Six Questions When Considering an HOA

When you’re buying a home, you might wind up looking at properties that belong to a home owners association (HOA). Before you go falling head over heels for one of these homes, you should do your due diligence and ask yourself the following six questions. 1. What are the rules? A good way to find out if you want to play a game is by checking its rule book. They might have it posted online, but if not, contact the HOA for a hard copy. It’s important to know what happens if you violate a rule, and when/how rules are changed/added. 2. What are their environmental practices? Keeping up appearances is usually a priority for those who run the HOA. This could mean using fertilizer and pesticides, and having strict regulations for gardens. If you’re set on maintaining an extravagant organic garden, you’ll want to double check your contract. 3. What kind of person am I? Do you hate being told what to do? If so, having a governing body preside over various aspects of your home will probably grind your gears. If ultimate independence is what you want, a HOA is most likely not your best bet. 4. What is the fee structure? Nobody likes fees. To make sure you’re not going to get swindled, check out how fees are set, and how often increases take place. Ideally, you would have access to the history of the HOA dues for the past 5-10 years. 5. Who is in charge? Since they’ll be making decisions that directly affect you and your home, you’ll want to make sure they’re a reasonable human being. Talking to people already living in the community will provide some useful insight, or you can try to get a transcript of past HOA meetings to get a feel for their process. A vindictive dictator isn’t someone you want running the HOA, but an apathetic lazybones can be just as bad. Make sure that the person in charge will respond to grievances in a timely, professional manner.