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Not at all, but I would be surprised if an association of a "non-rat-hole" didn't have some restrictions on renting.
I owned a condo in a covenant-controlled community. Our HOA did not have any rules in place to regulate who rented out units and who did not. We'd get occasional problem tenants, but mostly it was a very quiet and peaceful community. Our biggest issues were typically pest control, landscaping, and general maintenance around the community.
I would think that you need to be in a pretty bad geographic location to have this sort of problem and need this kind of solution.
How about a few miles within a superbowl? Sure, your neighbor might have made a few grand, but if you shared a common wall, you could have a pretty bad week.
LOL...I'll chime in on this. A lot of people like to call it a "common wall", but generally that isn't really true in condos. I have a neighbor on one side of me. I have my wall, then there is a firewall, which I think is cement block, and then he has his wall. So 3 separate walls, and none are shared. I have never heard a sound from next door. Now I can hear his garage door open, but I could hear that in my last house, which was a normal detached home. Maybe high-rise type condos ate different, and do not have solid firewalls?
I agree, renters generally are not preferred. But, at least at our condo community, the exterior is all taken care of by landscapers and contractors who wash/paint the exterior trim/siding. Obviously, a renter in a sfh is going to be more prone to not cutting the lawn, pulling weeds, keeping the exterior maintenance up, etc. Original owner or renter, the exterior is going to always look nice, at least at our community. Who knows about the interior of a condo that is being rented, but that is another topic.
That being said, we currently have just 4% of our units as rentals, a very low number. We do not currently have a cap on a certain percentage of owner occupied units. This is something that we (I am on our board) are currently looking into to keep the percentage of rentals low.
We had that at one place I lived-- a cap on the percentage of renter occupied units. Now that I think of it, there was one in two places, though the percentages were different.
There are pros and cons. Certainly, you drive away buyers who are scared off by the process to get approval for a renter. But maybe you want to do that. In my experience, you end up with illegal AirBNB style short term renters who are more difficult to pin down when damage is done. I would think long and hard about a cap. You can effectively have one with your board without writing it into the rules.
To the people saying that you never really pay off your home if there is an HOA fee, that applies to houses without one too in the sense that there will always be ongoing maintenance costs even after a mortgage is paid off. I guess it's different in the sense that you won't get sued if you don't replace your roof but it doesn't mean that things won't break and wear out and need to be replaced for as long as you own your house. And in reality, a lot of people aren't as diligent at setting aside that couple of hundred dollars every month and it ends up being a major hardship when they do have to come up with a few thousand for a new roof or air conditioner or whatever.
Absolutely true. I recently had to replace my roof because of storm damage this past spring. I knew the roof replacement was on the horizon anyway because it was getting old. But it was MY choice when to get the work done and I got to pick the contractor and decide how much I was willing to pay. And what materials to use. In other words, I had some control over the process.
There is always maintenance to be done. Some I can do myself and sometimes I have to hire. But it's my choice! I picked out a white roof because I though it would be more energy efficient. And I was right. My electric bill has gone down almost $100 per month. If I had had an HOA, all of my approved choices would have been dark brown or red tile.
Absolutely true. I recently had to replace my roof because of storm damage this past spring. I knew the roof replacement was on the horizon anyway because it was getting old. But it was MY choice when to get the work done and I got to pick the contractor and decide how much I was willing to pay. And what materials to use. In other words, I had some control over the process.
There is always maintenance to be done. Some I can do myself and sometimes I have to hire. But it's my choice! I picked out a white roof because I though it would be more energy efficient. And I was right. My electric bill has gone down almost $100 per month. If I had had an HOA, all of my approved choices would have been dark brown or red tile.
I think HOAs can be burdensome when you have a detached SFH. I mean, who wants to have someone dictating to them what they can do on a house they own?
For condos/townhomes, I think it's a different story. I think those types of places typically reflect a lifestyle. People who live in places like that don't want the upkeep and couldn't care less about making modifications to the exterior. When my fiance and I were house shopping recently, we looked at a couple hi-rise units. HOA fees were generally around $500/mo or more. We came to the conclusion that you were paying for the lifestyle which, in those types of places, was like living in a hotel suite full time.
In this thread are a lot of words, speculation, and blah blah. How about doing some math? Math will reveal how much that HOA fee will cost you in the long run. Let's assume a $400,000 home with and without an HOA.
$400k home, 10% down, no HOA. $40k down, $360k borrowed at 4%. After 30 years, total cost with interest: $659k.
Same home with $150/month HOA: total of payments over 30 years is $54,000. However, unlike a fixed mortgage, HOA fees will go up periodically due to inflation. Assuming a 3% increase in HOA fees annually, that brings the total cost to $88k. After 30 years, total cost: $659k + $88k = $747k.
Being in an HOA over the long haul can add nearly $100k to the total cost of homeownership over the life of a 30-year mortgage. No thanks, I'll pass. I'm happy to live in a non-HOA neighborhood.
Your math seems to be missing many things. HOA fees for many of the places I've seen to cover a lot of the maintenance. In your math for a house, you're not considering that maintenance, which can get pretty damn pricey.
Also out here in LA, you can't get much house for $400k, that's like the price of a very old house a pretty rough part of town. You can get a much nicer and newer condo for $400k in a solid area.
I think HOAs can be burdensome when you have a detached SFH. I mean, who wants to have someone dictating to them what they can do on a house they own?
For condos/townhomes, I think it's a different story. I think those types of places typically reflect a lifestyle. People who live in places like that don't want the upkeep and couldn't care less about making modifications to the exterior. When my fiance and I were house shopping recently, we looked at a couple hi-rise units. HOA fees were generally around $500/mo or more. We came to the conclusion that you were paying for the lifestyle which, in those types of places, was like living in a hotel suite full time.
I agree with the lifestyle part. Many of these condo communities and townhomes have all these amenities that I'll likely rarely every use. I definitely don't want to pay to maintain these things. Can't we just get some decent low-maintenance communities built without all this extra crap? Ugh.
Your math seems to be missing many things. HOA fees for many of the places I've seen to cover a lot of the maintenance. In your math for a house, you're not considering that maintenance, which can get pretty damn pricey.
Also out here in LA, you can't get much house for $400k, that's like the price of a very old house a pretty rough part of town. You can get a much nicer and newer condo for $400k in a solid area.
Exactly. If the HOA is paying for stuff like yard maintenance, pest control, exterior repair/replacement, exterior insurance, and some amenities like a pool or tennis court, that is not a bad deal. They also often include stuff like trash pickup and water and sewer as well.
In this thread are a lot of words, speculation, and blah blah. How about doing some math? Math will reveal how much that HOA fee will cost you in the long run. Let's assume a $400,000 home with and without an HOA.
$400k home, 10% down, no HOA. $40k down, $360k borrowed at 4%. After 30 years, total cost with interest: $659k.
Same home with $150/month HOA: total of payments over 30 years is $54,000. However, unlike a fixed mortgage, HOA fees will go up periodically due to inflation. Assuming a 3% increase in HOA fees annually, that brings the total cost to $88k. After 30 years, total cost: $659k + $88k = $747k.
Being in an HOA over the long haul can add nearly $100k to the total cost of homeownership over the life of a 30-year mortgage. No thanks, I'll pass. I'm happy to live in a non-HOA neighborhood.
As others mention, it depends on what the HOA fee covers, and how high it is.
My SFH HOA fee is $80/annually, and it hasn't budged in years. Over a 30 year period that is only $2,400. Now, I don't get a lot for that, as it essentially covers the maintenance for a neighborhood park and nothing else. For $80 a year though, it's a nice neighborhood amenity, we use it for gatherings, dog walking, and other park activities. It is a selling point, and arguably helps with housing values.
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