Homeowners Assoc. Sells Woman's House Over $420 Fee

What? No basement? They're not even trying.

 

That's exactly what's going on with me. I don't want to sell, but couldn't if I tried. I live in Fort Bend and the new housing is nuts on the Grand Parkway.

 

HOA? Retain value? Such foreign concepts to me since I moved out of Sugar Land 10 years ago. Had a house there for 7 years, went up by 20%. My older house in Alief that we had for 10 years went up by about the same percentage over 10 years.

But you want to talk about appreciation? How about 10% over the last month?? I'll let you guess what part of CA I live in. No amount of HOA craziness will drive that kind of appreciation. Abundance of land is your biggest enemy.

 

A few thoughts:

1) HOAs serve a valid purpose. If somebody in a neighborhood of traditional houses paints their house hot pink, has a three story awning and a life size space shuttle in their backyard, it will cause the sale price of the surrounding homes to plummet. An extreme example, but you get the point.

2) HOAs are TERRIBLE with their collection practices.

3) Even in a non-judicial foreclosure scenario, there is a mandatory notice provision. Notice must be made approximately three weeks prior to the sale, by certified mail.

Seems to me that the HOA may not have played by the rules.

 

I would like to live by the Simpson house.

 

I have an agreement with my neighbor to buy my heights house in the next 90 days.

I bought in 98 for 130 and I'm selling for 185. We are cutting the realtors out of the picture so I should clear a nice chunk of change.

I've been looking in the burbs and I'm scared as hell of HOA. I bought in the Heights for that very reason but thanks to HISD i'm now going to have to buy a McMansion and deal with the commute and HOA's. It will provide my kids with a better public education and I will get twice as much house as I would if I tried to turn around and buy another Heights Home.

 

I pay $660 a year to our HOA. That sucks. I know they serve their purpose, but some of their rules irk me. Here are a few straight out of my HOA's guidelines:

* At least 10 foundation shrubs per lot shall be installed in the front yard. Minimum size for these is 5 gallons.

* At least 2 vertical foundation accent shrubs per lot shall be installed in the front yard. Mininimum size for these shrubs is 10 gallons.

I don't like being told that I must have a certain amount of shrubs. I recently removed a bunch that were orginally installed by the builder and I didn't like the way they turned out. I'm waiting for the HOA to fire off a letter, but nothing has happened yet. It also sucks that builders don't care how they plant trees and other plants. I have a Live Oak tree that is pathetic. I've been told that it's probably because the builders didn't plant it properly. The limbs grow virtually straight up. Another Live Oak just 10 feet away looks great compared to it.

I hate the fact that every house looks about the same in my neighborhood. I love the look of the variety of homes in West U, but I certainly can't afford to live in that area. It's a shame that builders aren't more progressive in their thinking and don't mix it up a little. I'm sure it's a lot cheaper to do it the standard way.

 

Faos, if you don't want a McMansion then build a custom home. Or buy some home that's 60 or 70 years old - you're pretty much guaranteed it won't look like anything being built now.

As far as HOA regulations : when you buy a house, you should ask what the restrictions and expectations are. That's all on you, the buyer.

And... $660 sure seems like a lot. I think I pay around $400. I know areas around where I live where it's around $1000-$1400 I think, but those folks have their mowing done and shrubs/planting done for "free".

 

How old is your neighborhood? Mine is just 3 years old. Ours started at $600 then jumped to $660 a year later. Seems pretty high to me, too.