What are the Pros and Cons of HOA fees? Should I avoid buying in a neighborhood that has them?

[Softlife808]

One of the perks I've noticed with Mobile homes is that there are no hoa fees so fat, property taxes cheaper and home owners insurance cheap. I just looked at some townhomes and noticed they all have hoa fees.

Avoid

Buy

Other

[Massageman]

I've seen three types of HOA personally, and there has been a problem of some sort with every one of them. 1. A local purchase condo assn on a micro level- prices keep going up, the maintenance gets done by "rent-a-dopes", the place is still a mess, and the HOA (tax) goes up more. And the place no amenities other than an open parking lot. 2. A medium-sized rental condo. Has pool, grounds, but on a steep hill. Have the tab each year goes to rebuilding hills and Berns that go bye-bye each year. 3. A large neighborhood of a town in SC. Three management companies (who really do very little to "manage"), five landscape companies in 6 years, service is less and less with each new company, as the rates go higher and higher.. People putting up fences when they should not be, since various years of (grandfathering in) to the assn means just about every house has to adhere to a different set of rules about what they can do/not do/put/not put in the yard, and their paint color has to be approved! Plus, there are two different funding types because there are some large condo buildings (which pay more money but get a new rood thrown in every 15 years) and some are single-family homes, too.

Certain areas- more towards the south part of the country and especially near "vacationy" places- seem to stick more with the HOA format.

[razelove]

It really depends what you're looking for. A HOA can make and enforce rules where you buy, the services you're laying out would only be if you buy a condo or something, not a house. Like I bought my house outside city limits and not in any HOA or subdivision, so I only have my mortgage, insurance, and bills, the property tax is negligible as it's to the parish, not even the city as I don't live in it.
I also have done work to all my homes myself, so I need some wiggle room. I can't have too strict of a city that will inspect my home when I've redone a lot of the wiring, some plumbing and what not.
It's very expensive, and troublesome to get paperwork on wiring you've done without a license.
Anyway, what are you looking for in a home, to appreciate in value, save money compared to rent, what?

[Softlife808]

I've seen houses here with hoa fees but they're cheap fees. Townhomes I looked at hoa is like 200 plus Dollars lol like yeah right I'm not paying that

[Softlife808]

I'm looking to live comfortably lol 😆. So low rent but in a safe neighborhood. So far, I don't know if you've seen my previous post mobile home fits what I'm looking for. I don't like stairs and don't want an extremely large house

[razelove]

Honestly you can find a lot of pieces of property that are really cheap outside city limits and drop a prefab home or used trailer on them that you can find for 10-20k if you look for a hot minute. If you figure that you get a home that you can keep upgrading, like drop another trailer or two to rent out yourself, it's solid, and about the same cost as if you paid rent.

[midnightmoon05]

HOA fees covers the outside of your home. Maintaining the exterior walls, pool, ground, snow, garden roof, trash. Anything broken inside your home is still your responsibility.

if I was a single woman buying. property, I won’t want to do exterior work.
inside the house, I would still save up extra emergency funds for repairs.

To answer your other question.
buying a mobile home will depreciate like others said.
which means … you paid $60k now.
5-10 years later you want to move. When you sell, you will not be able to get $60k. The home will be lower.
most other homes … generally speaking, value go up. (Depends on the area and our economy)

so that home maybe $70-$80k.
it’s your choice.
I am in real estate and prefer homes/neighbors that go up in value.

[Softlife808]

If it depreciates in value means my property taxes won't go up. I'm fine with that. My goal is to live comfortably. I've lived in a neighborhood with hoa. Hoa more so enforced rules such as you need to maintain exterior of your home a certain way and so on. They don't work on the outside of your home. Maybe lawn and trash but roof they don't do that

[Softlife808]

If you live in a single family home with an hoa.

[Softlife808]

Only if you have shared space like condo or townhome is where they would actually do some repairs

[midnightmoon05]

Sore if that’s what you want. Good luck. 👍

[Razp_Sorbet]

We don't have HOA here at least not to my knowledge, from what I've heard it's annoying af and gives you limited independence on what you can do to your own home. Which is stupid... Paying someone to tell you you can't paint your door a certain colour. That's bullshit honestly.

[Pudsmucker]

HOAs have a lot of restrictions. To me HOAs are out of tax. I've never seen a good HOA. Some HOAs will not allow you to paint your house your choice of colors. You are not out some will not allow you to have pets. Size of pets, how many pets you can have. Some have a swimming pools that they charge you for maintenance which that's a plus. Another classes you cannot abandon your vehicles on the side of the road. Or allowed to do mechanical work on your vehicle. To me it's a big negative to have an HOA.

[exitseven]

HOA fees will continue to go up and most of the time you need to spend maintenance costs on things not covered.

[Softlife808]

Wow, OK ill skip places with hoa

[worldscolide]

Hoa's are the worst. They can literally take your home from you if you fail to follow their rules, pay their fees and fines and the like. Not worth it.

[TomMarks]

I’ve never lived in an HOA area, but from stories I’ve seen around about some of them, I don’t want to.

[dudeinohio]

HOAs control how you must manage your property. You aren't free to do. as you wish with your own property.

[zagor]

Make sure there are restrictions on how much they go up, and check out their history.