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NO, ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!!! I looked at a piece of land to have a house built on it several years ago - I have never heard of a HOA at that time. The guy handed me a 3 page list of "rules" before we even started to talk seriously about any purchase or even really look at the land. I quickly scanned the list and asked a few questions - he said they could "evict" you if you were caught in violation of any of the covents and I thought he was kidding. He absolutely was not. I handed back his list and got in the car. I would not even consider spending my own hard earned cash on a house and then have someone tell me how to decorate it, what kind of fence to have, how much company I can have, how many pets I can own, etc. I can't believe that is the American dream - not mine anyway. It would never be a lifestyle I would want.
I couldn't agree more. I don't get the dream of wanting to live in cookie cutter house/neighborhood. My husband and I built our house in the country, outside the city limits on 2 acres of land and are able to do what we want with it. We have a beautiful home and yard without anyone telling us what we can and can't do.
Sorry it does not keep the home value up unlike buying a location.
In fact, 2 of my friends are underwater ($60,000) in their HOA homes... both have problematic neighbors (one a woman with an older neighbor oggling her all the time since she is a single lady, his deck is practically 6 inches from hers), and both have to pay that "2nd tax" aka HOA fee for upkeep of the "commons" yet still have to upkeep their yard even when they go on long vacation else a neighbor complains plus the houses are pretty poorly built by the mass.
Vs where I am at...
where I cannot even see my neighbor's house out the window unless going around my house, every neighbor have at least an acre plus, they all don't have junk car in their yard since we all have garages and in fact doesn't need another adult to tell them what to do with their adult responsibilities nor property upkeep.
Plus, I don't have to rub elbows with my next door neighbor if I don't want to. Shaded by enough trees... I have the privacy whenever I want... and if I were to throw a loud party, there is enough trees in the yard to mute any noise and land far away enough from the next door to create any disturbances.
No HOA here and I cannot imagine ever buying a home with a HOA. I'm not a huge fan of cookie-cutter neighborhoods though. Thankfully HOA's are not common around here (MA). What I love so much about our area is the unique older homes with so much character because they're all so different. Even if the home itself is similar to the neighbor's home, the landscaping is typically mature and unique, the decorations are different, etc. I don't want to live in a place where some HOA board tells me who can park in front of my house, what kind of car I can have, what color I choose to paint my home, etc. Like another poster said, we chose our home based on the location, the town, school system, the neighborhood. All of those things keep the values up. We don't need a HOA telling us when to cut our grass or what trees we can plant.
Good friends of ours live in a HOA neighborhood (in SC) and have been fined for a variety of different things. They hate it. Silly things like weeding, grass isn't green enough....they also want to fence in their yard for their daughter but were limited as to what kind of fence they could put up.
Today I had two new trees planted on my lawn and I had my storm door adjusted. When my roof goes or my clapboards rot, I'll make a phone call. What do you do with your weekends? I also walk 4 miles every day without some big dog lunging for my jugular.
Today I had two new trees planted on my lawn and I had my storm door adjusted. When my roof goes or my clapboards rot, I'll make a phone call. What do you do with your weekends? I also walk 4 miles every day without some big dog lunging for my jugular.
Well most of my weekends are spent 4 wheeling, hiking, camping, going out with friends etc. Since my husband works out of town most of the year we pay our neighbor $10 an hour to mow our yard (usually averages about $20 a week in the spring/summer). If something needs repairing then my husband will do it for FREE (less material of course) or if he is not able to we will hire someone to do it. Since my husband works in construction he knows lots of people who do various trades and who are willing to do work for a huge discount, since they know they may need him as an electrician at some point.
I can walk 4 miles also down a quiet county road with out dealing with massive of houses that all look the same and dogs aren't an issue either.
It's nice that your husband works in construction but most of us don't have this luxury.
Still seems that it would be cheaper to hire someone for repairs than to pay monthly HOA dues or better yet to figure out how to do the repairs on your own (that way you don't have to pay for labor).
In addition to teaching you how to do almost anything...
these will also teach you when you really need to bring in a pro.
As Clint said... "a man needs to know his limitations"
hth
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