I lived in a town where most of houses in the center of town fell within a National Historical District, otherwise known as The HOA From Hell. They even restricted what color and type of Christmas lights you could put up.

The HOA or no HOA dispute is never going to have a right answer, because at the end of the day, a-holes gonna a-hole, for both sides.

At the end of the day you can choose where to live.

chipotle said:

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At the end of the day you can choose where to live.

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Except in Communist America you cannot choose.

MouthBQ98 said:

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Ambiguity in rules or law ALWAYS favors the defendant. They will win if there is a civil action or even arbitration.

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Incorrect. Ambiguity favors the non-drafter. Plaintiff or defendant designation has no impact.

We got it perfect. We live in a suburb that is technically it's own little city. We have no hoa but there are city ordinances so you can't park an rv in your yard for a long time or build some hideous monstrosity....but other than that they pretty much leave you alone. Big beautiful trees everywhere because the neighborhood was built before they clear cut all these cookie cutter neighborhoods.

That's sort of a universal. If the Historical people start eyeballing anything you own, destroy destroy destroy. Otherwise you're the proud owner of a white elephant.

On The Other Hand: King William in San Antonio is full o' rich people and nice old houses, and boy were they pissed when Sandra Cisneros painted her assuredly-very-expensive house bright purple.

True, that's what I meant, it is an important distinction you point out.

We had a similar situation in our HOA. The owner of the property wanted to do zero landscaping or something. He sued HOA. HOA lost I think.

All I know is the guy still lives here and all of our dues went up because of all the legal bs.

A lose-lose in my book.

Now that we're on the topic of Christmas lights, my best friends sister lives in a subdivision in Fort Worth that mandates that every single house must put up Christmas lights. Not only that, the Christmas light color and design is designated by street. You have to follow the rule for your street.

I haven't read the HOA rules. I'm taking my best friend's word for it.

Burdizzo said:

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Shakes the Clown said:

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I've found that the people that beech the most about HOAs are the trashy homeowners that can't keep up with their yards, their trash cans, their oil-leaking clunkers or have no problem putting a $299 Home Depot metal shed on the side of their home.

Those people wind up buying property out in Canyon Lake where you have a $500K home within 100 yards of mobile home.

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Bi Darville has a 1985 Olds Delta 88 in his yard . I have seen it.

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No. I have this. And I didn't have to pull any dumb ass permits or get approvals from an HOA.

https://texags.com/forums/34/topics/3000864

nai06 said:

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I don't have an HOA and wouldn't ever live in a place that has one. I mean if you purchase in a nice enough neighborhood, an HOA isnt really necessary.

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This. Buy where 'Cletus' or whoever will be priced out, or where there's actual value in the land instead of where you get to pick from one of three exciting floorplans.

Builder93 said:

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Shakes the Clown said:

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I've found that the people that beech the most about HOAs are the trashy homeowners that can't keep up with their yards, their trash cans, their oil-leaking clunkers or have no problem putting a $299 Home Depot metal shed on the side of their home.

Those people wind up buying property out in Canyon Lake where you have a $500K home within 100 yards of mobile home(guess what?, no HOAs).

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I have the nicest shed in the neighborhood, I'll have you know. In fact, I'd put my shed up against yours any day.

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third coast.. said:

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if you think HOAs are bad you should try doing anything to a building in the historic charleston district downtown

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You're finally over here? They're a bunch of psychos, like when a guy's house burned down and his daughter died from the fire, and he applied for a demo permit . There wasn't anything historic in the actual structure beyond a few scraps of wood so someone could keep the original build date. It didn't matter. No demo, keep the fake 1980s version of whatever was there beforehand in place even though the last bits of old wood burned up.

Also loads of tourists love taking pictures of Rainbow Row. Something that would absolutely not be allowed to happen now because everything was painted bright colors around the mid-20th century but the buildings are far older than that.

Look at me, I can afford a house

Man Doesn't Understand Why His Neighbors Don't Like His Pepto-Bismol Pink House

If I were his neighbor I'd be more annoyed with the fence and private property signs. But even those wouldn't annoy me too much. It's his house, not mine.

HOA's have way to much power, there like Game Wardens... The game warden can do anything... litterally. HOA's while they should not have that much power do. Anytime someone can simply slap a lean on your house, you lose.

You can ***** and moan all you want, in the end they win. Now if its something stupid you can win. In this example, you will tear down that fence...

Bo Darville said:

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If I were his neighbor I'd be more annoyed with the fence and private property signs. But even those wouldn't annoy me too much. It's his house, not mine.

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Im sure you would change your tune if you lived next to him, and you were trying to sell your home AND you couldn't get any buyers , you'd be ok with it after your real estate agent told you "no one wants to live next to that God awful pink house - literally no one!"?

People would buy it. Maybe not you but someone would.

And I no I wouldn't be annoyed living next to him. It's a pink house, big ****ing deal.

/ laugh cry

I'll leave it at that...

I'd buy the pink house and flip that *****

We moved to a new town in West Texss / South Plains. We talked to several builders, picked a lot / builder in a new subdivision, then built our home. We had never been part of an HOA before. Yes there are rules, some of them tedious and over bearing. But I know I'll never have a junk car parked in the street in our cul de sac. I know my neighbors will take care of their yard, there won't be any yard sales, chicken coops, nor trailers parked here and there. Seems a small price to pay to help retain the value of a new home.

We live in a gated community. Our subdivision doesn't allow garage sales. EVER. Not even a once-annual community-wide garage sale, which some communities allow.

ac04 said:

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one of bo's best bits is when he backs himself into a corner and is forced to take a completely absurd position rather than admit he's wrong.

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There's nothing absurd about my position.

Is it too late to skran this sum bish?

combat wombat said:

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We live in a gated community. Our subdivision doesn't allow garage sales. EVER. Not even a once-annual community-wide garage sale, which some communities allow.

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Hate to point out the obvious, but you live in a gated community.

How do you think all the Mexicans are supposed to get in? Just leave the gates open on garage sale day lol?

62strat said:

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combat wombat said:

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We live in a gated community. Our subdivision doesn't allow garage sales. EVER. Not even a once-annual community-wide garage sale, which some communities allow.

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Hate to point out the obvious, but you live in a gated community.

How do you think all the Mexicans are supposed to get in? Just leave the gates open on garage sale day lol?

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How do you think they get in during the week to mow the lawn?

Burdizzo said:

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62strat said:

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combat wombat said:

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We live in a gated community. Our subdivision doesn't allow garage sales. EVER. Not even a once-annual community-wide garage sale, which some communities allow.

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Hate to point out the obvious, but you live in a gated community.

How do you think all the Mexicans are supposed to get in? Just leave the gates open on garage sale day lol?

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How do you think they get in during the week to mow the lawn?

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When I last lived in a gated community, the lawn crew were set up on the ez tag list which opened the gates!

third coast.. said:

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if you think HOAs are bad you should try doing anything to a building in the historic charleston district downtown

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The angst in the comments section

IIIHorn said:

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third coast.. said:

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if you think HOAs are bad you should try doing anything to a building in the historic charleston district downtown

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The angst in the comments section

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That's fantastic. When I saw it was Santa Fe, I was thinking:



And when I read them:

62strat said:

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combat wombat said:

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We live in a gated community. Our subdivision doesn't allow garage sales. EVER. Not even a once-annual community-wide garage sale, which some communities allow.

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Hate to point out the obvious, but you live in a gated community.

How do you think all the Mexicans are supposed to get in? Just leave the gates open on garage sale day lol?

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Well yes. Leave the gates open for ONE day between garage sale hours. How hard is that.

But seriously, the gates make it more difficult to gain entry. Some of my neighbors are just nutjobs who think that there are murdering mobs just waiting at the gates to get in and steal from us or otherwise do us hard. They think the gates make this a "compound". I think the gates just give people a false sense of security.