HOA

[TarHeelNation11]

For those who live in the 'burbs........what are your thoughts on HOA's, in general.

I'll go first, I ****ing hate the whole concept of it. To me, it is so anti-American and just such a yuppy, douchey thing that yuppies who don't have the sack to go into politics can head up and be the big bad HOA board member who tells people what they can and can't do with every aspect of their home. Yes, that was a run-on sentence. Send me a grievance letter about it.

I'm not even a homeowner yet but HOA still irritates me to no end. I'll grant that some HOA's are much, much more mild than others. The one in my parents' neighborhood and the one in both neighborhoods where I've rented houses around here have been very chill. As long as you know what a lawnmower is and unless you like leave a dead body in your front yard, they won't really say anything to you.

But dude, over in uber lame "Cary" esque type areas of suburban Atlanta like Alpharetta and Roswell, the HOA's control some or all of the following:

- when it's permissible to put your trash can at the street (some neighborhoods forbid it altogether. You keep it in your garage and the trash man has to walk into your garage and get it.....for a fee of course)
- what you can and can't put in your garage (it can't be used for storage!!!)
- when you can park on the street (odds are you can't ever. Oh you have guests coming over? TOO BAD! Those b***es can walk!)
- when you can have your garage door open (probably never)

It all just seems very anti-American to me and very ridiculous. Ok, I get the housing value thing. I understand not being able to paint my house neon green if I'm in a subdivision. But using my garage for storage?? I will do so if I damn well please, thank you very much.

So help me, my first purchased house will be in a non-HOA neighborhood, or preferably, on my own plot of land where I can do whatever the heck I want to my house or my yard or my garage.

Rant over. Have a nice Wednesday OOTB, and GO TAR HEELS! BEAT THE EAGLES



This post was edited on 3/11 9:27 AM by TarHeelNation11

 

[Raising Heel]

Originally posted by TarHeelNation11:

1 - when it's permissible to put your trash can at the street (some neighborhoods forbid it altogether. You keep it in your garage and the trash man has to walk into your garage and get it.....for a fee of course)
2 - what you can and can't put in your garage (it can't be used for storage!!!)
3 - when you can park on the street (odds are you can't ever. Oh you have guests coming over? TOO BAD! Those b***es can walk!)
4 - when you can have your garage door open (probably never)

My HOA has rules for 1 and 3; neither is enforced. We don't have 2 and 4, both of which are ridiculous IMO.

I like the rules we have and wish they were enforced more rigorously. There's no need to be a hardass about it, but people who always leave trash and/or recycling cans out on the street make the neighborhood look cheap. Same goes for cars parked on the street, especially when they're in disrepair. It can also be dangerous because it hinders visibility of pedestrians and other cars. There should be some leniency for parking on the street, like when you have a gathering of friends over. But I'm talking about people who always park on the street.

It's not even about property values for me. I get ticked off because I'm a conscientious homeowner who takes care of his home and his property. I want driving into my neighborhood to be a pleasant experience, not something that makes me cringe. Heck, I get upset about people who don't take care of their lawn for the same reason. You roll through my neighborhood and see some lawns that are nothing but weeds and others that are nothing but thatch. I spend a lot of time and money to have a nice fescue lawn, all while fighting off the weeds and unwanted grasses (bermuda, zoysia) from neighbors' lawns. I realize you can't make people maintain their lawns, though, so I have to let that one go.

The only answer is to move into a condo/townhouse complex where the landscaping is professionally maintained, or move out to your own plot of land. Trust me, I'm working on the latter.

 

[TarHeelNation11]

^^ Your post disgusts me

I mean I get it, I'm probably in the minority on this, but to me it all seems ridiculous. Especially when HOA board members get all hardass about it. It's like bro, go run for office and do something actually meaningful if you crave power that much.

I don't like to get told what to do -- as you can probably gather. Raising, my friend from Carolina and his wife (who you met at Carolina Ale House in CLT) bought a house and moved to Mt. Holly. My first question to him was "HOA?" and his response was "Hell no dude"

 

[heelmanwilm]

I see the need for them but so often they go too far. Make people mow their grass and dont let them park a wrecked car in their ft yard. Ours wont let us install a metal roof even though its nicer and more expensive. Then they made me remove a portable bball goal in my drive. Meanwhile my neighbor paints his house pepto bismol pink. Not that i care but which depreciates property values more?
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[Raising Heel]

Originally posted by TarHeelNation11:
^^ Your post disgusts me

Figured it would. I probably would've agreed with you 20 years ago. I don't like to be told what to do either, but I also don't need to be told what to do because I have a reasonable sense of decorum. Some people flat-out don't care, and the rules exist because of them. Totally get the whole political BS, though. Some people just love having power and telling others what to do. That's not me, though, which is why I just have to shrug off the HOA stuff.

Originally posted by TarHeelNation11:
Raising, my friend from Carolina and his wife (who you met at Carolina Ale House in CLT) bought a house and moved to Mt. Holly. My first question to him was "HOA?" and his response was "Hell no dude"

Nice. Mt. Holly is a really cool little town. Has some old small town charm, lower taxes, but still an easy trip to uptown Charlotte. I live just up the road from there, near Mount Holly-Huntersville Road.

 

[TarHeelNation11]

Originally posted by Raising Heel:

Figured it would. I probably would've agreed with you 20 years ago. I don't like to be told what to do either, but I also don't need to be told what to do because I have a reasonable sense of decorum. Some people flat-out don't care, and the rules exist because of them.

This brings up a separate topic but one I feel equally strongly about.

Sense of decorum. I cannot stand when people don't dress appropriately for the situation they're in. When you go to a nice restaurant, friggin dress nice. Do not ruin my dining experience by wearing a baseball cap and a hawaiian shirt, when clearly the place is a "slacks and polo" or "jeans and buttondown" type of place. I realize that my view on this seems like a direct 180 from my view on HOA "my yard vs yours" type of thing....but it isn't, because like RH, I too have a sense of decorum.

I'm not going to let my yard look like crap or my house look like crap, but I want the right to have it look like crap if I choose to LOL. But at a nice restaurant or at church or something where proper attire is strongly encouraged (but not mandatory), don't make an ass of yourself by dressing like a clown. Some people just don't give a crap what they dress like, even in formal settings. I don't understand that. I'm embarrassed as crap if I ever happen to miss the memo and don't dress appropriately for an event. Other people don't mind at all.

 

[JuleZ '02 HEEL]

We don't have an HOA in our neighborhood and I will avoid them in the future if I can. If I'm buying a piece of property I don't want someone else making decisions about what kind of fence I can put up or where I can and can't park my car. My neighbor across the street has a two-car driveway and has a small pickup as a third vehicle that stays on the street. I fully understand the usefulness of that third vehicle and have no problem with him parking it there.

I will also avoid these new clear-cut neighborhoods with no trees and all the houses 10 feet from each other and looking almost exactly alike. They're probably the ones most likely to have HOAs anyway.

 

[TarHeelNation11]

Originally posted by JuleZ '02 HEEL:

I will also avoid these new clear-cut neighborhoods with no trees and all the houses 10 feet from each other and looking almost exactly alike. They're probably the ones most likely to have HOAs anyway.

Yeah WTF are those all about?? All the neighborhoods that have been here for years and years have tons of character -- hundreds of homes with good spacing between lots, trees, wooded areas, homes built in to the landscape (lots of hills around here), etc etc.

Then you've got the new neighborhoods popping up everywhere that are just like you describe. They take a wooded field, cut it completely of all trees, grass, vegetation, slam 20 identical houses in a 5 acre plot and give it some douchey name like Bellflower Preserve or Jamison Estates. That's it. A one-street subdivision with 10-20 houses that ends in a cul-de-sac. Boringgggg. I don't know how people can live like that.

And yes, I'm sure they come complete with a Nazi-esque HOA.

 

[TarHeelMark]

Fortunately, our HOA isn't too nazi-like in their rules or enforcement, but I do appreciate that my neighbors can't paint their house some funkadelic color or let their yards turn into a jungle.

That being said, I wish they would be more diligent with parking cars in the street when not necessary. My former across-the-street neighbor's teenage kids used to park in spots where it made it difficult for me to back out of my driveway without running into their cars (and those spoiled little snots had brand new cars too, which really pissed me off).

Regarding having a sense of decorum when going to a nice restaurant... last year I was heading out for a nice dinner with the wifey (we were appropriately dressed) when I see my next door neighbor mowing his yard. Well, not 20 minutes after getting seated, the dude comes strolling in to the same restaurant wearing the same sweaty t-shirt, ball cap and slimy tennis shoes that he had on when he was mowing! Talk about clueless... Well he was a freaking yankee, so what'dya expect?

 

[Raising Heel]

Originally posted by TarHeelNation11:

When you go to a nice restaurant, friggin dress nice. Do not ruin my dining experience by wearing a baseball cap and a hawaiian shirt, when clearly the place is a "slacks and polo" or "jeans and buttondown" type of place.

So let's use a baseball cap as an example. Where on the scale of "nice" does wearing a baseball cap become inappropriate? Using some recognizable franchises here, ranked (IMO) from least to most nice:

Chick-fil-A?
Moe's?
Chili's?
Olive Garden?
Cheesecake Factory?
Ruth's Chris?

 

[mikeirbyusa]

I'm a Country Boy, will NEVER live where they have a HOA.

If I buy it I will do what I dern well please with it.

What's next? A dern COA?

 

[TarHeelNation11]

Originally posted by Raising Heel:

Originally posted by TarHeelNation11:

When you go to a nice restaurant, friggin dress nice. Do not ruin my dining experience by wearing a baseball cap and a hawaiian shirt, when clearly the place is a "slacks and polo" or "jeans and buttondown" type of place.

So let's use a baseball cap as an example. Where on the scale of "nice" does wearing a baseball cap become inappropriate? Using some recognizable franchises here, ranked (IMO) from least to most nice:

Chick-fil-A? -- OK
Moe's? -- OK
Chili's? -- fine, but it's sit-down, so I'd prefer you didn't.
Olive Garden? -- pushing the envelope. Acceptable I guess, but again, it's sit-down, so I'd prefer no
Cheesecake Factory? -- No. Inappropriate.
Ruth's Chris? -- No. Inappropriate.

Basic rule of thumb -- if it's a sit-down restaurant where you have a waiter (i.e. not a Chick-fil-A where you might order at the counter then sit down), don't wear a hat. Only exception is a sports bar or a bar in general that isn't swanky.

Another basic rule of thumb -- if you're a female, don't wear a hat ever. Anywhere. Period. I despise girls in hats.

 

[Raising Heel]

^^^ I was completely in agreement until the last sentence. Some girls look adorable in ball caps. And if she can pull off a cowboy hat....

 

[TarHeelNation11]

Originally posted by Raising Heel:

^^^ I was completely in agreement until the last sentence. Some girls look adorable in ball caps.

I will grant you that A SELECT FEW girls can pull off the (non-fitted, and facing forward) baseball cap look. But these girls are just already hot / cute-hot in general, so the hat doesn't really enhance them.....they're just hot in anything

Originally posted by Raising Heel:

And if she can pull off a cowboy hat....

No. Just no. The only females who wear cowboy hats are those poser middle-aged suburban housewives when they go through that annoying "I've discovered that I'm really into country music now!!!1!!!" phase and try desperately to cling to their youth.



This post was edited on 3/11 1:47 PM by TarHeelNation11

 

[Raising Heel]

The wheels have come off this thread.

I haven't seen (here in North Carolina) the "poser middle-aged suburban housewives" with a cowboy hat epidemic. Maybe it's a Georgia problem. All I know is that I want to barf every time my wife queues up an episode of ABC's "Nashville" on the DVR.

 

[TarHeelNation11]

Originally posted by Raising Heel:

The wheels have come off this thread.

I always do that

Originally posted by Raising Heel:

I haven't seen (here in North Carolina) the "poser middle-aged suburban housewives" with a cowboy hat epidemic. Maybe it's a Georgia problem. All I know is that I want to barf every time my wife queues up an episode of ABC's "Nashville" on the DVR.

Oh it's definitely a thing.

 

[mtpeke]

Sorry but this middle aged momma is going to wear her UNC baseball hat (forward facing). I wear glasses and at out door events or when I'm outside walking,gardening our running around town ... I want too be able to see and the baseball hat keeps the sun out of my eyes. I don't wear it in restaurants but I think no one needs a hat inside. But dang y'all... A hat has a purpose and it's kinda ridiculous for you to say women can wear hats,because they don't look good in them.

 

[WhatTheHeel?]

Originally posted by Raising Heel:
^^^ I was completely in agreement until the last sentence. Some girls look adorable in ball caps. And if she can pull off a cowboy hat....

Don't care about the cowboy hats, but a ponytail through the little gap in the back of a baseball cap works for me.

 

[TarHeelNation11]

Originally posted by mtpeke:
Sorry but this middle aged momma is going to wear her UNC baseball hat (forward facing). I wear glasses and at out door events or when I'm outside walking,gardening our running around town ... I want too be able to see and the baseball hat keeps the sun out of my eyes. I don't wear it in restaurants but I think no one needs a hat inside. But dang y'all... A hat has a purpose and it's kinda ridiculous for you to say women can wear hats,because they don't look good in them.

I meant wearing hats in terms of fashion/"trying to look good."

Hats most definitely serve their purpose. I wear a ball cap if I'm doing yardwork or something strenuous (or if I need to block sun at a ball game). I would never wear a hat in a situation where I'm trying to look good/attractive/fancy/impressive, et al.

I'm all for girls wearing hats when they're doing work or running a quick errand or on a "not trying" day. But virtually no one -- guy or girl -- looks "impressive" when wearing a hat. Not to me anyway.

 

[coolwaterunc]

I'm confused. So the HOA has dumb rules regarding homes but no rules that prohibit hats in restaurants and on girls trying to look nice and it's pissing everyone off?

 

[TarHeelNation11]

Originally posted by coolwaterunc:
I'm confused. So the HOA has dumb rules regarding homes but no rules that prohibit hats in restaurants and on girls trying to look nice and it's pissing everyone off?

Yes. HOA's also permit bacon..........for now.

 

[Tru Blu Tar Heel]

Originally posted by coolwaterunc:
I'm confused. So the HOA has dumb rules regarding homes but no rules that prohibit hats in restaurants and on girls trying to look nice and it's pissing everyone off?

 

[Nuk'EM Heels]

Not particularly fond of HOAs, but they are useful in some situations. Thankfully, my HOA is not too expensive...

 

[Littlejon]

Simple, really. You do your homework and KNOW that the rules are before you buy a house in a neighborhood with a HOA. If you can live with the rules, buy the house and live happily ever after. If you don't, then look elsewhere.

I personally don't like them at all and so I wouldn't buy a house in a neighborhood with a HOA, but I can see why people like living in such areas. No skin off my back.

I guess where I DO have a problem is when someone buys a house in a place with a HOA and then bitches about the rules after they get there. Unless they changed something after you got there, there is no reason to whine about it. You KNEW going in what you were in for.

Kinda like people in my neck of the woods who bought houses near the airport and then complained LOUDLY when the airport expanded and now all of a sudden plane were flying closer to their homes. Well, sorry, but you could only buy something up to a certain distance from the airport property and they had that buffer specifically for possible expansion. You buy near an airport you have to expect there will be loud planes flying overhead at some point. DUH!