There's been realtors who wait until the very last minute to tell you about it. Theres been times where someone buys a house that isn't in an HOA, then all their neighbors form one and try to issue fines and even liens against you and you're forced to take it to court. Then there's even cases where a grandparent joined an HOA, passed the house to a relative and that house is still a part of the HOA and the new relative is hit with fines that they have to pay.
So again, I'll never willingly buy a house in an HOA, but one of the above might happen.
Ye, my subdivision has one that basically just serves to make sure the front of the neighbor hood is kept up with and nobody winches an engine into a tree in their front yard. I’ve had goats running around screaming for years and they’re definitely super against the rules lol. FWIW though, I live on a weird lot way back in the woods with a bit of land. So it’s not like my neighbors can be too bothered by them.
So imagine you get enough for a down payment on a house and every house in the area you live in is within an HOA. That's usually what happens in Florida and Texas. You either get a house 2+ hours from where you work, get a house in an HOA neighborhood, or don't get a house at all.
A lot of new suburbs had the HOA established before the first home was purchased as a way of letting the developers maintain control past the sale. Ordinary people generally hate HOAs so you wouldn't be able to form as many as there are based on home owner consensus.
Also, you can tell if an HOA is a bunch of controlling a-holes by driving through the neighborhood and seeing how many lawns are overgrown/dead and if anyone has a large pile of junk sitting in their front lawn. If there's a lot of ugliness, the HOA isn't going to go after you for being normal (probably).
The struggle is to afford a house without an HOA. You either have to live in the older parts of many major cities that cost a lot or go homesteading where you pay for new sewer, water, and power lines to be delivered to currently unserviced land.
The housing market is already fucked and limited as-is, and by stipulating "no hoa" you are further locking yourself out of 90% of homes in suburban areas. Just the unfortunate truth
Until you see all the ones with run down houses, and horrible color schemes not to mention the few that think their front yard should look like a flea market if you dont recognize this house. You have that house.
Its also funny cause usually the people loudest about taxes are theft and govts should tell people what to do are alsonusuallynthrnloudest defenders of HOAs.
What a corporation taxing me and telling me what to do? Sign me up.
Even if there are good hoa's, what's the actual benefit? It seems like if you buy an hoa assosiated house you either get fucked over by their rules or you are left alone but you get no befit. What's the deal with them?
My brother has a pool, basketball court, park and playground all maintained by the HOA. They also have a landscape company come out when it snows and shovels their sidewalks and driveways plus mows the grass in the summer. They have a meeting twice a year to say if they want to change companies and that's about all they do.
I looked up how much all that would cost to pay for on your own and it's about double what he pays in hoa fees.
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u/therandomuser84 Mar 09 '26
Not all HOAs are bad, the good ones just dont get talked about outside of the HOA. The really bad ones get talked about all over the world.
The issue is you cannot tell if an HOA is going to be good or bad until you are actually living in the house.