I’m in Ohio and the housing market here over the last 7-8 years is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Homes that were bought for $130K in 2015 are now being sold for $590k. I’m talking about tiny, disgusting, poorly built 950 square foot shit boxes in quiet mediocre neighbourhoods. Then you’ve got Better, average sized homes in nicer neighbourhoods that were $300K+ 10 years ago selling for $750k+ now. Wild times.
Home prices will come down eventually, but for now; get your money (as much as you can) out of the housing market and get into the financial markets or gold. The new mortgage rates are crazy, add to that the recession and the fact that mortgage guidelines are getting more difficult. Home prices will need to fall by a minimum of 40% (more like 50%) before the market normalizes.If you are in cross roads or need sincere advise on the best moves to take now its best you seek an independent advisor who knows about the financial markets.
Personally, I can connect to that. When I began working with a fiduciary financial counsellor, my advantages were certain. I got into the market early 2019 and the constant downtrends and losses discouraged me so I sold off, got back in Dec 2021 this time with guidance, Long story short, its been 2years now and I’ve gained over a million dollars following guidance from my investment adviser.
This is huge! think you can point me towards the direction of your advisor? been looking at advisory management myself.. seeking ways to invest and make more money with the uncertainty in the economy.
There are a handful of experts in the field. I've experimented with a few over the past years, but I've stuck with ‘’Aileen Gertrude Tippy’’ for about five years now, and her performance has been consistently impressive. She’s quite known in her field, look-her up.
Disagree 100%. If a homeowner refuses to pay his/her monthly maint fees, everyone else is forced to pay their share. That is unfair to them. Some deadbeats just need to be forced to obey the rules and pay their fair share. Foreclosure is the perfect tool.
@@wildbill562 as a "tool" that does not make sense. What happens to the property and equity ? The potential for abuse is so high that crooked people would manufacture reasons to foreclose.
Sheeps will be sheeps, except these sheeps are a new breed and even more dumb, to give HOA 2-3 Car Payments a month to keep the surrounding areas clean and light security. ohh and lets not forget the power to fine you for anything and everything and then auction off your home to their family and friends for pennies on the Dollar.
@@Stanging84should be but think about who writes the HOAs CCRs . The developers do and those rules seldom go away. Then the state allows them to be recorded without much comment.
For a condo they are necessary. Who is going to clean the hallways? Who is going to service the elevator? Who is going to pay the bills? You get my drift. I am on the board of a small 3 story walk up building. We are self managed. Even with only 11 units, the president spends a lot of time dealing with things. We just spent $70,000 on a new roof. Insurance nearly doubled this year. Government paperwork has tripled in the last 10 years. Communication is the answer. If everyone is in the loop, it makes it easier on all.
Oddly HOAs were created because city and country laws were not sufficient. Most laws and regulations are bad. If there is a lawyer in the room, leave immediately.
NEVER. It's very ridiculous that a homeowner, whose name is on the mortgage and deed, can get their home taken away by a HOA. Seems like a variation of squatting. 😡
Yes! And I can’t believe they allow communities to be managed off site by professional FOR PROFIT management co.s Every condo should be managed by other residents
Our first realtor we said "no HOAs". First house he showed us was in a HOA. "But it's such a nice house, I just wanted you to see it". That ended that relationship. I've nothing against paying a reasonable fee based on actual cost for maintenance of shared areas or to handle snow removal on sidewalks and driveways. But I don't care at all for all the "you have to" and "you can't" rules. No way.
I am a retired prop manager. I moved to a dirt road in an unincorporated area just to avoid an hoa. It is just another level of government. We aleady have federal, state, county & city....and then add hoa....too much.
@@TheRealLivingWithLisaI agree with Florida girl, here in NY the local court officers are notorious for taking bribes from crooks in real estate. Illegal foreclosures are epidemic here. Where does the money go ? The overall equity, if it's a lot more than the fine, is temptation for the attempt to foreclose on false premise, it happens here in NY everyday. Even the wealthiest people are selling their property and leaving NY, like the wife of one of the Coch brothers.
The advent of HOA's, in Florida especially has been the worst thing ever invented. At some point I'm convinced HOA's will have to be shut down. The economics of HOA's just do not work anymore.
In my opinion: Well it's the same problem with employee unions who do not have any legal knowledge, especially the public sector scam unions. Police & fire departments should have limited unions to reproach discipline issues. The Sunshine clause should be sufficient to insure transparency as privacy in FL government is restricted certain particulars. Government ethics often is kept outside unions going more towards personality conflicts. That's not a Union's roll to play politics with employee money. They also try to use their members to rally for Democrats that always expand the administrative bureaucracy. Realistically, public unions are a waist of public resources & there's a Civil Service Board for that. HOAs keep the peace because all too often a racial minority/single female with fatherless child who gets a healthcare, financial or government job would like to continue their childhood within the grown-up introspective environment that residents actually pay to keep that in check. Also it keeps strippers & welfare glam out. Nobody wants that next door. Seriously, why work at all? Certain types of welfare people are allowed so long as they abide by the bylaws & act right. Their cars, music, BBQ smoke & yard decorations (trash pick up) all largely factor in. The cops won't care about residential particulars like home owners. People shouldn't be allowed to lease residentials long term in HOAs either because that's not the purpose of HOA "community".
It’s too late for a lot of us who bought a home in an HOA when it was a good thing but they have been given way to much power and freedom. Time to reel them in.
@@michaelpettersson4919 MOST new builds whether it be multi family or single family are being built for renters not homeowners. Developers started seeing a sharp downturn in sales, so what do they do? Finish the builds and rent them out
MOST new builds are multi family, The single family homes are being build to rent not build to buy. ALOT of developers who's sales tanked continue the build and rent them out..Own nothing and be happy.
Don’t have anything to do with HOAs. If the rules can be made more favorable to the homeowner, they can be made less favorable to the homeowner. Think for yourself. Do NOT ever allow some quasi governmental authority to bully you and charge fees for the privilege.
It is very hard to find a community (especially New Home Community) that doesn't have an HOA. The HOA I belong to is like the KGB where the Developers have 2/3 positions on the board. The dues increased $40/month when I moved in with them saying "inflation was the reason--thanks to Bidenomics!"
An HOA should only be created to be a solution for a real problen not decorative. My area is an unincorporated area with 26 properties. All our roads are private, we are responsible for maintenance and upgrades. All properties are 5 to 10 acres, so we have 2.5 miles of road. We formed an HOA to do this. Dues is $200.00 a year. Bi laws state no decisions can be made about personal property, but only local county rules apply. We do get snow so this also pays for removal. We only keep a $5,000.00 balance. And 3 times in the last 10 years we didn't collect dues because we still had our $5,000.00 balance. I believe ours is the true intention of an HOA.
This is especially important where there are a lot of elderly residents. Our board also meets with our property management overlords via zoom which severely limits who can be on the board.
You trust notification by mail? A woman in our neighborhood lost her home because those notes went to her ex who promptly threw them away. Nobody knocked on her door. She didnt find out until fines went over $5k. It was cheaper for her to buy something else. HOA and mor5gage company took it away from her.
Mail is one of the least reliable methods of communications. Other than picking up a new credit card (a function soon to be in phones) I never touch the box other than to clean out the junk mail. Check a calendar, it's not the twentieth century anymore.
I personally don't keep up with my email because I can't control the inundation of spam that buries anything of note. It should be like the doctors office. You let them know how you wish to be contacted, by phone, email or text, and either yes they can leave a voice mail, or no, they can't. I think that's reasonable. After all, if they're contacting you, I'm sure they have your file out, or pulled up on the computer, where your contact preferences should be listed.
I did bank foreclosures after the recession. So many properties had been taken over by HOA’s, rental properties that owed a very few thousand in not paid HOA fees. They collected those rents for years until the bank lawyers & myself came in paid the overdue fees and got the properties back. Not easy in Florida to find a home without an HOA but totally worth it!
They should never be able to seize any properties. Unless the taxes are larger than say 55% of the property value. Including state or city/ county taxes
I’m a lifelong native and I had no issues finding a place that wasn’t HOA. Stay away from those ugly condos and gated communities. Basically buy a house in a regular neighborhood. They exist in every single metro area in this state.
We lived in an HOA community in Naples from 2013 to 2021. In that time period the HOA became a real issue. First they decided in around 2016 that needed to build a new fitness center and bar. The community had turned over- the fitness place was fine with what the builder did but no- so here comes a special assessment of $3000- we paid it and though that was it. Then Irma hit and we got hit with a $2000 assessment to cover damage to the community in addition to out home damage. Then the curse of the annual roof cleaning letters- whether your roof needed if or not a letter came out every 2 years threatening a $100 a day fine if roof not cleaned as it was a "health and public blight issue" Really? Who the hell goes up on the roof and licks the tiles to make it a health issue. Had roof cleaned one time and had over $2000 in shrubbery ruined by the bleach used to kill the mold- had a devil of a time getting the contractor to pay me for the replacement. The HOA then decided that they were going to do a "major project" to keep up with new communities- price tag $15M. New bars, a dance floor, new pickleball, tennis courts, redoing the pool, etc.- What the place needed was perhaps a sprucing up of the dining room with new carpets and paint as the place was never really used- our of season the activity person literally BEGGED full time residents to go to eat at the restaurant as no one was going! But the HOA said a larger restaurant was essential to future home sales- Many residents opposed it- this was in the time of covid- and despite many people saying why do we need to do this they steamed ahead. In the meantime during covid- they demanded my roof be cleaned once again. As a senior with health issues interviewing contractors as roof cleaning can be VERY expensive and the damage to shrubbery very pricey- I asked for an extension for a few months and was threatened with a $100 a day fine. Ok got it done. When the so called vote on the $15M went thru all of our friends who were not into drinking and who did not need higher fees for bars and amenities that would go unused began to see one by one. The realtor who ultimately sold our home who lived in the community opposed the project as he said it would raise HOA fees and not be something all potential buyers would find appealing. The HOA moved ahead anyway. We put out home up for sale- we made a nice profit, sold and moved out of Florida. On our closing statement the HOA gave us one fine kick in the pants as they charged us $350 to check our records to be sure we had no liens from things like not getting roof cleaning done- adding insult to injury. We also were hit with a $250 payment the first installment of the $750 annual fee increase to cover the project. We closed 3 days after the due date and would never see the project done but the fee was taken from the proceeds. We have heard that the $15M project went over to be $21M and the kicker is that a female realtor who sells a ton of houses in this community and whose husband had been very active on the HOA board has had enough as have 10 of her friends and they are all moving away from Naples to the east coast to a new community. We moved out of state-we now live in the midwest in a larger, more attractive home that cost less than half of what the Naples home sold for. We live in an upscale community which is a suburb of a major Midwest city. The people are friendlier and extremely giving here. We found many of the people in Naples to think they were better than everyone else because they golfed or played pickleball or hung at the bar every night. We do have an HOA which only covers our garbage fees. We do not get roof cleaning letters or have projects shoved down our throats. Goodbye Florida- we do not miss you or your HOAs.
@@kathie4082 Not angry at Florida- for a period of time before the HOA became out of control we enjoyed living there. There were other issues, the heat, hurricane threat, the every increasing traffic that also led to our move. Many of the nicer homes in Naples are in HOA communities.- There are private homes on Gordon Drive where Rick Scott lives not in an HOA but for the most part all HOAs perhaps except Golden gate which is a rural type area without city water and sewer which would be deal killers for us. In the midwestern town in which we now live nearly all homes are in HOAs- but from what I can deduce having lied here 3 years they are not as tyrannical as in Naples where boards think your money is their money to spend with riles and far fetched projects. Actually just thought of this- if you had white trim on your house and wanted to touch it up with white paint- you needed to submit a request to the architecture committee for them to come and see your home and a sample of the pain to approve it. I actually had someone paint my trim without the approval as I had no idea it was against the rules. And no two homes if being repainted could be the same color- strange as the builder made the cookie cutter homes the same color on the whole street- but the HOA had different ideas. All over control and not needed!
On the vote for major changes to the common area amenities, such as the $15 million expansion, didn’t the homeowners vote for or against the change? Typically, at least 51% or more would have to vote in favor of this (or even more) per your HOA governing documents. This is a big restriction common in Condo Associations, but I am not aware that HOA’s have more latitude than condo boards. For any portion of the upgrades in the category of maintenance /repair and replacement the Board could approve that portion. If it was approved by a majority of owners, then it was not the decision of the HOA itself independent of the owners, rather it was the owners themselves who chose these improvements. Why was it a so-called vote? There was either a vote by the owners, or there was not?
Happy for you in finding a better place to live. I am going to look into having that, and all HOA 's that fine and fee excessively AUDITED. And maybe a class action lawsuit effective retroactively on abuses like projects not unanimously approved by all homeowners/investors.
I have a sister that lives in an HOA community in Bradenton. She, like me, is a ham radio operator. She wants a long wire antenna behind her house. The wire is so thin you really can't see it unless your really look very hard. So she can't put one up. So she really can't be a ham radio operator. I told her to get a ham radio flagpole antenna. Fly the American flag.
Look up The Amateur Radio Emergency Preparedness Act of 2024. Hope it gets passed someday. It will Prohibit homeowner association rules that would prevent or ban amateur radio antennas.
@@n3drx We are both into Amateir Radio Emergency Preparedness. She's a Marine for life. She's a tough girl and wants to help when bad things happen. So do I.
@@princeinflorida214 Well it's not me, it's my sister. Me, I can put up anything I want. Right now I'm using a G5RV inverted V. A DX10 or icom 7300, Ameritron 811H and all kinds of other things.
I own condo at Renaissance Square condominiums in Clearwater Florida they was embezzle funds for decades and now we will be very high association fee and non-stop special assessment and I've been fighting with them and I didn't get anywhere I just want to sell it and move on never ever own HOA community property it's a money losing proposition and I don't believe any law will change anything
When looking for a property, the first thing I check is the existence of a HOA. If there is one, I'm gone. Period. For me, HOA mean "Hell Out Already". There is no way I will willingly accept yet another level of government.
Should be another law. You don't have to join the HOA or you can opt out if the House is a single family home, is not in a gated community, and the HOA doesn't own the road.
Best way to avoid those "Hitlers" in the making is to refuse to purchase any home in an HOA community . That was the first thing I told my realtor when I began house hunting .
No HOA should EVER have the ability to foreclose on someone's home! Why isn't this being addressed in these new laws?!? I've heard horror stories out of FL and GA! Take them to court if they don't pay their fines! If you don't hear from them in a reasonable amount of time after sending a notice of the fine, contact them! Obviously something isn't getting through! Surely they can pick up a phone, or knock on a door to see if it's willful negligence, or honest ignorance! I personally would never live in a home within an HOA! I don't trust them as far as I could throw them collectively.
I was elected to my HOA and was INVITED by the board to handle communications-community affairs and outside agencies. Specifically, I represented the HOA in a fight to defeat zoning changes that would take lakeside land adjace t to is from one house per acre to 4 story dense apartments. Well, I worked hard at the county level and we one. Property changed hands from developers various times. They they went to the city to be annexed which we are unincorporated county. We won for a while. I served for 5 years as president and wanted OUT. NO ONE would take over. I was a holdover preside t for 8 more years. Unpaid job. Exhausting. But my sole goal was to prevent tyranny. No fines. Every project we did had at least 1/4 of the community participating. We even did our own gardens out front. Fees stayed within 10 bucks those 13 years. It was peaceful. The biggest issues are the out of state people who serve on boards now that they fled northern tyranny who are trying to shove it down our Southern throats now. Attorneys love this stuff and profile from conflict. I would never be in an HOA again
21 years later, they just built the apartments. I live on the other side but I got an 8' stone wall, no garbage on our side, no car wash on our side, no clubhouse or pool on our side, etc
The STUPIDEST HOA rule that I ever dealt with, was that my two teen sons were not allowed to keep their basketball goal in our own driveway, on our own property! They kept fining us, because they wanted us to drag it behind the garage, every time my boys played basketball, but it was too heavy to move!!! It was so tyrannical, and there was no logical reason for that rule - it was a nice new basketball goal - it wasn’t old, rusty or ugly so it didn’t make our house look junky, but those control freaks just didn’t want my boys to be allowed to play basketball at their own home - those HOA members were just angry, terrible TYRANTS!!!
ever have a neighbor with a basket ball goal next to your house and listen to the constant thump thump thump of a basket ball day after day after all day long and into the evening----sorry I don;;t like permeant basket ball courts.
I have a friend in a HOA now. He had a single weed that grew up in the sidewalk on the public area that was not his area of the sidewalk. They sent him warnings and he responded with "It's not my property". They fined him and he refused to pay it because it was in the "common area" sidewalk that was maintained by the HOA. That battle is still ongoing. He refuses to maintain the common are that his HOA fee covers each month.
You are a fool if you move into a HOA community in Florida. You are giving up your freedom to bored Karen’s and Ken’s that have nothing better to do with their lives than harass their neighbors. All those moving to Florida avoid HOA’s at all costs. You can find plenty of non HOA neighborhoods that are clean and safe. You don’t want to put your peace of mind and way of life in the hands of a bored Karen or Ken that has nothing better to do with their miserable lives.
What does the HOA do for you and at what cost? This is the bottom line. I am happy living with my HOA because I get a lot for what I pay. I know about the Kens and the Karens. There is no escaping difficult neighbors and conflicts.
They get kickbacks from any party they hire to perform work. Lawn care, electrical work, maintenance etc. Im curious if insurance companies also ramp up the price and get a kickback.
Absolutely ban all HOAs from being able to place leins on homes or forclose on them. Set a maximum amount for fines and a way to settle disputes using an impartial arbiter.
In GA, an HOA has more power over your home than you do. Cities, towns have rules regarding most issues of homes and homeowners already…that’s what kept neighborhoods in good shape before HOAs. However, cities/towns have relinquished the responsibilities to HOAs thus actually forcing another ‘tax’ on homeowners via HOA assessments, fees, fines, etc. Before you purchase that home, study the HOA governing documents and ask yourself if you are prepared to open your wallet to pay for the mismanagement and malfeasance of HOA board of directors and management company. Make no mistake, you will pay whatever amount they determine because if you don’t, you will be fined, interest will accumulate until you pay. Think you will sell and get out of neighborhood….better make sure there is not a lien on the house. This is just the tip of the HOA iceberg in GA.
Interesting video. I can appreciate your dry humor. I live in a non-HOA house, but surrounded by HOA's with their video surveillance, and signs in their land of NO. So subservient, kinda like Canadian People.
Absolutely. What happens is when an HOA forecloses, the house is sold at a ridiculously low price, and some friend of the HOA buys it up and cashes in. This is legalized theft.
My HOA is one of those that dictates what you can do in your own unit-down to the cabinets and other fixtures, which they own. Between HOA covenants and fees, property taxes it works out to several hundred a month and I feel like I’m renting again 😤😡
I too feel like I'm living in an apartment. I have a patio but I can't put a screen room on it so I can use it and they reserve the right to tell me which PLANTS I can have....I could go on...but I had more freedom when I was renting.
I know of two different people in two different HOAs who were elected to ‘the accountant’ position. They ended up quitting as the board would not give them the books - at all.
As a security supervisor, I’ve been a supervisor for a couple HOAs. And as a retired law enforcement officer. I was lucky and educated enough to have the ability and knowledge on how to look up and understand the statues. So from that perspective, thank you for the updates. I look forward to hearing more videos from you in the future.
I rented a condo for 7 years. My third year there they had a change of HOA management, on site president and so forth. It has been my lifelong practice to put up my Halloween decorations on October 1st and take them down on November 1st. Immediately upon taking the Halloween decor, I put up my Christmas decorations. In the first week of November I received a call from the owner of my condo, and he asked if I had received the new CC&Rs? I told him no. He told me to leave my things up as they were, and if I received any correspondence from the HOA to immediately call him because he wanted everything faxed to him. He then asked if I was up for a fight? I laughed and said I was a born rebel so, sure I was. He was going to go to fight for holiday decor nonsense to be removed. Then he ran down what they were expecting to happen; NO Halloween decorations may go up until 6 days October 31st. All Halloween decor must be removed no later than midnight October 31. NO demon looking characters, no skeleton characters suspended from the ceiling of the balcony , NO witch characters, NO ghostly characters hanging. NO spiders in webs. Pumpkin Garland was fine, orange lights could not be turned on before 5:30pm and had to be turned off by 7:30pm. They even stipulated that only fun sized candies could be distributed! No full sized candy bars! 😮 For Christmas holiday; Decorations for Christmas could not be put up until 7 days before Christmas! Any light strung up could only have red and green and couldn't be blinking lights, they could only be on from 6pm until 8pm nightly. Any porch decorations that inflated could only be inflated for one hour per evening, 6pm-7pm. And only ONE character could be used on the balcony and it must be a snow man, Santa, or reindeer. Christmas trees must not be visible from the outside , ie: not placed in front of any windows, AND could only be green. NO flocked trees, artificial or real, must be green, (that one was stupid, I mean if you can't see it from outside who would know if it was flicked or not? 🤪). No Christmas lights on the inside of the condos windows. Only on the outside balcony railing. There were other rules but they aren't even sensible enough to mention, except for the one about baking Christina's cookies: baking cookies more than once per week was prohibited, (they gave a reason for that, "NOBODY wants to smell sweet cookies baking all day everyday"!). All Christmas decorations had to be taken down no later than midnight on Christmas night! NO New Years Eve decor was allowed, period. I'm sure I'm forgetting some of the stupidiest things you've ever heard! My condo owner and I went to court together and the judge heard enough at the two hour limit for lights and baking cookies, he told the HOA weirdos that they were stepping far over the line, the rules they wanted to enforce were unreasonable, and ridiculously strict. He told been to butt out of people's decoratons for the holidays, and if I wanted to put them up in August they needed to deal with it. They were pissed! Of course we won. I was so happy, as was my condo owner. That entire complex was lit up like you wouldn't believe from October 1st through January 5! People got so creative that year and we had several parties in the park like areas of our buildings. Now that kind of bs is without a word for over the top. It was surreal that people think they can just make rules that are ridiculous. Dictator's, the lot of them! Oh yeah, that was the first year in so very long I got a REAL tree. It was flocked 🤭 and stood right in front of the main window of my unit, for all to see. Eventually the residents had enough of the crazy crap they tried to implement, they voted then away, fired them or whatever it is homeowners do to get rid of hoa's. It was also just over a year or so before they finally got them ousted and replaced. It didn't hurt that the joke of a company was being run by thieves, as they were skimming $$ from the dues. They got caught during the quarterly audit.
HR 1203 passed both houses and is about to go to the Govenor. Almost everything you listed as potentially coming is in this bill. Takes effect July 1, 2024.
I understand the need for HOA within a community. I own a property in Powder Springs, GA which I purchased back in 1993. Today, it's a geto, cars on cement blocks, unkept lawns, siding missing from exterior walls, and every exterior paint scheme imaginable on a house in the neighborhood. However, HOAs can be a pain to deal with in the type of plants I would like to grow/have on my property or the type of maintenance-free fence instead of the wooden ones.
What is a dream job for a narcissist? Being on the board of an HOA. You don't need any qualifications at all, you can be dumb as dirt, just nosey. If you make mistakes in the budget, well gosh, you didn't mean to do that, even though it looks like embezzlement, it's not apparently, it was an arithmetic error. And what do you receive in return? Oh, they make sure nobody parks on the street, or in their driveway more than 24 hrs. Oh yeah, that's worth paying an HOA membership fee forever, which keeps on escalating over the years. Whee, no cars parked in front of my house, it's utopia !! Oh, and they prevent people from doing any landscaping , you know, planting the WRONG color flowers, or perhaps hanging the flag on Veterans Day. Horrors, who would do that? Well, I'm sure we've all read the nightmares of an HOA. That being said, if you move to an HOA neighborhood then it's your problem, because probably 99% of the residents in that community don't ever read the HOA bylaws, so you have nobody to blame but yourself. HOA's love over 55 communities of retired folks. They're easy to intimidate. They can make them remove the birdbath in their backyard that's apparently ruining the neighborhood. What about the people recently that were told to remove a flag on their property. It was inside the house!!
Sounds like it's going in a better direction for those who find themselves trapped in a Hell of Association in Florida. Living free here in Alaska. Thank You Lord!
I've been in an HOA in Hillsborough County coming up on 30 years. They gave me a month to replace my roof and a month to paint my house. They always given me at least two weeks for repairs. Sometimes it takes two weeks just to find someone and to schedule the work.
I moved to an HOA community after my old neighbor painted their house purple and very few people power washed their roofs. I am fortunate to have a good HOA management company. 10 years my HOA fees have gone up only $20
@@unclebrucelive Jesus. That’s theft. Instead of marijuana on the ballot we should have HOA regulations. I am looking for a condo for my son and the HOA fees are more than the mortgage.
I live in a community that has an HOA and don’t mind it a bit. The last community lived in, my neighbor beside me burned his garbage in a pile of stones to represent a burn pit. That smoke from the garbage was terrible and stunk. That doesn’t happen here. The neighbor on the other side of me dug out the dirt next to my fence for a parking space. The fence kept failing over because it was no longer supported by enough dirt. This is why I live in an HOA community
The fact they can put liens on people's houses and essentially are able to legally steal is a deal breaker for me. I can see them being necessary for condos and buildings provided they are not too powerful, but not single family.
Something like 50% to 60% of all homes in Florida have HOA's. A prospective buyer of Florida real estate really needs to understand what HOA' s do and how intrusive they can be in your life. They are not innocuous neutral entities, they are good allies with governments both local and federal. They are a taxing district with dictatorial powers and can make your life miserable if you cross them. Full disclosure of who they choose do HOA business with, i.e. mowing contracts, repair contracts, waste hauling contracts, insurance contracts, and other contracts, are not disclosed to the homeowners. Full transparency is needed and runaway inflationary cost from year to year is not known for a homeowner of such a property. Buyer Beware!!!!
I’m split on an HOA….i don’t like anyone telling me what I can do on my property. I also don’t like a neighbor who doesn’t cut his grass or leave a boat out in front of the house. I am happy to see that laws may pass to help homeowners have leverage with some overzealous HOA tyrants. Hopefully common sense prevails for all.
@@JesusistheonlywaayI’m sure his neighbors don’t like a few of the things in his yard. How would he feel if they had them removed because they didn’t like them. People really need to mind their own damn business!!
@@Jesusistheonlywaay did you even read my comment?? I clearly wrote, I do not like anyone telling me what I can do on my property. We all have to be mindful of our neighbors. And not that I’m particularly against a boat in the driveway, for me I like nice clean visibility. What if your boat is causing a blind spot to traffic and causes an accident???🤔🤔that’s why I said I’m split on an HOA. It’s obviously not for everyone. Just my 2 cents
Bought a house in 2006 in HOA neighborhood. The prior owners had some "issues" keeping up the appearance, minor and correctable. Prepared for closing and the title company tells me there are Recorded $1500 in HOA liens on the property upon doing Title Search. (The title company wasnt going to issue a title policy without everything being cleaned up.) Title company sends to HOA's outside lawyer an Estoppel Letter of which he adds another $1000 out of thin for good measure. This issue wasnt contingent on my closing, and proceded with the purchase and the Estople Letter Fee on the Closing statement. (HUD-1 back in those days.) THAT is when the fun and games began. Month or so after closing get a polite call from some kid at a law firm telling me that I owe another $500 to the HOA and that they didnt "Collect" the right amount and were "other" HOA infractions not collected. I reminded them I had an Estoppel from them prior to closing and considered it settled. But, oh no. Then, harrassment. Next call its $1000, then $1500. Four more different lawyers over an 18 month time frame , ever escalating amount (for shock and awe )insisting upon payment and my continual reply and refrain was "We got an Estoppel Letter and the paid a fee, evidenced on the HUD-1. The fourth attorney when challenged about this told me "You dont know how many times I hear this." I accused them of fraud, and as an officer of the court, it was his responsibility to report this to the appropriate authority, State Attorney's Office, etc. I never heard another word after that conversation. The point Im making, this whole HOA "form of government" needs to be radically overhauled, not these hilarous infintile changes. Christmas decorations and clothes-lines? Really?
We built our dream home in an area that became a subdivision with HOA. They sent us a registered letter stating they would come out to measure how much mulch in my front flowerbeds. They yelled about the fence we had for our horses. At that point we put the house up for sale and because we didn’t list it with the head of the HOA. The for sale signs were torn down. We sold the house at a loss and moved to a fix it up farm, no HOA, total freedom. A few weeks after we moved a member of the board said hello in the grocery store, all nice and friendly. I took the opportunity to let that person know my opinion is that HOA’s are unconstitutional, we don’t live under Communism.
Evidently these HOA mgrs have serious Control issues to bring about this Bill of Rights. I’m all for keeping the neighborhood up to standards and why many buy in. But it appears busy bodies and power hungry often “Rule” these communities. Why I prefer TV’s arrangement.
When I was buying my house in Florida, I told the realtor I had 2 request. A garage and no HOA, I will never let someone tell me what I can and cannot do with the house I bought.
I saw a HMO sue a lady in a wheelchair 500 dollars a day for putting a wheelchair ramp inside her house. They put a lean on her house and kept it going after she removed it. They gave her fines for riding her wheelchair in the street as it made marks. Eventually she sued them and the president who had pushed the fines had his place bought the his home from the proceeds.
I’ve had several of these “rules” that they said I violated, I have also had tried to add plants and tried to get a plan accepted! , my management company never replied to 4 different plans. Frustrating! Thanks for this info! Truly grateful!
My neighbor is elderly. The HOA forced him to repaint his house. It looked fine to me. His wife had just died, so I felt so sorry for him. The stupid thing is the house was 5 years old. Honestly, I wonder if he ticked off someone on the HOA.
Great video, thank you! I also have to add, I loved condo living (past tense). The design and concept of multi-family living makes sense, and the entry price to home ownership was usually less than the cost of a single family home, that's was the good. The bad - it's the management and what happens from here. My biggest problem was most HOAs and condos in Florida are managed by a volunteer board. Don't get me wrong, they are usually well intentioned folks but the trouble is when, say, a retired nurse volunteers to be on the board, and wants to help by planting flowers at the front gate that's fine to a degree. But then senate bill 4D comes along and the reserves have to be fully funded the whole place is now upside down. The concept just no longer works in my opinion. I sold my last place and now rent. I am much happier and have less headaches. So the fact that we can now have a pick up truck parked in the driveway is a rule that is about 15 years overdue. I am not impressed. The real issue is when the HOA fees went from $350 a month to $800 a month (in 2023) because volunteers are tyring to navigating 4D plus higher insurance costs for the master policy. Life got easier for me to face the facts that the #s don't work anymore for this type of living arrangement. That's just my experience though.
Agree about being HOA president. Don't know anyone who says - oh yeah, I am glad I did that. Responsiveness of the management company is a major problem. Laws regarding that should address this specifically with specifics. I recently waited 6 days just to get a phone call returned from the property manager. So far, I am navigating my new HOA OK, but way too many rules that are virtually impossible to change.
@@_JohnJohn_ Sorry to disappoint you, I own my 3/2 on an acre lock stock and barrel. Been that way for almost 15 years now. And we are about to take our next step and go off grid, supplying our own power station.Our only bills will be phones/internet, and insurances. How much does your HOA raise the lot rents each year? 5%? You will be swamped after a decade of that. Unless your rich, in which case, you don't have any of the concerns that the middle class has...
@@nasanction Probably a trailer on cheap land in rural America. You appear to be parroting what you heard on the news huh......15 years in your current home means you only know what people tell you about HOAs. I pay $400/year total for two residental properties owned in two separate communities here in Florida. I also have another under contract in an HOA community that's $250/year....don't get caught up in the wave of misinformation.
When our HOA broke contract by NOT taking care of the public areas w/in the HOA area (pool, walking trails) my dad got a lawyer & since the HOA was in error, my dad no longer was required to pay they HOA fees. After my dad died, they tried scaring my mother they were informed/reminded of their error. And they had to remove the lien they had quietly placed on the house. "Oops" they said.
HOA’s properly managed by a Homeowners’ Board of Directors serve to protect your investment. The problems arise when buyers don’t read the Declarations and don’t ever get involved or run for the Board. Go to the meetings! Open your mouth! Get involved!
They tried to set up an HOA in my OLD long existing neighborhood and got met with a resounding NO. Some of the houses here have been here for more than 80-100 years. There is no way the could have been brought up to the rules they wanted to set up.
I’m the president of a small FL condo HOA and it is a nightmare. Owners don’t pay bills and trash their units outside and have violent tenants, they call me for every problem that comes up. I get paid nothing and get abused. I try to save money by doing some work myself. I get nothing in return except liability if something goes wrong. I want to live in an HOA free condo too, but not because of the HOA, and it has everything to do with the owners, not the HOA.
In our HOA community, ISMA - Indian Spring Master Association, the homeowner is fined if one of their visiting guests and/or contractors/vendors is caught speeding by their radar system. The fines don't go to the guest/vendor/contractor that is speeding. The homeowner they are visiting is fined. This seems extremely unfair and our community has been trying to fight this HOA for a long time and not gotten anywhere.
Thank You Lisa, very informative! Agree on the STR you never know whose coming and going. Good to see some changes. Some of these places are just way too strict, over the top.
I was in real estate for many years and would never recommend any property with a HOA. I wouldn't let a family member get into such a situation and the one time a buyer insisted on a property with a HOA I had them sign a specially prepared document warning them of the risks and releasing my company from legal liability (I had a good attorney draw it up). HOAs are that bad. Any changes in laws to return property rights to homeowners is very welcome by me.
The HOA I’m in snuck in a BS clause in the documents where you have to actually pay a .85% fee when you sell your home to the developer. This amounts in most cases thousands of dollars. Snuck it in the fine print. Supposedly this is for “community improvement”. Why someone selling their home would pay thousands for community improvements (which I don’t believe are happening.!) is ridiculous. I would love to see a lawyer take a class action suit against them for this bogus fee. Meanwhile they hardly enforce any of the rules like keeping lawns mowed and watered.
I live in a good HOA. Our HOA of 3500 homes is an organic HOA which means there is no management company. The 80 guys that maintain the golf courses and the common grounds are direct employees of the HOA. So are the employee's that run the administration and accounting. We do contract out the restaurant and the gate. We have millions of dollars in reserve and pay cash for everything we do. We have hundreds of people involved committee's for many of the things the HOA provides including an internal audit committee. We have a new master plan for the community. We just added a new fitness center and pickle ball courts without an assessment. The only assessment the community did 25 years ago was to tap in to the county water system to provide reclaimed water for our grounds and golf courses. Best thing the community ever did.
The problem is you have millions in reserve. Over charging for services. If you have a wind fall then that extra money should be returned or invested in adjoining property for green spaces surrounded the neighborhood.
I worked in our HOA office as office manager for 10 years until I retired. None of the laws mentioned, new or pending, will make any difference to our HOA. It is well run, lenient with fines, and in the 20 years I've lived here I have never seen anything done unethically. In my years in the office I can remember only 2-3 residents whose homes had liens applied when they were several thousand dollars in arrears on very reasonable HOA dues. When people don't pay, they shift the burden to the rest of the residents. Our by-laws are already consistent with these laws. It's best not to elect bullies and tyrants to the board. Cars, pick-up trucks, and SUV's allowed - but not business trucks. Business vehicles are allowed if they have removable signs which can be removed before parking. We did have one guy who wanted to park his tractor/trailer on our narrow streets - not allowed.
I just ran across your channel and I’m thrilled to know that you’re going over this and that these changes are hopefully going to be made. I sold real estate in Florida for 10 years and exactly what you said, trying to get a hold of the HOA president or anyone as a matter, fact, in order to get the information to the title company to even close, Was always a problem. They did not care that we had to extend closings and mess up loan documents or anything else just because they didn’t wanna be bothered. I love everything you went over but that’s my personal biggest take away. And the one where they need some kind of education or Some type of credentials in order to be on these boards. Where I sold, we did not have anyone telling us what to do on the inside of our property - that was a new one to me.
I live in an HOA in Tradition. I have had no problems, when i lived in the community alot of people do not take care of there property, i was tired of seeing cars in the middle of the yard, over grown grass, garbage cans over flowing, decided it was worth being around like minded people that valued there property and what they pay for. However, if I found a neighborhood where people valued their property and it had a canal behind the yard, not overpriced, I would move.
@@TheRealLivingWithLisa New has to be to get people to buy into the area but has the neighborhood grows they will get larger and in comes the Karen's and Ken's that start messing it all up - We need this we need that and your fees keep sky rocketing. It happens to them all.
I refuse to live in a HOA governed community or subdivision! But one thing I want to add: A law that requires HOAs to go to court before imposing any violation fines.
I guess I live in a great community. Our board is fair and honest! All those things you’ve said are in our bylaws. We try to have an orientation prior to closing on your new home so the buyer is aware of our rules & regs so there is no misunderstandings and disappointment in the purchase.
