Fuck HOAs. I refused to look at houses within an HOA when I bought mine. I fired a realtor because they kept wasting my time showing me “wonderful houses” that were within an HOA, even though I explicitly told them no.
Ditto.
Hoas are great for master planned neighborhoods, that are gated and have a community pool. The funds go maintaining the landscaping, gate, streets, and pool
They should not be used for any communities that lack of those . The problem is they are built into new housing and it’s difficult to get rid of them.
The only people I’ve ever heard speak positively about HOAs are the ones causing problems for people within them. I’m not sure if that includes you, but it certainly paints my perception of this comment.
I think it’s like plane crashes. We hear a lot about when things go wrong, but if it actually works, there’s nothing to talk about.
A friend’s grandmother lives in an HOA. She never has issues.
We should probably have the dues, complaints, charters, and whatnot be public to avoid some of the mystery. You wouldn’t move to a new state without being able to look up the constitution, other laws, or tax rates on a public site… (well you shouldn’t anyway). I don’t understand why we’ve decided it’s okay at the community level.
A friend’s grandmother lives in an HOA. She never has issues.
Of course a little old lady doesn’t have any issues - HOAs exist to make their lives easier. Why do you think they end up with rules like ‘dogs can’t bark after 10 PM’? Do you really think it’s a young person making that rule?
Yeah, if that were the only thing I wrote, my contribution to this discussion would be complete garbage.
We should probably have the dues, complaints, charters, and whatnot be public to avoid some of the mystery.
You have this, it’s called literally anyone and everyone online hating HOAs.
I can keep breaking down what you wrote, if you’d like.
So your technique for breaking down ideas is to invoke an appeal to majority, and then be condescending about it?
Holy shit, I’m outmatched. It might take years for me to recover from the epic own I’ve just received.
I concede. There are countless other discussions that need your brave insights. It would be selfish to take up even one second more of your time. Godspeed.
I made the mistake once. Property values. These are investment communities and not homes.
Yeah,…gated communities? Private pools? Really kinda showing their hand there.
Sorry for the “clickbaity” in-video title but I thought this a great example of how people are fighting back: Youtube Link
HOA are cancer. I don’t understand how anything the HOA does is not a municipal government issue.
Our HOA is a municipal government. It functions exactly the same as an HOA but ran locally by elected government instead of a private company.
Being municipal government doesn’t really make it any better.
Because our country has a weird obsession with “government overreach” and somehow a private entity policing your every move is “more free” than a municipal ordinance.
It’s because the government said let’s all get along, and treat black people as humans and HOA’s we’re a legal way to enforce segregation…
It allows individuals to harass members of the community they don’t like through ticky tack violations that can be selectively targeted at any type of “other.” At the inception of HOAs that “other” was usually some type of race, but it can apply to anyone who doesn’t conform or just who your crabbiest neighbor might not like because they hate kids or don’t like that someone drives a nicer car than them or are just angry at their lot in life.
The only thing I think is reasonable is in cities like SF, the HoA pays for elevators to operate and usually a full-time security guard(s). Its annoying that if I get a condo that I have to pay an HoA fee (some are insane and basically just rent) but if its reasonable I can see it being worth it.
But in suburbs? I genuinely have no idea why I would want to be in one. And the fact that youre forced to pay dues just because the previous owner of the home youre trying to buy was in it is wild to me
Here’s the thing.
Can it be reasonable? Yes.
But what do you do if it’s not reasonable? Because you’re locked in either way.
When I moved into my condo it was 300/quarter for the pool (which was blue), a working grill, 2 parking spots for my unit and 2 elevators. When I moved out it was 800/month for a green pool, a broken grill, 1 parking spot and only 1 functional elevator.
There was fuck all I could do. Some kind of Business bought multiple units giving them multiple votes. They could use my money to invest in their other businesses.
Not even going to mention the Surfside debacle. I got out before then but every single unit had a 70k Special Assessment because there was no money in savings, and the law now required a tremendous savings.
Yeah, I meant that specifically for suburbs/single family zoning areas. A multi owner building needs an organisation to actually do maintenance.
Is that censor a break in my screen or does that happen to everyone else while scrolling??
its part of the image
people should be aware of AXON cameras too.
The municipalities are allowing it and the police are gobbling them up. As someone commented below, a fucking Ring camera is near identical to a Flock. In the near future, I’m certain Ring will also offer a camera, with options, that will read your ass.
They already do gait analysis. It’s not a leap to assume that Amazon can identify you from the motion of your ass as you walk.
They already do gait analysis
Are you sure? As far as I’ve seen that’s just pop sci-fi bullshit that has never been proven to work in the real world.
This is an interesting read: https://recfaces.com/articles/what-is-gait-recognition
You can do it at home with open-source software like OpenCV. The world’s largest companies that have been collecting and analyzing surveillance data for more than a decade are now desperate to find profitable use cases for their “AI”…
This paper makes it sound like it’s still basically guesswork. It’s a lot like lie detector tests. They don’t really work, but maybe they can be somewhat useful tools when combined with lots of other things?
I want to preface this with: I agree with you.
But the success of most things algorithm related are nowhere near 100%. Look at facial recognition, or even fingerprint recognition. There are false positives, to the point that innocent people have been convicted on them.
All tech has a margin of error, and it’s us idiots (meaning humans in general) that place an oversized trust in it.
They absolutely do. If I were forced to buy in an HOA, thankfully I wasn’t, I would never buy HOA+cameras.
I used to live in a condo and sometimes went to the HOA meetings. One time they were discussing a couple vehicle thefts that had happened in our parking lot, and whether they should allow the local police to patrol the lot (noting that the police could also ticket cars that, say, had expired registrations, too - it wouldn’t necessarily just catch theft). It was a pretty good discussion of the pros and cons, though one guy was screeching about having a police state.
Then, a few topics later, in the same meeting, there was a discussion about a proposal to install cameras that would take pictures of all cars coming and going out of the lot. Guess who was strongly in favor of that.
Insert “at least it’s not gubbermint” gadsen flag with Flock, Ring, Axon, Motorola, and Palantir on the boot crushing the snake
I went to the the pool yesterday with my toddler and noticed a flock camera pointed at the pool entrance. Fucking perverts.
Whatever spying cops are doing, HOA busybodies are doing it worse.
Good move, buyer. I would cancel a showing for any house in an HOA. Have never lived in one of those.
Fuck Reddit and Fuck Spez.
The fact that your HOA is surveiling your house and its residents is disgusting enough to at least meet with an attorney, IMHO. 🖖🏼
So they presumably have footage of women in bikinis. Do minors also use this pool?
Did you say Epstein files? The ones nothing is being done about? The same that seem to not only list hundreds of those currently in power, but that they consistently avoid consequences for? Yeah, those Epstein files.
Flock cameras make it look like there’s a lot of crime in the area
That’s because their presence alludes to anyone being a secret criminal, even your neighbors. 🤮 Watch out next for the armbands.
They’re already soft launching this with trans people’s ID’s
Yep. The armbands aren’t just for arms anymore. 😒
When I was house-shopping, I refused to look at any house that was in an HOA.
Depends on the HOA. Some are basically microdictatorships, some are just actually a group of homeowners trying to make sure their neighborhood doesn’t fall apart. Several of the houses down the road that don’t have HOAs have broken furniture and smashed cars in their front yards. Imagine trying to sell your home living next to that.
We pay about $500 a year to our HOA, and that gives us access to a neighborhood playground/yearly events/etc. Only time we had to reach out was to build a fence and it was just verifying we were in the guidelines for type of fence allowed and not encroaching neighbors.
Just remember that the board and rules can change over time. What seems reasonable now may not be what you’ll be dealing with next year.
guidelines for type of fence allowed
Huge red flag. There’s a giant spectrum between “no trash in the front yard please” and “guidelines for type of fence allowed”
Some HOA’s are literally just to pay for the maintenance of a shared private drive, which IMO is reasonable. So, we explicitly refused to make any offers or consider any homes in HOA’s which didn’t let us see their charter. Interestingly enough, that was all of them… makes you think.
Where I’m from, the board has to make all documentation and meeting minutes available to people considering purchasing.
And it’s a damn good thing they do, I’ve had friends discover some pretty expensive things that were lurking in the wings for future costs, like mold abatement and foundation problems.
What you don’t want to pay a surcharge every month for the privilege to fund a micro government focused on harassing its constituents?
Ya fuck HOAs
This is my number one requirement.
Regardless of whether flock cameras are deployed or not, I can’t figure out why anyone would be looking to buy into an HOA community.
What is HOA?
the importance of ‘freedom’ is central to the american experience. but, nobody in this country can mind their own fucking business, and every single person has some grand idea about how everyone else should live and then wants to go out of their way to make their insane fantasy a concrete reality.
the HOA is one such expression. in this case, it’s when a bunch of upper middle class karens create a neighborhood government to tell you what you can or can’t do with your property.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeowner_association
Basically a power hungry mini government that controls everything about your house
My friend bought a house in a good neighborhood with “good HOA”. Half a year later they went on vacation and while they were away, hoa people entered his yard with a key that they apparently have without informing him, and cut down a beautiful cherry blossom tree in his yard, then sent him a bill for a removal, with the explaination that the tree had “incorrect leaf density”.
Your friend should have sued the fuck out of them. If that tree was more than a few years old they could have been looking at 6 figures in damages
HOAs have some crazy legal standings and abilities. IANAL but I wouldn’t be surprised if that was technically legal according to their rules, and they are protected
I will never live in an HOA.
I wouldn’t be surprised if that was technically legal according to their rules
I highly doubt those rules can override actual laws, even if they’re in fine print you technically signed. I just don’t see a bullet point “we can secretly make a key to your property and remove something from it without any notice” holding up.
IDK, depending on how it’s written and how messed up it is, I think they can make it so when you sign and buy the house, you’re only renting out leasing the land underneath it. Therefore they’re not cutting down your tree, they’re cutting down their tree. Something like that 🤷♂️
Lack of options
I’d rather live in a tent.
No matter how “good” HOA may seem… It will go to shit and and you will get fucked. It’s not if, it is when.
You may get lucky for a few years, but eventually like Russian roulette, you will lose big.
You absolutely would not rather live in a tent. Living in a tent really sucks.
You’re missing the hyperbolic but reasonable point.
No, I got the point, it just really bothers me to trivialize sleeping in a tent. It’s really hard and no you would not choose sleeping in a tent over an HOA. That’s what anybody chooses an HOA. Because homelessness, which sucks, is the only other choice for some people.
I just spent a weekend camping in a tent, and it would suck. And absolutely would I rather live in a tent. Then throw my lives savings away in a HOA scam…
Pennsic?
Well, you’re gonna get arrested and they’re going to steal your tent. Not in that order though. Have fun I guess.
Thafuq? You’re assuming a lot abt them here, and all from a single comment?
Also, FWIW, that is not the only outcome. As someone who’s spent a couple years houseless, I can attest that those areas most frequented by drug traffic or nearest rich neighborhoods/commerce centers are the ones the police are paid to harass.
