archichris: HOA's are in no way a conservative dream.

The last thing a conservative wants is MORE GOVERNMENT.

HOAs are private entities. Also known as not-government entities.

/ Conservatives don't understand fundamental concepts of government and the economy.
// I am shocked, shocked

Dow Jones and the Temple of Doom: rebelyell2006: Dow Jones and the Temple of Doom: AccuJack: NightOwl2255: cptjeff: You don't sign the HOA's contract willingly. It's included when you buy, and it's virtually impossible to buy a house without one attached in some parts of the country.

Please show one example of a person that was forced to sign a deed with HOA CC&R's attached at the point of a gun. Or even the threat of a firm wedgie.

Everyone that purchased a home covered by an HOA did so willingly.

For some value of "willingly". Technically there's always a choice, like people choosing to buy a car instead of build their own. But there's no practical alternative, because the system is set up to make building your own car and actually using it on the road impossible unless you're a corporation with deep pockets and a profit motive. So yeah, you willingly buy a car because your only other choice is to walk.

/another pet peeve of mine

You're honesty implying that there's no "practical alternative" to NOT buying a home in an HOA????

There's always renting apartments or living in freeway underpasses, because a lot of the good houses are locked up with HOAs.

No offense, but you're mentally retarded if you think the only options are apartments, underpasses, or HOA neighborhoods. The vast majority of houses for sale are in non-deed-restricted communities. People are attracted to the "good houses" in HOAs for the same reason they're attracted to religion: it makes them feel safe and special, until they realize that they're unable to pick and choose the specific details of the religion/HOA rules to serve their particular tastes/interests. Then they get all pissy and biatch on the internet.

If you don't want to abide by HOA rules, don't live in an HOA neighborhood. It's really that simple. Sorry, but, "I like the idea of no trailers on the front lawn, so I bought in a deed-restricted community, but I hate the idea of mandatory mowings, so I hate my HOA boo hooooo" is a farce.

You did notice that I said "good houses", and you are right that there are houses without HOA restrictions, but those houses tend to be a little on the crappy side and thus not desirable. It's like choosing between buying an Oscar Meyer hotdog dipped in lead paint and rusted pipes and left in the hot sun for forty years, or buying a freshly-prepared Vienna sausage with buns and a two-year contract with the restaurant.

cptjeff: You don't sign the HOA's contract willingly. It's included when you buy, and it's virtually impossible to buy a house without one attached in some parts of the country.

Stop being an idiot and try again.

So move to a civilized place.

Or better yet stay in your teabagger heaven and whine about being "forced" to sign an HOA.

Please. Stay there. So you don't bother normal people.

solokumba: Weaver95: And yet another reason to never live in florida is revealed...

Except for my situation.
I just bought the house next door to me for 55,000.
Now I own a 2 house compound just minutes from the beach.

Sucks to be me I guess.

It's still Florida.

GORDON: For a doctor, you sure have some dumb thoughts.

rebelyell2006: ou did notice that I said "good houses", and you are right that there are houses without HOA restrictions, but those houses tend to be a little on the crappy side and thus not desirable. It's like choosing between buying an Oscar Meyer hotdog dipped in lead paint and rusted pipes and left in the hot sun for forty years, or buying a freshly-prepared Vienna sausage with buns and a two-year contract with the restaurant.


Once again, bullshiat.
Your idea of a "good house" seems to be nothing more than one built last year.

I was easily able to find a good house in a great neighborhood for the price I wanted in the area of town I desired that wasn't an HOA property. They are not rare.

Bunnyhat: rebelyell2006: ou did notice that I said "good houses", and you are right that there are houses without HOA restrictions, but those houses tend to be a little on the crappy side and thus not desirable. It's like choosing between buying an Oscar Meyer hotdog dipped in lead paint and rusted pipes and left in the hot sun for forty years, or buying a freshly-prepared Vienna sausage with buns and a two-year contract with the restaurant.


Once again, bullshiat.
Your idea of a "good house" seems to be nothing more than one built last year.

I was easily able to find a good house in a great neighborhood for the price I wanted in the area of town I desired that wasn't an HOA property. They are not rare.

What is true for your neighborhood is not true for every neighborhood.

archichris: Intoxoman: namatad: Chinchillazilla: I never really understood the existence of these crazy HOA's. My house is technically in an HOA, but I don't think they ever do anything except make sure common areas get mowed, replace dead trees at the front of the neighborhood with saplings, and stuff like that. There are dues but I don't think there are penalties if you don't pay them. There are also rules about what you can and can't build, but no one follows them and no one cares. You can't have a shed that isn't attached to your house, but almost everyone has one.

It's been that way as long as I can remember. Thank god. I can't imagine living somewhere like the hellhole in the article.

I have lived in a condo for 15+ years. A condo association is required. common roof, sidewalk, front door, walls, drains, water, etc ...
Makes total sense. Assuming that the board keeps the reserves in shape and doesnt run crazy spending money on BS.

The down side of NOT having a HOA is jerk moves, turns house into a crack den, lowers property values, everyone moves away, jerk buys property cheap, fixes everything up, makes a killing.
LOL

I'm one of those jerks who buy property to fix it and sell. I did not turn the place into a crack den first. The previous owners did not either though it was far from nice inside. So I'm a jerk for putting $20k+ into making it a livable house again. And I (and many others who do this) do much of the labor myself. Your're farking lucky jerks like us fix these houses. My first fix-n-flip goes on sale next week. Yea I'll make money but not killing. Jerk

Property flippers move equity out of core neighborhoods. They are killing the 'sweat equity' effect that allowed homeowners of the last generation to buy cheap, renovate and eventually sell high. Every flipped property in my neighborhood is an embarrassment except the one they spent way too much money fixing up.

Good luck to you, but people just like you fed the housing bubble out west, you are not some ...

I'm not sure why you think I'm calling myself a saint. I did indeed buy cheap. The former homeowners "sweat equity" was atrocious. The $20k+ I quoted is likely more like $25k (I haven't done final numbers yet sorry) plus my labor. I do not throw some paint on the house and put it on the market to make an "embarrassment" house. I think you missed the part where I said this was my first. I had nothing to do with the housing bubble. And prior to moving here 1 1/2 years ago I was living in NC. There was just as much housing bubble in Charlotte, NC I can assure you.

Kazan: the only houses old enough to not be in HoA's [and close enough to not have a 2 hour commute each way] start at $600k for a tiny ass old house that i would have to rip out the entire electrical of and redo to be able to live in. while i have the walls open i would probably find that the plumbing needs repairs, and that the roof needs redone.

NOBODY lives in those places.

Because it's too crowded!

rNightOwl2255: Everyone that purchased a home covered by an HOA did so willingly.

Not always. My folks got into a small and exclusive area and that group started a VERY minimal HOA for practical reasons, including negotiating power with the county, trsah and snow removal services, etc., and it was never used for anything but extraordinarily basic reasons, and never targeted at the homeowners.
Fast forward 20 years values go up, and a few original owners sell. At that point investors building speculative McMansions on the couple undeveloped lots, bank reps holding a couple of foreclosed homes, and a couple power-hungry douchebags that moved in all had just enough power to vote themselves in as dictators for life.
Now the place resembles the HOA in the article all of a sudden, and an owner lost a lot of money when buyers were forced to back out as the HOA was throwing up roadblocks to them moving in (not buying it, just moving in). All we can figure out that separated them from any other buyer was that they were Mormons and our pocket gods in the HOA are fundy Christians. That was never mentioned of course, but they had more and more hoops to jump through appearing almost as fast as they found solutions to the last ones. For at least a year.. God help us if an ethnic family tries to move in.
I am expecting the original residents to start being targeted soon. Rules pertaining to 'everybody' but clearly aimed at specific individuals have already been getting floated out there.

Oh please let it happen to the people that bought the home behind me. God I hate those noisy asshats. This is what my dues should go to.

Smeggy Smurf: It's nothing a few feet of chain, a couple gallons of gasoline and a match can't solve.

/it's like C4 but with the option to roast hot dogs

Trust me, the amount of glue holding all the OSB and laminated beams together, you don't want to eat anything cooked over the flames of a home built in the last 20 years or so. You'd get diagnosed with cancer before the fire department showed up.

Dow Jones and the Temple of Doom: rebelyell2006: You did notice that I said "good houses", and you are right that there are houses without HOA restrictions, but those houses tend to be a little on the crappy side and thus not desirable. It's like choosing between buying an Oscar Meyer hotdog dipped in lead paint and rusted pipes and left in the hot sun for forty years, or buying a freshly-prepared Vienna sausage with buns and a two-year contract with the restaurant.

Are you trolling me? You're literally saying, "The only good homes are in HOA's, but HOA's require good homes so they suck!" I don't get what your point is.

I understand that houses outside of HOA's suck, but guess what, that's because there isn't some retired busybody coming by every day with a ruler to measure the length of the grass and the height of the shed. As adults, we have to make preferential choices and compromises. I personally don't want to live in a subdivision where every house is required to have the same kind of mailbox, so guess what, I live in an area that doesn't. And not only that, some of my neighbors might not take care of their property in a fashion that I would prefer. But that's ok, because I don't want to live in a farking HOA.

Seriously, your line of argument is basically, "I want to live in an HOA, but one in which I make all the rules!" Good luck with that.

There's absolutely nothing wrong (physically) with the good houses, they unfortunately have the HOA worked into the contract for purchasing the house. Which doesn't mean the houses are bad, just the HOA's. There is a clear distinction that you must understand.

"I understand that houses outside of HOA's suck, but guess what, that's because there isn't some retired busybody coming by every day with a ruler to measure the length of the grass and the height of the shed. "

Houses outside of HOA's suck because they are the old ones without updated plumbing and electricity (at least in Northwest Georgia). The ones that have to be gutted if one has no problem with lead paint or 40-year-old pipes and wiring. I don't care about my neighbors or what they do.

Even more evidence why HOAs need to either be severely reigned in or preferably be banned.

Kazan: actually a number of my coworkers like those places around here.. "because there are things to do!!!"

Ewww, you mean socialize and talk to people?

Why do that when you have an HOA-protected enclave with cable TV and an Xbox.

Honest Bender: CliChe Guevara: rNightOwl2255: Everyone that purchased a home covered by an HOA did so willingly.

Not always.

Nowhere in your tl;dr rant did you explain how your folks were forced into the HOA.

Then you didn't read it. They didn't get forced in to just any old HOA, they got forced into a truly EVIL one, almost 20 years after they bought the house.

It is treu they were in a different HOA, one that they didn't just join it, they helped found it. A sane one. The fact the original one eventually got voted out by a block of outsiders and the HOA turned into a monstrosity nearing that in the article shows the danger of HOA's. Neighborhoods can go HOA around you against your wishes, or a benign one can turn malevolent, and all you can do is sell - if the HOA even chooses to let you.

I printed out this entire thread just to burn in effigy in my trash barrel out back.

If you give a complete moron with no life an unearned position of authority, they will exercise it poorly? Whoa.

Moved to FL a few years ago. every house we've lived in has had an HOA attached to it. First one had issues with maintaining the yard since it was a huge lot and problems with the owner (when we left we cleaned up the house but it wasn't good enough and owner wanted it as if no one had lived there. ever.) second house we didn't even live six months in because the arsehole HOA voted for no more renters. The owner and Century 21 said we could break the lease to move since we were spending time now to find a new place. Third place we've been in nearly 4 years now HOA is barely even noticeable (old-vacation home and we pay those guys who run the place) except for when we park on the street.....like everyone else does. HOA's are still dingbats and as someone said, we didn't even know about the HOA until we got a letter telling us to not park on the street.

/do it anyway
//five people working at all different hours, varying day-to-day

Kazan: everything has HoAs now

If you're idea of "everything" is restricted to lame-ass ticky-tacky white-bread cheap-construction soul-less subdivisions, then I see your point.

Most Americans do not live under an HOA.

AccuJack: Sudo_Make_Me_A_Sandwich:

But because it's a government commission, they're accountable to your rights in a way that HOAs just aren't. They can't stop you from exercising your freedom of speech, for example, and because it's a government commission, the courts give them much less leeway.

So very much this. I have experience with that in a non HOA situation. The biggest problem I have with my city government is that the pseudo-court administrative system allows them to bypass accountability. They've made it very hard to exercise eg. the right to an airing of grievances in court because they claim their "administrative hearings" ARE "courts". Except they're "informal" and don't follow things like rules of evidence or right to an appeal.

An HOA is like a child's model of a government without all the critical things like rights and due process.

You live in Quartzsite AZ?

mauricecano: As long as you haven't broken a law, the police can't do anything.

...Uhm, have you seen the news lately?

Hell, arresting lawful residents to protect their friends on HOA boards is probably small potatoes to Florida cops...

I really appreciate these threads. When ever I get bored living in the middle of nowhere, this reminds me that things aren't exactly peaches in cream in town either.

That's what HOAs do. Why is anyone surprised?