Received Email From HOA (Austin, Georgetown: house, landscaping, neighborhood)

[austin-steve]

Originally Posted by OpenD

I will say, this thread has confirmed my previous decision not to ever live anywhere a HOA is active.

Not ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, EVER.

NEVER!

Which is to say, "only live in a small, older home in Central Austin, (or an older acreage subdivision in the County with no restrictions), and only pay $200+ per sqft and up for a home that attends older, failing schools".

For many, the HOA neighborhood (Planned Uint Development) is a necessary evil. Especially if you want newer 2,500 sqft for $300K instead of older 1,200 sqft for $300K. We can't all wear black socks with sandals and be walking distance to the coffee shop.

Steve

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by austin-steve

For many, the HOA neighborhood (Planned Uint Development) is a necessary evil.

No, no, no, no, NO! It's just an evil, hiding inside an empty justification.

There is, in fact, no reasonable justification for over 90% of what I see written within a typical set of CC&Rs or HOA agreements. They have nothing to do with do with peoples' happiness, and little to do with how people really live. They only have to do some very strange concept of what might protect MY property values against the unmitigated horror that is inevitably resident in YOUR HOUSEHOLD.

no thank you no thank you no thank you no thank you no thank you no thank you

just say: NO THANK YOU

no thank you no thank you no thank you no thank you no thank you no thank you

[austin-steve]

Originally Posted by OpenD

No, no, no, no, NO! It's just an evil, hiding inside an empty justification.

...

This argument has been hashed out many times in the past, so I'm not going to repost all the stats, but suffice it to say that a buyer who tells her agent:

1) 2500 sqft +/-
2) $300K or less
3) Best schools
4) No HOA

Will have what we'd call in Texas, slim pickings.

And, as someone who felt so offended by the lack of common sense in a previous unrestricted County subdivision in which I dwelt - so much so that I sold my house and moved 1 mile and built a new home in a new section that had an HOA because I wanted an HOA - all I can say is be careful for what you ask for.

I'd take the HOA lunatics over the unrestricted neighbor lunatics every day. With the former, you have redress. With the latter, you either accept it, move, or personally sue them.

Steve

[FalconheadWest]

Originally Posted by austin-steve

Will have what we'd call in Texas, slim pickings.

I think that's "pickins"... no g pronounced in most words around here!

And it's so true! I have a house in Cedar Park in Buttercup Creek listed right now, and it's in the section NOT within the HOA and I can't sell it. Everyone wants the HOA in that area!

[Aquitaine]

An HOA is the worst solution out there for a neighborhood ... except for all the other ones!

[TexasHorseLady]

Austin-Steve, there are a surprising number of neighborhoods that are not in HOA's that do not fit the description you give above. I know, because I'm constantly looking for them for clients who don't want anything to do with an HOA. Some of them you would, if you didn't know otherwise by checking the records, think were an HOA neighborhood - new, nice, neighborhoods with pools, qualify schools right in the neighborhood, etc. I'm surprised you seem to be unaware of them.

Your stereotype of non-HOA neighborhoods is no more accurate than the stereotypes of ALL HOA neighborhoods as Stepford-villes.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by FalconheadWest

I think that's "pickins"... no g pronounced in most words around here!

And it's so true! I have a house in Cedar Park in Buttercup Creek listed right now, and it's in the section NOT within the HOA and I can't sell it. Everyone wants the HOA in that area!

FalconheadWest, if I had a client looking in Cedar Park right now, if the house is presented and priced properly, I could sell that house in a heartbeat.

[FalconheadWest]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

FalconheadWest, if I had a client looking in Cedar Park right now, if the house is presented and priced properly, I could sell that house in a heartbeat.

It's priced low for the size, condition, and age as it keeps getting overlooked. It's been the #2 house tooooo many times. It's a great house. Only 8 houses in Cedar Park right now with 4 bedrooms and a gameroom, and it's still not selling. Master is even down. People want newer, as this is built in 1993, and they want the HOA, which this is not.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by austin-steve

I'd take the HOA lunatics over the unrestricted neighbor lunatics every day. With the former, you have redress. With the latter, you either accept it, move, or personally sue them.

Sorry, I don't buy it that you have to have soul-sucking, brain-dead HOA agreements in order to keep somebody from parking junk cars on their front lawn.

Seriously, that's what it really comes down to, doesn't it?

I mean, inside the city we have legal ordinances to keep people within sane limits of behavior. So I can get that outside the city limits in the 'urbs many people want some of the same patina of civilization, which must be generated within a contractual framework.

I do get that.

But how the hoo-holy-hell does that quite understandable desire get expressed as a prohibition against children's toys being visible in the back yard, and why would anyone of moderately self-sufficient intelligence ever accept that as a reasonable way to live?

[Aquitaine]

I mean, inside the city we have legal ordinances to keep people within sane limits of behavior.

This is just an anecdote, but I looked at one house right off of South Congress that was gorgeous ... and on a street where, two houses down, there was a giant junk pile in the back yard. Apparently it's some kind of local cultural landmark. There were people visiting it.

It's entirely possible that you'd get a non-HOA neighborhood that is able to take good care of itself without formalizing an HOA, but I think Steve's point is that it's a huge roll of the dice. All it takes is one guy on your street to go overboard and the whole neighborhood can be paying the price. HOAs provide you with some certainty ... at a cost of their own!