Should Have Listened to You Guys

Safe Haven
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In the past, in threads involving Owners’ Associations, many of you have come out against them. I should have paid attention to you guys.

So we purchased a beautiful townhouse—even has a jacuzzi—in a rural part of the Commonwealth. It’s only about 13 years old, and really is a beautiful place with beautiful views.

It’s quiet and our neighbors don’t bother us. Here’s the thing—one thing we’ve noticed is the neighbors have been constantly selling & moving out. Some are renters. One went to neighboring Connecticut, another back to her native Texas. The others I’m not sure.

I suspect now it’s like the adage of people not leaving companies, but leaving management. Apply properties to companies, & this is what I suspect is happening here.

My husband has an Arabic surname, and a lot of the native borns here are very sneaky in their disdain for other than white, native born. My husband made numerous telephone calls to the little (expletive) manager to indicate we were the new owners, & not even one of his calls was returned. My realtor advised me to try & see what the results were if I phoned, and sure enough the expletive picks up the phone & sounds like a perky little cheerleader “Hi, this is _____ Management, _____ speaking” as if she’s known me all her life.

Hey, great, I know where one of us stands here. So under MA law owners are supposed to be notified of owners meetings. Haven’t even received notifications of one since we moved here in May, but they do notify us of when the board has decided to up the payment for repairs of community property (two assessments so far), and now an increase in monthly fees.

I may be a bit rusty in the joints but probably can mow with a push mower, and did shovel some snow at my former address. There is a much older house available in our area that is not under an association and maybe I’ll give our realtor a call.

You guys are right about associations. I made a mistake buying a property under one. I owe you guys a gift certificate for Starbucks or something.

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Lesson learned. Sorry you had to go through this. Hope all works out in your favor.

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Yep. Screw HOAs. Buncha busybodies with nothing else to do, reveling in their power trip.

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These people couldn’t run a commercial enterprise of any sort if their lives depended on it. When I asked how many contractors submitted bids on repair jobs in three units, as repairs on exterior are considered under the association, the little expletive responded, proud as a toddler just learning to count, “two!”.

And one of them was their own in house contractor. Oh, boy, all two of them! Aren’t you special?!

So anyway I have one expense I’ve been wanting to do away with (a Y membership that isn’t getting used as much as planned), which should help out and leave us with just a slight cost of living increase. I’m also trying to decide if the costs of moving, plus individual costs of services covered in our association, would save us any money.

The property I saw is a very old property, and I’m thinking would we save anything not being under an association but having repairs to make on a Century old property, plus individual costs of services like trash removal?

Or should we stay put until our daughter graduates in 5 years, then head back south or out west? We’d look to leave the area now if our daughter was 18+ years old & done with high school.

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Why not go have a chat with this woman and tell her of the test you made - your husband was ignored, you weren’t.

Tell her you’re going to sue her ass off unless they start treating you right.

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If HOAs were useful to reduce or replace overlapping regulatory oversight by other levels of government with something closer to home, literally, they might do some good.

But they cannot.

HOAs are just another level of fussbudgetry, a proverbial 4th or 5th (regulations) condom being worn in addition to federal, state, county and city oversight already in place (not everyone lives in a city though).

Yet I’ve recently had one guy say if I oppose HOAs I must be okay with anything going on …, hello, all these OTHER levels!

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There actually is a small HOA a few miles from my property in North Carolina in rural Surry County. A collection of about 25 mountain homes on relatively small plots, about 1 acre each. But for the most part the area is HOA free.

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Ran it by the other half.

Disappointing as this latest issue is, when selling and looking for single family housing w/o HOA, one really has to ask oneself if he/she desires to put their off time into maintaining the outside of a house.

It isn’t just lawn mowing & snow shoveling. Couldn’t tell you guys how many homes showing on various sites were neglected INDOORS. Some clearly needed a pressure washer outdoors as well.

Realtor himself is in his 60s & is tired of doing the outdoor tasks but for various reasons doesn’t move. It’s really important to consider how much time you want to spend maintaining a property.

And disappointing as being under an association has been, this one actually has few rules & regulations, and no neighbors phoning in petty stuff like houseguests parking (actual CA HOA story on YouTube).

Guess I’ll enjoy my beautiful view & quiet until circumstances make it desirable to go back south or west.

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There is plenty of nice places along the eastern boundaries of Appalachia. Basically depends on your weather preference. I am going down to Anderson, South Carolina after Thanksgiving to help my brother check out a couple of places in the Anderson/Clemson vicinity. They pretty much have settled on the western portion of South Carolina. He’s a couple of years from retirement, plus their son is moving from Miami to Columbia, South Carolina in June.

And the vast majority is HOA free.

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