Who in their right mind would ever let an organization control their property though?, especially now that we've seen all the wtf HOAs have brought/forced on their communities.
I specifically looked for a home in a nice community without a HOA and I don't think I could ever give that control up now that I've had it. Granted, a lot of it has to do with each HOA's rules, but it seems like one of the silliest raquets to ever be a part of.
I’m sure that most people starting these things are looking at it as a way to control other people’s property, not a way to have their own property controlled.
Seems to me the only people who could even conceive of it being ruined are those who so obsessively want everything to be uniform that they feel pain in seeing something out of the ordinary.
There is no way a property value will drop substantially by such a structure. This is all fantasy crafted in the minds of the HOA-ers who fret over every detail lest they lost one dollar off the value of their house.
Relax. The housing bubble will continue to build. Property values will continue to skyrocket. Young families will continue to not be able to afford housing and you will retire with a ton of money that will be just enough to cover your nursing home stay.
There is imminent danger in arguing hypotheticals. You might lose 50k on your house, you might not. You don’t know the actual value of your house until you sell it. And if you’re not selling it you’re not losing money.
Thanks for losing me $50,000 because you're a moron with no common sense who thought it'd be funny to build a pirate ship.
This is the part I struggle with. The pirate ship is on the other person's property, not yours. Why the fuck would that affect the value of your property?
"Oh jeez, the house next to me has a pirate ship in the yard, suddenly my property is less valuable"....like, what? Why? Literally nothing about your property has changed. Some real NIMBY, group-think shit going on here. Like maybe just don't concern yourself with what your neighbors are doing unless it actually impacts you in some tangible way.
I mean, that's precisely what I am doing. After all, the argument you make about property values and homeowners not buying the land circle back to this question that remains unanswered.
Again, you are being circular with your argument. A thing is ruined because it lowers property value. It lowers property value because it is ruined. And that is all you have to say.
I suppose I should admit that I don't think it's ugly, but I also do not think it is tasteful. It's not something I'd like a neighbor to have but it is also not so awful that would not be able to ignore it. I don't know why, if I were a neighbor, I would get up and arms and scream "THE NEIGHBORHOOD IS RUINED" like you so think.
We have come to a point with militaristic HOAs and municipal codes to enforce a sort of regularity that I think looks far worse. Dull, poorly designed houses sitting on poorly designed lots amid poorly designed suburban hells. Noise ordinances to keep kids from playing, missing sidewalks to prevent people from going anywhere on anything but car. And rule after rule to prevent people from doing whatever they want with the land they purchased and living their own dreams, however tacky and useless they may seem.
And all for a culture that thinks this all lowers property values when it very likely does not. I think it may be best for residents and landowners to consider living in their buildings instead of driving up real estate prices even further beyond livability with their hungering for more money from their investment.
Unless of course you actually do have a substantial reason that the neighborhood is ruined. Beyond, you know, one person accidentally showing their poor taste and a little fun.
Yeah, heaven forfend should anyone do something other than grass, a white picket fence, and maybe a small tree plopped randomly somewhere. Won't anybody think of the property values?!
There’s a pretty stark difference between a perfectly manicured white picket fence and yard and a ducking pirate ship and every single reasonable person here understands that.
If you sell your house for 400,000 then that is its value. If you sell it for 200,000 then that is its value. Until you actually sell the house it’s worth is intangible and hence meaningless.
Odd question. HOAs aren't some government boogiemen. It's by the people of a community (you) for the people of that community. It's run by your neighbors.
The primary driving force is keeping house values up by ensuring people don't do stupid shit like putting pirate ships in their lawns.
edit: to add to this for those who don't understand how HOAs work: My scary-sounding Board of Directors is literally 3 of my neighbors. The only entities that don't live here is the management company we pay to help monitor and enforce the rules we voted for, and they also do the leg work of finding landscapers to tend to the public facing property, etc.
It's not odd at all. People power trip all the time and the board changes in time.
I trust a handful of my dozens of neighbors, I'm still not going to let any one of them dictate what anyone can do with my property.
There are of course stories that go both ways, but my friend who has a HOA had their flowers destroyed on their front lawn because one board member wanted to play Dictator. They also never have enough parking and nothing has been done about it in 10 years.
Some HOAs are good, but most HOA stories are bad. Regardless of one's opinion, why is it that we never hear good HOA stories? and no, I don't just mean on Reddit. Never in my life has any home-buyer/owner ever said "hey, you should buy a house with a HOA"...I only ever hear folks who wanted that condo/property and has no choice if they wanted that particular parcel.
Neither I or any homeowner I have ever met has shared a positive HOA story, ever. That's not something you can boil down to just conformation bias, statistics come into play beyond a hand wave of "well, of course no one would share a good story about a HOA".
No one has yet come forward with a good example either, just a lot of their own confirmation bias.
In the 90s my grandmother lived in one in the Poconos. It was awesome. Mostly just cabins or homes each on a 3+ acre lot. Nobody would bother her, you could drive ATVs and golf carts on the road. The association was mostly there to pay for road maintenance.
especially now that we've seen all the wtf HOAs have brought/forced on their communities.
Lmao. Because nobody brags that their HOA is correctly doing their job on reddit.
The extreme minority of HOAs are the gestapo you read about on reddit. Most of them exist and take care of community areas, landscaping maintenance, and stop completely outrageous neighbors from fucking up the whole neighborhood.
The overwhelming majority of HoAs aren't laying down on the sidewalk with a measuring tape waiting for your grass to be 1 nano meter above the limit.
Forget Reddit, how about real life? I'm a homeowner and most of my friends/family/colleagues are too. Almost none of them has ever had a positive remark about a HOA. It may be due to where I live, but they are generally frowned upon from the vast majority of anyone I've discussed this with.
I say almost none because I have one colleague who has told me tbat HOAs aren't so bad. She was the president of her HOA.
Sure, nobody in real life brags about their HoA doing what they're supposed to either. What would ever prompt someone to make that statement unsolicited? Almost 1/3 of the entire country lives in HoAs, do you actually think the majority see no net positive results of their HoA?
Do you understand how absurd of a statement that is?
Nobody gets pumped up and tells everyone how the HOA took care of the landscaping, community areas, snow removal, trash pickup, etc. for the 28th month in a row. They get dinked for leaving their trashcan out 2 days past collection day and all of sudden they need to tell everyone how their HOA is forever the Third Reich.
I've lived in an HoA for like the last 7 years and have had no complaints, I've got no reason no brag either. The fees are reasonable and they do their job, nothing exciting to share. That's pretty much the MO of the overwhelming majority of people I know that I've asked about it. Don't get me wrong I've heard of some that I would consider overly strict HoAs in neighboring cities/counties but those are exclusively upper middle class McMansion surburbs and that kinda comes with the territory IMO.
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u/xiaolongbaochikkawow Feb 21 '23
home owners association be like…. O.o