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Post by KikiPea on May 24, 2022 23:37:19 GMT
HOA’s are fairly normal in at least my area of TX, but we haven’t looked for a house in 8 years, so it could have changed, but I doubt it.
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Peal
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,524
Jun 25, 2014 22:45:40 GMT
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Post by Peal on May 24, 2022 23:41:48 GMT
The only place we have lived where all the homes we looked at were in HOAs was Colorado Springs. So we did live in an HOA then, but as HOAs go, this one was fairly laid back.
We live rural now and it's the opposite of HOAs. Anything goes with property maintenance (or lack of maintenance as the case may be) However, as more and more planned communities go up in this state, the less options there are for a non-HOA neighborhood.
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seaexplore
Prolific Pea
Posts: 8,798
Apr 25, 2015 23:57:30 GMT
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Post by seaexplore on May 24, 2022 23:47:11 GMT
I’m in an old subdivision in CA but it’s on a golf course ( I don’t live on the course but in the subdivision) and we have a cheap HOA that is under $300/year. We have had a fine sitting on our account for 11 years now because our trash cans were in view and I went to a hearing and it was supposedly dismissed but yet the fee still is on our account. I’m not paying it, they’re not removing it. I try every once in a while to get it fixed and submit everything for it to show it should be removed but yet they don’t remove it so it sits there. No added fees, just a monthly bill. I told DH we should be saving all the stamps that are on the bills they mail and send them back when it’s equal to our $300 we owe. I might be a bit stubborn. We do pay our yearly fee. Basically there are no amenities but it prevents junk cars and trashed yards. Not really worth it IMO. We have a neighboring subdivision, the largest in CA, that has optional dues you can pay which gets you the use of tennis courts and clubhouse and pool. It’s like $200/year. Neither subdivision has sidewalks nor lighting nor landscaping included so it’s basically roads that are covered. Another neighboring subdivision has sidewalks, gated entry, pool (that is closed down), clubhouse, lighting, yard maintained and I think they pay around $400/mo. Then there are various apartment type subdivisions with a few residences that have HOA’s for roads and that’s it. Ha! I remember that trash can fiasco! We live in a neighborhood that used to have an HOA, but it is now debunked. Our old neighborhood was like that too. Our city has laws about some of the things an HOA enforces and they do follow through with the vehicle issues. It’s ongoing 😂 I got a text the other day that I could contact them with any issues with our account. I texted back, “there is a $300 fine that should have been removed 11 years ago.” Haven’t heard back. Not holding my breath.😂
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Post by allison1954 on May 25, 2022 0:18:00 GMT
Southeast FL here, about an hour north of Ft Lauderdale and 11 miles in from the coast. When we bought a home, we wanted one no more than 10-12 years old. They are really all in HOAs in that age range in our area. We pay 300 a month ( went up at beginning of year.)It includes trash and sewer, cable and internet. Also all landscaping in common areas and Holiday decorations.Also 24 hour manned gate.Our development has a clubhouse ,with gym, pool, hot tub,putting green, playground, and 4 tennis courts. Most weeks they have a food truck come in, everything from Chik fil A to Tacos etc. We have stocked lakelets- Like ponds- to fish in if we choose ) They have Halloween trunk or treats, Photos with Santa, Easter Egg hunt, etc through the year We got the rules before we bought. They are fair, we think and keep things looking great.
WE are having a new roof put on ( tiles $$$$) We are required to put a deposit down and you get it back as soon as the work is done and inspected.We like that They make sure all work done is permitted and inspected. While the city has codes, they can't be everywhere and it keeps half ass , uninspected work ( cut corners ) out. It helps preserve my home values by making sure things stay up to code.
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Post by ntsf on May 25, 2022 0:21:48 GMT
since I live in a 100 yr old house in the city.. no hoa. we do have a condo with hoa. they are having a hard time getting people to be on the board. it is mostly ok. my dad owned the condo for 30 yrs.. so I know most of what is going on.
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Post by powderhorngreen on May 25, 2022 0:26:01 GMT
In NC, state law requires an HOA is a certain number of homes are built by a developer (I think it is 6). So, avoiding an HOA is not easy here - unless you are out in the country.
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Post by chaosisapony on May 25, 2022 1:54:05 GMT
HOAs are not super common in most of the towns near me. I used to live in a condo, thus HOA. Ours wasn't terrible but it wasn't great either. $275/month paid for water, garbage, landscaping, pest control and insurance plus reserves for big maintenance projects like repaving the parking lot and reroofing. Only 4 people attended our quarterly meetings so the board got really excited anytime an owner showed up and they were very good about listening to the owner's concerns and usually did whatever was requested.
Another condo complex I looked into had a similar relaxed HOA but they had it written into the HOA by laws that only a certain percentage of the units could be rentals and the rest had to be owner occupied. I liked that provision a lot since at my previous complex there were a lot of issues with the units being bought by investors and rented out to people that you just really didn't want to share walls with.
So yeah I guess for me if I have a detached house I in no way, shape or form am interested in living with an HOA. But for shared walls I see the necessity and depending on the by laws I would consider it.
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Post by lucyg on May 25, 2022 2:09:56 GMT
I do live in a single-family home with an HOA. They’re not too awful, compared to what I’ve heard here and in the news about other HOAs, but can still get intrusive on occasion. Since they haven’t complained yet about the basketball hoop with a broken backboard in my yard, I’m feeling generous at the moment. That said, it’s unusual here to have an HOA for SF homes. The reason we do is the whole neighborhood was built as a sub-development, and our little courts are private roads, so the HOA, not the city, maintains the landscaping and road surfaces in the common areas. And yes, this is California and the HOA is treated like the word of God. Do NOT try to defy them or skip out on paying.
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Post by mellyw on May 25, 2022 2:27:14 GMT
I live in an HOA neighborhood, but it’s only $25 a month. That pays for the common areas to be mowed, and considering my house backs up to the large common area, im happy to pay it
Doesn’t seem to be intrusive in any way, no one freaks out if your garbage cans aren’t taken in first thing in the morning, or your garage door is up while working in it. Both of which are apparently against covenants
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Post by bc2ca on May 25, 2022 3:16:53 GMT
I think most, if not all, new developments around here have HOA. Our first home here was in an HOA and we happily passed all notices to the landlord. There was a warning letter about a mattress visible from the street and an oil spot on the driveway the first week we moved in. The mattress was in the side yard, leaning against the house while the previous tenant moved out, at the moment someone on the rules committee went by I guess. Our neighborhood does not have an HOA, but we do pay a property tax surcharge for the city to do some landscaping maintenance. We also have a CCR (Convenants, Conditions and Restrictions) which is essentially the rules that an HOA would put in place, but there is not (was never?) a board established to run it. I read them when we were in escrow and laughed at the rule vehicles must be kept in garages and not left in driveways or the street overnight.
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Post by bc2ca on May 25, 2022 3:37:50 GMT
I have never understood this. We have a town and the next town and so on....each has a school system, police and fire etc.. there is no 'outside city limits' There are no unincorporated areas where you live? We are about 1/2 mile within our city boundary on one side. The homes in the unincorporated area range from suburban developments to more rural properties and receive services from the County (who may contract with the city for things like garbage collection). The houses in unincorporated areas have the nearest city as their address and fall into the nearest school boundaries. There are lots of unincorporated areas here in San Diego County. The same applied to the area we lived in Seattle. Lots of areas of Kirkland, Redmond and other Eastside cities still have many pockets that were unincorporated when we lived there. As you were driving through, there was no transition so most people didn't know they'd technically left the city.
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Post by bigbundt on May 25, 2022 11:56:37 GMT
It is so stupid too because you can always ask for the covenants and read through them *before* you make an offer. There are a few neighborhoods we will not buy into because we don't agree with the restrictions. There are plenty of neighborhoods with less stringent HOAs. I agree in theory, although I know that in some cases issues seem to arise later, if HOA rules/regulations change. But I think this is where we often see situations get out of hand, because people get upset either, just as you said, that someone is complaining about rules they knew about ahead of time; or in cases where people feel like they bought into one HOA and then wound up with a different one due to changes. And either one of those scenarios is bound to strike people as unfair, which tends to be when people dig their heels in and start refusing to cooperate--whether that be the homeowner, the HOA, or both. I agree with you but for every one of those stories, there's ten of very avoidable situations. For example, I browse FB marketplace and it is pretty common to see someone selling a shed saying nothing is wrong with it, their HOA said it wasn't allowed so it has to go. Whether or not your HOA allows sheds is one of the easiest things to determine (I know that because it is something we allows look for). Some people truly don't read covenants, even when they buy a house. They just do whatever and then complain when they are told it isn't allowed as if there isn't a legal document laying out exactly what the restrictions are in the neighborhood.
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Post by Sharon on May 25, 2022 12:29:28 GMT
I haven't seen a new housing addition around here that doesn't have a required HOA. We purposely bought an older home so we didn't have a required. Our last home we had built and it had a required HOA. NEVER again.
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Dalai Mama
Drama Llama
La Pea Boheme
Posts: 6,985
Jun 26, 2014 0:31:31 GMT
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Post by Dalai Mama on May 25, 2022 12:34:37 GMT
I live in a borough of Toronto that's been around for over 200 years. Young by European standards, but still, no.
I will add that, when we were originally house hunting, an HOA was an automatic 'no'.
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Post by auntkelly on May 25, 2022 12:48:15 GMT
We live in a bedroom community suburb, and all but a few of the oldest neighborhoods are in additions where there is an HOA. We have no complaints about our HOA. They keep the landscaping looking beautiful, maintain the neighborhood pool and deal w/ traffic issues. We have no complaints about our HOA.
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Post by epeanymous on May 25, 2022 12:52:41 GMT
When I bought my first house (in South Carolina), I noticed that the paperwork included an HOA, and didn’t want to live in an HOA neighborhood. One of my soon-to-be neighbors, who was also a colleague and lawyer, assured us that there was no actual HOA; the houses were at that point about twenty years old, and the area was meant to have an HOA, but never constituted one.
About four years later, one of my neighbors decided to build a second-story addition on his home; it was going to block the view of another neighbor. That neighbor constituted the HOA, and we ended up with huge neighborhood battles over a variety of things.
Anyhow, that was weird! I don’t think HOAs are common in Seattle, where I live now; I have looked at a lot of houses and have never seen one mentioned.
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Post by bigbundt on May 25, 2022 13:27:45 GMT
I wouldn't say it is impossible in my area but you're either going to have to shell out A LOT of money or be okay with a much older home that is very small that probably needs top to bottom renovations. Plus it will probably end up in an area outside city limits with little to no zoning so you may very well end up with some neighbors who are not as conscientious about keeping up their home or someone would plop a trailer park next door to you or have a literal scrap yard full of junk. Not to mention we have kids and in order to stay within zoning of the schools we prefer, most of the houses on the market are going to be in HOAs. If we didn't have kids, it would be much easier to find something not in an HOA because our search area would be greatly increased. My husband needs a certain level of internet for his job and it isn't always available in the more outlying areas where this non-HOA houses are. So some people may find it easy to find something in my area without an HOA but us with our requirements, it is very hard. Wow, that's very interesting. For me, especially the idea of being somewhat forced into an HOA neighborhood in order to have your top choice of schools. Not really. I guess we have more non-HOA properties available than I am alluding to but they would not be in an area or have the type of houses we would consider. The area zoned for the schools we prefer are very heavy on HOAs because the area is more built up from developers than people buying lots and building their own house. Those do exist as well but they are very expensive compared to developments. Our school zonings are pretty evenly distributed between higher priced neighborhoods and lower income ones. When you look at the zoning map you can very easily see that they scoop around certain higher priced neighborhoods to distribute them so they aren't all going to the same school. My in laws actually live half a mile from one of the high schools but they got scooped in with the expensive neighborhood behind them so they are zoned for another high school ten miles up the road.
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Post by crimsoncat05 on May 25, 2022 13:36:26 GMT
But it made me immediately think "Really? It's hard to find homes not part of an HOA??"we do not now, but in one of the towns we lived in south of Phoenix, that was absolutely true. The town had experienced rapid hyper-growth during the real estate boom, and every new subdivision was a master-planned community that had an HOA. And each HOA had varying-- sometimes wildly differing-- rules and costs. In the Phx suburbs in general, most of the newer subdivisions probably have HOAs. The next home we lived in technically did have an HOA and CC&Rs -- 'left over' from when the subdivision was built in the 1980s. Although the rules weren't really enforced any longer by the time we bought our house. But they probably still could have been, if one of the homeowners in the neighborhood had wanted to be a stickler about it and revive the HOA board.
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Post by worldwanderer75 on May 25, 2022 15:33:18 GMT
In TX we didn't look at a single home without an HOA.
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Post by melanell on May 25, 2022 17:26:09 GMT
I wouldn't say it is impossible in my area but you're either going to have to shell out A LOT of money or be okay with a much older home that is very small that probably needs top to bottom renovations. Plus it will probably end up in an area outside city limits with little to no zoning so you may very well end up with some neighbors who are not as conscientious about keeping up their home or someone would plop a trailer park next door to you or have a literal scrap yard full of junk. Not to mention we have kids and in order to stay within zoning of the schools we prefer, most of the houses on the market are going to be in HOAs. If we didn't have kids, it would be much easier to find something not in an HOA because our search area would be greatly increased. My husband needs a certain level of internet for his job and it isn't always available in the more outlying areas where this non-HOA houses are. So some people may find it easy to find something in my area without an HOA but us with our requirements, it is very hard. Bold mine!! I have never understood this. We have a town and the next town and so on....each has a school system, police and fire etc.. there is no 'outside city limits' It's different where I live. The school district includes several towns/townships, some of which are suburban while others are rural. However, out of several towns/townships, there are only a few post office locations and a few zip codes. Also, only some have their own fire departments or police departments, while others are covered by surrounding FD or PD. And the rural areas do not have the same zoning or property regulations that the the suburban towns have. So within the town proper, so to speak, you can't have unused vehicles sitting about, for example, but if you opt to go buy 10 acres in the country you may very well wind up with someone moving in across the street who decides to basically turn their "front yard" into a junk yard. So, yes, they have their own borders and name, but they are still outside the typical town zoning/regulation limits.
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Post by melanell on May 25, 2022 17:29:05 GMT
In NC, state law requires an HOA is a certain number of homes are built by a developer (I think it is 6). So, avoiding an HOA is not easy here - unless you are out in the country. Wow, that's interesting---I had no idea.
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Post by melanell on May 25, 2022 17:34:28 GMT
Thanks for all of the replies. It's fascinating how different things are from one area to another. So many of the things mentioned here that make people happy to have an HOA are things our town takes care of, so that's likely why developers don't bother in most cases. (Condos & townhouses not included, of course, since someone has to manage the care of shared spaces.) And I obviously don't live in an area where HOAs are in any way required by law.
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scrapngranny
Pearl Clutcher
Only slightly senile
Posts: 4,826
Jun 25, 2014 23:21:30 GMT
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Post by scrapngranny on May 25, 2022 17:55:59 GMT
We don’t live in a HOA community. It would drive my DH nuts. Probably not as much now as when the kids were all home. We are lucky to live on a court where every keeps up their yards. I wouldn’t mind it if my neighbors had to get rid of some of their 5 vehicles, one being a motor home they never use.
My DD lives in a gated community with a HOA. They don’t seem to mind the restrictions. There can’t be any cars parked on the street overnight. When I would spend the night with the kids were little, it was a pain to get all the cars in the driveway. Now that the kids are older, and I don’t spend the night, it’s not a problem. Both kids are getting close to driving, then I don’t know where they will stack up all the cars.
There are good and bad points of having a HOA. I’m comfortable with our court, change isn’t always good.
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Post by jenb72 on May 25, 2022 17:57:04 GMT
I live in GA, in a subdivision that does NOT have an HOA, although, yes, in my area (a suburb of Atlanta), that's rare. We specifically moved into this subdivision because it doesn't have an HOA, because both DH and I have lived in places that do and it's just not worth the hassle in most cases. I've lived here most of my life, in various towns/homes, and in my experience, you can still find property around GA that isn't under the jurisdiction of an HOA, but it will be in the more rural areas and usually not part of a subdivision in a suburb. And to your other point, yes, the county we live in is where people would go with a complaint if someone isn't keeping up their property, but they're ordinances aren't nearly as nit-picky as I've seen with most HOAs.
Jen
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Gem Girl
Pearl Clutcher
......
Posts: 2,682
Jun 29, 2014 19:29:52 GMT
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Post by Gem Girl on May 25, 2022 18:31:44 GMT
Community has an HOA; it's comprised of single-family homes and 2 types of townhouses. When we went to closing, one of the docs we had to sign stated that we had read and agreed to the HOA bylaws (if that's what they're called?).
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Post by jennifercw on May 25, 2022 21:23:23 GMT
Before we bought our current house we lived in a subdivision with CCRs, but no HOA. Things were OK at first but after a while, not so much. Our decision to move was based on lots of different reasons but no HOA was definitely one of them. And with young kids (at the time) we knew we wanted a subdivision with a playground, pool etc. Those don't exist here without an HOA.
But, there are PLENTY of homes all around us with no HOA. Most of them are not in subdivisions but there are some older residential communities with no HOA.
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Post by Zee on May 25, 2022 22:17:45 GMT
Where I lived in IA and PA it was pretty easy to find a home not in an HOA.
In the GA suburbs around Atlanta, unless you're very rural, yes it is difficult to find a house not in an HOA unless it's an older fixer upper and not everyone has the time or resources for that.
When we moved from PA I wanted something nice but affordable and close enough for my husband to commute so that severely limited any non-HOA options.
I now live in an HOA subdivision though I swore I never would. They're not bad as HOAs go, though we did recently have an argument with them about parking (and they were wrong, so it's no longer an issue).
I wouldn't choose it if I had more choices.
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Post by birdy on May 25, 2022 22:27:15 GMT
Our development has an HOA but it's just for the pool... and its so weird! When the homes were originally built, the original owners had to decide if they wanted to opt in and be a part of the HOA (pool) or not. If you sell your home and the new owners want the opposite, you can't change it. Our home was originally owned by people who opted not to be in the HOA. We wanted to join so we could take the kids to the pool in the summer, but they wouldn't let us. They said it wouldn't be fair to let us join since everyone else had been members since 1971. The only way we would be considered was if we paid the fees all the way back to 1971 (we bought the house in 2006). I was only 1 in 1971. Our neighbor, a single man, has to pay the fees and he's never used the pool. Other than that, there are no HOA fees. The only ones I wish we had were to keep your yard tidy (a neighbor likes to go garbage picking for metal and lets it pile up about 3ft high and down the length of his driveway) and another neighbor has a dog that barks non stop when its outside (and they like to let it out multiple times a day for hours on end).
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Post by bigbundt on May 25, 2022 22:36:47 GMT
I just searched realtor.com and chose "No HOA" on the search. Went from 349 home to 33. That shows you how limiting it is to find a house with no true HOA in my area.
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scrappinwithoutpeas
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,998
Location: Northern Virginia
Aug 7, 2014 22:09:44 GMT
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Post by scrappinwithoutpeas on May 25, 2022 22:54:24 GMT
I live in an older subdivision (built in the 60s) in the same county mentioned by elaine in Northern Virginia. We have no HOA, and most of the (also older) subdivisions directly surrounding ours have no HOA either. However, in most of our county, anything built after the 80s (maybe even 70s?) has an HOA. (It's a large county.)
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