Post by mommylikestattoos on Jun 17, 2013 6:14:09 GMT -5
Are HOAs generally a regional thing?
We don't have one and I don't they're common here (NY). I can certainly see how they can be useful in a condo or townhouse complex, but think it'd be annoying in my neighborhood. Granted, we don't have a community pool or anything like that that needs maintenance money.
Yes. Im glad for it because they do all the yard work. And because I rent, I dont have to pay it...$250/mo
In our NC house we dont have HOA and the neighbors seem to be pretty good about keeping the neighborhood nice.
If we were to ever buy, it would have to depend on what's included. If they did yard work and stuff that directly benefits my home then yes. If its like my parents neighborhood (which we use to own one of those homes), they do nothing so no. They promised a pool and hiking trails when we first built it...that was 5 years ago...still none of that. And they wonder why the whole community is pitching a fit and refusing to pay.
We are moving out of a neighborhood that doesn't have a HOA and into a neighborhood that does. After the decline of our neighborhood, we sought only neighborhoods with HOA's. I'm surprised that so many people avoid them. I just view it as a way to protect our property value. Our current neighborhood does have covenants but they were never enforced, so there are commercial vehicles parked everywhere and several houses in a serious state of disrepair. When we were in the process of selling our house we had a handful of buyers that loved our house but thought the neighborhood was in poor shape, which is true and exactly why we are moving.
Post by bostonmichelle on Jun 17, 2013 6:50:06 GMT -5
No we don't have an HOA. There aren't a lot around here except for the really upscale houses that I can't afford. Sometimes I wish I did since the people across the street abandoned their house and their grass is currently 3 feet tall and my dog tries to go in there all the time but its probably loaded with ticks and other bugs. I don't think I would like it very much though because I never grew up in one, so if we wanted to paint the house a different color we did and I couldn't see asking people's permission for stuff like that.
Post by SusanBAnthony on Jun 17, 2013 6:58:47 GMT -5
We just moved to one and I hate it. We are honestly looking at houses already and will move asap if we can find the right one.
Ours is cheap so that isn't a concern. It is the fact that all the neighbors seem to think it gives them the right to be up in everyone's business.
We are putting in a veggie garden and a compost pile in our back yard and the person backing up to our yard threw a fit about it, because she didn't like the view out her back windows. omglol.
Anyway, I hate having to think about what is and isn't "in keeping with the overall look of the neighborhood" when we do anything outside. Gardening is my major hobby, and I don't want 3 random dudes on the board to get to decide what I can put in my yard. And I really don't care how often my neighbor mows their lawn, FFS. I have never lived in a neighborhood with roblems with cars on blocks, and campers parked on a proper pad or on the driveway do not phase me. And I would paint my house some fun, bright color if I was repainting. So yah. I am clearly not a good candidate for an HOA.
We don't have an HOA and I'm so freaking happy about that. I will say that I am glad we have the option to join the neighborhood swim and tennis club since it's convenient when we want access to that stuff.
We're in a SFH and we don't have one. We've only lived in our new house for a month and a half so I guess the jury is still out on whether we want one.
Some neighbors have great looking lawns/houses, others not so much. Nothing too bad I've seen so far.
Honestly, I don't need a Stepford looking neighborhood. I like the diversity of houses.
Post by sunshine608 on Jun 17, 2013 8:17:36 GMT -5
Once you get above a certain price point here, they are hard to avoid. Our current neighborhood doesn't have one and after our neighbor decided to get some goats that he could't keep secure, we decided our next place would have one.
However, H drives his work truck home so we had to be careful to find one that allowed commercial vehicles.
We do not have one. When we were looking I preferred without, but if we had found a great house with one I would have considered it. The neighborhood we ended up buying in is well-maintained and everyone kind of has a "keep up" mentality. No one wants to have the patchy lawn among all the nice ones.
Also, I was afraid of places that have rules about how high your grass can be and the like. We keep up our lawn like everyone else, but MH's job takes him away for 4 months at a time 1-2 times per year. I don't want to worry that I'm going to get fined if I miss a week of mowing while I'm home alone with my two kids, or that I will come home to loads of fines if I decide to take the kids to visit our parents for a month while MH is gone.
We had a very negative run in with the HOA at a condo we rented. Busy bodies who didn't like the political sticker I put on my car. We swore we'd never live Ina place with one.
We had a very negative run in with the HOA at a condo we rented. Busy bodies who didn't like the political sticker I put on my car. We swore we'd never live Ina place with one.
This is nuts! (I am assuming that your political sticker wasn't pro-Bin Laden or something.)
I greatly dislike them. And I say that as the former president of an HOA. I was a condo HOA pres for a few years, My attitude was basically: don't piss off your neighbors and don't litter. We had stupid rules like "park your car only nose in". Yeah, I'm SO not enforcing that one. It was fine and very casual.
But I've lived in two subdivisions since (SFHs) with HOAs and I detest them. One was notorious for being awful. I never hit their radar for some reason, so didn't have any issues. But people who lived in the president's street were always paranoid about being in her crosshairs. We are renting right now and the HOA is insane. We got a nasty-gram because there was too many weeds in our yard. We'd just moved in and the house had been vacant for six months. Crazy. There are rules like having to put only specific types of rocks in your flowerbed for border purposes, certain fonts for the house numbers, etc.
My neighbor (who is a lawyer) got a nasty-gram saying that she had to rip up some ten year old cypress trees that border her yard because they "impeded the view". Problem was, she had written permission from the builders to plant them even before the HOA was in existence. They were still going to take her to court and make her dig them up. Did I mention she was a lawyer? It got quashed pretty quickly, but they still give her nasty looks when they see her.
My dad was on the architectural committee of his HOA (subdivision with 100 plots on a lake, only 5 houses built when they moved in). Rules were basically "must be greater than 1000sqft and must have a foundation". AKA: no mobile homes on cinder blocks. Someone put up a small mobile home and they made him take it down. But one person went bananas because their neighbor built a house that impeded their lake view. Because they were on a corner. ANY house built on that plot would have "impeded their view". House was normal sized, same distance from the lake as everyone else, blah blah. They were totally in the right. Huge dust up anyway.
They house we are attempting to buy (please let us close!) has no HOA. And boy am I happy about that!
Our last place had one but only because it was a large condo building. It's a necessity to deal with things like roof repairs and hallway cleaning.
Our current place does not, and I have no desire to live in an HOA neighborhood ever. I don't want any restrictions on what I can do with my property beyond what is already in the local building and zoning codes.
As for things like yards and parking, I've always found city ordinances to be sufficient to deal with real problems. Most cities require homeowners to keep grass under a certain height for vermin reasons. A lot of streets around here have weekly street cleaning, so all the cars get moved twice a week anyway. I'd rather have a neighbor who paints her siding hot pink than only be able to choose from three shades of beige when repainting.
Post by pinkdutchtulips on Jun 17, 2013 12:02:00 GMT -5
No HOA for us and i'd only live in one if absolutely necessary and the first thing i'd do is find a way to get myself on the HOA board.
we've rented in an HOA community in the past and it wasn't too bad- lax enforcement had more to do w/ that than anything else. i've seen/heard all sorts of crazy HOA stories that make me want to avoid HOA communities like the plague.
I think they are important for townhouses and condos, not so much for SFHs. And both townhouses we've lived in had one, the SFH did not. I have really mixed feelings about them. I'm OK with the one we have now, mostly because they work to keep the common area nice but are flexible on other things.
I may change my tune after the HOA meeting on Tuesday where they will be discussing parking. They were talking about going to a sticker system with a town truck that patrols the neighborhood. I'm fine with towing, but I think it should be at the owner's request - not just the tow truck's whim. IME, that ends up being a racket for the tow trucks who just own willy nilly. Tow when there is a problem, not just b/c. My attitude might be b/c I'm on a street without parking problems and I have 2 cars. Give me two spots, fine. But don't give me two cars to park in those 2 spots. What if I need to change up the two cars I want in my two spots?!
Maybe your HOA could give each owner a "guest" tag that has the parking spot number on it and you could use it if you had guests parking in your spot, or if for some reason your car changed (rental car for a short period or something). If your permanent car changed, I would think you could have a process to get a new permanent sticker.
We have one, but it's basically just a way for the homeowners to stay in touch. We don't have any crazy rules about specific fence heights, colors of paint, etc. No one has to get permission to plant trees or put up a basketball hoop. So far, so good.
But... our original builder filed for bankruptcy and went out of business in the middle of building our neighborhood. A different (better) builder took over the neighborhood and they are a lot pickier. They want us to turn over our HOA to a professional management company. We're having an HOA meeting next week to hear about their expectations. I'm a little annoyed that some other builder has some in and set new rules afer we've already lived here for almost 5 years. We'll see what happens at this meeting. I *may* end up changing my tune!
This is going to sound creepy, but I think we have the same builder (I remember you posting before because we live in the same place). Now I'm curious if our HOA is being switched over!
We have one. In this area it's quite difficult to find a development without it. It does not really bother us and occasionaly has been useful reigning in people who have no regard for those around them (erecting eyesores, crowding the street/cul-de-sac wwith cars, large RVs, etc). It does seem to keep the neighborhood looking nice imo.
Post by patches31709 on Jun 17, 2013 14:31:04 GMT -5
No we don't, and I think we'll avoid them in the future as well, unless it's a laid back one like some of you described. If it's a crazy no Christmas lights, no flowers, no this, no that sort of HOA, no thank you.
Rubytue - pissing off HOA busy bodies one clothes line at a time
midwest07 - typo in my post. We have 3 cars. But really it's the random towing, as opposed to the homeowner calling to tow a violating vehicle, that is my issue. I don't trust tow trucks with authority to tow at will.