[Raiderman]

Originally Posted by Blackscorpion

HOAs suck, i dont know why someone would want to be a part of one. My house and property, my rules.

In the majority of the planned communities here that isn't an option. It doesn't matter if you want to be in one or not, they are just there in most of the neighborhoods.

[Croce]

Just a cautionary note on your gravel idea. I bought a house once that the previous owner had gone the graveled backyard route. I had to have it removed, a sprinkler system installed and then drains and landscaping. Gravel gets hot in the summer. I'd give this some thought, because it might be cheaper to put in a landscape you can live with going forward. You might consider desert landscaping. I wouldn't rule out an irrigation system just because you aren't there. Talk to your neighbors, drop off a six pack. They can keep an eye out for you. Your gardener should be servicing your property weekly as well. Just remember its a PITA and not cheap to install and then uninstall several yards of gravel if that's what you decide on.

[ddrhazy]

Originally Posted by Croce

Just a cautionary note on your gravel idea. I bought a house once that the previous owner had gone the graveled backyard route. I had to have it removed, a sprinkler system installed and then drains and landscaping. Gravel gets hot in the summer. I'd give this some thought, because it might be cheaper to put in a landscape you can live with going forward. You might consider desert landscaping. I wouldn't rule out an irrigation system just because you aren't there. Talk to your neighbors, drop off a six pack. They can keep an eye out for you. Your gardener should be servicing your property weekly as well. Just remember its a PITA and not cheap to install and then uninstall several yards of gravel if that's what you decide on.

Summer is hot. What's your point?

The owner is not going to be there to oversee the project nor to see if the sprinkler system is maintained properly. That means keep the project as small and hassle free as possible.

[BBMW]

They way they're structured HOAs call usually do whatever they want. Some don't care, some do.

In areas with two story houses, everyone sees everyone else's back yard, so, yes it's counts.

Originally Posted by jet757f

Since when can the HOA make you landscape the backyard? All the HOAs that I have had including the one I have now only have appearance rules for the front of the house which can be seen from the street. How do they even know what you have in the backyard? Are they going onto your property and looking over the fence?

[ecd3easy]

Every-time I think...it's not so bad I can do an HOA. Something like this pops up. Landscaping your backyard. So you don't actually own your house. You only own the inside. How is landscaping your BACKYARD important? Am i missing something. So a nosy neighbor has something nice to look at. What is the relevance.

[BBMW]

People have this "my home is my castle" view of home ownership. In point of fact, it hasn't been that way in a long time. Various levels of government can impose all sorts of restrictions on what you can do with your house. Restrictive covenants have been part of land ownership for centuries (and this is the legal basis of the whole HOA thing.)

The relevance is that whatever you do to your house, especially if it's detectable from the outside, effects all the houses around you. Let's say you haven't landscaped your backyard in one of these dense subdivisions. You backyard neighbor goes to sell his house, buyers see your bare dirt backyard, and think the house is abandoned/neglected, and walk away from his. He eventually has to take a lower price, and this sets a comp for the neighborhood, driving down everyone's values. That's straight dollar relevance right there.

No one is forcing you to buy a house in an HOA. Go out to Pahrump, and buy a non-tract house with no HOA, then you can do what you want. Well not really, the county/town might have something to say about it.

Originally Posted by ecd3easy

Every-time I think...it's not so bad I can do an HOA. Something like this pops up. Landscaping your backyard. So you don't actually own your house. You only own the inside. How is landscaping your BACKYARD important? Am i missing something. So a nosy neighbor has something nice to look at. What is the relevance.

[ddrhazy]

There's non HOA properties in Las Vegas. Usually the neighborhoods are more run down than their nearby HOA counterparts. You pay a price for the luxury of living in a nice neighborhood and it's acceptable for many people.

[ScoopLV]

Originally Posted by ecd3easy

Every-time I think...it's not so bad I can do an HOA. Something like this pops up. Landscaping your backyard. So you don't actually own your house. You only own the inside. How is landscaping your BACKYARD important? Am i missing something. So a nosy neighbor has something nice to look at. What is the relevance.

I have used this example many times.

My mother in law lives in an small HOA community (50 houses or so. I've never counted.). Directly adjacent, is an identical community, same developer, same construction, built at the same time. But NO HOA. The developer recognized that quasi-libertarians have a [censored] for non-HOA communities.

My mother in law's neighborhood is IMMACULATE. The yards are tidy. The streets are clean and uncluttered. The entire neighborhood looks the same today as it did when it was built 10 years ago. Houses in that neighborhood are selling in the half-million range.

Next door, it looks like a bomb went off at a Toys 'R Us, and the debris was dropped on this neighborhood via airstrike. The paint is peeling on all the trim on most of the houses. The streets are literally full with cars, many working, many broken. Some houses look abandoned -- dead trees, dead grass, dead everything. And there's trash everywhere. The neighborhood looks ripe for condemnation and gentrification. The houses in this neighborhood sell in the $300K range. (They're still large houses. Large houses with nothing going for them. But still 4,000+ sqft.)

The HOA monthly fees are $58 for my mother in law. Over 10 years, that's amounted to $7,000. Spend $7,000 to make an extra $200,000 when the house sells? Yeah, I can deal with the HOA telling me to pull her weeds and keep her house looking tidy. No problems at all.

[braindead0]

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

..
The HOA monthly fees are $58 for my mother in law. Over 10 years, that's amounted to $7,000. Spend $7,000 to make an extra $200,000 when the house sells? Yeah, I can deal with the HOA telling me to pull her weeds and keep her house looking tidy. No problems at all.

For some people (myself included) it's not entirely a matter of money. I have several hobbies that would not be allowed in an HOA. You also neglect the extra expense of having to have your cars serviced by someone else (likely you'll not be able to work on a car, unless you're lucky and there's enough room in your garage), paying for storage for any RV's that would otherwise fit in the driveway, buying furniture that you could make yourself (but you can' t because you can't leave your garage door open)...etc.

Likely for most people it's not an issue. For some it is. We all have choices to make and need to accept the consequences.

[ScoopLV]

One of my mother in law's neighbors works on diesel trucks (tractor trailers) in a special 18' high garage he built next to his house. It looks like a casita, but it's actually his livelihood. No problems with the HOA -- because it's just that one neighborhood. They're reasonable about reasonable requests. "Hey, can I build a garage on my property that looks like a casita?" "If it looks like it fits in with the neighborhood, build away!"

Not all HOAs are draconian. As with most things, the smaller and more hands-on the community, the better. This would never fly in my HOA for instance, because it's a much larger community. But I have no need to wrench on cars in my driveway. (I'm one of those neighbors who thinks that's an eyesore.)