It subtracts value.

You'd need to ask to find out what the HOA pays for, and what restrictions it may have. Many HOAs in developments can be challenging because they govern things like paint color, landscaping style, roofing material, etc. But they vary widely--there are some where I live that add value to those homes (advertised in home listings, etc.) because they cover things like sidewalk repairs, street trees, park maintenance, security, etc. and don't have design restrictions on the homes themselves. You'd also want to ask how much you would pay to figure out if any benefits are worthwhile.

I hate HOAs and I truly wish I didnt live in one. Agree it adds no value unless perhaps you live in gated community surrounded by crime and unsightly neighborhoods. Then you probably have value added by living in one. they cost a lot of monthly fees, at least in So Cal.

It completely depends what is included, what restrictions are imposed, and where is the home.

Their "value" is in the eye of the beholder. Their goal is to ensure the neighborhood is maintained to the standard the neighbors all prefer. Many see HOA and RUN from listings. Other's like the control they impart on the neighbors.

You work hard, pay your mortgage, and try to keep your place looking nice when suddenly your neighbor's kid's 20-year-old hooptie is up on blocks in their driveway for a year and a half.

No HOA? Nothing you can do but move.

Prevents someone moving in next to you who keeps a boat on the lawn, a dilapidated motor home in the driveway and the yard littered with junk, weeds, and trash.

IMO HOAs are like the Nazis of home ownership they tell you wnhat you can plant, what color even your front door can be all in all like dealing with a condo board on steroids . I would not ever live where there is a HOA I happen to like neighborhoods thta are a mixed bag of design and people and honestly I don't care if the guy next door keeps his boat in the driveway.BTW yes there are things in place where you can have junk removed form someones yard. I have lived in many places no HOAs and honestly never encountered any really big issues with neighbors . I don;t even like neighborhoods where one builder built all the homes like cookie cutters up and down the street .

Where I live (Philly exurb), HOAs in single family developments came about because municipalities didn't want the expense of maintaining roads for developments post-1990, so they required builders to establish them. The fees are minimal and just cover road maintenance, snow removal and sometimes trash removal. I live in a townhome community whose board is retired executives and we have a management company. It is run sanely, efficiently and effectively and no one obsesses over the rules. I wish I could have a different front door color, but other than that the community is quite attractive and I am very happy here. But where my father lived (similar community, but in CO), they went so far as to restrict the size of your dog and you weren't allowed to park in your driveway, which I thought was silly. So buyer beware.

It depends. Generally, HOAs can add value because they limit neighborhood eye sores that reduce property values.

But, if you don't like to do yard or home maintenance, like unusual house colors, like to advertise your political views or your business on your house or vehicles, own more vehicles than usual, have more pets than usual, want to have a chicken coop, or view your front yard as an art project or a workspace HOAs probably are not for you.

This is not an all-inclusive list

I hate HOA’s, in general. But they do help to keep your neighborhood from extremes. Mine is incredibly cheap ($250 a year) but I think their only actions are sending out letters saying you need to clean the pine needles off your roof, bring in your trash cans, etc or announcing The Yard of the Month. 😑

I am in an HOA of 66 single-family homes.

Our HOA fees cover:

• the cost of maintaining the small clubhouse & swimming pool provided for a community
• the cost of maintaining our private roads, storm drains & street lighting
• the cost of landscape maintenance for all private lots (just general mowing, trimming & fertilizer.)
• the cost of retention pond maintenance, wells, pumps & sprinkler systems required to irrigate out lawns & bushes (this way no tap water is used for irrigation)
• the cost of property & flood insurance for the homes & community (the coverage we have cost considerably less than if all residents went out and purchased both property & flood insurance for each home.)
• the cost of roof washing & replacement of home exterior light fixtures

Without the deed-restricted HOA, I would have neighbors with boats on the lawns, RVs permanently parked next to the garages, business trucks in the driveways & 3 families living in a 3 bedroom house.

I've been here for 18 years and will hopefully move to a home free of any HOA fees or restrictions. Based on my experience in an HOA, there is no hope for peace in the Middle East.

Interesting. In Vancouver area this is definitely not a thing for single family homes at all. The district/municipality has rules about keeping a house on decent shape, parking, garbage and what not and that applies to everyone. We used to live by an abandoned house and the district would make the owner at least cut tue yard from time to time. It was actually quite pleasant and quiet to only have one neighbour. I’m sure there are some nasty stories of people making home choices that impact neighbours but a lot of it sounds petty. Who cares if there is a motor home in a driveway or a political sign on a yard? Do people who live in big cities have this too or is it subdivisions and more removed places or gated communities?

Two houses are currently listed in my county’s upcoming foreclosure auction because of unpaid HOA dues.

I care about the motor home parked in the driveway for entire seasons. Haviing a view of one from your living room window is very unappealing..

(One year my neighbour tarped the whole thing in orange )

The state of Texas requires all HOAs to have all documents available on a website. Any violations resulting in fines or legal action have a long state-mandated process involving notice and the right to appeal. I have been on the Architectural Committee for years and you would be surprised what some people want to do in a subdivision. Rules can be a good thing!

I suppose I just can’t imagine owning a home and then my neighbours having any kind of day in what I do with it. The city/municipality having widespread rules applied to all makes sense and is consistent and objective. People who also own near me having a say or any authority seems odd and like it breeds power trips and poor relationships. But to each their own! Clearly some folks like the model

Everyone has their "thing". I live in one and it's fine. If I had to choose between looking at a yard full of junk across the street or following some neighborhood rules about house color and such, I pick neighborhood rules

To the HOA haters, you knew what you signed up for at closing. If you don't like the rules, change them or move please, but don't whine. A deal is a deal.

@WestCoast Hopeful in the U.S. it varies hugely by state and even by municipality. Our city is like yours—the rules are in the municipal code and apply to everyone, though they’re not very consistently enforced. Many homes are over 100 years old, and the HOAs in those neighborhoods date back to then too. They were a very different tool in that era than in more recent times. You’d need to know how the particular HOA you’re looking at functions.

Joseph Corlett, LLC Yes you have to agree to the rules that were there when you purchased the home, but boards change and rules change and that's where issues begin to arise. I moved in and within 6 months spent $16k to replace my roof. Now 18 years later the insurance companies are starting to indicate they don't want to insure homes with 18 year old roofs that were supposed to last 30 years!!! And now the cost to replace the roof is $32k. It's kind of a racket.

We have a lake house in a remote residential area and thankfully have an HOA. Investors began buying houses to use as short term rentals and our quiet neighborhood was quickly inundated with loud tourists. A couple of 4 bedroom houses advertised accommodations for 16 overnight guests, one property hosted weddings and retreats, and there were three incidents where renters accidently started deck fires (one was from frying bacon on a BBQ grill) that could have easily ignited woods and neighboring homes.

After years of discussions/negotiations, HOA members voted to ban STR rentals which caused several of the houses to be listed for sale. Last week we toured several with a friend looking to purchase and were shocked by the conditions inside 7-figure homes that investors had remodeled in the last 5 years. There were holes punched in the walls, vomit on a bedroom floor, inoperable appliances, etc. We had external clues of the chaos happening but no idea about the internal decay that would have caused all property values to plummet.

We have an HOA. Yes, lots of money per month for street cleaning, leaf removal, maintenance of the guard shacks, security, the gates, the golf cart paths, jogging paths, the playground, the marinas...

But...one time when the tiny latch on my mailbox fell off they fixed it within 24 hours. I was shocked it was so fast. I love that we get our streets cleaned. I love that giant boats can't be parked in front of you house. I love that there are strict rules on color, design and even mowing your lawn. I love that no one has a rooster waking us up at 4 am. Simple rules to keep our community looking gorgeous.

HOAs are not for everyone. My cousin would hate one. She loves having a big farm and kids that can use dirt bikes or ride horses with freedom. No one stopping them from having goats or a camper parked on their lawn. The truth is, we all have some kind of an HOA, local city, state and federal laws can step in with rules of conduct.

Yes I agree we all live with rules. Outsider looking in, my issues is that the HOA rule makers are also residents. So they aren’t remotely impartial. I’m somewhat shocked that places have to pay for garbage pick up and street cleaning and road maintenance. How is that not in your property taxes? Or who knows maybe it’s all a wash. Perhaps I pay more property taxes and don’t have an HOA and get many of the same perks. It’s obviously hard to compare such different things. In my established neighborhood it would be shocking if someone did something totally unexpected. Although our whole provinces zoning has changed and now even single family homes can have multiplex’s built on them. So times are changing.

HOA's are just another layer of socialist control I will never live in. Many have one or more of these NO's. No, boats, no Rv's, no outside clothes lines, no car washing, no DIY car repairs even in the garage, no garage sales, no yard signs, no American flags, no Christmas lights, no camp fires, no gardens, no guest stay overs X days,....no, no, no, just sit in your house and be quiet.

Pet restrictions, guests must register in with license plate numbers, corruption, and blue haired busybodies watching and reporting everything people do. I've seen HOA board members walk around with a ruler measuring grass height in single family hoa's where you cut your own grass to generate fines, and a HOA representative can trespass to snoop to see what you have under a tarp or any other reason.

I have junk, I like junk and every neighbor around me has junk and we're happy and mind our own business. I was going to buy a lake lot in sylvan shores Minnesota with 1700 acres total but an HOA so I stopped to talk to the association Manager on the rules for building a cabin. 1200 sq. ft was the only rule, but when asked about exterior materials and design there were none. She said It's up to the board if they like it or not. OK then, and using the 100's of acres of association property for recreation? Nope she said it's private property, so after we argued this point as to who owns the association I left.

I have the Feds, state, county and city dictating how I must live and I'll be damn if I want another layer of control in my life, an HOA is a half notch above living in an apartment.

Just wait until your board approves a special assessment and you get a bill for $4000 because a majority of the votes want moving walkways down the road. I want to see an HOA with a irrevocable set of rules what the HOA can't ban or do before I'd even consider one, and with every board meeting your lifestyle may end up changing, or you get a fine because your kids bicycle was parked on the grass. A HOA reduces value and when it's time to sell MANY people won't consider one and your buyer pool shrinks.

Like most organizations, it's a mixed bag. I would look at meeting minutes and budgets from the last 1-2 years to see if a particular HOA aligns with your needs/values.

Most people I know who live in them balk at government and don't want to pay taxes, yet want to control everyone around them, so they pay to pave their own roads and make rules for their neighbors. They help insure people of similar means and ideals live together. I'm probably the kind of person they want to keep out, and I don't want to get near them. No thanks.

And yet... I live in NYC in a coop building. When you share walls, plumbing, a roof, heat, and more with other people you need a structure for maintaining your building.

It's virtually impossible to live anywhere where the "rulemakers" aren't also residents. City council, state reps, all of them LIVE where they are making laws. I'm not sure what impartiality has to do with it. I would hate to have someone living OUTSIDE of my area making rules for my neighborhood. That sounds way worse. At least the HOA board has accountability to the people who live next to them. And getting anything passed requires a majority of homeowners to approve it anyway.

In the US, taxes cover different things depending on where you live. The city I used to live in started city-run garbage disposal program, and people lost their minds. "I want to choose who picks up my trash." I'm not kidding. People didn't want their trash pickup to become a city provided service.

You were also responsible for plowing your alleys and resurfacing them as required. And guess what? Not all residents paid and there was no recourse to get them to pay. There were no HOAs there, so you had to depend on everyone's good will and neighborliness, which isn't such a great thing to depend on. Oh, and one of the neighbors had to organize all of that and collect the money/deal with the shortfall if not everyone paid. Thankless job.

Street maintenance is only partially covered by property taxes in my state, and that only applies to public streets. When a street needs to be redone, residents get assessed a fee. Most people complain until they are hoarse about this process but it is what it is.

Private streets, as in many developments, need to be maintained by the owner of the street. In most cases that is the HOA. That can be a huge cost.

It's typically the city's planning department/capital improvement that determines whether a new development's streets are going to be public or privately owned. If the city/authority does not want to take over maintenance of the street, it has to remain private. As in the example I gave of the community owned alleys with no system set up for maintenance costs, the HOA is set up so everyone in the community has to pay their fair share when the streets are private. I don't think any one wants to own and maintain their street. I suppose I could be wrong but honestly what a headache. Thankfully the city owns my neighborhood streets.

As far as similar ideals go?? Ha. My next door neighbor is probably about as far from me as you can get on political, religious, and parenting philosophies without heading into extreme territory. I tend not to get into discussions with any of my neighbors regarding these things but you spend enough time with people you pick up on it. I guess my HOA didn't screen people for sameness. Probably because it's illegal.

But sure, it's possible that "most people" who live HOAs and have to pay for their own streets because the city decided not to maintain them probably just want to keep out people who live in NYC coops.

Or maybe, just maybe, some of them live in a development that just happens to have an HOA because it has a community pool and a neighborhood playground, and they decided to live there because there are a lot of families with young kids, so they know their kid who's an only child will have lots of neighbor kids to play with and grow up with.

Lots of people painting with broad brushes on this forum I see, who tend to know a lot about something they haven't experienced personally.

Watch this for what HOA’s can bring to the value of your home…

https://youtu.be/qrizmAo17Os?si=FdwZEb-e3AhWCJlN

Watch this for potential issues with HOA

https://youtu.be/qrizmAo17Os?si=FdwZEb-e3AhWCJlN

I can absolutely see the value if you have e amenities share in a community and you have to take on services like garbage, street cleaning and road work. I can also absolutely see how frustrating some aspects of some HOAs might be. Like most things they are not all created equal and it sure sounds like people need to know wait they are in for.

So far I watched Jay Na's first video and that's EXACTLY why I won't live in a HOA. Not all are what was shown in the video but like one guy said; "You're just on vote away from a living hell:"

I haven't personally experienced living in a HOA, but I really don't see the need to experience something most say really sucks. I'd rather have neighbors with yards full of weeds and junk than living under the rules of dictators and narcissists trying to create a communist commune.

I prefer not to live in a neighborhood, we have 1 acre and house beside us, has 10 acres. House behind us has 5 acres, We can't see either house and we are on a corner. Just the way we like it.