SAY NOA TO HOA

Let’s explore homeowner association myths –

Myth # 1 - HOA’s protect property values: While I did make a reasonable profit on my last HOA-owned property in Green Valley, that was in spite of the HOA not because of it. On each of the four independently non HOA owned properties I not only made a good profit; I was able to do so because of improvements I made to the property.
Quite frankly, there was never much incentive to improve an HOA property because one always had to first ask permission of the architectural committee. Now that I’m beyond childhood I’ve never been one for Mother May I games.
The reality is that while home prices across the country sometimes rise quickly and dramatically, they tend to drop slowly and that is due to factors outside of the HOA itself. In the greater Sahuarita area, the number of new housing starts may well soon exceed the demand. As one realtor put it -- when the developers bring chocolate chip cookies to the real estate office, you can guess they’re having trouble selling their houses
In short, mudslides in California, hurricanes along the Gulf Coast, blizzards in the mid-west all tend to increase property values in Arizona.

Myth # 2 - Planned communities are friendly places to live: Some are and some are not. In fact, HOAs tend to become “report communities” rather than “support communities.” Members are asked to report anyone who might be breaking the rules. As one of my friends within an HOA said, “I really feel bad about what I did when I first moved in because I thought we had to report anyone who was breaking a rule even if it was replanting something inside of their own private yard.” She had reported a lot of people. A classic example happened in one HOA when a director went around in August and found 113 properties that had weeds in front of their homes. She threatened each owner with a $50.00 fine. In another HOA, a new owner was dismayed that the first greeting she and her husband got was a warning that they had better pay their assessments on time or else!

Myth # 3: Because the owners agree to the CC&Rs (WHAT’S A CC&R?) they know what to expect before they move in - No, no and no. A study from Cornell University indicated that only about 10% of new owners ever read the CC&Rs. They are an adhesion contract that lawyers love, because they have so much room for legal argument as to actual meaning. A careful reader of the association documents will often discover contradictions within the documents themselves.

Myth # 4: ?????????????? - I sure would like to hear from some of you who live in HOAs. Do you live in an HOA that meets your expectations? If so, let me know. If not, why not?

Let me just wrap this up with an experience in a Florida HOA. I bought a neat waterfront condo. This was many years ago and the price was less than $60,000. The developer planned to put in a beach access to the lake that was great for swimming and windsurfing and promised that the additional homes he was building were going to start at more than $100,000. Soon, because he couldn’t sell the larger homes, he started building more than 100 units in the $35,000 range. He never did put in the beach access because he couldn’t get the state environmental agency to approve his plans. I’d like to hear what your experience has been with developer promises? Were they pie in the sky or have they lived up to your expectations?