There are a few things in life that cause a bit of a reaction in people. There’s the whole “Windows or Mac” thing, or “Republican or Democrat”, “Gay marriage or no gay marriage”, “Abortion or no abortion”. Obviously some of these are more serious than others.
There is one other that springs to mind when we talk about opinions and that’s “homeowners association, or no homeowners association”. I’ve heard arguments on both sides of the fence and have lived in both types of neighborhoods. As I mentioned in my earlier post, I think that HOA’s help increase the value of my home. “Penty” made a couple comments on a previous post and pointed out that I need to look at how much my HOA dues cost and what kind of return I could make on that money over the long term. Well, in my case, my HOA dues are quite low. I only pay $170 a year total. I believe it’s worth it. My neighborhood has increased in value better than other neighborhoods near me that don’t have HOA’s. I also think it’s worth it from a quality of life point of view. I want to have a bit of predictability on how my neighborhood looks. I don’t want to have to worry that a neighbor will use his “freedom” to paint his house in bright pink with lime green trim. I don’t want to have multiple old vehicles covered in blue tarps, and yes, I really don’t even want my neighbors to leave their garbage cans at the curb ALL THE TIME just so they never have to actually bring them out from their side yard on garbage day. I could probably go on and on.
The flip side of this is that I give up some “freedoms” to do what I want with my house and yard. After living in my previous neighborhood, I’m okay with that. It turns out that in my old neighborhood, I was one of the houses that had good taste and improved my house drastically. My yard was well kept, the colors of my house were nice and everything was kept up. That’s when I realized that giving up the freedom to leave my garbage can out 24/7, or having to get approval for changing the paint colors on my house was okay. I haven’t had a “run in” with my HOA yet, but I’m sure I will. Sometimes the HOA can be a little bit ridiculous. Take the time that my next door neighbor got a letter because he hadn’t put his garbage cans away within the 24 hours after garbage day. (They were up next to his garage but still within “sight”.) I found that absolutely ridiculous because he keeps his house and yard up very nicely. Much nicer in fact, than most other houses in our neighborhood and probably nicer than the moron on the HOA board that turned my neighbor in. Sending that letter was just plain stupid. He always puts his cans away on time, but was out of town for a couple days and none of us neighbors thought it was a big deal to just move them up near his garage as opposed to leaving them out by the street.
So, yes. homeowners associations do carry baggage. But they also do give you a bit more leverage in helping to keep your neighbors “in check”. It’s nice to know that when a homeowner decides not to ever paint his house, or let his yard go, that someone will “keep him honest”. I fully believe that it’s worth the small amount of money I pay, and that it is drastically increasing the price of our house (more so than if we didn’t have an association)
