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[JGS]

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Then again, a lot of you and people I know have had wonderful experiences with HOA's that make it worthwhile for them. I suppose I'll never get that sour taste out of my mouth though.

Your experience is different than what I was quoting as I'm not getting into details. I was referring to a retirement community.

A retirement community specifically excludes kids and those young partyhoppers. It's for old people. It's no different than apartment communities that taylor to single or married people with no kids.

Forget the HOA for a sec. If you bring your grandkid in because your kid is a screw up, of what concern is that to the residents of that community if they paid a little extra to get away from a bunch of germ infested rugrats.

It's a myth HOA are a bunch of stereotypical whatevers. They are either made up of the residents themselves or they are hired by the residents to do their bidding.

I am indifferent to HOA as long as they aren't charging me too much. I could just as easily live in a neighborhood that does not have one although life would be tougher since I would have an unplowed road which is really all this boils down to.

 

[dc`]

...leave their trashcans out on the street for a week.

Oh the humanity.

 

[Jayge]

Does your city or town not plow your fucking roads? Seriously? This shit is ridiculous. You don't need a bloody (allow the stealing of the expression, UKGAF) HOA shoved up your ass to have a rec center, live near a park or plow your street. What the hell is this shit? Are there parts of the country where you have to hire private plowing services? We pay a dude to plow our driveway occasionally but my god that sounds ludicrous :lol

 

[Salazar]

These are scenes from a Tom Perrotta novel. America can do better.

 

[Fei]

We moved into our house last year, and our only concern was the HOA. As it turns out, the people in the neighborhood are nice as can be, and as long as you don't let your property look like shit you'll never hear from them.

I can understand the point of them. My father lives in a nice neighborhood without any issues, but my mom lives in a more rundown place where you would wish they had an HOA to keep some people in check.

I definitely think there's correlation between clean-looking neighborhoods and the safety and value of it. The HOA should put your neighborhood in a position to maintain both. Not that it's needed, but it doesn't hurt either.

 

[SmZA]

Where's local government? This all sounds like a Libertarian fucktard's dream. 'Voluntary' community associations (which aren't actually all that voluntary) that do the job of local government half as well and with none of the accountability. At least I get to vote for my local council and there are limits on their power.

 

[Ignatz Mouse]

The greater good. The greater good.

Look, I wasn't saying HOAs are all bad, I only took issue with the idea that you need one or else live in a "shithole" That's what a couple people are saying-- that it's a binary choice between an HOA and living in a scummy place. So, so, so false.

 

[JGS]

Does your city or town not plow your fucking roads? Seriously? This shit is ridiculous. You don't need a bloody (allow the stealing of the expression, UKGAF) HOA shoved up your ass to have a rec center, live near a park or plow your street. What the hell is this shit? Are there parts of the country where you have to hire private plowing services? We pay a dude to plow our driveway occasionally but my god that sounds ludicrous :lol

It's silly, but no, the city is responsible for main roads only, the subdivisions are responsible for their own.

However, private contractors are better than government ones anyway. When I go to work, the roads in the neighborhood are clearer than the public roads because they are getting paid a hefty sum to make sure those roads are clean.

I've already mentioned the other benefits, so I won't get into those again, but that's the one I benefit from the most.

 

[numble]

Does your city or town not plow your fucking roads? Seriously? This shit is ridiculous. You don't need a bloody (allow the stealing of the expression, UKGAF) HOA shoved up your ass to have a rec center, live near a park or plow your street. What the hell is this shit? Are there parts of the country where you have to hire private plowing services? We pay a dude to plow our driveway occasionally but my god that sounds ludicrous :lol

Not knowing too much about HOA outside of the property law stuff, it probably is a better solution to the suburban sprawl out west to require people who want to build entire communities on places that used to be vacant land, to pay for all the new amenities themselves. Of course the fire department, schools, and extra police will need to be paid for by the city, but often cities don't budget for an entire new community of streets and homes, and the low property taxes often don't cover the expenses. Of course the best solution to suburban sprawl is densification and urbanization, but that's a different issue...

 

[Kentpaul]

Use of the term "slum" aside, a homeowner shouldn't be allowed to turn their front yard into an unsightly pile of shit, ruining the aesthetic of the neighborhood for everyone else and lowering property value.

Lowering property value, do you guys move house every 2 years or something
i for one could not have every single part of my life under rules, Seem like the people in this thread have grew up a sheilded life. I will put my trash can in the street if i please

 

[thetechkid]

Lowering property value, do you guys move house every 2 years or something
i for one could not have every single part of my life under rules, Seem like the people in this thread have grew up a sheilded life. I will put my trash can in the street if i please

Thinking like that turns homes into Slums , people NEED to be told to be uniformed and the toys of little kids will only serve to drive property values into the ground, and ruin governments.

Spoiler

/s

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

nvm

 

[speculawyer]

I have always refused to buy a house that is subject to any HOA. Too many little dictators.

Ironically, many of these people also support the teabaggers.

 

[JGS]

Lowering property value, do you guys move house every 2 years or something
i for one could not have every single part of my life under rules, Seem like the people in this thread have grew up a shielded life. I will put my trash can in the street if i please

:lol
This thread is providing some eye opening commentary. Now HOA's rule every inch of one's life!

Property values are the most basic way of showing supply/demand in a neighborhood. The property value doesn't have much to do with HOA's, but someone is moving out of a neighborhood all the time. One house selling at a lower price does indeed affect other home prices when they decide to move.

A trash can won't do it (which is usually governed by local ordinances not HOA's), but trash in the front yard will certainly dissuade buyers to an an otherwise perfect home next door. I wouldn't buy it for a dozen reasons...unless it was a deal too good to pass up. This takes us back to the property values

Being a greedy banker during the mortgage crisis showed me that home values go down in a very short period of time and inch up slowly if at all for years. Adding to the value problem would be bad, sloppy neighbors.

Look, I wasn't saying HOAs are all bad, I only took issue with the idea that you need one or else live in a "shithole" That's what a couple people are saying-- that it's a binary choice between an HOA and living in a scummy place. So, so, so false.

I agree with this and have lived in both settings.

However, many on this thread seem to be thinking there's a binary choice of not living in an HOA and giving up your freedom when we are simply talking about taking care of your outside property- the part that affects other peoples lives whether you care or not. As I've stated, I would be concerned if I lived next to bad neighbor with or without an HOA.

The more they think people who live in neighborhoods with them are imprisoned lemmings content in our prisons of conformity, it becomes clearer they are taking EVERYTHING they know about HOA's from a link that is meant to be of outrageous exceptions in the first place.

 

[bill0527]

Does your city or town not plow your fucking roads? Seriously? This shit is ridiculous. You don't need a bloody (allow the stealing of the expression, UKGAF) HOA shoved up your ass to have a rec center, live near a park or plow your street. What the hell is this shit? Are there parts of the country where you have to hire private plowing services? We pay a dude to plow our driveway occasionally but my god that sounds ludicrous :lol

Now here's someone who's never had to deal with wanting some type of service from local government.

By the time the city gets around to plowing my subdivision.. IF they can even be bothered to come around, it'll be time to get the pool ready for summer.

You really can't depend on city or county governments to do much of anything in a timely manner. As an example, we have a lake in our subdivision. There is massive erosion going on around the lake because they built a subdivision on the back side of ours a couple of years ago and the zoning board allowed them to use our lake as their water-run off drainage ditch. This means that there is too much water going into that lake, it fills up quickly, sometimes runs over the road and is causing the banks of the lake to erode at a pretty alarming rate. This wouldn't be a problem, except that we have a road that runs right beside that lake. The bank of the lake has now eroded to where it is only 3 feet from the road at its worst point. Guess what happens when that erosion gets to the road... the whole damn road is going to fall off into the lake.

The county government will not do a damn thing about it, until the road falls off into the lake. They won't do any type of preventative maintenance. They don't do things until a there's an actual problem. Our (HOA) solution is that we are going to spend $6000 to buy large granite rocks and shore up that whole side of the lake. This will stop the erosion. The county's solution: Wait until the damn road falls into the lake and then spend $100,000 of taxpayer money to move the lake where its supposed to be, shore up the erosion, and then build us a new road.

 

[Jayge]

Now here's someone who's never had to deal with wanting some type of service from local government.

By the time the city gets around to plowing my subdivision.. IF they can even be bothered to come around, it'll be time to get the pool ready for summer.

You really can't depend on city or county governments to do much of anything in a timely manner. As an example, we have a lake in our subdivision. There is massive erosion going on around the lake because they built a subdivision on the back side of ours a couple of years ago and the zoning board allowed them to use our lake as their water-run off drainage ditch. This means that there is too much water going into that lake, it fills up quickly, sometimes runs over the road and is causing the banks of the lake to erode at a pretty alarming rate. This wouldn't be a problem, except that we have a road that runs right beside that lake. The bank of the lake has now eroded to where it is only 3 feet from the road at its worst point. Guess what happens when that erosion gets to the road... the whole damn road is going to fall off into the lake.

The county government will not do a damn thing about it, until the road falls off into the lake. They won't do any type of preventative maintenance. They don't do things until a there's an actual problem. Our (HOA) solution is that we are going to spend $6000 to buy large granite rocks and shore up that whole side of the lake. This will stop the erosion. The county's solution: Wait until the damn road falls into the lake and then spend $100,000 of taxpayer money to move the lake where its supposed to be, shore up the erosion, and then build us a new road.

That sounds terrible. We have private trash collectors contracted through the town but otherwise they handle most of the maintenance without us and they handle the upkeep really well, although property taxes are pretty high. This sounds like some seriously (obviously) mismanaged bullshit that's going down.

 

[GoutPatrol]

By the time the city gets around to plowing my subdivision.. IF they can even be bothered to come around, it'll be time to get the pool ready for summer.

Where the fuck do you live?

 

[Jayge]

Where the fuck do you live?

Evansville, Illinois apparently.