- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
August 2012 Moms
jenner77
member
If you live in a newer subdivision/neighborhood...
jenner77
member
Ok so I know this has nothing to do with our LO's or being mommies but I have to ask someone. If you live in a newer home, do you live in a neighborhood that polices every action you do in & around your home? DF is interviewing for a position in the Augusta, GA area & he pretty much already has the job we think. But the issue is that we want a new or newer home but don't want to be told what kind of trees to plant, what kind of mailbox we have to have, and that we can only park visibly in our driveway if all our vehicles won't fit in our garage... Really??? Is this normal?
This discussion has been closed.
Re: If you live in a newer subdivision/neighborhood...
My parents deal with this. It is part of their HOA. They also have yearly fees due to the HOA and can be taken to court if they don't pay them. This is actually very normal in subdivisions from what they found when they were looking.
If you don't want this, tell your realtor when you start looking for homes. She or he can rule out HOA homes and give you an idea in your area of what you will find without the additional rules.
Well, most newer neighborhoods are going to belong to an HOA and have covenants and restrictions you are supposed to abide by. It isn't a bad thing, though it may get annoying. If anything, it helps maintain the value of your home and your lot.
Our neighborhood is about 6 years old and we built our house 3 years ago. We have "rules" - grass needs to be mowed, weeded and maintained until it goes dormant, beds need to be mulched, mailboxes kept up and not falling apart, if your door gets faded from the sun you have to repaint it, things like that. They aren't going to tell you exactly what kind of flowers you have to have or anything. The only rule they have like that in our HOA is if you want a fence, you are required to have a certain kind so that they all look uniform. We aren't required to have flowers if we don't want them, but the yard has to look nice.
Sometimes it's annoying, but it's really not that big of a deal. You should be maintaining your yard anyway. Look at it this way - if you put your house up for sale and the neighbors on either side of you had weeds all in their yard and it looked horrible, that is a huge turn-off to potential buyers and no one would buy it. The covenants and restrictions make sure the neighborhood is clean and well maintained so it's attractive to buyers.
Yeah I totally get yard maintenance, house maintenance, etc but this was like Christmas with the Kranks on acid or something. Lol. It even had a only-2-pets-per-household rule. We don't even have pets but really?
I want a pool community & a house that's less than 10 years old. DF wants to build a storage building in the backyard without having to match the siding to the house, colors, etc. Oh well. Hopefully we will find one that's not so stringent.
I get the fence rule, that makes complete sense to me. I dont want to see crappy buildings in my neighbors yard either. i guess i just wanted to see if all newer neighborhoods are as strict as that. It was the first one we looked at.
We just don't want to be fined if we don't hang Frosty up by December 1st lol.
I'm with you. I could never live in an HOA. DH works on cars so there's always cars in our yard. We have a privacy fence in front (chain link the rest) so you can't see them from the street. We just wouldn't do well with people telling us what to do.
I'm sure you can find a house without an HOA, but it would most likely be a little further out of town. Generally, the more rural you go the more likely you are to find a neighborhood without HOA.
What's the thought behind the newer than 10 years thing? Honestly, in my experience, the newer the house the poorer the construction, especially if it's in one of those cookie cutter neighborhoods.
My friend's HOA has these kind of rules; Christmas decorations allowable from Dec.1-Dec.27. Each HOA is different, so like Poppy said, make sure to let your realtor know what kind of rules you find "acceptable."
I would love for there to be some rules around here. Sure, maybe it'd be annoying at times, but I'd rather have extra rules than none at all.
SCANDAL!
As someone who lives in a cookie cutter neighborhood, I can tell you the bolded is true. I love our house and our neighborhood. It's a great first house for us and our neighborhood is very family friendly, with a great playground, trail in the woods, and pool. But they really use the cheapest of the cheap materials on the homes, which is why they get them up so fast and build so many. We haven't had any major problems with our house, but some small things have come up in the last few years. Usually, the older the home, the better the bones.
We want (MUST HAVE) an open floor plan (kitchen & b'fast area flow into living area) and it is damn near impossible to find that in an older home. #2 reason: DH is going to be ultra-super-busy at this new job & will be working like an obsessed madman to learn the job & put systems in place & he will have zero time for home renovations even though he is very good at it. And we refuse to pay someone to do it for us. We have to have move-in-ready. Oh yeah and we want a pool community for the kids. Most older neighborhoods don't have pools from what I can tell.
Proud Mama to cleft cutie
Have you done enough looking to know if you can afford a house with its own pool or is it more of a safety issue for you? Or maybe the community/neighborhood feel is a big part?
I'm sure you can find a house with less stringent HOA covenants, but the pool thing might make it harder since it will narrow your search. Good luck!
This is us and it sucks. We don't have an HOA. Everyone parks in their yard and on the street. Our neighbors still have the 25 year old ugly brick red shingles on their roof that are falling off and they parked their beat up not running car in front of our house for 2 years until I think the city said something to them cuz it never moved. Just make sure to go over all HOA laws when you look at the house to see what you do and don't like. My sister used to live in an HOA that sent them a letter each week if they forgot to cut their grass. HOAs really do keep the neighborhood looking nice but there are some parts that go too far.
Yes we could afford one with a pool and DF even wants to put in a pool if we find the right house and there's no community pool. My concern with that is our yard being eaten up by the pool. I only want our own pool if we still have a yard for the kids to run & play. Safety isn't a huge concern. My oldest two are teenagers & know how to swim. I will just have to do swim classes with LO. Do HOA's ever allow you to put in your own pool? We definitely want to be in a neighborhood with other kids, especially since LO is almost going to be like an only child because our other two are teenagers.
On the other hand, my sister's neighborhood has a very strict HOA. Certain plants, trees, grass. Grass can't be passed a certain length. No parking in the street at night, etc. Most of it is just so the neighborhood looks better, or for safety.
So true. I used to be dead set against HOA. Then we moved to this neighborhood, and the people next door were disgusting and lazy. Christmas lights up year round, roof falling apart, parking on the lawn in front of their house (even though they had a driveway). Luckily, they were foreclosed on last year, and a very nice older couple moved in and completey renovated it, inside and out. It actually makes our house looks better. I'm so thankful because we are planning to sell next year, and I think a lof ot people would have been turned off looking next door.
We live in Michigan now, just north of Detroit & you'd be amazed at how many people keep Christmas lights up year round. It drives us crazy!!!!