# HOA's



## Not (Jun 12, 2017)

I'm in the planning stages of my divorce which I will be initiating in two weeks. I'm currently looking at houses, condos and town homes for sale in my area and see that HOA fees are mandatory for condos and some townhouses. I know nothing about HOA's through first hand experience and wonder what a reasonable dollar amount for HOA fees are for something where there would be just landscaping/snow removal needing tending to. No pools or gyms or anything like that.

I'm wondering if it's worth paying those extra fees versus buying a home and performing those tasks on my own. On the one hand it would be really nice to not have to worry about mowing and snow blowing but what is the actual value of those services? I have no idea. I'm thinking not more than two hundred a month is reasonable. Is there more to this than just some simple math on the value of the time it takes for these services? Am I missing anything?


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## Rick Blaine (Mar 27, 2017)

You are not missing anything. If you have no problem paying $2400 a year or more for it then forge ahead. If not, then find a single detached home with a very small yard and a lot of hardscape that doesn't require a lot of maintenance. I am not a fan of HOAs. That's over $60K on a 30 year commitment. But that's my view. For some, condo living is a good fit in spite of the HOAs. If you do go for a condo survey the neighbors before committing. Get inside info on the community. Best of luck on this new journey.


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## Mr. Nail (Apr 26, 2011)

Depends a lot on 2 things, How much you enjoy yard and maintenance work. And, your level tolerance for other people. A lot of neighbor hoods have HOA's now. Fortunately mine does not. Nor does my building property.


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## TJW (Mar 20, 2012)

My experience over the last 15 years of ownership in a townhouse community has been ok.

Current fee is $235 monthly. This covers all water/sewer, snow removal, landscaping, grass mowing, and trash pickup. There have been several occasions where
extra trash pickup has been required, and there has been no extra charges.

Since I hate being involved with any of these things, prefer to spend my time doing my own work and my own activities, this is good for me and I'm pretty satisfied.


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## NextTimeAround (Dec 15, 2011)

TJW said:


> My experience over the last 15 years of ownership in a townhouse community has been ok.
> 
> Current fee is $235 monthly. This covers all water/sewer, snow removal, landscaping, grass mowing, and trash pickup. There have been several occasions where
> extra trash pickup has been required, and there has been no extra charges.
> ...


$235 monthly? Is this normal or is your place particularly upmarket.

Right now my husband and I live in townhouse in a complex. So maybe this charge is rolled up in the rent. I do like the fact that someone else does it, the landscaping for both you and your neighbor is equally attractive; someone is paid to pick up the trash in the grass as well as in the trash bins; so if you have negligent neighbors someone else picks up after them. We overlook the complex's pool so I feel as if we live in a vacation center And there's a very up to date fitness center less than 500 feet from us.

What's not to like?

ETA: there are also hospitality rooms to rent for private parties.


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## john117 (May 20, 2013)

Our HOA is 900 a year and includes snow removal, pool maintenance, and a huge amount of common area landscaping maintenance.


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## MJJEAN (Jun 26, 2015)

Here, the municipality handles trash, recycling, and lawn waste removal. Those services are why we pay property tax. So, paying an HOA fee for that would be ridiculous. 

Snow removal, mowing, weeding, etc. are the responsibility of the homeowner and are chores I do myself for very low yearly cost in terms of equipment. I don't particularly enjoy it, but I don't mind, either. The exercise is good for me. How these are handled in townhouse and condo communities varies. Some include, some don't.

I wouldn't want to buy a property only to have my neighbors tell me what I am allowed to do with/on it! Most HOA here control what colors you can paint your house, if you can fence your yard with that type of fence and in what color, what type of plants you're allowed to landscape with, and even what kind of holiday decorations are permitted. HOA's may have started to keep neighborhoods nice, but city code here covers safety, eyesores, and requires reasonable property maintenance. So, we really have zero need for HOA as we can simply go through the city code enforcement office.

When DH and I were looking to buy, we specifically only looked at homes without an HOA and I've never regretted the choice.


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## john117 (May 20, 2013)

Around here nearly any property over 3000 sq ft is in a HOA neighborhood. I have yet to run into any issues with control freak board members in 30 years. It does happen but not as often as we think.

There's other things I dislike about our HOA mostly the opposite, that is, they are in no position to influence bozo homeowners.


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## Not (Jun 12, 2017)

TJW said:


> My experience over the last 15 years of ownership in a townhouse community has been ok.
> 
> Current fee is $235 monthly. This covers all water/sewer, snow removal, landscaping, grass mowing, and trash pickup. There have been several occasions where
> extra trash pickup has been required, and there has been no extra charges.
> ...


Thats pretty good and covers more than I had considered. Does your HOA have any rules that you feel are to invasive?


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## Not (Jun 12, 2017)

john117 said:


> Our HOA is 900 a year and includes snow removal, pool maintenance, and a huge amount of common area landscaping maintenance.


Wow, that's super low. The lowest I've seen around here is $185.


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## Not (Jun 12, 2017)

MJJEAN said:


> Here, the municipality handles trash, recycling, and lawn waste removal. Those services are why we pay property tax. So, paying an HOA fee for that would be ridiculous.
> 
> Snow removal, mowing, weeding, etc. are the responsibility of the homeowner and are chores I do myself for very low yearly cost in terms of equipment. I don't particularly enjoy it, but I don't mind, either. The exercise is good for me. How these are handled in townhouse and condo communities varies. Some include, some don't.
> 
> ...



That's how I began my search too, avoided anything with an HOA but my search area is pretty small and my choices aren't many. I'd rather not go the condo /townhouse route but may have to.


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## Blondilocks (Jul 4, 2013)

Look for a sale listing in the area in which you're interested and call the realtor. They have all the data and will happily tell you what the fee is. Remember, the fee is not locked in as it can be adjusted depending on the needs of the community i.e. landscaping has to be replaced or community center needs upgrades etc. The more amenities offered the higher the fee. The fewer the number of units, the higher the fee for each.


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## Not (Jun 12, 2017)

Thank you for that tip Blondi!


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## Yeswecan (Jul 25, 2014)

I head up our HOA as the accountant. The fee for our 10 home community is $600.00/household. This covers lawn care, clean up, snow removal and any road repair that my be needed in the future. We also use a small portion for a community picnic once a year. 

For me, the major thing with a HOA is the rules. Most if not all rules are common sense. These rules help protect your investment. No Fords up on blocks. No couches on the front porch to "watch the traffic". No multi-family homes with what will be a parking lot of cars at night. No crazy front door colors. No 15 foot privacy fences. You get the idea. I can tell you, living in a neighborhood without a HOA is far different than a neighborhood with a HOA. My old neighbor would use tires to block holes in his fence so his dog would not get out. Crap in the yards. Boats, mobile homes, campers and Fords up on blocks.


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## CharlieParker (Aug 15, 2012)

I need to move, the HOA fees ate too high (that and property taxes). 

And I'm not even counting the number of special assessments. few years ago hurricane damage wiped out the reserve funds so now anything unexpected means we have to cough up more. Earlier this year I had to make a one time payment of $2,750 for a new garage door. Can't wait until spring when the building's common water heater will be replaced.


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## NextTimeAround (Dec 15, 2011)

I 've heard off neighborhoods where if you are not working on the yard then your garage door needs to be closed.


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## Yeswecan (Jul 25, 2014)

NextTimeAround said:


> I 've heard off neighborhoods where if you are not working on the yard then your garage door needs to be closed.


We ask in our HOA neighborhood the garage doors are not open all day. By and large it is not an issue in our neighborhood. It is common sense. Most people when done working outside close the garage door and go inside. Of what sense to keep it open? None that I can think of.


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## kag123 (Feb 6, 2012)

We live in a single family neighborhood that does not have an HOA. It was the only neighborhood in our town that does not have one. They are very common here. The problem is - we couldn't find a neighborhood with what we considered to be a monthly HOA fee that was "worth it" for what you got. HOA is commonly $300-400/month here. We took a gamble and bought in the neighborhood without one. 

However- there are no real rules where we live, so yes, there are people living here who let their house and property go to ****. There really isn't anything you can do about it unless they are breaking a county or city ordnance, which are pretty lax. We've got a neighbor who has an above ground pool that they've let go, and another one who has a broken down car with no tags in their driveway. You unfortunately can't count on your neighbors to have common sense or not be totally disgusting, unfortunately. 

I still don't think they should cost $300-400/month, but there isn't any in between in this area. 

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk


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## john117 (May 20, 2013)

400/month is obscene unless we're talking McMansion exponential. Ours is maybe 80/month. 

Check the HOA budget to see what they're spending on. Last house we were was 500/year but we had an awesome pool, lifeguard on duty at all times, swim meets, instruction, etc. Ironically we moved because of harebrained HOA fear that a huge apartment complex next to us would be akin to three mile island. Everyone voted to build a Trump wall between us and the apartments. By the time the bill came we moved to the apartments while our McMansion was being built.


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## uhtred (Jun 22, 2016)

Condos / townhouses and the associated HOAs are a mixed bad. (by mixed I really do mean mixed good and bad). 

I think that on average owing a separate home is a better long term investment and costs less for the same quality place.

I think that on average owning a condo is substantially less work and bother.


Its like there was a free market or something ;-).


How you trade your time and money is entirely your choice. My wife and I both work time consuming, high paying jobs, no kids. Because of that we are happy to trade money for time. We own a condo. We pay for maid service. We have our cars repaired at the dealer. In lots of ways we spend our money to make our lives easier. 

Our HOA is small ~20 units. We were both briefly on the board, but quit after a year because it was so much work. We write a check every month. Recently we wrote a check for a large assessment to take care of some long term issues.

Our fees are ~$500/month on a ~$1M value unit. Those fees were not enough to cover the real costs. 

Needless to say the prices vary dramatically by area. 


I think either approach is fine, its just a trade of money vs time.


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## Blondilocks (Jul 4, 2013)

With condos and townhomes, you need to know what repairs the HOA is responsible for and any anticipated upcoming expenses. You can also request a copy of their latest financial statement to assess the reserves and take note of the auditor's comments on the reserves. As with a single family residence, kick the tires. How old is the roof, when was the heating/air unit replaced, age of water heater etc. If you're on a tight budget, you don't want to be blindsided by unexpected expenses.


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## Not (Jun 12, 2017)

Thanks for all the info everyone. I think I'll avoid the HOA's if I can.


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