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14 comments:
I don't mind our HOA. They aren't too strict about stuff. I'm thankful to have them send out a "friendly reminder" to our neighbors who like to keep their Christmas lights up after Valentine's day. I do think it's a little ridiculous what we were charged when we bought our house. In addition to the yearly fee, we were nailed with a $100 mail box set up fee (???), and lots of $50 "miscellaneous" charges. Oh brother!
HOAs aren't my thing. I can't imagine someone else telling me what I could or couldn't do on my property. And paying dues on top of my house payment? Uh, no. When we were looking to buy a new home last year, we avoided all that were listed in HOA's. All it takes is one overzealous board member and your life can be misery. I'll pass.
Thankfully, we don't have an HOA in our neighborhood. It was a deal-breaker when we were looking for a house. We had one in Virginia and it was a NIGHTMARE!!
Thanks for visiting my blog and commenting too!
~ Jennifer
http://thetoyboxyears.blogspot.com
The HOA is not my thing either. My hubby and I have stayed away from purchasing any property that has HOA board.
Our HOA is fine. They only minimally interfere and the price is low. I like knowing that my neighbors have to maintain a certain level of upkeep, though.
We have one, and it isn't too strict. They have only hounded people with huge dead trees. If someone's yard looks like no one is living there, but there is someone there they'll ask them to get things together.
I do interior design, and we go to all sorts of subdivisions. My boss and I went into one 2 weeks ago, and she got a ticket for going barely above the 20 mph zone. The bad part is the 20 mph is a major street in the subdivision with no driveways splitting off.
It was ridiculous!
We had one when we lived in Montana and I'm pretty sure I was the bane of their existence. When we did things they didn't like (landscaping without their "permission" - that kind of thing) they would bluster and threaten but were ultimately impotent. We just said "no". They didn't really know what to do with that. Turns out they had little to no power. We do NOT have one now, because when we moved we decided that I might strangle the next person who told me I couldn't plant a tulip in front of a house I paid $750 grand for and I am WAY too pretty to survive in prison. So HOAs and murder are now "out" for this family. I have, however, written letters to neighbors who do super assy things (like STILL HAVE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS NOT JUST UP BUT ON IN EFFING MARCH) from a *fake* HOA telling them they're out of compliance. It even works sometimes. Hehe.
I have one and CAN'T stand it! We pay $300 a year, but guess what? We have no pool, no parks, no cheaper trash service, no NOTHING! So I always ponder where does our money go??? Next time I purchase a home, I will be sure to look for one WITHOUT!
http://sklub105.blogspot.com
Kat - We have the pool and tot lot, but we pay $90 every month. I wonder if yours go for snow removal??? Who knows? I could definitely do without.
I think it depends on what part of the country you live in. When I was up north in PA, I didn't know of any neighborhoods that had HOAs. But now that I'm in south florida, they are almost everywhere. Down here, all the areas that don't have HOA's seem to be inhabited by people who REALLY don't want a HOA. They usually end up braking all kinds of rules that a normal HOA would enforce and the neighborhoods end up with a distinct non-HOA feel.
I don't want one, and never want to. I would prefer to have the free agency to do what I want with my home, when I want to.
We have an HOA, and I don't like it. I like the idea of it, but they don't enforce anything, so it's basically pointless!
We don't have an HOA anymore because we moved far out in the country...but the HOA at our old home were almost Nazi like. The required that 10% of your building expense be put into landscaping. And only natural materials could be used as roofing materials. Slate, ceramic tiles or shake shingles. We didn't have such a problem with this until we wanted to use a slate-looking materials and they came back with an excuse that it wasn't safe because if some obscure study in CA that said it might cause cancer in women of childbearing years. OK, we don't live in CA and we think they were just to lazy to consider that building materials had changed over the years.
So glad we live in the country now and can paint our house purple, have rusty cars in the front yard and have chickens and cattle graze all over our property if we want!
My mom was just complaining about her HOA? They have hired some people who have a cut-it-all-down philosophy of landscaping. Sometimes it's difficult to see the value they add.
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