4 ms·

It's absurd. People are forced into them if they want to buy a house, and part of the agreement is if you sell the house, you can only sell it to a person that

It's absurd. People are forced into them if they want to buy a house, and part of the agreement is if you sell the house, you can only sell it to a person that agrees to sign. It _should_ be illegal, especially given the racist history that HOAs were designed for.

kortilla 4y ago
> People are forced into them if they want to buy a house “Forced” in the sense that they voluntarily enter them by buying a house in an HOA. Each HOA (or lack thereof) is a property of the house you are looking to buy. Complaining about being forced to take the HOA is like complaining about being forced to be a part of the county.
- yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago
  > Each HOA (or lack thereof) is a property of the house you are looking to buy. Complaining about being forced to take the HOA is like complaining about being forced to be a part of the county. No, it's like complaining that the lawn has been saturated with salt so that it can never grow properly, and a previous owner somehow managed to legally enshrine that so that you can't fix it.
  - kortilla 4y ago
    This shitty analogy assumes that nobody wants HOAs. I personally hate them growing up in the west but a huge chunk of the population thinks they are as important to a neighborhood as having good schools, garbage service, etc.
foogazi 4y ago
> People are forced into them if they want to buy a house They’re not - they’re free to buy a house without an HOA
- cwkoss 4y ago
  Neither of the two real estate agents I've worked with batted an eye when I asked to exclude any property subject to an HOA. If enough of us do this, the price of HOA properties will drop due to decreased demand and people will more broadly recognize HOAs as the liability they are.
  - Consultant32452 4y ago
    It's a chicken and egg situation. Nobody wants to live under the thumb of an HOA. Without the HOA busy-bodies, suburban neighborhoods tend to turn into the kind of place most people would not aspire to live. Often, HOAs are annoying. More often it's like teenagers who hate it when mom makes them clean their rooms.
    - cwkoss 4y ago
      I think the main issue is that hall monitor types are attracted to the power, and so if a HOA gets taken over by people who like judging others without any other major obligations, they lose sight of the reason for the HOA rules and enforce to the letter of the rules rather than the spirit.
    - mrtranscendence 4y ago
      I've lived most of my life in houses not subject to an HOA, but for the past four years I've been "under the thumb" of one. Anecdotally, I notice startlingly little difference between the two regimes. I suppose if someone wants to park a wheelless rusty pickup truck in the middle of their lawn the HOA would do something about it, but that sort of thing was never really an issue. From my perspective, the HOA has done little except offer a pool, and insist once that I remove an almost completely invisible stump in my front lawn that was over my water line.
      - Consultant32452 4y ago
        Valuable things my HOA does: pools, parks, negotiated bulk internet, neighbors keep their lawn mowed and low weeds, no junk cars in the yard type stuff, no unsightly house colors, no serious disrepair of homes, no cars parked on the side of the road because 10 people live in a 3/2. Annoying things my HOA does: I had to replace some plants in my yard because they were not technically shrubs, and the rules said I had to have shrubs.

kortilla 4y ago

> People are forced into them if they want to buy a house “Forced” in the sense that they voluntarily enter them by buying a house in an HOA. Each HOA (or lack thereof) is a property of the house you are looking to buy. Complaining about being forced to take the HOA is like complaining about being forced to be a part of the county.

yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago
> Each HOA (or lack thereof) is a property of the house you are looking to buy. Complaining about being forced to take the HOA is like complaining about being forced to be a part of the county. No, it's like complaining that the lawn has been saturated with salt so that it can never grow properly, and a previous owner somehow managed to legally enshrine that so that you can't fix it.
- kortilla 4y ago
  This shitty analogy assumes that nobody wants HOAs. I personally hate them growing up in the west but a huge chunk of the population thinks they are as important to a neighborhood as having good schools, garbage service, etc.

foogazi 4y ago

> People are forced into them if they want to buy a house They’re not - they’re free to buy a house without an HOA

cwkoss 4y ago
Neither of the two real estate agents I've worked with batted an eye when I asked to exclude any property subject to an HOA. If enough of us do this, the price of HOA properties will drop due to decreased demand and people will more broadly recognize HOAs as the liability they are.
- Consultant32452 4y ago
  It's a chicken and egg situation. Nobody wants to live under the thumb of an HOA. Without the HOA busy-bodies, suburban neighborhoods tend to turn into the kind of place most people would not aspire to live. Often, HOAs are annoying. More often it's like teenagers who hate it when mom makes them clean their rooms.
  - cwkoss 4y ago
    I think the main issue is that hall monitor types are attracted to the power, and so if a HOA gets taken over by people who like judging others without any other major obligations, they lose sight of the reason for the HOA rules and enforce to the letter of the rules rather than the spirit.
  - mrtranscendence 4y ago
    I've lived most of my life in houses not subject to an HOA, but for the past four years I've been "under the thumb" of one. Anecdotally, I notice startlingly little difference between the two regimes. I suppose if someone wants to park a wheelless rusty pickup truck in the middle of their lawn the HOA would do something about it, but that sort of thing was never really an issue. From my perspective, the HOA has done little except offer a pool, and insist once that I remove an almost completely invisible stump in my front lawn that was over my water line.
    - Consultant32452 4y ago
      Valuable things my HOA does: pools, parks, negotiated bulk internet, neighbors keep their lawn mowed and low weeds, no junk cars in the yard type stuff, no unsightly house colors, no serious disrepair of homes, no cars parked on the side of the road because 10 people live in a 3/2. Annoying things my HOA does: I had to replace some plants in my yard because they were not technically shrubs, and the rules said I had to have shrubs.