[Red Badger]

This is the exact reason I told our Real Estate agent: NO HOAs...................

[sjmjax]

Home Owner Associations!
Breeding grounds for sociopathic control freaks and corrupt politicians.

[Alberta's Child]

I’ve seen this from both sides. When I purchased a home a few years ago I originally wanted nothing to do with HOAs, but after six months of searching I noticed that I could see enormous differences in adjoining neighborhoods with and without HOAs. The ones without HOAs looked like suburban ghettos. The most common characteristics were the number of cars parked all over the streets and on front lawns, along with campers, utility trailers and work trucks parked all over the streets.

I ended up buying a home under ideal circumstances. It has a low-key, benign HOA with very few rules that are all reasonable. And the cost is very low because the HOA has hardly any common area maintenance responsibilities.

[Made In The USA]

My HOA experience wasn’t horrible, but the BS was more than enough to NEVER want to be in an HOA neighborhood again. I understand how they can be useful, and some probably work great…. but you cannot fully control whether the next board president or board is good people or power hungry Karens.

[VastRWCon]

“This is the exact reason I told our Real Estate agent: NO HOAs...................”

Same here, I told her I would be kicked out within the first month.

In my hood, every other house has a boat, trailer, RV’s, golf carts... Love it!

My yard has 2 Boats, 2 RV’s, and a small trailer. NO HOA.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Yep. I would never buy into anything with an HOA.

[bantam]

You are a smart person!
I would NEVER touch a HOA home either!!

[HartleyMBaldwin]

No HOAs for us either. Most of the places out around here have plenty of cars, boats, trucks, and whatever junk strewn around, and it doesn’t bother me a bit. As for property values, that works both ways. We probably got this place for a whole lot less than if the same house and lot had been in an HOA area.

[oldtech]

I would concur with this. Though I have never been associated with an HOA, I never intend to either. In talking to those who have, I’ve found out that an HOA can easily turn into an interminable source of grief in which you necessarily have a large investment. I do have some things on my property which I can’t afford to repair that would probably put me in trouble with an HOA if one existed here...which it does not. There are no HOAs here that I know of, thankfully. I don’t think it would happen, but what if a group of my neighbors decided to setup an HOA? Some of us would automatically be put “behind the 8-ball”. That is not right to an established resident of a neighborhood. You could go into an HOA with good intentions, but circumstances might align that would put you into an impossible situation later on.