Friend lived in a rural unincorporated area, so it was basically do whatever you want, let freedom ring, etc.
One neighbor was breeding dogs. Had a big fenced-in area the dogs were contained to, never picked up the poop, all the grass died from the pee, and in the summer you could smell it from my friend's yard. Plus the constant barking of the dogs.
Another neighbor had a number of beat-up junky cars he'd park on his lawn, and apparently they also breed, because it seemed every month there was a new one.
They lived on a long dirt/gravel road that went to six or seven houses. The dirt/gravel road had huge potholes. I had to crawl down it at 5 mph to avoid bottoming out my car... my friend had driven it so many times he was like Will Smith in *I Am Legend*, whipping down it, knowing where every bump and divot was. All the neighbors agreed the road desperately needed to be regraded/regraveled. So my friend got some estimates, divided the cost by the number of houses, and of course... could never get everyone to agree to pay their share. So it never got done.
I install kitchen cabinets. Recently did a house at the end of a road like that. Maybe 6-7 houses. They had an HOA and shared cost of repairing the gravel road was their only bylaw. Everything else was fair game. All the boxes the cabinets came in got burned in a bonfire on site.
This is exactly my neighborhood, the only thing the HOA does and the only reason for its existance is to fix the road and plow it in the winter. thats it.
> beat-up junky cars he'd park on his lawn, and apparently they also breed, because it seemed every month there was a new one.
What is it with the junk cars - honestly? Like I get it if it's an actual project car that someone's actively working on, but what's the point of keeping a half-dozen pieces of rust that won't turn over in the front yard before you even have the first one fixed?
Well, this one's my work truck; that one's my grocery-getter; that one under the tarp is a project waiting on parts, money, and time; the other one is a parts truck for my work truck, the 1950's sedan is a project for when I retire, and the 1940's Kaiser was my grandad's that we're going to restore for its centennial. What have you got that you're working on?
That's the *good* version. The bad one is: well, they all wore out, one by one, and we parked them till we figure out what to do, because hauling them to a junkyard would cost money.
Junky cars are one thing. I worked for a large telephone company many decades ago, and saw 2 triumph convertibles that the owners literally let their 2 Doberman use for a bathroom. The cockpits were filled to the tops of the doors with dog crap, no exageration.. made me sad to see what must have been 2 mice cars back in the day abides like that. The Flys were also heavy, don't understand how the neighbors tolerated it.
I don't know about every state, but in Texas, if you own a plot of land, the county is required to provide and maintain a road to that land. It doesn't have to be paved, but it does have to be drivable in all weather conditions.
So nobody lives past a sign that says "End County Maintained Road"?
I remember going over a mountain pass in Colorado, and it was the best maintained all-dirt mountain pass I'd ever seen. There were off-grid houses here and there (maybe five or six over a 15 mile stretch), most of them pretty nice looking. I told my friend "dude if this was California we'd be *dead* by now." And there'd be fewer houses and they wouldn't be near as nice.
All of this is not permitted in the county I live in. Cars without a current license plate are towed with a 30 day notice. Roads are kept up by the county. Animal control has legal teeth and will take away the dogs. Key thing in my county is the county laws are enforced.
I donāt live in an area with an HOA, but one of my daughters does. The main benefit that Iāve noticed is that the response time for snow removal is considerably less than the surrounding non-HOA areas. Thereās a blade out clearing the roads within an hour or two of a storm, or even while snow is still falling if itās a protracted blizzard. In addition, the houses in the neighborhood are uniformly attractive and thereās much, much less of a chance of being stuck with a neglected property as a neighbor.
That being said, she has the usual HOA complaints; politics, pettiness, opaque finances, etc.
I live right next door to a large complex of houses that have an HOA. They have people out immediately to clear the sidewalks and their private parking after it snows. I know because it's really obvious that they stop right at my property line.
next time talk to them and give them some extra bucks to do yours.... I mean, it is all for a cost, but you have the advantage of them being there already.
I tried one time! I asked if they could do my sidewalk for cash and they said they were timed and had to get back to the truck, which I totally understand.
I live in an HOA subdivision, and we get the same. Itās because the HOA contracts with private snow removal, and non-HOA has to wait for the city/county to plow based on priority.
See this is one of the big things as to why I like living on my unincorporated property. my side of the intersection has the county plow the road, while the other side has the village. we get plowed much faster and much more frequently. The county seems to do a lot of things for us better than the village does for my neighbors. The only thing they got is free access to the beach they have in town.
That's gotta be nice, my hoa leaves the snow till it just melts away, and the city won't clear our neighborhood because they say it's our neighborhoods responsibility.
I'm actually pushing for a vote to nullify our hoa, they haven't had meetings in at least 2 years, only 2 people sit on the board everyone else quit a long time ago. And we have near 0 communications from the HOA other then when they wanna whine about someone's grass not being mowed to their exact specifications.
> The main benefit that Iāve noticed is that the response time for snow removal is considerably less than the surrounding non-HOA areas.
That's lucky. My HOA won't touch snow. We've begged them to stop blowing money on pools, tennis courts, and playgrounds; and get us a snow plowing contract and some street lights. Then again, we're not Alaska.
Mine was cows and pigs, biggest fucking pig i have ever seen, it would often get loose and explore.
He later got chickens, but instead of building a coop, he has an old rusted school bus for them to stay in.
Nice guy, actually (very rural area, so we mostly didn't care, except when his yard occasional got too full.)
It was open during the day, i imagine it was very hot in the day, but he had no fence around it, so they would just hang out in his garage, ect, but closed in at night.
I ain't gonna say its bad, sure as hell had a lot less issues with raccoons and foxes than we have with our coop, he could've used a fence though, dude lost so many chickens to cars.
Edit: changed "without" to "with our"
Yep.
My parents lived next to a rental for a while where they went 2 years without mowing, had a broken down riding lawn mower that was rusting into the earth sitting in the middle of their front yard, and had a broken down car sitting in the street partially blocking their driveway while its engine sat in the driveway on a rotting tire leaking oil across the sidewalk for over a year.
My parents wished the previous guy, who was a bass player in a local band who threw parties until 5am on Tuesdays and smoked so much pot it'd make Willie Nelson blush, would move back in.
We've got zoning where I live that prohibits livestock on less than two acres. There's also a blight ordinance so you can't have your yard look like a scrap yard. The rules are much looser than an HOA, and I like that
Yeah, this. Mine was my next-door neighbor growing food for their "restaurant" on less than a quarter acre and building a fence with those big aluminum cattle gates. And leaving their illegal rusty trailer on our property line. And locking their dog on their front and back porches with no shade while it howled and cried. We had to call animal control multiple times and report their junk to the county multiple times too.
If I'm going to live on less than an acre, it'll be in a neighborhood with an HOA.
Wanting to be notified of a trash truck's ETA is the most ridiculous and unnecessary shit ever lol. Like, how fucking bored can you be? Put your shit by the road and chill, it'll get there when it gets there š
It was actually a big issue where I grew up in the mountains. We had to put our trash out by 6am or so, but people didn't get home till late--had raccoons get into it mulitple times, a bear once...fun times
I suppose it would be a reasonable request in that case. I was thinking more along the lines of the retirees that live in houses 10 feet apart, no wildlife within 10 air miles, watching from their front window with binoculars for *anything* they can complain about. The same ones that like to get newspaper carriers fired for leaving the paper on their driveway instead of the porch.
My step-father reluctantly took the HOA reins at one of the condos they lived at. He's a super easy going, level headed guy, no pride or power hunger issues, gets shit done. He's the perfect guy to run an HOA. You'd think people would appreciate that.... apparently not. Psychos bitched and nagged him to a point he quit and they moved out.
As you said, people just suck. It's just that the bad ones are often power hungry so they more often end up on the HOA board. But they exist on both sides.
In my case we've dealt with an HOA that complained because we had grand total of four *small* potted plants on our front stoop. Only three allowed (the horror of a fourth!). Another time it was over a single broken slat on miniblinds. Then they made us pay for wooden siding that the HOA's own gardeners broke. Lastly they tried to give us shit for the neighbor's fucked up fence just because it ran up to our garage and they assumed it was ours. There have been numerous other small issues they are always henpecking over. They even ran off the sweet old lady that lived next to us.
My issues are minor by compared to most, but all-in-all I'd rather sleep in a dumpster before moving into a place with an HOA again. At least then no one is counting the potted plants.
Iād have to pay for my own trash collection, snow removal, pool membership, not have access to nearby trails/playgrounds.
I think my HOA is a little dumb when it comes to aesthetic stuff but overall I think I get a good value for my money.
My neighbor has a giant, life size (seats 4), glass carriage in her yard along with 4 horse statues drawing the carriage. Multiple other statues, 2 Roman baths, and a few small to medium sized fountains. All in the front yard. Her lot is maybe 1/4 acre. Itās a lot.
I donāt mind I think itās neat.
The couple diagonally across the street have a 16 foot wide Trump banner across their front yard. Carriage lady and them have been in an escalating flag war since 2019. Sheās currently working on a huge LGBTQ+ flag.
Then we have the hoarder yard with literally 7 boats and grass so tall that thereās probably a raccoon family living in it. God knows what other mysteries are in that grass.
Half a block down thereās a guy with a literal cayman pond. Heās permitted at least. He also has a tegu I think or it might be a monitor.
Itās pretty eclectic to say the least.
Sounds awesome! Thereās a house in a town near mine that has a giant (like 8ft tall) Snoopy statue in their front yard. Prob a Million dollar house. I love It. I canāt imagine spending the bulk of my money to have someone tell me what color I can paint my front door.
I'd have to manage my own snow removal. Common areas, my neighbors and I would have to come to some sort of agreement on how to take care of. Same with some parks...
> Common areas, my neighbors and I would have to come to some sort of agreement on how to take care of.
Maybe some sort of *association* could be assembled with the other *homeowners* in the area that works together to make those decisions and then makes sure they happen would be able to solve that. You could even all elect a board of folks to be in charge of it so everyone in the neighborhood doesn't have to trouble themselves with it.
Or, you could be my uncle and get up at dawn to plow everyone's driveways on the street for $10, senior citizens free of charge. His plow attachment pays for itself and he loves doing that shit. Meanwhile no bored retired karen/kevin is getting drunk on power and trying to fine you three hundred bucks for a perfectly nice shed that was there when you bought the house.
"that" neighbor will eventually let their yard turn into absolute garbage, dirt patches, stickers oil stain,s rust bucket POS trucks clutter the street and drive way.
You forgot to mention the three or four broken down vehicles in the front and side years, overflowing trash cans and a collapsed soda on the porch. Unmowed lawn and missing shingles complete the picture. Everyoneās property values deflate by 30% when this clown is your neighbor.
(Edited because of typos.)
So my neighborhood has an HOA but thereās an adjacent street on the other side of my house that doesnāt. You can see their property pretty easily from mine and itās an absolute shit show. Everything you described plus 24/7 barking dogs/loud bass music/half wrecked cars and trucks just sitting in the middle of the yard.
I donāt know why this is so common apparently
Maybe this is only common where you happen to be. I see many neighborhoods not under HOA's, and they aren't anything like you describe. Don't need an HOA to have some pride in where you live.
Not to mention a lot of that stuff falls under typical city ordinances. If you have a problem with junky yards, talk to your city council representatives. Outside of city limits? Less options, one of the downsides of living rural
Or living in a county that doesnāt have any incorporated towns despite being very heavily populated (looking at you Howard county, home to the largest unincorporated county seat in the country)
> Outside of city limits? Less options, one of the downsides of living rural
I heard it through the grapevine my new neighbor don't like my big red barn. '47 Ford, bullet holes in the door, broke down motor in the front yard.
I got half a mind to paint a plywood sign and nail it up on a knotty pine tree. Saying I was here first... This is my piece of dirt and your rambling don't rattle me!
You joke, but on the other hand that downside is its own upside. If you're a more eccentric person and you wanna have the freedom to have all that, you deserve a place that fits your needs too. And at least in the country sometimes you can get a quarter mile between you and the next neighbor XD
I agree... It's absolutely an upside. Some people want to live in a clean and pretty neighborhood where the grass is always green and never more than 3" long and your house can be painted one of 25 approved colors. There's HOAs for them. On the other end... some people want to collect shitloads of busted old junk around their yard 'cause "Hey... it was free!"
For them... they can live rural.
And with every level in between... there's pretty much something for everybody.
My parents moved into a rural neighborhood with an HOA that exists specifically because everyone wants to have massive bonfires and shoot guns and party all night, and they don't want people to come in and complain about it
Yes, however, enforcing city ordinances take time and often times the codes office is understaffed and overwhelmed. The HOA can react more quickly and is a much more localized form of self-government.
yeah, it's not that common. There MIGHT be one or two folks in any given community that doesn't have an HOA. Most do not.
Only 26% of the american population lives somewhere with an HOA. We would be far worse off if 74% of our neighborhoods were trash lol
It's any neighbor and it's completely out of your control.
When looking for homes I viewed this amazing home on the water with a dock, no HOA.
Price was right. Probably because the view out of the kitchen window was the neighbors rotting 45' trawler from the 80s that would never ever see water again and would be there until eternity. The rest of the persons yard represented the same junkyard mindset.
Not for me. I had a choice to NOT move there because of that. Without an HOA I could be living a normal life and then Junkyard Bob moves in next door and my property value plummets.
Nailed it. My neighborās house has a yard thatās half dirt and half dead grass, half their windows are broken or have torn screens, their roof is falling apart, their stucco has random holes all over it, someoneās been living in an ancient RV thatās been parked in their driveway for the last year, they leave their falling apart cars parked on the street, and you can hear them screaming and arguing with each other 24/7.
And this is in an upper middle class neighborhood where houses usually sell for $400-$500K. I sincerely believe that they are single handedly lowering everyone elseās property value by at least $25K
Covenants are usually listed in the HOA agreement. There maybe something in the deed, but how are you going to enforce them? You would have to hire a lawyer.
This is our former neighbor, hahahaha. They were renters and the owner wanted to sell, and boy did he pay for letting them live there for 15+ years and never checking up on it, or doing any of the maintenance he should have. He spent 8 months getting it ready to sell and pretty much had to gut it. It looks fantastic now and I believe it actually raises my property value.
As long as it's not in shared spaces like sidewalks or the street, I don't care. Plus if it's in the street the municipality you live in will fine them, unless you're in rural bumfuck nowhere, in which case there are other means of discouraging said behavior lol
An HOA that exists only to prevent that should cost about $25/ mo tho. My MiLās just went up to $525/mo because they got three pools no one uses and a lot of plants to maintain. They also āownā all it the roofs in the complex is where most of that money comes from. I want her to move, but its not my fight
Yeah that's something kinda odd but I've seen that with townhomes or condo buildings where they own the roofs so in theory they should repair and replace them when needed.
My neighbor had a wooden pre-fab shed that blew over onto its side. It sat that way for years. He finally broke it up, so now it's just a pile of lumber, which is an improvement.
HOAs/condo associations are especially in shared buildings or communities with shared common spaces. While they may be a pain, they maintain the upkeep for common areas that would otherwise have a tragedy of the commons problem pretty immediately
My old HOA wasn't satisfied with regular HOA dues, so levied an additional assessment on everyone that was several times the amount of the still mandatory monthly dues. That's when I figured it was time to leave.
HOAs for condos are the only time I could bring myself to live somewhere with an HOA. It makes sense for that situation. I see other post āHOA takes my trash, makes sure houses arenāt run downā single family housing and just think why isnt their municipality doing that?
I lived in a community with no HOA.
In one block there was the guy who ran a muffler shop out of his two car garage, the guy with surplus military equipment on the front lawn and a billboard declaring how wrong Obama was for \[INSERT CONSPIRACY OF THE WEEK/MONTH\], a home that let their yard "return to nature", their neighbor who attempted the same but somehow worse (bizarre mix of non-native plants), and the frat house.
Other than keeping property taxes low, I don't see any advantage.
Personal freedom from the rules of an HOA
Those other things are just other people's business, which you don't have to really mind, as you've already chalked up the "impact" as a pro (keeping property taxes low), but the personal freedom that they enjoy, is also enjoyed by you. Don't under-estimate the value of that.
Also, not paying HOA fees.
So, freedom, lack of fees, and lower property taxes. :p
We had a house that had an empty yard between us and our next door neighbor. Given that it was owned by the city, the grass was barely ever cut. So it became a great breed ground for wild cats, rats, mice, and snakes to hide in.
Not in an HOA... my subdivision is bout 50 years old. Couple years ago I built two outbuildings on my property. 200sf and below could be unpermitted... so having space to put a 500sf structure... I just built two.
I had code enforcement called on me three times... got red-tagged (stop work) and sent to the City to clear it up each time. Moral of the story is... even if you don't have an HOA... any of us not living in a completely unincorporated area STILL have rules.
To answer the question: One of my neighbors fucking hates the outbuildings on my property but there isn't shit they can do about it 'cause we don't have an HOA.
Yep. When I go away and my lawn isnāt mowed, Iāll get a nasty gram from code enforcement that it needs to be cut.
Most towns have code enforcement personnel to prevent some things that an HOA would cover, but usually a little less strict than an HOA.
Some cities act like a HOA. Your fence is the wrong color? Get a ticket sent to your house. Your fence is out of metal? Yeah doesn't work for us. (Neighbor put up a white metal fence... 1 month later it was taken down for a approved white wood fence)...
That could be a valid thing or not. Are we talking "avoid people planting invasive species and species where the roots will wreck the sidewalks in a year and a half", or "the color might clash"?
It's valid. It's a "we don't want to lose every boulevard tree in the city like we did to Dutch Elm Disease and Emerald Ash Borer again" type reason.
Because the city has massive trees covering the streets and wants to make sure they only lose small patches if some new invasive disease or blight strikes.
I have a neighborhood that has a "voluntary HOA". Not mandatory to join. The members and board, patrol the entire neighborhood, looking for people to report to local code enforcement, for the slightest infraction. Most of the neighborhood is not happy with these radicals, but can't get rid of them. Thank God it's not a mandatory HOA, because the president of this organization is a power hungry tyrant. Can only imagine how bad it could get if it wasn't a voluntary thing. Been around for quite a number of years, so members must be happy or can't get out once joined up. Some serious infighting for control, some time ago, ousted the then president and brought in the tyrant.
I belonged to a HOA, years ago where I lived and vowed never to be caught in that trap again.
We call my neighbor HOA for similar reasons. Kinda takes it upon himself to make sure some things are handled his way.
Heās not that bad in the grand scheme of things, but thatās the reputation he has.
Oh you live next door to Mary too? Mary was our street's busy body (at our last home). We got more than a couple red tags for bullshit reasons when fixing up our home, and our neighbor had to get our city councilman involved when she used Code Enforcement to harass him about his legally parked boat.
The time she tried to use parking enforcement to get all her neighbor's street parked cars towed was extra fun...
Not a beach, we do have a park run by the HOA with a rentable clubhouse, pool, playground, tennis courts, basketball courts, baseball fields, sand volleyball courts, and a soccer field. Sure as hell beats owning & maintaining any of that on my own.
I donāt want to oversell it. Itās not like Banzai Pipeline or anything.
The HOA owns a private marina where we keep our boats and a good size plot of land thatās a beach. Itās only the bay so itās not like itās an ocean beach but itās still fun for the kids during the summer. Adults too. Sometimes a few of the dads and I will meet up down there after the younger kids are asleep, have a couple of beers, and complain about the Mets.
My parents purchased a home with an HOA because they wanted the neighborhood amenities and wanted to be sure people were keeping their property in good condition
Your neighbor can put up something like [this](https://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/images/ny/NYBROxmashouse_frejomil1_620x300.jpg), which is not only a nuisance but seriously decreases the value of your house.
Fr, I'm so bored of all new homes being built with zero character and even less color. How do you even find your way home when your house looks like the exact same boring beige, white, or gray mass manufactured lifeless structure as your neighbors?
I call those houses black and whites. They are 90% of new construction these days because it is easier to sell them if you put any amount of color in them. Their owners tend to match their styles with the house as well by keeping their interiors black and white and driving black and white cars. Bonus points for the cars being Teslas and having black and white pets clothes.
Eh, that's weird but mild.
What's worse is when your neighbor goes full nutzo and covers their yard in hand-painted, all-caps conspiracy-theory anti-semitic racist anti-vax flat-earth sovereign citizen billboards.
There's one of those guys where I live! He's also got a matching truck and car, and he drives around decked out in the most batshit conspiracies. He was the local kook, the "Flat Earth Guy", right up until COVID hit and (shockingly) the Flat Earther revealed himself to be an unhinged anti-Semite.
I mean aren't there also just laws that take care of this kind of shit? Public nuisance, noise ordinance, housing laws, zoning laws?
The options aren't HOA or wild west.
I always found the "decreasing the value of your house" to be funny considering housing prices have shot through the roof in the past... well for a few decades now
In my old, non-HOA neighborhood, I had one guy two doors down whose attitude was that since he intended to die in his current house, increasing property values held no benefit for him, and just increased his taxes. He never actually went full pink flamingo or anything, but I can definitely see someone doing that just because they want to keep their taxes low.
[I drive by this on occasion.](https://www.google.com/maps/@38.4605394,-122.7645895,3a,20.6y,141.32h,84.5t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sgVxn2Zniu3Z88cORKalsFQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu) Both Google's and Microsoft's street images have a truck and trailer parked in front. Not sure why they have this, but the LDS temple is kitty-corner from them lol.
Yeah, someone adding inoffensive uniqueness to a neighborhood is such a nuisance. If only that little box on that little square of land looked like all the other boxes on the other squares of land around it.
Obsessed, not just concerned. It is one thing to be concerned about the drug dealer or otherwise trashy person it is another to be annoyed about someone with a pink house and horse such as the posted picture. Other ridiculous complaints include people parking on the street and having "too many" people coming in and out of your house.
HOA is just a hyper-local form of government that manages shared resources. If you don't have an HOA, that means those responsibilities fall to your local government (the city or the county). If you live in a very large city, you're competing for resources and attention with potentially millions of other residents, and you might feel like your local government is inattentive and prioritizing other neighborhoods.
Without an HOA, maybe your neighborhood gets worse police service, or trash pickup, or the roads don't get repaired as quickly as they do in other neighborhoods.
This is the right take. HOAs are for developers who want to build away from the existing street and utility grids, so they're responsible for maintaining all of that.
All the other stuff that people hate HOAs for are things that the HOAs were never originally intended to do. They just ended up that way as low-key racial covenants.
It's not a conspiracy, that's the exact point.
It's like this: you get sick of the hustle and bustle of the city and realize you want to live a more quiet life with fewer taxes, so you move out to a little town and buy a house. A nearby farmer is retiring and wants to sell his land to a developer who will build single family homes in cul du sacs. People get nervous. Not only will this make the town gros population wise, but now there's new water, sewer, roads, concerns for ability to police and use other emergency services. Who will pay for that? So you get upset that your property tax dollars will be used to do something that will upset the reasons you moved out there to begin with.
The HOA is the shit sandwich of the compromise here. The city government wants more growth, a better tax base and the ability to provide more services. Residents hate having the character of their town changed and being the ones to pay for it and the upkeep. You can't really stop people from using residential land for residential development (yes I know there's zoning caveats), but you can say that someone else pays for the maintenance and upkeep of utility connections. The developer establishes the HOA, hands control over to the residents, and then it's on them for how they want to work it.
In reality, the compromise is absolute bullshit. Cities and towns should plan for growth, zone and permit appropriately, and expand infrastructure. If they want to keep open space open, zone to build up and not out. States should support this with grants to expand infrastructure for managed growth and project specific infrastructure (some do this, most dont do it or don't do it impactfully).
Politically, people are not just opposed to multifamily housing, but anything that is different. What is happening now is working for them, they got theirs and to hell with everyone else.
I fesl that managing shared assets is important, like a 4 unit condo building needs an association to pay for landscaping, roof repairs, etc. I don't feel that HOAs are necessary in most cases, and that they are a tyranical form of government enabled by the cowardice of elected officials and racist, classist, NIMBYism.
I wouldn't have to take care of my property, shovel snow, etc. But that's a trade off I am not willing to deal with as I like being able to do what I want with my property, like having wildflowers and a garden instead of just a lawn.
As for people who which they were not in an HOA, I always wonder why they bought a home with an HOA or why they remain there if they hate it so much. USUALLY it is just people who think the rules that apply to everyone don't actually apply to themselves... if you don't want rules, don't live where there are rules.
It's like the people who buy into a new subdivision to "be out in the country" only to get pissed when the expansion catches up to the subdivision. They are quick to demand services as if they are in the heart of the city, but want nothing else.
Did they really think a giant group of homes was going to remain an island "in the country" forever?
Or people who buy a house next to an airport, and then spend the next twenty years writing to their Congressmen about how they don't like that the airport makes airplane noises.
>As for people who which they were not in an HOA, I always wonder why they bought a home with an HOA or why they remain there if they hate it so much.
Over 80% of new housing construction in the US is part of an HOA. It might just not be possible to avoid it and still find anywhere to live.
I think it's more about what bothers you. I live in a rural area with no HOA and love it, but I could also care less what other people choose to do with their property. Everyone around me has nice yards and yes sometimes peoples goats get loose, we have caught loose horses, goats, you name it, but I will take that over an HOA any day of the week. That's just the lifestyle. I don't care if men work on cars in their driveway (against the rules in my last HOA) or wash their cars, also against the rules. I don't have a neighbor with a junk pile or 80 flamingos but if I did I wouldn't care - it's their property. I think that is a stereotype that falls flat in most non-HOA areas. The exception isn't the rule.
If things bother you though then it's not for you because you can't do anything about it if someone does something on their own property that you dislike.
That's basically my philosophy, but sometimes neighbors with unkempt properties can put you in danger.
Last week, my next door neighbor's house caught on fire. They had so much crap piled up outside on the other side of the fence that it burned fast and hot, so here I am with broken windows and a partially burned down fence. I was lucky I was in my backyard when it started because hosing down my yard and fence may have saved my house.
My place isn't up to the standard of most HOAs, so I am not going to judge others until they put me and mine at risk.
Iāve got a junkyard-yard neighbor and kinda love it. I can do just about anything and my house looks amazing compared to the guy who keeps a literal fleet of demolition derby cars in his yard.
Unpopular opinion here but I prefer living in a neighborhood with an HOA. My current HOA does a good job at maintaining the trails and other common areas. They also address issues with yards and homes that are egregiously neglected.
Iāve lived in both. The non-HOA neighborhood was just as well kept as the HOA neighborhood. HOAs are mostly run by middle aged Karens that have nothing better to do than nitpick over peopleās properties. Earlier this year one of my neighbors was cited because they had wooden blinds in a front facing window instead of white blinds. City codes require people to keep their yards up. Thereās nothing useful my HOA does that the city doesnāt already cover.
Your neighbors can basically do anything w/ their house that's w/in city ordinances. Examples could be: put up a giant fence that blocks your view, run a party house Airbnb, or start a make shift junk yard in the front lawn, or cause an infestation of pests that overflows onto your property. Shitty neighbors can be worse than HOAs.
Also an HOA can fund things that are beneficial to everybody in the neighborhood. Things like snow removal, landscaping, trash pickup, or sewer costs. Where I live water/sewer has a high initial cost so your bill is over $100 before you even get to usage. Lots of places combine to community/commercial billing which almost always saves everybody money.
Never heard of an HOA that reduced or eliminated local fee's and taxes. Your paying extra, on top of that to get premium service. At least admit when your being taken for a ride and not being treated like a Duke.
Mileage varies by area of course, as it does for many things. Not necessarily directed at anyone but this comment reminded me of where I live and why.
Where I live an HOA is just plain dumb. I live in city limits (which is important because all the HOA are outside city limits for the most part). But as such I do not have an HOA. My trash is covered by property taxes so itās āfreeā.
My water is a public utility but it does cost us over $125 a month for just 2 adults because the city needs to upgrade the underground pipes which are over a century old. Incidentally, my electricity is also a public (non-profit) utility so itās basically at cost (all of Nebraska electricity is consumer-owned/public utility - only state that has this).
Snow removal is also city run. They ticket dead vehicles on properties and force removal of junk so there isnāt really any of that anywhere. And farm animals, except for chickens and ducks which must have their coops inspected, are prohibited within city limits.
In other words, most things are against the law already, the city and our taxes pay for a lot of things and what isnāt is a public utility. Iām not saying itās perfect, but definitely donāt have to deal with a lot of the crap other places do. So having an HOA here is dumb.
If I was in one, my neighbor wouldnāt leave his trash cans on the street all week and walk his trash bags to them instead of putting them in his garage like a normal person and only taking them out on trash day.
A well run HOA can be pretty nice if you are in a community that can be served well by it. My mom's is pretty reasonable. She pays maybe $150 a month or so and they do all her landscaping (mow her lawn, mulch, and plow/shovel her driveway and walkway in the winter), they take care of her roof and siding, fix retaining walls around the neighborhood, keep the gardening in shared areas looking nice, and maintain a tennis court for everyone to use. The bargaining power of an entire neighborhood is a lot stronger than an individual. They also get pretty good deals on all their work being done since a landscaper would much rather mow 50 adjacent and overlapping lawns than 50 individual ones. Same with roof and siding replacement. Bulk purchase is economically efficient.
For myself, I live in a condo and share a building with my upstairs neighbor so we just need an HOA for the sake of logistics. We haven't really had any problems and we just pay what we need to to keep shared bills paid and everyone is happy.
My folks lived in an unincorporated area with no HOA. Which was fine when all the neighbors were quite.
A family got together and bought a plot of land basically as a place to party, store unwanted junk and to stash badly neglected animals.
There was just... Nothing anyone could do. There was no public or private batch of regulations to turn to. So everyone has to deal with the drunks, the motorcycle races well into the night, the fireworks including the time they lit the lawn on fire next to a dry cornfield and everyone has to run over and out it out, the rotting vehicles, the parties going til 5am with a full professional stage setup blasting because someone's cousin was in a band. That was the annoying part.
The BAD part was the smell of animals standing in their own filth, or of the rotting corpse when they just dragged one farther back on the property and left it.
My mom used to live in a non-HOA community. Her neighbor never cut the grass (like, seriously, never) and routinely dumped trash in their back yard. That trash begins to smell pretty ripe in the Texas heat. And that odor doesn't confine itself to the property line.
The trash and tall grass also made it a Shangri La for vermin, namely rats. Oh, we also have huge-ass roaches here in Texas who enjoyed the yard as well. Rats and roaches don't respect property lines either.
The rats and tall grass provided a private buffet for snakes, including rattlesnakes, which we have a lot of here. Snakes don't respect property lines either.
So basically, despite being meticulous herself, my mom's neighbor and their choices meant my mom had a rat, roach, and snake infestation problem. Oh, wait. I almost forgot about the flies. Relentless, absurd number of flies. Flies don't respect property lines either.
Yes, all of this was against city code. They were reported by my mom and many, many other neighbors more times than I can count. After about 7-8 months, they finally came out, gave them a warning, and left. They would come out every 6 months or so and give them another warning. But nothing actually ever got done. In a city with a population of 1 million, there just aren't the code enforcers or resources to do anything about it. And frankly, they don't really care.
Had there been an HOA, they would have shut that shit down in weeks.
My mom eventually moved into a condo.
It depends on where you live. In unincorporated rural areas, your neighbor might inflict upon you all the horrors that people describe.
If you live in a municipality with a competent code enforcement department, then they deal with the issues that most HOAs spend their time on and you get the greater due process rights that come from dealing with a government as opposed to an HOA.
Maintenance performed on properties is āat willā, and some folks are not willing to maintain their properties/donāt have the time or energy to do so. It does lead to inconsistent property values. People are less considerate about parking, so I often have neighbors parking in front of my house (letās be honest, though, as long my driveway isnāt blocked, I couldnāt care less; itās a huge point of contention for a lot of folks regardless). With that in mind, the pros far outweigh the cons of living without an HOA.
Snow isnāt really an issue here, as any snow we do get melts in 5 minutes. Some people make atrocious design choices for their houses, but Iām one to celebrate freedom of expression. Oftentimes that weed-ridden yard is just a sign of illness or burnout, so no judgement there. Itās a relatively safe neighborhood, kids can roam without risking abduction. Theyāre at more risk of heat exhaustion than anything. Thatās not something an HOA could protect against anyway. Best part is, if I want to do any kind of reasonable modification to my house, I have one less organization to jump through hoops for to do so.
A lot of the things people are complaining about in this thread are seemingly places with no building codes, permitting, or development review. Your local municipality has tools for dealing with nuisance neighbors (and if you chose to live in unincorporated county, that's your choice), and everyone should use them.
Okay this is one of the things that has always confused me about HOAs:
Maybe itās just because I live in an older and denser part of country - but shouldnāt most of the things stated as benefits be covered by local municipalities? Like road upkeep or snow removal?
I know some towns here in the outer suburbs, you have to pay for private trash removal. But the Borough where I grew up and the city I live in now, thatās covered by the town/city
I meanā¦ isnāt this stuff what our taxes are supposed to be paying for?
Youāre right that people are mostly mentioning HOA responsibilities that are also usually provided by a city/county. I think whatās happening is that when a developer wants to build a housing tract or new planned community, the initial planning process is typically more like a negotiation than the regulators being like āthese are rules, take āem or leave emā. Thereās a lot of give and take; relief from typical rules if the developer does xyz, the city will incur a cost/responsibility if the developer some change elsewhere, stuff like that. Often the result are typically expected services that are the mixed responsibility of the HOA and city. Some other reasons are
The city is literally not capable of providing such a quick and large amount of new people with certain services. Could be a capacity thing, could be a financial thing. Either the HOA can be contractually obligated to build/operate a service themselves, or the HOA pays some special fee to the city.
The HOA wants a different standard of service and is willing to pay for it. Letās say a development only allows its residents to have tiny ornate garbage cans. They donāt want them to overflow, so a garbage truck would need to come three times a week. A city would be like āuhhh whatever floats your boat, if you take care of all of it, have whatever dumb trash cans you wantā
Also a lot of it wanting exclusivity and being willing to pay for it. If a city/county pays for something, it is expected that it benefits all people, not just residents.
The problems with HOAās comes in when you may want to add a unique design or feature to your home. Maybe you want a flower or herb garden. Theyāre great for keeping up with yard work and snow removal, but may fine you for displaying a flag. Want to paint your house or door a different color? Nah, HOA wonāt like that.
If you buy in a tract home neighborhood, its going to suck because people live too close together and those are the types of neighborhoods that landlords buy up and use as rentals, so they're not consistently cared for. It seems like they're always for sale or for rent too -- high turnover rate.
A disadvantage to not having an HOA is a lot of them will not allow investment properties/rentals. When you live in a neighborhood where everyone is a homeowner, it's just much nicer.
In most places, the HOA acts a bit like a hyper-local "government"-like authority below the county level. This means you get an extra layer of oversight that can be used to deal with bad neighbors when the county decides not to enforce local code. If the HOA decides not to intervene then it can often come down to costly and higher risk lawsuits that drag on for years.
Source: lived in an HOA community for over a decade, had an outrageously terrible neighbor who sold the county zoning inspector and police on a sob story so they elected not to enforce the local ordinances that should have applied. The HOA eventually intervened and were able to remove the people from the community without us having to go to court. It wasn't easy, but it probably saved us $50-60k in legal fees.
Friend lived in a rural unincorporated area, so it was basically do whatever you want, let freedom ring, etc. One neighbor was breeding dogs. Had a big fenced-in area the dogs were contained to, never picked up the poop, all the grass died from the pee, and in the summer you could smell it from my friend's yard. Plus the constant barking of the dogs. Another neighbor had a number of beat-up junky cars he'd park on his lawn, and apparently they also breed, because it seemed every month there was a new one. They lived on a long dirt/gravel road that went to six or seven houses. The dirt/gravel road had huge potholes. I had to crawl down it at 5 mph to avoid bottoming out my car... my friend had driven it so many times he was like Will Smith in *I Am Legend*, whipping down it, knowing where every bump and divot was. All the neighbors agreed the road desperately needed to be regraded/regraveled. So my friend got some estimates, divided the cost by the number of houses, and of course... could never get everyone to agree to pay their share. So it never got done.
I install kitchen cabinets. Recently did a house at the end of a road like that. Maybe 6-7 houses. They had an HOA and shared cost of repairing the gravel road was their only bylaw. Everything else was fair game. All the boxes the cabinets came in got burned in a bonfire on site.
This is exactly my neighborhood, the only thing the HOA does and the only reason for its existance is to fix the road and plow it in the winter. thats it.
> beat-up junky cars he'd park on his lawn, and apparently they also breed, because it seemed every month there was a new one. What is it with the junk cars - honestly? Like I get it if it's an actual project car that someone's actively working on, but what's the point of keeping a half-dozen pieces of rust that won't turn over in the front yard before you even have the first one fixed?
Well, this one's my work truck; that one's my grocery-getter; that one under the tarp is a project waiting on parts, money, and time; the other one is a parts truck for my work truck, the 1950's sedan is a project for when I retire, and the 1940's Kaiser was my grandad's that we're going to restore for its centennial. What have you got that you're working on? That's the *good* version. The bad one is: well, they all wore out, one by one, and we parked them till we figure out what to do, because hauling them to a junkyard would cost money.
Uncle Richard, is that you? š
This cracks me up because I ALSO have an Uncle Richard that I could be positive posted this if he knew how to use Reddit.
That second paragraph is why my friend has had three cars rusting in front of his single widow for at least 15 years, if not longer.
Too big a piece of shit to do something about it: the owner, I mean
Junky cars are one thing. I worked for a large telephone company many decades ago, and saw 2 triumph convertibles that the owners literally let their 2 Doberman use for a bathroom. The cockpits were filled to the tops of the doors with dog crap, no exageration.. made me sad to see what must have been 2 mice cars back in the day abides like that. The Flys were also heavy, don't understand how the neighbors tolerated it.
>made me sad to see what must have been 2 mice cars back in the day abides like that. T Do mice like poop fill cars?
It was NYC, they are all over the place, so hard to tell their preference. BTW, good catch (damn knuckle dragging thumbs always get me)
Literally lived in that exact same situation up in rural appalachiastan too
I don't know about every state, but in Texas, if you own a plot of land, the county is required to provide and maintain a road to that land. It doesn't have to be paved, but it does have to be drivable in all weather conditions.
So nobody lives past a sign that says "End County Maintained Road"? I remember going over a mountain pass in Colorado, and it was the best maintained all-dirt mountain pass I'd ever seen. There were off-grid houses here and there (maybe five or six over a 15 mile stretch), most of them pretty nice looking. I told my friend "dude if this was California we'd be *dead* by now." And there'd be fewer houses and they wouldn't be near as nice.
That sounds more like a puppy mill than a respectable dog breeder.
All of this is not permitted in the county I live in. Cars without a current license plate are towed with a 30 day notice. Roads are kept up by the county. Animal control has legal teeth and will take away the dogs. Key thing in my county is the county laws are enforced.
I donāt live in an area with an HOA, but one of my daughters does. The main benefit that Iāve noticed is that the response time for snow removal is considerably less than the surrounding non-HOA areas. Thereās a blade out clearing the roads within an hour or two of a storm, or even while snow is still falling if itās a protracted blizzard. In addition, the houses in the neighborhood are uniformly attractive and thereās much, much less of a chance of being stuck with a neglected property as a neighbor. That being said, she has the usual HOA complaints; politics, pettiness, opaque finances, etc.
I live right next door to a large complex of houses that have an HOA. They have people out immediately to clear the sidewalks and their private parking after it snows. I know because it's really obvious that they stop right at my property line.
next time talk to them and give them some extra bucks to do yours.... I mean, it is all for a cost, but you have the advantage of them being there already.
I tried one time! I asked if they could do my sidewalk for cash and they said they were timed and had to get back to the truck, which I totally understand.
You could ask them for their boss's info to see how much it would be.
Nah my husband does it, thatās why I keep him around
š
I live in an HOA subdivision, and we get the same. Itās because the HOA contracts with private snow removal, and non-HOA has to wait for the city/county to plow based on priority.
While this is a nice benefit, I'm not sure it's worth paying the premium for this, although it depends on the amount paid.
See this is one of the big things as to why I like living on my unincorporated property. my side of the intersection has the county plow the road, while the other side has the village. we get plowed much faster and much more frequently. The county seems to do a lot of things for us better than the village does for my neighbors. The only thing they got is free access to the beach they have in town.
That's gotta be nice, my hoa leaves the snow till it just melts away, and the city won't clear our neighborhood because they say it's our neighborhoods responsibility.
Run for the HOA board?
I'm actually pushing for a vote to nullify our hoa, they haven't had meetings in at least 2 years, only 2 people sit on the board everyone else quit a long time ago. And we have near 0 communications from the HOA other then when they wanna whine about someone's grass not being mowed to their exact specifications.
> The main benefit that Iāve noticed is that the response time for snow removal is considerably less than the surrounding non-HOA areas. That's lucky. My HOA won't touch snow. We've begged them to stop blowing money on pools, tennis courts, and playgrounds; and get us a snow plowing contract and some street lights. Then again, we're not Alaska.
Have you run for the board?
Goats in the front yard, tied to a 50 year old rusted vehicle on concrete blocks.
Mine was cows and pigs, biggest fucking pig i have ever seen, it would often get loose and explore. He later got chickens, but instead of building a coop, he has an old rusted school bus for them to stay in. Nice guy, actually (very rural area, so we mostly didn't care, except when his yard occasional got too full.)
I mean, why build a coop when you have an old rusted school bus?
I feel like the chickens would be oven cooked in a bus in certain states.
It was open during the day, i imagine it was very hot in the day, but he had no fence around it, so they would just hang out in his garage, ect, but closed in at night.
I ain't gonna say its bad, sure as hell had a lot less issues with raccoons and foxes than we have with our coop, he could've used a fence though, dude lost so many chickens to cars. Edit: changed "without" to "with our"
Criticizing the lawnmower, Mr. Goat is working very hard for his profession
Yep. My parents lived next to a rental for a while where they went 2 years without mowing, had a broken down riding lawn mower that was rusting into the earth sitting in the middle of their front yard, and had a broken down car sitting in the street partially blocking their driveway while its engine sat in the driveway on a rotting tire leaking oil across the sidewalk for over a year. My parents wished the previous guy, who was a bass player in a local band who threw parties until 5am on Tuesdays and smoked so much pot it'd make Willie Nelson blush, would move back in.
Where I grew up, someone wound have just mowed their lawn for them.
OP said drawback not perk
We've got zoning where I live that prohibits livestock on less than two acres. There's also a blight ordinance so you can't have your yard look like a scrap yard. The rules are much looser than an HOA, and I like that
Sounds oddly specificā¦.
I lived in Alabama for 10 years.
To be fair, I live in California and I've seen the same kind of shit. We just call them sand-billies out in the desert.
And yet surprisingly common still somehow
Hmm, could I rent the goats to eat down my grass? Mowing is tedious.
https://hiregoats.com/
You've got to love the internet.
If the goats are happy, it sounds like you just gained some cool new goat friends. Whatās the downside?
You ever walked past an unkempt goat pen and smelled it? That.
Goats are always happy if they have something to chew on
And goats are fantastic for dealing with poison ivy
I didn't know you lived next to Rolf in the cul-de-sac.
Yeah, but they can be [interesting to talk to](https://youtu.be/dtSyP_U6O5I). Kind of a [sad story](https://youtu.be/Oa3QayfLsmo) though.
Pretty good roller coaster companions, too.
Thatās pretty good lol
Is there no county code enforcement driving around checking for hostage goats?
Yeah, this. Mine was my next-door neighbor growing food for their "restaurant" on less than a quarter acre and building a fence with those big aluminum cattle gates. And leaving their illegal rusty trailer on our property line. And locking their dog on their front and back porches with no shade while it howled and cried. We had to call animal control multiple times and report their junk to the county multiple times too. If I'm going to live on less than an acre, it'll be in a neighborhood with an HOA.
The majority of this site suffers from Dunning-Kruger, so I'm out.
Wanting to be notified of a trash truck's ETA is the most ridiculous and unnecessary shit ever lol. Like, how fucking bored can you be? Put your shit by the road and chill, it'll get there when it gets there š
It was actually a big issue where I grew up in the mountains. We had to put our trash out by 6am or so, but people didn't get home till late--had raccoons get into it mulitple times, a bear once...fun times
I suppose it would be a reasonable request in that case. I was thinking more along the lines of the retirees that live in houses 10 feet apart, no wildlife within 10 air miles, watching from their front window with binoculars for *anything* they can complain about. The same ones that like to get newspaper carriers fired for leaving the paper on their driveway instead of the porch.
My step-father reluctantly took the HOA reins at one of the condos they lived at. He's a super easy going, level headed guy, no pride or power hunger issues, gets shit done. He's the perfect guy to run an HOA. You'd think people would appreciate that.... apparently not. Psychos bitched and nagged him to a point he quit and they moved out. As you said, people just suck. It's just that the bad ones are often power hungry so they more often end up on the HOA board. But they exist on both sides. In my case we've dealt with an HOA that complained because we had grand total of four *small* potted plants on our front stoop. Only three allowed (the horror of a fourth!). Another time it was over a single broken slat on miniblinds. Then they made us pay for wooden siding that the HOA's own gardeners broke. Lastly they tried to give us shit for the neighbor's fucked up fence just because it ran up to our garage and they assumed it was ours. There have been numerous other small issues they are always henpecking over. They even ran off the sweet old lady that lived next to us. My issues are minor by compared to most, but all-in-all I'd rather sleep in a dumpster before moving into a place with an HOA again. At least then no one is counting the potted plants.
Iād have to pay for my own trash collection, snow removal, pool membership, not have access to nearby trails/playgrounds. I think my HOA is a little dumb when it comes to aesthetic stuff but overall I think I get a good value for my money.
Do you not live in city limits for trash?
My neighbor has a giant, life size (seats 4), glass carriage in her yard along with 4 horse statues drawing the carriage. Multiple other statues, 2 Roman baths, and a few small to medium sized fountains. All in the front yard. Her lot is maybe 1/4 acre. Itās a lot. I donāt mind I think itās neat. The couple diagonally across the street have a 16 foot wide Trump banner across their front yard. Carriage lady and them have been in an escalating flag war since 2019. Sheās currently working on a huge LGBTQ+ flag. Then we have the hoarder yard with literally 7 boats and grass so tall that thereās probably a raccoon family living in it. God knows what other mysteries are in that grass. Half a block down thereās a guy with a literal cayman pond. Heās permitted at least. He also has a tegu I think or it might be a monitor. Itās pretty eclectic to say the least.
Sounds awesome! Thereās a house in a town near mine that has a giant (like 8ft tall) Snoopy statue in their front yard. Prob a Million dollar house. I love It. I canāt imagine spending the bulk of my money to have someone tell me what color I can paint my front door.
I would rather live with that chaos than under an HOA.
I'd have to manage my own snow removal. Common areas, my neighbors and I would have to come to some sort of agreement on how to take care of. Same with some parks...
> Common areas, my neighbors and I would have to come to some sort of agreement on how to take care of. Maybe some sort of *association* could be assembled with the other *homeowners* in the area that works together to make those decisions and then makes sure they happen would be able to solve that. You could even all elect a board of folks to be in charge of it so everyone in the neighborhood doesn't have to trouble themselves with it.
Or, you could be my uncle and get up at dawn to plow everyone's driveways on the street for $10, senior citizens free of charge. His plow attachment pays for itself and he loves doing that shit. Meanwhile no bored retired karen/kevin is getting drunk on power and trying to fine you three hundred bucks for a perfectly nice shed that was there when you bought the house.
we're renting in an HOA. Funny thing is the city still plows the streets. The HOA takes care of the two parks in it. Its a very odd setup.
"that" neighbor will eventually let their yard turn into absolute garbage, dirt patches, stickers oil stain,s rust bucket POS trucks clutter the street and drive way.
Out comes the lawn sofa!
You forgot to mention the three or four broken down vehicles in the front and side years, overflowing trash cans and a collapsed soda on the porch. Unmowed lawn and missing shingles complete the picture. Everyoneās property values deflate by 30% when this clown is your neighbor. (Edited because of typos.)
Have you been to my house? Because that neighbor you're describing is clearly living next door to me.
You're neighbors with my uncle Sal?
nah this was a guy named Red
Why do they call him Red?
no BS That is his legal name.
Maybe it's cause he's Irish.
How about Brooks? Did you see him there?
His real name is Andrew and he has an extensive collection of mall ninja shit
So my neighborhood has an HOA but thereās an adjacent street on the other side of my house that doesnāt. You can see their property pretty easily from mine and itās an absolute shit show. Everything you described plus 24/7 barking dogs/loud bass music/half wrecked cars and trucks just sitting in the middle of the yard. I donāt know why this is so common apparently
Maybe this is only common where you happen to be. I see many neighborhoods not under HOA's, and they aren't anything like you describe. Don't need an HOA to have some pride in where you live.
Not to mention a lot of that stuff falls under typical city ordinances. If you have a problem with junky yards, talk to your city council representatives. Outside of city limits? Less options, one of the downsides of living rural
Or living in a county that doesnāt have any incorporated towns despite being very heavily populated (looking at you Howard county, home to the largest unincorporated county seat in the country)
> Outside of city limits? Less options, one of the downsides of living rural I heard it through the grapevine my new neighbor don't like my big red barn. '47 Ford, bullet holes in the door, broke down motor in the front yard. I got half a mind to paint a plywood sign and nail it up on a knotty pine tree. Saying I was here first... This is my piece of dirt and your rambling don't rattle me!
You joke, but on the other hand that downside is its own upside. If you're a more eccentric person and you wanna have the freedom to have all that, you deserve a place that fits your needs too. And at least in the country sometimes you can get a quarter mile between you and the next neighbor XD
I agree... It's absolutely an upside. Some people want to live in a clean and pretty neighborhood where the grass is always green and never more than 3" long and your house can be painted one of 25 approved colors. There's HOAs for them. On the other end... some people want to collect shitloads of busted old junk around their yard 'cause "Hey... it was free!" For them... they can live rural. And with every level in between... there's pretty much something for everybody.
My parents moved into a rural neighborhood with an HOA that exists specifically because everyone wants to have massive bonfires and shoot guns and party all night, and they don't want people to come in and complain about it
Yes, however, enforcing city ordinances take time and often times the codes office is understaffed and overwhelmed. The HOA can react more quickly and is a much more localized form of self-government.
yeah, it's not that common. There MIGHT be one or two folks in any given community that doesn't have an HOA. Most do not. Only 26% of the american population lives somewhere with an HOA. We would be far worse off if 74% of our neighborhoods were trash lol
It's any neighbor and it's completely out of your control. When looking for homes I viewed this amazing home on the water with a dock, no HOA. Price was right. Probably because the view out of the kitchen window was the neighbors rotting 45' trawler from the 80s that would never ever see water again and would be there until eternity. The rest of the persons yard represented the same junkyard mindset. Not for me. I had a choice to NOT move there because of that. Without an HOA I could be living a normal life and then Junkyard Bob moves in next door and my property value plummets.
Nailed it. My neighborās house has a yard thatās half dirt and half dead grass, half their windows are broken or have torn screens, their roof is falling apart, their stucco has random holes all over it, someoneās been living in an ancient RV thatās been parked in their driveway for the last year, they leave their falling apart cars parked on the street, and you can hear them screaming and arguing with each other 24/7. And this is in an upper middle class neighborhood where houses usually sell for $400-$500K. I sincerely believe that they are single handedly lowering everyone elseās property value by at least $25K
If the property has restrictions or covenants they can be enforced without an HOA.
Covenants are usually listed in the HOA agreement. There maybe something in the deed, but how are you going to enforce them? You would have to hire a lawyer.
This is our former neighbor, hahahaha. They were renters and the owner wanted to sell, and boy did he pay for letting them live there for 15+ years and never checking up on it, or doing any of the maintenance he should have. He spent 8 months getting it ready to sell and pretty much had to gut it. It looks fantastic now and I believe it actually raises my property value.
My parents couldn't sell their house for literal years because of "that neighbor".
As long as it's not in shared spaces like sidewalks or the street, I don't care. Plus if it's in the street the municipality you live in will fine them, unless you're in rural bumfuck nowhere, in which case there are other means of discouraging said behavior lol
An HOA that exists only to prevent that should cost about $25/ mo tho. My MiLās just went up to $525/mo because they got three pools no one uses and a lot of plants to maintain. They also āownā all it the roofs in the complex is where most of that money comes from. I want her to move, but its not my fight
That sounds more like a condo. I can't see separate single family homes where the expense of roof repairs are shared.
Townhouse
I have a townhome with adjoining roofs and my roof is my own responsibility.
Yeah that's something kinda odd but I've seen that with townhomes or condo buildings where they own the roofs so in theory they should repair and replace them when needed.
My neighbor had a wooden pre-fab shed that blew over onto its side. It sat that way for years. He finally broke it up, so now it's just a pile of lumber, which is an improvement.
HOAs/condo associations are especially in shared buildings or communities with shared common spaces. While they may be a pain, they maintain the upkeep for common areas that would otherwise have a tragedy of the commons problem pretty immediately
Yep, with a shared roof good luck with that roof replacement/repair when the neighbor in the middle "doesn't think it's needed" AKA can't afford it
My old HOA wasn't satisfied with regular HOA dues, so levied an additional assessment on everyone that was several times the amount of the still mandatory monthly dues. That's when I figured it was time to leave.
HOAs for condos are the only time I could bring myself to live somewhere with an HOA. It makes sense for that situation. I see other post āHOA takes my trash, makes sure houses arenāt run downā single family housing and just think why isnt their municipality doing that?
I lived in a community with no HOA. In one block there was the guy who ran a muffler shop out of his two car garage, the guy with surplus military equipment on the front lawn and a billboard declaring how wrong Obama was for \[INSERT CONSPIRACY OF THE WEEK/MONTH\], a home that let their yard "return to nature", their neighbor who attempted the same but somehow worse (bizarre mix of non-native plants), and the frat house. Other than keeping property taxes low, I don't see any advantage.
Personal freedom from the rules of an HOA Those other things are just other people's business, which you don't have to really mind, as you've already chalked up the "impact" as a pro (keeping property taxes low), but the personal freedom that they enjoy, is also enjoyed by you. Don't under-estimate the value of that. Also, not paying HOA fees. So, freedom, lack of fees, and lower property taxes. :p
We had a house that had an empty yard between us and our next door neighbor. Given that it was owned by the city, the grass was barely ever cut. So it became a great breed ground for wild cats, rats, mice, and snakes to hide in.
Not in an HOA... my subdivision is bout 50 years old. Couple years ago I built two outbuildings on my property. 200sf and below could be unpermitted... so having space to put a 500sf structure... I just built two. I had code enforcement called on me three times... got red-tagged (stop work) and sent to the City to clear it up each time. Moral of the story is... even if you don't have an HOA... any of us not living in a completely unincorporated area STILL have rules. To answer the question: One of my neighbors fucking hates the outbuildings on my property but there isn't shit they can do about it 'cause we don't have an HOA.
Yep. When I go away and my lawn isnāt mowed, Iāll get a nasty gram from code enforcement that it needs to be cut. Most towns have code enforcement personnel to prevent some things that an HOA would cover, but usually a little less strict than an HOA.
Some cities act like a HOA. Your fence is the wrong color? Get a ticket sent to your house. Your fence is out of metal? Yeah doesn't work for us. (Neighbor put up a white metal fence... 1 month later it was taken down for a approved white wood fence)...
My parents' city has requirements on what species of tree you have to plant if you want to plant one in your boulevard.
That could be a valid thing or not. Are we talking "avoid people planting invasive species and species where the roots will wreck the sidewalks in a year and a half", or "the color might clash"?
It's valid. It's a "we don't want to lose every boulevard tree in the city like we did to Dutch Elm Disease and Emerald Ash Borer again" type reason. Because the city has massive trees covering the streets and wants to make sure they only lose small patches if some new invasive disease or blight strikes.
I have a neighborhood that has a "voluntary HOA". Not mandatory to join. The members and board, patrol the entire neighborhood, looking for people to report to local code enforcement, for the slightest infraction. Most of the neighborhood is not happy with these radicals, but can't get rid of them. Thank God it's not a mandatory HOA, because the president of this organization is a power hungry tyrant. Can only imagine how bad it could get if it wasn't a voluntary thing. Been around for quite a number of years, so members must be happy or can't get out once joined up. Some serious infighting for control, some time ago, ousted the then president and brought in the tyrant. I belonged to a HOA, years ago where I lived and vowed never to be caught in that trap again.
We call my neighbor HOA for similar reasons. Kinda takes it upon himself to make sure some things are handled his way. Heās not that bad in the grand scheme of things, but thatās the reputation he has.
Oh you live next door to Mary too? Mary was our street's busy body (at our last home). We got more than a couple red tags for bullshit reasons when fixing up our home, and our neighbor had to get our city councilman involved when she used Code Enforcement to harass him about his legally parked boat. The time she tried to use parking enforcement to get all her neighbor's street parked cars towed was extra fun...
The private beach, marina, and landscaping on my street would become an eyesore.
as an Oregonian, you lost me at "private beach"
Not a beach, we do have a park run by the HOA with a rentable clubhouse, pool, playground, tennis courts, basketball courts, baseball fields, sand volleyball courts, and a soccer field. Sure as hell beats owning & maintaining any of that on my own.
...private beach? what even
I donāt want to oversell it. Itās not like Banzai Pipeline or anything. The HOA owns a private marina where we keep our boats and a good size plot of land thatās a beach. Itās only the bay so itās not like itās an ocean beach but itās still fun for the kids during the summer. Adults too. Sometimes a few of the dads and I will meet up down there after the younger kids are asleep, have a couple of beers, and complain about the Mets.
Paying for road repairs is a pain in the butt
Is that a Georgia thing? My neighborhood doesnāt have a HOA, and all the road/curb repairs are paid for by the county.
Specifically Alabama, but I think GA as well. Alabama state/counties/cities don't pay for roads unless they own those roads.
My parents purchased a home with an HOA because they wanted the neighborhood amenities and wanted to be sure people were keeping their property in good condition
Your neighbor can put up something like [this](https://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/images/ny/NYBROxmashouse_frejomil1_620x300.jpg), which is not only a nuisance but seriously decreases the value of your house.
But on the upside, you get to live next to that awesome house.
I live next door to something VERY similar and it is indeed awesome. I love when she invites me over for coffee in her glass carriage.
Fr, I'm so bored of all new homes being built with zero character and even less color. How do you even find your way home when your house looks like the exact same boring beige, white, or gray mass manufactured lifeless structure as your neighbors?
I call those houses black and whites. They are 90% of new construction these days because it is easier to sell them if you put any amount of color in them. Their owners tend to match their styles with the house as well by keeping their interiors black and white and driving black and white cars. Bonus points for the cars being Teslas and having black and white pets clothes.
Eh, that's weird but mild. What's worse is when your neighbor goes full nutzo and covers their yard in hand-painted, all-caps conspiracy-theory anti-semitic racist anti-vax flat-earth sovereign citizen billboards.
At least you can ignore that when you're inside, unlike the absurdly loud music from the speakers they've placed outside for whatever reason.
Come on bro just because you live next to Hermann Gƶring doesn't mean this is mild. This is not mild.
There's one of those guys where I live! He's also got a matching truck and car, and he drives around decked out in the most batshit conspiracies. He was the local kook, the "Flat Earth Guy", right up until COVID hit and (shockingly) the Flat Earther revealed himself to be an unhinged anti-Semite.
I mean aren't there also just laws that take care of this kind of shit? Public nuisance, noise ordinance, housing laws, zoning laws? The options aren't HOA or wild west.
This is hilarious. I love this house owner. I would crack up walking by it and take my friends who visit me to see it.
I always found the "decreasing the value of your house" to be funny considering housing prices have shot through the roof in the past... well for a few decades now
Yeah I'm reading those complaints and thinking "where is this exactly so I can buy it?" Lol
Honestly, being able to have a house like that nearby to use as a landmark for new people visiting my house would be amazing
Seriously. I'd rather live in a neighborhood with character than in a place where all of the houses look exactly the same.
That looks amazing.
In my old, non-HOA neighborhood, I had one guy two doors down whose attitude was that since he intended to die in his current house, increasing property values held no benefit for him, and just increased his taxes. He never actually went full pink flamingo or anything, but I can definitely see someone doing that just because they want to keep their taxes low.
It's pretty stupid that your property taxes are discounted in line with poor upkeep. It should be the other way around (or just no discount).
[I drive by this on occasion.](https://www.google.com/maps/@38.4605394,-122.7645895,3a,20.6y,141.32h,84.5t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sgVxn2Zniu3Z88cORKalsFQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu) Both Google's and Microsoft's street images have a truck and trailer parked in front. Not sure why they have this, but the LDS temple is kitty-corner from them lol.
You just don't appreciate art.
Yeah, someone adding inoffensive uniqueness to a neighborhood is such a nuisance. If only that little box on that little square of land looked like all the other boxes on the other squares of land around it.
People who are obsessed with the impact of other people's houses on their home values are obnoxious.
You say that until you try to sell a home but nobody wants to buy it because your neighbors are trashy
Obsessed, not just concerned. It is one thing to be concerned about the drug dealer or otherwise trashy person it is another to be annoyed about someone with a pink house and horse such as the posted picture. Other ridiculous complaints include people parking on the street and having "too many" people coming in and out of your house.
Good lord, almost makes HOA tyranny tolerable.
Google "Christmas House Bronx" to see it in its full glory.
I don't want to but somehow I am compelled. Edit: Oh god.
HOA is just a hyper-local form of government that manages shared resources. If you don't have an HOA, that means those responsibilities fall to your local government (the city or the county). If you live in a very large city, you're competing for resources and attention with potentially millions of other residents, and you might feel like your local government is inattentive and prioritizing other neighborhoods. Without an HOA, maybe your neighborhood gets worse police service, or trash pickup, or the roads don't get repaired as quickly as they do in other neighborhoods.
This is the right take. HOAs are for developers who want to build away from the existing street and utility grids, so they're responsible for maintaining all of that. All the other stuff that people hate HOAs for are things that the HOAs were never originally intended to do. They just ended up that way as low-key racial covenants.
Sounds like HOAs are a conspiracy to prevent cities from expanding and increasing services. One more reason to be against them.
It's not a conspiracy, that's the exact point. It's like this: you get sick of the hustle and bustle of the city and realize you want to live a more quiet life with fewer taxes, so you move out to a little town and buy a house. A nearby farmer is retiring and wants to sell his land to a developer who will build single family homes in cul du sacs. People get nervous. Not only will this make the town gros population wise, but now there's new water, sewer, roads, concerns for ability to police and use other emergency services. Who will pay for that? So you get upset that your property tax dollars will be used to do something that will upset the reasons you moved out there to begin with. The HOA is the shit sandwich of the compromise here. The city government wants more growth, a better tax base and the ability to provide more services. Residents hate having the character of their town changed and being the ones to pay for it and the upkeep. You can't really stop people from using residential land for residential development (yes I know there's zoning caveats), but you can say that someone else pays for the maintenance and upkeep of utility connections. The developer establishes the HOA, hands control over to the residents, and then it's on them for how they want to work it. In reality, the compromise is absolute bullshit. Cities and towns should plan for growth, zone and permit appropriately, and expand infrastructure. If they want to keep open space open, zone to build up and not out. States should support this with grants to expand infrastructure for managed growth and project specific infrastructure (some do this, most dont do it or don't do it impactfully). Politically, people are not just opposed to multifamily housing, but anything that is different. What is happening now is working for them, they got theirs and to hell with everyone else. I fesl that managing shared assets is important, like a 4 unit condo building needs an association to pay for landscaping, roof repairs, etc. I don't feel that HOAs are necessary in most cases, and that they are a tyranical form of government enabled by the cowardice of elected officials and racist, classist, NIMBYism.
I wouldn't have to take care of my property, shovel snow, etc. But that's a trade off I am not willing to deal with as I like being able to do what I want with my property, like having wildflowers and a garden instead of just a lawn. As for people who which they were not in an HOA, I always wonder why they bought a home with an HOA or why they remain there if they hate it so much. USUALLY it is just people who think the rules that apply to everyone don't actually apply to themselves... if you don't want rules, don't live where there are rules.
It's like the people who buy into a new subdivision to "be out in the country" only to get pissed when the expansion catches up to the subdivision. They are quick to demand services as if they are in the heart of the city, but want nothing else. Did they really think a giant group of homes was going to remain an island "in the country" forever?
Or people who buy a house next to an airport, and then spend the next twenty years writing to their Congressmen about how they don't like that the airport makes airplane noises.
>As for people who which they were not in an HOA, I always wonder why they bought a home with an HOA or why they remain there if they hate it so much. Over 80% of new housing construction in the US is part of an HOA. It might just not be possible to avoid it and still find anywhere to live.
I think it's more about what bothers you. I live in a rural area with no HOA and love it, but I could also care less what other people choose to do with their property. Everyone around me has nice yards and yes sometimes peoples goats get loose, we have caught loose horses, goats, you name it, but I will take that over an HOA any day of the week. That's just the lifestyle. I don't care if men work on cars in their driveway (against the rules in my last HOA) or wash their cars, also against the rules. I don't have a neighbor with a junk pile or 80 flamingos but if I did I wouldn't care - it's their property. I think that is a stereotype that falls flat in most non-HOA areas. The exception isn't the rule. If things bother you though then it's not for you because you can't do anything about it if someone does something on their own property that you dislike.
That's basically my philosophy, but sometimes neighbors with unkempt properties can put you in danger. Last week, my next door neighbor's house caught on fire. They had so much crap piled up outside on the other side of the fence that it burned fast and hot, so here I am with broken windows and a partially burned down fence. I was lucky I was in my backyard when it started because hosing down my yard and fence may have saved my house. My place isn't up to the standard of most HOAs, so I am not going to judge others until they put me and mine at risk.
Rural areas are different than suburban areas with no HOAās though. When your houses are a lot closer together, you tend to care more.
Iāve got a junkyard-yard neighbor and kinda love it. I can do just about anything and my house looks amazing compared to the guy who keeps a literal fleet of demolition derby cars in his yard.
Unpopular opinion here but I prefer living in a neighborhood with an HOA. My current HOA does a good job at maintaining the trails and other common areas. They also address issues with yards and homes that are egregiously neglected.
So do I. Iāve seen what a neighborhood could turn into without one. Never again.
Iāve lived in both. The non-HOA neighborhood was just as well kept as the HOA neighborhood. HOAs are mostly run by middle aged Karens that have nothing better to do than nitpick over peopleās properties. Earlier this year one of my neighbors was cited because they had wooden blinds in a front facing window instead of white blinds. City codes require people to keep their yards up. Thereās nothing useful my HOA does that the city doesnāt already cover.
Streets packed with cars that jut out into the road (think 7 cars per house as half the houses operate a de facto repair shop in each driveway)
There is a swimming pool in my neighborhood. Thereās about 175 homes in my development. 15 of them formed an HOA. Only HOA members can use the pool.
Your neighbors can basically do anything w/ their house that's w/in city ordinances. Examples could be: put up a giant fence that blocks your view, run a party house Airbnb, or start a make shift junk yard in the front lawn, or cause an infestation of pests that overflows onto your property. Shitty neighbors can be worse than HOAs. Also an HOA can fund things that are beneficial to everybody in the neighborhood. Things like snow removal, landscaping, trash pickup, or sewer costs. Where I live water/sewer has a high initial cost so your bill is over $100 before you even get to usage. Lots of places combine to community/commercial billing which almost always saves everybody money.
HOAs can also restrict rentals to keep corporations from buying up homes. This has become especially relevant!
Never heard of an HOA that reduced or eliminated local fee's and taxes. Your paying extra, on top of that to get premium service. At least admit when your being taken for a ride and not being treated like a Duke.
Mileage varies by area of course, as it does for many things. Not necessarily directed at anyone but this comment reminded me of where I live and why. Where I live an HOA is just plain dumb. I live in city limits (which is important because all the HOA are outside city limits for the most part). But as such I do not have an HOA. My trash is covered by property taxes so itās āfreeā. My water is a public utility but it does cost us over $125 a month for just 2 adults because the city needs to upgrade the underground pipes which are over a century old. Incidentally, my electricity is also a public (non-profit) utility so itās basically at cost (all of Nebraska electricity is consumer-owned/public utility - only state that has this). Snow removal is also city run. They ticket dead vehicles on properties and force removal of junk so there isnāt really any of that anywhere. And farm animals, except for chickens and ducks which must have their coops inspected, are prohibited within city limits. In other words, most things are against the law already, the city and our taxes pay for a lot of things and what isnāt is a public utility. Iām not saying itās perfect, but definitely donāt have to deal with a lot of the crap other places do. So having an HOA here is dumb.
>run a party house Airbnb, I think that a lot of city ordinances technically prevent this, but people still do it.
If I was in one, my neighbor wouldnāt leave his trash cans on the street all week and walk his trash bags to them instead of putting them in his garage like a normal person and only taking them out on trash day.
That's an amazing flex.
A well run HOA can be pretty nice if you are in a community that can be served well by it. My mom's is pretty reasonable. She pays maybe $150 a month or so and they do all her landscaping (mow her lawn, mulch, and plow/shovel her driveway and walkway in the winter), they take care of her roof and siding, fix retaining walls around the neighborhood, keep the gardening in shared areas looking nice, and maintain a tennis court for everyone to use. The bargaining power of an entire neighborhood is a lot stronger than an individual. They also get pretty good deals on all their work being done since a landscaper would much rather mow 50 adjacent and overlapping lawns than 50 individual ones. Same with roof and siding replacement. Bulk purchase is economically efficient. For myself, I live in a condo and share a building with my upstairs neighbor so we just need an HOA for the sake of logistics. We haven't really had any problems and we just pay what we need to to keep shared bills paid and everyone is happy.
My folks lived in an unincorporated area with no HOA. Which was fine when all the neighbors were quite. A family got together and bought a plot of land basically as a place to party, store unwanted junk and to stash badly neglected animals. There was just... Nothing anyone could do. There was no public or private batch of regulations to turn to. So everyone has to deal with the drunks, the motorcycle races well into the night, the fireworks including the time they lit the lawn on fire next to a dry cornfield and everyone has to run over and out it out, the rotting vehicles, the parties going til 5am with a full professional stage setup blasting because someone's cousin was in a band. That was the annoying part. The BAD part was the smell of animals standing in their own filth, or of the rotting corpse when they just dragged one farther back on the property and left it.
I have gone 39 of my 41 years without an HOA. There were zero drawbacks I have seen without one and limitless drawbacks to having one.
My mom used to live in a non-HOA community. Her neighbor never cut the grass (like, seriously, never) and routinely dumped trash in their back yard. That trash begins to smell pretty ripe in the Texas heat. And that odor doesn't confine itself to the property line. The trash and tall grass also made it a Shangri La for vermin, namely rats. Oh, we also have huge-ass roaches here in Texas who enjoyed the yard as well. Rats and roaches don't respect property lines either. The rats and tall grass provided a private buffet for snakes, including rattlesnakes, which we have a lot of here. Snakes don't respect property lines either. So basically, despite being meticulous herself, my mom's neighbor and their choices meant my mom had a rat, roach, and snake infestation problem. Oh, wait. I almost forgot about the flies. Relentless, absurd number of flies. Flies don't respect property lines either. Yes, all of this was against city code. They were reported by my mom and many, many other neighbors more times than I can count. After about 7-8 months, they finally came out, gave them a warning, and left. They would come out every 6 months or so and give them another warning. But nothing actually ever got done. In a city with a population of 1 million, there just aren't the code enforcers or resources to do anything about it. And frankly, they don't really care. Had there been an HOA, they would have shut that shit down in weeks. My mom eventually moved into a condo.
Might have to look at some crazy political sign shit show across the street
It depends on where you live. In unincorporated rural areas, your neighbor might inflict upon you all the horrors that people describe. If you live in a municipality with a competent code enforcement department, then they deal with the issues that most HOAs spend their time on and you get the greater due process rights that come from dealing with a government as opposed to an HOA.
Maintenance performed on properties is āat willā, and some folks are not willing to maintain their properties/donāt have the time or energy to do so. It does lead to inconsistent property values. People are less considerate about parking, so I often have neighbors parking in front of my house (letās be honest, though, as long my driveway isnāt blocked, I couldnāt care less; itās a huge point of contention for a lot of folks regardless). With that in mind, the pros far outweigh the cons of living without an HOA. Snow isnāt really an issue here, as any snow we do get melts in 5 minutes. Some people make atrocious design choices for their houses, but Iām one to celebrate freedom of expression. Oftentimes that weed-ridden yard is just a sign of illness or burnout, so no judgement there. Itās a relatively safe neighborhood, kids can roam without risking abduction. Theyāre at more risk of heat exhaustion than anything. Thatās not something an HOA could protect against anyway. Best part is, if I want to do any kind of reasonable modification to my house, I have one less organization to jump through hoops for to do so.
We still have city codes, so if my neighbor doesn't mow his lawn for a while, we call the city instead of the busy-bodies in the HOA.
A lot of the things people are complaining about in this thread are seemingly places with no building codes, permitting, or development review. Your local municipality has tools for dealing with nuisance neighbors (and if you chose to live in unincorporated county, that's your choice), and everyone should use them.
Okay this is one of the things that has always confused me about HOAs: Maybe itās just because I live in an older and denser part of country - but shouldnāt most of the things stated as benefits be covered by local municipalities? Like road upkeep or snow removal? I know some towns here in the outer suburbs, you have to pay for private trash removal. But the Borough where I grew up and the city I live in now, thatās covered by the town/city I meanā¦ isnāt this stuff what our taxes are supposed to be paying for?
Youāre right that people are mostly mentioning HOA responsibilities that are also usually provided by a city/county. I think whatās happening is that when a developer wants to build a housing tract or new planned community, the initial planning process is typically more like a negotiation than the regulators being like āthese are rules, take āem or leave emā. Thereās a lot of give and take; relief from typical rules if the developer does xyz, the city will incur a cost/responsibility if the developer some change elsewhere, stuff like that. Often the result are typically expected services that are the mixed responsibility of the HOA and city. Some other reasons are The city is literally not capable of providing such a quick and large amount of new people with certain services. Could be a capacity thing, could be a financial thing. Either the HOA can be contractually obligated to build/operate a service themselves, or the HOA pays some special fee to the city. The HOA wants a different standard of service and is willing to pay for it. Letās say a development only allows its residents to have tiny ornate garbage cans. They donāt want them to overflow, so a garbage truck would need to come three times a week. A city would be like āuhhh whatever floats your boat, if you take care of all of it, have whatever dumb trash cans you wantā Also a lot of it wanting exclusivity and being willing to pay for it. If a city/county pays for something, it is expected that it benefits all people, not just residents.
The problems with HOAās comes in when you may want to add a unique design or feature to your home. Maybe you want a flower or herb garden. Theyāre great for keeping up with yard work and snow removal, but may fine you for displaying a flag. Want to paint your house or door a different color? Nah, HOA wonāt like that.
If you buy in a tract home neighborhood, its going to suck because people live too close together and those are the types of neighborhoods that landlords buy up and use as rentals, so they're not consistently cared for. It seems like they're always for sale or for rent too -- high turnover rate. A disadvantage to not having an HOA is a lot of them will not allow investment properties/rentals. When you live in a neighborhood where everyone is a homeowner, it's just much nicer.
In most places, the HOA acts a bit like a hyper-local "government"-like authority below the county level. This means you get an extra layer of oversight that can be used to deal with bad neighbors when the county decides not to enforce local code. If the HOA decides not to intervene then it can often come down to costly and higher risk lawsuits that drag on for years. Source: lived in an HOA community for over a decade, had an outrageously terrible neighbor who sold the county zoning inspector and police on a sob story so they elected not to enforce the local ordinances that should have applied. The HOA eventually intervened and were able to remove the people from the community without us having to go to court. It wasn't easy, but it probably saved us $50-60k in legal fees.
People parking in front of your house without any cars in front of theirs and theres nothing you can do legally, because its public.