Sometimes people chose HOA areas BECAUSE they don’t understand the ramifications of doing so and the price is right. Don’t think they do it deliberately because they like socialism.
Currently my wife and I are planning a move out to the country, away from that sort of thing - since Colorado Springs, the last bastion of Conservatism in this area is FULL of nothing but housing developments that thrive on HOAs.
I can’t quite put my finger on why this is, which all these Capitalists here selling homes and forcing this crap down our throats.
I need ten acres and a nice, clear kill zone....
I've lived on a rural, 400 acre farm and I've lived in the suburbs. I love living in rural setting, but it's so much different than in the suburbs. If you live in the county, you don't need HOAs because you're so far from your neighbors that it's not a big deal. But if I'm in the suburbs, fifty feet from my neighbor, you better believe that I want an HOA. I have no desire for the value of my home to fall because my neighbor is too lazy to mow is lawn or because he's got his Camaro up on blocks in his drvieway.
I live next to a neighborhood that, while it has nice homes, doesn't appear to have a very effective HOA. It's a relatively new development and it doesn't seem to require homeowners to sod their lawns. As a result, there are a lot of lawns that have weeds and sparse, uneven growth. I don't want to live next door to my neighbor's crappy lawn because he was too cheap to spend a few grand on sod for his yard. Don't want any part of it.
That’s why I said “Study carefully...”
Ignorance may be the REASON but it is not a good excuse.
It is a curious phenomenon to me that so many people will spend more time researching the contents of a breakfast cereals they are going to buy than they do the limits and restrictions on the property and mortgage of a half-million dollar house they are about to purchase.
The last time I re-financed my mortgage (dropped the APR by 2%) I drove the lender CRAZY with my demands that certain clauses and statements be eliminated or revised in the final documents. Their FIRST response to such request is “that’s the way it HAS to be done because we always do it that way”. After a little brow-beating (and threats of backing out of the deal) they will finally admit that you CAN customize even the most “standard” mortgage agreements.
Caveat Emptor, I always say. If you won’t take care of yourself, why should you expect anyone else to do it for you, right?
Hell YEAH!
Of course I need more than ten acres. I want at least 200 yards for my KZ.