Homeowners fees? Is there any nice places were they dont have HOA?

[Zippyman]

Originally Posted by twiggy

HOA's are not that bad, really, unless you are planning on painting your house purple and pink you shouldn't mind that much having one. Ask the residents in the areas of interest if the HOA there is extremely active or passive, most are passive and you never know they are there except when you leave your trash can out.
I would look into the home you want first, then deal with the HOA.

I'd have to disagree - the cheapest HOA I've ever seen is $28/month - that's a fee that will never go away, and can go up without any limitation whatsoever (a fairly small cadre of your neighbors could raise it to $300+ tomorrow, and your only choice is to pay, or spend your life trying to kick out the board).

And that $28/mo fee is for exactly what twiggy mentioned, sending grumpy mail to the neighbors who leave their trash cans out, although, they have decided to ignore violations of the on-street parking rule.

I could certainly find a better use for $28/month. Heck, over a year it works out to $300+ dollars - That's enough cash to pay an August A/C bill.


That August A/C bill bothers me alot more than a neighbor forgetting a trash can!




The "logic" of HOA's escapes me and seems truly defective.

"I don't trust my neighbors to do the right thing",

so....

"I'll trust a group of my neighbors, to do the right thing".

??

[artvandelay]

Generally, anything built recently has an HOA. Goodyear, like most suburbs, aren't that old and thus have HOA fees. Outside or older Phoenix and some closer suburbs like Glendale, the only WV area old enough to not have them is the old section of Litchfield Park.

[observer53]

$28 a month for maintenance of common areas, even relatively small ones, is a small price to pay, to me, if everything else about the house is what you want. I live in a subdivision without an HOA, surrounded by subdivisions that do have one. They're all nice areas. If you find an area where people take pride in their homes, then it doesn't matter whether there's an HOA or not. They do help control the situation in which one house, for whatever reason, falls into significant exterior neglect.

There are "bad" HOA's, yes, but spreading some sort of stereotype that they are all run by power hungry neighbors out to steal others' money and control their lives goes a bit too far, and is just not accurate.