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In reply to the discussion: Texas couple paint their house bright shade of teal only to receive DEATH THREATS from neighbors who [View all]djean111
(14,255 posts)organize neighborhood garage sales, keep people from having stuff like cars up on blocks in the street. When it comes time to SELL your house, you can at least count on the surrounding neighborhood to look nice.
They directly negotiate with the county about things like plantings and lights on the newly four-laned road in front, getting an extra entrance added when a Walgreen's was built on a corner and impeded sight lines and the ability to make a left out of the subdivision. We do retain the services of a law firm (included in that $30 a year rate!) to keep things legal.
We all pay the county $50 a year, included in real estate taxes, to administer code violations warnings, which helps keep personal vendettas a non-issue. While I know that a lot of HOAs get out of hand, the real intent is to preserve the value of the houses and the neighborhood. I do understand that a lot of new HOAs are rip-offs, but my little neighborhood was built in 1987, and we are happy with ours.
We have had to vote down - BIG turnout! - attempts by the Wall Street assholes who snapped up houses here a few years ago to change the HOA. They basically wanted to hire an outside company to administer things, which would really jack the fees up, probably to cronies. And then, of course, the fees would likely be tax-deductible to the holding companies.
I just would not broad-brush all HOAs as bad, and they come in handy here in Florida (we are talking about the suburbs here), where lack of zoning means someone can park a ratty old trailer next to your newly built dream house. At a minimum, an HOA can negotiate a lot better with the county for road -type stuff, it is harder for an individual to do that.