We’ve got a lake association but it only has around 30 members and has been pretty hands off. Mostly it just collects money to pay for spraying weeds during the summer.
Some of them are downright communist. You WILL comply. We looked for a house 10 years ago and very emphatically said “No HOA’s”. If I’m paying the mortgage, no nut’s going to tell me what color I can paint my house. Oddly enough, the bargains were in HOA neighborhoods. lol