Avoid homes with costly HOAs if possible. Those fees never go away and never decrease.
The housing market
- Thread starter Never_Enough
- Start date
HOAs suck. Glad I'm not in one. One of my co-workers has told me some horror stories about his HOA.
I am trying to find a place with no HOA at all. Don't tell me what I can & can't do to MY house.
I used to pay $350 a year for my garbage HOA.
- They didn't enforce rules that would actually benefit the neighborhood (on-street parking was a massive problem, one house was full of illegals that had 10+ junk vehicles blocking the main entrance and their kids were always playing in the road)
- They gave me fines/notices for vehicles being parked on my lawn during a massive home repair
- They gave me a fine/notice for someone parking on my lawn while I wasn't even in the state for 2 weeks.
- They gave me a fine/notice for addressing run-off in my back yard- I built a retaining wall which channeled run-off better and kept the hill from washing out into my neighbor's yard.
- They gave me a handful of fines/notices for "unkept yard." When I called and asked what they were referring to (our yard was mowed once a week, shrubs trimmed, etc) they referred to a patch of land on my neighbor's property that was adjacent to my yard. I explained it was not my property. They replied with "it was identified as your responsibility as it is closer to your house." I said "that's not how property works, shove the fine up your ass I'm not paying it."
- I caught the neighborhood HOA Nazi in my backyard with a clipboard one day- told the old woman to get off my property or I'd call the police. She acted like she was authorized to be on my property, so I told her "either the police will escort you off my property or I'll do it myself." She huffed, puffed, and left.
- A notice went out about standardizing window shades, mailbox colors, etc. Yeah, like that's important
- Some drunk idiot drove through my yard, ran through my mailbox, and tore up my lawn. I contacted the HOA about addressing the issue of people flying around the curve my house was on- they said it wasn't their issue (police wouldn't help either). I put 12" spikes in landscape timbers along the edge of my property facing the road and erected a sign that says "DRIVE THROUGH MY YARD, LOSE A TIRE." It was smashed into two days later.
- They decided to build a house in the vacant lot across the street. The construction crews left debris all over the place- some of which wound up in my yard. Guess who got the notice for that?
I actually wiped my ass with the last check I wrote to pay the yearly dues and refused to pay any fine.
Anyone who thinks an HOA is a good idea belongs in Commiefornia.
Doing the math, 150 houses at $350 a year is $52,500. Mulch costs for the front of the neighborhood are probably $2000 a year. The street lights were probably $3000 a year for electricity / maintenance / etc. The pool was probably $3000 a year for electricity, chemicals, filter maintenance, etc. Hmm. Where did the rest of the money go? I tried following the treasury/accounting spreadsheets one year- might as well put "solid gold toilet seats" on there because their figures were grossly inflated.
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No HOA here, and not inside city limits.
Sounds like the more northernly part of Mt. P right?
Not surprising if so.
West ashley is inherently anti HOA. The lady of the house was very pro HOA when we were looking. Then when our neighbor complained about the fox being loud, she aptly hollered out "Suck my dick, we are in the county with no HOA".
I love that woman
Upstate McMansion Anthill Developments, built super cheap, sub-par, full of fire-ant ridden sod, garbage dryfill, and guaranteed to make you wonder why you bother existing.
My last house was so poorly built I can't even begin to describe it, and it was in what I would consider (at face value) a lower-mid-tier subdivision.
It's a shame but so many homes in SC are that way thanks to northernly developers rolling down and buying cheap land, building shit houses, and selling them for astronomical prices.
Luckily my home is newer but stick built and one of two homes done on a parcel of land. Freaking thing is made out of 2x8's and 10's for rafters.
Charleston is a housing nightmare. I expect the area's housing market to burst soon(ish).
My buddy's mom that works for a real estate company, says they are starting to loosen up the restrictions that were put into place some years ago.
Could be good and bad, in my opinion. Good if people that actually have the money and want to buy a home and bad if people don't have the money but still approved to buy a home. That's just my perspective on it.
Could be good and bad, in my opinion. Good if people that actually have the money and want to buy a home and bad if people don't have the money but still approved to buy a home. That's just my perspective on it.
I don't know if it's Northern developers or what. My old house was part of a "phase 1" development and I know some of the people who built those houses 15 years ago. They were laughing about the shoddy construction. Doesn't help that the prior owner was a cut-throat house flipper and slapped lipstick on the pig. They don't build houses like that up North- they'd literally cave in during the first winter.
My current house is built extremely well, so I'm thankful for that.
It's sad how they buy up 10 acres and shove 50 houses on it, ignoring the local traffic/infrastructure. Then they wonder why every stop sign and light has a mile of traffic on all sides. Greedy dumbasses
not all HOAs suck. I have lived in places with good ones and other places with bad ones. the bad ones do indeed suck. and if you get stuck in one that sux it is your own damn fault. I currently pay 350.00 bucks a year for a HOA that pretty much leaves you alone unless you are doing something stupid. they enforce the important rules and let other minor shit go.
no HOA can be as bad as a bad HOA. Frankly I would prefer my neighbors not have a used car lot on their lawn or paint their houses purple and pink
I just sold a house last summer in an old neighborhood where the prices range from $500K -$2MM.
They tried to resurrect the HOA so that they had rights of approval on anything you do to your yard or house differently.
I'd rather have a house next to me with purple shutters than have someone tell me what I can or can't do with my property.
They tried to resurrect the HOA so that they had rights of approval on anything you do to your yard or house differently.
I'd rather have a house next to me with purple shutters than have someone tell me what I can or can't do with my property.
If I can't stand in my front yard barefoot with no shirt on, honky tonk music blaring, while holding a beer.. i don't want to be there. Load up the dog baby, we are headin' on
We are far enough out in the county and on 5.5 acres that no HOA exists here. It's not needed. Houses on my dead end street range from $400k up to $1.3 million. The only restriction we have are no pigs/hogs. Anything else is fair game. Numerous people here have donkeys, horses and chickens, including us.
But does anyone have a Zebra? That's my ultimate requirement. If I can have a Zebra, then there's enough freedom for me to live there.
No one has any, but there's no rules against it.
Damn right. Freedom is scary. I'll take the chance of the purple house than the part time Democrat activist trying to use the force of the local government to take my property.
REAL TALK
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