HOAs

[Deleted User 89]

Our HOA is like $50 bucks a year and pays for landscaping in public areas.
Some can be horribly invasive, but ours seems to live and let live. At least for the year and half we've been here.

I've been a part of 2 different HOAs. I think they were both less than $20 a year. The first one covered the cost of cutting trees down that got near power lines or blocked the road. The one I'm in now covers pot hole repair since we're outside the city limits. I think there's a clause about how long a trailor can be parked in front of a house and how much acreage is needed to own a horse.

I'm fine with it. I wasn't even aware you could buy a house without HOAs unless you bought a farm/ranch or lived in a slum.

we rent a house in a neighborhood where probably 95% of the homes are owned and there’s to HOA

maybe i’m wrong, but it really seems like a spotty thing. it’s not necessarily regional, i don’t think. i’m actually really curious now, about what “prerequisites” exist for there to be an HOA

[jfish26]

I never even thought about the concept of valet trash service, and then I had it. Very nice.

HOA's in a condo unit are quite different than that of a housing division.

Clearly you were not greek at KU.

[Soklous]

shit, now there’s an HOA to live in hawklin’s head too?!

I don’t think that’s how they work.

It’s not confusing like a hotel reservation.

[ousdahl]

Can I put up black light posters as I wish, or does that require HOA approval too?

[CrimsonNBlue]

HOA fees are so high out here that condos have already crashed. No one wants to pay $500 a month on top of your mortgage, especially when they just cut the grass. I've heard they are going upwards of $300 in KC in some places. They are for the lazy or dumb.

Try $800 in some condos in KC.

But as many have stated, condo HOA fees pay for things that most homeowners are already paying for. Pool won't maintain itself. Running common areas isn't free. How many homeowners' landscaping is limited to cutting grass?

It's not for everyone, but If I am a guy like Leawood, I would gladly write that $250 HOA fee check every month over sitting in a big empty house and bragging about $ per square foot in a cul-de-sac an hour commute from the office.

Blanket statements usually don't work out.

[ousdahl]

And up here, at least, a yuge part of HOAs is snow removal.

[CrimsonNBlue]

225.00 for the year gets me...

Pool and clubhouse.
Garbage and recycling service.
Fourth of July Party
Christmas Sleigh-ride through the neighborhood and hot cocoa with Santa.
And a code of conduct to not rent or treat your investment like Ous and Beaver.

Pretty simple stuff.

Lazy dumbass.

Get your ass up, pay 25x as much for that stuff, and do it yourself.

[ousdahl]

or just ask Santa for a pool.

[Soklous]

225.00 for the year gets me...

Pool and clubhouse.
Garbage and recycling service.
Fourth of July Party
Christmas Sleigh-ride through the neighborhood and hot cocoa with Santa.
And a code of conduct to not rent or treat your investment like Ous and Beaver.

Pretty simple stuff.

Lazy dumbass.

Get your ass up, pay 25x as much for that stuff, and do it yourself.

It would be helpful to the discussion to know what the issue is other than “gross”. Snow removal in Colorado doesn’t match that explanation to me.*

[ousdahl]

Did y’all miss the story about the deck stain?

Much of it can be silly arbitrary rules. And much of it can be entitled asshole members, whether they’re expecting the HOA to bend over backwards for them, or they’re the enforcers whoa wanna play HOA police and bring down the hammer over something like the color of your deck.

[TDub]

Why would you need to call someone to change a light bulb or pick up your mail? Thats just pathetic and lazy.

light bulb - Perhaps because you are an 87 year old woman who can't climb a ladder?
mail - Perhaps because you an 87 year old woman who is hospitalized?
Perhaps those excuses are "pathetic" and "lazy" to you but they are very legitimate and real to me and my mother.

I 95% understand why HOAs are generally NOT such a good thing for a lot of people but I also realize how they can be beneficial for others.

I dont think Leawood is an 87 y/o woman. But i could be wrong. If i cant get my mail or change my lightbulb.....put me to pasture.

[CrimsonNBlue]

Why would you need to call someone to change a light bulb or pick up your mail? Thats just pathetic and lazy.

light bulb - Perhaps because you are an 87 year old woman who can't climb a ladder?
mail - Perhaps because you an 87 year old woman who is hospitalized?
Perhaps those excuses are "pathetic" and "lazy" to you but they are very legitimate and real to me and my mother.

I 95% understand why HOAs are generally NOT such a good thing for a lot of people but I also realize how they can be beneficial for others.

I dont think Leawood is an 87 y/o woman. But i could be wrong. If i cant get my mail or change my lightbulb.....put me to pasture.

Leawood very obviously lives in an urban condo.

Having lived in one myself for the past decade, I can understand this: You have 18 foot ceilings, your ladder, if it's even tall enough, is in the storage unit several stores down in the basement. Often, the easiest way to get the correct unique bulbs is from the building.

Could you go out buy, drag the damn ladder up and down and get it done? Sure. But you can also send an email from work and they are changed by the time you get home, because they are set up to do that kind of thing. And the real magic kicker: you're already paying for it.

As for the mail, yes a little bit of laziness, but grabbing your mail from the front desk lady instead of going to a different floor or part of the building for it, not the worst thing when, again, you're already paying for it.

[Cascadia]

light bulb - Perhaps because you are an 87 year old woman who can't climb a ladder?
mail - Perhaps because you an 87 year old woman who is hospitalized?
Perhaps those excuses are "pathetic" and "lazy" to you but they are very legitimate and real to me and my mother.

I 95% understand why HOAs are generally NOT such a good thing for a lot of people but I also realize how they can be beneficial for others.

I dont think Leawood is an 87 y/o woman. But i could be wrong. If i cant get my mail or change my lightbulb.....put me to pasture.

Leawood very obviously lives in an urban condo.

Having lived in one myself for the past decade, I can understand this: You have 18 foot ceilings, your ladder, if it's even tall enough, is in the storage unit several stores down in the basement. Often, the easiest way to get the correct unique bulbs is from the building.

Could you go out buy, drag the damn ladder up and down and get it done? Sure. But you can also send an email from work and they are changed by the time you get home, because they are set up to do that kind of thing. And the real magic kicker: you're already paying for it.

As for the mail, yes a little bit of laziness, but grabbing your mail from the front desk lady instead of going to a different floor or part of the building for it, not the worst thing when, again, you're already paying for it.

Nope. You're not a real man unless you do it yourself. Get that fucking ladder you liberal bum!

[TDub]

Has nothing to do with bein a man

[Deleted User 289]

Why would you need to call someone to change a light bulb or pick up your mail? Thats just pathetic and lazy.

light bulb - Perhaps because you are an 87 year old woman who can't climb a ladder?
mail - Perhaps because you an 87 year old woman who is hospitalized?
Perhaps those excuses are "pathetic" and "lazy" to you but they are very legitimate and real to me and my mother.

I 95% understand why HOAs are generally NOT such a good thing for a lot of people but I also realize how they can be beneficial for others.

I dont think Leawood is an 87 y/o woman. But i could be wrong. If i cant get my mail or change my lightbulb.....put me to pasture.

Yes, you were addressing Leawood directly by saying "you". My bad!
I misinterpreted it as meaning anyone who read your post being "you".

I happen to agree with you that it would be lazy and pathetic for a healthy guy to feel the need to call someone to change a light bulb that would be easy to change - and to get their mail if it was as easy as walking a short distance to go get it themself.

Meanwhile, I have seen many other lazy and pathetic things in my life and my typical thought is to each their own and so be it.

As I basically said, I realize some/many pros and cons to HOAs and clearly as this thread has shown, some enjoy what they feel are the benefits - while some feel they are "gross", "you're a fool" if you buy a home with a HOA, and they would "never" own a home with an HOA.
Very well!
Moving on........

[ousdahl]

Right on cue!

Some HOA somebody complained about snow plowing bills when they didn’t think there was enough accumulation to warrant the service.

The HOA bored president then declares the snow plows aren’t allowed to come any more until he gives his personal approval, every time.

So now lots of other HOA calls about, why aint the parking lot plowed yet?

So while HOA pros include things like getting a parking lot plowed, the cons include things like having yall’s cake and eating it too.

[CrimsonNBlue]

I see a lot of pre-suit bickering within and by HOA's come through my inbox.

People always do a good job of muddying stuff up.

[Walrus]

But mostly for the wealthy.

Actually, most rich people who invest would never buy anything with an HOA fee. It's "burning money" as I've been told by them.

[Deleted User 89]

sage wisdom

[defixione]

But mostly for the wealthy.

Actually, most rich people who invest would never buy anything with an HOA fee. It's "burning money" as I've been told by them.

Then you've never met any truly rich people.