I hate HOA's

Lumber prices...

Ryan!

 

Funny............not funny

 

You live in Santa Cruz too??

 

Jesus, that's a nightmare right there. I've been lucky over the years with my neighbors but you never know what comes next.

 

My neighbors wanted to repaint their house the same color they had before because it was fading and getting a bit old looking. The HOA kept telling them to send a paint swab of the color they intended to paint it so that they could approve it, my neighbor told them it was an absurd request because they were repainting it the exact same color they already had now. This went back and forth for a while before my neighbors just went ahead and repainted their house, HOA didn't even notice.

HOA is a 2 edged sword. Sometimes the HOA is nice for keeping shitty neighbors in check, sometimes the HOA are your shitty neighbors.

 

If I did I’d at least have an ocean view!

 

(insert every town in California here)

 

I've seen worse but not sure exactly if you can grow certain plants in your area but we plant green giant arborvitae along fence lines for privacy. In a few years you wont even see the fence when they grow in. Very cheap and minimal maintenance.

 

Arborvitae tend to get the taco tops here due to our climate. I planted 3 variegated Dogwoods along the fence along with a burning bush in the corner. Due to another neighbors tree it gets little sun & they are taking forever to get to full size.
I am contemplating moving all those & planting some type of evergreens for year round use. I hate looking at their whole yard.
I have been doing lawn & landscaping for 25 years so I will figure something. Our neighbors tree really needs to go & that would accelerate the current plan but they just neglect it (it has a 2' hole in the main trunk).
Ryan

 

I would definitely start with a privacy fence. I can only speak for where I live but we are allowed 6 feet max height for the BACK of the property line. Maybe do a solid white vinyl fence. At least you get some "instant" privacy and then the sky is the limit for any type of tree of shrubs. You can't go wrong with evergreens. Maybe offer to cut it down for them?

 

Hate HOAs!

 

Came here to post this.

 

I'm surprised that HOA'S still exist. Must prey on those desperate newlyweds...god bless them, that are boondogled into such a compromising situation.
HOA's suck! That's all there is to it! Let the founders wallow in their own mire!

 

Exist?

There are over 370,000 homeowner associations in the United States.

Collectively, this represents over 40 million households (over 53% of the owner occupied households in America).

 

All collecting dues... What a scam!
Ryan

 

Very sad!
Almost like scammers for sure! Oh well, they ain't gonna get me.
My true sympathy to those who have fallen into this and/or time shares. But that is another subject.

 

It definitely seems like a money making scheme.

 

It's surprising...over 53% failed to explore other options.

 

The houses I was looking at (and passed on), HOA fees ran $100-$200 a month. Assuming you get full lawn care and snow removal with that... probably some other benefits come along with it (?). Obviously there are benefits or people wouldn't enlist. Or, I guess if you find a house you absolutely love, in a good school district, at a great price, whatever; you can tolerate the bullshit.

 

Very true. Life is all about priorities!

 

The lesson is clear. I need to set up a few HOAs and pay myself a hefty salary for my amazing 'management' services to the community.

 

I'd wait til their having fun in the pool & report an indecent exposure claim on your neighbors....I don't watch porn period why would I want that outside my residence.
Im all about being adventurous but hey sounds like they need a privacy fence if they want to screw in their pool...just saying.

 

You should go jump in their pool next time they're fucking and just start doing laps around them

 

That's pretty funny but so disgusting swimming around with all their juices hopefully you wear a full diving suit with face mask LOL! Brings don't drink the water to a whole new level of nasty LMAO!!!

 

I’m surprised so many people shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars for something without reading the specifications, owners manual and instructions (Articles of Incorporation, deed restrictions and rules and regulations) first. Want to park in the street? Don’t buy in a neighborhood where that’s prohibited. In Texas that’s only possible on private streets owned by the HOA unless it’s in a municipality where it’s a violation of law. Want to modify the exterior of your property without having to get approval? Don’t buy in a neighborhood that requires approval. Want to play loud music or set off fireworks all night? Don’t buy in a neighborhood that prohibits such things. Instead of finding yourself having to hire an attorney to defend yourself for breaking the rules, hire an attorney to help you ensure that you’re purchasing somewhere that suits your lifestyle. And don’t trust a realtor to represent your interests. They rarely do but 100% of the time will collect their fee from you. We have lived in an HOA for almost 30 years and have no complaints. Raised 2 kids here and have had good and bad neighbors. Almost without exception when a neighbor has been pissed about some rule they broke it was because they failed to review the restrictions before the bought the property. And they almost always act like victims when they’re really just stupid.

 

I bought cheap little fixer-upper in a small town next to a nice little farmhouse. Single mom with two kids and she kept it looking nice. She moved out and the neighbors from hell moved in.

Another single mom, but this one came with a sociopathic 16 yr old son who enjoyed dismantling cars and throwing the parts into my yard. She also had a boyfriend addicted to painkillers who worked in construction occasionally and liked to bring home the old materials and leave them lying around.

I'm pretty tolerant of stuff like not mowing the lawn and crappy landscaping. Heck, I'm guilty of that all the time working graveyard shifts and not much daylight to get stuff done. But the new neighbors brought a whole new level of white trash that I had never had to deal with. I ended up going to the city council and demanding action. The owner of the house was an elderly widow who didn't have the faculties to deal with out of control tenants, and the small-town cops didn't want to hit her with multiple fines for violations. Eventually, som good ol' boy justice took place and the trash moved out and the house sold to a young couple both in nursing. They have done a great job of restoring the home and property.

I occasionally get a whiff of pot smoke from them on their back deck, but whatever. Very thankful for them!

This is the hell I lived next to for three years. The pickup is a couple of feet from my property line...



So yeah, I hate HOAs and avoided them like the plague when I bought homes in Arizona, but I've also lived through the other extreme, and it sucked as well.

 

I often wonder about this level of trashy people. It don't cost shit to be clean. On top of that, most of the clutter in the yard has some value... dude could drag that fucking truck to the scrap yard and get $100. Why people like this can't be more fastidious totally befuddles me. It's not the great goddamn depression where you need to hoard an old car because you are recycling parts and scrounging steel for the war effort.

 

For heavens sake!

Where's my fainting couch?

 

Settle down there, Cheech. Not everyone supports drug use.

 

Can’t escape pot needles in CA and in the PNW.