WNY Real Estate

It’s all a crap shoot with HOAs and how strict they are, who is on the board and what kind of miserable people live in the area which is always subject to change. I have a friend who is a cop that lives in an HOA with an 8 sec Trans Am and a 1000hp Supra. He also does car detailing/ceramic coating on the side and he doesn’t run into any issues there but that’s always possible it’s because he is a cop. His community is only like 40 or 50 a month.

Every condo along the beach in South Florida has an HOA that’s more than the mortgage. I’d love a 2 bedroom in Lauderdale.

I’d never want a house on the beach. The insurance must be nuts, many of the carriers were pulling hurricane insurance. All it takes is a mid level hurricane and the storm surge at the beaches can go blocks inland.

I lived in a HOA in Texas and I had multiple fast cars, at one time I had 3 fbodies and 2 corvettes in the driveway with two trucks parked on the street. I think it cost about $500-750 yearly, but it was super nice soooo worth it.

yeah being 10+ miles inland seems to be the thing to do and just drive to the beach when you want to go. I’m sure if you live there you probably dont even go to the beach much.

I have 2 experiences with HOAs through friends. One, a friends father was painting his house on a Sunday and got fined for doing it on “God’s day”. The other, I was staying the night at a friends who had 2 roommates. He had 1 car in his garage, his other car in the driveway, his two roommates cars in the driveway and my car that filled the 4 car driveway. None of us were blocking the sidewalk and 2 days later he got a fine for having 4 cars in his 4 car driveway from the night I stayed over.

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I’m sure I could swallow an HOA if I really had to and it was cheap.

My wife’s aunt part times it in Lakewood National and I can’t believe I forgot the price of golf.
5 figures on top of all the BS fees.

I still need to find a way of convincing them to let us check on their place for a few weeks throughout the summer.

There is NO amount of money that would convince me to live under the thumb of an HOA.

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I’m in an HOA in the Adirondacks. $550/yr and covers the plowing + road maintenance (it’s stone) + budgeting to re-stone at some point. We meet once per year and it’s mostly just a party. 10/10 experience so far. The rule book from the Adirondack Park Agency is already restrictive before HOA rules, but that’s feature not a bug.

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what are you property taxes out there?

You hear the HOA horror stories but then I look at the mess we had last year at the end of our street with this rental house. Old man who lived there forever finally went into a nursing home and the kids started renting the house out. Lawn never mowed, crap just piled around the house all the time, kids constantly leaving all their toys on the sidewalk. Then the trashy people renting tried to DIY install one of those shitty Amazon fabric fences which looked even worse. I think eventually all the calls to Amherst code enforcement and the fines for the lack of mowing/shoveling convinced the kids that the landlord game wasn’t for them and the house is up for sale, but it’s a for sale by owner that’s not advertised so it’s just been sitting. I’m sure when the grass starts growing it will be a tick magnet again in no time.

I think the key is knowing the HOA rules before you buy. Oh, I can’t paint my house LGBTQ colors, have 10 cars on blocks in my driveway, have to keep my lawn somewhat decent and can’t be a lazy fuck who leaves my garbage cans at the street for 3 days? Yeah, no problem hoss. Then there are the, no flags, no registered cars in your driveway, no gas mowers etc overreaching asshole kinds of HOAs.

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And… you lost me,

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I completely agree, the concept of an HOA is a wonderful idea for maintaining a clean neighborhood, sharing lawn care expenses and keeping up property values. Some are just far overreaching and if the rules are written in a certain way, all it takes is one asshole in the neighborhood who complains about everything.

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We have an HOA here in my neighborhood in Clarence and it’s awesome. I’m also a board member. The HOA fees pay for all of the common space mowing, landscaping, upkeep, and garbage pickup (which we get a good discount through modern) and we’re pretty lax with the rules. We basically just want to know what you’re planning on doing and make sure it fits with the existing house and doesn’t looks like shit.

Like you guys stated above, the main goal is to stop any homeowner from letting their property go to shit or have cars on blocks or stuffed in the backyard. We’ve had to send some letters to people who let their flower beds get over grown (badly), but honestly we don’t have any problems what so ever.

I’m amazed on how strict some of the HOAs are around the country, I wouldn’t sign up for that.

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Sounds to me like my 4 “spare” cars and old camper would not be welcome on the other side of the creek :smiley:

I’m down to 1 spare car now, but it will be leaving soon enough.

They’re welcome, they just need to be piled in the garage :joy: We don’t care what you have in there.