[Roscoe Conkling]

Originally Posted by Zaba

It's like the clueless young couple who buys the condo in the 'up and coming' part of the city that's still incredibly dangerous.
Some people try to warn them but there's no reasoning with idealism and until they get their first mugging, they're blissfully naive.

Don't worry about what I think of you and since you've already signed the contract, enjoy your 'great location'... but when the bad scenario happens and you find yourself realizing what a mistake you've made, don't let me find out about it because if I don't directly say "I told you so", you'll know why I'm smirking.

In the meantime, shouldn't you be out measuring your grass to make sure you're 'compliant'?
Hahaha, what hell and what a sad, sad people.

Reading your posts and the kind of language you use to make them helps me understand why living in an HOA community is not for you.
Thank goodness.

[Zaba]

Originally Posted by Roscoe Conkling

Reading your posts and the kind of language you use to make them helps me understand why living in an HOA community is not for you.
Thank goodness.

Yeah. I just developed them in the early/mid 2000's sold them to suckers like you

[annerk]

Originally Posted by The b8nk

I dont get why everyone buys these overpriced cookie cutter piece of crap places to live in in the first place.

LOL! You have obviously never been to a high end community of custom built homes with a HOA. Have you ever heard of Fisher Island, or Isleworth? HOAs, and far from cookie cutter.

[beachmouse]

I am amused when the high end developments end up with a pretty high number of Arthur Rutenberg homes, which in the end are generally semi-custom builds. But at the same time, I can get that plenty of people just want something nice without having to deal with too many choices from the builder or designer. It would be a boring world if we all had the same priorities and all.

My development as a whole is about 40% HOA neighborhoods; 60% non-HOA neighborhoods (and the non-HOAs are generally militantly so). For the development as a whole we have a MSBU special tax district for "upkeep of common areas" as the phrasing goes. And the people who are the biggest non-HOA types were also some of the biggest pro-MSBU backers when we were trying to establish it. (No easy task, the county fought us because they were terrified it was one step on the way to forming a city that would let us recapture some of the property tax money that currently goes toward sweetheart land deals for apls of county comissioners and the sheriff's office slush fund)

The MBSU says that they're responsible for improving the beauty of specific roadways and other common areas of the development. They don't do code enforcement or deal with your beaver problem, though they'll gladly give you their special direct phone number to code enforcement or fish & wildlife if you ask. If they want to expand the scope of what they do, it requires putting it on the ballot at a regular primary or general election for all homesteaded property owners to vote on. The board can't expand the MSBU's scope on their own, or send out ballots that conveniently get 'lost in the mail'. The MSBU board is elected in municipal election just like fire district board members are. And the statute that created the MSBU limited tax increases to 5% a year unless we vote to change the rules of the whole MSBU and get approval from Tallahassee.

The MSBU does have a fair amount of soft power as well, and managed to force the local toll bridge authority to build a bypass around the development instead of an expanded four lane access road smack through the suburblet.

It's a set-up that's not right for every community, but for some I think it would be better than the HOA or nothing norm currently in many areas.

[annerk]

Originally Posted by beachmouse

I am amused when the high end developments end up with a pretty high number of Arthur Rutenberg homes,

It's not a "high end development" if there are Rutenberg homes in it. A nice development, yes. Desirable, yes. I'd even give you "highER end." But high end? Nope.

[beachmouse]

Rutenberg builds in the million-plus range in my area, which I'd call high end outside of NYC/California/DC. I'm familiar with the builder who has that local franchise, and you're paying an extra 20% for the name compared to his normal custom home business.

[Roscoe Conkling]

Originally Posted by Zaba

Yeah. I just developed them in the early/mid 2000's sold them to suckers like you

When you meet up with your friends to talk about it I presume you can all fit in a telephone booth ?

[Zaba]

Originally Posted by annerk

It's not a "high end development" if there are Rutenberg homes in it. A nice development, yes. Desirable, yes. I'd even give you "highER end." But high end? Nope.

You know much about the building and PUD market?
Because I'm betting what you know could fit in thimble.

[Spring Hillian]

When it comes to LEO's you have shown your lack of knowledge.

The question was not about a cop car in the neighborhood, but a house with one parked in front of it. Law enforcement presence is a deterrent to crime. Its a signal to go else where to avoid detection.

It appears that many people prefer not to have Larrys Septic Service's truck in view each morning when they go get the newspaper off the lawn. Wanting to live in certain conditions does not make one pretentious or a moron. If you do not desire to live under a HOA situation you are free to make that choice as is someone who chooses to do so.

Originally Posted by Zaba

Haha, ahhh yes, the cops with advanced degrees. They're like Sasquatch. Oft cited, rarely seen (assuming we're not counting the University of Phoenix degree in Personnel Management some mustachioed mouth-breather gets online because he got a hack promotion and the city required a 'degree' for people in that position)

I wouldn't break into a house one way or the other but you have almost child-like view of how security works if you think a cop car in neighborhood prevents burglaries. You are the people the TSA Kabuki Theater is intended to impress, even though it provides no actual security.

Anyway, like I said, some people are just a different species and the sort of person who thinks a work truck is 'tacky' is precisely the sort of person who you will find cloistered among a bunch of other pretentious morons with an irrational view of their own value in this world who, without exception, create an elaborate 'neighborhood bureaucracy' to codify it all.

They're welcome to their own miserable hell, they deserve that same hell but I do feel sorry for the naive types who haven't been around the block enough times to realize in advance just what sort of nightmare they're in for when buying into a place where people think a work truck is 'tacky'.

(and PS, on that "half acre lot", that's about 100 X 100. May as well be in a condo. )

[beachmouse]

Note that the state of Florida lets cities ban commercial vehicles like your Larrys Septic Service's truck in residential areas though the only place I know that goes there is Coral Gables near Miami. So you don't need an HOA for that.