Homeowners Assc. Sucks Horribly

[zxtoy]

I quess there is an advantage to living in a small town in nebraska. I have the newest, biggest, nicest house in my neighborhood and nobody complains about anything. I have my parts car in the third slot of my driveway out front. The only complaint i've received is from my wife!I have to send away for parts but crime is practicaly zero and people are nice. We don't even have to lock our houses. Everyone in the neighborhood looks out for each other.

[Tony D]

It all comes down to pride of ownership. If you are ok with your place looking like a dump, then you have no pride in the things that you own.

 

Pride goeth before the fall. Plenty of 'proud' HOA owners walked from their obligations when the times turned down. How your yard looks doesn't have jack sh*t to do with 'pride of ownership', it does though, show that you put far more value on other human beings thinking nice things about you than you should.

 

I purposely took a place in the 'borderline' because it was the furthest out I could go and still have a reasonable commute to the airport. All the infrastructure is now coming in, and new HOA owners are taxed to the hilt to pay for it. I'm Prop-13'd from those extortive fees and taxes. Bummer, huh?

 

And I don't worry about Code Enforcement becasue there are PLENTY of people around me with FAR WORSE looking places than mine. What do I care what their yard looks like, it's none of my business!

 

I guess I grew up in an era or a place where there were more pressing priorities than displaying status via hemmoraged cash for yard work and lawn care. I am not Hank Hill in that respect. Not by a longshot. Nor am I 'Malcolm in the Middle' dead-grass and weeds bad. Though my neighbor is....and I don't care. It's his business.

[Tony D]

These are the benefits of living in a rural area. We have no homeowner associations, no neighborhood watch, no irate notes placed in recalcitrant owners’ mailboxes.

 

So why not maintain my house? Because I realized long ago that it won’t appreciate in value, and my time is better spent furthering my career than trimming the bushes. I intend to let it rot, and sell the property when I retire for the market price of unimproved land.

 

For all of the many disadvantages of rural life – and indeed there are many! – one can take solace that in these environs private property is genuinely private property, undiluted by communal sensibilities of what’s considered to be appropriate homeowner behavior.

 

Michael, are you in any way related to me by blood....As I read this, it was "yeah, that about sums it all up!"

My house is 80 feet from the road, because that's as far as I could get a free 250A feeder to the meter. It also makes a nice block of the rest of the back of the property (all 580' deep, in back of the house!) Keeps out prying governmental monkey eyes! I am upgrading the interior of my house, simply because it's a 1975 Doublewide....but 1400 sq ft is still 1400 sq ft, and as long as it's simply decent when I sell, I get the premium of a house of that size, with all utilities connected and present on site, and very little expense whilst doing so!

 

"Nice" houses are very misleading. Exteriors lie. My house is very different inside than you would expect from the outside. But that's not a bad thing. The neighbors may have to worry about someone breaking in to take their stuff, but my dogs on the old rattan furniture on the front porch kind of stop those thoughts. Besides 'what could be good in a doublewide when we got this nice 3400 sq-ft mansion next door with columns and a pool, and a dually parked out back connected to a big boat?'

[zxtoy]

Tony- I had to chuckle at your house description. I know you and your son came through close to my area when you saw carhenge. So you know in my part of the world- the newest, biggest , nicest house on the block isn't much complared to your area!By your description your house would be newer, bigger, and better than almost all the houses in my little town!