On 12/19/05 08:46 pm JerryL wrote:

When people look for clues like this what they are looking for is an idea
of who their neighbors are. As I said before, just because an HOA doesn't
let some guy use his washer as a planter that doesn't suddenly make him
a desirable neighbor to have. It's a slippery slope to decide what is
or is not acceptable for your neighbors. Too many kids with toys
scattered everywhere? Wrong color living room? Too many cars? Obnoxious
wife? You cannot legislate who your neighbors are, which is what HOAs
try to do.

You know what would change the value of a house to me? If it was part of
an HOA. I definitely view it as undesirable. Rubbish scattered around is
something that can be taken care of at the municipal level.

Do you own your own house? I'm jusst wondering if you put your money where
your mouth is.

I'm not the person to whom you addressed your question, but ...

We bought a house and deliberately avoided anything in a "planned
development" and/or with an HOA. Several of our neighbors have boats or
motorhomes parked in their driveways or alongside their houses. Down the
block somebody parks a "commercial vehicle" (namely, a van proclaiming
itself to belong to somebody or other's office-cleaning service) in his
driveway most of the day. The people across the street have three
vehicles parked in their driveway most of the time because their triple
garage is occupied by other vehicles and other items that they are
gradually trying to unload. On the corner lot during daylight hours in
fine weather are a bunch of reconditionaed lawn mowers for sale. Many
houses have roof- or chimney-mounted TV antennas. In each direction
there is a house with a tower supporting an amateur radio or CB antenna.
All of these would no doubt incur the wrath of the HOA Gestapo if we had
an HOA, but thankfully we don't: this is a nice neighborhood that does
not remind me of Pete Seeger's "little boxes all made of ticky-tacky,
and they all look just the same," and we all get along.

Perce