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First house for a young man
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jpanhalt:

--- Quote from: edavid on July 03, 2017, 10:43:52 pm ---Maybe that's true in NL, but in the US, an HOA full of picky people can be a very good thing for protecting the value of your property.

--- End quote ---

Picky people "protecting property value" is the opposite of what I have seen.  In particular, a few years ago, I was looking for a new home.  I was shown a nice home in an HOA, so I asked for a copy of the covenants.  The realtor was a little reluctant, but knew she had to provide them.  In brief, the developer effectively retained control, but neither lived in the the HOA nor actually owned a developed property in the HOA.  Home value decreased substantially in my opinion upon reading the contract.  Goodbye!   Realtor countered with the "fact" that the developer was thinking of dissolving the HOA.  Right.  End result, I bought a property "fee simple" and have not regretted it for a second.  More than a year later, HOA home still had not sold.

1)   If you are considering purchasing in an HOA, read over the covenants very carefully and then get a more experienced person to read them too.
2)   HOA's primarily serve the interests of the developer.
3)  I can't imagine a situation in which I would buy a new home in a restrictive HOA administered by the developer.  Not all HOA's are so restrictive, except for conditions such as square footage and outbuildings.   Even residential building codes will include such restrictions.
4)  Rather than own in an HOA, I would seriously consider leasing a home.

The above comments also apply to a condominium but even more so.  Of course, there are markets  (e.g., NYC) where the only choice might be a condo, but I do not think Raleigh/Durham is truly such a market yet.

John
edavid:

--- Quote from: jpanhalt on July 03, 2017, 11:46:29 pm ---2)   HOA's primarily serve the interests of the developer.

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Not in the common case where the developer is completely out of the picture.

What if OP's hypothetical large, angry neighbor does something obnoxious like parking a junk car on the front lawn?  Wouldn't OP prefer to dump the problem on the HOA?
cdev:
>>Quote from: vodka on Today at 12:20:19>Quote from: nctnico on Today at 11:07:03>Quote from: IanB on Yesterday at 22:16:31Keep in mind that the costs of owning a house do not stop after you have bought it. Unless you are buying a brand new house there will be routine and not-so-routine maintenance costs that crop up. Such costs can occur anywhere from yard work, painting, fences, plumbing, roof, garage doors, appliances, termites, all sorts of things. Everything you expect the landlord to take care of when you are renting, you now become responsible for. Not to mention annual costs like insurance and property taxes.

Before buying, get some estimates of typical annual operating costs from homeowners you know or work with, and make sure you will have sufficient income to cover them. Owning a house when you do not have a full time job can be a recipe for poverty.

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>>I agree! Also get the house checked from top to bottom to look for problems with rot and other potential money pits. To be honest: I wouldn't buy a typical US wooden frame house at all (except in earthquake areas)! Also check for things like quality of the sinks, taps, door handles, etc. That way you can see the current owners take care of their home or patch things up.

>>BTW another option is to have a house build so everything is new.

>>And how do you see the defects on the house, if it is hidden? For seeing you will have to break the wall or the floor. Furthermore, there is an other question. Whom does the inspection hole if there aren't defect? The buyer or the seller?

Check out inspectapedia.com  lots of info on possible risks in homes. Also, if you have a lot of money, sometimes people buy a house for the lot and remplace it completely. Just if you do that, build a house that fits in,  DONT build a ugly, box shaped house thats oversized for the lot or you'll alienate your new neighbors. Also, dont build a house and take more than a few months, dont spend a year building a me too, box like ugly house. (pet peeve of my own and many others)

Quote from: blueskull on Today at 16:17:15>Quote from: cdev on Today at 16:03:25I would not buy a townhouse or in a neighborhood ruled over by a "homeowenrs association". Ive heard a great many horror stories about them. Also, the quality and integrity (or lack of it) of local government varies a lot from town to town.

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A real house here would be 300k+, still with HOA. Unless you build a house in a remote place, or buy a house built decades ago, you simply don't have non HOA managed houses, let along townhouses.

Buy a home built decades ago, by all means! especially a nice, well built one thats underpriced because people dont recognize quality.

Quote from: blueskull on Today at 16:17:15
My primary goal is to get a house that doesn't need much of my attention, rather than a house I need to work on it every quarter, if not month.

Then get a townhouse but dont expect it to give you what a house would give you, as it isnt quite the same. In particular, you dont get to participate in the all important ZONING BATTLES in your community because your entire HOA development is seen, legally by the local zoning board as one person for purposes of record, as one lot. and the HOA is the only entity that receives notice.  This means that some company could build some nightmare toxic facility right next to you and unless you scanned the local newspapers of record every week (good thing for any homeowners to do) you would never know until it was too late. Poof, there goes your investment and peace of mind.
cdev:
How many postdocs end up with full time jobs in their chosen field? (science) ? Is there still a big problem with perpetual postdocs?

See, if we want a society thats going to have jobs for all these scientists and especially, people with humanities degrees, we're going to have to change course totally. Because the future they are building us is one which doesnt value learning much and ideally, in their eyes, doesn't "need" practically anybody.

narcissists (what we have in charge now) hate needing others to the extent that they will go way out of their way to sabotage the lives of anybody they perceive themselves as needing.
cdev:
This is a radio segment from the era of the US housing bubble that everybody should listen to.


The Giant Pool of Money
This American Life

This gets one of my top recommendations for online content.

Listening to this, people will see that the crash of 2008 was like an inside bank job. they knew in advance that it would crash.

This should serve as a warning to everybody.
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