Home buying thread

Cad_sl said:

They could, it just depends what are common areas/covered areas under your HOA agreement.

Click to expand...

Yes which is why I was asking if these fancy $250/mo HOA do stuff like that commonly or if the home owner is still expected to fix their stove when it won't work

You gotta cover your own appliances. But things like roof, sidewalks, common areas, landscaping, etc is all covered by HOA fees.

If you don't mind the lack of privacy associated with condos I think they are the way to go. Being a homeowner sucks!

Next time I buy, I will go out of my way to buy a house that has an HOA

My current neighborhood does not. I have a neighbor next door who set out 10 bags of leaves in October on their curb and they are still sitting there, rotted and spilling leaves at this point. My neighbor across the street put a full-sized refrigerator in their driveway up by their garage doors and it sat there for a month before I finally called the city and had to file a formal complaint. HOAs would be on that shit ASAP. I like my neighborhood to look nice and I keep my property in impeccable condition, I would like neighbors that do the same.

Lejina_sl said:

That's what insurances are for.

Click to expand...

Newp. There isn't a homeowners policy on Earth that is going to cover a collapsed retaining wall, or flood water in your basement(or cracks/foundation damage in your basement)

Yeah my father's basement flooded during Sandy and they didn't cover it. He had to get FEMA relief, which is a loan.

joeboo_sl said:

Newp. There isn't a homeowners policy on Earth that is going to cover a collapsed retaining wall, or flood water in your basement(or cracks/foundation damage in your basement)

Click to expand...

Correct.

Tenks_sl said:

Do condos have a super like in an apartment? I never seriously looked into one. Or is it a case-by-case deal?

Click to expand...

Generally there's a board of 3-7 people who are elected to terms by the members of the condo association. And typically the board will hire a management company to take care of a lot of the day to day stuff. As far as whether there's an on-site super or manager, that's probably more dependent on how big the association is. I've lived in buildings that are 40-80 units and they haven't had one. But I'd imagine once you get over 100 units it starts to become worthwhile to have someone on site a few days a week, if not full time.

Cad_sl said:

A lot of condos ask for capital contributions in those cases anyways.

Click to expand...

If it's an unforeseen emergency, yeah. Otherwise your condo fees should be at least in part going to a reserve fund, which should be large enough to take care of anticipated maintenance and replacement of common property. Not sure how it works in the US, but condos in Alberta are required to do a reserve fund study every 5 years. They are not however, required to actually have an adequately funded reserve fund. So some poorly run associations will have to do levy's or special assessments when a lightbulb needs replacing.

Cad_sl said:

Condos in nice buildings can be like 10% of the condo price per year in association fees.

Click to expand...

That seems crazy high to me. I live in a fairly high end building, which is a pretty old heritage building with high maintenance and utility costs, and my annual condo fees are only 1.1% of the value of my place, give or take. It's on the high end of things of buildings I've looked at, from a $/foot perspective. I can see that doubling if there's a pool, gym, concierge and that kind of shit. But 10 times as much? Must have some ridiculously expensive maintenance or common property for things to get that high.

HOA's seem like a pain in the ass though. They're not nearly as popular in Canada, that I'm aware of. They're almost unheard of for single family homes. If I ever do buy a house, part of the reason will be that I don't want someone looking over my shoulder telling me how tall my flag pole is going to be, or whatever.

joeboo_sl said:

Next time I buy, I will go out of my way to buy a house that has an HOA

My current neighborhood does not. I have a neighbor next door who set out 10 bags of leaves in October on their curb and they are still sitting there, rotted and spilling leaves at this point. My neighbor across the street put a full-sized refrigerator in their driveway up by their garage doors and it sat there for a month before I finally called the city and had to file a formal complaint. HOAs would be on that shit ASAP. I like my neighborhood to look nice and I keep my property in impeccable condition, I would like neighbors that do the same.

Click to expand...

In my experience HOAs vary greatly.

Our current one is slow to respond to shit. We had a neighbor down the street that had a bag of leaves up by his garage for at least a solid month before the HOA did anything.

Also one time we had a piece of mail delivered to us from the HOA about an infraction..... from a different house. The mail was addressed to us (so it wasn't delivered by accident) but had the description and even a picture from a house on the other side of the neighborhood.

On the flip side I was with an HOA that wouldn't let you put your trash on the curb the night before trash day. They only wanted trash seen at the curb after midnight and cleared before 2359 on trash day.

So yea, HOAs aren't always the best.

4k/mo is 10% of 3.3M?

30k is 1% of 3M

I wish they banned parking on at least one side of the street in my neighborhood. For some reason even though everyone has a 2 car garage there are a fuckton of cars on the road and pretty often you have to go down a narrow tunnel in the middle of the road because Big Ass Fucking Gay I Have No Dick truck is directly across from Soccer Mom Short Haircut Bad Dye Job minivan. Its maddening. From my seeing into people's garage most people just have tons of random shit occupying what would be a garage spot. For whatever reason they prioritize broken patio furniture as being more important than protecting their car from the elements and getting dinged parking on the road.

Tenks_sl said:

I wish they banned parking on at least one side of the street in my neighborhood. For some reason even though everyone has a 2 car garage there are a fuckton of cars on the road and pretty often you have to go down a narrow tunnel in the middle of the road because Big Ass Fucking Gay I Have No Dick truck is directly across from Soccer Mom Short Haircut Bad Dye Job minivan. Its maddening. From my seeing into people's garage most people just have tons of random shit occupying what would be a garage spot. For whatever reason they prioritize broken patio furniture as being more important than protecting their car from the elements and getting dinged parking on the road.

Click to expand...

That too. Everyone in my neighborhood has at least a 2-car garage, if not 3, and there's SHITLOADS of cars parked in the street. There might not be any cars at all for 10 straight houses, and then theres 2 cars directly across from each other, blocking 2/3 of the street like a 1-lane bridge.

And parking right at the intersection as well! My jimmies are officially rustled.