Are Hoas That Bad on Adding to a Mortgage?

When I rented a townhome, they would not do anything with the space inside our fence, but they would maintain the part outside it....only that didn't seem to include clearing the parking lot from snow. If you wanted to fence in your yard, you had to choose only their fencing options, and use their approved contractors.They didn't like our fall decorations and issued us a nasty gram. And when it was time to repaint, they did everyone and you had 4 color combinations to choose from. I don't know the monthly fees because we paid the owners and they paid all that for us.

My SIL was harassed repeatedly by her old HOA because of things that she was never told about (as a renter) or things she wasn't given a chance to correct. For example, her son is a mechanic and changed a tire in front of their house. Someone took it on themselves to report her for doing car repairs on the property and she had to argue the fine she was presented. Or they said her flower garden wasn't properly maintained and threatened to remove it and have her pay for it, when she had JUST moved in.

I've read some horror stories like "no car more than 4 yrs old". So decide what is a true benefit to you and what's an annoyance and what's uncool.

The county has their own rules about things like junk in the yard or tall grass. But some HOAs take it upon themselves to babysit people to their standards. I like being able to chose the color of my home and based on the prices around here, our neighborhood has stayed stable or above average without an HOA.

Definitely talk to others in the neighborhood you want to live in, and in fact see if you can get a copy of the bylaws for the development that way you know before getting in deep what to expect. Sometimes you can get them from the builders or even on the HOA's website if they have one. Not all HOAs are bad. I was actually on our board for 3 years of the 5 years we have lived here and enjoyed it. We were a lenient HOA and our property management company is great to work with. Ours isn't real strict, but be careful because some HOAs can be insanely strict.

HOA fees are not that bad. It's just a matter of knowing what you pay for. The homeowners association takes in to consideration all of the common area fees - this can include landscaping (gardening, tree trimming, etc), painting and parking lot paving/striping. Sometimes they include some utilities like trash and sewer, or possibly even water. And then you have to add in the extras - golf course, pools, playgrounds, club houses, gyms, etc. You take these costs and divide them among the number of units. When we moved my mom I really liked the idea that she didn't have to worry about landscaping, painting, roofing, etc. But she didn't want to be paying higher fees for amenities she wouldn't use - like pools and golf courses. So we looked for one that had little extras and had a low HOA fee.
Now keep in mind, by law, HOAs must maintain a reserve in the bank - a certain amount of money to cover large expenses. So newer HOAs may have higher dues because they are trying to build up those reserves. Our HOA recently voted to roof the complex earlier than planned and so not enough reserves were on hand, so each tenant got hit with an extra $2000 bill. Yikes!
Also know that as a home owner, you will elect a board (comprised of homeowners) that will meet probably quarterly to discuss finances and HOA needs. Either got on the board, or make sure to know someone on the board, to make sure that your interests are represented. It was our elected board that voted to re-roof and send us all $2000 bills.
This HOA is one of my clients - and they are in Corona - seems like a really great area and I think well run.
http://www.sycamorecreekhoa.com

I would ask people who live in the development you are looking into. HOAs vary so much. We love ours, the rates go up very slowly, and we get a TON of stuff for what we pay for. My brother lives in another area and pays more than we do and they have one dinky pool and nothing much else. We have 4 rec centers and all kinds of other perks. Just depends. Ours can be strict, but I will say the last couple of years with the economy and the drought, they were a little more leniant on lawns, just trying to be understanding. So we do love ours, but have also heard bad stories from other areas.

Your best bet is to ask someone who lives there and ask them how steadily the rate has gone up, how strictly codes are enforced, what types of things are covered, and what they like/dislike about them.

Do your homework, but know that mostly HOAs will help keep your property value up over the years- a good thing!

HUMMM I live in corona and we have an HOA. I do not mind ours. And yes I was pretty scared of them too. You need to ask them what their HOA covers. Ask for the last financial report of the HOA. If the HOA is not financially stable fees will increase (dramatically). We live in a very big neighborhood (probably 100+ homes) and our HOA is $77/month. We have gate and a nice park and security. But no pool. Also they maintain all common areas. You need to have permission to paint your house so they can approve the color. You need to have permission to change your existing landscape. I think that has to do with making sure you are not infringing on anothers property as well. Code enforcement will check to see if you are keeping up your yard and putting your trash cans out of view from the street on non pick up days (which is actually a city law, here and in most areas). Our home was bank owned before we bought it and the grass was dead when we moved in last winter. We got a "welcome to the neighborhood" letter that also mentioned our dead grass. Sure it is not great to be told you are not doing something you are supposed to but the grass was dead. They just said to correct it. We simply started watering it and within a month it had perked up. They knew it takes time for grass to grow so they gave us a longer deadline to check for progress. The one thing I get annoyed about is we sometimes get letters for our neighbors violation. Our yards are close together and her grass was bad and trashcans are always out. but it was not our stuff. My husband did have to go to a hearing on it because we were never around when they came to check to explain it to them. the property lines vary so In some areas of the neighborhood it is all one person's and some it is both. He went and had a lot of pictures and said if this is my responsibility I will take care of it but if it is not you need to contact them. It was determined it is not our responsibility. good luck to you.

We have an HOA and we are ok with it. Make sure you read all the fine print.

Yes, it was a hassle when I upgraded the roof and painted the house the same color but I get the gist of it because we want the neighborhood consistant and well kept to maintain the property values.

We are in a high end neighborhood so there are not many violations, foreclosures, etc. I believe the biggest complaint is when people park in the street because it does not look good. We do have a 24 hr rule regarding a car parked on the street or it's towed. I have no problem with that because I like for the street to be clear of daily parking, etc.

Ours is only $300 a year and that covers the common areas and pool. We have a fall festival each year with bounce houses, entertainment, FREE dinner for all homeonwners and children as well as sevel other social activities during the year. Ours has been quite successful and no one has been over the top on the rules issue.

You mention golf course... Are you backing up to the course? I ask because we built our first beautiful home on a golf course. My hubby is a semi pro golfer so we knew where to build the house so that we would not have issues with stray balls flying through the house!! That said, we ended up building again about 8 yrs later because of no privacy.

I could not walk outside without a cat call or have the landscape guys looking in my windows early morning, and I even witnessed a couple of golfers urinating by my iron fence when the bathroom was less than 100 ft away.

The idea of living on the golf course was great and we loved our house but we hated no privacy. We now live on a large wooded lot and have wildlife vs people and I like the wildlife much better!

I have done a LOT of mediations on HOA issues that ended up in court. After reading many, many CC&R's (basically the HOA rules), I would NEVER want to live in an HOA. You are often at the complete mercy of the HOA board. You may move in during a "good" board. Then 3 years down the road there is a complete turn over, the new board makes significant changes (like adding no on-street parking overnight, or all houses must be one of three shades of beige, or tripling the fees, all of which I have seen), and you are bound by it because the contract says that you will abide by the current rules and any amendment made by the board.
Those HOA fees are also a financial commitment that is more binding than pretty much anything short of federal taxes.
If you do go for an HOA, go over those CC&R's with a fine-toothed comb, then have a lawyer review them and be sure that you really understand what you are agreeing to.

I'm in Irvine, where HOAs reign supreme. : ) Honestly, we purposely chose a neighborhood that did have an HOA, as opposed to those who don't.

For me, the biggest advantage is that HOAs usually have nice community facilities, like pool, tennis courts, park, and/or clubhouse. My parents have lived in the same community for 30 years (also in Irvine) and their fee has gone up a total of $30 in that time (and for the first 20 years or so, only went up about $5). So I don't think the fees are likely to increase significantly. However, if you were in a condo, you might have double fees (one for your condo group, one for the neighborhood as a whole) and the condo fees are more likely to increase. I've owned my house for almost four years and we have not had any fee increases in that time (single family homes in the whole neighborhood).

We have gotten a couple of letters saying we need to correct things on our property to maintain the proper appearance of the neighborhood. Both were minor and took very little time to fix (and no money). The letters about painting don't come very often (maybe every 10-15 years) and you're usually given a choice of several colors to choose from (mostly in the beige/white/tan/gray type of colors).

I haven't ever felt like the HOA was "wildly" in control or feeling oppressive or overbearing in any way. I've actually always joked about the paint policies.

Overall though, it makes the neighborhoods look really nice. You don't have people with messy front yards, untidy lawns, etc. I'm really glad to be in a community with an HOA.

ETA: the HOA fees in both my neighborhood and my parents' neighborhood are under $100 per month.

We had a HOA in a townhome and it was about $240 per month. They did ALL the outside work - landscaping, yard maintenance, roofing, siding, clearning the driveways/sidewalks in the winter (boy did I love that - laying in bed on a cold morning listening to them do the work outside....)

Anyway, in our single family home we have now, we pay about the same but only once per year and we are completely responsible for our lot. There are rules and some that come to mind are that the grass can not get above 8" tall, no storing anything in your front yard, your garbage cans have to be stored in an unseen area and picked up within 24 hrs of garbage pick up, and a basic "keep the neighborhood nice" rules. Our association pays for the signs into the neighborhood and other common landscaping things.

I like having an association because my husband and I take pride in our home and we want our neighbors to do the same. The minimal association guarantees that you won't have neighbors who are lazy or don't care about maintaining their property, thus bringing down the neighborhood as a whole.

You can contact the HOA for the area you are moving into and ask them your questions too. They should be able to provide you with information on how the money is used and you can also ask them for maybe 5 years of HOA dues history so you can see for yourself how much it may go up each year, if anything. Ours have never increased significantly.

In addition to a HOA and taxes, don't forget about homeowners insurance and general maintenance. There is always something, believe me.