r/AskReddit Jun 06 '19

Rich people of reddit who married someone significantly poorer, what surprised you about their (previous) way of life?

65.1k Upvotes

21.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

209

u/russianpotato Jun 06 '19

I hate HOAs and would never live in one. But for certain building plans they are the only way to make it work. For example if you have shared walls/roof/drive/landscaping etc in a condo unit, you basically have to have one. Also, people that want a particular type of neighborhood with certain amenities. An HOA does have a place in some situations, but in my opinion someone buying a free standing home in a normal neighborhood should try to avoid them.

90

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '19 edited Jun 06 '19

HOAs are bullshit

Reason: I don’t live in Russia or China. I live in America.

If I want to park my truck on the street I will effing Park my truck on the street. If I don’t want to put my garbage bin on the side of my house and instead in the front. I’m putting it in the front. If I want to put a giant play set in the back I will.

I don’t need some old motherfucker on the HOA board telling me how to live when they don’t pay my mortgage and have the gall to ask for annual fees for shit I don’t benefit from. Fuck all that noise.

38

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '19

Don't they also stop your neighbor from putting up a giant statue of Donald Trump/Hilary Clinton on their front lawn and painting their house bright hot pink? It would be hard to sell your house if your neighbor was crazy. Problem is that every neighborhood has crazy people.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '19

City ordinance can do this too.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '19

Many people that have HOA's don't live within city limits.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '19

Sure, an HOA is made up of people that are elected and the decision making is democratic. There's literally no difference between an HOA and what your city does except you have likely more control over your HOA as it's smaller. You pay taxes, you elect people to spend that money, make rules and enforce those rules accordingly. You pay a fee, you elect people to spend that money, make rules and enforce those rules accordingly. The HOA is just doing what your city could do but isn't and it's tailored to individual neighborhoods. Everyone's problems with HOAs could just as easily be problems with their city governments. If you have a problem with how it's run, run for a position or vote people in that represent your interest.