HOA Woes

They're probably all in subdivisions built by the same builder.

Buy a piece of land and build your own house on it, you'll have no HOA in almost all cases.
OK, so I buy lot, and then there is no code enforcement of the surrounding lots - so no difference.

All the big builders and many niche Southern builders around here, all creating planned communities with HOA's. My sub had / has at least 4 different builders over the years. There are many advantages as well - for example we have a very nice olympic size pool with a zero entry offset for only a few hundred dollars per year in a climate where it can be used more than half the year. My kids loved it growing up. Also, only one entrance in and out and were 2 miles from that entrance on a dead end street - made me feel much better about letting my kids run around when they were younger.

I could buy 50 acres, and be 50 miles from town with no services. And yes, I understand the advantages of that as my wife and I both grew up on farms, with hundreds of acres, and hundreds of miles from anything other than a small town. To each their own - pluses and minuses to both.

In the end, if you want to live near a city in SC, your options are limited, and an HOA is often the lesser of many evils.
 
In the end, if you want to live near a city in SC, your options are limited, and an HOA is often the lesser of many evils.

No idea about SC, but where I'm at, I have 2.5 acres, no HOA, and the nearest grocery store/gas station/shopping is 5 miles away. "Our Nation's Capital" is only 40 miles away. Even without an HOA, property values here remain quite high.
 
Local zoning authority should take care of that.
Good luck with that. They usually don't have someone driving around looking for violations, someone has to report it, then risk retribution. The positive has far outweighed any negatives going on 5 years in our HOA, but it's still controlled by the builder. Maybe that will change when it gets 100% built out in a couple of years. Hope not.
 
The suburb bordering DFW where we live has no HOA. The second someone violates a city code, a notice is promptly left on the violator's front door. Very prompt and strict city code enforcement here (y)
 
Same HOAs stories different thread.
Just as some people choose to live in apartments, condo's, homes in communities and homes not in communities. They also choose an HOA or not in a community, condos and many upscale apartment buildings have HOAs. Just as some have complaints about anything in life it is greatly magnified in social media. Yes it is a small percentage of problems. I mean let's be real, since when man walked the earth have there not been problems between people? HOAs are not any different, than any form of governance. Except you have more control over an HOA.

I would never live in a community without an HOA, moving south 16 years ago it was security that the community would be properly maintained. If that isnt for you, choose something different, free will.

Just sold that house after 16 years and moving to a large "resort" type 20 year old community, golf courses, I think 7 swimming pools, gyms ect, the restrictions on the builder are very welcome dictating how many trees need to be planted, foundation plants all 4 sides of the house, A/C units. propane tanks need to be hidden. Buffer zones ect. This is the last phase involving a few hundred homes. One master HOA and something like 5 smaller satellite HOAs. gated entrances, guard booth at one entrance, video monitors, electric gates at other entrances, cameras, license plate readers at all entrances. If you want this lifestyle who would you expect to manage it? An HOA.

The production builder says it cost them a lot of extra money to be able to build in there and it's good for the buyers. The buyers get quality turf, trees, shrubs, irrigation and a decent looking neighborhood. Construction manager says he never has built a community where supplies, lumber and such weren't stolen from sites except here. Even the finished homes the doors arent locked. Pretty cool.

Motto of this post is, know what you are buying into or dont buy.
As far as the OP, I am sure frustrating, no doubt in my mind, he wanted to change things, they didnt want too, it is what it is. I am curious if the community is well maintained though.
Another with a "corrupt" board yeah it happens but these are all a percentage of all the great ones and the communities are FAR better maintained then non HOA. Is there a system ANYWHERE in this world where corruption doesnt take place? No

Never in the history of mankind is there any perfect system of anything but with an HOA as well as government you do have direct recourse as majority rules.
 
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No idea about SC, but where I'm at, I have 2.5 acres, no HOA, and the nearest grocery store/gas station/shopping is 5 miles away. "Our Nation's Capital" is only 40 miles away. Even without an HOA, property values here remain quite high.
Yeah, but you're mixing up living in a home as you do with 2.5 acres compared to living in a community with homes on 1/10 the size property commonly .16 acre to 1 acre which in many cases is community made up of pools, tennis courts, playgrounds and many cases security. For many its a everyday social aspect too.

Different lifestyles cant be compared, doesnt make one better than the other, doesnt make one more expensive than the other, heck some people live in 10 million dollar apartments/condos in cities. It's all about lifestyle one chooses.
 
Yeah, but you're mixing up living in a home as you do with 2.5 acres compared to living in a community with homes on 1/10 the size property commonly .16 acre to 1 acre which in many cases is community made up of pools, tennis courts, playgrounds and many cases security. For many its a everyday social aspect too.

Yes, in many cases those houses are so close together you could ask your neighbor to toss you some toilet paper without getting up!
 
Motto of this post is, know what you are buying into or dont buy.
As far as the OP, I am sure frustrating, no doubt in my mind, he wanted to change things, they didnt want too, it is what it is. I am curious if the community is well maintained though.
Another with a "corrupt" board yeah it happens but these are all a percentage of all the great ones and the communities are FAR better maintained then non HOA. Is there a system ANYWHERE in this world where corruption doesnt take place? No

We knew full well what we were buying into but the last 3-4 years it's gone down hill especially with people not maintaining their homes. The HOA is for common areas only as they have no interest(vested or otherwise) to how the properties are kept. They rely solely on the city for that enforcement. Our roads are city roads and maintained by them. It is a weird area. Our bylaws & covenants are pretty much worthless in that aspect. Everyone wants things to change and then when they realize the work needed well....I must have put in over 200hrs last year of my own time and vehicle use. Time off from work, etc...for community issues.
 
The suburb bordering DFW where we live has no HOA. The second someone violates a city code, a notice is promptly left on the violator's front door. Very prompt and strict city code enforcement here (y)
Sounds like Farmers Branch. They are currently using a service called "SeeClickFix" so folks can report violations of problems (lights out in one of the parks, people leaving their trash bins out too long, parking issues, house maintenance issues etc.) The City gets on it right away, often within hours of a report.
 
Yes, in many cases those houses are so close together you could ask your neighbor to toss you some toilet paper without getting up!
Exactly you could do exactly as you say (read on) and if you think about it what recourse do you have if that house next door are slobs or worse if there is no HOA?
Here is a perfect example, We loved a community in Florida but took a pass on it. Just beautiful area, incredible amenities, just beautiful but still a long way to go developing it. I still think about it all the time, I would have loved to live there but we are moving to NC instead.

We saw this A LOT in new Florida communities and we only wanted to buy new, maybe our last home we will ever own and we got spoiled when we moved south into a new home 16 years ago. Unlike living on Long Island NY where the homes are 50+ years old, for 16 years we needed no repairs or replacement of anything in a 3000 sq ft home. SO we wanted new again to carry us through retirement years or mostly.
Ok, back to Florida, I liked this community so much I still get listings mailed to me most all sold out but still 100s more to build. ITs not really the community vs everything is new and we are "water" people, love the ocean, lakes, streams, boating ect. Fernandina Beach nearby, Just wonderful. However the cost for what you get to us was nuts. Keep in mind currently living in SC we weren't looking to increase our housing cost but reduce it. If we moved from NY like we did 16 years ago direct to Florida is would have seemed cheap but coming from SC cost was NUTS. The price appreciation in just the last few years down there ..

Ok, Im rambling on. The homes were really nice but on 50x100 lots roughly. We actually had a lot picked out and contracts to this day 9 months later still sitting in my inbox that we never signed. We picked out the one lot where if we were to look out our window we would not be looking into the window of the house next door. The homes were 10 feet apart. For that privilege you paid roughly $250 a month in CCD Fees (unique to Florida) and HOA fees. Plus Florida taxes of another 4k, plus future price increases on the HOA once all the amenities are finished and we are looking at over 8k a year to live there, here in SC I was living for roughly 5k less a year in a home 33% larger and didnt look in my neighbors house when I looked out my window*LOL*

Furthermore on street parking is not allowed, the roads are narrow but the lots so small its impossible to enforce from what I am reading because there isnt enough room in driveways ect so cars block sidewalks and forced to park in street as well.
ITs then the beautiful community doesn't look so sweet anymore.

We were interested in the 55+

The homes in Florida are really crammed in many of the new communities if you are shopping price.
This gives an idea how close the homes are

Screenshot 2023-03-10 at 10.24.54 AM.jpg
 
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Everyone wants things to change and then when they realize the work needed well....I must have put in over 200hrs last year of my own time and vehicle use. Time off from work, etc...for community issues.
THIS is a big issue now, was even a bit of an issue in our last HOA. Homeowners are just darn lazy stepping up to the plate and volunteering their time to be on the board, even worse was the attendance of the residents at our annual board meetings which we have reps from the police, the management company we hire ect.

We as a people (I think you will agree since you put in your own time) are becoming so lazy, we want everything done right but someone else to do it. Honestly it's become worse, I hate to say it, as younger families have moved in, most of the old after 16 years have left as we just did. Do not misunderstand me, many young people/familes stepped up to the plate and took over but only a small percentage and now they seem stuck with the positions that no one else cares to run for. Positions are to be revoted on every 1 and 2 years but we no longer could even get more than a fraction to show up at meetings.

The wacky thing is then when someone complains they expect the board to take care of everything like they are paid employees. So they come up with the perfect response which is golden. "Did you attend the HOA meeting?"

The good news is, we do pay a management company which pretty much takes care of EVERYTHING including the complaint process which again is golden as the residents themselves are not the enforcers and it's all confidential. They also handle the contractors ect but the board over sees that everyone is doing their job and if not will get our own contractor that the management company pays.
Management company also handles all dues ect. No HOA should operate without a management company. If so I CAN see the recipe for disaster.
 
Because municipalities got tired of dealing with the whacko's so they made HOA's so the courts would have to.
In Georgia at least a planned community is typically considered private property consequently developers can maximize the number of units per acre.

Here are two example of what has become so common. Detached single-family with less than 10 ft between the units. These units run a little over $500k.

344c6f3717dc8f9c1d55a9ff61c269fc-cc_ft_384.jpg


ca5977880140597adf6f36e195ceb518l-m734530790od-w480_h360_x2.jpg
 
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THIS is a big issue now, was even a bit of an issue in our last HOA. Homeowners are just darn lazy stepping up to the plate and volunteering their time to be on the board, even worse was the attendance of the residents at our annual board meetings which we have reps from the police, the management company we hire ect.

We as a people (I think you will agree since you put in your own time) are becoming so lazy, we want everything done right but someone else to do it. Honestly it's become worse, I hate to say it, as younger families have moved in, most of the old after 16 years have left as we just did. Do not misunderstand me, many young people/familes stepped up to the plate and took over but only a small percentage and now they seem stuck with the positions that no one else cares to run for. Positions are to be revoted on every 1 and 2 years but we no longer could even get more than a fraction to show up at meetings.

The wacky thing is then when someone complains they expect the board to take care of everything like they are paid employees. So they come up with the perfect response which is golden. "Did you attend the HOA meeting?"

The good news is, we do pay a management company which pretty much takes care of EVERYTHING including the complaint process which again is golden as the residents themselves are not the enforcers and it's all confidential. They also handle the contractors ect but the board over sees that everyone is doing their job and if not will get our own contractor that the management company pays.
Management company also handles all dues ect. No HOA should operate without a management company. If so I CAN see the recipe for disaster.
We had a management company for a short while and while it was a great thing. It drained our dues but that's not their fault as we are still operating financially like it's 1991, which is when I was told the last increase was.

Non payers can only get a lien against their property and we can only recoup that money when they sell it. Coupled with lazy owners & lazy board members we are where we are now.

I really don't have much hope for the future.
 
In Georgia at least a planned community is typically considered private property consequently developers can maximize the number of units per acre.

Here's are two example of what has become so common. Detached single-family with less than 10 ft between the units. These units run a little over $500k.

344c6f3717dc8f9c1d55a9ff61c269fc-cc_ft_384.jpg


ca5977880140597adf6f36e195ceb518l-m734530790od-w480_h360_x2.jpg
The county had to approve this development as all counties have to.
 
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We had a management company for a short while and while it was a great thing. It drained our dues but that's not their fault as we are still operating financially like it's 1991, which is when I was told the last increase was.

Non payers can only get a lien against their property and we can only recoup that money when they sell it. Coupled with lazy owners & lazy board members we are where we are now.

I really don't have much hope for the future.
I cant say I disagree with you. It's really lazy homeowners and honestly it's our society today.
Biggest mistake when a management company is given the boot, it's all downhill from there. We were a smallish community of 200 homes, management company was very good and handles communities much larger but everyone is an equal. Their fee is 10% which is typical and well worth it.
Honestly agreeing with you I dont see any possibility of a community staying nice in todays world without one. People like you say are too busy and many just plan lazy. The management company I speak of even pulled out of one community due to some of the issues you experienced. It wasnt worth it to them, infighting, lack of participation ect.
 
The county had to approve this development as all counties have to.

I think most counties/cities/towns/townships etc. have zoning regulations that limit how close a structure can be built to the property line.

As far as that goes, after living in a townhouse (with the usual parking problems, though mine did have a garage and driveway both of which were mine) for nearly 20 years, 300 feet is about a good distance between my house and the neighbors. In the summer I can barely see that house from mine.
 
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