What’s with all the hate for HOAs? I see people online all the time talking about how much they hate HOAs. If we take a step back, there are a lot of opportunities for great homes that are in an HOA, and here’s why you might want to consider them and just be mindful about what you’re reviewing when you go to buy in that HOA.
First off, remember that there are some upsides to being in an HOA community. One of those is going to be that your neighbors are probably never going to be able to put their RV up on blocks, park three boats and two dead cars in their driveway and leave them there all the time. The grass is probably not going to be knee-high at your neighbor’s house bringing your property value down. There are a lot of upsides. Now, if you’re the person who wants the RV up on blocks in your driveway, you probably are the person who really does not want to be in an HOA community. But it does offer you some protections for your property value down the line. So sometimes that is worth considering. But here are a couple of things to ask yourself.
First off, what is the fee that that HOA requires? And what does it include? Does it include trash removal? Does it include the water? Lots of condos and townhouses, it includes water, sometimes hot water, trash removal, snow removal, things like that, exterior maintenance, etc. Every community is a little different. So make sure you know what you’re paying for every month when you sign up to be in that HOA.
Then you’re going to get a copy of all of the HOA docs before you close. That should be ordered right when you put your offer in and sometimes it can take a little while to get but once you get it, here in central Virginia at least, you have a three-day right of rescission. So read those documents. Yes, they’re long. Yes, they’re boring. But you want to look and make sure that you can live with the restrictions, the rules and regulations that they have. You want to make sure you know what you’re paying for. You want to make sure that their financials look decent, and if you need to have your CPA or attorney or someone look at those and make sure they look okay, do that if it gives you a greater level of comfort. But you want to make sure that they’re not gonna get in financial trouble and hit you with an extra three grand special assessments next year or in two years.
So don’t just look at what the rules and restrictions are, but look at the financial documents that are going to be included in those. If you find something you can’t live with within those three days, you can say I’m out. So please, please, please read those.
If you have any other questions about buying a home in an HOA community, why you might want to, or why you might not want to, I’m here to help. Give me a call, send me a message, shoot me a DM, and let’s talk about it to see if an HOA community is right for you or if you want to do your own thing.
