars can fit easily. Some people decided to have business cars with all kinds of advertisement and that is not allowed so the HOA gave them 2 options Either cover the add with a car matching magnet and/or take the magnet add off when parked, or get a fine....Some people are just trying to see how far they can go with this....
Before I never lived in a HOA community and 99% of the home owners kept their yards nice and no one had a business car...so I don't get it why it is so hard to keep to the rules and don't you want a nice neighbor hood. I understand if you think this is too much than you better don't move in a community like this...and IMO you did a great job looking into this before buying, I wish the others had done the same.
I understand that some HOA are more strict than others, but ours allows motor bikes as well, no street parking except for when there is a party (not everyday or every weekend).

[rusty78]

We live in an allegedly upscale town house community that was built 20 years ago...there are 122 units...with an additional 70 spots for visitors...every home has a two car garage...and all vehicles are supposed to be parked in the garage at night...over time...families grew...several converted their garages - illegally - to living space/bedrooms/storage/etc. and as a result started parking their vehicles in the visitor spots...now...there were no visitor spots left after 8 PM and home owners were parking in front of their garages....or in the roadway blocking free access to emergency vehicles.......well as fate has it...last year there was a fire - at night - in one of the units....the fire department could not get close enough to fight the fire efficiently and had to run hoses over 200 feet....well...since then...the all of the forgotten rules have been enforced...the building department came in and forced most of the illegal conversions to be torn down...vehicles parked illegally are being towed every night...and now once again our community is looking like the upscale community it was meant to be...

My point...the purpose of those rules...is to keep our community looking like it was meant to be...after all ...we have all seen some run down homes...with over grown grass...5 or 6 vehicles on the property....broken windows...etc. etc. - so which way do you want it??? Would you every consider buying a home with a junk pile next to it...or even on the same block???

[mandy_tampa]

Originally Posted by jackacc

Rediculous... in my opinion... but apparently necessary to keep things nice and that is just sad.

but there are also many deed restrictions that do not have all these anal rules too many of the older deed restricted communities do not have as many restrictions but yet still enough to keep the community looking nice - it all has it's pros and cons

[dk22]

1500 pages in their book? That's just crazy! I live in South Florida in a small city amongst huge giant cities around me and our city is small enough to maintain everything with code enfocement officers. There are no gated communities where I live and no weed infested future shacks allowed. We do have one guy near us that's getting there, but code enforcement is on him constantly. If an area has mainly homeowners and not renters, the place is going to be nicer. Renters don't care and most landlords don't either as long as they get their rent checks.

[bentlebee]

Originally Posted by dk22

1500 pages in their book? That's just crazy! I live in South Florida in a small city amongst huge giant cities around me and our city is small enough to maintain everything with code enfocement officers. There are no gated communities where I live and no weed infested future shacks allowed. We do have one guy near us that's getting there, but code enforcement is on him constantly. If an area has mainly homeowners and not renters, the place is going to be nicer. Renters don't care and most landlords don't either as long as they get their rent checks.

That is absolutely not true. All my renters take care off the properties maybe even better than some home owners. In our street we had a renter and we wished he never left... The owner doesn't care but this renter took so much care and everybody loved him...another renter took also very good care off the property but they left because one home owner kept complaining about the animal cruelty...which was that one dog was in the garage and the other on a leash in the yard. Both dogs didn't bark and the home owner cleaned his garage every morning and watched tv in his garage, not bothering anybody.. no loud music what so ever and maintaining the property very well. It is not something I would do but everybody lives their live different, now we got a renter back for this person who only started to maintain the yard after a couple of letters to the home owner...in our community the home owners who don't care are equal to the renters so IMO it isn't fair to blaim the renters. IMO if the Landlords would explain better that there are rules and not just collect rent...it would be much better, also they should put in the rental agreement that all fines will be charged to the renter and the Landlords have to make sure the properties look good before renting it out. I'm a Landlord and firstly think many Landlords are guilty!

[dk22]

Originally Posted by bentlebee

That is absolutely not true. All my renters take care off the properties maybe even better than some home owners. In our street we had a renter and we wished he never left... The owner doesn't care but this renter took so much care and everybody loved him...another renter took also very good care off the property but they left because one home owner kept complaining about the animal cruelty...which was that one dog was in the garage and the other on a leash in the yard. Both dogs didn't bark and the home owner cleaned his garage every morning and watched tv in his garage, not bothering anybody.. no loud music what so ever and maintaining the property very well. It is not something I would do but everybody lives their live different, now we got a renter back for this person who only started to maintain the yard after a couple of letters to the home owner...in our community the home owners who don't care are equal to the renters so IMO it isn't fair to blaim the renters. IMO if the Landlords would explain better that there are rules and not just collect rent...it would be much better, also they should put in the rental agreement that all fines will be charged to the renter and the Landlords have to make sure the properties look good before renting it out. I'm a Landlord and firstly think many Landlords are guilty!

I too am a landlord, but keep my property in Orlando updated and maintained and that's what I tell my renter that I expect, but you are correct that many landlords are to blame for the property being kept. If you were to have people living around you, would you prefer the people to own their homes or renters?

[bentlebee]

Originally Posted by dk22

I too am a landlord, but keep my property in Orlando updated and maintained and that's what I tell my renter that I expect, but you are correct that many landlords are to blame for the property being kept. If you were to have people living around you, would you prefer the people to own their homes or renters?

What I see so far I'm not sure...since it is almost 50/50, since many home owners don't seem to care either, others are great and trying to have others copies their extreme efforts to show how nice a property can look like with not that much work.
I have another couple living close by who are also great renters and just found out the owner is served with foreclosure papers and they have to move. The owner didn't want to repair the sprinklers so they watered it by hand....and now it looks so good and now they have to leave...so I can't give you a clear answer.