- Unormal
- Nov 16, 2004
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Mod sass? This evening?! But the cakes aren't ready! THE CAKES!
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Fun Shoe
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Leperflesh posted:
HOAs are run by whatever member of the HOA has the most free time and interest in being a busybody boss of their own tiny domain, controlling their neighbors and enjoying their little power trip.
My wife and I rejected a number of reasonably good opportunities, because they required HOA membership. gently caress that noise. The government and local planning agencies already wield plenty of power and control, in terms of what you are and are not allowed to do (develop, paint, park, enjoy) on your own property, without signing an open-ended carte blanche to let a minority of your neighbors (whoever bothers to vote) boss you around.
Think you might ever want one of these things?
-A satellite dish
-Something besides a well-manicured lawn... say, some native drought-resistant plants or wildflowers
-A project car to work on in your driveway
-Different-colored curtains
-Three dogs
-A fence instead of a hedge, or a hedge instead of a fence, or (god forbid) neither of these things
-three cars
-a motor home
-Dry your laundry on a line outside, instead of using a dryer
-have a party
These are all things that HOAs have been known to ban or control. And you can't at all go by the current rules published by your HOA, because those rules are almost always amendable/changeable by the HOA members/board. Vindictive neighbors like to agitate and propose changes specifically targeting their enemies, and use their political maneuvers to get them passed. It's like loving Survivor or something, little cliques and cabals and retired bitter old people with too much time on their hands who think your son was the one that uprooted their petunias so they'll be damned if you'll be allowed to park that old Ford on the street any more...
Ugh. HOAs were a great idea at some point, pooling resources for community projects, so you can have a pool or a common building or shared laundry facilities, but they've become a blight on the country and I wish the powers and restrictions HOAs were allowed to enforce were severely limited by law.
I agree, I would *never* own a property in an HOA again. I might rent one, but I would never own, ever. Never. I hate them with all the passion I can muster for truly petty tyrants. "They have to repaint their houses!" "But... they colors are approved colors right?..." "Yes, but they didn't get approval!" "But... the colors are fine, so they have to get approval and REPAINT IN THE SAME COLORS?" "Yes!!!  "... actual hoa board meeting conversation from a development I used to own in. Enjoy!
(Not to mention that if they feel like it, they can get a lein and forclose and auction off your property for something as miniscule as $100 in owed fees to them, which they can impose without any sort of warning for basically anything they want to; totally legal and legit, if you don't believe me you have some reading to do!)
Unormal fucked around with this message at 20:13 on Jan 6, 2010
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Jan 6, 2010 20:10
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May 2, 2024 07:56
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- Unormal
- Nov 16, 2004
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Mod sass? This evening?! But the cakes aren't ready! THE CAKES!
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Fun Shoe
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slowfoot posted:
No, I understand what a bad house can cost. I don't think this is necessarily a bad house - it just has one issue (the wiring) that I feel we were misled on. The lack of updated wiring is not a deal breaker - we looked at plenty of other houses that had old wiring. This house does have a lot of updates that we like (new windows throughout, new ac, new furnace, new bathroom and kitchen) and the rest of the inspection report was good. Aside from the termite issue, which we are looking into further.
It's an 80 year old house so it's going to have some issues. I don't think we're going to find anything else in our price range (< $100,000) that doesn't have similar issues. We have quite a bit budgeted for repairs/emergencies.
I know I keep waffling on this...
It's the biggest purchase you're likely to ever make. It's worth the effort to look until you find something you have nothing to waffle about, rent until then.
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Jun 28, 2011 17:22
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Jan 6, 2010 20:10
