[ohazi]

Is your rental property a house or a condo?

I'm asserting that buying a detached house that falls under an HOA is something that should generally be avoided. With a house, there are rarely shared resources that actually need to be managed so any potential benefit is minimal at best, and bad HOAs can be a nightmare, so the risk is high.

I'm also lamenting the fact that developers building new neighborhoods of detached houses (e.g. in places like Austin) are apparently putting almost all of them under HOAs, perhaps because of some legal meme that doing so somehow reduces risk for the developer, or increases sale prices. I think this is an unfortunate trend.

[thisisastopsign]

Ya, I have a detached house. I’ve noticed the trend with HOAs being established by the builder. You’re right that there’s minimum shared property generally. Fortunately, every HOA I’ve been in has been good. On the other hand, I’ve looked in areas without HOAs and people didn’t take care of their property or yards, which drove their neighbor’s home value down (the deals seemed good enough to buy, until you drove up and saw your future neighbors).

[imtringued]

Yes that sounds counterproductive. Multi-family buildings obviously need a central organisation because things like the elevator, roof, etc are shared infrastructure that requires funding from all occupants. A detached house can be fully owned by the occupant or the landlord. There is no need for middlemen.

[lotsofpulp]

In my experience, most people want HOAs.