On 05/01/2012 06:01 PM, HeyBub wrote:
AJL wrote:

Come to Phoenix. Large areas are HOA free. I lived in one for 30+
years (Maryvale for anyone familiar with the area). And as I
previously said, you can mostly tell the HOA-free areas by just
looking at them. Trouble is many people want to have their cake (be
HOA-free) and to eat it too (live in a nice well kept up
neighborhood). In my experience that seldom seems to happen...

Those neighborhoods in your town which are obviously not HOA supervised are
run exactly as the people in the neighborhood want them run. If you like
living next door to a bodega or a tire-repair shop, you'll gravitate to
locations where you have all those types of conveniences.

If, on the other hand, you prefer pristine and pretty places, you'll pick
those with HOAs or strict zoning.

The excitement arises when you like freshly-mowed lawns - and your neighbors
do as well - but some rascal in your unregulated area tries to take
advantage by opening a mini-abattoir. In that case, several options are
available to you, few of them legal but all of them effective.

Aside: I don't know why so many preach "Somebody ought to do something!"
when taking matters into one's own hands is so much easier...



In my case it's more that the HOAs expect you to be a professional sort
- which I am - but don't allow you to do normal everyday stuff like work
on a project car in your own driveway/garage, etc.

I actually bought a pickup truck from a coworker whose neighbor kind of
pressed the deal by asking "when are you going to do something about
that unsightly vehicle" presumably with a straight face. I don't think
I could ever live with neighbors like that. (it wasn't that bad,
really, it's just a plain white Ford pickup. I don't love it, but I
don't think it's that much of an eyesore, either.)

nate

--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel