Soccer Mom Do-Gooders HOA lose one.

When you are in the city the laws there are plenty sufficient (and in some cities draconian), when you are in a development outside the city limits I can almost understand a very limited type of HOA that mimics the laws missing by not being in the city.

You know for things like no cars up on blocks in the front yard for more than a year.

The grass can't be over taller than the back of Holstein cow.

Loud music over 95 db after 12 midnight must be old time rock & roll.

You know the important things. Other than that HOAs are evil!

And are shunned by most people and therefore are a detriment to property values not the other way around. In the country an HOA might increase values, not by anything intrinsic to there being an HOA, but by the fact you can see the water buffalo before it jumps in the road in front of you because the grass has been cut short.

Drewsifer wrote: See that's the crap we're all RAAAAAGING about Duke. Did the car run? Was it multiple pieces? Unless it was half rusted and cut in half I would have thrown a rock at them.

Ya, car ran great! It was bright yellow with a red-white-green racing stripe on the back, no real exposed rust to speak of...

xci_ed6 wrote:

wbjones wrote: that's why I love living in the country.... yes there are county ordinances, but they really aren't very intrusive ..... ps. who would have thought Ernie Irvan was a shiny happy person ?

My parents moved the family to the county when I was ~11 years old. Best thing ever. No neighbors to complain, lots of space, etc... My senior year of HS the 'neighbor' sold the property bordering ours (sore point, since he had refused for years to sell it to my parents) to a development company. They built 3 houses, 2 on the edge of legal distance to the property line, which effectively eliminated deer hunting in our yard. THOSE houses had an HOA, with noise restrictions. A problem for a guy like me, the air compressor, the cars, other loud toys. So...after they complained one day, I popped the muffler off our Polaris 400 Sport, and ran it up and down the property line until late at night. They stopped complaining, and promptly moved out.

As funny as that is, and as much of an shiny happy person some of my neighboors can be, I still try to not piss of the people who will (or won't) call the fire department when my house is on fire.

Joey

joey48442 wrote: As funny as that is, and as much of an shiny happy person some of my neighboors can be, I still try to not piss of the people who will (or won't) call the fire department when my house is on fire. Joey

I can honestly say I don't know anybody who has had an actual house fire more than in the kitchen. Probability of having your house burn down is WAY less than you being in a car accident. My point is, screw retarded neighbours.

I also vote for the country, bought a property with a 2100 ft house and room to store 16 cars under cover, no direct neighbors, no complaints and they were generous enough to supply a 1/4 mile of straight road directly off my driveway.

HiTempguy wrote:

joey48442 wrote: As funny as that is, and as much of an shiny happy person some of my neighboors can be, I still try to not piss of the people who will (or won't) call the fire department when my house is on fire. Joey

I can honestly say I don't know anybody who has had an actual house fire more than in the kitchen. Probability of having your house burn down is WAY less than you being in a car accident. My point is, screw retardedneighbours.

here we go again ... you just had to us the word didn't ya...

My neighbor actually did call the fire department when she noticed that my other neighbor had set one of my bushes on fire with a firecracker. No kidding.

wbjones wrote: here we go again ... you just had to us the word didn't ya...

You saw what I did there, yes?

So what's the deal if you move into a neighborhood with no HOA, then one pops up? You still gotta follow their rules? I'd personally say bullE36 M3 to that, because you moved in beforehand. Not quite the same as moving in knowing there's already an HOA in existence.

I can't stand HOAs either, for what it's worth (I'm the dissenting voice here, I know ) I grew up in suburban neighborhood in one and it was a nightmare. You had to get permission from every single person who can see it if you want to cut down a tree. Thing is, here in NC we get a lot of hurricanes on a regular basis and all that great wind that comes with it. Trees have a tendency of making your house go snap, crackle, pop when they go horizontal. I remember my parents having such a difficult time getting everyone to sign off (literally) for permission to have a tree cut down that was leaning over heavily close to our house. Stupid, stupid. I should make a time-elapse map of my life. It'll show me moving from heavily-populated areas to less-populated areas, all for the better IMO. Downstate New York, then to a large suburb in NC, then to a smaller suburb, then to a smaller city. After that, I want to buy a house out in the country. No neighborhood, no HOAs.

joey48442 wrote: As funny as that is, and as much of an shiny happy person some of my neighboors can be, I still try to not piss of the people who will (or won't) call the fire department when my house is on fire. Joey

Both my dad & I were on the fire department, haha. And we called in a fire for the neighbor, when their yard started on fire while they were out of town (he tried to smother the coals of a bonfire with wet grass). We did wait until we were at the fire station, gotta make first truck out if you want to have any fun!

Mental wrote: ...working on getting the curbs replaced with rumble strips painted red and white

rofl, post pics when it happens!

wbjones wrote:

HiTempguy wrote:

joey48442 wrote: As funny as that is, and as much of an shiny happy person some of my neighboors can be, I still try to not piss of the people who will (or won't) call the fire department when my house is on fire. Joey

I can honestly say I don't know anybody who has had an actual house fire more than in the kitchen. Probability of having your house burn down is WAY less than you being in a car accident. My point is, screw retardedneighbours.

here we go again ... you just had to us the word didn't ya...

You can't avoid it. There's a whole media empire that feeds on it.

http://retardmedia.com/

JeepinMatt wrote: So what's the deal if you move into a neighborhood with no HOA, then one pops up? You still gotta follow their rules? I'd personally say bullE36 M3 to that, because you moved in beforehand. Not quite the same as moving in knowing there's already an HOA in existence.

Probably varies from state to state, but their strength comes from the contract you sign at closing. No contract, and the best they can do is pester you I imagine.

As viable an answer to this problem as country living may be, living in a larger city (and not the burbs) is also a good answer. My house is around 80 years old, just like the houses around it. Most of the homes have single car garages, and there are a number of properties with shared driveways. The only way my neighbors would be upset about me having tons of cars would be if I were taking up all of the street parking. Even the people who do, don't get bitched at. For example, the guy across the street is into competitive sailing. He used to have an 18' sailboat on a trailer parked on the street behind his Suburban. I think after the people next door to him politely asked him to move forward enough not to block the street parking in front of their house (they're on a corner), he started keeping it in the garage, and stopped storing a boat for his buddy.

The "talk to your neighbors" thing seems to work. I actually know the name of most everyone at my end of the block and could tell you something about each person. We have block parties a couple times a year.

Like anyone else, I've got some E36 M3ty neighbors, mostly gossips with their own self worth issues. Thankfully, there is no HOA for those folks to use to make the rest of us as miserable as they are.