I've been on my HOA's board for a few years now. It goes without saying that HOAs are only as good as the people you elect to run them. In my experience there are two kinds of people on HOA boards: 1) people who serve semi-reluctantly who just want to keep property values up and only punish people who let their grass grow knee-high, etc., and 2) little people with inferiority complexes who get off on trying to micromanage other people's lives. I try to be the former, and our board right now is a pretty good group of like-minded people.
The dues go to maintain the neighborhood and its amenities. We pay a landscaping company to cut the grass and plant flowers at the entrance and common areas, etc., and to maintain our clubhouse, pool/hot tub area, etc. We have a lake, so we also pay a pond management company to keep the fishing good. We also hold social events at the clubhouse 2-3 times a year for the whole neighborhood, like a Halloween deal every year for the kids with a costume contest, trick or treating, etc.
Generally you can't opt-out of HOAs b/c it's a covenant that you take the property subject to. In other words, if you don't want in, then don't buy in that neighborhood.
And you would be surprised w/ what people try to get away with .... We had a guy who wanted to park a big *** ski boat in his yard and put used furniture in his driveway w/ a spray-painted sign on particle board that said "FOR SALE" w/ the price on it. One lady asked us for a neighborhood-wide email address list to invite people to jewelry parties at her house. Another time a teenage girl had a bunch of her friends at the pool one afternoon blaring music, and when a nice little Suzy Housecoat came out and asked them to turn it down some of the guys flipped her off and mooned her. By far the biggest headache we try to manage comes from builders, since our neighborhood is still being developed - they leave piles of burning trash, don't cut the grass, back over mailboxes, etc - we constantly have to threaten/harass them to keep them straight.
All in all I'm for them, so long as you keep the nosy, über-activist types off the board.
The dues go to maintain the neighborhood and its amenities. We pay a landscaping company to cut the grass and plant flowers at the entrance and common areas, etc., and to maintain our clubhouse, pool/hot tub area, etc. We have a lake, so we also pay a pond management company to keep the fishing good. We also hold social events at the clubhouse 2-3 times a year for the whole neighborhood, like a Halloween deal every year for the kids with a costume contest, trick or treating, etc.
Generally you can't opt-out of HOAs b/c it's a covenant that you take the property subject to. In other words, if you don't want in, then don't buy in that neighborhood.
And you would be surprised w/ what people try to get away with .... We had a guy who wanted to park a big *** ski boat in his yard and put used furniture in his driveway w/ a spray-painted sign on particle board that said "FOR SALE" w/ the price on it. One lady asked us for a neighborhood-wide email address list to invite people to jewelry parties at her house. Another time a teenage girl had a bunch of her friends at the pool one afternoon blaring music, and when a nice little Suzy Housecoat came out and asked them to turn it down some of the guys flipped her off and mooned her. By far the biggest headache we try to manage comes from builders, since our neighborhood is still being developed - they leave piles of burning trash, don't cut the grass, back over mailboxes, etc - we constantly have to threaten/harass them to keep them straight.
All in all I'm for them, so long as you keep the nosy, über-activist types off the board.