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You are being a responsible owner since you are considering your pets in your plans. I would absolutely do the same thing. Like others have said, I would avoid HOA's. I have heard nothing but nightmares about them and would never move into one. Maybe you can rent some place until you research other areas. Maybe you can consult with a realtor. Good luck on your search, it's out there!
I've never lived with an HOA (very rare on the East Coast) but surely there must be some that would suit a specific buyer's desires? Not all disallow real fences or animals or whatever. Of course, if the HOA is preventing sales with lots of restrictions, you just move on to the next one, and be sure and tell the prospective seller why you're moving on.
Hey, we doubled our commutes and increased our rent to move to an old run down house with a fabulous yard for Lucy. We had a wonderful little apartment in my favorite part of town, but I felt too guilty keeping her holed up in there during the day. So Lucy won, and we sacrificed! (And we're just renting...I can't imagine the stress and criteria when we go to buy!)
When we bought our house it was completely about the yard. We have almost a 1/4 acre fenced with 6 ft stockade fencing. Anyone that knows the Houston real estate market knows that 1/4 acre lots within driving distance of the city limits are almost unheard of around here or badly over priced. The yard of our dreams came with an over-sized, badly decorated, neglected house that had been a rental for over 8 years. Bad carpet, stained walls, cracked tile and squirrels in the attic were all part of the package
The way we looked at it is that we could fix the house but you can't fix a small lot!
Wow PetMom, those HOA sound like my Condo-I would avoid them like a rash. I commend you for looking after your dogs and wish you luck in finding the perfect home with a fenced in yard. A real fence is the way to go. I am also daydreaming of buying a house "for my dog" when times improve. I hope I can do that because my condo with a GSD just became a nightmare.
Good luck again, I know you will find what you are looking for.
Thank you for all the replies. It is nice to know we're not alone I am too tired to respond to all the nice posts, but I gave as much rep as I could. I guess I need to spread the love before I can rep some of you again. We're looking at 4 houses Thursday, so hopefully one of those will be the right fit for us and our four-legged kids.
Oh man I hate to hear that about HOA's. Every neighborhood we looked at had some kind of HOA. We bought a house close to the high school so perhaps the screaming teen-agers will drown out Ringo's barking???
I would never move to home with a HOA, thankfully they aren't common where I live. I think you are too limited in what you are allowed to do. And if you do have problems with your dogs barking etc., well, that could be a serious issue. Even so, if you plan on leaving your dogs outside unattended for hours on end, and they bark, that could be annoying to your neighbors even if you live in a neighborhood with no HOA on large lots. Some towns have noise ordinances and you could get into trouble with the town. Where I live most everyone has at least an acre of property, most with no fence, so we don't have a problem with dogs being outdoors for long and barking. Once we had a neighbor that would tie their dog to a tree in the backyard and leave it for the day, and it barked non-stop, but thankfully they moved. I do train our dogs not to roam. (although unfortunately, some of our neighbor's dogs do wander our neighborhood a bit) Just budget for a fence if the house doesn't have one and you should be fine. Good luck!
When we were house hunting, we had no interest in HOAs, but we were looking for a place with an existing fence (not a privacy fence, we hate the look), because we planned on getting a dog upon moving in. When we adopted Willie, the first bit of criteria from the refuge was that we have a fenced yard.
As it turns out, it really doesn't matter for us, because it took Willie about two months to learn that he could climb the fence and escape, so now he's never able to roam freely in the backyard...we're considering taking it out, we prefer the look of an open yard, and there's really no reason for the fence, it's basically worthless to us, unless we spend a lot to get a much taller, differently-constructed fence that we don't even want and whose aesthetics won't look good with our vintage home. We don't ever leave Willie outside unattended, because he will definitely bark...he's a beagle mix, bred to flush out wildlife, so there's no letting him out unconfined/untethered, and there's no way that the rabbits that heavily populate our neighborhood get by without insane warning barks. HOA or no HOA, our neighbors (who all have dogs) would DEFINITELY be peeved, and we like the majority of our neighbors, and don't want to **** them off.
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I am too tired to respond to all the nice posts, but I gave as much rep as I could. I guess I need to spread the love before I can rep some of you again. We're looking at 4 houses Thursday, so hopefully one of those will be the right fit for us and our four-legged kids.
