Do You Want An HOA?

When considering buying a home one of the thing you run into is the homeowner’s association. Not only does it include additional fees, it includes amenities and rules that may protect the value of your home.  What fits your personality best? 

How do you feel about your neighbor’s lawn?

Are you the live and let live type or do you want your neighbor to keep their lawn as nice as yours? Is it ok if they have a car parked on their lawn for a little while? 

If you are particular about how lawns are kept, an HOA might be a safe-haven for you. Some of us just like having a lot of neat lawns around us.

If you don’t care what the neighbors do as long as they aren’t bothering you, then you may not need an HOA.  If you work long hours and get behind on your lawn maintenance, an HOA may be bad for you unless you can hire someone to do the work for you.

Do you want to make unusual landscaping or architectural changes?

If the answer is yes, then you don’t want an HOA. HOAs are unlikely to allow you to make drastically visible changes to your home.  Also, they may have restrictions on when work can be done that go above and beyond what the city allows. After you finally get approval for your work, you will have to work within the time that the HOA allows.

If you don’t want to make unusual changes and you don’t want to live near strange looking houses, an HOA may be right for you.  As stated, some even have rules to prevent work crews from working at unpleasant hours of the day that the city may allow.

Are you ok with submitting a request before making changes to your house?

You’ve read the rules, you know what you want to do is going to be ok, but the change will be visible.  Are you willing to go through the process of making a request to the Architectural Review Committee before you do your work? It may take them a couple of weeks to get back to you because they are just unpaid volunteers that live in your community.

If not, then maybe an HOA isn’t right for you. However, if you can manage to be patient enough to wait for the response then the HOA could be right for you. No one likes waiting before painting their front door or replacing their fence. In this case, it’s a matter of how patient you can be with your neighbors while you wait for them to approve your application.  

Not all HOAs are the same

Drive around the neighborhood and you can see signs of the performance of the HOA. Look for occupied homes with tall grass and look at how well the common areas are kept. If you’re observant, you’ll have a better idea of the kind of neighborhood you’re buying into. Your realtor may also be able to give you some details as well.

There is no right or wrong answer to the HOA question. It is a personal decision. It’s not one that should be overlooked in the buying process, though.