I was elected as Director of Board of HOA, Treasurer

[C-dub]

Today at the school where we were under lockdown

Weather or something else?

[jocat54]

Congrats on being elected--I think.

Just me, but I would never live in a HOA if I have a choice--when they what to pay my mortage and taxes then they get to tell me what I can or can't do with my property. Until then ain't going to happen.

I do understand they might help keep the place clean though.

[WildBill]

Today at the school where we were under lockdown, one parent approached me and asked if I was elected last night. She added she had to leave early and wanted to make sure I was elected since she vote for me. It was a chance for her to meet my wife and have a neighbor to neighbor chat.

You should have told her to contact your people and your people would get back with her.

[Beiruty]

Today at the school where we were under lockdown

Weather or something else?

storm

[74novaman]

Congrats!

Though I think what you meant to say is:

I got elected to do too much work for no pay, while 50% of my neighbors get mad at what I'm doing and the other 50% get mad I'm not doing what they want me to do.

Good luck!

[jmorris]

Be prepared to put in WAY more work than you figured on.

In my experience, there will be a LOT of whining and complaining, and very little "helping" from your homeowners.
It's sooooooo much easier for most folks to tell you what the problems are rather than put in real work on implementing solutions.

Good on you for putting in the effort.
Good luck... Welcome to "Public Service".

I had a friend who was elected to the HOA as president. Every time a resident would complain about something during a town meeting he would appoint a committee to look into the problem and make recommendations. The committee consisted of the complainer as committee chair and the committee was whoever he could rope into helping him.

He lasted a year as president, and was not re-elected.

[Dave2]

No offense to any of you but I'm in an hoa neighborhood as well. My hoa is a pain in the neck. Ill never get a house with an hoa as long as I live. I can understand the rules to a point but if I work til 730pm and my trashcans are not in by 700pm that same night I get a letter. Same thing with my yard if I have one weed in the flower bed I get a letter. I think its a little extreme where I am. But my main concern would be as long as people keep their yard descent looking and don't have motors hanging from their trees with a huge rebel flag with a purple painted house and a green garage door, I think the hoa shuld ease up a little I get fines for such silly things its obnoxious. Imho maybe I got involved in a cruddy hoa. But from my experience ill never live in one again

Clearly they're against having employed people live in the neighborhood, since work schedules might not let everyone get home by 19:00. Perhaps you could request a change to the language, adding "or within one hour (three hours if sick) of getting home from work, whichever comes first." Or perhaps replace it with "Trash cans must be brought in by the time you leave for work the next day, or within one hour (three hours if sick) of waking up if you're not going to work."

[The Annoyed Man]

I deliberately avoided HOAs when I was house hunting. I understand their purpose, and I know many people who are happy where they live, but for every good story I've heard ten bad ones. I think the problems exist for the same reason that we get sometimes get bad government: elected officials who want the job aren't qualified for it, and those who are qualified don't want it. The result is that you often—but not by any means always—get board members who who are "serving" for all the wrong reasons. Sometimes those wrong reasons are simply because they control freaks who enjoy the exercise of power over the lives of others, and the more they can boss people around, the happier they are. That type of person actually enjoys the confrontations. I don't think you can be an effective HOA board member unless you are serving with a servant's heart, and that is a rare enough quality in most people. It stands to reason that it exists in HOA boards in equal proportion to the rest of the HOA's residents. Ditto for the indifferent and the closet nazis.

My advice to any prospective home buyer is to first answer the question of whether or not they are willing to live in an HOA before they even look at any HOA homes. Those homes are likely—thanks to HOA rules—to have a lot of curb appeal; but you have to balance that against the likelyhood that you'll have a lot less control over what you might want to do to personalize your home after you buy it. If that is a tradeoff that you can live with, and if you can afford the monthly or annual burden of dues....not to mention other assessments that may come up to fund the unforeseen....then you'll be happy in an HOA. If you're like me and you like to have the freedom to upgrade your real estate investment according to your own sense of esthetics, then an HOA is definitely not for you.

After we bought our home, we did a complete landscaping makeover and we built a cedar patio cover/carport behind our house (the previous owner had converted the two car garage to a family room). All of it is nicely done, and our yard is not only prettier, but it is also more drought resistant. But it is also very different from my neighbors' yards. And by the way, instead of objecting to our yard, most of our neighbors began upgrading their own. None of this would have been possible in a lot of HOAs.

So, HOAs do serve a purpose, but they aren't for everyone. Before you buy a home in one, you should do you research about it. Talk to some of the residents to get a feel for the local board, and for the management company.

Beiruty, congratulations on your election. I hope everything goes smoothly for you.

[74novaman]

Yeah, I specifically told our realtor when we were looking "no HOAs". If I'm going to own a place (though if we get technical the bank owns it for now) I don't want other people telling mecwhat I can and can't do.

It used to be common courtesy and a point of pride to keep your home looking nice. Our society has so many people in it now who seem to need an authority figure to tell them what to do at all times. It's sad.

[CrimsonSoul]

I'm not a big HOA fan

[MasterOfNone]

I see it now:

Beiruty Rule #1
All homes must be properly defended against criminal activity. Proper defense will consist, at a minimum, of a firearm and a capable operator.

[n5wd]

...So, HOAs do serve a purpose, but they aren't for everyone. Before you buy a home in one, you should do you research about it. Talk to some of the residents to get a feel for the local board, and for the management company.

Oh, so true. My wife and I lived in an HOS-neighborhood for a while. It was "OK", but I don't think we'll ever do it, again - too much drama!

[Beiruty]

I see it now:

Beiruty Rule #1
All homes must be properly defended against criminal activity. Proper defense will consist, at a minimum, of a firearm and a capable operator.

For sure, I will not be Mr. Zimmerman's case #2!

[SewTexas]

you know why I agreed to go on the board? I don't like HOA's and I don't trust them....so I figured it was one of those," don't complain if you aren't willing to do something about it" things.

We really wanted to avoid the whole HOA thing altogether but in this area if you want any kind of a new house you pretty much have to be in an HOA, or maybe out in the country, and in our situation, we were limited in area choice. Sooo, the HOA go me, loud mouth and all.

[Birdshot70]

DUUUUDE how much have you allotted for guns and ammo

What ever it is, it won't be enough!