11/24 #1
I don't live in a HOA, I help manage some.
Ah, but you still have an opinion, right? Would you ever live in one? Not as a renter, but as a home owner? (inquiring minds, etc., etc.)
Never lived in and are with a HOA but living in military base housing probably comes close in many aspects - hopefully will not ever have to deal with that again. Definitely will never buy a place that falls under one.
I lived in base housing many times, but always considered myself to be a renter (and usually a short-term renter at that - one year or less) so my issues with HOAs did not really apply then. The house/property was not "mine." On top of that, as a military person, we always complied with military rules (except where we thought we could "get away with it.").
home owners don't technically own their unit/property; instead they own a share of the whole complex and are granted exclusive use to a single unit. As such, the Association actually owns all of the property and the Board has a fiduciary responsibility to consider the interests of the property as a whole, rather than the interests of a single owner.
Thank you very much for the explanation, Count. And, as your particular association goes, I can understand the rules. Yes, I read every word because I truly do want to understand.
I am one of those who will never again even live in an apartment complex (never used their pool anyway - high volume snot-nosed brats always made it unattractive to me) and would have a hard time even being a renter in any city - even houses are too darn close to the noisy neighbors. Maybe my current isolation from "residential areas" of any kind has greatly influenced my attitude about being able to do exactly what I want to do when I want to do it. Way out here in the boonies, I can even erect a new barn without a building permit - unless a human is going to live in the building, no codes apply. Yes, obviously the electrical codes must be followed, but I was allowed to wire it myself and connect to the mains myself. The electric company (NOT the government) came and nodded and said, "Turn it on."
Anyway, my objection was that I had a friend who bought a house in an HOA back in Orygun. He was constantly ticked off that they wouldn't let him do this or that. I stayed with him for a month and I had two vehicles. He had one. He had a two-car garage. That meant one of my vehicles was in the driveway. They told him I had to park that car outside of the HOA or it would be towed. No street parking. No over-flow parking areas. Overnight guests who parked in the driveway could stay the weekend, but no longer.
I thought I was in a friggin' communist country. Obviously, I would never invest my money in a place like that. Am I anti-social? Well, anti-socialist, yes. But I think I get along very well with everyone, so long as we are all on our best behavior
. When I am in your house, I will respect your rules. If I do not want to play by those rules, I should not be there. Pretty simple, huh?
it does reaffirm to me that positivity and intentional focus WORK!
Yeah team! Intentional Focus (AKA Field of Intentions) has been the thing to save my bacon ever since I finally figured out that one can, indeed, really make it work.
