Context of why I love them:
They take care of the big field we co own
They take care of the nice pool we share
There are only about 20ish homes
Part of hoa fees covers partial home insurance so everyone got a roof covered by hoa when storm damaged the roofs.
It’s only $200.
They ask for volunteers in the community for stuff before hiring anyone. Like we always have someone get certified as a pool tech so don’t have to pay outside service. Someone in the community with a mower mows the field for a discount. When a tree needed to go that was by my house but shared, everyone came by and helped since it needed to go.
There is no style guide because none of the houses look the same. There are 5 fancier town homes, 5 simple town homes, 4 duplexes, then 6 single family homes built in different styles all around a big central field we share with a pool. The original builders back in the 80s made some interesting choices.
So yeah, they take care of good stuff and have caused me no problems.
So I love my hoa, which few will say.
It’s one of those things where you only hear about the bad ones, because stories like yours aren’t clickbait worthy. But a lot of the HOA laws are set up in ways that allow people to do some shifty things, so keep an eye on your board and their finances.
Yes not all HOAs are bad.
Read your bylaws before buying, review finances hard.
Especially don’t buy into copy paste house HOAs.
And some start off good but become bad over time. New board members is one way.
I don’t love our HOA, but they are pretty inoffensive and don’t really bother me. They don’t want to deal with actual fines and whatnot, so they just keep kindly reminding folks to move their trashcans and their cars off the street. Our very low yearly fee is used to maintain common ground, pay for the lights on the street, and snow plowing for the subdivision streets. In general, I think I would still prefer not having one and having more freedom, but so far they haven’t been anything like the mini dictatorships you hear about all the time. Solid meh.
I don’t think all HOAs are bad. If you want your neighborhood looking uniform and always kept up then HOA is the only way to go. I don’t like another layer of bureaucracy but I can see why some people do.
I personally prefer urban living, so HOA is almost completely unavoidable for me.
I keep an eye on my HOA’s finances, but for the most part they provide a great deal of services for not much cost. Hell the tree trimming alone would cost as much as a full year of dues.
Not all HOAs are bad. But when an HOA is bad it’s not a good situation to be in, the enjoyment and use of your home can be greatly affected by a bad HOA board.
HOA, by default, are not bad. They just have the potential to become bad quickly.
I have had several and they were mixed experiences.
