Welp.. I put on offer on a house
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@nadnerB said in Welp.. I put on offer on a house:
Hmmm, sounds a bit like a Strata Scheme here but with less oversight.
http://www.wa.stratacommunity.org.au/content/page/what-is-strata.html
If by less you mean zero.
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@scottalanmiller said in Welp.. I put on offer on a house:
@nadnerB said in Welp.. I put on offer on a house:
Hmmm, sounds a bit like a Strata Scheme here but with less oversight.
http://www.wa.stratacommunity.org.au/content/page/what-is-strata.html
If by less you mean zero.
Well, it's the closest thing unless you move into a "Lifestyle community"
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@johnhooks said in Welp.. I put on offer on a house:
What happens is the only people who have time to be on the HOA board are the people who have a ton of free time (retired, don't work, etc). So they have time to sit around and come up with nonsense rules that they can enforce on other people. If it was a normal working person they wouldn't have time to come up with these ridiculous rules.
This is extremely true. You end up with retired cranky old women as a "police force" using the guise of the HOA to spy on neighbours and stuff. We've had it get downright creepy in both HOAs we got stuck with.
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@scottalanmiller said in Welp.. I put on offer on a house:
HOAs are the worst. We will never live in a place with one again. They can be fine, but they bring so much long term risk.
I thought the house price was cheap, until I was it was a townhome and HOA fee. No thanks. I'll keep my home in the country.
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@Jason said in Welp.. I put on offer on a house:
@scottalanmiller said in Welp.. I put on offer on a house:
HOAs are the worst. We will never live in a place with one again. They can be fine, but they bring so much long term risk.
I thought the house price was cheap, until I was it was a townhome and HOA fee. No thanks. I'll keep my home in the country.
An HOA can sneak up on you. If your mortgage is $1,000/mo and your HOA is $200/mo, that's a 20% premium on the price of your home! Only unlike the mortgage, it goes up over time and never goes away!! It becomes like "rent". Even after you own your home, you have to pay rent for forever to be allowed to live in the home that you already paid for! It can easily double the cost of a home over its lifetime.
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@scottalanmiller said in Welp.. I put on offer on a house:
@Jason said in Welp.. I put on offer on a house:
@scottalanmiller said in Welp.. I put on offer on a house:
HOAs are the worst. We will never live in a place with one again. They can be fine, but they bring so much long term risk.
I thought the house price was cheap, until I was it was a townhome and HOA fee. No thanks. I'll keep my home in the country.
An HOA can sneak up on you. If your mortgage is $1,000/mo and your HOA is $200/mo, that's a 20% premium on the price of your home! Only unlike the mortgage, it goes up over time and never goes away!! It becomes like "rent". Even after you own your home, you have to pay rent for forever to be allowed to live in the home that you already paid for! It can easily double the cost of a home over its lifetime.
And you lose the right to do what you want to do to your home if it doesnt meet HOA's rules.
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@IRJ said in Welp.. I put on offer on a house:
@scottalanmiller said in Welp.. I put on offer on a house:
@Jason said in Welp.. I put on offer on a house:
@scottalanmiller said in Welp.. I put on offer on a house:
HOAs are the worst. We will never live in a place with one again. They can be fine, but they bring so much long term risk.
I thought the house price was cheap, until I was it was a townhome and HOA fee. No thanks. I'll keep my home in the country.
An HOA can sneak up on you. If your mortgage is $1,000/mo and your HOA is $200/mo, that's a 20% premium on the price of your home! Only unlike the mortgage, it goes up over time and never goes away!! It becomes like "rent". Even after you own your home, you have to pay rent for forever to be allowed to live in the home that you already paid for! It can easily double the cost of a home over its lifetime.
And you lose the right to do what you want to do to your home if it doesnt meet HOA's rules.
And you'll never have much say in those rules and they might vary a lot over time. Like your home today, you might be forced to paint it in gold gilding tomorrow and have a slide in your front yard because a few old ladies said so.
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@scottalanmiller said in Welp.. I put on offer on a house:
An HOA can sneak up on you. If your mortgage is $1,000/mo and your HOA is $200/mo, that's a 20% premium on the price of your home! Only unlike the mortgage, it goes up over time and never goes away!! It becomes like "rent". Even after you own your home, you have to pay rent for forever to be allowed to live in the home that you already paid for! It can easily double the cost of a home over its lifetime.
This is how I look at it, you're paying a mortgage and then rent on top of that.
Like who the hell would do that? The few benefits like getting your lawn mowed weekly or Club House perks just don't seem worth a damn.
I can pay someone $200 / month to mow my lawn, clean out the gutters, power was the house and driveway and still park a beater car on the grass without anyone saying one word to me.
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I rented in a HOA once. They yelled at me for working on my own vehicle and said you aren't allowed to work on cars in this neighborhood. Naturally I just ignored them.
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@IRJ said in Welp.. I put on offer on a house:
I rented in a HOA once. They yelled at me for working on my own vehicle and said you aren't allowed to work on cars in this neighborhood. Naturally I just ignored them.
Exactly, like what? I can't work on the property I own (my car) to ensure it's in good running condition. I'd just respond, well I can work on my car and fix the belt that is making all kinds of noise or you can listen to it.
Which would you prefer?
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In our case the house is an attached 2 story condo. When you are buying a place like that, you will always have HOA fees because they cover the common building insurance and the lawncare at a minimum.
This one also includes a clubhouse (that we will probably never/rarely use) and an outdoor pool (that will only be used for a month by us).
Much like buying IT, we are buying the house that works for us now, and will not (assuming the market doesn't implode again) be worthless in 6-8 years when we may want to move again.
The Schaumburg, Illinois area is very heavily populated with attached housing. So HOA are extremely common. Most standard single family homes are not in subdivisions with HOA.
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@DustinB3403 said in Welp.. I put on offer on a house:
@IRJ said in Welp.. I put on offer on a house:
I rented in a HOA once. They yelled at me for working on my own vehicle and said you aren't allowed to work on cars in this neighborhood. Naturally I just ignored them.
Exactly, like what? I can't work on the property I own (my car) to ensure it's in good running condition. I'd just respond, well I can work on my car and fix the belt that is making all kinds of noise or you can listen to it.
Which would you prefer?
They probably have a rule about that too, or will add one for you. And then you get a lien put against your house.
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@JaredBusch said in Welp.. I put on offer on a house:
In our case the house is an attached 2 story condo. When you are buying a place like that, you will always have HOA fees because they cover the common building insurance and the lawncare at a minimum.
Oh yeah, in a condo it has to be that way. No way to function otherwise. That's okay then, it just comes with the territory.
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With a condo you also don't have "your driveway" and "your lawn" that they are trying to control.
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I never really understood why people buy condos. Is it because they don't want to deal with lawn maintenance?
Condos make sense in big cities of course, but in areas where there is alot of land and they are priced similar to a house. I just don't understand why people are so attracted to them.
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@IRJ said in Welp.. I put on offer on a house:
I never really understood why people buy condos. Is it because they don't want to deal with lawn maintenance?
Condos make sense in big cities of course, but in areas where there is alot of land and they are priced similar to a house. I just don't understand why people are so attracted to them.
Well we keep considering one because we want Gulf waterfront. But the reason is because it is a fraction of the price of a house and tons safer from hurricanes.
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@scottalanmiller said in Welp.. I put on offer on a house:
@IRJ said in Welp.. I put on offer on a house:
I never really understood why people buy condos. Is it because they don't want to deal with lawn maintenance?
Condos make sense in big cities of course, but in areas where there is alot of land and they are priced similar to a house. I just don't understand why people are so attracted to them.
Well we keep considering one because we want Gulf waterfront. But the reason is because it is a fraction of the price of a house and tons safer from hurricanes.
Yeah I guess that waterfront is a bit cheaper in a condo. It's not too much of a difference here. You are looking at $200k -$300k for a waterfront condo and you are looking at $270k and up for a waterfront house. Obviously $270k doesn't get you too much of a house on the water, but you can get something pretty nice for under $350k.
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@IRJ said in Welp.. I put on offer on a house:
@scottalanmiller said in Welp.. I put on offer on a house:
@IRJ said in Welp.. I put on offer on a house:
I never really understood why people buy condos. Is it because they don't want to deal with lawn maintenance?
Condos make sense in big cities of course, but in areas where there is alot of land and they are priced similar to a house. I just don't understand why people are so attracted to them.
Well we keep considering one because we want Gulf waterfront. But the reason is because it is a fraction of the price of a house and tons safer from hurricanes.
Yeah I guess that waterfront is a bit cheaper in a condo. It's not too much of a difference here. You are looking at $200k -$300k for a waterfront condo and you are looking at $270k and up for a waterfront house. Obviously $270k doesn't get you too much of a house on the water, but you can get something pretty nice for under $350k.
Yeah, we want more like $50K.
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We found out that paying $22K here in Romania was way too expensive and we'd be foolish to buy that those prices. Found out about a house nearby with room for a lake for "way under $22K." Hoping to get to see it soon.
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@scottalanmiller said in Welp.. I put on offer on a house:
@JaredBusch said in Welp.. I put on offer on a house:
In our case the house is an attached 2 story condo. When you are buying a place like that, you will always have HOA fees because they cover the common building insurance and the lawncare at a minimum.
Oh yeah, in a condo it has to be that way. No way to function otherwise. That's okay then, it just comes with the territory.
You also have to watch that management is doing it's job properly. Part of the family lives in some local condos, and does a lot of the menial yard maintenance instead of paying a good percentage of the HOA fee. He's said that the housing association is responsible for the entire infrastructure (buildings, sewer, electric, roads, etc.) If they didn't maintain a large savings fund from the HOA fees, then the people living there could get hit with $20,000/each bills for large projects (think things like a sewer line collapsing and replaced.) Done right it's no problem, the money is already available.
