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The best HOA story I've heard (no idea whether it's really true, but it's still fun) was a West Coast community with strict rules about dogs. This one guy's dog was in the yard and that was too much for someone, so the HOA ordered him to keep the dog indoors or risk getting the dog removed forcibly. He told them: "If you come on my property, I'll shoot you dead." They left him alone after that.
Every time someone in these forums complains about an HOA, some other person says "But my HOA is great!" It's like saying, "My wife/husband is a real pain in the neck." And someone else with no particular wisdom or insight to share says "Well, my wife/husband is great. Maybe you shouldn't have gotten married."
When we lived in the Phoenix area, we luckily didn't live in an HOA community but we had many friends who did. This one friend, a single mom, kept getting fined for running a business out of her home, during the great recession. You'd think they could cut a young single mom some slack during a recession. It wasn't a very noticeable business, either. That's the kind of thing that gives HOA's a bad name, even though they do help to keep neighborhoods neat.
Personally I believe in live and let live. If someone needs to put his car on blocks, why is it my concern? Let him. If the house next door is a crack house occupied by transient dealers and junkies, that's another matter.
Well, apparently you don't believe that in the case of HOA property owners with common values who chose to live the same community.
Something which has absolutely ZERO to do with you or anyone else who doesn't live there.
Personally I don't even know what you're talking about. People who live IN AN HOA do have particular wisdom and insight into HOAs. And knowledge about them.
Versus the people complaining who never have, have no idea how they work, and are wrong with their basic facts.
Even your story about the dog is uninformed. All the HOA has to do is either call the local police if there's a statute or FINE the resident if it's in the bylaws. So hot shot resident will never get a chance to shoot the HOA committee.
Interesting you denigrate HOA RESIDENTS who have FACTS but admit that you get off on a possible fake story about a possibly fake HOA about a possibly fake occurrence while you claim the actual HOA RESIDENTS have no particular wisdom or insight.
One thing that struck me when I first went to FL (Tampa area on south toward Naples) for the first time as an adult two years ago was how neat and tidy all the homes looked compared to most of the small towns in Indiana and Tennessee I've been in. HOAs are a part of that. They can enforce a standardized set of looks and behaviors that keeps the neighborhood "in check."
You make a good point. I grew up in a neighborhood with an HOA that tended only a playing field and otherwise had no rules. The result is that the house in which I grew up is an abandoned wreck surrounded by gorgeous houses. I wonder how the neighbors feel about living next to an eyesore.
You make a good point. I grew up in a neighborhood with an HOA that tended only a playing field and otherwise had no rules. The result is that the house in which I grew up is an abandoned wreck surrounded by gorgeous houses. I wonder how the neighbors feel about living next to an eyesore.
One of the issues we deal with in my neck of the woods are people totally letting properties go. There doesn't seem to be much pride in this area in having a clean, tidy home exterior. I've lived in two affluent Midwestern suburbs in the past five years, and many of these homes were in HOAs. Homes remained neat and tidy.
That neat little ranch I mentioned in the first post is being hurt by the eyesore right across the street. A couple hundred yards down the street is another eyesore, with only some pasture separating them, with this house being worse than the first one.
If someone doesn't want an HOA, that's perfectly fine, but you may also get a terrible neighbor that doesn't take care of the property and drags your home value down as well.
They're great for the municipality they're located in. The city gets to collect 100% of the taxes while incurring only a fraction of the typical maintenance and infrastructure costs.
We have decided to permanently move to Florida. Looking at houses on zillow and Realtor. It seems like 80% of houses have HOAs.
I'm an American. I live in America. I do not want some communist HOA board telling me what flowers we can and can't plant. And I certainly don't want some nazi HOA lawyer to foreclose on our house over a $500 dispute.
What's with Florida becoming a communist dictatorship?
HOAs are not communism. is is pretty far from it.
communism each to their needs. HOA everyone pays in based on a fixed fee or property value. Can you see the difference? If it was communist the HOA would require you to pay all your monies in and would dole out the monies as needed. thus if you had 1 million and lived alone you would get the smallest amount back and the family with one dollar and 10 kids would hand in just one dollar and get back 10 times more than you.
do you understand communism now?
Communism is more like a family it matters not who earns the money each member gets what they need but not perhaps what they want. HOA have nothing to do with nor are in any like communism. In fact HOA are more like private clubs that wish to keep the riff raff out or under control. hardly communist, more elitist if you feel you need an ist or ism ...
(not a fan of communism but sick of people talking bs about it.)
In South Floriduh, most of the HOA developments are on the west side of town. They are the developments of the 70s, 80s and newer. The past couple of decades brought about the HOAs of the McMansion style. Both architectural style and life style.
On the east side of town are all the old developments. These are the older styles of architecture with uniqueness and charm. And NO HOAs (or very few and far between).
A new phenomenon is starting to occur. People from the west side have migrated east or maybe certain elements have become jealous of the HOAs and their rules. The result is that the same philosophy of controlling everything is being written into these older town's ordinances. What is a deed restriction out west is becoming law on the east side. Everything from landscape requirements to driveways to noise ordinances, etc.
The only way to escape is to move away to a smaller town out of the area.
When we were buying our first home, neither my husband and I (mid-20's, then) had ever heard of HOA's. We lived in an area of the country where they just didn't exist. We moved out West and specifically bought a house that had no HOA restrictions, because we felt like the OP and just didn't think it was right to have extra restrictions put on us. Now we're on our third house and we specifically looked for a house with an HOA because we realized that we don't want the effort we put into keeping our yard and home nice to be wasted if the neighborhood has residents who just don't care about upkeep. We did look into the different community restrictions before we put an offer in on the house. We turned a couple communities down that, while the amenities seemed lovely, seemed overly restrictive. We don't want someone coming to our house measuring our grass height every morning or telling us that our kids can't play outside or something. The HOA for our new house has rules we can live with. Plus it has a pool and playground, and the residents seem down to earth but still seem to care about the community. Good enough for us.
The psycho gun nuts won't live in nor will morons who have a fridge on the porch or a jacked up car in the yard. Also won't paint the house purple cause they can. "You might be a redneck. '
Hah - In Florida chances are the whole family goes out shooting together - there are massive "for the whole family" gun ranges that are like bowling alleys.
Just because someone has a nice house and lawn does not mean they don't have an arsenal in the closet - and it has absolutely nothing to do with their state of mind. In other words, they could be a crazy gun nut just as much as anyone else.
We live in a non-HOA area and I am fairly certain that very few of my neighbors are crazy gun nuts. I mean - they play violin and take walks and bike rides and go to work each morning (or are retired). Haven't heard a single gun shot in all the years I've been there (near DT Sarasota)...
I did see a piece of exercise equipment in one persons open porch/garage though.
Beware the Stepford Wives. You'd be surprised what lurks behind those security gates. My dad bought a couple brand new Colonials in an HOA in Hilton Head and that place turned into a low class neighborhood within a decade.
I mean - this isn't a co-op in NYC where the board meets and interviews you. Anyone with the cash - Russians, Drug Dealers, Saudis or S. Americans can fork over the dough and be your neighbors. In fact, Sarasota is famous for it's ties to 9/11 and I'm fairly certain the dudes lived in nice areas.
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