Inspired by the HOA Thread.

[tikilyn]

How much do you pay for your HOA? Is it monthly or yearly?

Ous Hoa hasn't really been given to the residents yet and the builders do nothing about the problems.

Anyways we are supposed to pay 125.00 a year and that hasn't kicked in yet either.

 

[MagicKingdom05]

I live in a condo and mine is $199 a month. Now this does cover the up keep on the property, the 4 pools, the tennis courts and the ski hill.

 

[aprilgail2]

Dont you only pay those if you are in a co-op or condo?? I never heard of anyone that owns their own private home having to pay some homeowners assoc. money to live in their own homes.....

 

[disykat]

There's another thread on this exact topic. It was the one that inspired the 2nd HOA thread! I don't know how to link it.

Aprilgail2, No, HOA's are not just for condos. If a development has a name, it's probably got an HOA that takes care of any shared property or amenitities.

Ours is $30 a year, the only shared property that is kept up is the entrance to the development. Given what the neighborhoods without HOA's look like around here I wouldn't live in a neighborhood with small lots outside of city limits UNLESS it had an HOA.

 

[dmslush]

Dont you only pay those if you are in a co-op or condo?? I never heard of anyone that owns their own private home having to pay some homeowners assoc. money to live in their own homes.....

I agree. I'm not going to pay anyone a dime to tell me HOW I can live in a home that I am working to pay for.

 

[Aimeedyan]

We have an HOA - it's only $100 a year and maintains the community signage and gardening near that and pays for an off duty police officer drive throughs each day.

I have heard of bad HOAs and good ones, so we looked carefully over the guidelines before buying here. All communities we looked at had them. Ours ended up being only things that would maintain our own property values and nothing we had a problem with - like you can't park cars on your lawn, can't have cars lined up outside your house for days on end without them moving, can't convert your garage (big one for me!), etc. I have heard of some being super picky but ours isn't at all. Plus ours is cheap =)

My best friend lives in a community that is MUCH more strict, plus they have a community center, pool, etc. Hers is quite pricey, I think $150 a month.

 

[aprilgail2]

- like you can't park cars on your lawn, can't have cars lined up outside your house for days on end without them moving, can't convert your garage (big one for me!), etc. I have heard of some being super picky but ours isn't at all. Plus ours is cheap =)

Uggg...no way would I go for that...our whole neighborhood parks the cars up on the lawn as soon as there is now in the forecast so the plows can plow the streets..otherwise they only do a small path down the center of the street! I concerted my garage into my daughters playroom, cost me 12,000 and had it done by a contractor with all the right building permits etc..I would have been pissed off if someone told me I couldn't do that when its my house that I paid for with my money. My mother uses her car only in nice weather so basically her car sits in front of our house from Dec-April until the weatrher gets nice...I will occassionally take it out to work with me just to keep the battery going but basically its there for months...and its in front of my home so who cares what a HOA would say about that....My sister used to live someplace where you couldn't keep your garbage pails outside your house, they had to keep them in the garage...how disgusting to have garbage pails have to be inside!
When I move when I retire I will have to be sure to find a place without a HOA because I would be butting head with them all the time.

 

[icebrat001]

There's another thread on this exact topic. It was the one that inspired the 2nd HOA thread! I don't know how to link it.

Aprilgail2, No, HOA's are not just for condos. If a development has a name, it's probably got an HOA that takes care of any shared property or amenitities.

Are you talking about the one I created? http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1002541

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Mine is $580.00 a year.

I think that is pretty good considering the amount of landscaping, mowing, flowers, irrigation, 2 pools, walking trails, brick fences galore, a couple of parks, community center, workout center, tennis courts and full time fitness person, and activities. Oh and we have lots of monuments...tons of them.
I am sure our insurance is outrageous.

 

[Aimeedyan]

Uggg...no way would I go for that...our whole neighborhood parks the cars up on the lawn as soon as there is now in the forecast so the plows can plow the streets..otherwise they only do a small path down the center of the street! I concerted my garage into my daughters playroom, cost me 12,000 and had it done by a contractor with all the right building permits etc..I would have been pissed off if someone told me I couldn't do that when its my house that I paid for with my money. My mother uses her car only in nice weather so basically her car sits in front of our house from Dec-April until the weatrher gets nice...I will occassionally take it out to work with me just to keep the battery going but basically its there for months...and its in front of my home so who cares what a HOA would say about that....My sister used to live someplace where you couldn't keep your garbage pails outside your house, they had to keep them in the garage...how disgusting to have garbage pails have to be inside!
When I move when I retire I will have to be sure to find a place without a HOA because I would be butting head with them all the time.

Well, we've never seen snow and we all have 2 car garages that fit 4 cars in the driveway so there is no need to park cars on your grass, kwim? Converted garages just lower housing values, though I understand that people like to use the space for other things.

As far as garbage, I think it states to not put it out days before the trash comes but I think that's common sense. We have some wildlife behind us in a park so that would not be a pretty site! No guidelines on trash cans, there are usually plenty floating around the streets the day the trashmen come! =)

There is a community I heard about (I want to say it's Celebration, maybe in the beginning?) that had regulations on what WINDOW COVERINGS you used in the front windows. They all had to be backed in white or something so all the homes looked uniformed from the street. Way over the top for me, but some people like to live in Stepford =)

 

[ceiligh1]

Ous is 100 a qtr. to take care of the parks, pools, underground electricity, security ect. It is actually low for the area. I was not happy at all to be buying in an HOA but where I live it is getting very hard to find a home that is not in one. All the homes that were not in one are being bought, torn down and then reborn into HOA's.

 

[vatmark]

Uggg...no way would I go for that...our whole neighborhood parks the cars up on the lawn as soon as there is now in the forecast so the plows can plow the streets..otherwise they only do a small path down the center of the street! I concerted my garage into my daughters playroom, cost me 12,000 and had it done by a contractor with all the right building permits etc..I would have been pissed off if someone told me I couldn't do that when its my house that I paid for with my money. My mother uses her car only in nice weather so basically her car sits in front of our house from Dec-April until the weatrher gets nice...I will occassionally take it out to work with me just to keep the battery going but basically its there for months...and its in front of my home so who cares what a HOA would say about that....My sister used to live someplace where you couldn't keep your garbage pails outside your house, they had to keep them in the garage...how disgusting to have garbage pails have to be inside!
When I move when I retire I will have to be sure to find a place without a HOA because I would be butting head with them all the time.

Well don't move to Charlotte NC area because it is rare to find a neighborhood without a HOA. We live in a community where you cannot keep your garbage cans outside in view of the street. You can have an enclsure made to house the can outside. Ours are in our garage. Not like the garage is a sterile environment or anything. Even if we could put it outside I wouldn't. As far as cars parked on lawns...isn't that what driveways are for. Everyone in my neighborhood has a driveway and a garage. Why would they need to park a car on the front lawn?

HOA are not for everyone. There are good and bad associations. Some HOA are very strict. Our is not. The things they do enforce I can live with and it makes the neighborhood a lot nicer. I prefer not to see cars parked on lawns and junk cars up on blocks or the shipwrecked SS Minnow on the driveway. That's just me. If things like that don't bother you then you don't need a neighborhood with a HOA.

Annie

 

[Rafiki Rafiki Rafiki]

$150 per year. Our HOA is putting a new entry sign up this year. They put gas-powered lights throughout the neighborhood and street signs--all are black iron and ornate.

We have a good HOA. Our HOA Board keeps abreast of the county's plans and how it affects us. They also made sure the county came out and removed all the downed trees after hurricane Katrina hit.

As a matter of fact, we went to a meeting with county supervisors this week who want to seal and overlay our streets. They wanted to be sure we wouldn't be unhappy with the inconvenience....

 

[Poohnatic]

Our old house we paid 77.50 a month. It was a large planned community, with a pool complex, tennis courts a huge multipurpose playing field and playgrounds throughout that we had to maintain. However, the single family homeowners only paid 50.00 a month! The board was very restrictive on architectural changes, too.

New neighborhood is 200.00 a year. It was nice to get a 20 item HOA agreement after the 200 page book from the old community.

Suzanne

 

[Poohnatic]

There is a community I heard about (I want to say it's Celebration, maybe in the beginning?) that had regulations on what WINDOW COVERINGS you used in the front windows. They all had to be backed in white or something so all the homes looked uniformed from the street. Way over the top for me, but some people like to live in Stepford =)

My old community was that restrictive. All front window coverings HAD to be white. They also told us what type of storm doors we could have, what kind of fence (and what color) and we had to get approval if we were changing landscaping! Yes, I likened it to Stepford and that's why I would not look for a community of more than 100 houses when I moved!

Suzanne

 

[ksjayhawks]

We pay $150 per year for HOA--covers common area maintenance--entrance and unfortunately a huge amount of land behind the fence that surrounds our subdivision that must be mowed (that is most of the expense), kept in trees (per city regs) and watered. Also covers insurance and a few miscellaenous expenses.

We pay $250 a year this year for the neighborhood pool. Was $150, but there has to be major repairs and reserve won't cover it, so it was upped this year. IS supposed to go back down next year.

Personally, I like HOA's that are reasonable--we've seen some that go over the top. We have lived some places without them and the things people do to their homes is unbelievable! If you will live there forever, guess it doesn't matter, but it really hurts values or increases sales time when you go to sell. Please no flames--just our personal experience!

Best advice I can give is before you purchase a home with an HOA--ask to see the deeds and restrictions and covenants. If you can't live with them, don't buy the house, look elsewhere. The items that you think won't really matter or won't be enforced, will be. Do not wait to closing--or after you move in--to see these documents or you could be unpleasantly surprised!

 

[imamicki2]

We pay $320 per year. We live in a golf community and they maintain the landscaping, have a pool, tennis courts, clubhouse (although, we are supposed to own it, we have to pay to rent it!), weight /excercise room, and we have several get togethers for the kids through out the year. We have tons of restrictions. BUT, I lived in a neighborhood before this one and it was so bad. I swear I lived next to Sanford and Son. Here, I don't worry about that stuff. It works for and against you. We have to have "permission" for add ons, fences, changing colors and landscaping. We actually have our annual meeting on Tuesday. Our development is almost done and I am wondering why we are paying the same amount if we have triple the homes now??? I'll have to get answers for that one. I am sure they will say it is for their "reserve" funds.

 

[Texan Mouseketeer]

I haven't read all the HOA threads going around, but here's my story...

We had our home built in a new development with a HOA - $95 per year to keep the common lawn areas maintained and to make sure the city's home codes were enforced. The rules and restrictions directly matched those of the city we live in, so it was nothing major or too upsetting. Well, we found out later because it was nowhere in the paperwork that we had a non fee HOA. I guess because it didn't state that there were fees in the paperwork that it meant there were none? I didn't know that at the time. So, if a resident was in violation, they would get a letter, but that is it. Everyone quickly figured out you could just throw the letters away and nothing would happen. So what were we paying for? Someone did the Math and figured out the HOA had received over $35,000 in the first year but had less than $2000 in the account. We knew mowing for the year didn't cost them $33,000 - the median was just too small, no way. Long story, but the homeowners eventually voted to do away with the HOA and we just cancelled the whole thing. It totally ticked off the HOA management company and all the neighbors who held an office, but we way outvoted them. I'm so glad not to be paying that money now!!!

 

[binny]

We pay $240/year it takes care of the maintenance of the common areas the parks and Basketball courts.

I have been thoroughly disgusted with our HOA. They don't have any real power so my hillbilly neighbours across the street and down a bit don't pay attention to it. However they did lean on the renters next door ( not that all renters are bad but these ones are, I get a contact high every time I open my window in the summer ) and made them whack down their 6 Ft tall weeds

 

[binny]

oh and you would really be hard pressed to find a neighbourhood that doesnt have a HOA. At least a newer one.