Sell your house to zillow ?

I have to drive but she dunks me in the pool first if I have been working.

Likely well melted under the "cat" too!!!

Doesn't need AWD for a vehicle to be designated SUV. A lot of manufacturers offer the same vehicle in AWD and 2WD, still a *sports* and/or *utility* vehicle.

Seems to me like a *trailer* would serve that need.

People voluntarily buy homes with HOA or other covenant restrictions. They're free to buy elsewhere, but either they want the HOA or else the house has some other characteristic that matters more to them, like proximity to their job or vaulted ceilings or municipal water and sewer.

Cindy Hamilton

OK if they are satisfied with its limited capability. They may find out when the need it.

There are advantages. Who wants to live next to someone with a driveway full of junk?

I have heard that some areas of the country almost force any development to have a HOA, even if the HOA is very loose on restrictions. So it makes it hard to find a house not under a HOA in a desirable area.

I have bought 2 houses to live in and both times my first question to a real estate agent is 'are there any HOA or other restrictions becides what the county or state requires'.

People seem to want to pay extra for the privilege of having their neighbors telling them what their house should look like and what they can do with their own property. It seems to be a city thing that got brought to the country by urban refugees. We were happy to kill our HOA over 40 years ago. That was reaffirmed in a more than three to one vote 15 years ago when a few people wanted it reinstated. They were shocked and walked away from the offices they held. We said "Bub bye". We have been doing quite well without them.

People think the HOA is bad, just look at a town that has a 'histroical district'. They tell you almost everything about the outside of the house even the color it can be painted . Everything has to be what the governing body thinks it looked like way back 200 or so years ago.

On Fri, 20 Aug 2021 17:02:42 -0400, snipped-for-privacy@aol.com posted for all of us to digest...

That's better than just hosing you down.

On Sat, 21 Aug 2021 10:24:18 -0400, Frank posted for all of us to digest...

Hey, I keep all my junk inside.

On Sat, 21 Aug 2021 11:48:46 -0400, Ralph Mowery posted for all of us to digest...

Yeah, like the condo boards. Look how it worked out in Surfside...

I think the HOA is the main selling point or turn off. I can't imagine anyone opposed to an HOA, swallowing that turd no matter how much they like the house. OTOH there are plenty of people who really want the HOA above all. Generally speaking at that point the house itself is not that important. Pick a neighborhood and you are getting a similar house, no matter where it is. In those places, they usually only have about 5-6 models and they go out of their way to be sure none are personalized.

It is none of my business what someone has in their driveway. Generally speaking that "junk" might be a $100,000 boat or a $60,000 pickup but banned in an HOA. Most HOAs also ban generators if you can hear them next door. Since the houses are 16-20 feet apart that means no generators. The only thing that saves most people here is how many are not here in the summer. They can't hear your generator from Chicago. ;-)

This generally comes down to who owns the roads and if the developer is willing to build the roads to the county standards. It is a defacto mandate for an HOA since if you have privately own roads you need a private taxing district or other organization to maintain them. In my county, you need to be ready to cede a 66 foot right of way to the county to get them to take the roads and the roads have to be built to county standards. Most developers are not willing to give up that much land. In my whole village, the only 3 neighborhoods with public roads are mine and the one on either side of me. All of the new developments are HOA and the old ones have private roads the county won't take. They are grand fathered in. Maintenance is pretty much nonexistent in some and they are barely passable unless they are willing to sign up for a private taxing district. It creates an interesting paradox. They still pay to maintain their own roads but they become publicly accessible. We had a few HOAs who ended up having to take down their gates because they took this option without knowing what they were doing.

When this development was built in 1956, county services were pretty much non existent and they created an "improvement association" that we are still called. We are regulated by the "non-profit corporation" law, not the HOA law. The organization was originally just to coordinate things like building the roads and building a mile long road out to US41. They had sense enough to build to county standards so we could cede them to the county. Now they are county/village roads. They also built the boat ramp and developed the park. There wasn't really any restrictions on what you could do on your property that wasn't mirrored or exceeded by the county code by 1978. That was when it was decided to let the deed restrictions expire. We still get

Condos are a whole different kettle of stinking fish. I had one for about 25 years. I was on the board and they were lining me up for president when I sold the unit. Fortunately we had a management company doing the day to day and they gave us reasonable recommendations on insurance and reserves. When a tornado ripped the top floor off, we were able to be made whole.

Considering I can barely see my nearest neighbor's driveway, (a line of shrubs is in the way), it doesn't seem like much of a problem.

The other neighbor is so far away that even though I have an unobstructed view, I have to squint to determine the gender of people in the yard.

Cindy Hamilton