> What am I missing? Well one thing is you can walk around the house and see what it's like yourself; and you can hire a professional surveyor to catch all the

> What am I missing? Well one thing is you can walk around the house and see what it's like yourself; and you can hire a professional surveyor to catch all the things you wouldn't catch. But you can't tell what the HOA is going to be like -- how much their ideas of what goes and what doesn't go will match your own (and how strict the rules are going to be enforced). A mismatch either way (minutely enforcing tiny rules you don't care about, or refusing to enforce major rules you do care about) is likely to be the source of friction. Actually reading through the article, it doesn't look like the guy thought the rules were stupid -- mostly he thought it would be a fun way to comply.